What's new
Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • 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
  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

When in USO do as the Thorns do

"no it's optional on the lab coat, and everyone started slaved to something. maybe not people but something. And i was a grunt, I learned how to build a fusion powered bike with the data on hand here. hence missing regulator, and as far as I know, your ship hasn't been tampered with." Jack said noting the slave bit.
 
"That was meant as a 'You don't know me' negative, you know." Thorn sighed, unzipping her flight suit top a bit to release some heat. The terminal she was using to monitor a fusion reactor wasn't needed anymore, so she pulled a datajack cable out of her pocket and plugged it in to her inbuilt touchscreen, before the other end was plugged into the kiosk. When she rebooted the computer, it logged into her ship using credentials on her implant and a touch of her finger confirmed.

She punched a password into the keyboard, still plugged in, and opened her ship's files, read-only versions being sent to the kiosk for Jack's perusal. "If my ship wasn't tampered with, then this is all my purchaseable data. Some times I like to go out for a flight and scan whatever I find. I think the pulsar data's of special note, considering it could be used to build the first fully functional neutronium reactor. Especially when combined with the mathematical models for Cavorite. Again, something I have a copy of, but I don't charge for that one."

When she looked at the screen, she saw a cluster of files, really only three or four, each folder marked with a map position and one or two word summary. If he delved into the files, he would find more summaries, and if he opened each scan file individually, he'd see high resolution active scans of the subject. This was especially promenant in her scan of a neutron star, where she'd recorded the rotational velocity and managed to record movement in the core by firing a stream of high energy electrons at it. Naturally, her ship had needed a new radiation shield after that, and some of her sensors were fried, but she had gotten closer and probed deeper than many had before.

"If you could leave the former slave bit out of my file... I'd be very appreciative. I mean, you're gonna need to know because I'm gonna be working with you, but no one else."
 
Last edited:
Welp seems like he was out of the conversation now. That was kind of relieving honestly. Amit couldn't help but exhale softly at the fact that the spotlight was off of him for the current moment. For the time being, he just stood there. Hearing confusing odd words as Thorne went to do something in the room. She put in some kind of code and accessed something.

"Slave?" Amit asked, his voice a bit low. "Like...did they poke you with lots of needles and put one of these on?"

Amit had walked over to her and he pointed to the odd metal collar around his neck. Looking at her, he couldn't see one. Maybe it was elsewhere? Or maybe she was normal enough to where she didn't have to wear the accursed thing?
 
She had to admit to biting back some venom at the child. Couldn't be helped, really. "That's a part of my life that I don't like to talk about, with anyone."

But she still pulled the hair away from her neck to show the scars from where she'd tried to get out of one of those collars, and though it was almost indistinguishable from the rest of her injuries, it was still distinct enough to show that she'd been defiant all through her childhood. "No needles. Kid, ask me again in twenty years and I'll tell you what it was like. For now, it's still too fresh in my mind, and you're a child. So why doesn't your mom know you're out?"

She was still minorly displeasantly confused that she'd managed to get a job not as a lab technician, which would make sense in her mind, but as a department head. After all, she was one, short, feisty white woman who tried to make her ass look bigger by wearing her EVA suit under cargo pants. She had some data, but wasn't particularly intelligent. She'd simply read a lot and gathered what information she couldn't find in a book.
 
Last edited:
Amit caught her distaste for this topic, he glanced away and scratched at part of his neck. These two were somewhat similar, though Amit wasn't a slave. He was a experiment. Sure he once lived a normal life but he ran away due to a fight with his parents and it got him into worse shit. Needles and pain was what most of that time consisted of. Sitting in a cell and being put through his own tortures.

"She was asleep. Very rude to wake her up so I didn't." He answered.
 
He'll admit that he had troubles finding the USO's Sector 6 building. Half of everything on this godforsaken rock looks like a pile of splinters just begging to fall in on itself, and the other half is a jumbled mess of new tech being built at a breakneck pace. A long tail of grey smoke twists and rolls over his shoulder, branching out from the cigarette clenched between his white metal teeth, puff after puff being sucked and blown. "Section 6..." Whenever he asked a local for a place seeking out medics, they would always shrug their shoulders and say that name or "the Sky Guard" (which, he later found out are associates). So, odds are, this would be the best first place to look. If he's turned down, a few mercs and a couple gangsters may be able to pay for food to last him on the trip to the next planet.

