https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfskFravnWM

Musical style that matches the feel I want for the project at this time.

The Zodiac Court_001

The Court were once one of the larger factions, originally a large alliance of  twelve colonial states. They had managed numerous times to fight off other factions including the Confederacy and the Principality. However a recent war with the Athenian Hierarchy changed that. Since then they have been severely crippled and reliant the little military strength they have left lies in their Homunculi, highly sophisticated battledroids descended from Athenian techlogy stolen from the Ixion Federation. Although the Antehians on learning of the theft first descended upon the Ixion they quickly moved on on discovery it was the Zodiac court who had claimed it and laid upon them the only direct conflict regarding the Hierarchy thus far. However pockets of the Court survived the crusade. Now fractured and easy prety to larger forces they rely on their Homucnli, ever knwoing their deployment alone could bring back the Athenians. However the small victories they claimed gave them access to high advanced Ahtehinan technology, while being a crippled empire wielding the products of Athenian technology once they finish licking their wounds it is arguable they could take on the Confederacy and the Principality as long as it isn't at the same time.

Ixion Federation_001

The Federation are as close to human as we are now, very limited genetically modification, however cybernetics are common place. They are a neutral faction for all intents and purposes and fight for their own goals often the pursuit of recourse and expanded territory. They are one of the few survival colonial states to stave off a Shakti invasion after they refused to comply to having cloning facilities places on their worlds (few at the time) however due to their location in the galaxy they are landlocked between over colonial states some of which they have taken over other still at war with and even allies with some. The Ixion Federation is terms of technology would be considered underdeveloped however through "acquiring" other factions technologies they have been creative in extrapolating the useful and making it practical albeit watered down due to scarceness. The Shaki has long since dismissed them as nothing more than a pest and that the Ixion themselves no better than to step on the Principality's sleeping tail. Although in return to their earlier war earned them respect of the Aldus confederacy however due to the little strategic value of their location kind words are all that have been shared.

However in recent times the Ixion Federation commands a large portion of space if not at times not directly. They rely mainly on trade through proxies and are shrewd merchants. While the their military prowess as earlier stated may be considered crude. They capable of hit and run and feint attacks to pull away larger threats so they can hit their targets with precision and in relative safety.

However a somewhat less known fact and that was instrumental to fending of the Shakti during their war was that a Original Nephilim army was found and enlisted on the promises to produce haste of a massive scale earning the Federations its only Nephilim army and battlegroup. This piece of information is kept fairly secret as if even the Federation knows without secrecy the Confederacy would soon come to exterminate them for the very reason of their terms of service. The Shakti of course are aware of this fact but know the Aldus taking up residence in their backyard would not be a wise move.

To date this Nephilim army has only been deployed a twice, during the war against the Shakti and again against the Athenian hierarchy after discovering they had lost Athenian technology (stolen) to the Zodiac Court which led to the development of their infamous armies of homunculi, later the Athenians came after them leading to a brutal war where the Athenians first came truly out of the shadows, only to return again once any trace of their technology in the courts hands had been wiped clean, yet some was unfound but the Court has not been in place to expand their borders since.

Shakti Principality_001

The Principality were originally a strong member of the Aldus Corporation in fact they originally commanded the first Nephilim during the early days of the Corporations attempted unification of the scattered colonial forces across the galaxy. However the Shakti Principality has long since splintered away from the Corporation after centuries of extortion on resources earlier. Now instead they are the main threat to the Aldus Corporations rivaling them technologically as well as having a better standing with the Colonial States. Like the Corporation they too use specially genetically engineering super soldiers like the Nephilim, however learning from the mistakes of the early Nephilim they instead bred their own soldiers the Kali to be even more intelligent, and through constant indoctrination during their breeding and gestation understand and fight for the Kali through perceived logic rarther than blind radicalism. Kali soldiers are however like the Nephilim controlled primarily through drugs and due to lack of resources are not as heavily armed or equipped as the Nephilim their intelligence has been designed to make up for this, while still standing eight foot tall and just as strong they fight more covertly using ambushes and guerrilla tactics and at times can even be more brutal than a Nephilim Warrior up to their eyes in Haste. They have also been bred so their outwards strength is not as apparent giving them a more slender and less obtuse silhouette. They operate a lot more conventionally too and can fight alongside regular human subraces without tearing them apart. The Shakti has however promoted themselves as gods amongst them to further promote their loyalty.

The gestation process for a Kali Warrior is a lot longer than even a Aldus Lucifairan at three years per head. However through negotiation and sometimes through cohesion the Principality has been able to base multiple cloning facilities on the worlds of allied colonial factions in reward of this they are promised battle groups patrols, resources and autonomy of state. Yet they still cannot out man the millions of Nephilim in active service. It is feared that if the Aldus refocused all their military strength on the Shakti the Principality would fall in under a decade, thankfully the Corporation still have their hands full with Rogue Nephilim, small rebellious colonial states and other larger factions.

