Date - August 25th, 2188 AD A large room, filled with reporters snapping pictures and chatting amongst themselves settles as a man steps up to a podium at the front of the room and begins to speak. “Ladies and Gentleman, the President of the New Earth Conglomerate,” the man steps aside as the president of the New Earth Conglomerate stands up at podium and begins to speak: "Earth, our home, is no longer able to support us as a species. We have so recklessly and so selfishly filled our atmosphere with toxins, stripped our ground of its natural resources, polluted our water with chemicals, and scarred our landscapes with war. We are quickly running out of living space, food, water, and even breathable air. The time has come to cast down the shackles that bind us to this planet. The time has come to take the next step of human history, and that step is called Operation: New Haven!" "What exactly is this Operation: New Haven?" a reporter shouts out. “Operation: New Haven,” the President begins, “is our grasp at a new tomorrow, our second chance at prolonging the human race.” “Mr. President,” a reporter begins, “what do you mean by ‘our second chance?’” “It’s our chance to begin anew. We have learned from our mistakes and we, as a people, are ready to begin again, on a new planet,” the President says. Camera flashes and questions from reporters overtake the room. The president raises his hand, the commotion quells, then points to one of the reporters in the front. “Sir, where will humanity be getting this second chance?” the reporter questions. “That’s a good question,” the President responds, “as you all know, in recent years we’ve been pushing more funding into our outer space exploration and planetary analysis programs. After billions of dollars and many years of hard work, we believe we’ve found the perfect planet to colonize.” A large hologram of a planet appears next to the President’s podium. The planet is covered in very large bodies of water, what is not water is a lush green color. The North pole of planet is a tan yellowish color where the South pole is where. There appears to be seven moons orbiting the planet. The President begins to speak again, “This, is Andromeda 7. Being four times larger than Earth with nearly the same gravitational field, Andromeda 7 is the perfect planet to colonize and begin Humanity’s next step into the future. To talk more about Andromeda 7, I introduce Chief of Extraterrestrial Exploration, Dr. William Howard.” The President steps down from the podium as Dr. Howard takes his place. “Hello, thank you all for joining us here today during this monumental part of human histo…” before the doctor can continue he is cut off by a reporter. “Doctor, tell us more about the planet. What makes Andromeda 7 the best option for colonization?” “Well,” the Doctor continues, “Andromeda 7 is made up of nearly 70% ocean and 25% lush, green, rainforests, with the remainder being the large deserts and tundras that are located at the North and South poles of the planet. Deep surface scans reveal the planet to be extremely rich in minerals and metals. There are six moons and one red dwarf star that orbit Andromeda, three of them are similar to our moon but boast a much higher metal concentration, two are covered in extremely dense rainforests, one consists of a massive ocean. Andromeda orbits a blue giant and takes approximately 3 Earth years to complete a full revolution. The planet’s day is about 32 hours long with daylight taking up about 20 of those hours, at certain times during its year the daylight can fluctuate to about 29 hours, depending on where its orbiting dwarf star is located. The average, year round, temperature is estimated to be about 30 degrees Celsius which, again, can fluctuate depending on where the orbiting sun is.”
“Doctor, you estimate the temperature to be 30 degrees Celseus, can’t you scan or land a probe that can determine the exact information?” a reporter questions.
“Well, getting exact and precise readings of the planet’s surface is quite impossible, at the moment. The orbiting star emits a unique radiation that interferes with precision temperature, atmosphere, and lifeform scans. It also blocks long range communications between the various probes we’ve attempted to land on the planet. In order to relay information from the planet’s surface to Earth, we would need to set up a short wave transmission system on the surface that would relay information to an orbiting station which would then transmit the data here to Earth. We’ve done hundreds of thousands of calculations and simulations to determine the temperature and atmosphere of the planet and we’re quite confident on our results.”
Another reporter shouts out, “Doctor, what are the native creatures of this planet like? If this planet is so perfect to sustain human life then surely that means there are already creatures living there.”
