• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

[Skeleton Ensemble] Program 1; Disintegration, Transience, Transcendence

Primitive Polygon

🎖️ Game Master
Spring YE 38
The Null and Void System
~♫Blank Banshee - Cyber Slums♫~


The deck plates of the conveyor shuttle creaked and scraped, protesting against the pressure anomalies that wafted against the small vessel like the waves of some invisible, ethereal ocean. The moon of Nil was only a short burst from the planet below, but the gravitational lensing was so strong outside that no matter which porthole the occupants might look from, it looked like they were suspended half way down an infinitely deep whirlpool of warped golden matter.

There are some that might call a black hole the grave of a star, and others that might call it transcendence. Null and Void were two fraternal planets that orbited the crushing mass of once such abyss, so perhaps it was natural that they too embodied opposing concepts.

Void was a dead husk, caught just within the space-time warping effects of their parent body, making it lifeless and impossible to navigate. It is said that the original motherships of the Freespacer exodus laid to rest there, from a time in which the original Art of Never Again was still being written, long before the advent of their Yamatai nemesis.

Null was one of the centers of the more recent refugee crisis, and on top of that, the site within which the inertialess drive and the ley line systems had been developed during the Independent Worlds League’s brightest days… But skirting on the event horizon of a black hole was never going to be a great place to raise children, and those glory days were now also a thing that had been and gone.

Perhaps it was best said that the system continued to serve best only as a crossroads, such was the extent that the Freespacers made any sort of ‘home’ for themselves. To the galactic south was the belligerent Imperium of Nepleslian, and to the north, nothing but the Blue Rift, and the ever-sprawling untamed wild.

As Nil’s burgeoning crater starports grew closer, it’s grey ashen surface seemed to slowly crawl and flow with the bustle of thousands of tiny automata cargo service and mining robots. Most of the actual habitation sections were deep below, but somehow the faithful little tanks were already making it feel quite alive.

The shuttle landed at the base of a massive sprawling tower, holding dozens of colorful freespacer vessels aloft via an array of titanic docking arms, making the entire strange arrangement look somewhat like a archaic festival tree or a bizarre children’s toy. As awkward as an arrangement as it looked, many of such nomadic vessels were simply not designed to land on a solid surface.

Automated luggage tracks lead from the landing pads into a large and extremely thick transparent lead-zirconate dome at the base of the huge building, illuminated internally with a friendly green radioactive glow. The inside of port 1106 was an old hangout for thrill seekers, evidently, still home to a modicum of food and entertainment stalls despite some of the arrangements now looking a little dilapidated.

One of the VR-hub tables in the local food distribution court had been booked out by the syntelligence Soulnomad Jack-o-Lantern, in hope of some new crew members actually responding to his polysentience requests. The exact location was described in the invitation message.

Only time would tell what personalities would drive this new adventure, however, and what new corners of the vast rolling expanse they might end up in from these historic crossroads.
 
Last edited:
GeneSculptor Six Three began to walk down the long, old ramp that connected the ship to the docking platform. The Faithful Carriage had been home for him during his work with them. Their recent batch of gene stock had come under decay after an introduction of a disease had caused some unexpected side-effects. After the disease had been mitigated, he received an invitation from an unknown source.

The invitation had told him come to The Null and Void system where he would be presented with an offer to join a crew that would work together to help piece together the broken Freespacer nation that had been rent asunder. Lost colonies, forgotten ships, reawakening’s to be discovered, how could one like him refuse?

A duffle bag slung over his shoulder, as payment for his deeds, carried all the Six Three had. A few pair of clothes for formal and informal occasions, some scientific equipment, and his third arm. Using his right hand, held on to the straps of the bag to make sure he wouldn’t lose it but in his left hand he held the data slate the detailed the invitations along with the location for meeting this “Soulnomad Jack-o-Lantern”.

In a light blue shirt with the sleeves removed and a pair of pants that had their holes sewn up with rainbow thread (the ladies that patched it up were SURE they wanted to use rainbow), he felt he blended in with the crowd quite well. After he had transferred the file of the invitation and had the location of the food vendor committed to his own memory banks he put the dataslate away, then looked up around him. He closed his one human eye, and took a deep breath as he moved. It was mostly symbolic since his breather mask gave him most of his oxygen, but he still felt the muscles in his back and in his chest relax all the same.

To be knee deep among his kindred again, to feel the hustle and bustle around him, as if they were all cogs in the great machine of the world, along with the hum and warmth that irradiated out from the power core of the systems. A ‘Spacer could get used to this he thought. When he opened his eye, and keyed his cybernetic eye back on, he felt invigorated with a new sense of purpose: Get to the location in the invitation. There were other Freespacers out there, disconnected, alone, possibly afraid and sick. The needed to be brought back to their family, to be reunited and reintroduced to the wonders of Freespacer society, and he’d been asked personally to help out.

