TheMadAsshatter

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

@ihinka Soundds good, thank you.

Underrated and Overrated Video Games

Underrated: Spec Ops: The Line

This game will fuck you up. What starts as an unremarkable and basic 3rd person shooter devolves into a downward spiral of atrocities against humanity before you know it; each misstep and calamitous act quickly writing itself off as "he did it", and so the game continues. The farther you get the crazier it gets, and you begin to realize how fucked up the main character really is, until it finally comes to the end and every single thing that you did is deconstructed and thrown in your face, almost as if the game is fully aware of your existence as a player and is telling you you did all of this. It's definitely a very self-aware game that has a very linear path with a couple of moral choices here and there that have absolutely fuck-all effect on the final outcome; as if it's trying to tell you that these isolated acts of goodness don't begin to compare to everything else you've done. It's only after the damage is done that your choices have any effect on the outcome. The gameplay is as unremarkable as ever, but the storyline is one for the books.

Overrated: Battlefield 1

Let's be honest, the Battlefield franchise is starting to suffer from the same cookie-cutter fuckery that Call of Duty is (thank you @Dark Wind for that particular turn of phrase, lol). Arguably, it has been since Battlefield 4. I mean come on, it was basically the same as Battlefield 3, but with re-modeled and re-skinned vehicles and weapons, and some different maps. BF1 isn't too different, and despite the fact that it takes place in World War 1, there's a lot of pretty exotic weapons with some attachments that were pretty exotic for the time. At least there's nothing that could be called an anachronism in BF3 or 4, but for fuck's sake, reflex sights in the early 1900s? I mean, it's not truly an anachronism, but they weren't exactly fucking commonplace either. Like, shit, BF3 and 4 didn't have attachments that aren't already in mainstream production. Plus it plays very much like the two prior Battlefield games, showing a lack of innovation which I solely blame on EA. Fuck EA!

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

Ah, I see armed people all the time, nothing too suspicious about it

@Ozymandias

...Huh?

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

I made a small edit to my character. Just changed the picture out to one that I feel better represents her face.

Music Appreciation Thread

That was a really interesting piece. I loved the instrumentals, and the background vocal line was okay as long as there was something more powerful to restrict it to the background, but when everything else got quiet I thought it was a bit too pervasive. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed the song as a whole. It's got a good bit of intensity to it, and I couldn't help but try to think of a scene from a movie to try to match it to (I haven't, yet). 7.5/10

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

Natalia waited for a response. She had deactivated her weapons but kept her shields up. Was she still out of range? She was approaching, continuously slowing down so as not to cause any undue alarm, but without radio contact it was impossible to tell what the controllers in the tower were thinking.

"This is tower RX3248; report your vessel’s current status.”

Natalia let out a small sigh. Finally.

"My ship was attacked by unknown bandits and suffered moderate damage. Requesting priority landing clearance."

The tower officer reported everything she said to Nelson. Then the two shared a curious look, and a shoulder shrug.

"Do you have a spare headset?" Nelson asked the officer. "I wanna hear what she wants to say."

"Yes sir." He bent down and opened his drawer, taking out an old headset. Plugging it in the required socket, the officer then gave it to the Lieutenant.

"Here you go sir. Unfortunately this is a pretty old headset, and the mic is broken, so you can't talk to her."

"That's fine." Nelson gratefully took the set, and began to receive transmission from Natalia.

"This is control tower RX3248. We need your details on you and your vessel."

Natalia had to stop herself from instinctively asking what the fuck they meant. She knew what they meant, but she couldn't help but be annoyed at the fact that they were interrogating her after she said that she had been attacked and her vessel was damaged. Whatever.

"My name is Natalia Aprilia, independent pilot. My vessel is an IF-39B Medium Interceptor. I didn't intend to come here; I bought transport on a freighter and was originally headed from Earth to Pollux. The owner of said freighter also tried to sell me out to raiders, or pirates, or something. I was ambushed as soon as I arrived in this system, but as you can see I am still among the living. Can't say the same for my attackers, but the freighter got away. The freighter was called the FMV Lanniston, for your information."

Nelson's eyebrows narrowed as the name of the freighter was heard said.

"FMV Lanniston...I've heard of that name before."

