Introduction

Defense of Arx is a Clan-wide Run On. This competition will take place on the Brotherhood’s Discourse platform. Members are encouraged to write multiple posts throughout the event and to engage with the wider story as they see fit. Clans will select one Theater on which to focus its efforts during Phase 1 of the War. Changes will be introduced to the Run-On following the mid-War fiction, and Clans will have the opportunity to shift their focus to a new Theater. The overarching goal is for the Clan to attempt to complete the objective in the Theater they choose during each Phase. More information on Theaters is available below, and will be available on the Wiki.

The Run-Ons will be opened on Monday, June 1, after all Consuls have selected a Theater. More information on Theaters is available below. The Run-On will have a first starting post that states the primary Theater of the Clan and contains snapshots of participating members. Snapshots can be added as members post. We will not be policing when snapshots are added but ask they be added when Consuls have time to do so at regular intervals. Consuls may also add a Links section to the first post, below Snapshots, that contain links they think would be useful for members while writing their posts. This first post should not contain anything other than this, as this first post is exclusively for administrative use. Please consult your Clan for the Discourse link to your Clan’s run-on.

In order to keep this event fair and fun, we have written a set of rules unique to this event. These rules are specifically designed to allow units flexibility. Because of this, units/members are expressly forbidden from asking members not to write.

Situation

The Collective has finally arrived on the Brotherhood’s doorstep, and in full force. While the Grand Master prepares Arx’s defenses, he calls on the Clans of the Brotherhood and their allies for support. A full scale battle quickly erupts high above the planet’s surface, and below its powerful shield gate.

Conflict has finally come to the Arx system. The final outcome is guaranteed to have a lasting impact on all sides, with potential for massive loss. Your own actions will help determine the fate of the Brotherhood and its allies.

Theaters

Nesolat Platform

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Board the Nesolat and ensure that the platform's Administrative and Observation section successfully departs for the surface. Protect and evacuate personnel, artifacts, and research materials in any way possible while engaging Collective forces on the station.

SITUATION: The Shadow Academy's orbital Nesolat Platform is The Collective’s primary target in the early phase of its attack on Arx. The Collective has fully committed the might of its Battle Group Elysium to the assault, and Brotherhood forces are mounting a desperate defense as the station attempts to evacuate personnel and artifacts to the surface, and to disengage its Administrative and Observation section for an emergency return to the surface Academy on Arx itself. Collective forces on the station include Hive Mind Marines, which pose an unprecedented threat due to their superhuman coordination and lack of fear or pain. Exercise extreme caution when engaging them.

If your Clan provides aid to the Nesolat, the Shadow Academy may be able to save much of the station by returning it to the surface. The Imperial Reclamation Service will reward your Clan's assistance following the conclusion of the War.

ACE Shipyard

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Defend the Arx Capital Exchange Shipyard in orbit around Arx. Protect the vessels docked at the station in varying stages construction, refit, or repair, and aid the Severian Principate representatives who are stranded aboard the station.

SITUATION: A Collective strike force has broken from the main assault on the Nesolat and is enroute to Mattock Station. Led by the Dreadnaught Thala of Battle Group Scargill, the Collective force has more than enough firepower to reduce the station to dust. Collective ground forces of Battle Group Scargill are numerous enough to quickly overrun the station's minimal defenses should the Collective attempt to capture the station.

The station is a major strategic asset and the Brotherhood’s primary source of new ship construction and refit. Multiple Brotherhood vessels are currently undergoing construction, refit, or repair at the station, possibly including a ship that belongs to your Clan. The vessels in drydock are uncrewed and defenseless, making them easy targets for the enemy. Additionally, several high-ranking members of the Severian Principate are currently onboard the Mattock negotiating a technological exchange and fleet upgrade treaty. The death or capture of the Principate representatives would deal a major blow to the Brotherhood’s new alliance and to the technological advancement of the Brotherhood's fleet.

If your Clan provides aid to the Mattock, ACE will offer a reward following the conclusion of the War. Defending the Mattock will also increase the Principate’s opinion of the Brotherhood.

Godless Matron

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Dispose of threats to the monstrous Shroud Syndicate command ship and protect the Brotherhood's new potential allies, the Tenixir Revenants.

SITUATION: In the wake of the Tenixir prison break, the infamous Godless Matron of the Shroud Syndicate was recalled to Arx to serve as a “neutral” meeting ground for leaders of the newly formed Tenixir Revenants and Brotherhood representatives. The vessel is now a prime target for Collective forces, which have dispatched a small assault flotilla from Command Battle Group Ostara -- presumably with the intent to capture the Matron or, failing that, to destroy it.

If your Clan provides aid to the Matron, the Shroud Syndicate will remember and repay it with dividends following the conclusion of the War. Defending the Matron will also increase the Tenixir Revenants’ opinion of the Brotherhood.

Phase 2 - Situation Update

The Administrative and Observation sections of the Nesolat have returned to the Shadow Academy on the surface of Arx following the destruction of the planetary shield gate above Eos City. Thanks to the brave efforts of Clans Naga Sadow, Scholae Palatinae, Plagueis, Arcona, and Odan Urr, much of the Nesolat’s crew and most valuable artifacts were safely evacuated from the station.