However, he may have gotten a tad over-excited and took a wrong turn somewhere. It was fine to him though, he was more of a journey than a destination man anyway. He began to explore a bit, marveling around him. It was run-down to be sure, some areas were so bad that they should be even condemned from foot-traffic, but this was still the Null and Void system. This was where they discovered the Inertialess Drive System that powered their ships, these were the planets that they built and worked on the first Kinetic Energy Detonator, this was where science had been at the fore-front of Freespacer society allowing them to earn a spot in the grand arena among the stars. Truly all modern works of science had been on the shoulders of giants.

Finally making his way to the food distribution court, Six Three found the vendor that was listed, and the booth specified. Placing his duffle bag down in front of a chair, he sat down in around the VR-table. Seeing as he was the first to arrive, he decided to access the mindware at the table to see what sort of entertainment was set up while he waited for everyone else.
 
Just under an hour before the meeting time stated, Kiver Eight Zero was hard at work making her way back to Null from the surface of Void. Just behind the piloting station of the hyperspatial tugboat, a lot of words like 'spaghettification' and 'time dilation' were being thrown around by a couple of Freethinkers; very smart men with spindly wrists. The words in the Spacecase's head went something along the lines of: It works, but it's so sad and ugly.

Squeeze the controls, send a signal to engage the right couplings, and fire the right engines. A collective sigh of relief and a sound of screaming metal rose as they disconnected the tether from the derelict they had been putting to rest, and actually managed to take off. Outside, through a haze of distorted real-space one would be able to make out the steadily dropping curvature of the silent graveyard planet below. A cold sweat dripped down the pilot's back as the entire craft creaked and groaned, fighting immense forces of gravity as the brick of a craft drifted through a path that looked a lot simpler than it was back to a stable planet.

Another day at the parking lot, right after the one before it; just like all the others. And you still don't get anywhere. If anything, everything you do to fight the pull of time and gravity was nothing more than to give memoriam to a thousand-thousand voyages which would never happen again, or for the first time.

Time ticking by, attention unpaid to the congratulations of a few Freethinkers, before they go back to congratulating themselves for making it possible for a fraction of a percent to be shaved off of an efficiency benchmark. Kiver was going to be a bit late. The little pilot secured her vac-suit at the waist, straightened her hat and started walking; each step slightly out of time.

She was the second one to sit at the VR table, a food-laden tray clattering down on the surface before her, and the upholstery of the seat beneath her squeaking out an audible parp as she sat. A few seats over from Six Three, the little Kiver seemed mostly interested in efficiently consuming some sort of greyish nutrient slop, where she was perched cross-legged at her seat. The thick layers of her vac-suit bunched at her waist, while above it loosely hung an oversized tank top clearly scaled for someone significantly larger; one side dangled off the shoulder, while the bottom hem was tied in a knot to one side to anchor it just under where a bust would probably never be. The garment mainly served to give a little modesty over mocha skin splotched with innumerable blue tattoos of piloting errata, while simultaneously bearing the bonus of what looked like a grease stain from a dirtdweller 'pizza' food item, and the word 'Brunch!' in bright bubbly cartoonish lettering.

Kiver didn't offer greetings to the other guy here, although she sent a few glances his way while absolutely failing at hiding the fact she looked his way. One more spoonful of slop noisily pushed into her face hole, before she daintily jacked in to the VR hub. Not a word said.
 
The simple green plastic table had physical connection ports on a raised hexagon at the center for increased speed, but the remote address was also printed onto some rather sparse laminated menu cards, right above the food on offer. The room itself was actually pretty spacious for a freespacer interior, but apparently they were saving on the lighting budget by using some particularly poor-quality florescent tubes. Most of the tables were empty, and only about six of the ten choices of food stall were without trashy shutters blocking the interior.

At least looking straight up would still give you a direct view of the black hole through the transparent domed ceiling. Not many places in the known galaxy where you could do that whilst drinking a hot beverage of reasonable quality.


poly://nil.deepmeadow.p1106/chowtown/t6.vri


CONNECTING...

BUILDING TERRAIN GEOMETRY...

CONSTRUCTING STIMULUS EMULATION MAP...

The VR table booted directly into a polysentience multiplayer simulation, not unlike the ones used to educate spacer children within breeding assemblies, or bored adult crews on long voyages without much real-world space to work with. Contained within was an exact replica of the table plan, expect a hundred times more lavish and exquisitely detailed. Constellation-emblazoned red carpet bore engraved golden seats, surrounding pristine white tablecloths and mountains of strange and exotic food. Simulating Nepleslian chow was all the rage at the minute, so there was already soft juicy 'harmburger and frays' sitting ready, perpetually remaining at correct temperature to make it unnaturally delicious. So delicious, in fact, that the station had notably put copy protection on the .vri file.

