ShiningSector

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

Phew~ So we are now officially off! Much of the writing (as much as I can detail) was inspired by the visuals from Interstellar (incredible movie btw)

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

A grin creped across his face as Rayland heard everyone’s responses to the massive carrier outside and the query on the experience of mass scale warp travel. He watched as the crew around him seemingly bracing themselves as if they were about to expect a rocky flight though space and time. They weren't wrong in that sense but not exactly in the way they would eventually encounter and later perceive what was about to come. It was a guilty pleasure of him not informing anyone in the bridge about what to expect that amused him so; Rayland’s only perceived innocence was that fact that no harm was going to befall anyone, aside from a churning stomach inflicted by mental dizziness and cognitive questioning. Outside, the Infamous Alto and the other transport vessels were at last locked to the portside of the Howling Sun, once again held to the carrier by rows of securing clamps and gravity anchors. From Alto’s bridge, everyone could see the endlessly long reaching bow of the carrier almost shooting into the dark void of stars past the ever present nebulae and its reflective glow. While Towan was processing yet another procedural checklist for their departure, another string of ships came into view, flying past the Alto as a second massive carrier soon arrived at the scene trailing behind her escorts; the ACS Asuka. Almost equal in size compared to the Howling Sun, the Asuka bore a sleeker and lengthier profile that its Sphere created counterpart however presented little in terms of onboard firepower. Developed by the ATC, the ACS Asuka stayed true to its role as a carrier as nearly more than half of its internal mass is devoted to hanger space and thus carried legions of fighter and bomber squadrons within her bowels. Going by this fact, it is no wonder the Asuka travels along side with an entire fleet of support cruisers. As if the local space wasn't crowded enough, the CWS Dev’rana appeared on the Infamous Alto’s holo-imagery and coming up to the Howling Sun’s starboard. Built by Kotorian and Oun’mai shipcrafters and engineers, the Dev’rana is a massive warship, easily dwarfing both of the human vessels and appearing the most armed to with dozens of weapon arrays and escorted by a small and yet heavily armed compliment of battle cruisers and interceptor frigates. Though obviously reinforced, hints of structural damage could be identified by the naked, noting the ship’s long service in possibly countless combat tours. Much of the command staff on the Alto’s bridge, whom were focused at their sensitive tasks at hand could no longer ignore their craving curiosity any longer and watched as the entire expeditionary force’s many vessels formed up outside Falymar Station. “Captain Rayland Sul’tari. Preparations for departure have been met. Sensor pings from SWS Howling Sun, ACS Asuka, and CWS Dev’rana confirm that the entire expeditionary force has been fully accounted for. Estimation of time till- It was rather uncommon for Towan to fall short while communicating a status report. But then again, feeling the tremors of an immense gravitational disturbance of course never goes unnoticed or ignored; this is especially in the case when said gravity tidal waves were being generated by the three more largest and more fearsome warships in the entire sector. “Gravitational distortion detected twelve o’ clock, one hundred fifty one point fifty four kilometers.” Towan reported. Before in front everyone in the entire fleet was an anomaly that could be only described as something akin to a black hole; though not the destructive kind crew and captains fear alike whenever it was faced however. With the Jump Drives of each carrier now activating, the resonance generated by the ships had literally bended space and time at their jump vector. As if looking into giant water droplet, the surrounding space and any objects within it was reflected back in a spherical-like manner, contorting the light of stars as the wormhole seemingly spun due to the effects of the gravitational forces at work. Without warning, the Howling Sun begun to accelerate along with the other ships as they closed in on the wormhole, allowing only few minutes for preparations for the jump before the inevitable occurred. “All crewmen, interstellar jump will initiate in five minutes.” Towan announced through the Infamous Alto’s ship wide band. The command staff and everyone else onboard began to brace themselves but not in the manner of one who would be anticipating a violent collision of mass. Before long, the high pitched mechanical bellow from the Howling Sun's Jump Drive echoed into the Infamous Alto hull as it ignited, beginning the interstellar jump almost immediately. Each carrier and their respective escorts were then engulfed in a sea of shining and swirling spectacles that danced around each vessel in which the artificial phenomenon was known as a Warp Bubble. The Warp Bubbles were responsible for keeping anything within them secured and safe as the bubble ferried the ships into slipspace. "Here we go..." Rayland muttered as he watched the event unfold.

