Sep

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Command and Control Centre
The Bridge

William stood on front of the holo-emitter. Currently the hologram raised no higher than his head as he replayed the battle through on the table. He kept the hologram small as everyone still at their stations was calm and content, the night shift always was. Though he had some issues that he wanted to work out. The Devastator ship appeared on the hologram pulling up out of Earths Atmosphere the ugly behemoth that it was going at speeds he only wished that the Vitae could accomplish. "Freeze play back." The hologram froze as he spoke, responding to his commands. "Magnify ship dubbed Devastation-" The crew had a very vivid imagination when it came to naming things. He didn't mind, it made it easier to reference and it kept some things that were hard to keep light hearted at least less grim. "- highlight this vessel and show nothing else."

The ship grew to match the parameters he had set in motion for the hologram as everything else faded away. He placed his right hand resting on his chin, while holding his elbow with his left hand, he could feel stubble on his chin as he let his eye run over the vessel from bow to stern. Then there was a chirp as Noah appeared before him. "Admiral, civillian Ronald Bridger is requesting entry to the command centre at his appointed time. Security is wanting to know if they should let him pass." He sighed as he turned away from the hologram, straightening himself up his back cracked as he stretched his arms and shoulders. He had been standing analysing everything he could of the battle for longer than he had thought, he knew that Bridger wasn't going to go easy on him but that was the reason William has selected this time for them to meet. A reminder to him as to whom was in charge.

"Let him in."

Within two minutes, under escort, he saw the ever angry looking face of Ronald Bridger. His biggest fan.

"Admiral, Ronald Bridger Ark News." He extended his hand, William paused for a second before reaching his own arm out and grasping the mans hand shaking it. It wasn't an extremely forced handshake but he didn't go light on him either. In his other hand Ronald carried a tablet, which he raised on front of him as soon as his other hand was free activating what was likely text to speech software before lowering disconnecting a microphone which he held in his other hand between them.

"So Admiral, we've had a tough time so far. Wouldn't you say?" William hated the news service aboard ship. It was useful, served a purpose and it kept people happy yes. He just hated the fact that Ronald Bridger was in charge of it, the man had a good record. Got information out to the people, though was red blooded Federation and didn't really stand for Martians or Armani. Ironically he seemed to be able to tolerate people from the Conglomerate so maybe he was just elitist with him thinking Earth was somehow superior.

"Nothing we weren't prepared for, the Vitae and her crew can handle more than that, anything the cosmos throws at us we've got it handled."

"I'm sure we do Admiral, however would you care to comment on the injuries caused because of your decision?"

"Excuse me?"

"I have it on account that you ordered..." He turned his attention to his tablet for a second. "...Colonel Theodore Anderson to manually dock with the Eye of Thea. The experts I spoke to say that the violent shaking the ark encountered was a result of this manual docking process rather than the more careful automated process. Several injuries were caused because of this, in fact in one case the Doctors are unsure on whether or not the man will pull through. After all this to be killed by our entering hyperspace."

"I did order Colonel Anderson to dock manually, what you fail to realize though is the situation we were in. With a Devastator ship-" He cast his thumb over his shoulder at the hologram. "-Bearing down on us, that had actually launched fighters to pursue us. With the Destiny jumping away to preserve itself we became the target. We had no time to dock with automatic procedures, had the Judicator not jumped in we likely wouldn't even be having this conversation." The press always found a way to put a negative spin on positive actions. He had made the call in the heat of battle, had he not have done anything humanity may have ended forever. At least as far as this ship was concerned.

"Yes but did you know that this action could have caused such damage?"

William shook his head. "No I did not. The Eye of Thea is a new piece of technology, or was. The only ship to ever go through was the Rejuvenation and once she went through she wasn't able to relay any information to us. So there's no way of telling whether or not the Eye caused the damage by simply being used or due to our docking procedures. I made the right call, and I'm sticking to it."

Ronald just nodded as he appeared to think about something for a moment. "So now onto another matter. The cyborg-"

William cut him off there. "I'm not sure how you know about that situation. Though my answer to any questions is no comment. That's a classified military manner-"

"So is that how we should expect to be run? By a military dictator?"

