Post by Lord Harrab on Jul 9, 2014 3:01:32 GMT
The year is 3325, and Humanity is Starving.
After centuries of internal warfare, delayed expansion beyond their home world, the discovery of FTL travel, a sudden booming intergalactic empire and a Civil War that fractured humanity into two camps. The United Earth Nations and the Outer Rim Republic. Sicne that long and bitter war, tensions between the two nations have stabilized in the light of the huge expanse that still surrounds the human territory.
For centures Union and Republic Scouts have expanded humanities reach, finding many wonders of nature, resources and fauna. But the long sought alien intelligence, of beings from another world failed to materialize. Traces where found, ruins long eroded to odd formations of stone, and occasional hulks found drifting lifeless and empty. Alien beasts and plants were found, yes, but nothing to equal or even come close to mankind's intelligence in centuries of exploration.
Mankind is alone in the universe, or is it?
However, mankind's hunger for materials is eternal and there are always gaps in the Market for the brave, ambitious and lucky to force open and into their own corporate empire, or perhaps form their own nation beyond human space for good or for ill.
And so here you are. A Human that desires their own share of the galaxy's untapped bounty, so you gathered your friends, lied, stole, borrowed or pooled your assets and now you have a ship to share, and a universe to explore.
The question is: Who are you, and who will you become?
This RP is a Narrative based, open world Sci-fi Role play. Players start of as the crew of a single ship and can expand to command a fleet, a corporation or even an empire in the vast unexplored galaxy.
Player limit is yet to be determined, but I'm going to say 6 to begin with.
Classes
Classes provide a basis for background generation and a couple of passive bonuses, one for the ship they are on and another for the whole Fleet or corporation. This game will not use stats or dice, instead simple story telling. Players are Officers aboard the ship but can decide who is in charge themselves
Commander
Commanders are more Martial than the other classes, perhaps they are ex navy or PMC, and are at home on the bridge of a warship, or leading a team of marines.
Ship Perk: Ship weapons hit harder, reload faster and Marines are more effective, more so if lead in person.
Fleet: Marines are more effective
Explorer
Explorers are the adventurous type, love to seek out new worlds and new challenges, they make exceptional Sensor Cheifs or Helmsmen, they can also jump into a Strike Craft and lead squadrons themeslves
Ship perk: Sensors are more accurate, FTL jumps are less likely to have errors and Stike craft are better co-coordinated
Fleet: Ships travel faster
Trader
Traders are the merchants, the money grabbers, and the deal hunters. The world of supply and demand is there ocean and they love to swim in it. They are also skilled Logistical experts, keeping the fleet supplied and crews fed.
Ship Perk: Food and Fuel Supplies last longer, Trade goods and salvage generates additional credits
Fleet: Trade ships earn more credits
Worker
Workers are the repair chiefs and trained in mining, both asteroids and planetary. They keep the ore flowing and the ships running come malfunction or enemy fire.
Ship Perk: repairs take less time and cost less. Upkeep costs reduced
Fleet: Mining operations generate greater yields
Scientist
Scientists are the brains of operations, analysis of sensor data, researching ship improvements and new technology is their preview. they allow corporations to break away from established companies and develop their own tech, for their own use or for sale on the market.
Ship Perk: Shields regenerate faster, Ship parts can be modified on the fly for greater efficiency.
Fleet: New tech can be developed from purchesed blueprints or experiments.
The AI
My hand in the Game's cast the AI will support the players actions, help manage their resources, offer advice and be the Exposition fairy as needed. She will be subservient to all players but in situations where a choice is needed she prioritizes the derision made by the player chosen as the leader.
(and Yes, she is lifted from the deliverance thread.)
Battleship Intelligence System, Multiple Attack Response Certified, K model, AKA BISMARCK.