If his memories did not fail him, he had read about it at sometimes a few months ago. Not having encountered it before, but through newspaper articles and so, he knew that the Lanniston wasn't a freighter for good.

"Lanniston? I don't really want one of them to land here" The officer said, also recogizing the vessel, as Nelson crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"I don't really trust them either. But the fact that her vessel is damaged could mean that she isn't really one of them."

"Then what do you suggest we do, sir? The officer asked, as Nelson place down the headset that he was just given.

"You're the commander of the tower. It's up to you to decide. But if I were you, I would give her a place. Lives first, reasons later."

Despite having doubts about the oncoming ship, the young officer simply shrugged it away, as he was reminded of the purpose of a military personal, and being a space traffic controller. A purpose that no one are ever allowed to forget

"Alright sir." He then turned to contact the Interceptor. "This is control tower, you are permitted to land on runway 3."

There was a pause before a reply was heard, but finally Natalia was given clearance to land. She let out a sigh and flicked a couple of switches. "Understood; beginning my approach." Her navigational computer calculated an approach to the spaceport and displayed a flight path into the moon's atmosphere and towards the port. She allowed her ship to stay in a stable orbit for a few moments before tilting the nose down and burning towards the moon.

Natalia's approach was, predictably, somewhat rocky. Were it a space station, or the moon didn't have an atmosphere, it would have been a nonissue, but the introduction of wind resistance, however thin the atmosphere was, in conjunction with the disturbance in aerodynamics that always happens when a smooth surface becomes jagged and messed up, made things somewhat interesting. Once the ship had finished aerobraking and slowed to a sub-orbital speed, Natalia had closed to within 20 kilometers of the spaceport, and it was then that she saw the Navy vessel resting on the dock. It was almost comical how out of place it appeared, sitting at such a small civilian spaceport. It appeared to just be a transport, so it was likely ferrying supplies.

Natalia's final approach was accomplished without problems. She brought her ship down onto the runway and maneuvered towards one of the hangars. It was then that she noticed how much of the spaceport had been turned into housing. It was hardly surprising, it was hard times for everyone. Who knew how close humanity came to extinction as a result of The Nomad's crusade. And, of course, there were those who would take advantage of the chaos for their own gain. Natalia had just experienced that side of humanity firsthand. And now she would have to hope for a much better side of humanity if she were to hope to pay for the repairs to her ship.

Natalia deployed the ship's landing skids as it glided into one of the hangars, maneuvering to one corner of the structure once inside and setting it down on the floor of the hangar. She began turning off her ship's systems when she noticed the commotion coming from the UWG ship. Were those Marines? Fully decked out? Guarding the ship? Something was off about that. Sure, most Navy vessels had at least a small squad of Marines, but for a simple milk run they wouldn't take up such a posture. Was there someone important with them?

It made her think, but she wrote it off. It wasn't important at the moment; what was important was finding someone to fix her ship. And maybe a job to help pay for said fixing. She put on a helmet and turned on her suit's oxygen supply before opening the ship's canopy and stepping out of the cockpit, but then paused when she really saw the condition her ship was in.

"Motherfucker," she muttered. Looking at readouts on the ship's computer didn't compare to visually seeing the damage. Natalia's fighter had definitely seen better days. She walked along the wing towards the edge, avoiding where a hole was blown right through it, then dropped down onto the floor of the hangar, heading towards what looked to be an airlock into the main facility. She looked around for anyone who looked like they were in charge, but the hangar was completely unpopulated. Possibly due to the arrival of the Navy ship. She let out a grunt and proceeded into the main facility. She removed her helmet as soon as she was inside and began to make her way towards... someplace. In all honesty, she had no idea where she was going, but she needed to find someone of some importance.

She eventually saw a sign pointing towards a "Director's Office". Naturally, she followed the sign, up a couple flights of stairs. She passed by several people on the way; one man accompanied by a woman whom Natalia assumed was a scientist, followed not to far behind by a woman and a... Noxaara? She had to do a double-take to confirm that, but it seemed odd for an alien to be here, in a colony that seemed so small. Natalia shrugged and continued up until she made it into a hallway and spotted a door that appeared to be guarded by two men. Were they guards? They weren't exactly dressed for the part, but they did appear very guard-like in their posture. She cautiously approached the door. Sure enough, it was labeled "Director Ogilvie."