William was becoming fed up of this, it came up everytime. Though it was bound to, on Mars being ruled by a military man was just a way of life. It was how the planet functioned as well as it did, or at least that's how he saw it. "I've commented on this before. We have a civillian judicial system already in place and are currently looking at creating a civillian government for civillian matters. Do you have any other questions?"

"No Sir, I think I've got all I need." William nodded at the guard, who then indicated for the door as he turned back around. William rubbed his brow.

"I hate doing that Noah." The holographic avatar of Noah appeared before him.

"Yes sir. You say that after every meeting with him sir."

"Well, back to real work." He turned back to the hologram as Noah brought up the dimensions of different parts of the ship and he just eyed it. It wasn't the most sound design for a ship, it just didn't make sense for a flagship made to attack an enemy location. Were the Devastators so confident in their abilities that they didn't worry about retaliation? If William had had weapons capable of taking the vessel out there were weak points he could easily have targeted. He swiped at the hologram and it disappeared. It wouldn't do to dwell on the past, study of the devastators was now down to the egg heads. He'd never see them again, they were no longer his concern. He wouldn't be seeing them again.

He sighed as he rubbed his brow. "What's next on the agenda Noah?"

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

College application done and half way through my post.

#excitement

I got nothing planned for tomorrow morning so I'll finish it out then.

Star Wars: Revanchism [KOTOR era]

@HeySeuss Want us to pair ourselves up?

If so who wants a 'falling to our death' buddy?

Star Wars: Revanchism [KOTOR era]

@HeySeuss I am still here. Well I am on a train moving but you get my point.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

@The Spectre@LegionPothIX Both back at the same time.

Welcome back.

---

Expect solo posts from both William and Loretta today.

RPGN Rebirth: Issue #1 10/10/2016

@Mr Allen J you have two days to catch up.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

SO that's all my collabs done.

I'm going to crack out some solo posts but if anyones wanting to arrange something before we drop out of hyperspace on Friday let me know as I'm still good for that.

No Turning Back - Into the Abyss

Dr.Anderson, Mr.Ford, Mr.Karlson and RADM.Locke.
Admiral William Lockes Study
0900HRS Local Ship Time
_{Written by @Draken,@RedLeather,@The Spectre and @Sep}

William sat on one of the sofas, the other sat facing him with a table between the two. All around the room, which held the same steely feel as the rest of the room, were bookcases and various display cabinets. Most filled with various trinkets given to the Vitae from various sources across the world, the only item in this room that truly belonged to him (other than a fine bottle of Scotch Whisky) was a model of the Nightfury on the desk behind him. Given to him by his peers when he had to step down in order to devote his time to Amara it was a memento of to this day, what he considered to be one hell of a ship. The Reaper-Class, while based off of the design, just wasn’t the same as his old girl.

In the room with him sat Kevin Ford, Karen Anderson and Erik Karlson - probably the closest thing he had to experts on anything alien. “I’m sure by now anyone who recognises anyone else in the room has figured out why I asked you here. Though I’ll talk my way through it to be sure.” He lifted up the small metallic mug off the table and took a sip of coffee out of it, just a small sip. There was only so much Earth grown coffee left in existence, and while he was Martian born and bred he had to admit when it came to growing coffee the people from Earth knew where it was at. “We’re currently passing through hyperspace into uncharted waters, so to speak, and to this day we’ve only encountered one alien race and they weren’t exactly friendly. I’m sure you all know this.”

He lowered his mug back to the table before he continued. “We’re going to face aliens out there, some sentient some not so much. You three are here as our foremost expert in terms of linguistics-” He nodded at Erik “-Xenobiology-” at Karen “-And finally diplomacy. You’re going to be incredibly important which is why I’m going to organize these meetings once a week and with the exception of Kevin-” He turned to the man “-Who I need to talk to about something else. I’m going to give you both your own departments, I’ll have resumes sent to you before the end of the day of people wanting to join your new departments. On Earth the higher ups didn’t feel it was necessary but I’d rather be prepared which is why I am doing this now that it’s my call. Doctor Anderson, don’t worry about Eden you can still pitch in there whenever you want. Any questions?”

