Space, A New Frontier (Quest)

[Duffy]

Hello all.

I enjoyed writing Unserenity (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?25005-Unserenity-(Genre-Shift-Vignette)&p=206882#post206882) so much I am really, really eager to write a follow up. My resolution at the moment is to avoid heavy solo writing. I am finally really enjoying writing with others, because the new dynamics and opportunities get the juices flowing.

So...

I'm looking for one, perhaps two others, to write in this Nexus venture with me. It is, in short, an alternative universe, where Althanas is not a planet, but a galaxy. Raiaera, Scara Brae, and Alerar are all regions in that galaxy, systems inhabited by 'spacified' versions of their planetary kin. The Tantalum Troupe operates a small trading outfit, which is the majority of the galaxy's employment - freight. Rival companies and politics abound, think Games Workshop's Rouge Trader, meets E.V.E, meets a little bit of, of course, Joss Whedon's Firefly.

I am going to have to be picky for this, because it will not only have to be someone who works with the troupe, but also, someone who works well in the setting. I am all too eager to consider possibilities, but please don't be offended if we can't work something out! I'm hoping anyone who wants to give it a go will also read the above thread to get a feel for the sort of thing I'm hoping for.

Cheers for reading,
Duffy

(P.S, non-magic setting, all powers 'replicated' by tech!)

[Slayer of the Rot]

I'd really love to be involved with this. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Unserenity.

[Mordelain]

Glad to hear, Dan. Do you envision Slayer in space? Seems the right sort, though in a dirty space port sleaze kind of way, hehe.

[Rayse Valentino]

Sparks flew from the welding points, lights flickered in the otherwise dark hallway, and footsteps left a metallic echo on the grated walkway. Smoke escaped his lips from every breath in the cold, derelict spacecraft. His cybernetic right eye scanned his surroundings, numbers and names appearing in his vision. The cigarette fell from his mouth and the ember disappeared in the chasm below the walkway. The names were unfamiliar to him, but his network of information brought him up to speed in seconds. His bionic right arm twitched with anticipation, the flamethrower embedded in his palm aching to scorch his target. Nobody stole from the contractor and lived.

"Duffy. Bracken."

(can i has join?)

[Mordelain]

I was hoping you'd see the cameo (and don't mind!)

And most definitely yes Rayse!

[Slayer of the Rot]

What I'd envisioned of him while reading Unserenity was a former soldier of a PMC owned and operated by a weapons manufacturing corporation with both legs, arms, shoulder blades, and spinal cord replaced with cybernetic implants and prosthetics stemming from a catastrophic incident during a planetary incursion involving his owning company and a competitor. Dan was told that his daughter was being held captive, and would be safely returned if he sabotaged his own forces. There were no survivors of his squadron, and subsequent investigations revealed that the competing company had no knowledge of him or his family, and that the destruction may have been engineered by a criminal element with much to gain from the sabotage. The corporation imprisoned him for his treason, but he later broke free of captivity. Dan began heavily supplement his own body with illegal technologies without a single hint of remorse or apprehension of what exactly he was doing with himself, even infecting himself with biological and metallurgic nanomachines developed as a trump card by allied planetary forces in a former galactic war that had been sealed and never used due to their own destructive programmed element. Since freeing himself, Dan has been manipulated numerous times by independent, criminal, and government forces, all with the promise of information on his child, though none of it has panned out. Most speculate the girl is dead, and someone is withholding her death to simply use a man with a bad temper and nothing left to lose for their own agenda.

It sounded closest to his own canon story to me when it popped up into my head. I think after a time, we all start to think of what our characters would be like in a different genre. I've adapted Dan to a couple of different sites, I guess just out of stubbornness not to let him go, haha.

[Thorne]

As per our discussion in Chat, you know how I'll fit in, and the general concept I envision for Thorne.

Happy to join in, especially since my alt has taken over as my main character. My good ol' thief needs new work. :P

And the merest mention of Rogue Trader already has me pre-jaculating love for this idea, so.. yeah. Woo!

[Mordelain]

I like the thought you put into it, Dan.

I am envisioning the guy from Deus Ex, for some reason...is that close to the mark?

Welcome aboard, Thorne!

I'll try and get a write up of ideas and concepts to set the scene, and then we can work together to see if there's a good story where we all fit together. If it comes to it, we can do one or two threads; no need to cram us all together!

Rayse, have you thought about what sort of non-magic character you'd be? How would you represent fire control?

[Slayer of the Rot]

I like the thought you put into it, Dan.

I am envisioning the guy from Deus Ex, for some reason...is that close to the mark?

