As you may have gathered, this is a Roleplay (hereafter referred to as an RP) based after the events of Armored Core: For Answer. However, to join this RP, you don't actually need to have played the games; our trusted team of players/mech builders can help you along the way with making a character and a mech (called here a 'NEXT') for yourself.

Now, here's some info on the storyline and the concept of a NEXT; some alterations have been made from the games, so pay attention, even if you have played.

In the future, overpopulation has ravaged the planet. The world’s major corporations banded together and decided to bring about a new world order, and, with their force of NEXTs, initiated the National Dismantlement War. Their goal was reasonable distribution of the planet’s limited resources. After their crushing victory, they organised the population of the world into Colonies. Their totalitarian rule was dubbed the ‘Pax Economica’. Ten years later, Anatolia’s Raven – a Lynx of skill equal to that of an Original – rose, working with Fiona Jarnetfeld, daughter of the genius Professor Jarnetfeld who had invented the NEXT. He helped the various corporations with suppressing rebellions from various groups, most notably the Maggrib Liberation Front, one of the only non-company forces to field NEXTs, and cooperated with Joshua O’Brien – a mercenary for Aspina – in several battles.
Eventually, the Mercenary was hired by Global Armaments to destroy GAE, GA’s Europe subsidiary, who were planning a breakaway from GA with the help of Rayleonard subsidiary Akvavit. Under GA’s direct orders, Anatolia’s Mercenary destroyed GAE’s prototype Mobile Fortresses (forerunner to modern Arms Forts), while they were still in dock at the Hejde Arsenal. After this attack, Akvavit lashed out at GA, calling it rightful retribution. This action echoed instantly throughout the other companies. A full-scale war broke out, with many attacks; Eqbal on GA’s Zextex Global Airport, GA on Leone Meccanica’s Megalis power plant, and many others, GA on Rayleonard’s new 01 models.
Later on in the war, the Raven was hired again by GA and Rosenthal (who were allied) in a series of attacks against the Bernard and Felix Foundation. These culminated in a high-speed strike against the warship Queen’s Lance, BFF’s seaborne headquarters. This caused the complete collapse of BFF.
After this, Rayleonard launched a series of extremely brutal attacks on the other companies, including use of the Sol Dios weapons, the finished form of the prototype weapons destroyed during the purge of GAE. During this time, the Mercenary was hired to mop up the remnants of BFF, making their annihilation complete. Following this, he was hired to retaliate against Rayleonard, including a strike against the huge Ehrenburg anti-satellite batteries and an attack on the rank three pilot, Anjou.
The war culminated at a huge battle at the abandoned Old Peace City, with three pilots – Rank Four Leonhardt (Rosenthal), Rank Eighteen Mido Auriel (Omer), and Anatolia’s Raven – facing off against Rayleonard’s four-pilot elite NEXT squadron, consisting of Rank Eleven Aabye (Rayleonard), Rank Twelve Zanni (Rayleonard), and Rank Fourteen Unseel (Rogue, ex-BFF), led by Rayleonard’s legendary Rank One – Berlioz. Come the end of this battle between the world’s greatest Lynx, Anatolia’s Raven was the sole survivor.
After this battle, Anatolia’s Raven was immediately sent to destroy Exavil, Rayleonard’s enormous headquarters in Canada. After a one-sided battle, Exavil was destroyed, along with the rest of the Rayleonard corporation. This was the end of the Lynx War, and after a year and millions of deaths, it was finally over.
However, Anatolia’s Raven was still seen as a threat by the power-hungry Omer corporation, and after the fall of Rayleonard, Omer had acquired the legendary 00-ARETHA. They held Joshua O’Brien’s colony hostage, and forced him to pilot the ARETHA, sending him on an attack against Anatolia. Anatolia was razed to the ground by the ARETHA, and the Raven was forced into battle again. After an intense battle between the ARETHA and the Raven, the ARETHA was defeated, and Joshua O’Brien killed. Following this, Fiona Jarnetfeld and the Raven himself left Anatolia, leaving the ruins behind them, to start a new life in a new free colony, Line Ark.

Shortly after the Lynx War, which heavily polluted the Earth due to the amount of Kojima Radiation released by the battling NEXTs, the Corporations banded together to form the League of United Corporations. The League quickly assembled the Cradles, giant aircraft capable of carrying twenty million people each. The rich could buy their way onto these Cradles, which flew up in the clean air, seven thousand metres above the ground. They were powered by the Arteria, huge ground-based power stations that transmitted energy wirelessly to the Cradles. Meanwhile, the poor were left below on the poisoned surface, along with the Lynx, who were deemed too dangerous.