With a bit of visible relief on her face, Karen decided to carry the discussion to the area that was probably most important. “Thank you, Admiral, and I do have a key question. What do you, personally, already know about the aliens and our fields? I don’t think any of us intend to make you an expert, but informed decisions are better decisions, right?” Karen absentmindedly took a sip of her own coffee, and immediately regretted it, as the drink had never appealed to her.

“I know about as much as anyone with brass on their shoulders does. They utilize some form of biologically designed armour and can pack one hell of a punch-” He raised his hand to his eyepatch “-I’ve seen them in action Doctor. I’ve done the research, or at least as much as can be done. Obviously we don’t know everything about them, hell they never transmitted anything to us before until yesterday.” He nodded at Erik. “As Mister Karlson well knows having been the one to study the message. Let me be clear on one thing though. The Devastators won’t remain the focus for long, I’m pretty sure we’ll meet something new soon enough. Which is why I want to ask if you two are happy to be cleared for away missions to planets. I know that the first planet we come across is unlikely to be our new home but it could always have something we need. Having you two on the Nyx where you can easily deploy would be beneficial. I already have teams building a makeshift lab aboard for you.” He took another sip of his coffee.

“Doctor, any request to bring any alien life on board will be solely in your hands. We have labs with containment cells already set up onboard, those are going to be your labs if you know the ones I’m talking about. Down in sector 9 near the main bio-labs.”

At this point Erik chimed in. “I am infinitely grateful, Admiral, for the privilege not only of having a staff to help me, but to be given the opportunity to engage with alien language firsthand.” He paused, considering something. “Perhaps it might also be helpful to assign me someone with a more…technical, knowledge. I think beginning work on some kind of universal translator might be good. As we encounter more and more languages, we could give some manner of AI practice in deciphering them without my help. Which eventually make me obsolete, but hopefully I can teach the next generation about old-world language when they… wake up.” He smiled at the Admiral.

Then, he turned to Ford. “Mr. Ford, I don’t suppose you could grant me access to the part of the archives where - “ he broke off, pulling out a sheet of paper. “-information and dictionaries on Mandarin, Hindi, Swahili, Farsi, Portuguese, Japanese, and Indonesian? It would be helpful in discerning the rest of the Devastator’s message.”

(the Spectre is unavailable for an undisclosed period of time as such I, Sep, will be puppeting him)

William turned to Ford as he nodded “Feel free Mr.Karlson, at the Admirals request-” He raised his arm pointing at William “-We’ve set up an office near the Archives for you and have given you clearance to copy or remove materials as you need them.”

William nodded. “While I can assign someone of technological, or more accurately programming expertise, in fact two people come to mind when thinking about making advanced programs. However bear in mind that it is unlikely that if we encounter more than one species that their languages will be similar to anything we have ever heard before. So prepare to be frustrated.”

He nodded at Karen. “Such as you Doctor Anderson shouldn’t expect all alien life we encounter to be like anything we’ve seen. I propose as a liaison between your two departments I am going to assign Michael Smith-” He slid two copies of his portfolio across the table. He of course knew it was false, one of the few people aboard who knew of Michaels true identity. “-He doesn’t have a PhD but he’s got an amazing IQ and is some kind of prodigy, soaks up information like a sponge. Any more questions? I’m sure you have a lot you want to get done.”

Karen flipped open the portfolio, and her eyebrows raised as she recognized the picture. “Oh, I believe I’ve managed to already meet him, although I’m afraid we didn’t discuss much. Also, I am quite well aware that we almost certainly will not be encountering life similar to that on Earth. That’s what separates us from our non-xeno counterparts, after all - being open to ideas that would be absurd on Earth.”

