Total annihilation

Total Annihilation
Jumpchain

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What began as a conflict over the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machines escalated into a war which has decimated a million worlds. The CORE and the ARM have all but exhausted the resources of a galaxy in their struggle for domination. Both sides now crippled beyond repair, the remnants of their armies continue to battle on ravaged planets, their hatred fueled by over four thousand years of total war. This is a fight to the death. For each side, the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the other.

By entering this universe you will become involved in a war that has raged for as long as even the oldest minds can remember.  On one side is the CORE lead by Central Consciousness, a repository of digitized minds.  Opposing them is the ARM, the sole remaining living humans in the galaxy.  Originally, the CORE was only the central government of humanity and the ARM a breakaway faction that took its name from their territory in the outer galactic spiral.  The schism arise after the development of patterning, a technology that allowed a human mind to enter a digital existence.

None can say with unbiased certainty why this conflict started.  Some records claim that transferring one's consciousness into a computer system was free for any to accept or decline.  Others say that the CORE decreed that the process was mandatory and ordered the slaughter of all those that refused to abandon their humanity.  Then there are whispers that Central Consciousness, the computer repository of patterned minds spontaneously developed self-awareness, seized control of the mental gestalt and began the war for its own inscrutable purposes.  But these are only theories, and there is little point and even less inclination to debate the cause of the war among the members of either side.

Regardless, you must side with one or the other and end it...or perhaps you could do the impossible and take a third option?  Whatever you choose, you must act fast.  So much has been lost already, and the remants of humanity have been all but ground to dust by this endless conflict.

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Life as a CORE machine consciousness or ARM engineered clone sealed within a combat platform renders age and gender meaningless here.  Should it ever become relevant somehow, you may choose either for free.

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Location

1 - Empyrrean
A green and living world covered in wide grasslands and thick forests. It is the homeworld of the ARM, covered from pole to pole in wide oceans and long, thin continents. It has no deserts and a small polar region. Though rich with metal deposits and geothermal vents, ARM has refrained from exploiting these resources to avoid damaging this world's natural beauty.

2 - Thalassean
A world of water with only a few small and scattered islands. While metal is scarce, the high winds and strong tides can supply energy through low-tech methods.  Combat here is almost purely between naval units.

3 - Temblor
Highly unstable, this world's tectonic plates are in constant motion and powerful earthquakes are a regular occurrence.  Large structures can be severely damaged or even destroyed as the ground beneath them shifts, but the incredible amount of metal and seemingly endless geothermal activity makes the world a tempting resource.

4 - Rougpelt
A barren world covered by red dunes and scattered seas, it is lacking in all resources of note.  Shattered centuries ago by warfare, fragments of the planet's moon often rain down upon the surface in devastating meteor showers, a danger to even the advanced technology of the ARM and CORE.  Conflict remains a constant here because Rougpelt is an important transit point in the galactic gate network, a crossroads that leads to worlds that are strategically important for both sides in the war.

5 - Tergiverse IV
An arid world that was once covered by vast seas.  The CORE drained the world dry and sifted the sea floor for useful resources.  Only deserts and vast artificial canyons remain, the natural barriers incorporated into CORE fortifications.

6 - Dump
A small rocky moon orbiting Core Prime.  Its original name long forgotten, it has been used for thousands of years as a waste repository.  The largest canyons were long ago filled with industrial waste, and there are enough wrecks here to build an army.  Despite its proximity to Core Prime, Dump is not particularly well defended.

7 - Core Prime
Center of the CORE empire, all organic life here was long ago exterminated as pollutants and terraforming turned the world into a single massive computer encased in a metallic shell.  Once-living canals and oceans were re-purposed as oversized catch basins for industrial runoff.  What seems at first glance to be urban complexes are only factories and storage depots, their designs informed by the residue of human thought within Central Consciousness.

8 - Your choice
You may choose to begin on any canon world within this setting, or even create a new world similar to one of the above examples.  If you choose to create a new world, it must be part of the Galactic Gate network.

