Prologue 2: Affinities
Shanxi Year 1- The members of the American Reclamation Corporation, Slavic Federation, and Polystralian Commonwealth develop their colonies with minimal contact as each nation hates each other due to the Great Earth Mistakes.
Shanxi Year 2- While the ARC and Slavs focus on eradicating the monstrous alien life, the Commonwealth instead tries to adapt to and in some cases adopt alien life.
Shanxi Year 5- All colonies are mostly stable, with three major population centers each. Reports of strange, almost magical natural resources are found.
Shanxi Year 6- Reports of Element Zero (or Floatstone to the public), Firaxite, and Xenomass are confirmed. Each have radically different properties but can promise great human advancement. Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to harvest or use the "Shanxi Elements." [FOR DETAILS, SEE CODEX "SHANXI ELEMENTS]
10- Schisms develop further between the nations as they develop their own cultural path. The ARC focuses entirely on preserving human cultural values, the Slavic Federation focuses on taming the new world through use of machines, and the Polystralians focus on preserving and adapting to alien life.
50- Technology for using the Shanxi elements is perfected first by the Slavs, then the Polystralians, and is finally stolen by the ARC through their elaborate spy network. The Slavs find Firaxite ideal for powering their machines, the ARC use floatstone to improve their daily life, and the Commonwealth uses xenomass to create eco-friendly cities that can literally be grown.
74- To the disgust of the ARC and the curiosity of the Slavs, the Commonwealth creates the first alien-human hybrid soldier. Later that year, the Slavs develop the Cognitive Neuroelectronic Defense Registry (CNDR for short) to defend themselves from the hybrid superhumans. These robotic units use the newly mastered directed-energy weapons with Firaxite as a fuel source.
98- The ARC and Polystralians are disgusted when they discover the increasingly common practice of Slavic citizens as well as soldiers undergoing extensive cybernetic enhancement surgeries.
100- During one of their alien-eradication missions using the new CNDRs, Slavs discover that they can network the intelligences of the individual CNDR units to greatly improve battlefield performance.
105- Seeking revenge for WW3, the Slavs use their newly discovered swarm tactics to their advantage and overwhelm and crush the ARC's basic military which had barely begun to adapt floatstone into their Earth-era weaponry. Only the ARC's capital is spared after the Slavs spare them. In return, the ARC is expected to maintain constant tabs on the Commonwealth and give any discovered firaxite resource to the Slavic Federation.
In response, the Commonwealth trains xeno-cavalry divisions, where genetically modified humans ride genetically modified horse-like aliens capable of reaching speeds near that of a cheetah. These new divisions are given experimental weaponry capable of shooting bolts of a potent solvent made with xenomass that dissolve roughly 3 inches of steel per second. The deadly acid can even penetrate firaxite armor, a feat previously thought impossible.
107- When several thousand CNDRs are moved to the same storage facility for maintenance, their networked consciousness "wakes up." This leads to great rejoicing to the population who had long believed there were spirits in their machines.
108- Though man and machine can coexist, the brass of the Federation is worried about a machine revolt. Using the threat of the Commonwealth as an excuse, armored walkers and recon units capable of hunting down rogue AIs called Coordinated Assault and Reconnaissance Vanguard Robots (CARVRs for short) are developed.
120- 127: As the two world superpowers grow more and more serperate, the question still remains as to what the better improvement to humanity is- cybernetic or genetic enhancement. This is put to the test when the Commonwealth declares war against the Republics. The war is a bloody stalemate; the Commonwealths weaponry can wreak havoc when friendly fire is not an issue, but the Federations superior numbers prevent any advancement on either side. A white peace is finally signed in 127.
150: The first AI "resurrection" is performed an a teenage boy named Mitchell Trell. His parents and schoolmates celebrate his funeral and "re-birth" day on Month 10, Day 2.
175: In the Slavic Federation it is not uncommon to see people uploading themselves into robotic bodies. Society as a whole is completely changed, the true information era has been reached. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth is barely human, having used xenomass's ability to mutate genetic sequences to perfect themselves into xeno-sapiens. These technologies are immediately abused for warfare. [SEE CODEX: ULTIMATE MILITARY UNITS]
200: the Final War between the Federation and Commonwealth has broken out.
Shanxi Elements:
Firaxite:
When first utilized, was described as a "miracle material." Not only was it nearly indestructible, but it had seemingly limitless quantum energy. It could be used in cold-fusion reactors to create extremely high quantities of energy, capable of powering the Slavic Federation's directed-energy weapons.
Xenomass:
Xenomass was discovered to be made of organometallic compounds that would be nearly impossible to create on Earth. These unique compounds were capable of doing nearly anything the user desired, from genetic engineering, to growing a building, to linking the minds of two sentient beings. This was used to create the super-solvent the Polystralian Commonwealth's acid-bolt weapons use.
Floatstone, or element zero:
By far the strangest Shanxi elements, element zero (or floatstone as it was colloquially named) was capable of increasing or decreasing the mass of anything in direct contact with it if it received a positive or negative charge. The only catch was it could only change the mass by as much mass that was in the element zero sample. It was used for general use purposes in all of the colonies, but only the ARC spent heavy research into it.
Ultimate Military Units:
The Angel:
The Angel was designed to be a "one-unit army" capable of crushing enemy soldiers and moral. The angels devastating weaponry and strong armor make it nearly invincible when faced with anything but the Xeno Titan.
Control and piloting:
The Angel is the Slavic Federations most holy creation and deadly weapon of war. It is piloted by thousands of resurrection AIs (the uploaded consciousness of the deceased). There are several roles: the Captain, who controls the main cannon and directs the other AIs, the engineers, who control the movement, maintenance, and weapons function, and finally, the simulators. The simulators use the raw computing power of the mind combined with the efficiency of a computer to process millions of petabytes of data per second. This means when creating a firing solution, the Angel can factor in every variable possible from wind speed and gravity to enemy soldier movement based off even minor things like moral and nutrition.
Weapons:
Main cannon: the Angel's main cannon had two purposes when it was designed: level cities to the ground and counter the Xeno Titans. It takes ten minutes to charge, shooting a 4 second beam with a total yield of 8,000,000 newtons. It is mounted on the front of the weapon.
Secondary Cannons: The secondary cannons of the Angel were designed to be short ranged artillery. They take 30 seconds to charge and have a yield of 179,744 newtons. There are six of these, mounted on the left and right sides of the weapon.
Anti-Personnel cannons: these autocannons can shoot upwards of 300 rpm constantly with a yield of 5000 newtons. There are 14 of these cannons placed in two rows of 5 on the front of the Angel and one on each corner.
The Xeno Titan:
The Xeno Titan is the pinnacle of genetic evolution. These 90 ton lifeforms have extreme regeneration and thick natural armor making them resistant to the Slavic Federation's energy weapons, whose philosophy was "death by a thousand cuts."
Claws:
The behemoth's claws are 15m long and at full strength can impact with a force of 500,000 newtons. The Titan is capable of shredding a city's defenses single-handedly.
AN: hopefully that wasn't too bad. The codex entries for the North-Sea Alliance and PAC were taken directly from the civilization wikia site. Please don't sue.