Five years later and the Economic War - a controlled, limited war between Corporations over resources (no-where near the scale of the Lynx War) - was raging, much as it had been for some time (there is no formal 'start' to the Economic War identified). This war was fought exclusively on the surface, far away from the Cradles; the armies were almost entirely made up of those left behind on the surface, and were treated as nothing more than pawns. The Economic War saw rise to the Arms Forts, giant mobile fortresses capable of devastating armies, crewed by thousands of easily expendable soldiers. During this time, a mercenary group rose to prominence. They fought for whoever would pay, and quickly gained reputation for multiple acts, such as the destruction of the huge BFF Arms Fort 'Spirit of Motherwill'.
Shortly after, they found themselves assigned by the League to kill White Glint, protector of the most powerful surface-based faction, the independent colony Line Ark. In actual fact, White Glint was Anatolia's Raven; he named his craft after his old friend Joshua's NEXT, although it was a completely custom prototype. During this battle, White Glint faked his own death, going down into the ocean, along with the League's Rank One at the time, Otsdarva (who had been assigned to assist the mercenaries on their mission.
Afterwards, the Raven approached the mercenaries, offering to join them. They accepted him, and continued to serve in the Economic War, with the Raven now piloting a new craft.
It was then that they were approached by a mysterious man named Maximillian Thermidor. He told them of the world's doomed fate - the Arteria were creating more pollution, and eventually it would reach the level of the Cradles, seven thousand metres above the ground. He revealed to them that the planet's orbit was crowded by lethal unmanned satellites called Assault Cells, which had been launched by the corporations before the National Dismantlement War in an effort to block each others' progress into space; the path to space was now completely blocked for mankind. He planned to use Ehrenburg Anti-Satellite Cannons to take them out (which, long before, had been constructed by Rayleonard for this very purpose, but the company fell before they could be used), but needed the power from the Arteria to do it - and the League refused to even admit that the Assault Cells existed. The Arteria would need to be taken by force. The mercenaries unanimously agreed with him, and he said that he would contact them when the time came.
When July came, Thermidor sent a briefing to the mercenaries, telling them that it was time. It was then that the world came crashing down around everyone. A group of massively skilled pilots of unknown origin (among them the mercenaries) calling themselves the ORCA Brigade launched a simultaneous assault on the world's Arteria facilities, capturing several. The power that the Cradles relied on was suddenly threatened.
Maximillian Thermidor stated that he was leader of the ORCA Brigade, and sent a simple message to the world.

League Dogs

Welcome to Earth

To those who lived in the skies, it was nothing less than a declaration of war. The ORCA Brigade caused insurmountable damage, and eventually the fighting became concentrated on the Arteria Cranium, the world's largest Arteria facility.
After a huge battle, the League's forces - led by the brilliant Wynne D. Fanchon - defeated ORCA, killing Thermidor and his elite bodyguard Shinkai.
However, as the mercenaries escaped, and as the corporations try to rebuild, the League's Lynx are hunting these mercenaries across the world...

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Okay, that's it for the plot. As you may have gathered, the role of Strayed in FA has basically been given to the mercenaries.

Well then, by now, you must all be wondering - 'what is an Armored Core'? Well, here's your explanation.

An Armored Core is a mechanised humanoid weapon that, when introduced, rendered many other forms of warfare redundant. The first type developed were what are now referred to as 'Normals' - powered by an advanced battery and about ten metres tall. They were widely used by the world's governments, and now form the basic infantry of the Corporations. They are reasonably cheap to build and are now produced in their thousands. They are controlled via a manual interface.
The second, newer type are the Armored Core 'NEXTs', experimental weapons using Kojima technology and numerous other advances to make them nigh-invincible. They are powered by Kojima Generators, which give them a recharging energy supply, and can move at speeds of well over five hundred kilometres an hour (excluding Quick Boost and Over Boost, which allow them to break the speed of sound). They are fitted with Primal Armour shielding, which, while not removing all damage as they are hit, severely negates it. Lastly, they are also equipped with Aspina's 'Allegorical Manipulation System' or AMS, which allows a pilot to control their NEXT with their mind. However, this also means that the Corporations need people with a very high AMS Compatibility (a specific psychic trait) to become Lynx; otherwise, the psychic stress of using the craft will kill them. Older types of NEXT (such as Rayleonard's 01 and 00 models) use crude AMS that will kill the pilot in a matter of hours no matter what, although these crafts are astoundingly devastating.