A little bit, yeah, as far as the prosthetics went. They had more of a mechanical appearance to them at first, but the nanomachines he'd infected himself repaired the limbs repeatedly of damage. As they had infected his brain, the repairs eventually began to make them look more organic, with substances like a plastic like flesh colored material, woven metal cords that resembled muscle tissue, and just a basic, more "streamlined" design because that's how Dan remembered his arms and legs looking. Only someone really stupid would think they were just flesh and blood, but all of his implants do look like they're composed of normal organic materials. I haven't played Deus Ex yet, I was kinda waiting for it to go on sale on Steam again. The bits and peices of corporations, PMC's, and their little wars with each other actually came from playing too much Borderlands 2, haha. I'd always liked how corporations were eventually portrayed in most science fiction, with most of them becoming so resourceful that they've almost become sovereign nations all by themselves. Specifically, I'm a fan of Dahl, due to how mercenary oriented they are. I guess there's a lot of different things that came out from things I've read or watched that pieced themselves together and eventually lent parts of themselves into that Frankensteined background, though a lot of it was just to put Dan's abilities into a Science Fiction setting.

[absentwizard]

They had lied about space being silent. It is full of sounds -- my sounds. I hear the gurgling of my gullet, the rasping of my lungs, the creaking of my joints, the beating of my heart. It is a marvelous place to reflect on the nature of my existence and my place in the infinity that lies in all directions. I had hoped to have something a little larger than a shoddily-enchanted suit to contemplate in.

Every breath painted fascinating, swirling fog onto the inside of my helmet. Miniature rainbows formed in the light of the distant, blue sun. Just barely visible in the distance is the glitter of ice and metal from the blasted fragments of my late ship, another victim of the elvish armada.

There is a new sound now. It was like a thin howling. It was like a rasping whisper. The welcoming, ballistic song of the atmosphere had always been a reassuring friend after a long journey. How strange that I should still feel the same way this time, without fire shielding or braking sails.

The face of Raiaera rose up to meet me.

[Mordelain]

Hehe, nice, wiz.

Sadly, as I just said to Aur in chat - there's no non-humans in this vision.

If you were happy to convert a fae into a human character, you're more than welcome!

Dan, I'll scrabble my notes together, I think this will work very nicely :) (and gets game face on).

[absentwizard]

I have two humans, you know. And all except one of the fae convert well.

Although I would probably enter with a specifically crafted character. Probably a machine intelligence of some sort.

[Rayse Valentino]

Rayse, have you thought about what sort of non-magic character you'd be? How would you represent fire control?

A flamethrower.... in his robotic arm. I never envisioned Rayse as a magic user, that's just something put in so he wasn't victimized by this site's over-powered userbase. He would be fine with enhanced speed, strength, and just having advanced technology in general via hacking and information-gathering.

In this world, he's a bit more pro-active about his job, since the business of information, technology, and weaponry is far more pronounced in futuristic sci-fi than fantasy. He's the head of The Company, and his home base is like the Reavers' flotilla, except it's mostly abandoned and only barely functional, under constant repair to keep the centuries-old ships running as they're mostly fused together to create a few horrific monster ships. The derelict shipyard orbits a dying, highly radioactive star that eliminate the possibility of long-range transmission throughout the entire star zone, making the place perfect for secret meetings and hiding out. After all, the whole area is unscannable.

He uses the money to further enhance his body, constantly complaining about the pain that his arm gives even though it's all psychological. He also invests in cutting-edge technology, most of which is so dangerous that it's banned from most regions, in addition to the galaxy-wide bounty on him, although law enforcement is shaky at best when they're so easily bribed.

As for his backstory, I surmise he grew up on a backwater planet in the Salvar cluster, with so much debris littering its orbit that few ships went in or not. The planet was an abyss, and the people that lived on it suffered, ignored by the international community. Soon it became evident that even the little hospitality that planet offered would be squelched, so there was a huge push for evacuation. Rayse's ship made it through the debris, but not before sustaining immense damage that made him lose his entire family, his arm, and his eye. After floating in space for a while, his ship was discovered by pirates. Due to his unique ability to neutralize the effects of radiation from growing up on a radioactive planet, he was allowed to live and made to do dangerous missions for the pirates. However, he soon managed to take control and the rest is history.

I'm just making this up as I go along.

[Red Dawn]

I can almost see this a sci-fi version of Althanas, an off-shoot site. I'd actually probably prefer it to the medieval site. Haha

[Slayer of the Rot]

It sounds a lot like Dan's probably done business with Rayse, probably fenced stolen tech through him, bought tech off him, probably knows him, since he's inserted himself into criminal undergrounds and the like. Does that sound like it would jive for these threads, Rayse?

[absentwizard]

Here is your fire control (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efdDsba-gjk)

[Rayse Valentino]

It sounds a lot like Dan's probably done business with Rayse, probably fenced stolen tech through him, bought tech off him, probably knows him, since he's inserted himself into criminal undergrounds and the like. Does that sound like it would jive for these threads, Rayse?

