NationStates Jolt Archive

IC Thread is up :Stroming Heaven (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=543566)

"There is no excuse for Rebellion" Toranaga
"The only excuse is winning!" Blackthorne

"A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as "our rebellion." It is only in the third person - "their rebellion" - that it becomes illegal." Benjamin Franklin


So excuse me, but we have a rebellion to plan.

The huge space battles between the loyalist and rebel fleets I am not going to play out - they'll be mentioned now and again, but they are little more than ancillary to the real effort.

Because the Rebellion cannot succeed until the Divine One is dead. All our efforts must lay in that direction. And no assassin would be able to get within five hundred miles of him. No asteroid diverted from the heavens would survive to even try and penetrate the shield dome over the Divine One's Court.

Initial Info (http://www.atddm.com/long.htm) This you all have already seen, but it's useful to refer back to.

O'Kuni (http://www.atddm.com/Okuni.jpeg) The Novan Home planet.

The Court of the Divine One (http://www.atddm.com/island.jpg)

Visuals and Info (http://www.atddm.com/okuni.htm)

Tetsuko's personal flagship, Kuro Kaze ( Black Wind ) will get the rebellion's ships to the star system unhindered, and unnoticed at first. However their arrival will not go uncontested for long.

DR your ships will need to sneak us to the planet while every one else is looking at the others. Fighting our way in is simply not possible in any sort of reasonable time span or with acceptable losses - the Imperia takes the defense of its home system very seriously!

1) There is no possibility of using a Gate, or Teleportation/ Aportation/ Transporter /etc to get to the surface. We'll physically have to take the ships or drop shuttles down - whichever way gets the most troops to the surface the fastest!

2) The Star Port that serves the Island is off of the southwestern coastline by about 50 miles. From that island to the Court is the ONLY physical link to the Court from the rest of the planet. There is a multilane transport tube that runs from the Star Port to the Court. It is used for transporting supplies to the Court - the carts/ transports are computer driven, meaning that no Novans go to the Court with the goods. Except when the Janissary forces are being changed out, then the exchange is made via this transport tube. And since the Janissaries have Mecha this tube is therefore large enough to support objects of that size- this is estimation, as there are no schematics of this tube.

The only others allowed to even approach the Court is the Shogun, the Taiko and their heirs and they fly in with the Shield being lowered as their craft approaches.

DR95% of the Star Port is underground- it is a multi level warren that is composed of lifts, drop shafts, environmental equipment, cryogenic storage chambers, warehouses, machine shops, armories, training rooms, hydroponics gardens, residences, fabrication facilities, and on and on...Consider this a moderately sized city with some forty thousand residents - but seriously none of that 40,000 will be effective fighters. The 5,000 Janissaries stationed there only have power armor and are your only opponents, but in this type of environment it will take four times their number to take care of them. However this is traditionally the first assignment for newly graduated Janissary troops.

DR Can you give me a list of your troops and their equipment?

Once we are there ...

3) The whole of the Island is the Divine One's Court- There is a transparent energy dome over the island, it extends a mile out, i.e. into the water all the way around and goes down through the sand & sea bed to the bedrock. The only way for this shield to be lowered is by getting to one of the places it can be lowered and physically entering the required code.*

Once the code is entered the shield will lower but as it is not lowering at a prearranged time this will alert the Janissaries. They will assume that it is Not a drill and will sally forth armed for bear, or in this case Trolls. There are 50,000 effectives that will take the field. Their support troops will fight only if the subterranean bases/ living quarters are invaded. If they can be sealed / trapped within they will not be a factor in the battle.

The Divine One's extended family- about a thousand fall into this category:

A) Effectively Sith and while they have no real combat training they do have their force powers and they will used them as effectively as they can. Their power levels are lower as they do not have access to the “faith pool” of the Novan population, but that does not mean they are powerless by any means!. Now they have no combat training, but as required they do know the traditional weapons – Katana, Bow, and Honor Blade. And they are very skilled with them. They also have better than average senses as might be expected.

B) The rest have just enough force ability to have kept them from being disposed of as infants. Those number some six to seven thousand. They may try rushing you with swords, or using what little majic they have available to throw fist-sized stones at the enemy but on the whole they will not be able to effectively fight the rebels.

C) There are those of the Court who are not corrupt and will try and fight on our side when they realize what is happening. But they are not numerous and will not be much more than a side effect.


General Note: Most of these - friends and foes alike - have never seen any one other than their servants and others of the Divine One's Court in person- they have seen countless holograms of other races etc- but to see them in real life will be very traumatic to them, very frightening- from those, you can obviously expect no resistance, and a possible number will be frightened to death.

D) There are some ten thousand servants allowed to live above ground on the Island - most are not, but must live in subterranean warrens like the Janissaries. There are some fifty thousand of them and half again as many slaves living in those warrens. Since they are not Citizens they have had no weapons, or combat training of any sort. Now they aren't as likely to collapse in frightened shock, but weaponless and untrained, again little problem, especially if the few entrances and exits can be controlled.

Xis - Your Special Ops will be going in to rescue the the Xiscapian Empress correct? Please list here the number of operatives, their abilities, weapondry and such.

OD-Your Muri will be taking on the Janissaries - A toital of 50,000- roughly 75% will have powered armor, the other 25% will be in Mecha of various sorts.

4) And then we need the team to go confront the Divine One. I think this group needs to be rather small group that would eschew getting into the mass combat as if they get tied up in the big melees that would potentially cost them team members and most certainly time.

* One character has already been tasked to get the shield dome down.

Any suggestions, comments and from y'all are always appreciated.

And one last comment - I love it when a story comes together!