It was a pretty standard control setup. Simply by the act of connecting, the user now had a puppet character that they could move and control 'passively', much like a video game character, a process which did not interrupt their ability to see or move around in the real world.

Those that had gone into 'active' mode on other tables, however, were completely blank-faced and doe-eyed in reality. The strange and fantastical cartoon forms of their virtual avatars were free to enjoy a perfectly emulated sensation of this magnificent dining hall,
touching, tasting, hearing and seeing everything as if they were now part of this reality instead.

Indeed, there were actually more denizens of this reality than there were people in the real world, and one of these immaterial ghosts was already sitting on the table directly across from Kiver and Six Three, resting one pallid golden hand on a one-eyed pumpkin-shaped face. A raggity thing with an old-fashioned ship's wheel strapped to their back by heavy chains, they simply couldn't have looked any more out of place with all the diamond chandeliers and royal decor.

"Good gravy. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." They had an upstanding, finely articulated voice, at least. "Pardon me, but did you come about the advertisement?... Or did you both just not realize the table was occupied?... Maybe I should have asked them to put a sign up..."

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Soulnomad Seven Six." Both hands palmed outwards expressively, in lack of any real mouth to do the work. "Some have taken it upon themselves to call me Jack-O-Lantern... Perhaps I should have argued for something that sounded a little less brash? Oh well. What a bother."
 
Six Three had been in the passive mode of the VR for a while. While searching for the local entertainment he had downloaded some holo-vids and games, but more importantly to him, he found some research papers he could read to occupy his time. He had just finished reading “The Art of Denaturing Chromatids for Rearrangement and You,” and was just beginning to read “16 New Eye Colors That Will Amaze You!” when he had realized someone else had entered the room and was eating in there with him.

“Protien_Folding:_Nature’s_Origami” had just finished downloading then, when another user began to speak within the VR. Seeing the other person in the room begin to log into the VR, he sent her a message, “See you on the other side!” He paired it with a friendly wave and a smile that was hidden behind his mask. Closing his human eye and he swapped over to “Active” mode, leaving his mechanical eye to record his surroundings while he was “away”.

His avatar was, for the most part, exactly like his regular body. The only differences were, he was shirtless, he had a third robotic mechanical arm attached to a track that went a full 360° around his body, and he didn’t have a mask on his face for breathing. He had a medium sized nose that complimented his face, and a pair of thin lips that were a paler shade of flesh colored.

Six Three sat cross legged on the seat like the figure that had introduced itself as Jack-o-Lantern did, it looked rather comfortable. As the Soulnomad finished, Six Three nodded his head and generated an unfolded piece of paper that had the invitation clearly written on it. “Yeah, I’m here for the advertisement.” He waved his hand at Jack-Lantern, in a similar manner that he had done just a few moments ago in the real world.

“I’m GeneSculpor Six Three. I’ve been given some names in the past, but nothing really ‘stuck’ so to speak. Some people called me ‘U’ so that they could call me ‘U-GeneSculptor’, but I didn’t really find that to be an appropriate alias for me.” He shrugged at nothing in particular, “I’m normally alright with being called anything. As long as I can tell you’re speaking to me, it’s all good.” Six Three then reached forward towards the table, and with each hand picked up a glass of water, a chocolate milkshake, and a fray, while finishing his thought “And it’s…good to meet you too.” He had paused to decide if he should say “gourd” or “good”, he decided on the latter in order not to offend his host.
 
♫ Sonic Colors - Planet Wisp Act 2

From the direction of the collection of the food stalls came a diminutive female figure carrying a food tray, though what made her immediately recognizable from the others was her extremely colorful style of attire that stood out even among the eclectic freespacers present. Where as Six Three had patches here and there of rainbow threads, the slight woman had a whole sweater hand knit out of the stuff wrapping her voidwalker-clad organic body in warmth and seemingly good cheer. Even the edges and hems were festooned with dangling rows of colorful gems that in Lorath lands would be considered valuable, though for her they served to announce her presence with a pleasant tinkling sound, catching the severe flourescent light of the room and reflected it into more interesting shades of the visible spectrum. The oversize top was slouched off the shoulder not unlike Kiver's style of attire, though for her she merely let it dangle all the way down past her abdomen like a one-piece dress. Her legs had mismatched thigh-highs in an alternating red and blue pattern, as a pair of worn high-heel metal boots skipped lightly across the deck.