Despite there being a vast number of Civilian AIs on the Market for installation on privately owned ships, many Captains tend to choose Military models, despite their vastliy higher price tag, power requirements and larger AI core, simply because of their increased logic proceeding capacity and rapid response times. This is due to a common defect in Civilian AIs Known as "Logic Mindlock." Mindlock occurs when an AI is tasked over capacity with tasks and calculations and freezes all tasks to work on the most taxing in order to free up CPU cycles. This a minor concern on a Large Hauler in dock, but a fatal flaw on a ship in combat or a similar dangerous situation, when the task the Ai focuses on might not be the best for that particular moment. Military AIs, being more complex and designed for Navy Combat Vessels, are better at handling stressful situations.
BISMARK is a Battleship class AI and therefore has vast Processing Power and similar drain on the ship's power plant, but its Instillation on a a smaller class of ship means its crew requirements are vastly reduced, due to the Auto handling most menial tasks itself with plenty of room to spare, even in large scale ship clashes in asteroid fields or the crowded space around jump gates. This gives the Captain and Crew a vast amount of leeway when it comes to modifying the ship or if they upgrade to a larger vessel without sacrificing AI Power.
Ship perk: Redundancy, stations or systems unmanned can still function at a reduced efficiency as long as they have power.
Fleet: Data Uplink, as long as the ship can connect to an FTL comms Buoy, the entire fleet can receive orders and provide status reports instantly, funds can be transfered and captains can communicate in real time.
The Ship
Players have a choice of three ships to be their first vessel, and each is geared towards a particular sytle of play, combat, trade or exploration of resources.
Corax class destroyer
Combat ability: High. (9 Switchblade class milti-role Missile turrets, 5 on upper side, 4 on underside.)
Cargo space: Low
Maneuverability: medium
sensor strength: medium
Shields: Medium
Fuel: 25 Jumps
Food: 1 month
Drones: None.
The Corax is a Union Navy surplus ship, renowned for its adaptability with its missile turrets, able to swap between Frigate killer missiles and Anti-Strike craft Flack warheads in a matter of seconds. it does however, rely on frequent returns to port and is unsuited for long patrols. Short range escorts or hunter missions are where the Corax shines, carrying the firepower of a cruiser on a ship only slightly larger than a frigate and a balanced performance across the board, a reliability most other ships can only dream of.
Badger M3 hauler
Combat ability: Medium (Four Claw class point Defense turrets)
Cargo Space: High
Maneuverability: low
Sensor strength: medium
Shields: High
Fuel: 50 Jumps
Food: 1 month
Drones: 2 Interceptor class defense drones
the Badger is an aging workhorse of small scale merchant fleets, with a large cargo holds for a frigate class ship. Its unique Fight-or-Flight Power distribution system it is no easy prey for opportunistic pirate bands, being able to shunt power quickly between its laser turrets, shields or engines, boosting the chosen system to superior levels. In addition to this the badger also has a small drone bay to cover its blind spots or use as a distraction while the hauler flees.
Pioneer Class Mining Cruiser.
Combat ability: Low (Two Claw class point Defense turrets, Two fixed mount mining lasers)
Cargo Space: medium
Maneuverability: low
Sensor strength: high
Shields: High
Fuel:60 Jumps
Food: 2 months
Drones: 4 Interceptor class defense drones, 4 Canary class mining drones
Based off of the Outer Rim republic's retired Sentinel class cruiser, the Pioneer has a lot of internal space to work with, having extended fuel tanks, internal cargo space and a medium sized drone bay and ore retrieval system mounted in the bow. The Pioneer has no way to refine the ore it or its drones mines and must make the trek to refinery itself or rely on a cargo hauler to ferry the materials on its behalf. as it is often alone nosing about in asteroid belts for useful materials, it has a high shield strength carried over from its warship days and a small flight of combat drones to defend against pirates that may lurk in these undiscovered belts, but should a sizeable force be encountered, it would be wiser to flee or travel with dedicated escorts as a Pioneer without its drones is easy prey for pirate frigates
The Crew
Player name: Silence
Character name: Lucy Ires
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Home-world: Recluint V
Class: Commander
Rank: TBD
Appearance:
Bio:
Born at the turn of the century, Lucy was raised by the Navy, as both her parents were career vets. With her dad as a captain of a Cruiser and her mother head of logistics on Recluint V, she never got to see her parents, but instead was watched over by the multiple Navy academies she attended. Being taught obedience and discipline at an early age kept Lucy out of trouble and allowed her to have an easy childhood. The absence of her parents caused her to be a generally independent person and she strayed away from others rejecting most of their movements of friendship, instead finding her sole friend in an AI named Liyra. The two grew close to each other and Lucy never ventured far without Liyra. It got to the point where she never left her house but to go to the Naval academy.