Of course, after Dan had proven himself to be a valuable asset and a man who knows how to get things done, Rayse could decide to help him find his daughter, a sort of mental leash on Dan while he trusted him with more important jobs. He could even send Dan after Duffy, it all depends on what kind of story Duffy wants to do.

[Thorne]

Well, I figure Thorne to be much more at ease in this setting than I could ever hope to make Aurelius.

Hailing from the night world of Ettermire, in the Alerar Sector, Thorne has been a piratical threat to most of the major shipping lanes for many years now, comfortable in the crew of whoever can meet his fees.

He makes a specialty of hacking security systems, defense turrets and locks (whether on board merchant ships, or installations being hit), and getting in where he shouldn't- infiltration jobs to steal new-line tech are a personal favourite. His tech is advanced, though not cutting-edge; wired reflexes, a high-tech but basic cyber-eye, capable of being used for remote viewing (w/ thermographic vision, ultrasound, vision enhancement, and vision magnification as standard); inner-ear implants, granting much keener hearing than human standard; wireless function data-jack in one hand; maglock breaker system in his other (along with several other lock-picking protocols); and finally, a taser system embedded in the knuckles of his right hand- useful for quickly and quietly taking down anyone he needs to. And, to top it all off, a ruthenium polymer coating for his gear and weapons, to make him much harder to detect, especially with standard spectrum visual sec-systems.

He likes his freedom, but has to keep on the move, and doesn't like to stay with any single crew for too long, in case he gets recognised- after a messy departure from the Corsair Syndicate, where he had to leave his natural eye behind, his former boss and mentor has put out sector wide bounties to bring Thorne in alive. And knowing the sort of torturers Seraph has in his employ, this is a fate Thorne is eager to avoid.

Simple, and to the point.

[Mordelain]

I've thrown up a brief skit about the galaxy as I envisioned it when writing the thread, found here. (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?25347-Galaxy-492-X-(Notes))

I'll work on trade families, and maybe a map, and a few extra details soon enough. I appreciate the thought everyone's put into this, and will try and involve everyone's ideas and suggestions, and edit them in as we go!

I'm thinking it might be best to have two threads eventually. Rayse, that's exactly what the sequel was going to be - Rayse sending someone after Leopold, but Leopold knowing nothing about Duffy's interference with the cargo. What better douche bag is there in the galaxy but Slayer of the Rot? :D

I am considering, abs, letting non-humans exist, but in very small numbers. If you wish for pointy ears and strange, minor mutations, we can put it down to just that, mutations, so that the aesthetics and 'ideal' of the character is there, they're just all from the same genetic make-up. I use the term 'human' as in humanoid, the occupants of Galaxy 492-X don't necessaries have to be humans as in us.

[absentwizard]

Tenger Jerhal. It is a secret name that none speak of because those who know of it jealously guard its existence and have no reason to speak of it. It is a lost colony, but it was not lost by accident or war or bureaucracy. It had deliberately lost itself -- its records expunged from all archives and its stories wiped from cultural memory. This is because we had found paradise.

The historians still remember well how our colony ship, its thrust packs malfunctioning, barely managed to make orbital insertion above that placid, blue-green world. They remember how a premature, glitched burn decayed the orbit, how the expedition leader sacrificed three-fourths of the cryopods to save the rest. The cryopod modules were segregated by gender because it would be embarrassing to wake up shivering and naked in mixed, equally naked company.

The only thing left of the ship now is a replica of its commissioning plate, laid on a plinth in the middle of the First Crash Site Memorial Lake. In all directions laid idyllic forests, tranquil lakes, and rugged mountains. The moon that hung in the sky. Gravity was low. There was a ... delicious quality to the air here; it was thick with a substance that caused certain biological and physiological changes, a substance that was not entirely physical. When we realized what it had done for us, to us, we unanimously refused to let Tenger Jerhal be part of galactic society. This is our home. Not someone else's "resource" or "asset".

When the first cutter from home arrived, it was easy to hijack. The expedition rode it back and erased _everything_. There are hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy and, once the record is gone, Tenger Jerhal vanished into the foam. That was in the infancy of colonial spaceflight, more than two thousand years ago. I still remember it well.

Sometimes we - I wonder what has become of the universe all around us, whether they are ready to re-discover my home. These little trips are always surprising and exhausting; it is difficult to imagine that these... aliens are really us. It is not the look -- we are still practically indistinguishable from them, save for the times when the golden light comes through our eyes. It is the mortal thoughts, morals, attitudes, concerns, and psyche. It is easy to dismiss their world as shallow, but I have looked deeper and found them truly endearing and fascinating. I hope that one day, they will be able to accept us and we them.

I am Itera Namyuul.

(( This is basically mashing together a Guild Navigator, River Tam, and Yakumo Yukari. ))

[Mordelain]

I will add that entry into racial and cultural details, absentwizard, nicely done!

[Lucius]

Is there still an interest in this sort of thread, now that I finally made a character for Neo-Duffy?