500 years ago Earth fell to the waves of AI controlled machines. Out of that, our people survived, fleeing to the far reaches of the Galaxy where we settled and rebuilt, though much knowledge was lost, including the star charts that might guide our path home. But now, another threat has found us and once again we must take to the stars in search of a new home or, perhaps an old one...
WELCOME!
Hello and welcome to Paradise Lost, an RP where you will play one of the survivors of the Colony of Eden, fleeing from an exterminating enemy horde on a colony ship. Perhaps you were intended to be on the colony ship, perhaps you snuck onboard. Either way you're there now!
Eden is a colony with humans and aliens. You can play either, using one of our main races, or even design your own, though if you're keen for that, join the discord and we'll work one out with you!
In the end, everyone on the ship, human or alien is looking for a new home in an unknown hostile galaxy. Maybe you'll find somewhere new to settle, or maybe you'll try to head back towards the legendary homeworld of 'Earth'.
Lastly, this RP is open to latecomers. To make that easier, we're going to declare that the colony ship is full of colonists in stasis. If you want to join late, we'll just wake someone new up.
Lastly, I've tagged the 18+ bit so that we can explore darker themes. Not to write porn.
SETTING
It is the year 3822 and the galaxy is barely recognisable.
In the Year 2307 ‘the United Nations of Sol’, by then a wealthy Faster-than-light civilisation, joined the ancient ‘Federation of Civilised Worlds’ led by the first spacefaring races. The Federation had lasted for thousands of years and at the time of signing into it, the people of Sol thought it would be eternal.
It was not. By the 27th century, there were growing rifts between the first spacefaring races, with their ‘herd mentalities’ and the more individualist younger races. A number of civil wars shook the Federation. As the Federation struggled with internal problems it was struck by two outside threats that, collectively, proved it's downfall. The first was an invasion of a devouring insectoid swarm known as the 'Metacer'. The second was the result of (illegal) AI research in the Sol system - a particularly powerful AI went rogue, sparking the 'Machine War'.
As far as anyone knows the Machine War destroyed the Sol system, though at least one convoy of refugee ships managed to escape, fleeing into a Federation 'Reserve'. The ships put down on an uninhabited garden world the refugees named 'Eden'. With their vessels out of fuel and in need of repairs, a temporary settlement was established with the expectation that the Federation would find them at some point, when stability had been restored. But nobody ever came.
It took the best part of two centuries before the Colonists were able to begin producing new FTL vessels, though the drives they constructed were slow and primitive compared to the ones they had been using prior to settling in Eden. Star charts from before the migration were non existent.
No sign of Federation or AI vessels was found though a few nearby planets were found to harbor primitive species, not capable of space flight. The Colony of 'Eden' began to expand, settling on other planets, clashing with and occasionally assimilating the locals. By 3822, New Eden has expanded to (nominally) control five habitable worlds (though clashes with primitives continue on all planets but Eden), with mining operations on several other uninhabited ones.
Otherwise, Eden began to function much like any other capitalist state. Farms were built on the colony worlds. Companies mined on planets and asteroids. A division grew up between the rich and poor, though the colony remained, for the most part, a fairly equitable meritocracy. Unlike on Earth, where humans formed the elite in society, on Eden, the Dhasath and Kiellar (alien groups) are just as well represented.
A year ago, however, the outside world finally found the Colony of Eden. Nobody knows exactly how they landed on Eden and her colonies, but Metacer began to be sighted for the first time in 500 years. Initially the military was slow to acknowledge their existence or act on the threat, eventually doing so when the first small towns were devoured by the ravenous swarms. By then, however, it was too late and the collapse of Eden's military was swift.
Today you find yourself one of the lucky ones who made it up to Eden's orbital shipyard where a colony vessel has been being outfitted with the hope of migrating, once again, to a new home. Rumours are circulating that the Metacer are breeding in the bowels of the station, though that couldn't possibly be true... could it?
LORE
Technology
As this is sci-fi, there are a number of pieces of technology that will be mentioned in the RP. Here is some info on them:
Skrim Drive: The Skrim Drive is the basic FTL drive used by all species in the galaxy, allowing them to phase across to hyperspace where an object can travel faster than light. Opening a hyperspace window requires a lot of energy and several minutes to 'spin the drive up'. Skrim Drives are prone to overheating and longer hyperspace journeys will need to be made in hops. That, along with the speed limitation means that most journeys between stars will take days or weeks and movement between galaxies is believed to be impossible.
Most ships can detect a hyperspace window opening or closing a few minutes before the ship utilising their Skrim drive moves through it.
Translator Nanites: Translator nanites, injected into children at birth and which inhabit an individual's brain, allow people to understand most, though not all, alien languages. Translator nanites self replicate, which is useful since nobody knows how to make new ones or, really, how they work.
Energy weapons (Blasters): Most weapons used in warfare are energy weapons. Units that are not connected to a generator (such as handheld weapons) will require a battery pack that usually allows for around 100 shots to be fired before needing to be swapped over. A person struck by an energy weapon can expect serious, deep burns with a high chance of death if the discharge travels through a major organ.