As the Howling Sun's own Warp Bubble crossed the wormhole, the briefest of flashes of light poured into the bridge until it quickly vanished as it came. Sensors from outside pooled live footage into the monitors, showing an endless surge of stars flying past the Howling Sun and her escorts. Though the jump appeared to have come and gone without incident, many in the bridge were quick to disagree as many began to show signs of obvious fatigue and sickness. One officer whom never felt the effects of an interstellar jump before quickly held his stomach and mouth tight and shut, resisting the urge to vomit his guts out all over the floor. Rayland observed the weary crewmen attempting to recuperate themselves knowing full well why they were even feeling like this. However instantaneous as things appeared when the jump started, there was actually far more behind the split-second of flashing blindness that ensued and everyone's mind had recorded it despite the apparent dilation in time. The moment their bubble had touched the wormhole, everyone in the task force had experienced a brief sense of spaghettification. The event that quickly took place had stretched the mass of everything, whether it had been biological or mechanical to the near equivalent to an entire lightyear's distance before reality was corrected and stabilized within the bubble. Most people at this point could recollect an extreme case of tunnel vision for several minutes, watching as everything around them was quickly pulled and stretched out as if reality were a piece of gum. Compared to the minuscule effects of a basic slipspace transit, a interstellar jump such as this was agreeably a very different kind of beast. "I sure do hope the floor is still pure of any reflexive bile." announced Rayland as sarcastic order to keep the floor clean. With all the ships under the SWS Howling Sun still accounted for, they were on their way to the Quox system.

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

Sorry for the apparent lack of activity for the past few days. One part family activities and the other part...Trying to type out this next seemingly complex post. Not going to mention anything yet but the process with the help of visual representation is slow. I'm gunning for a post later this evening if everything falls into place they way it should. I just hope nobody's brains breaks in the process =/

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

I am still accepting new players though not for very long. Since the we're about ready to leave in the IC, introducing new characters will be tricky since the ideal window for that is no longer available. You would either be an already existing crew member or a character from one of the other vessels (we would need to plan that out in PMs).

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

My brother is visiting this weekend and next week so just as a heads up if you see less activity from me though I will post once I get the chance (in which case the next one will really get us going). Glad to have you back agentmanatee! Looking forward to your next post. Also liking this new GM stamp thing-a-ma-jig :3

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

<Snipped quote by MachineSoul> I play sad orchestral music only when I want to kill a character off Actually any sad song would do in that situation. last time I killed off a character I used Gortoz a ran also the probability of something sad or bad happening to Austin is around 80% likely......

@The Mage

...I just read his bio. Please don't make me cry.

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

So.... How's everyone doing? Good? Got any songs you like to listen to while doing threads like this?

@The Mage

Doing good, pretty easy day today. Usually stuff thats relevant to the RP. I just got back into Mighty Wings by Cheap Trick and currently looking around for some good remixes of it.