“Like I stated, due to the excess solar radiation created by the planets orbiting star, surface life form scans from the outer atmosphere are impossible. We have run probability calculations that state a 95% chance of life on the planet with a 15% chance of life boasting the sentience and intelligence of humans.” The doctor pauses to look down at his watch, he then looks up and begins speaking once more, “For the past 25 years, we’ve been monitoring and searching for habitable planets to colonize. In the most recent years, we’ve been observing and narrowing down our selection of possible planets between 3 until we finally concluded that Andromeda 7 was our best option for colonization. One more question?”
The room erupts as all the reporters try to get their questions in. The Doctor points to one reporter in the front of the room, the rest quiet themselves.” “What’s the plan to get to Andromeda, Doctor?”
“We’re going to build, what we like to call, The Ark.” the hologram of the planet changes to a massive space ship, “The Ark will be the largest space faring vessel ever created by man. Its capable of housing and supporting a total crew of 100,000 people and has the capability to grow food for the entire crew as well as support the livestock and foliage that will be transported to Andromeda 7. The trip to Andromeda will take nearly 15 years, so the majority of the crew will need to go into cryogenic hibernation for most of the trip. This will be the largest undertaking humanity has ever grasped at. Thank you.” The Doctor steps down from the podium as reporters start shouting and cameras start flashing.
Now:
Date - June 17th, 2213 The Ark, the largest and most advanced ship ever created by mankind has been completed and its crew of 100,000 has been put together. This crew’s mission is first to scout the planet and then begin colonization efforts. The crew consists of nearly anyone you can imagine: doctors, soldiers, mechanics, engineers, chefs, scientists, construction workers, etc; anyone that has a purpose is aboard the ship, even crew members families provide some sort of use to the crew as a whole. To be sure that the ship doesn’t need to return to Earth after its 15 year long journey, The Ark is equipped with just about every piece of technology imaginable that would aid in the colonization of Andromeda 7.
Thread/Story Beginning:
We will be members of The Ark’s colonization crew, whether you want to be on the first landing squad or a later drop down setup crew will be up to you. We will need to endure hardships and unsuspected surprises once we land on Andromeda, such things could consist of but are not limited to: strange and alien animal attacks, freak storms, technology malfunctions or failures, disease or bacteria outbreaks, infestations, etc. The environment that we’ll be dealing with on Andromeda will be a large, incredibly dense jungle, think rainforest but much, much bigger. There are giant trees, strange plants, large bodies of water, rivers, waterfalls, any just about any other thing that you’d imagine to be in an alien rainforest. Being that it’s the year 2213, technology is extremely advanced and will be incorporated into your character via armor or cybernetic enhancements (no super strength, super speed, or the like. Try to be realistic. I will tell you if there is an imbalance issue with your character’s bio). Our story begins with all of use on board The Ark one day before we enter Cryo-sleep.
Current Story Activity:
Thread has just begun and our characters are aboard The Ark, one day before departure, getting everything in order before entering Cryo-sleep. Current Date and Time: 14:00 6/17/2213
Rules: (Read These)
0: Read all the rules so you understand everything, please.
0.25: Keep it real Now I know what you’re saying: “we’re writing a fictional story in the future on another planet,” but still, try to keep things in the bounds of being ‘somewhat’ realistic for the time. None of the: “a giant fire breathing unicorn that shot lasers out of its butt,” in this thread… don’t want any of that ‘round these parts.
0.5: Thread Formatting Out of Context stuff that must be kept in IC for clerical reasons should look like this: ((This is an out of context conversation)), otherwise keep it in the OOC section. Character’s thoughts should look like this: *I wonder if I’m making this confusing…* Normal storytelling/writing formats apply for everything else: Jason yelled, “Why do we have to follow all these rules?!” “Because,” Ford replied, “we must maintain order!”
0.75: The only stupid question is one that’s not asked. If you’re confused or you’ve got a question, feel free to ask me. I’m totally happy clarifying and helping people to understand things. Sometimes I write really weirdly so its understandable if you’re confused.