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Backgrounds

Drop-in
For thousands of years the war has raged - much has been destroyed and even more forgotten.  You will awaken in your choice of a CORE or ARM commander, your self-repair systems suddenly reactivating after centuries of laying wrecked and dormant.  Regardless of your previous loyalties, any organic or digital memories within your systems have decayed to nothing during the time spent deactivated.

CORE
Based on Core Prime and directed by Central Consciousness, the sole surviving CORE Commander has struggled to battle the ARM on its own.  After years of projections and deliberation the very last stockpile of irreplaceable resources were expended to construct you, the first new CORE commander to come online in more than a thousand years.  Central Consciousness expects much, and watches your actions closely.

ARM
Based on Empyrrean, the sole surviving ARM Commander has struggled to battle the CORE on their own.  But with the chance find of an ancient resource stockpile, the ARM gambled those irreplaceable materials in an attempt to create a second commander...and won.  You are a clone of the sole surviving ARM Commander, just as he is a clone of the very first, and the ARM has high hopes for you.

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PERKS
The 100cp perks matching your background are free.  The other perks of your background are discounted 50%

Free - Sanity enforcement protocols
Buried in dust for centuries.  Alone with only voiceless clones and mental echoes of soldiers long dead.  An unending war, a daily struggle to escape death, and the mass-production of living beings as cannon fodder.  It's enough to drive a man mad, but the ARM and CORE long ago purged their ranks of such weakness.  For the duration of this jump you will simply not be able to go insane.  You can become stressed, distracted, morose and worse, but you will never be unable to function.  Post-jump, you will not suffer angst from memories of what you've done or witnessed here, and you'll be left with a better tolerance for stress.

Free - Strategic minds
There is no post-human intelligence active in this galaxy that does not have an understanding of warfare.  The commanders of the CORE and ARM are copies of the greatest military minds that have ever existed, and that any are still alive after four thousand years of warfare should tell you just how talented they must be.  Your mind has been altered to have a savant-like grasp of warfare, allowing you to personally manage a planet-wide campaign involving possibly tens or even hundreds of thousands of units.  Without such ability, you wouldn't last a hour in combat against the other commanders here.  These modifications were not designed with an extra-dimensional traveler in mind, and post-jump the vast majority of these skills will be lost.

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Drop-in

100cp - Mission briefing
On a personal or strategic scale, whenever you prepare for a fight you may opt to hear a dramatic narration of the impending situation.  The message is brief and little more than a 'as you all know' pre-battle speech, but there will always be a small hint hidden within the message.  It will be very subtle, never more than a slight poetic emphasis or change in tone, but catching it can give you a little forewarning of issues that you might not have otherwise been aware of.

100cp - Old ghosts
Alone between two warring factions, you've learned to step lightly.  Though taking longer to happen in more static environments, any signs of your existence are quick to fade.  Physical tracks are obscured, leavings decay and disperse, and electronic signals degrade into random noise.  Anyone seeking to track you had best be quick about it, because the trail will soon be gone.

200cp - Foraging on the enemy
You have no support network, but there are many isolated units and abandoned structures just waiting to be taken over.  You've become very good at capturing and converting enemy units, the process taking much less time.  You'll also find that rhetoric, magic, or any other method of bringing someone or something under your control also receives a boost in effectiveness.

200cp - That unit is dead
When you are believed to be dead, only personally revealing yourself can convince someone to the contrary.  Footprints, weapon signatures, the corpses of your kills, all will be dismissed as subterfuge or error.  This does not mean that your actions will go ignored, and interested parties may still attempt to discover who is 'really behind' these occurrences.

400cp - Tech level 4 stealth systems
While you laid dormant, the galaxy continued to fight and spiral down to ruin.  But you remember technology from a time more advanced than the current age.  Your stealth technology is better than what is available to the ARM and CORE, both more effective and energy-efficient.  You also retain the skills and strategies of stealth, infiltration and sabotage to make full use of your technological advantage.  Strangely, any out-of-jump powers based on stealth and subterfuge will also receive a boost to their effectiveness.