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

“Work you piece of crap!” Rodriguez yelled out the malfunctioning radio that continued to give its pilot problems, regardless of his attempts to compensate its settings. Not long after his initial broadcast for a sitrep, his communication equipment screeched in static defiance, further drowning out any radio chatter he was able to briefly obtain. Rodriguez was clearly in an emergency situation with no chain-of-command to report to; in fact everyone lucky enough to survive the impact was in disarray and with the control tower out of commission, he was left to his own devices in a sky filled with other planes and fighters wanting desperately to land. Frustration finally overtook him as he punched his radio equipment with rage induced poison coming out of his mouth. [static]...is AWACS Stormfront, I'm taking over traffic control while the tower gets…[static]...online. Everyone calm down and prioritize! The chain of command is still intact, and commanders will be in touch momentarily. Thu...[static]...Island avoided a direct hit - the Kinetic Strike hit the ocean a couple of miles off-shore. The resulting tidal...[static]...concussion caused a lot of damage, but the water is already receding. Once damage crews clear the debris, we should be able to start recovering planes. The civilians are mostly fine - Civil Defence got them to the shelters as soon as the attack began, so we should be looking at low casualties for the civilians. Our casualties on the ground...[static]...coming in. Now, all pilots pay attention and listen for your orders..." Rodriguez blinked as the transmission from Stormfront patched into his radio, giving everyone their orders during this crisis. He could feel his cheek heating up, sensing the embarrassing possibility he had cursed over the radio on all channels. Though he was relieved to get someone’s voice to finally come through despite the fits of static, it still looked unprofessional and all around bad. "Black Knights, Warrior Three. Spirit, Viper, and Viking; you are all directed to join up wit...[static]...Black Knights as per your previous briefing - only now, it's at a bit more short notice. Rendezvous with them, and proceed on heading nine-zero for handover to the Stormcloud, which will be coming on station. Further orders will be...[static]...once you reach the carrier. Thunderbolt One will be there in person to deliver your orders, I've been assured." With orders now given to him, Rodriguez quickly refortified himself and took command of his fighter once more with purpose. “Roger, Stormfront. Warrior Three, complying. Heading over to Black Knights Squadron now.” It didn’t take him long to locate the squadron that was combating the invaders what seemed like minutes ago. The squadron was comprised of different aircraft such as a large Su-35, a rather colorful A-10, an intimidating-looking Tornado, and finally an somewhat aged-appearing F-14 leading the pack ahead of the planes. “Roger, Stormfront. Wilco. Break. Spirit, Viper, Viking: welcome to the Black Knights. Shame it had to be under these circumstances. Your callsigns will be Knights Five through Seven. All aircraft, come onto heading nine-zero and altitude Angels Twenty. Slot into formation, and we'll head for the boat". Rodriguez maneuvered his F-16 into the combing fold of the squadron, positioning himself at the wing of the Su-35 that held the position to the wing of the F-14, assuming its pilot was Knight One. “Warrior Three, Spirit. Assuming role as Knight Five. Glad to be on board. Apologies for any static.” he replied just has he formed up with the united squadron that had now welcomed two recently beat-up F-15s into the mix. It was silent trip toward the Stormcloud and not surprising considering what everyone had experienced; first a surprise attack by unknown forces and then a Kinetic Strike on top of that as well. Questions were probably boiling over by now, like who were the attackers? What was the purpose of the attack in the first place? A rival PMC? Or probably the most dreading one of all; who the hell has a satellite capable of orbital strikes in their pocket? Eventually they would get their answers soon; Rodriguez left those thoughts alone as he focused on keeping his fighter in air. Once the carrier came into view, everyone took their positions in line to land on the Stormcloud. Knight One of course had first dibs and landed his F-14 without any issues. Seeing as though the Su-35's wingspan and airframe was undoubtedly larger than anyone else's in the squadron, the pilot of that fighter took the opportunity and landed their plane on the tarmac gracefully. Next were the two F-15s from earlier that begun their landing phase. Considering the battle damage to the fighters, they of course deserved some immediate attention. This only left him and two other planes left. Seeing as though he was further ahead, he took his turn and entered the carrier's landing corridor. This part felt very familiar to him; during the war before Allied forces pushed deep into Korea and Russia, Rodriguez commonly operated on carriers for a good few years before his station shifted to an airbase on land for the wide duration of the conflict. With directions given by the control tower, his F-16 dropped altitude with the landing gear and tailhook already deployed and the flaps and brakes extended. With everything else appearing ready and okay, Rodriguez brought the plane's nose up and controlled the throttle, watching the carrier's tarmac drawing closer and closer until it was underneath him. As he planned it, the tailhook snagged hold of the first arresting gear wire without any issues aside from the sudden halt of momentum naturally pushing forward in his seat. To make way for additional planes, the carrier crews quickly got his fighter taxied out of the runway and into one of the vacant corners on the deck. With the current situation at hand, Rodriguez couldn't help but feel sorry for the deck hands working their butts off as they got all the personnel and fighters quickly sorted and organised based on their individual conditions and mission priorities. Eventually, the F-16 powered down completely as Rodriguez unfastened himself from the planes safety restraints and climbed out of his fighter. He stretched back and joints out when he finally touched the deck with his boots after being in the air for several hours; it was good of course to finally move around freely. Getting his bearings figured out of the deck, he made his past the every busy personnel, especially the senior staff who pointed him the direction to his compatriots once they saw him. He soon found three of the squadron's pilots grouped up together with one of them giving a salute to which Rodriguez assumed that the other two were piloting the F-14 and thus determined that one of them was Knight One. Going by names given by the staff, he was reporting to Scott Valentine and St. Helen Carter to which he was able to associate the names with the face of the two pilots he begun to approach. Coming up behind the third man in the party, he the finally presented himself. "Knight One I assume?" Rodriguez asked before saluting the pilots. "Rodriguez Hefferman; callsign Spirit reporting in. I'm afraid the circumstances of our meeting here were not under the best of terms."

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

Ozerath, I went over your CS and you are cleared to go! =) Now the boat however has left the harbor here but since I do anticipate the slipspace travel segment to take some time (not too long though), your character implementation should be set ideally during the transit phase or later during the story development. Please PM me if you need assistance.

Transcendent: Darkness Rising (A Sci-Fi Roleplay)

I guess you can say that. My post does cover several minutes of prepping for take off plus an additional 10 minutes when getting to the carrier. In this case a lot could have happened in that time period.