"May I go inside? I'd like to speak to the director."

@Catharyn@Ozymandias

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

@Conscripts I like that idea. I'll send you a PM.

Music Appreciation Thread

I hate to keep posting, because I know it'll just turn into me and @SleepingSilence sandwich-posting constantly, but goddammit, this thread is grossly underappreciated!

Now, back to the actual thread... That fucking video hits you right in the feels. God damn. As for the song, damn. I liked it. I'm a little too drunk right now to analyze the lyrics, but I did enjoy the overall sound of the song. 7.8/10.

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

@Elevation If we're talking marines, they would likely be either a Staff Sergeant or a Gunnery Sergeant if enlisted, or, if they're an officer, anywhere from a 2nd lieutenant to a captain.

I would assume, with a squad of 10 as Ozymandas stated, you could go either way with whether the squad leader is an officer or a sergeant.

The Nomad, a sci-fi epic.

Natalia felt the ship drop out of FTL with a lurch and the sound of creaking metal. It was one thing jumping from one system to another in a Navy vessel. It was another entirely to do it in a merchant ship. It wasn't unlikely that the FTL drive had largely been left unmaintained, especially during the war. These ships were mostly used by volunteers to take people and supplies from one system to another, since the Navy could barely spare their own assets. It wasn't unlikely that this ship had been constantly running for over a year at some point during the war. Who knew how hard the last two and a half decades were on it?

"Alright Lynx, this is your stop," came a voice over the shipboard radio.

"I told you not to call me that," she replied, flicking a few switches in her own interceptor, preparing to undock from the shuttle bay.

"Well you are a war hero, after all."

"Yeah, and I have a name. It's Natalia." She turned on the reactor of her ship, hearing it spool up and seeing the fighter's systems come online one by one. The communications system came online after a short moment, and she was able to connect to her bank account and transfer her payment to the owner of the freighter. "I've wired you your payment for the transport. I'll be undocking shortly."

"Yeah, yeah, let me just confirm the transaction real quick..." Natalia couldn't help but feel that this man was going to try something. He had seemed seedy when she first contacted him, but his was the first transport to the Pollux system, and the last one for at least a week. She needed work and had heard that it was in need of some extra hands. On top of wanting to help with that, she had heard that one of her former squadmates was already there.

"You know, I don't think this is enough."

Natalia got a really bad feeling about the way he said that. "Well, I'm looking at the contract right now, and it says 'in consideration of 1000 credits' and that is what I sent you." She began to manually divert power to more critical systems; some of which were still coming online. In the process of doing so, she saw a small ship pass in front of the bay. She had a hard time telling at a glance what, exactly, it was, but it looked like a fighter.

"Yeah... well... you see, I'm a businessman, and an opportunist. I found a much better deal from someone with a lot more money than you."

The fighter appeared again, this time stopping near the opening to the shuttle bay, along with two more, each one a different type. And they were all pointing their weapons at Natalia's. Motherfucker.

"Listen up you son of a bitch, you obviously know a thing or two about me, so I want you to think long and hard about what you're about to do."

"I know exactly who you are, and I know the risks. I also know that you'd make a great prize for a crime lord. Anyways, unless the next thing you're going to do is show me your tits or something, I-"

Natalia cut her comms at that and immediately got to work. She diverted all power to her forward shields and thrusters and prepared to make a hard burn out of the freighter. It would hurt, but her ship could pull free of the docking clamp.

"Now now now, Lynx. I don't think you're in any position to-"

"I am Lieutenant Natalia Aprilia of the New Odessa Knights, and you clearly don't know who you're messing with, but I am more than willing to show you if you don't disengage and break off immediately!" she ordered, preemptively targeting the biggest of the fighters. At that, the pirates began to open fire. She knew they weren't going to try to kill her unless it came to self defense, but she couldn't afford to have her shields drop. She threw her thrusters to max power and began to pull on the docking clamps. It didn't take long for them to give, launching her ship out of the shuttle bay and almost into one of the pirates. She turned around and diverted more power to her weapons. "You asked for it," she said, launching a volley of missiles and blaster bolts at her target. Every single shot hit it's mark, inflicting massive damage.