During her years at the academy she excelled to the top of her class, and by the age of 14 was a prime candidate for the Junior Captains program. Her parents were extremely proud of their daughter, and so pulled strings to get her into the program when she was rejected due to her anti-social mannerisms. For the next 4 years, Lucy was trained to become a Navy officer. These years went great for her, as she was still top of her class and excelled in everything. Through these years, Liyra helped Lucy by teaching her how the systems and subsystems worked, along with shortcuts and bypasses to be more efficient at commanding a ship. This is what gave Lucy her edge over the second in class, Streven Stroud, who had a deep grudge against Lucy for keeping him in her shadow.
Streven was a bright individual as well as popular and stunningly handsome, and people naturally flocked to him. But the near angelic appearance on the outside, covered up the dark hatred on the inside. He had been abandoned as a child and went from orphanage to orphanage, until he was eventually sent to the academy at the age of 8. Being resentful towards the pretty much forced enlistment into the Navy, he rebelled for the first few years of school and got punished for it, by being beat and flogged. This brewed his hatred for the Navy, but he concocted a plan to get back at them. Years of striving to be the best got him into the Junior Captain program, and when Lucy kept ahead of him, he saw his plan start to crumble. When the last year of the program rolled around and the final test was revealed, Streven saw his chance to get back at the Navy and take Lucy down with it.
The final year saw Lucy excelling beyond all the members of her class by a bigger jump than it had been before, as they had finally gotten to working solely with manning a ship. The natural talent of taking command and the knowledge Liyra had given Lucy about subsystems saw her into the leader role indefinitely despite Steven`s popularity. After the final year of simulations and tests, the group was put into command of a real ship. The final test was a mock battle in a real frigate, an old surplus training frig, and required the group to work as a coherent unit to defend against an enemy attack. Streven having already learned what the final test was, planned to exact his revenge then, by sabotaging the ship. When they started the test, Lucy was the captain with Streven heading up the engineering. This gave him access to the ships internals and a way to get off the bridge before he blew it up. Much to the surprise of Lucy, Liyra was installed as the AI in the frigate, with some strings pulled from her parents, and Lucy felt she could pass this test without a hitch. Luck had finally run out for Lucy though.
When the test began, everything went exceptionally well, and everything pointed to a near perfect score, but the time had come for Streven to enact his plan. Suddenly a problem with the communication relay down in engineering pulled Streven out of the bridge. Lucy dismissed it as part of the test, and continued commanding the ship to victory.
The frigate, an unnamed class, was of older design and had a separate reactor for the bridge and other vital systems, which was located underneath the bridge, but the ship had never been put into real service as the reactor was known to explode if it surged. Streven had known this and was about to do exactly that.
As the final two enemy ships were being dispatched, Streven came onto the bridges front display. Tears ran down his face as he laughed and maniacally explained his plan. Meanwhile he had locked out everyone from ship controls, including Liyra. Suddenly the feed cut out and Streven started the chain reaction of power transfer, then the surge hit the reactor. Liyra in the meantime worked furiously around Streven`s lock and managed to get blast doors to seal off half the room, as it was meant to seal incase the glass in the front was breached, and saved Lucy and a few other members on the bridge from instant vaporization. In a flurry of screaming metal and roaring flames the bridge became a hellstorm of shrapnel and destruction. Half of the students on the bridge were vaporized, while those on the other side of the blast door took all the shrapnel and fire.
