Invasion: General Information

The Fleets

Taldryan's fleet has engaged Admiral Lanar above his base at Elyssia. The fleet strengths are as follows:

Taldryan

VEN Katarn
VSD Dark Prophet
M/INT Orthanc

A/FRG Praetorian
CGS Outcast
M/CRV Darkstorn
M/CRV Renegade

216 Alpha-3 Nimbus class fighters
168 Eta-2 Actis class fighters
36 ARC-170 heavy fighters
12 TIE Fighters
6 A-Wings
6 Scimitar Assault Bombers (to be used by Crimson Vanguard)
12 shielded TIE Interceptors



Lanar's Fleet

Imperial II-class Star Destroyer First of Lanar
Victory II-class Star Destroyer Lanar's Wrath

2 Escort Carriers
4 Lancer Frigates
4 Strike Cruisers

156 TIE Fighters
156 TIE Bombers
156 TIE Interceptors
12 TIE Advanced (Avenger)

Minefield



The fleets will start at a distance of ten kilometres apart. More informatio on Admiral Lanar's fleet is below.

The capital ship formation is centred around the Imperial Star Destroyer. The two Star Destroyers sit side by side, with the two Escort Carriers directly behind them. The Lancer Frigates form a “box” around the central four ships (if the central ships are arranged in a square, think of the Lancers as being on the outside corners). Lancer Frigates are specialized in anti-starfighter warfare, and will chew any starfighter who comes too close to pieces.

The four Strike Cruisers are arranged in a horizontal line 1.5km ahead of the main capital group. The Strike Cruisers are designed mostly for capital ship warfare, and are relatively little threat to skilled fighter pilots. However, pilots beware – should you get behind the Strike Cruisers, you'll be within range of the guns on the Lancer Frigates. For capital ships, a pair of Strike Cruisers is equivalent in firepower to a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and effective out to two kilometres. It will likely be unsafe for capital ships to close in until the Strike Cruisers are destroyed.

The TIE Avenger squadron is known as “Lanar's Claws” and is an elite starfighter squadron. Each of its pilots are roughly equivalent in skill to a Sith Guardian. Because of the superior speed and maneuverability of these craft, it's unlikely that a bomber would be able to evade them; if you see them at the edge of your sensor screen, break off and let the other Taldryan fighters deal with them.

The minefield is approximately five kilometres square and is composed of over two hundred mines. It covers the area of the planet directly above Admiral Lanar's base, sitting just inside the planet's atmosphere. The range of the mines is one kilometre, slightly shorter than that of the Lancer Frigates, but within this radius they are much more deadly, since fire from the minefield will surround a fighter or transport rather than simply coming from one direction.

The shipyards are to the right of the minefield when viewed from space, approximately one kilometre away from the minefield; any boarding attempt will have to come from the far side of the shipyards. Likewise, any attempt to land on the planet will have to stay at least 1 kilometre away from the minefield to avoid destruction.

So what are the Summit doing?

Fictionally speaking, the Summit will be the generals for this battle. As you saw (or will see) in the introduction, Duga has command of the overall operation, Crix and the Archanis Summit are in charge of the starfighters (including Crimson Vanguard), Erinyes and the Dinaari Summit are in charge of the space assaults (including Dark Fire Brigade, Dark Avatar Circle and Phoenix), and Chaos and the Ektrosis Summit in charge of the ground assault (including Hex).

Astute observers may realize that the “Rat Pack” does indeed have a run-on thread open for them. So yes, the Summits will have their own task to accomplish – which means they won't be participating in other threads. The BT missions are for that BT alone.

Character Equipment

Due to the questions on the mailing list, I'm adding a note here about character equipment. By and large, your equipment for this mission (except for starships for transportation or combat) will come from your personal supply. You are permitted to carry any reasonable weapons or equipment that a member of the Brotherhood of your rank would have. This excludes special things like a database of Imperial codes, a remote control that lets you take over any electronic system, kind of weapon that destroys people without you breaking a sweat, or anything else that would let you bypass the story's obstacles with no effort. Even "common" Star Wars weapons like sniper rifles or thermal detonators are expensive and not normally available outside the military or criminal groups. Please don't carry them.