Shields: Large ships are always fitted with energy shields to prevent damage from space debris as well as weapons from other ships. Shields on surface vehicles etc. have been experimented with but are too heavy to be practical.
Body Armour: Body armour exists though isn't widely used. It can minimise injury from handheld weapons rather than completely absorbing the energy from a shot.
The Metacer
The metacer are large, ferocious omnivorous insectivores that devour anything that gets in their path including crops, livestock and people. Most metacer stand about four foot tall, but are around twice as long and appear a lot like an enormous brown ant. They can move extremely fast and do not appear to feel pain. Most metacer are not sapient, being little more than dumb animals. Big, dangerous, dumb animals but dumb animals all the same. Command Bugs, however, are not and can seemingly exert psychic control over hordes of workers. These metacer won't usually expose themselves to hostile fire, but if you can find and eliminate them, you can significantly lower the combat performance of nearby workers who will become confused and disorientated without the presence of a Command Bug. Somewhere, a nest will have a Queen, who can also exert psychic control over workers and is significantly larger, though a lot less dangerous as the Queen is usually so swollen with unlaid eggs she can barely move. Killing the Queen will slow down reproduction, though to be absolutely sure that other Command bugs won't grow into a Queen, all of these individuals need to be hunted down as well.
Species of Eden
Humans As I'm assuming you are a human so I'm not going to write too much here.
Biology: The dhasath look like humans though they trace their ancestry to the Andromeda galaxy and are regarded as an old-medium aged race (having taken to FTL travel some 450 years before humanity).
Dhasath have less phenotypic divergence than humans and mostly look like Eastern Mediterranean/Middle-Easterner/Iranic people. While humans and dhasath are indistinguishable to look at, species with a strong sense of smell can tell them apart, usually finding dhasath to be sweet smelling.
Dhasath have the same lifespan as a human, though they are fully mature by age 14. A dhasath pregnancy is shorter than a human one (six months) and they produce ‘litters’ of, on average, 2.5 children. All of this means that, given good conditions, dhasath populations can explode.
In addition to this, dhasath require very little water to survive (and very rarely sweat) and can survive extremes of both heat and cold that would kill a human. In periods of stress, dhasath females will stop ovulating.
As a byproduct of their evolution for harsh climates, dhasath produce chemicals in their blood and saliva which can induce euphoria in other species if consumed. This had led to legends of dhasath being able to mind controlling victims with a kiss, though these are only legends. Unusually, humans and dhasath can produce viable hybrids. Genetic tests indicate that dhasath and humans might have diverged from one another around 1 million years ago, though nobody has a particularly good explanation as to how this happened. The current working theory is that this might have been the work of some long dead precursor civilisation though if it was, all traces of their existence is now gone.
History and Culture: According to legend, and dhasath religious texts, the ‘Dhasath League’ was a power in the Andromeda Galaxy in the 1600s that was eventually destroyed by an alien race known as the ‘Ragons’ though some legends suggest the dhasath are even older than that, a ‘phoenix species’ who rose from the ashes of a destroyed empire aeons before that. Some of the survivors of the Ragon invasion found their way to the Sol system after the human uplift, becoming major players in Martian politics.
In the 24th Century, when Earth joined the Federation of Civilised Worlds the dhasath began to form communities across Federation space and, when the Federation was destroyed three centuries later, were one of the species that expanded to fill the void left by the extinguished Federation species.
Unusually, the dhasath were something of a species-religious group, almost universally following a syncretism of Christianity and their own native religion known as ‘Makerism’ through which the dhasath clergy were able to explain all things that happened to their species, as part of a divine plan. This has continued in Eden with religious texts detailing their flight to Earth and later Eden.
Around a quarter of the population of Eden are dhasath. Kiellar Plural: kiellar Adjective: kiellar Naming: Kiellar are usually referred to by their first name, but on official documents will be known as <Name> of <Father's name>. Click here for a generator that will spit out some thematic names.
Appearance: Kiellar are a moderately tall race, with males averaging about and females about 5’8’’ and males about 6’2’’ with generally slim builds. Their skin tones are similar to those of humans, as are the colours of their (almond shaped) eyes. Kiellar hair is similar in shade to human hair, though it is noticeable finer and body hair is sparse.
NB: If you want to make a kiellar character and want to use a picture, Shadowrun Elves make good models.
Biology: Kiellar have an average lifespan of about 200 years. While an individual Kiel will reproduce slowly (gestation period is one year), kiellar remain fertile for most of their lives and that, coupled with their natural resistance to disease, means that the kiellar population as a whole can multiply quite rapidly – it is not unusual for a kiellar couple to produce over 20 offspring in a lifetime, with over a century between the youngest and the eldest.
Kiellar, additionally, have strong night vision.
History and Culture: Kiellar legends state that 2,600 years ago, the first kiellar ships left their homeworld of Relenar, somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy, to begin exploration of their solar system. Initially a group of waring Nation States, the kiellar became eager terraformers, turning inhospitable moons into habitable planets before over the course of the next century.