He spits out the butt of the cigarette, crushing it underfoot while his mask slides and locks back into place with an audible "schunk!" sound. He takes a few steps into the building, the soles of his shoes clapping against the floorboards. With hands in his pockets, he scans the surrounding area. He's picking up a few signatures, but it's hard to discern whose in charge by vital signs alone. "Alright, where's mister boss man... or woman. Can't be sexist." He hums, his voice now tinny from the mask around his jaw - in fact, he doesn't even move it - the audio instead coming from the mask itself. "come on, come on, there has got to be some kind of office here somewhere."

Then, he finds it. The door to the office of Jack Pine.
 
"Son leave her be. And I don't keep files on anyone unless they give me a reason to. I'll purchase whatever you have, we need all the data we can to develop and research. Especially with Project Eden in the works. A very large space station size, hollow world. To build worlds of our very own, with out the need for terraforming, or conquest.", Jack said as he put his thumb to the kiosk's scanner transferring the funds needed to make the purchase, "Everyone has a past here, and none of us talk about it, even I have a closet full of skeletons. Welcome to the club sister, you'll fit in perfectly around here."

Foot steps could be heard until a man who had been clearly and heavily augmented came into view in the hallway as he stopped outside the door to Jack's office. "Can I help you sir?", Jack shouted to the man.

Neera had been running across the sand from the neighborhood to the Section 6 facility, and ignoring the metal man as she raced down the hallway until catching Amit's scent.

She skidded into the room where Amit was, "Boy, you're lucky I didn't wake your mother to tell her you left! I was worried, so don't do that.", The snow white wolf with crimson eyes chastised as she huffed loudly until plopping down at Amit's feet.

"Oh hey Jack, who's the new people?", she asked taking in the strangers around her.
 
"Can't say I've ever seen that, before." Thorn cocked her head at the wolf before watching Jack buy all her data. "And I'm gonna be returning that... Fuck it. I'll just use it to buy some parts. If you're going to be building a hollow world, might I suggest a location?"

She pulled up the gravitational anomaly map of the system from her data, a few quick keystrokes throwing the hologram up near the work bench. "I noticed lagrange points... Ah, places where orbits can be balanced between planetoids because the gravitational equilibrium's stable, here and here." She pointed to two large oblongs in the map. "There are smaller ones all over the system, but these two are big enough to hold a moon. They'd also make excellent placements to install jump gates."
 
Amit went quiet. Not really listening to the conversation. Course he looked to see Neera came charging in, panting and slightly winded before she spoke a few words an plopped down onto the ground. Geez, why did they all get so worked up?

"Thought you were asleep too. I couldn't sleep, no point staying put in a room bored out of your wits." he commented.
 
He'd step to the side, his sensors picking up an object heading towards him at a breakneck pace only for it to be a young... wolf-woman. Guess this place has its own share of oddities. He draws a hand from his pocket, its gauntlet-like appearance gently reflecting the light from around the man. "Guess you're busy." He would hum, cocking his head before raising an arm, lifting his sleeve to reveal the holographic computer embedded in his wrist. "I was hoping I could submit a resume here. Been told by a few locals that you're in need of a medic." Though no eyes are visible, Jack would know he was being looked directly at. And while his appearance is somewhat menacing, his voice would sound a lot more nonchalant about being in an office with a girl, a wolf, a kid, and a guy he was looking to work for. Hopefully, he doesn't pay the cyborg in peanuts.
 
Last edited:
"Yeah Saber can always use a medic, kinda being tired of the only one with medical training. I don't suppose you would be interested in medical research as well would you? We don't have a department for it, but the field is definitely needed. Jack Pine, you can send the resume to my datapad." Jack finished as he held up the pad.

"Starting pay is 2000 creds every two weeks, with whatever funds you need for projects and work. We'll need to find you some work space as well. After that, just requisition whatever equipment and supplies you need. As I told her we'll even renovate the space to your needs." Jack continued ignoring Neera's question for the moment.
 
Thorn snorted, crossing her arms and cocking a hip. Of course, given the fact that she was so short and still skinny, the appearance would be comical, were the scar over her eyebrown not twitching slightly. "Renovate? A couple of sitting desks and I have some standing workbenches. Soldering iron, some basic tools, 3d printer, and a laser sinter mill and a chem shower, plus access to your digital libraries and I'm good. Maybe a couple of interns and an army cot under the workbench. Keep the walls open so people can shout at me and throw shit and we're good."
 