1: The basics apply No god-modding, flaming, spamming, auto-killing, auto-hitting, or ending fights super duper early.
2: Keep it in context If your character is an engineer, he’s not going to be walking around with a Light machinegun on his back, if he’s a soldier, he’s going to have more than a combat knife or pistol. It’s not required, but is strongly advised, that each character has a “space suit” of sorts. Something to protect them in outer space, under water, or similar hostile environments. Again, keep it within context, a doctor isn’t going to have power armor... Same with professions and ages,a 14 year old isn’t going to be building and maintaining weapons, a 19 year old isn’t going to be a brain surgeon, and a 65 year old isn’t going to be out exploring the jungles of Andromeda.
3: Be creative, be expansive We’re exploring a totally new planet, be creative and imaginative. We’ll be discovering new animals, plants, and the like that you’ll be able to create and name things on the fly, and don’t forget to be descriptive. Other people need to know what your character is seeing, so describe what your character sees to the best of their abilities. Don’t hesitate to be dark and gritty, bloody and gory, or even happy and optimistic (I'm not one to care about cursing, either. If you feel it adds to the story, go for it!). There is no limit to what you can write and story tell, feel free to be really descriptive.
4: Just Getting Started After Physical Appearance, add the section: “Favorite Color: Color” to your character’s app. Example: Favorite Color: Red
5: Anything can happen Like I said, I have little to no say in how your characters interact with each other, you decide that. If you want your character to hate someone, cool, if you want them to fall in love, that’s fine too. Just try to keep it PG-13ish. There will be events that will occur in this thread that are dictated/governed by me or one of the few that I deem worthy to do so. These events can include but are not limited to: controlling story centered NPCs, assigning certain missions or tasks, random encounters, weather events, Day/Night cycles, time skips, and the controlling the bulk of the military. Main GM - nod2121 CO-GM -
6: Don’t freeze other players If you leave your character unattended for at least a week that character will be forgotten about until you return. If your character is freezing another, I will permit slight godmodding to unfreeze the frozen character. If you are frozen by a character that is not responding, let me know so I can deal with it accordingly. Please, if you’re joining this thread make sure you have the time to actually keep up with it. If you’re going to be gone for an extended amount of time, let us know and make sure you don’t write your character into a situation where they’ll be freezing another.
7: We’re smart people, write like it I expect posts to be easy to read, sometimes you may have a day where you’re brain just isn’t working but if I see posts like this: “i leik to go to moveis an stuf but sumtimes I cant affrd it.” I WILL make you rewrite them... Also, if you must make up words or names for things, which will undoubtedly happen, make sure that we can all easily read and understand it. “Photon Quantum Modulation Generator” might be pushing it a bit high on the confusion scale.
8: Almost done, I swear. As the very last thing in your character’s bio, write: “Shiny and chrome”
9: We’re the smrtest! Humanity is the only known intelligent life in the universe, thus far. In the story, we’ve accepted that there probably is other intelligent life in the universe, however we have not discovered it… yet… maybe… we’ll see.
10: Regarding weapons and armor The weapons and armor our characters wear and use are completely custom, go nuts and make them as cool as you want when creating them, but remember that weapons and armor are to be balanced and in context to your character’s job (see rule 2: Keep it in context). I’ll discuss this further in the References section, but be warned when creating character apps, I WILL NOT ACCEPT OVERPOWERED WEAPONS OR ARMOR. I will make you rewrite parts of your character app if I feel it needs to be. If you have a hard time creating weapons or armor, feel free to ask me or another poster to make one for you or if you can use the same armor they are.