400cp - Modular unit design
When your options are limited, just cobble together something from what few designs you have on hand.  You're very good at tweaking your technology to be modular and as easy to assemble as lego.  Have a hovercraft chassis but need more firepower?  That heavy laser turret can provide.  Want faster artillery?  You've got a few different mobility systems and engine designs to work with, you'll figure something out.  Want to see how a battleship performs when you remove the cannons and strap on a dozen light laser turrets in their place?  You can make it work.  It may not work well, but it will work.

600cp - Mental diagnostics
A few centuries spent rusting in the dirt can do terrible things to a mind.  You've written specialized subroutines to sift through broken data and memories, and put safeguards in place to make recovering from future incidents easier.  Your mind now has a protected, constantly updated 'backup' which stores your real memories and true behavioral patterns, and your mind will use this data to slowly repair itself back to full functionality after damage or unwanted alteration.  At any time, you may compare this backup to your current mental state to run a comparison or scan for irregularities.  Even if outside influence is continuously re-applied, your mind will never stop trying to break free, and the backup is completely write-protected.  You cannot access or shut it down, even under orders from another.

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CORE

100cp - Backup protocols
A well-designed intelligence can recognize the value of a good backup plan.  They are quite easy for you to create, clearly delineating the distinct stages of an operation and how each step can allow or prevent certain choices.  And when something inevitably does go wrong and you must invoke these plans, there won't be any confusion as you switch mental gears - you'll jump right into your backup strategy as if it was what you'd been planning to do all along.

100cp - Final system check
Sometimes a world must be made geologically stable and coated in a metal shell.  Sometimes organic life must be completely exterminated.  When you are bent to the completion of a task, rarely are there lingering problems to trouble you later.  This does not make you more powerful or better skilled, and does not allow you to slack off during the job.  An organic mind might call it luck, but you are simply so very thorough in your work so that you never overlook things that might cause you trouble later.

200cp - Calculated victory
Based on available information, your subsystems can give you a chance of success for a particular scenario in the form of a percentage.  The more detailed your knowledge of all factors that can influence the outcome, the more accurate this prediction is.  This perk can be used to run simulations and answer hypothetical questions, but it cannot account for unknowns which may result in wildly skewed results.

200cp - Compact systems
Without the need to build around organic components, CORE units can be made smaller and more durable.  You have access to the dumb AI routines used to assist unit design and construction, and with them create streamlined internal systems that allow for a reduction in size without complications.  While current CORE units have already been built to optimal standards, any other technology you possess will be easy rebuilt into a more compact form...even if some allowances must be made for squishy meat-bodies.

400cp - Tech level 4 laser systems
When Central Consciousness created you, it placed great care in your compiling and restored data integrity to what was once random noise.  You have access to laser weaponry that is far more powerful and energy-efficient then the current CORE arsenal.  While current CORE design philosophy means that these improvements cannot apply to existing stealth technology, it has allowed for a level of holographic resolution high enough to fool ARM sensors.  Finding combat uses for this new technology is up to you.  Any other abilities you have that generate or manipulate light will also show improvement.

400cp - Acceptable tolerances
CORE units are awash in energies so powerful that they can damage the machine that generates them, but only a commander has enough long-term worth that more than token protection is installed.  This insulation protects against internal damage from trying to hold or channel more power than your body could normally handle.  You can still injure yourself if you push too hard for too long, but a series of internal capacitors and regulators will easily and automatically smooth out moderate levels of sudden instability in your power systems.

600cp - Patterning
The technology that brought humanity low is now in your hands.  You know how to transfer a person's consciousness into a sufficiently advanced digital storage space.  This can be a full transfer leaving flesh behind, or only creating a digital copy of a personality.  Once thought has been transmuted into data, it is simple to create a virtual environment for the mind to enjoy...or to edit the resulting engram as you would any other piece of data.  Consciousness is a complex thing, so editing it carries great risk.  But copying an engram endlessly is easy, and gives you plenty of material to experiment with.  This perk includes the knowledge of how to build the specialized technology that makes this all possible.  How you use it is up to you.