Seems to me that the only real threats are the Janissaries and the Divine One's extended family. To get directly at the Divine One we can supply a very small number (no more than five or six) Shadow Ops troopers specially trained to resist psychic/Force abilities and with use of the Force. Aside from a Battleship to act as a base and oversee the operation and assist allied forces in any way, the only things going to the surface aside from the troops themselves will be shuttles and hovercraft. My troops will be utmostly concearned about rescuing the Empress, but will assist allied soldiers in any way they can.
Shadow Ops (http://victortky.deviantart.com/art/HALO-3-UNSC-HELLJUMPERS-68720475)
Number: Some one hundred troops will be send down, all Shadow Ops.
Weaponry: This varies widely, but most carry a blaster rifle, pistol, shurikens, combat knives, stun, flash-bang, and explosive grenades, and portable force fields. All carry a katana, and use it with skill that equals anyone they've ever fought. They are also highly trained in the martial arts, "wall running", and all can use the Force to some extent. In the defensive range they all carry cloaking devices, personal shields, and their armor is imbedded with special jammers which render them invisible to most sensors and scanners. Some will be equipped with other weapons, such as sniper rifles, shotguns, missile lauchers, heavy repeating railguns, and other various weapons. They all, save for the sniper rifles, missile lauchers, and railguns shoot energy beams.
Abilities: Most can use the Force, although most only to a very small degree, about the same as the Divine Court's extended family. Some can use it to a greater extent, and a precious few can use it almost as well as a Jedi. Again, they are skilled enough in hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting to equal or outfight most anyone that can be put up against them.

Question Xis - are they going to be a foot? On Independantly operated single or two passenger vehicles?

As I said earlier the Island, the Court itself, is over a thousand square miles, much of it forests, gardens, lakes etc with many little used, or all but abandoned ( though meticuously kept up ) buildings. And then there is the maze like multilevel main residence, which is where most every one should be...if the Divine One, hasn't - on a whim -moved every one to one of the other structures unexpectedly.

Finding the Empress might not be easy.

Oh shoot forgot to add- Yes the Divine One has some Wraiths on his side.

Actually, I'm not too afraid of the Janissaries, mainly due to the fact a Zorak Zoran berserker is more than a match for powered armor. The Mechs are a little different, though I think pairing the hornet riders with spider cavalry might be the best mix for them. Traditionally, troll units deploy in small bands of up to one hundred, and begin devastating the countryside to lure troops out of fortified positions, favoring nasty pitfalls filled with vicious little vermin to consume whatever falls within. Roughly two in three encounters with trolls are ambushes orchestrated by the trolls, with the third being a setpiece battle wherein a portion of the army is set up to engage the enemy, while two other units are positioned to come out of hiding and flank the enemy. I do not know that the Janissaries would be lured, but cutting off supply lines to the complex may help. I'm certain Indigo's aunt will have ideas in that regard.
Although trolls don't like advertising their technology, I could send some diversion:http://picasaweb.google.com/wuvzombie/AllTheFacetsOfMe/photo#5134037677735308146
If we could somehow prove the Divine One's ties to Chaos, I could even free up some powered armor:http://picasaweb.google.com/wuvzombie/AllTheFacetsOfMe/photo#5133137590029019954
As stated, trolls prefer to be thought of as a Stone Age/Bronze Age culture, and will only pull out these things should the threat of their most ancient enemy appear-and Chaos IS that enemy.

LOL Don't worry OD, You'll get your evidence. And oh I have had this playing all day visuallizing Gerrak getting ready for war (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DuDYsoGa0s&mode=related&search=Andromeda) versus polite combat

Novan Infirmation (http://www.atddm.com/novan1.jpg) blinks looks at something on the page and blinks again...
Some types of Novan Ships (http://www.atddm.com/nnships.jpg)

Information on Kuro Kaze -Black Wind- a Novan Battle Cruiser:

The Black Wind just over 5,000 meters long by roughly 3,500 meters at the widest point and 1,000 meters tall at the highest points. Black Wind a Imperia Battle Cruiser that weighs about 9 million tones. Battle cruisers are perfect privateering and exploration foundations as they were already designed for long-term solo operations, with smaller crew than the size might indicate.

Four mass replicators take care of the Battle Cruisers missiles needs

Missiles –Ranged Weapons

The Black Wind has both dorsal and ventral launchers, the dorsal (upper) launchers can launch fore and aft, while the ventral (lower) launchers can launch 3600. Missiles are both energy and material

The fastest ‘missile’ the Black Wind posses is the Phased Plasma Photon Torpedoes. The PPPT is an energy plasma packet that travels at nearly light speed and can be fired once every 10 seconds. They are effective up to a maximum of 5 million miles, but are stopped by certain types of energy shields, primarily shields that are gravitic in nature.

Physical missiles have a reload and launch time of 1 minute for the life of the NCI-no combat imminent-stockpile, and one every other minute with only all four replicators engaged
.
The most common missile used is the Impeller Drive Laser Missile. An IDLM1 missile masses 20 tons and can accelerate at 75,000 G for 500 seconds before its drive burns out, giving a powered flight range of over 15 million miles.

A more powerful, but larger (and thus fewer kept ‘in stockpile’) are the MDLM2 with its much greater range and destructive ability.

Counter Missiles- CM3 are used for antimissile action much as point defense lasers are, but they have a much greater range than point defense lasers do.

Naturally, in space, it is possible to reach a target beyond powered range, but it is very easy to avoid a coasting missile. Even within powered range, with electronic countermeasures, evasive systems, point defense and countermissiles active & effective - a direct hit on a defended ship is basically impossible. Missiles spin while in flight, to make it difficult for point defense lasers to get a clear shot past the impeller wedge.

1) Impeller Drive Laser Missile – IDLM- This weapon used the high energy electromagnetic radiation produced during a nuclear explosion to pump about twenty-five X-ray lasers. As the initial radiation entered the gain medium, the X-rays were amplified and fired, after which the gain medium would have been destroyed by the explosions aftereffects, resulting in a brief flare of multiple high-energy X-ray laser beams. Unlike a pure fusion warhead, meaningful damage could be dealt to anything within 1,000 miles of the detonation.
2) Multi drive laser missiles – MDLMs- They have ranges approaching 50 million miles, weigh about 50 tonnes, and detonate 50 lasers with a range of about 2,500 miles of the detonation point.

3) Countermissiles: These are smaller, more numerous missiles with a lesser range, some 1.5 million miles – they have no warheads. Their role is to knock down incoming missile barrages with their impeller wedges – both objects being vaproized.

4) Against immobile targets, no warhead is necessary. A starship can approach the target at 0.8 c and launch missiles that will accelerate to 0.99 c. At this speed, even nuclear warheads are pointless; the kenetic energy of the relativistic missiles can tear a planet apart.

Grasers –Light Speed Weapons –
Mounting 20 dual Grasers the Black Windis very formidibly armed for short range action.