As soon as medics made it to the bridge, no one but Lucy was still alive, and even then she could barely be considered alive. During the explosion her left arm had been severed by a razor hot sheet of metal that cauterized the wound instantly, meanwhile the rest of her body had been burnt extensively, along with her legs having also suffered as they were a torn mess embedded with shrapnel. The medics were able to keep her alive, but just barely and she had to get extensive amounts of surgery to salvage what was left. Lucy`s Parents sank everything they could into bring Lucy back to life. This included a cybernetic left arm starting from the shoulder down, both legs muscles below her knees were replaced with artificial muscle, and her damaged organs replaced. Lucy essentially became a cyborg.
A year after the event and all the surgeries being complete, Lucy was released out of medical care. She was a shadow of her former self for several years after, with her only companion being destroyed in the events. To make matters worse, her father was killed in action shortly after her release, sending her spiraling even further into depression. At the age of 24, she found a way off of the planet and out of the system that had held her greatest hopes and horrors.
Now searching for a job on a ship, she is looking to start anew and erase the pain of the past away.
Character name: Grant Wilcox (nickname Wilco)
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Home-world: Boriah
Class: Explorer
Rank: Cargo
Appearance:
Bio.
Wilco has always been an explorer at heart even since childhood where he and his friends would explore the hills and valleys that surrounded the town he lived in, any new hole or cave that was discovered usually involved him diving head first to explore what lay within. He long since dreamed of exploring what lay beyond his world and spent many a night staring skyward at the stars in some remote location he had discovered on his world, plotting out the constellations and memorising each one.
Following that dream into adulthood he signed up instantly after hearing of new initiatives to explore the black uncharted sea of space. Of course, like any new initiative, Wilco was a just a drop of water in a sea of other applicants. He enrolled for the position of steller cartographer, when failed to gain a position aboard any ship he then applied for a steller analysis postion, steller mapper, then deep space scanner. There was nothing left, nothing left to apply for. His dreams dashed he clutched the forms, his eyes desparately searching for something, anything. His eyes finally found a position aboard a small vessel as a Cargo worker, he had to have it, he didn't know the first thing about it but he just had to get into space somehow.
Gender: Female
Age: 28
Home-world: Mars
Class: Worker
Rank: Engineer
Appearance:
Under the armor: Short dark brown hair, green eyes.
Bio: Born into family of shipwrights living in one of the many orbital stations around Mars. Following her family's footprints, Livsey ended up graduating with engineering decree from local university. After that she spent few years working in shipyard as worker before getting better job offer as mechanic on trade ship. From there she has been bouncing from ship to ship until she has finally ended up as member of [Insert ship name/class here]
Because of her job, Livsey has been installed with more cybernetics than usual with them mainly focused on more expanded interferes and weight capacity.
[And just for Harrab: her fellowship bonus is 4]
Character name: Alex Walker
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Home-world: Spacer
Class: Commander
Rank: Squad Leader (Marine Security)
Appearance: See image above (Armour beside). Has scars crossing his neck
Bio: Born in the outskirts of the Outer Rim Republic, Alex had been welcomed into life by a militaristic family, thrown into the civil war between humanity at the age of eighteen. By twenty-five, Alex had become leader of his squad, becoming skilled during boarding actions. His skill lead to him being taken in Project Upperhand, a secret project aiming to get the upper hand in the civil war. It’s here that he received prototype cybernetics which allowed an AI to enter his suit and head. It was hoped these AI would allow soldiers to have easier access in hacking doors or systems. While the implants initially worked, subjects would start to have ghosting images of their AI flashing across their vision, causing headaches and in some extreme cases, brain damage and death.
Project Upperhand was eventually closed due to its risks along with the civil war coming to an end. Alex was discharged from military service, choosing to join a Private Military Company (The Void Wolves) and would eventually be assigned to the [SHIP UNKNOWN]. It is possible the surgery involved has greatly affected his personality, recorded as having a good sense of humour and “a lad to have around” by his squad mates before surgery. Now he has become more reserved and cold to outside contact, merely obeying orders and getting the job done.