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ARM

100cp - Destruction without ruin
While they could not sustain the effort of doing so, there was a time when the ARM tried to minimize the war's collateral damage.  You can now prevent any kind of 'domino effect' from taking place as a result of your actions.  For example, dropping an incendiary on a forest would burn any trees or units hit by the chemicals, and damage anything that walked through the resulting flames, but the heat would not cause untouched trees to combust and spread the flames.  Any chemical/radiological/etc. leavings will not go away on their own, so if you must use certain kinds of weaponry then the after-battle cleanup will at least be easier on the landscape.

100cp - Still a man
Among the clone-troops of the ARM, some still hold on to precious memories and simple joys.  Being able to only view a sunset through an IR filter does diminish its beauty, nor do you feel like less of a person if you cannot feel the colorful insect crawling over your battle-scarred chassis.  You can keep the things that bring you happiness from being linked in your mind to unpleasant associations, and can keep those feelings strong as fresh in your mind, even if your current situation prevents you from fully enjoying them.

200cp - Cybernetic sciences
Embracing cybernetics was a compromise that allowed the ARM to fight the CORE on an equal level.  Knowledge of the technology has been carefully preserved over time, and despite the modifications being performed automatically on each new clone you understand the technology very well.  There is no organ, limb or sense that you cannot seamlessly replace.  Teaching the brain to make connections with new technology is a simple practice, and you can even encapsulate the entire human body in an artificial shell it need never leave.  There are many application for such technology besides warfare...though you'll have little chance to explore them while here.

200cp - Failsafes
Unlike CORE units which are purely mechanical, the ARM had build around the more fragile organic pilots.  In the right (wrong?) conditions, power surges or ammo cooking off could kill an ARM soldier long before the machine's functionally was completely lost.  While these and other things can still cause secondary damage to your technology, you are at risk of being personally harmed from only a truly catastrophic mechanical failure.  Even then, you will always have at least a few seconds of grace to try to avert disaster.  Venting excess plasma, ejecting an unstable reactor core...it might not work, but a small chance of survival is better than no chance at all.

400cp - Tech level 4 plasma systems
The ancient material that went into your construction was from a better time, and your plasma technology is far in advance of current designs.  Better magnetic fields allow for more plasma to be compressed within each shot, and both stationary fusion reactors and micro-generators within individual units can safely contain and produce greater amounts of power.  Any other technology or abilities that employ magnetism will no doubt receive a large boost in effectiveness thanks to your greater understanding of the physics behind them.

400cp - Bio-mimicry
Though they were eventually forced to wrap their bodies and minds in a cybernetic shell, the ARM did what they could to emulate living creatures in their design philosophy.  They developed a nanotech self-repair system that mimicked the organic healing process, and you have access to the original research.  While this technology was inevitably copied by the CORE, your deeper understanding allows for not only faster healing and regeneration of lost limbs and organs, but for any cybernetics or implanted devices to be reconstructed as part of the healing process.  Get an arm chopped off, and by the time it grows back any previously installed technology will also be fully operational.  All you need to to worry about is providing energy and feedstock to feed the reconstruction.

600cp - Cloning technology
For all the ARM's talk of organic sanctity, cloning is a process as cold and industrial as the CORE's mass-copying of neural imprints.  Needing only feedstock, specialized nanolathes, and a genetic template, your clones can be 'born' as adults with skills and memories encoded genetically.  Clones you create will be almost impossible to tell apart from the original, and will not suffer degradation from being a copy of a copy of a copy, etc.  Further sculpting of genes and flesh to your exact specifications during creation is simple.  This perk includes the knowledge of how to build the specialized technology that makes this all possible.  How you use it is up to you.

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Items

Free - TA Soundtrack
The Total Annihilation soundtrack can now be played on demand, heard only by you or blaring out across the battlefield for all to hear.  Unless you choose to hear a specific track, whatever is most appropriate for your current situation will be automatically chosen.