Grasers are lasers operating in the gamma ray (the name is an abbreviation of gamma ray amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Considered vastly superior in both strength and size when compared to conventional lasers. Their lenses are several meters across and are gravitic not optical.They have ranges in the 1,000,000 mile range and can penetrate most forms of enegry shielding.

The Black Wind also mounts clusters of smaller, point-defense lasers for anitmissile duty. These smaller lasers have an effective range for killing enemy missiles of about 500,000 miles. They are locatated about the ship so as to be able to cover the Falling Star globally

Shields - Defense

Shields are non-ablative, gravitic stress bands, and thus weaker lasers and grasers are bent away, or refracted like light is when it passes through denser mediums. In this instance, the focused light is bent by the intense gravity in the shields. Shields are invulnerable to non-massless / lightspeed weapons as the weapon is destroyed by the gravitic shear caused by the shield. However they weaken with each hit absorbed, and will eventually fail until the generators are reset or repaired ( depending on how much damage they take before the fail safes kick in and ‘throw the breakers’ on the generators)

Against Lasers, Grasers, and other photonic / light speed weapons the shield is the first line of defense. Missiles are dealt with by other measures, including countermissiles, point defense lasers, and sensor jammers.

The Black Wind is also protected by many layers of armor that alternate between ablative composites that absorb energy from energy weapons and solid anti-kinetic layers. The armor is over a five meters thick. Inside, there are more armored bulkheads. Even with this tremendous defense, at close range, the energy weapons of any starship are more than enough to destroy a larger ship. The hull with it’s integral armor is ‘grown’ with nanotechnology and repaired in similar fashion. The outer most layer is a gleaming white and is a single molecule crystal.

The Flag Bridge is a complete second bridge mean to be used by an Admiral and his flagstaff should the Battle Cruiser be chosen as a Flagship. It has every thing the main bridge does but the tactical holo-display is twice as large and much more detailed.

Ship crew numbers roughly a thousand with over three hundred fighter flight crew and Marines.The Black Wind carries twentyfive K'Tann fighters.

Battle Cruisers normally have three A.I.’s and three are present on the Black Wind, as are their avatars and assorted teledroids. The primary A.I.’s of the Black Wind are Deva and Raki, having male and female avatars respectively. Deva is the senior avatar, and oversees most of the ‘command & engineering ’ duties and Raki is the primary for ‘medical and environmental’, though who is doing what at any given time seems to depend on who is freest at the moment to handle whatever crops up. The third avatar is Shiva and is the battle A.I.- most of the time he is only semi aware, and does not have an avatar. As Deva would put it, and meaning no malice or disrespect “Shiva is an idiot savant. If it has to do with strategy or tactics he’s unbeatable, but for anything else he’s not that interested and not that bright. Raki and I keep him occupied with endless games of chess and other similar exercises. He’s happy with that.”

Though their avatars are seldom on the bridge – or in any compartment simultaneously if there is any possibility of combat or a hazardous situation, They are in constant communication over dedicated frequencies. Deva does not use a holographic avatar, but Raki does and that form she prefers to have called Ruin* when the two are present in the same location, or when the Flag-Bridge is in use. Deva and Raki are like an old married couple-they have worked together for a long time and know one another’s strengths and weaknesses and compliment one another.

Drives & Power sources

All power for the craft comes from two sources, the primary being a DeSitter space tap, which primarily powers the DTD- the DeSitter Translation Drive, and only secondarily powers weapons and other energy needs. The massive matter antimatter reactors with their exotic matter lenses provide power primarily for general ship needs such as life support, sensors, Sublight drive and the Slipstream drive.

Sublight:

The ages old standard Internally Metered Pulse drive (IMP or Impulse drive) capable of high acceleration and maneuvers. This is the drive used to get most starcraft out to the Frankel Limit, the distance from the stellar primary needed before entering wormholes/ subspace/ warp space and many other FTL type dimensional shifting drives with out affecting the stellar primary- entering these alternate/sub dimensions within the Frankel Limit tends to send the stellar primary into nova or near nova conditions. Generally the Frankel Limit is some 80 AU’s out, but larger or hotter stellar primaries have larger ‘no drop’ zones.
Sublight drives let one cover about one million miles a minute.

FTL:
The Black Wind is fitted with two forms of so called Faster than Light travel.

The primary drive is a DeSitter Translation Drive, DTD-called by some a ‘Gate’ or ‘Jump’ Drive in that the Hamalki invention ‘cracks’ an opening into DeSitter space, draws the ship in then, spits it out the other side at the destination entered into the ships navigational matrix. The jump is instantaneous but there is a ‘consciously elapsed time’ of about 60 seconds per million LY -i.e. the people within the craft ‘perceive’ that roughly one minute passes for every million light years traveled. This is just a mental / sensory artifact of a living mind. However A.I.’s do not experience this perception.

The secondary FTL drive is a advanced version of the venerable Warp Drive called the Slipstream Drive Unlike in the conventional Warp Drive, where a bubble of ‘subspace’ is created around the ship, a bit of another universe where the speed of light is much faster than in ‘reality’; with a SlipStream Drive is a narrowly-focused, directed warp field that is initiated by manipulating the fabric of the space-time continuum at the quantum level using the starcraft’s astronavigational sensor array. By focusing a quantum field through a a projector array it generates massive changes in local space curvature. This creates a subspace tunnel, which is projected ahead of the vessel. Once a ship has entered this tunnel, the forces inside propel it at incredible speed. In order to maintain the slipstream, a ship has to constantly modify the quantum field with its projector array; however, the calculations involved are too complicated for the huiman mind to handle at the speed necessary. This is where A.I.’s have their greatest andvantage, they are the only entities that can do the calculations and the reason all starcraft have a minimum of two A.I’s. Slipstream is many times faster than standard warp drives, but far slower than a DTD gate. 20,000 LY can be travelled in about an hour.