Upon the tray she was carrying was an honest-to-goodness Nepleslian style hamburger and fries, still hot and steaming and giving off that tell-tale aroma... anyone with a working nose could tell that this definitely was NOT VR-overlaid bio slurry. There was a little smudge or two of frying oil on her pale cheek and the shoulder that bore her identification number of "00-8909-8888", causing one to wonder if she herself had commandeered a stall to make this extremely satisfying and unhealthy dish... this kind of fare certainly wasn't on the flimsy menu at the table the rest were sitting at? The young 'Spacer was still sing-songing a tune concerning the recipe she had been following, "Fry the burger nice and brown, enjoy some fries while you sit down~~"

She finally sat down at the table near the other two with a vivacious and unapologetic 'plop', as her short black and red-tipped hair followed the motion. A smile began at the prospect of enjoying her unhealthy but oh-so-satisfying meal, but when she then realized it was occupied with someone other than the syntelligence-in-a-box she expected to be here, she soon extended it from ear to ear across her somewhat childish features towards all present. The large hoops she had pierced through the lobes that were filled with random old keyboard interface keys definitely added to the look.

"Oh, people are here already!" the energetic one coughed for a second, giving a slight blush. "You should have told me, Jack-o'... I would've jury rigged that old stall's grill better!" She then sighed with a sheepish grin. "Welp, I guess the VR feast is gonna have to do..."

Into the virtual reality emulated space suddenly popped up the avatar of Null Null as her Mindware made the necessary connections and protocol handshakes, still wearing her trademark sweater and thigh-highs. Only now she was even tinier, seeming more like a cartoony fairy version of herself floating around with a pointed witch's hat on that oddly coordinated with their hosts's pumpkin-like appearance. The two could definitely be entrants for Yamatai's Halloween festival contest, though the reality was far from that... they had both been through a hell that was certainly not a fantasy land, and it left its mark on their psyche's in different ways.

"I'm Null Null the Druidess, by the way. How do you do?" finally greeted Alphara to Kiver and Six Three. "Might I add, I really like your IRL style! I think we'll get along very well."
 
Last edited:
Digital Space

A form materialized next to the others. It consisted of a central core - an oblong (or was it a sphere? Or a multi-faceted prism? It didn't stay settled.) with the impressions of a neutral face laid onto it, with lines dividing it into thirds from side to side. Around it, a plethora of arms with hands attached floated around it protectively. The middle of the face stayed solid while the two slices on either side of it rolled up and down until a new expression was chosen - a smile.

"Oh? It worked. My pet did its trick ad~mir~a~bly~" the being said, that 'definitely-not-a-Yamataian-pornstar' voice beaming. "I am sorry for not being there in the not-flesh, technically. But this is such lovely data I am gathering, yes~."

A pair of hands reached to grab a burger from a nearby serving dish and pulled it back to the main body, holding it up to the face. Instead of the impression-mouth opening up and eating it, the burger simply de-rezzed in front of it.

"I have finished my tour of murder-study and your ad interested me, Jackbot! I am Phase."

She practically ignored the other three.

Meatspace

Instead of there being the hulking Type Four or the lithe counterpart, all that was there was a little disk-shaped drone with four stick-and-ball appendages coming off of it, jacked into the table all by its lonesome.
 
Sitting at the table, spoon making little kree-kree noises as she scraped up the last of her nutrient goop; Kiver looked over the others as they sat still, jacked into the VR interface. Digitally, Kiver's presence was only heralded by a white cube with the word 'loading' emblazoned on it. She had staggered her entry, to better eat up. Take care of that body, don't let it waste away while your mind floats in a paradise just around the corner. Analog meatbodies were needed to keep everything, and every one going.

She could hear what was going on though: She watched as others drifted around, and cocked an eyebrow slightly at the little hovering drone. She very nearly choked when the druidess said she had style; a new food stain added to the shirt she should probably give back, before she fully materialised in the sim-space.

Her avatar broke out of the loading cube, and pooled into the seat like a blot of black oil; forming into a weird two dimensional hole in space that was exactly Kiver-shaped. Perhaps a little bit more shapely, with longer 'hair' that blew about in some sort of unseen wind. The face seemed to bloom out, blank white features materialising as the blackness was struck out; stars and distant galaxies taking form in the weird cut-out hole of her body, each one soon linked by tiny specks of simulated ships reaching out to meet distant reaches.

Looking around once or twice, she simply brought up a copy of Jack-o-Lantern's advertisement to hover in mid air over her head, as if to explain why she was there. She then looked around, cartoonish white cross-hatching appearing where the cheeks would be on her face. Maybe a blush?

"Uvh... Suh-Spacecase Eight Zero... K-Kiver..."
 