Strife, however, quickly broke out between the colonies, with some seeking independence from their home nations, which in turn ignited a wave of brutal wars across Relenar. Out of the ashes of this rose the ‘All Kiellar Republic’ which sought to unite the waring kiellar nations into one system-wide Republic. At first it seemed like a fantasy, however, the Republic continued to win until, by the time the kiellar discovered hyperdrive technology 2,400 years ago, the whole system was united.
The discovery of alien life came as a shock to the kiellar who, to that point, had assumed they were the only intelligent life-form in the universe. The Kiellar Republic began to trade with some of their interstellar neighbours, however, the kiellar culture was expansionistic and, bit-by-bit, the kiellar began to absorb their neighbours.
The first major setback occurred when the kiellar encountered the Dhasath League who destroyed the Kiellar Fleet, forcing the Republic to pay war reparations. This, in turn, paved the way for the military to seize control of the Republic, claiming the defeat was the result of corrupt politicians. The Kiellar fleet was rebuilt and the Second Dhasath war was a minor (and very unexpected) Kiellar victory, with the League handing over several mining stations and border outposts, but retaining all their inhabited worlds.
Following on from the Second Dhasath War, and the subsequent destruction of the League at the hands of the emergent Ragon Empire, Kiellar Command rapidly became the dominant power in Andromeda, conquering and enslaving innumerable other races, though as they did, increasingly large proportions of their military were required to keep their subjects in line. The Ragon Empire exploited this weakness during the War for Andromeda and Kiellar Command would have collapsed were it not for the intervention of other powers to help defeat the Ragons.
The damage, however, had been done and, following on from the war, Kiellar Command disintegrated into a morass of waring states controlled by rebels or military cliques. Refugees poured across into the neighbouring Milky Way galaxy and by the time of the Machine War, kiellar were an increasingly common sight.
kiellar make up around 20% of the population of Eden. Other Species Due to the large amount of apps for unique species, this is closed for nopw.
THE RULES
In summary, 'don't be a dick'. But here they are if that comment is confusing:
Decisions My word and the word of all Co-OPs is binding. If you don’t like a decision, you can, of course, ask for us to reconsider it. Once. If we made a decision you don’t like, complaining for pages and pages is not going to endear you to anyone. Not me, not the Co-OPs and not your fellow writers. On that note, I intend to run this thread as an anarcho-communist cooperative. This is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying that my word DOES NOT overrule theirs. So don’t ask me to overrule one of the others. I won’t.
Post Quality I don’t have a problem with short posts but please use proper spelling (I don’t care what regional variant), grammar etc. Ideally also try to include a 'hook' when you write a post, which is to say something that gives other people something to respond to. If your post is something along the lines of 'Bilbo Baggins stayed in his room and read a book while the world was ending', don't be surprised if nobody responds to you.
Posting Commitment Nothing is worse than making an RP only for it to die. Please try to check in to see if there is room for a post every 24 hours or so. If you find yourself unable to post for extended periods of time, please let us know on the Discord or in the OOC thread. If it looks like you've abandoned a character in the middle of a fight scene I might decide to kill them off, if I'm feeling particularly malicious.
Posting Speed On the flip side, blitz posting can also be infuriating. So, especially during the important scenes, I recommend giving your fellow players a reasonable time to make a reply. We all have real lives. That being said, if someone leaves everyone waiting for over 48 hours, feel free to carry on the scene without them.
OOC thread Manners Nothing annoys me more than bad manners on an OOC thread and in the Discord channel. Swearing, passive-aggressive sniping or any other rude behaviour are not welcome on the OOC. You will be warned once. If you can’t control yourself I will ask you to remove yourself from the thread.
IC thread Manners Remember, we are writing a story together, not trying to win.
Character Death Player death is possible in this RP, though will be quite rare and easily avoidable. Please don’t write that you have killed another character unless you have OOC permission from the character's owner to do it. Beat them into a pulp or take them prisoner, but don’t kill them. Having said that, if someone does something really stupid (such as this), I reserve the right to announce your character has got themselves killed. Likewise, if someone goes inactive without explanation and cannot be raised, I may decide to kill their character off.
Keep it tasteful Yes, this is an 18+ RP but please try to keep things tasteful. Generally speaking if there isn't a narrative reason for writing stuff other people will find offensive, don't write it. We'll ask you to correct, warn and/or ban depending upon how far outside the realms of common decency you are and whether we think you're taking the piss or not.
Banning Players I really don’t want to be doing that but reserve the right to do so if you cannot follow the (hopefully, rather simple) rules above.
APPLICATION FORMS
The moment you have been waiting for!
Feel free to app anything you think your character might do.
Additionally, feel free to write up a number of characters!
When filling in an application form, please delete everything in parentheses.