"2 grand, a custom workspace, and supplies for kissing your guys' booboos better? Count me in, Jack. Call me Beaumont. Now... Let me juuuust..." With a flick of his finger along the holographic computer, a file is launched like a slingshot over onto the datapad in the blink of an eye. Oh, how technology never ceases to impress the cyborg. "I'll admit I had troubles putting together an actual resume. I never actually... worked with any specific businesses. Nor did I... actually... go to... medical school. But don't fret! I've got enough hours of medical studies and practice under my belt to make up for it!" As he spoke, his fingers and arms would gesture awkwardly. Quite expressive for a man without a face.

The actual resume would be about a page long. due to a lack of work experience - and experience writing out, well, resumes, to call it an autobiography (A very abridged one, mind you. Can't be going around telling the important details, like how you only became a cyborg to avoid dues with criminals) would be more accurate.
 
"Not a problem, because to be honest I don't read em anyways. You got the skills, and I need those skills. Besides I've never worked for a business myself, ex-military. So lets find you that work space." Jack said strolling into the hall.
 
Thorn was quet, an eyebrow cocked and her cocky attitude deflated momentarily. "Yeah, alright. Hey, youngling! Wanna learn how to use a laser sinter 3D printer?"
 
He gives a wave to the girl and the kid before following Jack, stuffing his hands into his pockets and stepping up behind him. "So. Gimme the rundown. What kind of policies do you follow. You guys a very staunch group orrr... are you rather loose...?" he pauses for a sec, coming up with one of the most important questions to pop in his head. "Can I at least smoke?" This whole idea of working for a guy seems almost off to him. He's been so used to being self-employed that having a boss seems more alien than the inhabitants of this planet.
 
"Yes you can smoke, I do occasionally. I actually don't tell you what to do, and you can do whatever as long as it doesn't involve murder." Jack answered as they walked down the hall. Jack stopped shortly later, before opening the door of a room that only contained a couple tables and and chairs.

"We'll have equipment moved in tomorrow, here is the key to your new house. You have the one across the street from me and my family. I guess if you want you can check out the facilities here since you'll be working here." Jack continued as he handed over the keys to the house he had originally meant to give to Thorn, but since she didn't want it.

"Any other questions?" he asked.
 
He'd already begun to grow comfortable in this environment. Not too rural. Pretty urban. Perfect for a Nepleslian at brain. Beaumont gently slips the keys from the man's hand and offers a nod. "Good idea Let's move the new scary robot guy across the street from my family." he chuckles before slipping them into his pocket. "Will this job involve going out into the field or will I be cooped up in the office most of the time? A cyborg's gotta stretch his legs, you know." He chimes before stepping into the currently empty office. Oh, the blank template of an office space - with a ton of available wall space and plenty of volume in the room to fill it with a lot of medical equipment. He's certainly going to have fun here.
 
Last edited:
"Yes preferably, the last mission was not a smooth one. Considering I was unconscious from a round the lung and lower abdomen for the trip home, I can definitely say it was not a good day. All Saber members get outfitted for a suit of R1-SPA, or revenant power armor. Though that might be tricky for you. Also a DR1 is available for personal transport." Jack explained as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Jack what are you doing here so early? Please tell me you didn't sleep in the office again." Sarah Pine asked as she exited from the section of the building where Saber operated out of, "You need to go home and sleep."

"I did sleep." Jack said pinching the bridge of his nose, as ever since they got back she had been hanging all over him since admitting to being his sister. "Why are you here this early, huh.", he retorted as she was here too.

"I always come in and check my gear in the morning." Sarah stated flatly. The thirty six year old woman in her green military jacket, white tank top, and jeans didn't look a day over twenty. Which is probably why Jack had never made the connection of being related.
 
"Hmm..." He runs his finger along the 'chin' of his mask before snapping his fingers. "Tell you what. Give me the suit anyways. I'll find a way to graft the necessary bits onto me to assist in missions. A lot of the aspects necessary for your usual power armor are already integrated into my systems, so if I could find a way to atta-" He's caught off guard by the sight of a girl appearing over the shoulder of Pine, drawing his attention.

The cyborg would hoist himself onto a table and cross his legs, lacing his fingers in his lap for a moment before waving over to the woman. In all honesty, she is quite beautiful - a lot more attractive than those concubines in Funky City. "Oh hello." He would chime playfully. She must be a part of the organization, judging by her uniform.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top