“My goodness, so many of you? I am ashamed to admit, this tired soul had not expected such a ramble-rousing turn out in these dire times.” The single eye of the pumpkin-man bugged slightly, as he crossed his fingers upon the table. “My apologies for talking you out of those extra meatspace patties, my darling Null Null… I was only thinking of our last crew’s-”

It wasn’t exactly hard to retain a cast iron poker face in virtual reality, but Jack still took a moment to arrange his next words very carefully.

“…-The temporary staff’s somewhat more bare-bones approach towards matters of adventure and resource usage…”

“No matter! There is certainly room upon our comfy little boat for the lot of you!” Using one hand to raise an interactive map of the complex from the central pillar, he plucked a tiny wireframe from mid-way up the tower, and then expanded it so that all could regard the general form of the ship he was referring to. It looked somewhat like a large upturned red slipper, with some kind of ray-fish bolted to the underside at the front. “Inertialess drive, prism shield-sails, all sorts of refabrication facilities… Our Skeleton Ensemble is designed to be fast, hard to detect, and capable of supporting a crew of eight organics through pure on-site resource acquisition… Well, it’s designed for those things now…”

He handed them each a them a file that held the complete specifications simultaneously, causing a bit of a strange moment where multiples of the file simply hovered towards everyone else, only personally handed to them from their own individual perspective. Despite the man’s lucid and somber appearance, it was now pretty obvious that he was a syntelligence, a thing with no singular neural cortex bottlenecking his attention span.

“Druidess Null Null is already a part of our crew, one feels he should mention… And a tremendously resourceful one at that!” A small gesture towards his witchy companion, sitting quite formally. “Quite instrumental in making the entire thing come together, my goodness… Without her expertise in negotiations, it is likely I would still be a phantasm gunship!”

A small cough. Never mind the fact he hadn’t the lungs or throat.

“Are you sure you aren’t a martial artist? You could seriously catch someone off-guard with that thing!” Was the question Jack then regarded Genesculptor with, gazing at the third arm, his tone a humorous one. Coming from a brain in a box, they actually seemed genuinely interested. “A very gracious welcome to you, my good man Six Three!”

“Hello to you, Phase! My, aren’t you a diddy small one!...” The reaction towards the fellow digital intelligence was a little different, through that could have been because of the proxy-drone. It was something that they apparently had no other choice of greeting for, than placing their chin against the table and waving a little hand towards the center of the geometric mass, a bit like saying hello to a small animal. “Your interest is much appreciated, but… Are you planning on joining us in person? The long-term goals of this expedition may require significant time outside the range of the polysentience transmission services… As handsome and charming as your faithful little fellow is!”

“Eight Zero… You are also very welcome here.” Kiver was met with the materialization of an actual smile, or at least the cartoonish zipper-like manifestation of one. The combination could have been a lot more jarring to the VR-uninitiated, but his voice was also smooth and patient, hoping not to cause the timid girl to retract back into her shell. Sometimes the best medicine for hesitancy was simply to be careful about not talking over them. “Are you a pilot, or a stargazer perhaps?...”

“So… I trust you all have retained the occupations that your names possess?” Returning back to talking to them as a group, the vegetable guru just crossed his arms, the gold hue perhaps glowing a little stronger with keen joviality. “I am very honored to meet you all. Is there anything in particular you would like to know about the ship, our aims, or indeed the difficulties involved, before this one may humbly detail some of the ardent quests that we have been offered?”
 
Six Three watched as Null Null appeared and hovered about, listening intently to what she had to say. He smiled broadly at her compliment, “Well, thank you. It’s nice to know I’m already fitting in with other people on the ship.” He sat quietly while others formed, plopped, or entered the room, watching them all with curiosity. Dipping the fry into his chocolate milkshake, he ate it afterward sipping some water in the meantime. He listened to their introductions and studied their avatar forms that they chose, fascinated by those that would be his crewmates. Dipping, eating, watching, listening, dipping, eating…

As he reached to put his glass of water back on the table, his ears perked up at the naming of the specifications of the ship. “Inertialess, drive, prism shield-sails…” Refabrication facilities? With the milkshake in his middle hand, and a new fry in his left, he peered at the form that had been handed to him. Scrolling through, Six Three was determined to learn more about the capabilities of the ship listed while also pondering the possible potential presented before him.

The question poised at him pulled him from his postulating with a start. “Uh, heh no, not really a fighter and you have my thanks Soulnomad,” appreciating his host’s relaxed demeanor. “If I have to, I’ll learn to fight, but I like to think I’m more suited to the sciences, learning what I can when I can. And if it can help others, all the better.” He said the last sentence with a sincere smile, for he truly meant every word.