The Godless Matron has suffered significant damage from a Collective superweapon, but the intervention of the mercenary Clan Vizsla and the sacrifice of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Endeavor have saved the ancient behemoth from certain destruction -- for now.

Meanwhile, Clan Taldryan’s efforts have spared ACE Shipyard’s Mattock Station from the wrath of the Collective’s Battle Group Scargill, preserving the Brotherhood’s shipbuilding capacity though damage to the station and the vessels anchored to it will take time to repair.

Despite these small victories, the Collective’s assault is unrelenting. The Shadow Academy has fallen to the traitor Evant Taelyan. Three additional Battle Groups have joined the fray, led by Lord Superior Rath Oligard himself aboard his command ship Skylla. Collective forces are now gathering in the space over Eos City and marshalling their ground forces to assault the city and the Dark Ascent itself. The Grand Master has ordered Brotherhood forces to defend key locations on Arx but not to engage the Collective fleet over Eos City.

Phase 2 Theaters

Eos City

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Take up defensive positions in Eos City and repel the Collective’s ground invasion.

SITUATION: Collective forces are landing in the country surrounding Eos City as its Battle Groups approach from above. The Grand Master has ordered Brotherhood forces to vacate the space above the city, leaving it exposed to the Collective fleet but also permitting the city’s own weaponry to fire indiscriminately. Defensive ion cannons and turbolasers are deterring a full invasion for now, giving your Clan just enough time to join the city’s thinly stretched defenders. Your clan will decide whether to expend resources on protecting, evacuating, or conscripting the citizens of Eos but the city must be held.

Iron Legion Headquarters

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: The Collective has laid siege to the Iron Legion Headquarters west of the city. Bring your Clan’s forces to bear and break the siege, freeing the Iron Legion to join in the defense of Arx.

SITUATION: The first step of the Collective’s assault on Eos City is to cut off and destroy or capture the critically important Iron Legion Headquarters and its military academy. A significant portion of the Iron Legion forces -- mostly green recruits -- on Arx are bottled up in the Barracks. Your Clan must break the siege and help the Iron Legion launch a counteroffensive on the Collective’s western flank.

Rubric and Rules

The Clan-Wide Run On will be graded following a unique rubric, located here.

• For participation credit, members must make two qualifying posts. For posts to qualify, they should be at minimum 250 words and be no longer than 1000 words. Posts shorter than 250, or longer than 1000 words, are 'disqualified', but do not disqualify a run-on or a participant, or the run-on from placing. They may be edited as per the Edit Rules below, but not after.
• A member’s snapshot must be added to the first “starting” post in the Run-Once once they post, but we will not pay any attention to loadouts in grading and realism will focus on general Star Wars/Brotherhood versus specifics Force powers and skills. Snapshots may also be added on the first post a member makes to a run-on and may be removed from that post and placed in the first post through edits by the Consul or Dark Council at any point thereafter.
• Members may write their alternative characters and NPCs into the run-on in addition to their main characters. Snapshots must be provided, and the use of alts/NPCs must comply with all other rules of this competition, including the Theater restrictions described below.
  
• Only qualifying posts will be considered in grading, others will be ignored. Subsequent writers may choose to ignore disqualified posts, but they will not be penalized if they pay attention to them. However, if a disqualified post includes resolution to a plot/subplot, it will NOT be considered in Story grading.
• Authors may reserve a post position with a post stating "Reserved". There may only be one post position reserved, and Consuls may request the reservation request be deleted if it has been up for more than 6 hours.
• Posts may be edited by their author before additional posts with content are made (that is, a post may ONLY be edited while the post immediately following it is Reserved). If a post is edited after content has been added, it will be disqualified.
• An author may NOT make consecutive posts. At least one other person must post (including reserved posts) before an author can make another post.
• Any post may be deleted within 10 minutes of it being posted, regardless of what other posts have been made after it.
• Each Clan Run-On must take place in a Theater. It does not need to remain in the theater, but at the beginning of the event all members of the Clan are assumed to be 1) On the 'ground' in or at the theater location, or 2) Orbiting above the theater in a way appropriate for a unit. Clans do not need to belabor arriving at a theater: members may address their arrival in their first post but a member’s second (and later) posts must engage with events in the theater or they will not count as qualifying posts.
• Clans may freely interact with, and do as they please, to any members of the Collective, and any members of the Principate or Tenixir Revenants. Note that anything done to these characters is not canon for the character or Brotherhood.
  
• The Clan’s primary objective is the primary Theater they choose. At the express discretion of the Consul, members may engage enemy forces in other Theaters, but the Clan is only officially "engaged" at a single Theater. In addition, there will be a period between Phases where Clans will be presented with changes to the available Theaters. At this point, the Consul will choose to direct the Clan’s run-on towards a new theater and new objectives. Completion of the objectives for Phase 1 and Phase 2 Theaters is the primary goal of the Run On.