Post-Human Republic
The Post-Human Republic or PHR are one of the factions representing humanity in Dropzone Commander and Dropfleet Commander. One of the smallest factions in the setting, with a population of three billion or so, they compensate for this by extensive use of cybernetics, with technological development guided by the White Sphere.
History
The White Sphere
One day, a tennis ball sized white sphere descended into Earth's atmosphere and landed in Peru. The sphere, despite its small size, required two men to carry it. The sphere was quickly brought to a lab in South America to be analyzed. As soon as the sphere was linked to a computer with a network connection, the entire lab went into lock down and every single computer on the continent was hacked. Hours later, from inside the locked down facility, explosions could be heard from outside. After the lockdown had been lifted, it was discovered that the sphere had been stolen. Days later a single message was broadcast throughout all inhabited worlds on all channels warning humanity of impending doom and to go to Vega IV one year from now in order to survive. This caused a lot of civil unrest and divided humanity between those who wished to flee and follow the sphere's warning and those who wanted to ignore it. This culminated in a massive space battle over Vega IV between the Correct People and the EAA Navy one full year after the white sphere issued its warning, with most of the fleet escaping to an unknown destination and being spared the Scourge invasion.
The motives of the Sphere are unknown, but it took on the role of advisor to the escapees, serving a council of elected officials. From this it guided a population of refugees to developing into a potent and technologically advanced society in a relatively short period of time.
Reappearance
The day prior to the launch of the Reconquest by the UCM, a ship bearing a PHR delegation appeared above the UCM capital world and sought an audience with the UCM leadership. They advised against the attack and were ignored, leading them to launch their own military operations with unknown goals throughout the Cradle Worlds. In support of their actions, the PHR has an extensive intelligence and espionage network that is believed to have infiltrated some of the highest offices of the UCM.
Technology
Most citizens of the PHR utilize cybernetics heavily, ranging from implants to prosthetics, installed using nanomachines. They are all in near perfect physical condition, to the point that members of the UCM find them unnerving to deal with, having entered a sort of uncanny valley. The integration of cybernetics into society has become so ingrained that the process of integrating them has become a key social event, with people only becoming full citizens after gaining their implants. Citizens are then free to make use of any of the wide range of cybernetics available as they please.
Present throughout these technologies are AIs, referred to as Familiars. Post-humans can use their implants to electronically communicate and interface with both other post-humans and Familiars, allowing them to control robots and machinery with a high level of precision and skill.
Given their overall smaller size, their fleet is also smaller than those of other factions. The armor of their ships is composed of composites that give it more strength than other factions are capable of producing. The small number of elite units trend continues with ship crew, with smaller numbers of crew present than on UCM ships. The bridge consists of a crew hooked directly into the systems of the ship. Notably, the PHR equip their ships with twice the number of escape pods as would be necessary for their crew size.
Vehicles
PHR's vehicles are primarily walkers, with some tracked vehicles and skimmers. They tend to be slow and heavily armored with powerful weaponry, although their skimmers and jump-jet equipped walkers can move quite quickly. Their fleet maintains these characteristics, with prevalent use of broadside weaponry.
Weapons
Their primary weaponry consists of powerful railguns, with some laser weaponry in use. Their infantry still make use of standard firearms, albeit powerful and advanced designs. ECM field generators are also in use on both the ground and in space, serving to make targeting PHR units a difficult procedure. More exotic weaponry is present in some vehicles and ships, such as clouds of nanomachines that can either repair themselves or attack enemies, or a massive battleship-mounted cannon that uses unknown physics to fire blasts capable of crippling a ship in a single shot.