Snapping back to reality (or as real as virtual reality could get), he returned to the specs. “Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you the status of the Chemical Refinery and the Manufacturing Room. What they are exactly designed to process/forge, what they have been used for in the past, if any maintenance would be required before going forward, and possibly a list of current supplies or reagents in either room. Also, wanted to know if there was enough room in either location or anywhere on the ship that I could ‘set up shop’ so to speak. To conduct tests and run instruments that might be necessary that the Refinery might not be able equipped to handle.” Getting a little wrapped up in the excitement, he disregarded the other notions the Syntelligence had offered.

“Difficulties” to some “Dangers” to others, but to him they were merely “Obstacles”. No pursuit was completely void of its hardships, and no goal worth meeting was without its setbacks. Six Three felt it was better to learn of those when they happened as worrying would only be a distraction. The only thing he could do was hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. For now though, all he saw was potential, and he wanted to measure it.
 
Heavy footfalls trudging towards the appropriated table that the others had all gathered about signaled the approaching bulk of polished black metal trimmed with neon blue lights. It appeared to be someone clad in heavy battle armor, ready to wade into combat swinging an aether sword or wielding a pulse rifle and missile launchers. This could not be farther from the truth though. The armored figure picked up their pace, speeding towards the VR table at a quick rate, they were late!

Halcyone had received the invitation the same time as the rest, she had even departed the Nepleslian military vessel she had been training aboard at the same time as the others who had been in her small group that had been summoned had, she even recognized Phase from the group already there, but had been delayed several times by various distractions. And so she was late to the party! The nearly opaque face plate of her helmet gave no indication of the embarrassed and frustrated expression on her face, only showing hints of her glowing pink eyes behind the protective materiel as she slipped into an empty seat at the table.

"Hi, sorry I'm late!" she stated, with an electronic synthesized voice that emanated from the speakers on her helmet. She quickly accessed the virtual reality space being used for the meeting and booted into it...



Digital Space

The newcomer booted into the VR space, a blinking pink loading icon spinning in place for a moment as the connection was made, then her avatar winked into existance. Unlike the hulking armored form that had joined the group at the table, what appeared was a chibi form representation of her unarmored self. A fair skinned girl with short cropped bright blue hair that curled around a set of cat ear headphones, brilliant glowing pink eyes and three out of four limbs artificial. She flitted over to the gathered group, her one real arm clutched around an oversized stuffed toy of a freespacer starship named Harmonious Solarsailor that she had befriended during her time with the nepleslians.

She blinked a few times and looked at everyone gathered around. "Hi, I'm Gearhead Halcyone Three Seven 37-4252-9653" she said and squeezed her stuffed toy.
 
Digital Space
"Oh, fret~not~Jack~," the many-armed avatar tutted, the face rolling expressions like a slot machine into a beaming smile. "This is just one of my pets~, giving me a way to be here without having to waste precious moments traveling."

Phase's many arms moved in different ways, as if many heads of a beast looking and searching the environment, but flowing like reeds in the wind. One eventually moved to stroke up Soulnomad's. . . "chin".

"I will be very~VERY~present on the ship, worry you not." Her voice dipped from that of a Yamataian pornstar to a bassy tone before returning to its usual glimmer.

On Halcyone's entrance, the roulette of faces spun into a bored expression, mimicking that of an artist's impression of an accountant on a tuesday.

"Oh, it is you," She remarked, as if somebody told her that they were out of jam.
 
"...In many ways, I suppose it's like a grinder without the grinder." The amber ghost answered Six Three's question cryptically, arcing his head as if to wonder what that said about the Skeleton exactly. "The refinery is, in essence, just a seven by seven meter room with a cargo elevator in the center, and rails for affixing chemical tanks. It currently contains an automatic stone maceration system, an electrolysis machine for ore extraction, and an artificial-gravity assisted distillation tank for gas separation. Each can probably process about a cubic meter of material at a time... I think. Well, that's what came out when the last fellow did it."

"It's not holding anything right now, through. Not unless you count the sulfur and water already in the food processing system. I had to trade the ore for some hands-on hull maintenance when I got here."

"The manufacturing room contains... erm... Power tools? The last three individual mechanics just left their stuff without cataloging it, I'm embarrassed to admit." Jack's head arced in a strange direction, as if his other self was currently making yet another failed attempt to make sense of his own internal camera feeds. "You can access both the cargo deck and refinery from here, through. It has four junkers, an automatic assembly bench, and an alloy-capable molding smelter big enough for a person to sit inside... Not that I would recommend that last course of action!"

"As long as you are aligned with us, I suppose the refinery section in particular is yours to do with as you please."

The train of thought was interrupted by Phase's rather more friendly attitude than the program-person had originally expected, simply causing him to freeze up, then gulp hard. It was difficult to shut up a thing that was basically made of words, but they had somehow managed it for a moment. A singular eye without a mouth could apparently look timid. Who knew?