Character Description
Name: Species: Sex: Age: Role/Job: (feel free to be creative!) Appearance:(Feel free to describe with text or put pictures in here. Please do not use anime face claims. They're so stylised it's hard to identify defining features)
Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills: (Is there anything you are significantly better at than most other people? If you include something, make sure it is backed up in the background) Weaknesses: (Is there anything your character is really rubbish at? Not essential you put anything in, but can be fun)
Name: Virginia ‘Ginny’ Sokolova Species: Human Sex: F Age: 30 Role/Job: Ranger, Engineer Appearance:
Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills: Knowledgeable: As a veteran of Society schooling, Ginny is very technically apt in a wide array of subjects, and is very skilled with computers, electronics, and mechanisms alike. Possessing training in a wide array of sciences, she has a good theoretical and practical understanding of technology. She is also fairly cosmopolitan, knowing a good amount about customs and histories of many places, though that has had little value here.
Ranger: Her profession’s school of hard knocks has resulted in a very capable and tenacious person. While not as martially minded as a true soldier, she does possess a flexibility and experience that translates well in a fight.
Weaknesses: Culturally Oblivious: Ginny has been laying low among the Edenites for a few months, and while she has picked up some local mannerisms, she is clearly an outsider and has little in the way of understanding of the people she finds herself among. Her technical aptitude and general curiosity has left others suspicious of her.
Background:
Backstory: Hailing from the world of Texarkana, Virginia was not destined for much, living in one of the many the rural communities that dotted the world to support the burgeoning urban centers of the world-state. She had developed a craftiness and affinity for the machines and devices used in the day-to-day work that enabled her to avoid the long hours that many suffered in the seeding and harvest seasons. Growing in the hybrid Human-Kiellar rustic culture gave her a strong sense of drive, as well as a sense of duty to her fellows.
It was only when a field technician from the Society arrived in town to work on some of the macro-harvesters that she was able to catch of glimpse of the wider world she was missing. At such a young age, she was astounded by how even the lowliest members of the esteemed Society for the Preservation of Continuity could deftly wield technology to solve problems that had exhausted dozens of the strongest workers of her hometown.
The intoxicating curiosity would result in her running away from home in the back of his motorcar, a situation that the Adept Kaltain Barshann could not abide. He returned her home, not wanting to attract the ire of his superiors and the locals. Virginia was shocked when her parents were willing to indulge her rebellion: she would be enlisted for evaluation by the Society for education, and Kaltain would assent.
Leaving her own small world, she was taken to the city of Rinnomgrad. In the academy there, she was trained harder than even the endurance of years of farm work could not prepare her for. Exhaustive studies for someone who could only barely read formally was only where it started. While she excelled in her hands-on training in working with tools, her engineering knowledge was quickly judged to be that she would not become one of the highly-sought after academics. She would be placed under the enviable station of ‘acquisitions’-treasure hunters, scouts, and rangers who would be sent to verify reports on a wide array of issues the society may have and secure federation era technology.
After over a decade of training, making new friends and building a new life for herself among the society, Ginny was released into her work. She rapidly distinguished herself as a subtle and capable agent, successfully recovering databanks and material from dangerous and complex situations. A rising star in her profession, she was a natural choice when rumors hit the halls of the Society that a colony settled from former Terrans had been found.
The once farmers daughter believed her wanderlust sated by moving among the stars she once looked up at, but when she arrived at Eden, it was a truly alien experience. The Metacer was something that she had only heard of in old files, and to see them kill a world would be amazing were it not so horrifying. Now lacking a way home, Ginny is faced with needing to make a new home.
Name: Sarvenolos of the Third Fane of Tekumo. Goes by Sarve when interacting with humans, Dhasath, and Kiellar. Species: Morelian. A sentient serpentine species from one of the Edenian colony worlds. They possess a pair of prehensile tongues, which are disturbingly dextrous and articulate. Their tails are also hands… in a quite literal manner. Sex: A Man Age: 26 Role/Job: Aspiring musician-turned-reservist-turned-tutor. Would rather stick to the first one. Appearance:
He's around ten feet long.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills:
The Maestro - Sarve was and still is a pianist and violinist. He tried to join a choir, but he couldn't quite fit in, what with having very different vocal chords, so he only sang in solo.
The Art of War - Sarve was in the military for some time, mostly for the health and schooling benefits. Still, due to his serpentine physiology, he was trained to be a stealth specialist, slipping into places no humanoid (or kieloid, for those that despise humanocentrism) could fit into, such as ventilation shafts, pipes, and the innards of machinery. He's never been in actual combat yet, though…
Weaknesses:
Agoraphobic - Whether it be through genetic memory or simply not being used to it, Sarve is absolutely uncomfortable with wide open spaces. Such as… space. He would rather be involved in a scandal than go to a spacewalk.
Background
Backstory: Morelians are a society divided into two. There are those that stubbornly continue to cling to the jungles, maintaining their old way of life. Sarvenolos was not born as one of them.
Instead, Sarvenolos of the Third Fane of Tekumo was one of the so-called “Sky Touched,” which is a distasteful Morelian term for members of their species that have committed heresy and actually integrated with the Outsiders.