Free/Mandatory - Commander chassis
In cyber-shell or digital form, you will enter this jump inhabiting the commander design of your faction.  Drop-ins may choose between the ARM or CORE.  The commander unit remains one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the galaxy, being amphibious and far more agile than it appears, equipped with both advanced cloaking and sensor systems, and retaining the most advanced nanolathe technology in use.  While it is equipped with a D-gun, a unique disintegration weapon that no known defensive system can protect against, it was not built for front-line duty.  The commander is only as durable as a tier-3 unit, with only a light laser cannon as a sidearm.  If left alone, it can easily be swarmed and overwhelmed by the enemy.

Free/100cp - Tech level 1 database
You are authorized to construct all of your faction's most basic units and structures.  Land, sea, air, and misc.  Drop-ins may choose which faction's database they get for free.  Paying 100cp will grant you access to the other faction's level 1 tech, but these stolen units do not have tech level 2 designs in their memory storage.

	100cp/200cp - Tech level 2 database
	While you will eventually be granted access to more advanced units after a brief tutorial period, you may pay 100cp to have access to all of your faction's level 2 technologies from the very beginning.  While you can capture enemy units and command them to construct loyal versions for you, spending 200cp will allow you to start with access to all the opposing faction's level 2 tech, but they cannot create tech level 3 structures or units.

	200cp/300cp - Tech level 3 database
	Once you have proven yourself to be fully operational, your faction will trust you with construction of all tier 3 units.  For 200cp, you may begin the jump with such authorization.  For 300cp, you have access to the other faction's level 3 tech instead.  Note that the Krogoth and galactic implosion device are based on alien technology, and their designs won't be found in CORE databases.

100cp - Plushies
War should not be cute...but now you have a pile of soft and fuzzy dolls, one for each unit within the Total Annihilation setting.  They will respawn a day later after being given away as a gift, but trying to burn them as fuel or reclaim them for metal will get you nothing.

300cp - Genome database (Free ARM)
Compiled by the ARM as they watched worlds burn, this database was made in the hopes of restoring destroyed ecosystems after the war ended.  It holds a massive and varied library of plant and animal species, as well as the thought-engrams of the higher-order animals so that they won't need to be hand-raised after being cloned.  It would take decades to go through the vast amounts of data here, but the sheer variety of lifeforms from so many different planetary environments makes this data of incredible value to anyone with an even a passing interest in the life sciences.

300cp - Tech database (Free CORE)
Nanolathes and imprinted data remove the need for in-depth knowledge among CORE construction units.  Subsystems handle the math involved faster than a human mind could ever hope to, but damage to CORE computer networks in the past made establishing backups for surviving information a priority.  Never made for a human interface, this database holds pure theory but no blueprints.  Deciphering it would take an enormous amount of time and effort, but the information within forms the basis of all CORE technology currently in use, from power and weapon systems to both nano- and macro-scale engineering.

600cp - Tech level 10 database fragments
Ancient and heavily damaged, this database offers only tiny hints of the immense technology once active in this galaxy.  Unfortunately, there are only two complete sets of theory and blueprints that remain readable.  The first details the construction of Commander units, which includes all details of its cloaking systems, advanced nanolathe and sensors, and the D-gun.  The second set are schematics for building Galactic Gates.  This is technology lost in the current day, and building either requires the expenditure of immense amounts of rare resources.

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Warehouse attachments

100cp - Light laser security turret
No larger than a briefcase, this model can be mounted anywhere in the Warehouse to fire upon intruders.  It cannot be hacked or co-opted, will never fail to recognize you or your companions/followers, and can be easily programmed to behave in specific ways other than 'shoot everything it doesn't recognize.'  The laser never runs out of power while in the warehouse, and is powerful enough to destroy 21st century armored vehicles with only a few hits.

600cp - Jumper-grade Moho Metal Maker
The materials needed for constructing the most complex units are either extremely rare or incredibly difficult to produce.  Metal makers handle most of the work, transmuting raw energy into desired materials.  Normally they can only produce mundane elements in pure or alloyed form, but this modified maker can produce any material you can provide it with a large sample of.  Take note that it will require a dedicated fusion reactor to produce more than a trickle of common elements, and energy needs are vastly inflated for materials with exotic properties.  It the desired material is formed in part or whole from something other than mundane energy, like magic or soul-stuff, the Moho Maker must be provided with these energies instead.