She then turned her head to the admiral, as she closed the portfolio on her lap. “Currently, I don’t technically need any staff, but I will need to be shown through how the containment units work, and have enough staff to keep the place watched constantly, ideally by at least two pairs of eyes at a time. We wouldn’t want some strange, dangerous life form wandering the ship, and I wouldn’t want to leave it behind.” She stifled a yawn, covering it almost daintily with her hand. “Speaking of which, once we have specimens, the place should have dedicated guards as well, if not already.”

Erik spoke up again. “Of course I understand the difficulties of learning completely unique alien languages, that’s the whole purpose of the program. The idea would be to have software that could figure out a completely unique language without human input. Computer learning, in a restricted sort of way.”

He turned back to Ford. “Thank you for allowing me an office, I shall make use of it for sure.”

William raised took another drink from his mug. “You’re both getting staffs now, so you can get them set up the way you want and get them trained on anything they need trained before the time comes.” He turned to Erik. “I will send someone your way when I can spare him to look into making this program, though even if we complete it I’d like to keep the human element.” He stood up from the sofa.

“However we are all busy people, I am sure once you arrive at your new office and lab respectively-” He indicated to Erik and Karen in turn “-You will have questions and requests once things are set up. Feel free to point them at Noah as he knows the proper route of communication for requests for heads of departments. That said if you ever need my assistance my door is always, figuratively, open. Thank you for your time, though I am afraid I have other duties to attend to.”

The four of them dispersed in silence and in thought, leaving behind only three empty mugs of coffee, and one barely touched.

Star Wars: Revanchism [KOTOR era]

@The Fated Fallen I'm not a fan of the concept of SWTOR as they (were) butchering canon, but now they're just butchering legends but I'm still not cool with that.

I played it for a while, but like most SW fans I just like watching the cinematics.

RPGN Rebirth: Issue #1 10/10/2016

Believe it or not, I got into role-playing on a Jurassic Park fansite that hosted a huge persistent world RP where everyone played -- you guessed it -- dinosaurs. Not even talking dinosaurs, no sir, as close to the real thing as possible.

My username was derived from a Yu-Gi-Oh card. It was a simpler time.

@Hank

I started mine on Runescape, me and a couple of friends went into peoples houses pretending to be slaves to then free them! We were S.P.O.F...

We even had an infomercial on youtube! Good times...

Most my initial roleplaying experience is via Runescape, my first forum based however was on a now gone website. It was a Stargate game where you created your own Empire based on a numerical system and waiting to accumulate troops and resources, kind of like a Tabletop Nation RP style thing where raids used dice to determine whether or not they'd be of any use. I used to raid an Admin Account that had been created for a Campaign because it still generated resources but had no military left, making it more or less an easy gig. From there I moved into that sites Forum Roleplay section, and when that site later died I moved around for a little bit.

Halo (Custom Edition), but later onto San Andreas Multiplayer where I was happy for a number of years in a group which I still hang out with occasionally. Forum Roleplaying I properly got into around 2012, the actual live action game side of things hasn't been very consistent and at this point I've more or less dropped it. What with the RP group I played with SA:MP moving onto different games and the Runescape Updates which I'm not a fan off the guild is the sole place I get my fix. I appeared on it back in 2012 under the username "Septimus314" (Really old name of mine) and derped around in casual, the first RP I actually joined was a Star Wars RP called Fires of Exaron by a user named @Hotshot (If he uses that name here).

I messed up a little, and wasn't happy with myself so I more or less burned that user (As many do) and went with EvilScottishGuy which I stuck with till the GuildFall and I have to say the Guild has improved not just my writing skills but my nerddom of the Star Wars Franchise, as well as DC and Marvel with me now buying books and comics which I never used to do. Damn the Guild is hard on my wallet.

Why do I do it? Well hosting a RP like No Turning Back sums it up. The people are great, and the writing is fun to do and fun to read. It's an escape from reality that few other medians can give, in my opinion. I know most of us talk about making a book sooner or later but truth be told, I'm happy with hashing out these ideas and making these universes for people to play in, or joining in these universes that other people have made.

Anyway long answer is long. TL;DR. I like it here.