Nephilim_001

The Nephilim are a race of genetically engineered super soldiers, standing eight foot tall and muscular. They are the all purpose shock troops of the Aldus corporation. They are gestated in cloning facilities located on Earth and in its orbit, traditionally higher ranking, that is to say thorough bred Nephilim are cloned and created directly on Earth, while the orbital facilities rush out more degenerated copies for rapid deployment. Earth born are branded Luciferians and disquished by white armor and are less frequently seen then their black clad brethren. Lucifaians retrain and almost human intelligenc able to strategise interdependently and create and carry out complex stratergies and orders whilst the Nephilim are often under the control of Metaron aboard a captial ship or in a nearby facility controlled telepathically through cybernetic implants and there is no true telepathy present at this time in human genetics. Nephilim intentially bred to at best have a primal intellect without the direction of a Metatron will go into an innert and unrespove state. Lucifaians can however command them, often on major mobile engmanetns untaken by the Adlus Corperation will have one Lucifian to five hundred Nephilim. Between either breed there is little difference in individual unit operations, there are no specialists such as Snipers or Heavy Weapons. All Nephilim carry the same gear a all purpose assault rifle that in linked directly via neural interface to the base on the skulls allowing hip firing to be just as accurate as a precision shot. They following the trend of the Citazens of the Adlus coperation are extensively controlled by drugs, which are administered by a automated system of syrangies implanted extensively into the spine. The drugs keep them dependent but also allow them to fight through pain and exhaustion, they can quite literally fight to the death. The usual drug admisted is called haste. It increases reaction times, aggression level however it practically erodes neural pathways and will kill them in three days of constant use. Noted Lucifains do not use Haste as the time spent creating one Lucifarian is roughly a year whereas an Nephilim can be produced in a little under a week, however there are often setbacks, huge deformities in body and mind which are often suplmented through cybernetics implants and prosthesis.

Fighting a Nephilim is like fighting a Tank. Their armor can easily shrug off a volley of 50'callibur rounds, is highly resistant to radiation and other environmental effects, they are known to have been nuked and still they will march blindly forward despite the armor beginning to melt from the intense heat. Still they can be killed, but only through either concentrated weapon fire, to effectively erode their battle suits or direct pin point strikes from orbital weapons. Killing a Nephilim up close ironically is more simple, the spinal armor is in fact weaker than their front, a well places shot to the back of the neck or along the spine can likely disable them effectively killing them unless repaired on the field, which is extremely unlikely. The Adlus corperation uses this information in fact to its advantage, for one Nephilim are deployed in their thousands and delibartley do not separate making it hard for anyone to get close to them without alerting the few hundred others, but also the low moral causes by the fact that one can never truly kill one. However any soldier who has will likely carry a trophy of sharpenel from the spinal plating or unused shell from a Nephilim ascendancy rifle which can only be operated by Nephilim due the rifles only functioning when in contact with a Nephilim genetic signature, if a unknown signature is detected the Rifle will quickly self destruct likely killing who dares tamper with it, however the magazine if one is quick can be easily taken out of the rifle, of course this providing the Nephilim wielding it has been disabled.

Early Nephilim were in fact dressed in Red armor and were a lot more intelligent, even more so than Lucifarians, however they were a lot more interdependent and often entire platoons went rogue. And can occasionally be found serving as mercenaries or as independent armies in themselves, The Aldus Corperation however has long since given up trying to reign them back in and has instead from time to time sent out the newer breeds to hunt them down and kill them. They also weren't slaved to cyber-telepathic control from a Metatron, however they were kept on Haste but mainly for combat purposes at the time and not so much to create a dependency.

Regarding the awesome strength of a Nephilim Warrior or Trooper, they can rip through lightly armored vehicle, have been known to punch through steel-concrete walls even tanks with ease. They can jump three meters without aid of a jetpack. And when in a blind drug induced rage will rip enemies soldiers into pieces when ammunition is expended. They can march almost endlessly although is primarily thanks to exoskeleton battles suits, often while marching the unit is innert and the suit carries them to their destination. a Nephilim is only awake usually when under combat.

Fluff_001

Admiral Zane studied the multiple holograms in front of her smiling slyly. Each holographic display was from a live feed of a recent skirmish from some borderworld. the blue visages illuminated the dark room, darkened figures sat at the same table watching intently as metallic humanoids engaged in fierce melee combat with the eight foot tall armored monstrosities which were the Nephilim who had up until a few hours controlled a military outpost on the said borderworld which was acting as a staging ground for one of the smaller fleets of the Aldous confederacy. Stubbing out her cigar casually and forming a triumphant steeple with her fingers not betraying her stoic demeanor.
"As you can observe the Homunculi, despite the Nephilim's tailored psychical strength and prowess are easily overcome. We deployed two hundred units during this test. Intel Satellites detected over five hundred Nephilim on that base-" A deep voice interupted her from somewere amongst the figures
"This may be so Zane, but the Homunculi are founded on Athenian technology...stolen technology I might add-
"Yes, what we acquired from a Ixi research station, they will be held accountable, the Athenians as we all know to not forgive, nor do they forget." The Dark figure was satisfied and withdrew his criticism, but not without another member of the admiratly board speaking up replacing his cohort
"The Athenians are reliant on their neutral position is this war, but it is not unknown for them to go out of their way if they feel threatened...or betrayed, I do not like relying on the bastardized experiments of a race that are so far departed from their origins that they themselves believe them the next best thing to race of living gods." The chastising tone was obviously that of rear Admiral Xang. Admiral Zane losing patience quickly retorted swiftly.
"The Athenians, would strike the Ixi first! They wouldn't dare risk having themselves or their technology exposed more than it already has been-" She was promptly interrupted by the door of the board room hissing open a panic stricken lieutenant didn't wait for permission to speak in the door way.
"Admiral Zane! Six Athenian battle-groups have just entered the system."

http://io9.com/10-space-empires-that-actually-make-economic-sense-1638660725

Potential reading list regarding science fiction economies. And future politics and FTL travel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRx6ANi_c9s

Warframe Concept Art devstream. Live concept art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KZsrDGLUJQ

Rare deep sea creature, that could be inspiration for living starships.

http://www.geekexchange.com/vertical-city-proposed-for-london-134429.html

Vertical City idea for London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2KNFWW-PV4

Honda Cyberpunk advert