General Information

Conventionally starcraft use their sublight drives to get beyond a star’s Frankel Limit then they open a Gate, or go into Warp. Certain types of drives can do micro jumps inside a stars FL, but those types of drrives are expensive in terms of power and such are generally used only by the military. And in combat such micro jumps are almost never done as they can not be set up ‘on the run’ save by dedicated A.I.’s- such as Shiva- given the distortions to space as are found in the midst of combat action, though many militaries use them at the initation of combat to avoid the opponents first flight of missile, if they are out of Light Speed Weapons range. One also has to consider the aweful possibilities of coming out of a micro jump is the same spaces that is already occupied by another ship…

Troll ships are different-a "transport', for example, carries no more than twelve passengers, and can generate perhaps eight thousand gigawatts in a single blast. They are organic in nature, as the Pamaltelan environment shuts down normal physics-one of the reasons it's there. The "Claw of Doraddi" can generate somewhere between eight and twelve thousand terrawatts of power-adequate to establish an extinction level event within approximately ten to twelve hours, provided two such ships maintain constant bombardment. The preferred troll weapon for space battles is a Singularity Point Projector, which emits a gravity packet that intensifies the more matter and energy it absorbs-this obviates the need for counter-missiles, as the Singularity Point takes care of these things on it's own. However, the troll mindset is such they enjoy their own worlds, and have a low enough reproduction rate that a planetary conquest is unnecessary to them. Troll ships employ two basic drives-an anti-gravity field that allows them the speed of light, then a second space-warp if they're in a hurry. Since they're rarely in a hurry, only a few warships have this second capacity. Currently in vogue is a "space-fold" technology, wherein an object is "convinced" through mathematics it's point of location is actually somewhere else-this transit is without inertia, so it's ideal for sending goods, but problematic under battlefield conditions-the trolls themselves have experienced difficulties sending more than an individual through this method-while one person may be sent thusly, sending a group means significantly diverse coordinates or they all arrive at the same point, with catastrophic consequences.
Trollish Gates are much more reliable, but require a certain knowledge of alternate realities. While O'Kuri is closed off, for the most part, it can be accessed through Yomi-for who would be so foolish as to close off Hell, and force the damned to roam the Earth?-but the trolls have lost the Gates to the Lightless Hell of Yomi, so it is, for now, a moot point. Let us hope this brief synopsis opens up exactly what the trolls are capable of, without destroying any plot points-I'm sending troops, either through Indigo's aunt(most likely) or personal convoys(easier with evidence of the Emperor being the pawn of Chaos, but still workable), so this is largely to expand on the alienness of my beloved Muri-hope it helps

Question Xis - are they going to be a foot? On Independantly operated single or two passenger vehicles?

As I said earlier the Island, the Court itself, is over a thousand square miles, much of it forests, gardens, lakes etc with many little used, or all but abandoned ( though meticuously kept up ) buildings. And then there is the maze like multilevel main residence, which is where most every one should be...if the Divine One, hasn't - on a whim -moved every one to one of the other structures unexpectedly.

Finding the Empress might not be easy.

Oh shoot forgot to add- Yes the Divine One has some Wraiths on his side.
Most of the troops will be using hovercrafts, which seat a driver, a passenger, and a gunner. The gun is either a machine gun, for antipersonnal use a grenade laucher, for lightly armored vehicles and clusters of troops, or a missile laucher, which is for heavyer vehicles and can also take down fighters. Speed will be essential, though Shadow Ops are more inclined to sneak behind enemy lines and create alot of general chaos and destruction. I'd like to breifly RP the kidnapping of the Empress once the thread gets up.

Why don't we dig tunnels and seize the supply tube? A token force can cause the Imperial Court to activate the sneeze guard (troll slang-"because it protects the salad"), effectively locking him in. The space units can protect the "invasion fleet" from Novan reprisals, while the Muri convert the supply tube to an invasion insertion tube, both of which will distract from the tunneling, which is the main attack. Grabbing access to that tube can be done fairly rapidly, especially if the trolls eat the repair crews, and the tunnel itself is ideal for luring in troops and dispatching them, since a momentary disruption would be overlooked, but eventually the Emperor's going to want a Twinkie or he's going to resort to cannibalism, so the Janissaries are probably charged with protecting the Tube. Since His Ass-Holiness (more troll slang-any nontroll diety or priest thereof) has been thoughtful enough to isolate himself in a complex big enough for all invaders plus his troops, it's a good bet the place is mined and fair dripping with traps. (The image that comes to mind is the Divine One, played by Joel Grey, wandering his garden telling his minions "Don't step there.")
If not, the Muri will see to it while they wreak havoc hoping to lure patrols to proper slaughterhouses. Trolls prefer to pick the battlefields, and focus on mobility and stealth to see to it they do. They can occupy the supply tube and buy time for tunnelers, while the Imperial Court runs through it's stores. Since conventional forces will move in to secure the supply line, we might consider collapsing that end to give them something to do other than pincushion the occupying force, or perhaps a bit of nastiness to otherwise occupy them might be in order. A small troll force could fairly easily race through nearby settlements, turn off the lights, break a bulb, then crack the gasline on their way out-when the maid comes in, she smells the gas, and turns on the light to see the leak-this will destroy quite a few hotels, put the fire department on overdrive, and force the conventional forces to busy themselves with peacekeeping/emergency response.

OD- okay so you got a PSW ( ar a varient there of ) ouch! I refused to give the Novan's that - they're too warlike LOL

Xis- You are most welcome to RP the kidnapping of the Empress and if you don't mind could things be left behind that are tainted with Chaos, so that the Muri will have their proof - say some equipment that my character(s) can identify as being solely the providence of Imperia Black Ops?

OD,I neede to knowho many troops you are bringing to this dance - I know you mentioned some 50K earlier- but if you are bringing that many, I may need to alter plans

Also - I think setting this after the Embassy/Civil war but during Among the Muri - since no dateing/ time has been given for when that is happening versus other events in the universe - is this okay with y'all?

Xis - how long were you thinking your civil war would last? If you were planning for it to take years, these events could perhaps be taking place during it and be part of the reason only a few Shadow Operatives were sent.

Yeah, I know probably compulisve over planning - but I firmly believe the better you plan the less chance that Mr. Murphy has to sneak on board.

Reads the post OD snuck in while I ever so slowly wrote up mine, and howls with laughter.

Well, you'd have to break into the supply tunnel somewhere in between the two ends- bothe ends are under the protection of local Janissaries

Green troops on the Space Port end, crack but chaos corrupted troops on the Island end - And even green Janissaries are the equivallent of other nations crack forces.