Then, suddenly, yet another newcomer! Jack-o-lantern clearly didn't see them coming, since he had no way of looking out into the real world from the hub-table. Once she connected, however, it didn't take long for him to plonk a quick search through the polysentience and dig up some real-world information on them.

"You are very much welcome, Gearhead Three-Seven!" An arm outstretched to shake her hand, a face filled with a certain untamed mirth. "Hum... You don't see many organic friendlies cracking the six foot barrier... Might you have a military history?"

Attentions were clearly divided again, however. His back-wheel seemed to rotate in short clicks, somewhat like a loading bar.

"Do you two have previous experience of joyous collaboration, perhaps?..."
 
The GeneSculptor hurriedly took notes while the Soulnomad spoke to him. Adding onto the ship description that had just been handed to him, Six Three was determined to start adding on to it. He nodded as Jack finished speaking, “Naturally, of course, if I decide to join along with you. When speaking to the representative to a new ship, I like to get a feel about how provisioned they are. Helps me knowing what to expect when I board and get a real look of it all.”

Having munched away at the French Fry, he tried to reach forward and feel out another one on the table in front of him while he looked over his notes. Grasping only air for a second or two, Six Three looked up to see he was only an inch or two away above the fry he had aimed for. Dipping it once more into the chocolate milkshake, he ate as he rotated the 3D image that came along with the description of the ship. It seemed solid enough, in his opinion, definitely that was built for more “flight” than “fight” which was all the better to him. While the distillation and electrolysis mechanisms didn’t currently house any raw precursors, they would be easily obtainable. “What is one’s waste is another’s sustenance,” was how the motto went right? he thought. Eh, whatever. I’m sure we could find what we needed if we had too. Being short on supplies hasn’t stopped me yet, just another obstacle.

GeneSculptor looked up when he saw someone else pop into the room and introduce themselves. He went to raise his hand to greet them, but when the one that called itself Phase made a bland remark, Six Three back tracked; electing to watch the scene play out rather than interrupt.
 
"Pilot." Kiver responded after a second. She sounded weird, just from one word. Pilot said as Peill-uht, but at least she didn't stutter this time. Maybe it was the reassuring smile of the SI, or maybe it was that she was more in her element the moment a ship's schematics came up.

Pilot, not a stargazer. Stars were good, but only if you go there and check them out. Unlike a few others, she didn't stop to paw through the Ensemble's specifications. She just dumped the data straight into her mindware's virtual memory, and looked over the virtual food like it had grown a head and asked her to dance... In fact from the way her weird white cross-hatch on black void blush gained some resolution: She may have even been tempted to join the burgerman's ball and cut a rug with this strange handsome food-beast.

Either that or she was just avoiding little niceties. The evasion of meet-and-greet being infinitely more likely as the virtual burgerfoods remained decidedly headless, immobile, and decidedly charming only in terms of its intermingling of simustard and virtumayo.

Maker, this was taking a while though... Like an afterthought; Kiver brought up her own file and sent it over to Jack-o-lantern. Details of her work history, clocked flight times both in simulation and meatspace, extensive maintenance experience... Her personal record times on flights, with at least one remarkable finishing time on a stellar jump race run underlined four times with the words 'rekt it' appended around it in big bright happy letters. She had a surprisingly large amount of experience dealing with space-time distortions, and experience as a test-pilot with a goodly number of Likes from the local community around Null and Void. But also a large gap in her record where she did no piloting at all...
 
Halcyone blinked in surprise to Jack-o-lantern's enthusiastic greeting and hand shaking. "Not really" she replied. "Just some rudamentry military training recently with the Nepleslians" she added hesitantly.

Then glanced over at Phase, the one person there so far, that she recognized. They had had little interraction on their previous posting together, so she was unsure what had caused her to deserve the bland greeting from them. They'd not had any disagreements before or trouble working together, really their colaboration had been almost in inconsiquential passing.

"Yes, we have worked together before" she replied to Jack-o-lantern. "Just a little"
 
"We were murder-mates with Nepleslia's 'teach freespacers how to kill' initiative~" Phase switched to the bassy voice again. "That being said, Halcyone is old data. I already know everything I need to about her. Old data bores me."

The weird sun of arms avatar flickered out for a moment, then turned solid again.

"It appears that some little Datajack outside thinks they can hack my connection. Children are so precious, are they not?"
 
"A wise move, perhaps, but it can also be said that any waste products left on board after a trade are a sign of the ship's inefficiency, do you not agree, my fine fellow?" Jack used his smile again whilst talking to Six Three, through his eye simply closed with a robust expression of pride. "Any resources we might encounter on the journey are yours to barter, or throw back into the ship's communal stockpile, as you see fit. That goes for everyone. The only thing that this humble pilgrim is interested in, is that his vessel continues to service itself as a closed cycle, not completely reliant on anything save the sunlight under it's wings."