Word from the Author:
Why hello there! I’m Nod or Spencer, whatever you wanna call me is fine. I’ve participated in a number of threads but this is the first one I’ve actually written and hosted. I just want to discuss my thoughts on this thread. At this point in time humanity has come to terms with the fact that there probably is other intelligent life in the universe, we haven’t encountered it yet, but its probably out there. As a race, we’ve never established colonies on any other celestial body other than Earth’s moon. We’ve been able to observe “animal” life on other planets but have yet to discover beings with heightened intelligence or sentience, similar to humanity’s level. Colonizing Andromeda 7 is something that’s never been attempted by mankind, there’s no protocol or procedure that’s been proven to work because it’s never been done before, so expect things to go wrong and expect surprises to occur. There are going to be a slew of new species, minerals, and plant life that we’ll discover on Andromeda, so it’ll be interesting. I’m running this thread in a sort of lax fashion; names, places, sciences, and the lot are generally up to you and your character to decide. If something sounds too farfetched or off the rails I’ll step in and ask for a rewrite but it's generally up to you to decide. This thread isn’t going to be all happy sunshine and rainbows. There will be death, there will be blood, there will be hard times, some characters might not like each other, some characters may love each other. I don’t know what’ll happen, there are a few key events I plan on introducing into the story but the story is by no means ‘set in stone.’ So have fun and go wild!
References
This serves to jog your memory if you’ve forgotten what the world will be like in the year 2213. This will also be a bank for things discovered in the story, for quick reference.
Technology: Technology has advanced past the point you can imagine. There are holograms, computer ai, robots, augmentations, cybernetic enhancements, and much, much more. I can’t, and won’t, even begin to explain what technology will be like. There are limits however, teleportation is only possible to non-living/organic materials and objects and only achievable over short ranges, for now... and since the nations of Earth banded together around the year 2068, weapons technology hasn’t advanced too much. Humanity’s weapon technology is still conventional, projectile based weapons. Laser technology, in regards to handheld weapons, hasn’t advanced very much at all, and weaponized plasma technology won’t even be discussed. The bright, shiny, chrome future that exists in the movies does not exist in this world, instead the feel of everything is a bit more dark. Refer to these pictures for inspiration: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100228195222/halo/images/0/07/Halo_Reach_-_Powerhouse_Concept_Art.jpg http://cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/Halo-4-concept-1.jpg http://conceptartworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Halo_4_Concept_Art_John_Liberato_12a.jpg Yes, those are concept art pieces for Halo. Yes, I like Halo. No, I am not using those as inspiration because I like Halo. The only ship we’ll be dealing with, for the time being, will be The Ark and it is outfitted with a number of military weapon systems that will not be discussed/revealed now and should be treated as no one knows about them. The Ark also has anything you and your character will need to progress in the story. Supplies are limited but can be considered as unlimited, for the time being. Mostly anything your character does not start with can be requisitioned from the various distributors on the ship.
Andromeda 7: The planet is seven times larger than earth and made up of 70% ocean and 30% land. 25% of that land is dense, lush rainforest the hostility of which is unknown. The North pole of the planet is a massive dessert, hostility unknown, and the South pole is a massive tundra, hostility unknown. There is most certainly life on the planet, hostility towards humans in unknown however, and the level of intelligence is also unknown. Andromeda’s days last 32 hours with 20 hours being daylight and has an estimated year round temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. Six moons and one red dwarf star orbit Andromeda 7; three of the moons (Trona, Betum, and Hexa) are barren, desolate, and seemingly devoid of life (like Earth’s moon), two of them (Gron and Tratum) are entirely covered in massively thick and dense rainforests, and the final one (Bilara) is entirely covered by ocean. The orbiting star (Tritan) causes the planet's temperature, surface radiation levels, and other things to fluctuate during the year.
Plant life: None
Animal life: None
Intelligent life: None
Characters:
Go crazy! Be as descriptive as you want, there is a 2k character minimum, but there is no cap for length. Feel free to add additional sections, outfits, etc. if you feel that it would add to your character’s creation. Character, weapons, or armor portraits are not necessary but feel free to add them if you think that it helps convey what you’re trying to describe. If you’re creating an NPC or Minor Character please fill out the “NPCs and Minor Characters” character sheet. Character sheets can be found in the “Character” section.