[quote]Since His Ass-Holiness (more troll slang-any nontroll diety or priest thereof) has been thoughtful enough to isolate himself in a complex big enough for all invaders plus his troops, it's a good bet the place is mined and fair dripping with traps. (The image that comes to mind is the Divine One, played by Joel Grey, wandering his garden telling his minions "Don't step there.")

Rolls out the The Chair sides aching with laughter...

Actually a cross between Christopher Walken and Joel Grey...and in the main compound, no, no traps, no mines - that would destory the Divine One's serenity. He depends on hte lethality of his Chaos Wraiths.

However starving the Court out isn't really an option- for every moment we delay it puts the Xiscapian Empress at risk of being sacrificed, and gives the Court time to bring in reinformcements. And this being the home system, it means they can bring in LOTS of reinforcements.

This is going to have to be I think as hit and run an operation as possible.

NOTE: I have to correct one misunderstanding, and I apologise for my misleading post - The "sneeze-guard" is Always UP - what we have to do is get our mole in in-place to lower it.

Since your Muri are masters of ambush, you could easily use the countryside and abandoned / unused buildings and structures that dot the island to set up ambushes, and take full advantage of the terrain. It's not like the Janissaries know the Island like the backs of their hands- they don't- They are forbidden to play war games on the Island, and can't even do any mapping, surveillence etc where the Divine One or any member of the Court might stumble across them. They are almost as much outsiders / strangers to the Island as the Rebels will be.

They train hard, and regularly, elsewhewre, so they are not barracks sour but they don't have much of a home court advantage. Many of the Court know the Island far more intimately.

OD- okay so you got a PSW ( ar a varient there of ) ouch! I refused to give the Novan's that - they're too warlike LOL

Xis- You are most welcome to RP the kidnapping of the Empress and if you don't mind could things be left behind that are tainted with Chaos, so that the Muri will have their proof - say some equipment that my character(s) can identify as being solely the providence of Imperia Black Ops?

OD,I neede to knowho many troops you are bringing to this dance - I know you mentioned some 50K earlier- but if you are bringing that many, I may need to alter plans

Also - I think setting this after the Embassy/Civil war but during Among the Muri - since no dateing/ time has been given for when that is happening versus other events in the universe - is this okay with y'all?

Xis - how long were you thinking your civil war would last? If you were planning for it to take years, these events could perhaps be taking place during it and be part of the reason only a few Shadow Operatives were sent.

Yeah, I know probably compulisve over planning - but I firmly believe the better you plan the less chance that Mr. Murphy has to sneak on board.
The Civil war won't last long, a year at most, probably closer to mere weeks, maybe a month. It all depends on how long anf hard NC and the Chronosians fight. I doubt that the war will take long, mainly because the factions differ too much, and cannot fight with coordination, not to mention the back-stabbing treachery that will be going on. I'm thinking in the timeline this would occur right before the other terrorist attacks, the Novans unknowingly working for the Rebels in kidnapping the Empress. As to your question, I'm not sure I understood it fully: if you don't mind could things be left behind that are tainted with Chaos, so that the Muri will have their proof - say some equipment that my character(s) can identify as being solely the providence of Imperia Black Ops?
Are you speaking of the Shadow Ops? Because they are not actually agents of Choas, chaos (with a lower case "c") is merely a tool to be used.

Sorry to be so confusing - What I was asking is this:

When you RP the kidnapping of the Empress, could you please say that some unusual/ unique items were left behind- your people don't recognise them, but Tetsuko will- they are specialty items used only by (Nova Nippon ) Imperia Black Ops and are tainted by Chaos ( as in the Muri's ancient enemy and the corrupting influence on the Divine One )

The Novans will let the Rebel ( Your rebels, not mine ) THINK they are just unwitting pawns - but the reason they argeed to kidnap the Empress is that they need her for a ritual sacrifice - My Emperor needs to sacrifice a High Kitsune and while she isn't the Novan sort of Kitsune, she'll do in a pinch.

Ah, I see. What sort of items are we talking about?

hmmm, How about a heavily modified Novan varient of a Yautja stealth field. It is all that survived of the one attacker that the Empress's guard kills - the rest of the body's equipment self destructed and his body turned to unrecognizeable goo -but this piece of equipment failed and the self destruct didn't activate.

You can certainly have the Empress's guards kill more if you'd like, but the malfunctioning piece - a heavy wristband with unknown/ unreadable symbols and a strong dark side residue ( Chaos force) about it - is all that doesn't self destruct.

I would say a kidnapping force would be fairly small, no more than four or five men. I would only kill three, because it would take at least two to knock the Empress out and drag her away.

Thats about what I though in the way of numbers for the kidnapping, Xis.

I'm waiting to hear from DR and OD on numbers, then I will get the IC thread started.

Aye, all sounds good to me, I've made the Shadow Ops pic larger and better.

SHIPS

“Texas” Class Super Battle Cruiser (Flagship)-250 PDG(Point defense guns), 18 Heavy Gauss Rifles, 48 Turbo Lasers, 60 Heavy Missile Batteries, 4 “Ship Killer” Rail Guns
Compliment of: 300 Fighters. 200 Fighter Bombers, 30 Drop Ships
The “Texas” Class Super Battle Cruiser was designed and built because of the overwhelming amounts of firepower that would be needed when engaging large fleets. Due to the immense size of these ships only 10 have been made. The ships are designed by Star Corps, a military owned company, and won the design competition by beating out 4 other competing designs mainly because of their honeycomb interior design which allows them to withstand unbelievable amounts of damage. It’s often used as a capitol ship when given to fleets, however the third fleet is known to operate two of these mammoth beasts. Nicknamed the “Twin Fates” these ships and their crews make up the vanguard of the Dynamic Revolution Navy. These ships are highly versatile and carry a large compliment of fighter and fighter bombers, these ships will carry anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 troops in their personnel holds. Each ship has four “Protector” shield generators due to their immense size. Each ship is powered by 8 fischfuze engines which operate buy simultaneously running a fusion reaction and a fission reaction. As with all Dynamic Revolution ships they are painted black with a radar absorbent paint which makes them appear as space junk on even highly advanced radar systems.