Outreach missions by philanthropic, humanitarian, and religious groups were nothing new in Eden and her colonies. While corporations often simply bulldozed their way through the ancestral lands of the Morelians, there were those who instead wanted to integrate the native population into the colonies. It was a hard, slow, and painful process. Schools, hospitals, and missions were built in the fringes of the jungles that the Morelians called home; close enough that the Morelians could easily reach them if they wanted, and far enough that the Morelians didn't perceive them as a threat. Anthropologists ventured into the jungles; sometimes, they returned laden with gifts and the story about having to eat a leaf with writhing grubs inside it. Sometimes, they do not return at all.
Sarvenolos would be one such ‘gift,’ brought along by a human anthropologist back to Eden. He was but an infant back then, still blind as newborn Morelians are. His mother, whose name he barely remembers, practically begged the human to bring him to the colony. To an advanced civilization, away from a tribalistic society the poor woman said to be ‘where sickly children die.’ Sarvenolos would never meet her again.
Sarvenolos would be brought up in a communal kinder block; if there was one thing the primitive and Sky Touched Morelians had in common, it would be that everyone's children were raised together. The difference, however, is that Sky Touched Morelians interacted regularly with humans, Dhasath, and Kiellar; and it would be in one of these interactions that Sarve would discover his purpose in life.
When he was barely ten, he and the rest of the young Morelians would be treated to a small fundraising concert by a pair of Dhasath; a singer and an instrumentalist. He would describe what he heard and saw next to be “the most beautiful things in all of existence.” Inspired, he asked the kinder block’s administrators if he could learn how to do what those two did. His wish was granted.
Eventually, Sarve would outgrow the kinder block, and had to live and study for himself. Unfortunately, being a 20 year old street musician without a degree wasn't getting him much in terms of money, so the military appeared to be an attractive prospect. He told the recruiters that he was a true patriot; in reality, he just wanted the free subsidies into education and healthcare. Being a Morelian, though, his training would be focused more around stealth and sabotage, as his physiology was more suited to such operations. He never had to fight in actual combat, however; he finished the four years of service (along with a degree) in total peace.
After that, he would live in relative prosperity with his own apartment and pet cat as an online tutor. People were sometimes prejudiced, but he didn't care. The cat didn't judge. The anthropologist that basically saved his life as an infant would sometimes come by to ask how he was doing. And a Kiellar co-worker seemed to really like him for some reason.
This life of quiet calm would be rudely interrupted by the Metacer invasion, however. The military was obliterated almost immediately, and once again, Sarve didn't get to fight; a fact that he was infinitely thankful for. He knew for a fact that had the military actually gotten to call up the reservists like himself, the Metacer would have swept through them regardless.
Another relief would be that he managed to get to the last ship leaving Eden. He could only thank God for that.
Name: Mark A. Lopez Species: Human Sex: Male Age: 36 Role/Job: Military Engineer / Maintenance Specialist
Appearance: Mark stands at about 6’0” with a broad-shouldered build earned from years of physical labor both on the farm and in the field. His skin is tanned and weathered, with lines of sun exposure and grit from working in harsh environments and a scar at his right cheek from an incident in the EDF. His eyes are dark brown, black hair is usually shaved short at the sides.
Most defining is his left arm—a biomechanical replacement, with visible servos and a few personal modifications bolted onto the frame, including a retractable multi-tool and an arc lighter.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills:
Field Engineering: Mark is a highly competent mechanical engineer, specializing in vehicle repair, hull maintenance, and jury-rigging damaged systems under pressure. His knowledge spans from farming combines to military drop-craft.
Improvisation: On or off the battlefield, Mark has a knack for making do with what’s available—turning junk into solutions. He once rigged a cooling bypass using irrigation pipes and an old refrigerator core.
Biomech Tuning: Since receiving his mechanical arm, he’s become adept at fine-tuning prosthetics and other biomechanical interfaces, sometimes helping others with maintenance if they trust him.
AI Systems Enthusiast: While not a programmer, he has a deep (albeit amateur) understanding of old-world AI theory, and has spent years sketching out designs for a non-AI multipurpose helper unit. His fascination is a secret he keeps close around most people.
Weaknesses:
Limited Coding Knowledge: Despite his fascination with AI, Mark has little grasp of complex software or algorithm design, making his goals difficult to achieve without outside help.
Blunt Honesty: Mark has a tendency to say what he thinks, which doesn’t always make him the most diplomatic member of the crew.
Loner Habits: Years of working in solitude, first on the farm, then in forward engineering posts have made him slow to trust and often self-reliant to a fault.
Arm Dependency: While his biomechanical arm is a marvel of medical engineering it's also a potential liability. If it’s damaged in combat or during field work, it can short out, seize up, or overload the power system he relies on for other tools. Maintenance is constant, and failure at the wrong time could mean losing vital capability or even consciousness if the feedback circuit surges.