A brief history:

NEXTs:
The NEXT was a piece of technology originally developed by a man by the name of Professor Jarnetfeld. The first prototype ever designed was the 00-ARETHA design, a unique craft that was astoundingly capable. However, the enormous levels of psychic stress it put on the pilot and the amount of maintenance it required, in addition to the astoundingly high costs of building one, meant that the project was abandoned at 50% completion.
The second pair of experiments were extremely watered-down versions of the ARETHA design, but were deemed too ineffective to meet the goals of a NEXT. They were abandoned before prototyping could begin and names could be assigned, and as such are known only known as the 01 and 02 designs.
The third design was the 03-AALIYAH design, a balance between the weakness of the earlier designs and the power of the initial ARETHA design. Somewhat larger than the 01 and 02 designs but a third of the size of the ARETHA, it was a huge leap forward and was rapidly taken up as the standard-issue model of the Rayleonard corporation. It is still in (relatively) wide use today, and many of its design elements were soon copied by other corporations, and as such it is known as the first of the NEXTs as we know them today.
The fourth was the 04-ALICIA, a reverse-jointed version of the AALIYAH design. It only consisted of the leg units, and was never widely produced, but has been used to great effect by the Rayleonard test Lynx Zanni (Roughcut, confirmed KIA) and later the legendary Maximillian Thermidor (Unsung, also confirmed KIA), who was the leader of ORCA.
The last design was a reboot of the 01 model, more widely known as the Prototype NEXT. These ones were a slightly smaller, improved version of the AALIYAH and focused much more heavily on Kojima technology. It also utilised some technology discarded after the failure of the ARETHA project, but had the same problem of killing its pilots with vast amounts of psychic stress. All test models were standard-issued with a Kojima blade and a lightweight laser rifle, and the craft was less well-armoured than the AALIYAH, but far more mobile. The project was started by Professor Jarnetfeld, but he died before its completion. It was later taken by the Rayleonard corporation and completed, but the first examples were destroyed by Anatolia’s Raven in a lethal attack. Several more were later built, and have fallen into the hands of several non-League members, Liliana and ORCA being the most prominent. Its capabilities are judged at more than those of the AALIYAH, but significantly less than those of the ARETHA.

The Skeleton is as follows:

Name (no two characters with the same name, please):

Age (nobody under fourteen, and even then, they're going to be an extremely inexperienced pilot if they're under twenty):

Rank (if applicable; rank spots will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis - these do not necessarily indicate their authority, just their skill. They can either be ranked by the League, alongside all the characters in-game, or by the mercenaries, who have a seperate ladder):

Faction (Mercenaries or the League):

Clothing (what do they wear when not in their piloting suits?):

Appearance (what do they look like?):

Personality (what do they act like? Please do not put 'to be developed in the RP' here; at least give us a brief insight):

Weapons and Equipment When on Foot (self-explanatory):

Fighting Style (how do they fight when in a NEXT? The more detail, the better):

Signiature Weapon (a weapon on their NEXT; nobody else in the RP is allowed to use this weapon):

History (self-explanatory):

Strengths (note: caring a lot about friends and being willing to give your life for them is a strength, not a weakness, unless taken to the extremes):

Weaknesses (MUST include at least one direct combat weakness [e.g. unskilled in blade combat] and at least one personality flaw [e.g. is overconfident] - any profiles without these must be changed):

Motivations/Goals (basically, what do they want to achieve?):


Now, onto the NEXT Skeleton (put it in the 'equipment' text box; if you haven't played ACFA, leave this blank and we'll help you out):

Frame:

Head:
Core:
Arms:
Legs:

Internals:

FCS:
Generator:

Weapons:

R Arm Weapon:
L Arm Weapon:
R Back Weapon:
L Back Weapon:
Shoulder Weapon:
R Hangar Weapon:
L Hangar Weapon:

Tuning (don't actually list how it's tuned; just explain it in simple words [e.g. 'tuned for raw speed' or 'tuned for extreme PA', etc.):

Paint (just desribe their mech's paintjob here):


That's it. Welcome to the family!