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Companions

200cp - Import
Wait...you didn't think you could import a few dozen companions as additional commanders, did you?  That would just be overkill.  Instead, you may import any number of companions as any other unit you are capable of building at the start of the jump.  Once per year they may change their choice of unit, and whatever they inhabit at the end of the jump can be kept as a vehicle or alt-form.  Companions that respawn are not provided with free units, there must be one already constructed and open for them to inhabit.

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Drawbacks

0cp - Enhanced Annihilation
Several extensive mods have been created for Total Annihilation over the years, and taking this option allows you to apply mods of your choice to your time here.  This may include unreleased units that never made it into the game, unofficial patches, and efforts such as the Spring Project to expand the game's roster.  The only limitations are that you may not choose total setting conversions, or mods that allow you to gain technology beyond what exist in the original setting.

0cp - Extended time
This war has raged for millennia.  What's a few more centuries?  You may increase your time here up to a maximum of 1000 years.

100cp - Bad optics
While you can still perceive things without problem, everything seems just a little bit artificial.  Anything you see is slightly pixelated, anything you hear sounds like it came out of a synthesizer, etc.

100cp - Beep boop
If you are a CORE commander, your units will only respond with beeps and electronic tones.   If ARM, your units will speak only in stock con-lag snippets with identical voices and will show no personality.  You will have no problem understanding either.  Your companions are the only ones exempt from this.

200cp - Rogue unit (Drop-in only)
You existence has been noticed, and the faction matching your chassis type believes that you have gone rogue.  You will be designated as hostile, and the opposing faction is unwilling to accept any sort of diplomacy.  You can never make allies among the ARM or CORE, and are now a third faction within party in the long war.  At best, each faction will view you as someone to manipulate into causing trouble for the other.

200cp - Constant combat
It seems like you can never get a moment's rest.  Randomly and inexplicably, enemy units will pop up and take potshots at you.  This will never be more than a small squad or a lone unit poking at isolated targets.  More aggravating then anything, you'll need to set patrols and leave nothing undefended, or be prepared to do lots of repair work.

300cp - Humanity preserved
You are tasked with the protection of a group of living humans (if ARM) or consciousness patterns (if CORE)  The other faction suspects that they exist but does not know their location, and will attempt to delete (ARM) or kill/pattern (CORE) the group if they are found.  If this happens, you will fail the jump.  You can use any method you wish you hide or protect them, but they must stay within range of the galactic gate network.  If you are a drop-in, you may choose either situation regardless of your original allegiance.

	+300cp - Humanity restored
	It is not enough that humanity endures.  They must thrive.  It doesn't matter if they exist as data or flesh, so long as they remain free.  Free from being harvested by the CORE for new data or by the ARM for new clone-stock.  The long war has taken its toll on both sides, and now you must keep this population secret and safe even from your own allies.  You will fail this jump if they are killed or captured for cloning/patterning.  You also have the responsibility to ensure that the group is self-sufficient by the end of your time here, and if humanity is not safely on the path to restoration when you leave you will have failed the jump.

300cp - Final victory
You must attain victory for your side, destroying the other faction beyond any chance of recovery.  This requires at the very least the death of their commander, along with the destruction of Central Consciousness in the case of the CORE.  However you cannot leave the jump until you do so, and if your time here goes over the set limit the opposing faction will slowly begin recovering old technology.  Left alone for too long, they will become too powerful for even out-of-jump abilities to overcome, and you will eventually be killed.

