The Outer Line
Humanity reached the stars. Then it started fighting over them. Three powers, one frontier, and the commanders sent to hold the line nobody wants to acknowledge.
Your Role
You are a faction commander
You are a Faction Commander. You have your own Mobile Shipyard, a task force under your authority, and a record that precedes you. Your faction assigns you operations: defend this Gravity Well, raid that supply line, escort this convoy through contested space.
You serve your faction. In Skirmish, you choose your allegiance freely. In Campaign and Global War, your loyalty is fixed. That is the nature of the frontier: every power needs capable commanders, and the chain of command stretches thin across light-years.
Your Mobile Shipyard is your most valuable asset. It is your factory, your home, your capital. Lose it, and you lose everything: your fleet, your rank, your place on the frontier. Protect it at all costs.
Commander Assets
The Frontier
Where humanity's expansion meets reality
Humanity colonized the solar system and a handful of nearby stars within the last century. The core worlds are stable and urbanized. The Outer Line is everything beyond: the dangerous frontier where Jump Drive technology opens new territory faster than any government can secure it.
Three powers now compete for the same resource-rich frontier clusters. No one has declared war. Officially, these are "security operations" and "territorial surveys." In practice, fleets clash, stations burn, and Supply convoys vanish into the void. The governments maintain plausible deniability. Commanders like you do the actual fighting.
The Unwritten Rules (eroding)
- - Do not shoot first. First strike is a diplomatic incident.
- - Do not touch civilian cargo. Taboo, triggers war declarations.
- - Concede rescue rights to damaged enemies. Increasingly ignored.
- - What happens on the frontier stays on the frontier.
- - Communication lag means field commanders interpret vague orders autonomously.
The Three Powers
Each justified. Each desperate. Each competing for the same prize.
United Solar Federation
[USF]"Order follows the flag."
All stats baseline (1.0x). Standardized hulls, disciplined crews, reliable across all theaters.
Formal command structure with 40-page operational protocols. Bureaucratic but stable. Every order has a paper trail.
Orion Industrial League
[ORI]"We built this. Come and take it."
+15% Hull HP, -10% Speed. Heavy, durable ships built to take punishment and keep fighting.
Handshake leadership. Operational freedom. Results matter more than procedure. Good people, rough edges.
Nexus Energy Compact
[NEC]"Energy is the only truth."
-10% Hull HP, +20% Shield HP, +15% Shield Regen. Shield-reliant ships with superior energy tech.
Rigid protocols, detailed reporting requirements. Cold professionalism. Efficiency above all else.
The Riftborn Collective
[RFT]Environmental hazard. Non-playable.
Stateless irregular groups: defectors, exiles, failed colonists, mutineers. No unified command, no territory, no flag. Independent flotillas survive through raiding Supply Nodes, ambushing convoys, and disappearing into Deep Space before anyone can respond. They cannot sustain prolonged conflict, but they can ruin your day. Every faction deals with them. No faction controls them.
No chain of command. They hit your supply lines and vanish. Budget for losses or hunt them down early.
Timeline
Key events leading to the present conflict
Federation Charter
Earth's nations unify into the United Solar Federation following decades of climate stabilization and cooperative space initiatives.
Inner Belt Colonized
Formal colonization of the asteroid belt begins. Shipyards are established in the Jovian shadow. The frontier opens.
Jump Drive Discovered
A breakthrough in gravity manipulation enables ships to jump between celestial bodies. Space bends around Gravity Wells.
First Interstellar Hop
The Pathfinder makes humanity's first interstellar jump to Alpha Centauri. The stars are no longer out of reach.
Orion Industrial League Founded
Mining guilds, independent colonies, and frontier operators form the ORI to protect their claims from federal absorption.
Nexus Energy Compact Established
Research stations and scientific enclaves unite under the NEC banner, pursuing energy technology superiority.
The Riftborn Emerge
Displaced colonists, deserters, and exiles coalesce into loosely connected raider flotillas. No flag, no territory, no mercy.
Anomalous Clusters Discovered
Gravity-dense regions rich with asteroids and strategic positions are detected on the frontier. All three powers take notice.
The Outer Line
Three powers deploy task forces to the same frontier clusters simultaneously. Tensions escalate from incidents to open skirmishing. Field commanders are given broad authority. The war nobody declares has begun.