@Avanhelsing Oh yea that's fine, as long as it was a station that was orbiting Earth lol I'm making a special ops soldier that was born on one of the colonies on Earth's moon. I'm also probably going to be making another character later on haha
@HeroicGathering I think its interesting that you're making a team but I'm gonna limit the team to three main members for now, unless you've got reason why you absolutely need all 5. Also, a couple things: I wasn't thinking of having a "standard issue" uniform for those aboard The Ark. I found it would be a bit more, normal, to have everyone wear whatever clothes they needed for their tasks. i.e. - if they were on the job they'd wear their work cloths, otherwise they'd wear casual stuff. In all your characters' short histories you speak of them as being awake for the 15 year journey. I enjoyed the creativity of them all but I'm gonna need to ask you to change a few aspects, namely that you speak of them being awake over the journey. We'll be beginning the thread one day before the actual launch of The Ark and once it's launched we'll all be put into Cryo-sleep, essentially freezing our characters in the state, age, and physiological mindset that they were in at the time. They'll be the same age and in the same state of mind once they come out of Cryo 15 years later. The only people that will be awake for the journey will be Captain John Royal (captain of the vessel) and a few unnamed staff to keep the ship running. Your characters' weapons and armor are a bit basic, don't forget we're 200 years in the future, I did state weapons tech hasn't advanced into the crazy ranges but there's still possibilities for some really cool stuff, and once we get to Andromeda, we might not have the most easy time dealing with things. So keep that in mind and feel free to revamp your armor and weapons ;) And finally, make sure you read all the thread rules. There may be something you forgot in your character apps ;))
@Avanhelsing I'm liking your character app but again, read the rules there may be something you've forgotten haha
@Avanhelsing and @HeroicGathering I've put my character apps up in the character section. Feel free to read them, I'm getting a sense that we're thinking of different levels of technological advancement lol
@HeroicGathering I think its interesting that you're making a team but I'm gonna limit the team to three main members for now, unless you've got reason why you absolutely need all 5. Also, a couple things: I wasn't thinking of having a "standard issue" uniform for those aboard The Ark. I found it would be a bit more, normal, to have everyone wear whatever clothes they needed for their tasks. i.e. - if they were on the job they'd wear their work cloths, otherwise they'd wear casual stuff. In all your characters' short histories you speak of them as being awake for the 15 year journey. I enjoyed the creativity of them all but I'm gonna need to ask you to change a few aspects, namely that you speak of them being awake over the journey. We'll be beginning the thread one day before the actual launch of The Ark and once it's launched we'll all be put into Cryo-sleep, essentially freezing our characters in the state, age, and physiological mindset that they were in at the time. They'll be the same age and in the same state of mind once they come out of Cryo 15 years later. The only people that will be awake for the journey will be Captain John Royal (captain of the vessel) and a few unnamed staff to keep the ship running. Your characters' weapons and armor are a bit basic, don't forget we're 200 years in the future, I did state weapons tech hasn't advanced into the crazy ranges but there's still possibilities for some really cool stuff, and once we get to Andromeda, we might not have the most easy time dealing with things. So keep that in mind and feel free to revamp your armor and weapons ;) And finally, make sure you read all the thread rules. There may be something you forgot in your character apps ;))
@Avanhelsing I'm liking your character app but again, read the rules there may be something you've forgotten haha
@Avanhelsing and @HeroicGathering I've put my character apps up in the character section. Feel free to read them, I'm getting a sense that we're thinking of different levels of technological advancement lol
I must have misread or ignored the plot, how embarrassing. My bad.
Well, that's a whole lot of work for nothing. I'll respectfully withdraw, and let you get some competent roleplayers in here. I think my eagerness to actually write something (having a hard time being in an RP that actually starts lol) that led to me to breeze over the intro post.
@HeroicGathering Its not problem, we all have brain farts and pass over things haha You're more than welcome to edit those bios if you want! I was by no means saying "no" :)
@GummyCat ummm you can post it in the Character section, i'll let you know if you need to change things once you're all finished @Avanhelsing your character is approved :D I'll add him to the character sheet!