The Clan will provide basic weaponry (a DL-18 blaster pistol and a vibroknife) for any member who chooses to carry them. In addition, there will be some special equipment for each rank. Members who rank between Apprentice and Protector (inclusive) will have access to three bacta patches, enough to dull the pain and negate the injury of any blaster shot or melee wound within its ability to cover (the patches cover two square inches). Members above the rank of Guardian will be allowed to carry energy shields, which will deflect blaster bolts (but not lightsabers) for a period of thirty seconds, after which they must recharge for five minutes. The shields cover only the front of the body, not the sides or rear, and are worn on the upper arm. Equites may take two Force boost hypos, which must be applied like any hypospray but will give a significant boost to the effectiveness (only effect, not range or duration, nor access to higher-level Force powers) of any Force power used for approximately one minute. Elders don't get anything - if you need extra gear to help you, you don't deserve your rank.

Force Powers

Force power usage in these ROs will be governed by the ACC's Dark Jedi Force Powers guide at the ACC compedium. I won't be doing anything so specific as comparing attribute scores, but this guide should give you a good idea of what a person of your rank can do. Needless to say, Journeymen (DJK and below) can only use Journeyman powers, Equites (SW/OT/KP-SWL/OPM/KPN) can use Equite and Journeyman powers and Elders (DA-DP) can use Elder, Equite and Journeyman powers. The higher your rank is within those ranges, the better you can use the powers - a JH will use Journeyman powers more effectively than a PRT will, a KE will use Equite powers more effectively than a KP and a DJM will use Elder powers more effectively than a DA. A member using powers of classes lower than her rank (i.e. an Equite using Journeyman powers) will naturally use them more effectively than any Journeyman.

Grading Scheme

All of you are probably wondering, how will this runon be graded? Well, read below for more details:

Continuity - Do the runon's posts make sense from one post to another? If a character is shooting with a blaster in one post, is she shooting in the second post? If not, have you explained what she's doing differently?

Realism - Are the actions you take realistic for your character's level of ability? We're not limiting the possibility that your character has skills other than their Dark Jedi training, but a general rule is that the higher your rank, the more experienced you are, and the more things you can do. In terms of Force powers, this will include how your character's power usage is written according to the ACC Compendium (link is listed in an above post) - I won't be using the Force Pool system or making you use annotations, but please stay within your rank levels for powers.

Plot - Was the plot interesting? Was it more than "go out, do mission, go home"? Were there enough twists to keep the reader entertained? If your Battle-Team manages to (realistically) complete their objectives and move on to secondary missions, extra points may be given in this category.

Objectives - Were the Battle-Team's objectives met? Were there any particularly innovative means used to complete the objectives? Were the objectives portrayed realistically? Secondary missions are NOT included in this category.

Writing - This section covers both writing mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation) and the quality of the writing as entertainment. Were things written well? Was descriptive language used? Were commas and periods in the right place? Were words spelled correctly? This category will be graded with varying skill levels in mind - I'm not expecting that all of you be brilliant writers, but your work has to be at least understandable. If English isn't your first language (as in, not the language usually spoken wherever you live), note it in one of your posts and we'll take it into consideration.

Each category above will be graded out of ten points. A runon which is good but not exceptional (meets all of the standards of the category without going beyond, such as completing your team objectives in a fairly standard way) will be graded as a 7 out of 10.

Post length and the length of the entire runon will not be a factor in grading - we won't reward people for longer posts and penalize them or short ones (or vice versa). Member participation will only be a small factor - BTs will get 5 bonus points if their entire roster participates, but will not otherwise receive or be docked points for participation.