Ships in fleet: 2: “DRWS Tillman”, and the “DRWS Baylor”

http://efni.org/Images/Tillman_BW2.gif
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“Nike” Class Battle Cruiser-100 PDG, 12 Heavy Gauss Rifles, 24 Turbo Lasers, 48 Heavy missile batteries, 2 “Ship Killer” Rail guns
Compliment of: 200 Fighters, 16 Drop Ships
The “Nike” Class Battle Cruiser is the mainstay of heavy ships in the Dynamic Revolution Navy. The design beat out 6 other designs because its weapon systems are located outside of the main hull. This design nearly completely prevents catastrophic weapon failure (Whether mechanical or battle damage induced) from destroying the vessel. Apart from battle survivability these vessels bring a surprising amount of firepower to the battle field, Admiral Tillman once said “These new ships are like big assed gunboats on steroids”. Unfortunately the ships sacrifice complimentary ships for their impressive array of weapons. The ships are powered by 4 fichfuze engines, and are protected by 3 “Protector” shield generators. As with all Dynamic Revolution ships they are painted black with a radar absorbent paint which makes them appear as space junk on even highly advanced radar systems.

Ships in fleet: 6: “DRWS Victory”, “DRWS Air”, “DRWS Complete”, “DRWS Warhog”, “DRWS Rhino”, and the “DRWS Hammer”

http://efni.org/Images/Nike_N.gif
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“Vanguard” Class Destroyer-50 PDG, 10 Turbo Lasers, 1 “Ship Killer” Rail Gun, 20 Heavy Missile batteries
Compliment of: 200 fighters, 75 Fighter Bombers, 10 Drop ships
The “Vangaurd” Class Destroyer is the work horse of the Dynamic Revolution Navy. Being highly versatile the ship can do anything from planetary bombardment to deep space patrol. They are slightly less heavily armed then would be expected, however they make up for this by releasing swarms of fighters and fighter bombers. The destroyer relies on the excess power provided by its 4 fichfuze engines to outmaneuver incoming fire rather than let its armor and shields take the damage. Despite this the ship can take a surprising amount of fire before it is lost.

Ships in Fleet: 12

http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/CanisD/Shipyard/Drawings/Earth/Omega_Refit.png
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"Equalizer" Class Frigate- 18 PDG, 1 “Ship Killer“ Rail Gun, 5 Heavy Missile Batteries
Compliment of 20 Fighters, 10 Fighter Bombers, 2 Drop ships
The “Equalizer” Class Frigate was the brain child of a group of Dynamic Navy personnel that called them selves “The Rat Pack”. They Imagined a small capitol ship capable of taking out ships many times there own size. These ships were designed around their main armaments, the immensely powerful “Ship Killer”. The ship sacrifices armor and shields but more than makes up for it in it’s PDG’s and extreme maneuverability. These ships have gained a sort of reverence among their crews for the sheer luck these ships seem to have due to their speed. There are even stories of these ships outmaneuvering fighter aircraft 100th their own size.
Ships in Fleet: 15

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Radiantvii.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_VII&h=262&w=320&sz=89&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=hnaL5Yf-Nl69MM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dradiant%2BVII%2Bstarwars%2Bcruiser%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
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"Firespray" Class Fighter Bomber- 4 Blaster Laser, 40,000lbs Internal Bomb Storage, 5,000lbs External Bomb Storage
The “Firespray” Fighter Bomber is an extremely accurate and deadly fighter bomber. Using it’s massive bomb payload and 4 blaster lasers the fighter bomber can rain death from above in many forms, including: cluster bombs, napalm, general purpose, lazer guided, white phosphorus, penetrators, rockets, tactical nukes, and mine laying devices just to name a few.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quadrant/2581/slave1topscem.gif
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"Hellspawn" Class Fighter-8 Blaster Lasers, 4 Light missile pods, or 2 Heavy missile pods, 2 “Pig” mini-guns
The “Hellspawn” fighter aircraft is capable of pulling 17 G’s in atmosphere and is twice as maneuverable in space. Deadly in combat these fighters are quickly earning their name.

http://swg.stratics.com/content/gameplay/jtl/images/B-Wing_sch.jpg
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CFS (Controlled Fall Ships) Class Drop Ships-Troop Capacity 500 fully armed, 50 Vehicles of varying make and model including HMRRV’s and the “Tungsten” MBT, also can carry 500 Puddle Jumpers.
CFS’s have been the go-to for ship-to-ground transport for well over 20 years. The design was threatened with retirement until CFS pilots presented a new manuever that allowed ships to get to the surface faster than ever though possible. Using magnets the CSF’s are actually ejected from the mothership at close to terminal velocity, the ships then rotate 180*’s and fire their breaking engines. This causes the ships to accelerate to Mach 6 and end there decent in roughly 17 minutes.

http://members.toast.net/tgreer/gallery/union2.jpg



WEAPONS

Pig Miniguns: Multi-barreled 30mm cannons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M61_Vulcan

Ship Killer Rail Guns: A magnetically assisted gun that will hurl any metallic object at .98 the speed of light
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5y8pJLYl44&feature=related (:32)

Turbo Lasers: Guns that fire high energy bursts of plasma (not a laser in the true sense)
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam/Turbolaser.jpg

Heavy/Light Missle Pods: Can be armed with homing and anti-missile
http://doom3.planet-multiplayer.de/images/news2/sky_etqw_GDF_rocket_01.jpg

Gauss Rifle: same principle of a Ship Killer but on a smaller more maneuverable scale
http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/mechbay/gauss.gif


This is the Naval force of fighting ships. I will include ground troops and vehicles later but for now I feel its important to put something on the board.