Background:
Mark Lopez was born on the colony world of Shinar, one of the breadbasket planets under Eden’s nominal control. Life on the farm was honest, hard, and painfully dull for a boy who always wanted to know how things worked. While most of his peers were content managing livestock or harvest cycles, Mark spent his free hours digging through old equipment manuals and disassembling engines—much to his father's frustration.
The moment he turned of age, he enlisted in the Eden Defense Force. For him, it wasn’t patriotism, it was escape. The EDF gave him structure, purpose, and most importantly, access to machinery far more complex than a tractor. He specialized in mobile repair teams, patching hulls and power systems mid-operation,iIt was during one such deployment responding to a native incursion on a refueling moon that a fuel tank explosion cost him his left arm. The recovery was long, but the biomechanical arm he received became a project in itself, something to improve and refine, piece by piece.
Years passed, he rotated between Eden and her colony worlds, assigned to keep aging patrol ships running and patch together crumbling infrastructure. Off-duty, he filled notebooks with schematics for a machine assistant, a sort of autonomous helper drone that could aid mechanics or farmers. But anything resembling artificial intelligence was a dangerous subject. Even speaking the word "AI" in Eden's outer colonies was enough to get you shunned or even killed. Still, he toyed with the idea of limited, pre-scripted logic routines as a workaround, he never built the thing, but he carried the notes wherever he went.
Then came the Metacer. At first, he thought the reports were another drill or a hoax, then his relay station stopped responding. Then the sky fell.
Mark served during the desperate defense of Tarnas Station, buying time for civilians to evacuate. When the order came to fall back, he stayed behind to ensure the generators didn’t fail. He escaped only when a freighter pilot overloaded their engines and crash-launched through the hangar roof, buying him just enough chaos to board the last transport.
Now, Mark is aboard the colony ship, a survivor, a builder, and a man still dreaming of machines that can think, but don’t decide. Now with humanity on the brink of what seems to be extinction he asks himself...
@InfamousGuy101 looks grand... just for internal consistency with the stuff we've been discording about, change the name of the colony world to Shinar or Kikkar
@InfamousGuy101 looks grand... just for internal consistency with the stuff we've been discording about, change the name of the colony world to Shinar or Kikkar
Name: Billie Species: Human (Certified) Sex: Female (Certified) Age: 22 (Certified) Role/Job: Aeronautics System Technician (Instrumentation and portables) Appearance: This girl reminds you of a clever fox. She has wide green eyes that are like two chunks of jade. Her silky, wavy, red hair is neck-length and is worn in a pixie style. She is very short and has an athletic build. Her skin is cream-colored. She has a strong chin and long-fingered hands. Her wardrobe is tight.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills:
Billie is extremely well-read, and her adopted father's equal on the ski slopes - not that he was all that skilled. Her technical school and prior association with criminals has provided her with a wealth of skills she strives to improve - especially her blaster skills.
Weaknesses:
Billie has reason to mistrust others, most of her life people have tried to use her for their own schemes. It has colored her thinking, she's well aware how quickly things can turn against her. While she prefers to keep to herself, she realizes that some things are too big and she's going to need help.
Background:
Backstory: Billie was left wrapped in a towel inside a box on the steps of the Crater Street Orphanage, all they found on her was an old military medal being used to pin an stained envelope to her blanket, but instead of a note, the director found inside a recipe card for Karsk, a coffee and moonshine drink. The director found it enjoyable, except for the faint blurriness it caused her vision.
The police started an investigation, but her footprint was not on file, nor was there any recent births for a child with a cross-shaped birthmark on her left hip. Police eventually gave up, deciding she hadn't had her birth recorded so it was going to be near impossible to find her parents.
She was ten when she accidently witnessed an assassination. The assassin had shot from the roof next door to the orphanage, line of sight for the jail three blocks away, then froze when he saw her watching him packing up his gear hurriedly. He raised his laser, then heard the sirens and fled. She tried telling the other kids, but they didn't believe her.
Three weeks later, Justin Tyrell, a wealthy civil servant, appeared at the orphanage, looking to adopt - and picked her. She had her own room with a giant bed, nice clothes, tutors, a private school, a personal maid, and trips to the mountains where Tyrell would ski. However, there was no mother, just the house keeper, but there was a stream of women who'd visit, sometimes spending the night in her adopted father's room. He also dabbled in art, selling to his friends. She had no idea where the pieces came from.
Her roommate told her about the other man who came looking for her later, but he didn't adopt anyone.
One of his "trips", they spent having dinner with this minister who kept staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable. Justin and this minister had a long talk outside of her hearing and at the end of the night shook hands. It was back at the hotel room that Justin told her that she was now betrothed to the minister's boss, and he would collect her when she became an adult. All perfectly legal, he assured her.
Justin mistook her silence as acceptance, but she was feeling betrayed and was already planning, getting things ready as she scanned the library to learn everything she could to help her escape.
Those plans got an unexpected boost when she was 14 when she was kidnapped by Tony, a local crime boss, who was upset by a painting Justin had "sold" him. Knowing Justin wouldn't report her to the police, he decided to make some use of her in his smuggling operation - and took a shine to her. Suddenly the whole gang was wanting to teach her some of their skills - picking pockets, professional gambling, computer fraud, firing a blaster, and making all sorts of underworld connections.