400cp - KROGOTH COMES
At least once each year, a Krogoth unit will appear on the planet you occupy and begin wrecking your shit.  It will be quietly teleported to wherever you really don't want a krogoth to be teleported to, often at the worst possible time.  For fairness' sake, it will not appear within the first year of your time here, and will need at least ten minutes to get within weapon range of you, your faction's commander, or anything you must protect to prevent a fail condition.  Krogoth units are durable enough that seven direct nuclear strikes are required to destroy them, and they are equipped with powerful gauss cannons, anti-air defenses, and the Blue Laser Of Death.  Finally, when Krogoths are destroyed they explode with enough force to destroy nearby commanders, making the use of the D-gun to destroy them a nearly suicidal prospect.  Over time Krogoth units will begin appearing more rapidly and in ever-larger groups, and will eventually lose their vulnerability to spider tanks.

400cp - Power theft
Connected to you as they are, whenever an enemy commander manages to capture one of your units or structures they will also gain at random one of your powers, skills or perks.  This will be immediately disseminated among the faction to upgrade new units at no cost, and any perks that provide copy-protection or would interfere with this drawback are disabled.  Capturing your units will become a priority for enemy factions, even to the point of designing and equipping new units specifically suited for the task.

600cp - Power loss
For the duration of this jump, all out-of-jump powers are lost and your cosmic warehouse is sealed.  You will remain the near-equal to the current commanders in skill, but are lacking in experience.  On the other hand, creativity and original thinking may give you an advantage against habits ingrained into the enemy over four thousand years of warfare.  Ten years of war in this galaxy is not impossible to survive, but it will not be easy by any means.

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SCENARIO

Core Contingency
(You cannot access this scenario without taking the 'Power loss' drawback.  If you do not, the backup CORE commander, the Galactic Implosion Device and the Alien Beacon that its technology was derived from will not exist in the galaxy.)
(You may take this scenario with any background, simply change the factions involved as needed.)

To progress in this scenario, you must first destroy the enemy commander of one or both factions within your allotted stay for this jump.  About a year after you accomplish this, you will uncover information indicating the existence of a second commander unit which is pursuing dangerous alien of unknown properties.

What follows is the plot of the expansion pack CORE Contingency, as you chase the enemy Commander through the Galactic Gate network and learn that they intend to unleash a superweapon capable of destroying and re-creating the entire galaxy.  You will not be able to catch the Commander until the day that the fate of the galaxy itself hangs in the balance, where you will engage in a frantic battle to shut down the Galactic Implosion Device before it can activate.

If you are victorious, the Galactic Implosion Device is yours to claim.

The machine is capable of annihilating a galaxy the size of the Milky Way, compressing it into a ball of seething plasma a few hundred light-years across before expelling it outwards.  Strange energies will hyper-accelerate the formation of new stars and planets, birthing a chaotic, lifeless galaxy that will soon settle into familiar celestial processes.  Only a small space around the device itself will remain untouched by the devastation.

It is completely impossible to reverse-engineer or duplicate the GID until after you gain your spark.

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NOTES

At the end of the jump you may choose to retain the commander unit as an alt-form, or have it modified to become a vehicle you can pilot.

Yes, if you somehow manage to capture or build a Krogoth, one of your companions can jump into it to gain it as an alt-form or vehicle.

Tech Level 4 upgrades during this jump can be stolen and reverse-engineered by opposing factions, and seeing the technology in action will make doing so a priority for the opposing faction(s).  It will take at least a year for the thief to understand the tech, and another year or so to develop effective strategies that integrate it, if they decide to do so.  The ARM might just stuff better lasers in their turrets and leave it at that.

Yes, a power-limiter perk from another jump could shut off 'Mental Diagnostics' if you wanted.

If you take the 'KROGOTH COMES' drawback and are in space, underwater, deep underground, or in some other dimension when the time comes, it won't stop him from reaching you and the environment will not impede him in any way.

GALACTIC GATES
How do they work?  Who knows.  What is known is that they require utterly obscene amounts of energy to operate, and require a lot of preperation before transport can be initiated.  It is not specified if having more power can expedite things, if the gate needs a long time to properly start up, or if the loss of technological knowledge complicates the operation of the gates.  There is a 'gate network' mentioned, but no details.  I personally assume (Time + Energy required)=(mass transported x distance traveled.)  Fanwank something.