The pair of you have to forgive me, but Xis, the Union made the same prediction regarding the Civil War before the Battle of Manassass-what Yankees call the first Battle of Bull Run,so I reserve the right to be skeptical. Nova, since the Divine One is a beast of Chaos, he's probably got a different take on serenity these days, and the largely vacant complex is bringing up memories of "The Rats in the Walls". I'm going to anticipate traps and horrors, and if they don't materialize, I'll still be happy to have expected them.
Anyway, troop numbers-I originally offered 100,000, but we'll skinny that down a tad, since we'll require some specialty troops. I think about ten Gorakkikki Beast Masters, each with a mukade, will be needed for extensive and fast tunnelling. The mukade are giant centipedes, 50'-60' long, with some specimens reaching twice that, but I'm not going for the Guinness Record size. I lifted them from Japanese folklore, so they may even be native to your respective worlds. If the Empress is a sacrifice, we're on a strict timetable-the stars will only be right for a certain window, and the Divine One going outside indicates this is a necessity as opposed to a progress report or appeasement for incompetence, so we'll have to strike before then. I don't think the hornet riders will be required, as they're for long term surveillance, but about 15,000 Spider Cavalry will come in handy, with 30,000 shock troops. They'll be Ordo Zorak Zorani, so they will use fire, and regard War as a sacrament-the Muri's version of the Marine Corps. They'll be equipped with an array of chemical nastiness in their slingstones, and fire-throwers-something like an atlatl with a pyrotic crystal powered off the troll's will. Depending on the sneeze guard's parameters, a priority may be overriding communications in the tube, but if the sneeze guard doesn't block communications, that's moot. If it does, keeping the communications from both sides would allow us to ignore the outside guards, and leave them in place to stop reinforcements from arriving, allowing us to focus on the Imperial Complex itself. I'd also suggest a non-Muri interrogator, as Muri interrogations tend to follow a certain pattern:
Who are you?
Argh! Arrrgh! Owwww! Please, stop, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, let me go, arrrrrrrrrgh!

Who are your people?
Arrrrrrrrrg ? Orlanth, save me, arrgh, argh, argh.

What makes you people great?
Gods, no, don’t eat my legs! Aiiiiiie!!! No, no, I’m alive, don’t eat me! Nooo!

Where do your people live?
No! Nononononono! Let me go! Let me go! I’ll never come back! Aiiiiiieee!

How do your people live?
Get it off! Get it off! Nonononono! Oh, nonono, it has so many legs, get it off, getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetioff! Nononono! Humakt! I beg for death!

What is important in the lives of your people?
I have -- aieeee! I have, I have a ransom, please, take it, take it, just let me go. Take the ransom, just stop, please, just stop, gods, no, no, no, it’s eating my LEGS, my LEGS! NO!

Who rules you?
Orlanth, Orlanth, make them stop! Aiiiiieeee!

What makes your people great?
Ah, ah, ah, ah, gods, the pain, gods, kill me, please, just kill me, please, just stop, kill me, no no no.

What is evil?
Ohgodsohgodsohgods this, this, this is, stop, oh please, oh stop, I’ll do anything, please, no.

What is your lot in life?
Aiiiiieee! Are you, ah, ah, are you kidding me, gods, no stop it, just kill me, just let me go, I’ll do anything, just
stop, just stop it, please, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

What is the difference between the folk and your people?
THEY”RE EATING MY LEGS! Tell them to stop! Gods, gods, no, oh, please… why, why, don’t do this, oh, please.

How do you deal with others?
WE DON’T EAT THEIR LEGS! Gods, you monsters, stop it, stop it, no, no, get it off, get them off, stop it, oh, no, nonononono, no, no…

Who are your enemies?
You’ll, ah, ah, pay, everyone will come, they’ll kill you all, you’ll die, stop it, oh, gods, gods, no, stop it, why why, you, ah, aiiiiiiie, monsters, gods, no!

Who are your gods?
Ah, ah, ah, gods, ah, Orlanth, help me, oh, oh, Vinga, Humakt, just grant me death, just -- urk.

All totaled the 3rd Fleet should be able to land 153,000 troops in one go. If we don't have that many then we could load a couple of the drop ships with ammo and vehicles.

Okay now I have Holst's Mars suite in my head and can't get it out!

Grins evily at OD, boy you think as nastily as I do. And you are far closer to the truth than you think.

Just remember you are going on an aweful lot of best guess intel. Tetsuko may be the Shogun's Heir, but not even the Shogun gets to see the Divine One all that often. And while the Divine One may be 'powerless' he's aweful good at circumvention.

The Sneeze guard block's certain types of communications and those it doesn't block have to be done over specific wavelengths so to speak.

OD- How fast can those things tunnel?

Here's what I was envisioning - and all suggestions on strategy and tactics are most welcom- I am no West Point graduate...

We have some one who is able to bring the shiled down, if we can get them to the controlls - I was thinking a small group go in through the supply tunnel to do this.

Once the shield is down, OD'S Muri come into play either through Drop Ships, or landing a larger transport and taking smaller transports off of it to capture the island. XIS's shadow ops will do thier thing to fing and rescue the Empress and sow as much (small c) chaos as possible

While the Muri are taking the Island DR's troops are securing the Star Port and Capturing the Taiko - He lives aboard a hidden space station that is also the hub of the Orbital Defense Forts - take it and you control the forts- yes a weakness, but one that will be fixed before the next invasion lol!

Tetsuko will be able to fake them out for a time but eventually they'll get around her spoof and that is, very simply put, is a Very Bad Thing. Simply put the ODF are designed to take out massed fleets, they had immense fire power and they're a lot more mobile than my description might lead one to think.

Mukade can tunnel fairly rapidly, depending on the material they're tunnelling through-if the supply tube is concrete, they'll bore through three feet in a minute. Their chitin is hard as tempered bronze, and they drool an acidic poison. If used to attack, they're fairly unpleasant, territorial, and foul-tempered. I could use fewer Beast Masters, but with the 1:1 ratio, I can keep them from escaping and upsetting your natural ecosystem. They're ravenous and highly aggressive, so I don't think you'd want any stragglers sticking around.
My guesses are all uninformed, as I know very little of Nova Nippon, but quite a bit about Chaos. I'm expecting all manner of unpleasant traps and horrors hidden throughout the complex. Oriental evil spirits made their presence known through the usual gibbers and squeaks, plus oddly colored lights and horrid smells of death and decay. There probably won't be much in the way of mirrors and it'll be quiet as a grave-evil spirits dislike flashes of light and loud noises. The trees will be animate and carnivorous if no one's supposed to survive, but will avoid moving where they'll be observed unless the Divine One is in danger. It is possible there will be tengu weapon masters, bakemono to plague our dreams, and oni disguised throughout the palace, the deadliest being those with three eyes, who will have the physique of trolls and the power of a Sith Lord. That's not including the Goblin Spiders, who are paramount lords of Darkness in Japan and similar to the ones that plagued Bilbo in "The Hobbit", though Shelob comes a heck of a lot closer. None of these things would surprise me in the slightest-I know my Chaos.