Additional Information: Known as Shado, this AI was paired with Alex when he joined Project Upperhand. Cunning and ambitious, the pairing to Alex was considered one of the few pairings that could be considered a success. It is thought that Alex managed to recover his AI before his discharge and has been with him ever since, quite possibly affecting his judgement with its own thoughts though this is unconfirmed.
Character name: Lysander 'Mockery' Black
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Homeworld: Earth
Class: Commander
Rank: Gunnery officer
Appearance:
Due to unfortunate events during his childhood that Lysander would rather forget, he begun to suffer from frequent, and almost fatal pneumothorax events. A near permanent breathing apparatus, designed to prevent the collapse of his lungs and ensure that free air pockets were successfully removed to keep him safe. He can remove the mask for a short period of time, mostly to eat or drink, but too long and he'll find himself unable to breathe. To accommodate this, he simply had it built into a combat helmet which helps him in his duties.
Standing at 6'2, and broad on the shoulder, Lysander is a big man. His eyes are pale blue, but they are almost always hidden behind a red visor, and his head is shaved bald for when he removes his helm.
Personality: Driven, and willing to do whatever he must to complete an objective. He holds no qualms about removing those who are a detriment to his team and comrades. His ability to maintain his calm during stressful situations has made him a valuable asset to many teams.
Bio: Born to a corporatist family in Old Europe, Lysander learned of business early. He also learned of betrayal at a similar time. Being the oldest, he was expected to inherit the family holdings when his father died - his three brothers didn't enjoy that idea. When he was fifteen, and his brothers only a year or two younger, he was beset upon by the three as he slept. They stabbed at him and a lucky blow punctured his lung.
The damage never properly healed, no matter what the doctors tried. Lysander's father - Styr - saw the apparatus his son needed to survive and function payed for and provided - his heir would have the best. His brothers were sent to live on Mars in disgrace - a family estate being the place they'd spend the rest of their lives if Styr Black had anything to say for it. Lysander always saw their brash actions as foolish - he had had no interest in the company, seeing it as the wrong path for him to take. Had they asked, he most likely would've ceded his inheritance.
Once he was recovered, he returned to schooling and eventually left to join the marine arm of his Father's company. He served on many vessels - Cargo tugs, cruisers, even a massive mining ship at one point. Fighting countless pirates and raiders saw him become experienced in combat and when he requested an officer's commission aboard a combat vessel his calm nature and drive to complete his mission saw him well accepted. Serving below decks as an ensign eventually saw him rise in rank, seeing him reach gunnery officer relatively quickly.
It was then that tragedy struck the company. A hostile takeover saw assets sized, his father 'removed' and Lysander himself put in danger. A quick getaway saw him find a new group on the [ship name and class].
His only reminders of his past are his armour, the family emblem he wears on his chest and one or two souvenirs from his days in the marines, like his old rank pins.
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Home-world: Moriina
Class: Medical Officer
Rank: Head Medical Officer//Ex-Marine Medic
Appearance:
Out of Armour
Field Armour
Bio: Kenny was born in the colonies of Moriina in its frozen wastelands and deadly blizzards where each day was a blessing and cherished. When he was 4 years old his colony had suffered a mass power cut which stopped all heating systems aswell as the automated defences keeping off the planet's predators which swarmed into the colony and began to slaughter anybody that strayed into their path, after days of mayhem the planet's Marine force made it to the colony, pushed back the predators and restored power, in their sweep of the colony they discovered a small child hidden in a closet in the room his parents were ripped apart in, the marine who found him took him in and raised them as their own.
On his 16th birthday Kenny joined the planet's defence corps to train as a Field Medic and began his military career. During his time he combated the Planet's hunters, Bandits and terrorists, he had seen everything from cuts to chemical weaponry used each one teaching him every little thing he knows today.
After his retirement from the forces he signed up to the [SHIP NAME HERE] as the Chief medical officer to help keep the crew healthy and to also offer on ground combat if needed.