As ramshackle as the thing was, it certainly took a special breed of ship to come back to life no matter what the universe threw at it, one might suppose.

The review of Kiver's history was something that he took to with a degree more subtlety and but also less wishful optimism, attempting to discern how capable this individual might be of piloting such a unique craft. It was funny, seeing the more hidden silly side of the person's personality bleed over into the margins. The missing two years was a troubling detail, but the schism had affected them all in unforgiving ways. Perhaps she had been a member of the independent world league during it's degeneration into common piracy, and wished to wipe that savage experience from her records. There would be much better times to inquire about it, preferably in private.

Halcyone and Phase's interaction was just met with a mild state of perplexment, more than anything. The more macho attitude certainly could be attributed to the Nepleslian's way of doing things, but the way that the vibrant type-four also described crushing a hacker as if it was like swatting a fly... It made him remember that those who had made it that far south, also seemed to be more independent and wolfish, in his experience.

Habitually, an unseen hand checked his own security measures, namely how he was sending all of the connection data through a junker drone. Good for preventing anything as blunt as a denial of service attack, at the very least. A smile remained on his face, regardless. There was a reason that mythical wolves featured in so many old folk tales. Jack never intended to judge others with this meeting, only to find out how to turn their talents to the whole crew's collective advantage.

"Shall I begin with the local missions that seem within our particular capabilities? There is yet still much to talk about."

"Here is the first one. Pretty far out into the galactic west, right out in the Elysian badlands, I have a tip about a stray fleet that was lugging some pretty significant colonization and scientific apparatus along with them. After the schism, they pretty much attempted to delete all trace of their existence from the polysentience, even. Zero contact with them in the last six years. Supposedly the mothership's name was the White Lament."

"Second one. Straight north of the mist nebula, not far from here, there is word of a pretty strange pirate fleet swimming around. According to a source that is now working for Origin Industries, they used to be type-two workers, but were abandoned by their home fleet. Cinereal of the Astral Locksmiths seems concerned that they might have access to a secret leyline sub-system, since they continue to be so elusive, and is offering a material reward for the system's destruction."

"Third one. There is a new pro-Neplelsian spacer organisation called Viridian Array just starting up, you might have heard of them? Gun nuts obsessed with militarizing the entire race from what I've heard, but they certainly seem like a stabilizing presence for now. Problem is, they keep getting their facilities hacked. Probably by pro-independents, separatists, or hacker cult trolls. They want a specialist team of non-affiliated chaps to investigate a factory that went haywire on port hope... Could be risky to help them, considering all of the political flak being thrown about, but support from a grounded industrial cooperative isn't something we should just turn our noses up at... Helping them develop their assets could pay back really big in the long run, you understand?"
 
Last edited:
Kiver gave a few glances to Jack-o-Lantern as he seemed to review her... And say nothing. Looking up from Senor Burgerito, to Jack, then back again. Oh well. They say it's better to ask forgiveness than permission after all.

"W-well... The ship c'n easiest fly out to find a lost mothership." Kiver said, easily multiplying her spoken word count. It seemed just talking about how the ship could perform, or even just talking about something practical rather than herself steeled a bit of nerve to her. "Courier vessel, and we're nah running armed. I don't see 'ow we c'n take outta leyline system withou' barter for a lotta boom... Whu--which I don't know if you have."

Timidly, slowly, Kiver picked up her burger friend, and took one tiny bite; just one before the weird white void in the black void of her avatar face melded with the rest of her facial features, forming a large omni-mouth to eat the simulated food in one bite. Her face reformed as a whole, and then an observant sort would be able to notice a hamburger drift slowly into the stars within her form.

"I lost m'first ship. Also a courier. Bu' we couldn' repair it without parts an' stuff from Freehold. I' jus' fell 'part one day. Third job's best t'keep a ship goin' in long run."

Hovering over her head, a little list of preferences came up.

First preference: Viridian Array.
Second preference: White Lament.
Third Preference: Leyline Node.
 
After a decent time of consideration (around .78 seconds, but polite waiting for Kiver to stop talking extended the time further) Phase decided not to bother waiting for Halcyone's reaction to her previous statement.

"Viridian array. It is a simple enough affair to resolve a haywire factory. By my measure, we could likely finish that and then one of the other two in a very small interval. I could even do it myself, provided enough friends and pets to clear the place," the bassy voice of the twin-bodied Freespacer rolled. "The resources gained from the venture are much more concrete than something as flimsy as a promise of friendship and aid. It is the best route."

Phase's representation faded out, leaving a hollow sphere with a dot for an eye to watch the rest of the proceedings for her.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top