Her time with them was fruitful. Tony helped her get a new identity and set her up with a good technical school that taught her how to maintain aerospace equipment for spaceships. Billie got herself a nice job at the Eden orbital shipyards, working in their repair shop and installing equipment.
It was a good life, she was able to deflect most questions about her prior life, keeping it simple. Unfortunately, a former member of Tony's gang spotted her and ratted her out to his new boss - and they began blackmailing her, needing her help to get into the secure warehouse pods. Knowing what waited for her if she went to the cops, she had little choice but to help them bypass the security doors and access the warehouses.
Skills: Vitiafa’s soldiering skills may be incredibly rusty, but she’s a very old hat at handling blasters and blades and can be deceptively good at fighting, at least from a fixed position or for a short time.
Vitiafa is understandably well-read, and brings an understanding of Makerism and several human strains of religion in addition to her kiellari polytheism.
Her extremely rural background and sometimes semi-itinerary lifestyle has taught Vitiafa the ever valuable skill of cooking well.
Weaknesses: Completely blind in one eye and stricken with an often noticeable limp in her gait, the older kiel suffers from her old wounds. Running, though far from impossible for someone still as physically active as she is, proves to be quite painful.
Her pride makes for a volatile mix when combined with her injuries, and unprompted aid is likely to earn scorn rather than gratitude.
Background:
Backstory: Vitiafa’s life began on one of Eden’s older colony worlds, Euphrates, being one of the middle children to a family of farmers providing foodstuffs for the Edenites. Her childhood was marked by long days in the field and home, dutifully toiling with her family to earn what the gods would bless them with. A proper kiellar upbringing involves scouting youth groups and preparation for at least a small stint in the military, and Vitiafa was no exception to this and took the craft well enough.
She served briefly in one of Euphrates’ local militias, which mostly consisted of eventless patrols and glorified pest control duties against the wildlife. It is an honorable service, to be sure, but it was nothing exciting to the young Kiel, who had done pretty much the same thing prior to joining up. Instead, Vitiafa turned to the central military for the adventure she silently craved in the infantry.
To say Vitiafa received what she wanted would be an understatement. During a raid on a pirate base, she had taken point into one of their labs and received a splash of acid to the face for her troubles. Her immediate reaction was a piercing screaming before adrenaline surged forth. With gritted teeth as her flesh boiled and bubbled, she brought her carbine on the target rushing her with a knife and yanked the trigger. Almost instantly, she dropped her rifle, reached for her canteen and doused the side of her face. The cool relief lasted for merely a moment as the acid was diluted, before the coolness of the water and the very air burned her as equally as intensely.
Vitiafa was about to find her way to triage when a grenade smashed through one of the windows.The resulting blast left several pieces of shrapnel in her right leg and severely damaged her right foot, which essentially ended her time in the infantry. Her devout upbringing led to a hard pivot into religious studies. She spent the rest of her time in the military as a chaplain, where her curious nature led to private research into other faiths among those of Eden.
She returned home following her discharge, and rejoined her as one of the priestesses at her local temple and the local militia. As she grew older, and more experienced, her time was spent increasingly away from home. First, in larger communities on Euphrates, then even on trips to Eden’s cities. The cosmopolitan nature of the military and her service as a chaplain served her well in the diverse urban settings, though part of her longed for the simple life of home while she was away.
It was during one of these visits to Eden when the metacer threat reemerged and blitzed their way to the world. Her first thought was to rejoin the front, bolster the morale of those fighting the hard fight, and perhaps die facing the foe. An extremely heated debate with her superiors, however, convinced her to acquiesce to the idea of evacuating.
Name: Raphael Vitella Species: Human Sex: Male Age: 40 Role/Job: Doctor Appearance: A lean man with black hair, brown eyes, and a mustache wearing a doctor's coat. Strengths and Weaknesses
Skills:
First Aid, Diagnosing patients, Surgery
Weaknesses: Cultural obliviousness: Despite living on Eden Prime for years and picking up on some mannerisms, Raphael is still an outsider. Restlessness: Raphael Vitella is haunted by The Metacer Invasion, including the death of his family Background:
Backstory: Hailing from on the planet Tigris, Raphael Vitella, son of Garibaldi, wanted more from life than becoming a factory worker like his father and brothers. His cousin Luca asked him to join him and his friends for a night on the town multiple times but he declined, preferring to focus on his studies so that he can have a chance at getting a high-paying job. He eventually settled on becoming a doctor and doubled down on work ethic. As soon as Raphael was old enough, he went to medical school and dedicated himself to his studies. He graduated at the top of his class and was praised by his parents for his success. He spent his residency at a hospital on the planet, learning the ins-and-outs of the medical profession. His superior looked down on him for being born into a working-class family while praising graduates from rich families. This disdain towards him opened his eyes to the fact that even in an age of FTL trave where mankind coexisted with alien species, there will always be rich people looking down on those who did not come from privileged backgrounds, even if they were the same species, swore the same oaths, and were part of the same profession. However, Raph did not give up or transfer to another hospital. He continued performing his duties to the best of his abilities while ignoring all verbal jabs made by his superior. Raphael eventually finished his residency, but instead of continuing to practice medicine on Tigris, he accepted to fill a job opening at one of the hospitals on Eden Prime, seeing it as his chance to be a somebody.