"You've barely touched me with your shitty lasers. I would have thought an outfit like you lot would be more prepared," she mocked, delivering a final blow with her particle cannons. The ship exploded, causing the other two to split up and try to attack her from two angles. Natalia shifted her shields for all-around defense, but realized they were already down to 40%, and with them not being as focused it wasn't unlikely they were going to fail at some point soon. Her ship took a couple of hits as she turned to one of the other aggressors. "God dammit," she muttered. She targeted the light fighter as it was closing in on her and fired a shot from her Gauss cannon, punching a hole right through the cockpit and killing the pilot.

The final offender was still feeling like he could take her, and actually managed to get her shields down and start inflicting hull damage. Systems began showing status warnings as she turned to him and let loose a string of shots from her blasters, bringing his shields almost completely down. Her missiles were locked, but still reloading, so she tried to maneuver around behind the ship, but found that this pilot may have actually know what he was doing. She got hit a couple more times, damaging one of her thrusters and rupturing a power conduit leading to her port side blaster, leaving it without power. "Fucker," she turned and regained missile lock, just as her missile rack was fully reloaded. She fired more missiles and laid into the ship with her remaining blaster until it finally exploded.

"Fucking pieces of shit," she muttered. She was about to turn her attention back to the freighter and attempt to disable it. Unfortunately for her, it had already aligned and accelerated away, leaving her ship and the husks of the other three fighters sitting there. Natalia took a long, deep breath and brought her hand to her face. "It's been 8 days, and we're already back to our old ways, huh?"

---

The full diagnostic of Natalia's ship revealed moderate damage to most of the ship. Few of the major systems were badly damaged, with the exception of one thruster, and the aft-side power conduit, which also lowered the ship's overall shield capacity to 83%. She had almost forgotten about the damage done by burning out of the docking clamps, and it had caused the thrusters to overheat, resulting in all of her thrusters operating at 78% efficiency, and the top of the ship's hull received some damage from physically tearing away from the clamp, resulting in her comms and sensors being damaged, leaving her unable to make any long-range broadcasts or to make any long-range scans of the surrounding area.

"Fucking pieces of shit; I can't believe I trusted that little rat," she muttered, pulling up navigation to find out where exactly she was. Thankfully it wasn't interstellar space, or she would pretty much be dead. She was within warp distance of a planet, but with her ship in the shape it was in, the computer couldn't tell what system it was. There was a planet not too far away, and she figured that was the best place to start. Worst case scenario, she was trapped in an uninhabited system with no life-bearing planets and doomed to starve.

This did not turn out to be the case as her ship dropped out of warp near the planet. Her navigational computer was finally able to recognize the system as Molyneux and the planet as Ha'Mdama. What was left of it, anyhow. It was, of course, scorched by the Nomad and completely devoid of life, but her comms managed to pick up some garbled radio traffic not far away. She switched to directional comms to help pinpoint the source, which turned out to be a moon, as yet unnamed, evidently. RX3248. She began to accelerate towards the moon and continued listening to her comms until things became clearer. It took nearly an hour to close the distance, and only a couple of other transmissions were made in that time. But finally, one came through clear enough to be understood.

"...this is UWS Scythian, come in, over,"

"Scythian, this is RX3248 Flight Tower, we read you, over,"

"We are requesting permission to dock and unload, over,”

"Uh, wait one, over."

Well then, this was interesting. A Navy ship, out here? How convenient for Natalia; possibly she could hitch a ride with them, and potentially even get some repairs.

"pan-pan, pan-pan, RX3248 tower, this is independent interceptor Northwind Tempest, please respond." She waited a moment, but received no response. Perhaps they were ignoring her. Though, in all fairness, it was more likely that her transmitter may not have been working properly.

"pan-pan, pan-pan, RX3248 tower, I repeat, this is independent interceptor Northwind Tempest, please respond." Another moment passed with no response. She let out an exasperated sigh and ran a diagnostic of her communications system. She was still able to receive without a problem, but it turned out that her transmitter had lost power, and no auxiliary power relays existed. She still had an emergency transmitter, but it had a very limited range. She switched to it and tried to divert extra power to it to see if that would work.

"pan-pan, pan-pan, RX3248 tower, this is the interceptor Northwind Tempest, please respond." She hoped this time the message would get through. It was probably still not too clear, but she needed to establish radio contact.