You know Chaos? Nah, really, I never would have guessed. :p
We can carry out any interrogations needed, we'll be gentle, promise. My troops will be taking the shortest route to the Empress, if there is one. Once she is found an AA defenses will need to be destroyed so the drop ship can come and extract her. Once done my troops will help with mop-up if needed. As to the Civil War, the only thing I'm truly worried about is Chronosia. He may decide to commit more forces than I thought, and with the Xiscapian Rebels embracing Chaos, this may turn out to be more of a Kitsune-Chaos war than a Civil one.

Gee, War already getting more complicated without a shot fired? Who'd have guessed. :D
With the Great Old Ones rearing their heads at every turn, I suppose I should check my star charts. (checks)
Seems right.
BTW, a "gentle" interrogation? HAHAHAHAHA!

Here we go, thread is up:

Stroming Heaven (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=543566)

w00t!

You know Chaos? Nah, really, I never would have guessed. :p
We can carry out any interrogations needed, we'll be gentle, promise. My troops will be taking the shortest route to the Empress, if there is one. Once she is found an AA defenses will need to be destroyed so the drop ship can come and extract her. Once done my troops will help with mop-up if needed. As to the Civil War, the only thing I'm truly worried about is Chronosia. He may decide to commit more forces than I thought, and with the Xiscapian Rebels embracing Chaos, this may turn out to be more of a Kitsune-Chaos war than a Civil one.

don't forget about refuges thing we planed and if need be you can send you The Royal Family for safely later too

True that, but I will only be sending those who want to get out of harms way. The Royal Family (and really it's just Jade and Foxfire) will stay at the Palace, no matter what.

Here's a nother bit of infirmation - the faces to go with names (http://www.atddm.com/captain.htm) of those you will meet in Storming Heaven (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=543566)

Vehicles

Mobile Armored Suit (MAS) Crew:1 : A design that was designed to totally encompass the soldier in a protective cocoon of tungsten titanium. Unfortunately the increased weight of the suit made the design impractical until the development of the “Myanmar” compound which expands and contracts with varying electrical charges. Now not only is the suit practical it is now an improvement over standard body armor in the Dynamic Revolution military. The suit increases a soldiers strength but not speed, however using certain maneuvers (like jumping) the wearer can leap long distances more quickly then if your were to sprint. The suit can take 7.62 magnum rounds at close range for a moderate length of time. It is powered by a fuel cell, and as an effect, has a limited range. Believed to be 3-4 months with continuous excessive exertion.

http://www.weaponsblog.org/images/professional-grade-jin-roh_58.jpg
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High Mobility Recon and Recovery Vehicle (HMRRV) Crew:1-6: The design has been improved and remade countless times based on suggestions from soldiers. Originally designed as a transport the vehicle actually had a 5 foot longer wheel base than the current design, and no weaponry. Now the shortened, much more maneuverable, present version has a 20mm Minigun or a 40mm Gauss rifle mounted on the back. The design has given up any semblance of being a transport save the ability to remove the weapon out of the back and create an area capable of hauling anything that will fit in it.

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/27/wart.jpg
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Tungsten Main Battle Tank: Crew: 1-2 : The name is actually misleading in its self. What most people would call mechs or walkers DR military calls MBT’s. The discrepancy came about due to budget constraints, unwilling to make a new unit, DR policy maker simply made all MBT units transfer into Mechs. To save on paper work the units MOS was never changed. The Tungsten is a heavily armed and armored mech. The fact that its low to the ground allows it to fit into tight spaces. It is highly adaptable and can sport many different types of weaponry.

http://www.mektek.net/TRM4/cauldronborn.jpg
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Puddle Jumpers: A small repulsive lift type jetpack that is steerable, often used to cross ravines, and rivers that would other wise be impossible to pass. It clips directly to the soldiers MAS suit.

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20070618/jetpack_350x349.jpg
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Overview:

Long, long ago, longer ago than the average life span of a star the Kami, those we call ‘Gods’ left their Reality, their dimension, and came to play in ours. And that was not necessarily a bad thing; for they are warriors against Chaos, and Chaos ever tries to force it’s way from its home reality into others, including ours.

They helped the nascent race that would be someday known as Novan’s grow into a race that would move out into the stars, and in turn aid the Kami in their fight against Chaos. However some three thousand years ago Chaos sent one very special agent and that agent managed to stab at the heart of the Novan people. The agent managed only the one strike, but that strike was a devastating one, and it splintered the Novans.

The Novans had always been a people divided into three, but the three had been balanced, an interweaving that formed a seamless whole, with each part integral to the whole. Necessary to the whole.

Now one part in powerless and corrupted by the madness that was introduced to them by the agent. One part holds all the power and abuses it in ways their ancestors would have died of shame for. One group threw aside the honor that had been theirs reaching instead with greedy hands for material things.

The Divine One’s Court was the soul, their abilities weaving together the Novan society. The Shogun’s Court were the protectors, the defenders and those who held back the tentacles of Chaos, those who gladly sacrificed themselves on behalf of the whole. The Taiko’s Court was the heart, the ‘common’ people working to make the physical goods and services that the whole needed, and taking honor in their hard work and craftsmanship.

The current Emperor is degenerate, insane and an active, powerful agent of Chaos. He will send the Janissaries that protect the Court against those that dare to invade the Court. The Rebellion will also have to face the members of the Court, the Divine One’s extended family -some thousand plus strong. While they are not trained as soldiers, and only a tiny hand full have ever seen beings other than members of the Court, and their servants, in the flesh; while encountering such as the Muri will be undoubtedly terribly tarumatic to them - they are highly skilled weilders of the force/majick and will attempt to uses it against the invaders as best they can... But the Court is not totally lost, some will join the rebellion once the rebellion acts openly.

The current Shogun is not tainted by Chaos, but he is fettered by bonds and obligations, oaths and vows - so while he will have to officially stand against the rebellion, he will not order any “effective” action against them -thus limiting the number of Samurai troops/ households -namely those with the deepest ties to Chaos - that will actively oppose us.

But any that can, while holding on to any shred of Honor, refuse to respond to the Rebellion – those will gladly stay out of the conflict.

The Taiko is just as much a creature of Chaos as the Emperor, but the troops he can command are few. However he has many ‘ninja’ type agents that he can send against the Rebellion, but their actions will not be occurring with in the immediate time frame of Storming Heaven – they will come into play later