Raphael Vitella's career was an uneventful one until the fateful day Eden Prime and her colonies were attacked by an ancient threat that he had once dismissed as a horror story used by parents to frighten little kids, creatures that human and alien alike had thought extinct, monsters whose existence was only known from old files: the Metacer. Hospitalizations for insect bites increased as the Metacer grew in number. Despite the Media claiming that everything would return to normal soon, Raph wasn't buying it, as the stories he heard from patients that survived encounters with the Metacer painted a picture of giant bugs effortlessly picking entire acres clean of crops and livestock and people. It wasn't long before the Metacer hordes were large enough to attack towns. Raphael hoped that the military would be able to deal with them, but prepared to evacuate if the defenses were overwhelmed. He received a call from his family, his mother telling them that his father was taking them to a ship that would be leaving Tigris. The last thing Raph heard before the transmission cut out was the smashing of walls and the screams of his mother, father, and cousin. The situation got worse as the crisis continued, the military growing weaker as the Metacer grew stronger, people desperately trying to flee as entire cities were being overrun, tanks and artillery firing everything they had as the enemy advanced towards their hastily prepared positions at breakneck speed. Raphael Vitella made it to the nears spaceport in time to get aboard a ship headed off of Eden Prime, the soldiers stationed there being overrun as the ship took off, the pounding of the remaining tanks and artillery growing quiet as the evacuation craft flew higher into the atmosphere. He watched out the window of the evacuation ship as more ships left the planet. The ships arrived at a shipyard where a colony ship was being retrofitted for a long migration to what they hoped to be their new home. This filled Raphael with a new sense of hope, as it offered a clean slate for everyone who survived the journey to the planet, yet his mind was still fraught with thoughts of the death of his family and the devastation that he had witnessed as he raced to the evacuation point. He helped the medical staff aboard the shipyard to the best of his ability while waiting for the ship to be ready to make its one-way trip. Neither he nor his co-workers were under any illusion that Eden Prime and its colonies could be reclaimed, as the troops guarding the station and the soldiers that were able to escape the planet were all that remained of the military.
1. Eden isn't maintaining diplomatic relations with other countries, so Tyrell should probably be a Civil Servant rather than a Diplomat.
2. This RP will start in the Eden Orbital Shipyards where there is a Colony ship being outfitted. The Colony of Eden has already been destroyed but nobody is on the ship yet. So it would be a good idea to end on fleeing to the Orbital Shipyard rather than getting onto the colony ship. The city would also not be functioning normally at this point as people would at least be worried about the oncoming swarm of man-eating insectoids.
@Expendable that's grand, feel free to move it over. But maybe cut that last sentence as the Colony ship that will be where the RP happens won't have left at launch.
Skills: Shooting - A life of crime as an assassin has made Sorawyyn a crack shot with a blaster. Improv - Sora can adapt to a rapidly changing situation, taking on disguises as needed to get closer to her target
Weaknesses: Fraud - Sorawyyn isn't actually a doctor, and only knows the very basics of first aid Paranoid - Sora doesn't want anyone to know her secret, and will do anything it takes to keep it from getting out
Background:
Backstory: Born on Eden to a Kiellar mother and a mostly absentee Erloi father, Sorawyyn found herself in and out of trouble from a young age. By the time she was an adult, her rap sheet was as tall as she was with crimes ranging from burglary to assaults. Eventually she graduated to the big leagues after falling in with a group that could truly appreciate her unique biological talents: a crime syndicate. They were all too happy to take advantage of this strange kieloid that could see in the dark and seemingly turn invisible, so she was quickly turned into their primary weapons against their opposition.
Sora did hundreds of jobs for the syndicate; breaking into businesses to leave incriminating evidence, stealing court documents on members that got busted and she eventually found her real niche: knocking off rivals and colonial authorities. A single invisible shot in the darkness or disguised as a kiel in a group, her work was ruthlessly efficient. She never failed an assignment, she did her part. That didn't stop other members from getting greedy.
Someone snitched. One of the other members flipped, most of the syndicate was rounded up including Sora. She figured it was over, and accepted seeing a prison cell for the rest of her days. She might have dreamed of revenge, but that seemed out of the realm of possibility now. None of that mattered when the bugs came. The prison was damaged in an attack causing a riot, and Sorawyyn escaped leaving her on her own again. She heard about attempts to evacuate from transmissions to the warden's office, and had to get aboard. She killed the prison doctor to take the woman's clothes and equipment, then made her way to the spaceport under the guise of a medical professional.
