So, sort of somewhere between the Kzin, the Ctarl Ctarl, and BT's Clans?
Hmmm. I'm reluctant to make a group that, given the anime influences, would be likely to end up being viewed as protagonists so... hardcore?
OTOH, the predatory 'Cat' angle goes perfectly with their use of actual power armor, so that much, at least, is solid.
For hardware, perhaps something close to that seen in the Starship Troopers anime, or maybe slightly more flexible to allow for their likely preference for the 'personal approach'.
More on the Paladins...
They tend to use a small variety of mechs, all of which have the distinctive antigrav generator/shielding device/cool ass cape, and while they do copy the distinctive Eureka 'skyboards', theirs are more akin to a surfer's Longboard than the smaller, snowboard-sized things seen in that anime, being as the items in question are actually seperate (unmanned) vehicles - carrier sleds - rather than just a component of the main mech. Paladin weaponry tends to fall into one of three categories - wierd-ass psi effects, the 'force lances' that are the local Obligatory Giant Robot Lightsaber, and plasma cannons.
Those last, BTW, work by taking a small, short-lived forcefield generator, wrapping it in armor, then having it generate a force field bubble around itself before dumping the field full of water and heating the water just short of fusion-hot. Then you fire the whole damn thing at a target. The generator that's the core of the whole weapon doesn't last long under those kinds of conditions, but ideally, they're moving so fast that they don't have to.
UTN weapons, now that I think to mention it, are mostly either highly refined kinetic weapons or accurate and powerful individual missiles - again, pretty much what you'd expect to see in the real world or near future.
For space combat...
Depending how you look at it, the UTN either has only one class of starship or a tremendous number of once-offs. Basically their jumpships are a jumpcore, a power reactor (usually fission), and a structural spine. Everything else is from plug-n-play modules which are added and subtracted from each ship as the situation calls for. A 'typical' Jumpship will have plenty of cargo and fuel space even for a ship its size - and they're larger than anything else in space - maybe one or two weapons-grade particle accelerators, and a packet of offensive drones that are, frankly, too smart and capable to be degraded by the term 'missile'. In combat situations, they'll also often carry manned sublight parasites. Due to the limitations of Terran orbital lift techniques, their ships are not armored, although they are so tightly compartmentalized that that fact doesn't make much difference to their combat survivability. And, of course, that's assuming that you manage to get close enough to one to try and attack it, which between their drones, powerful energy weapons, and superb sensors and dataprocessing, is no mean feat. They have extensive on-board smelting, refining, and manufacturing abilities - essentially, these things are self-propelled fleet yards. The parasites come in all types, but are all optimized for particular roles.
The Spider navy is unabashedly carrier-driven. Given that they have perfectly capable fighters that can also operate effectively in most other needed roles, this makes perfect sense and saves them a lot of money without costing tactical effectiveness. Aside from the variously-sized boxes full of fighters, they have a few fairly capable escort ships, but nothing in their arsenal is really suited to a ship-to-ship slugging match. Their ships are fairly fast and have a large available delta-v, along with stealth capabilities.
The Paladins use three main ship classes, what you might call 'Corvettes', 'Frigates', and 'Ships of the Line'. Despite their name, those last are fairly rare, typically seen only in a fleet command role. All Paladin ships are lightly armored but have actual defensive shields, which is something no other nation can manage, and have limited endurance but high acceleration. Their weapons are short-ranged but powerful - in short, the Paladin fleet is designed to take and hold jump points and planetary orbits, which are both fairly small environments where agility, firepower, and toughness are at a premium.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Hmmm. I'm reluctant to make a group that, given the anime influences, would be likely to end up being viewed as protagonists so... hardcore?
OTOH, the predatory 'Cat' angle goes perfectly with their use of actual power armor, so that much, at least, is solid.
For hardware, perhaps something close to that seen in the Starship Troopers anime, or maybe slightly more flexible to allow for their likely preference for the 'personal approach'.
More on the Paladins...
They tend to use a small variety of mechs, all of which have the distinctive antigrav generator/shielding device/cool ass cape, and while they do copy the distinctive Eureka 'skyboards', theirs are more akin to a surfer's Longboard than the smaller, snowboard-sized things seen in that anime, being as the items in question are actually seperate (unmanned) vehicles - carrier sleds - rather than just a component of the main mech. Paladin weaponry tends to fall into one of three categories - wierd-ass psi effects, the 'force lances' that are the local Obligatory Giant Robot Lightsaber, and plasma cannons.
Those last, BTW, work by taking a small, short-lived forcefield generator, wrapping it in armor, then having it generate a force field bubble around itself before dumping the field full of water and heating the water just short of fusion-hot. Then you fire the whole damn thing at a target. The generator that's the core of the whole weapon doesn't last long under those kinds of conditions, but ideally, they're moving so fast that they don't have to.
UTN weapons, now that I think to mention it, are mostly either highly refined kinetic weapons or accurate and powerful individual missiles - again, pretty much what you'd expect to see in the real world or near future.
For space combat...
Depending how you look at it, the UTN either has only one class of starship or a tremendous number of once-offs. Basically their jumpships are a jumpcore, a power reactor (usually fission), and a structural spine. Everything else is from plug-n-play modules which are added and subtracted from each ship as the situation calls for. A 'typical' Jumpship will have plenty of cargo and fuel space even for a ship its size - and they're larger than anything else in space - maybe one or two weapons-grade particle accelerators, and a packet of offensive drones that are, frankly, too smart and capable to be degraded by the term 'missile'. In combat situations, they'll also often carry manned sublight parasites. Due to the limitations of Terran orbital lift techniques, their ships are not armored, although they are so tightly compartmentalized that that fact doesn't make much difference to their combat survivability. And, of course, that's assuming that you manage to get close enough to one to try and attack it, which between their drones, powerful energy weapons, and superb sensors and dataprocessing, is no mean feat. They have extensive on-board smelting, refining, and manufacturing abilities - essentially, these things are self-propelled fleet yards. The parasites come in all types, but are all optimized for particular roles.
The Spider navy is unabashedly carrier-driven. Given that they have perfectly capable fighters that can also operate effectively in most other needed roles, this makes perfect sense and saves them a lot of money without costing tactical effectiveness. Aside from the variously-sized boxes full of fighters, they have a few fairly capable escort ships, but nothing in their arsenal is really suited to a ship-to-ship slugging match. Their ships are fairly fast and have a large available delta-v, along with stealth capabilities.
The Paladins use three main ship classes, what you might call 'Corvettes', 'Frigates', and 'Ships of the Line'. Despite their name, those last are fairly rare, typically seen only in a fleet command role. All Paladin ships are lightly armored but have actual defensive shields, which is something no other nation can manage, and have limited endurance but high acceleration. Their weapons are short-ranged but powerful - in short, the Paladin fleet is designed to take and hold jump points and planetary orbits, which are both fairly small environments where agility, firepower, and toughness are at a premium.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"