whist

Black Velvet Sky [Hard SF | Politics/Exploration | Character-Driven]

BLACK VELVET SKY

If we can see the horizon, we want to know what's beyond.
- Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin

Introduction

In geosynchronous orbit above Seattle, Washington looms Boeing's massive Capital Ship Assembly Array (CSAA) where the NSS Eidolon, the first spacecraft with an axis exceeding one kilometer in length, nears completion. The massive ship marks a milestone for humanity's conquest of the stars, inspiring both triumph and fear. 54.6 million kilometers away, tense meetings are held on the partially terraformed Mars. Ever since a successful war for independence, the planet's inhabitants, colonists united as the Martian Free Republic, have nervously anticipated and prepared for retaliation by the de facto government of Earth, NATO. Even though the two organizations have formed a tenuous peace, military escalation on both sides continues.

And now, a new discovery threatens to plunge the Sol system into turmoil once again. NATO SIGINT organizations have intercepted covert interplanetary communications between the MFR and the independent Russian Federation. Partial decryption of these messages reveals heavy interest in a region of space previously thought to be of little importance. It is possible that whatever lies in this system offers a strategic advantage - one compelling enough to spur discussion of the possibility of an alliance. Investigation of these coordinates is now a top priority. That's where you come in.

As a top performer in your field, you are one of the best at what you do. Perhaps you work for a megacorporation, a nation state, or maybe you're a lone wolf freelancer. Regardless, you're needed for what could be one of the most delicate deep space exploration missions ever undertaken. NATO recruiters have contacted you directly to inquire about your interest in a classified operation involving revolutionary new technology just now becoming reality: the FTL drive. You are one of the few offered the chance to travel outside this solar system and explore the stars and planets in the galaxy beyond. Do you accept? Just sign on the dotted line, and we'll give you all the details...

Technology

FTL Travel

The FTL breakthrough occured at SNL/NM TA-IV (Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, Technical Area IV) when researchers created the Casimir generator. This revelation provided the source of negative energy required for a functional Alcubierre drive. The drive manipulates spacetime around a vessel, contracting the space in front and explanding it behind. This allows for FTL travel without relativistic effects. However, extremely destructive tidal forces pose a threat to the surrounding environment. A spacecraft must be well clear of any adjacent mass before activation of the drive is permitted by the ship's software.

Sub-light Travel

The primary method of spacecraft propulsion at speeds less than c is the magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, also called the MPD thruster. This method of propulsion uses electricity from a ship's onboard fusion reactor to ionize lithium. The plasma is then expelled from a nozzle, generating thrust. Speeds of a significant fraction of c are possible, however, NATO law requires the installation of a governor set to .25c (approx. 1.8 AU per hour) to avoid relativistic effects such as time dilation. Harmful inertia is canceled by a negative mass field generated by the ship's Alcubierre drive. If a ship is not FTL-enabled and therefore lacks an Alcubierre drive, significant periods of time will be required for safe acceleration.

Artificial Intelligence

The Turing test is long defeated, however, AI research is at a standstill due to NATO restrictions. General AI is explicitly forbidden, especially those capable of machine learning. Instead, task-specific software (called autonomous agents) are common, with humanlike interfaces that can respond to complex commands and act autonomously within a rigid scope. This is especially important for spacecraft designers who require an intuitive interface to the vastly complex software that runs modern ships. Humans are simply incapable of performing the mathematics required for successful navigation of the abyss.

Weaponry (Personal)

Turns out, there's still nothing much more effective than putting a hot slug through whatever you want dead. Examples:

Low Tech: The aging M4 carbine remains the assault rifle of choice among those who cannot afford more sophisticated weapons. Various models of handgun abound, from decomissioned LEO Glocks to revolvers straight out of a cowboy 'flick. The ancient AK-74 can still be seen among the most destitute factions.

Medium Tech: Reasonably well-equipped law enforcement agencies and paramilitary organizations favor Remington's ACR, or Adaptive Combat Rifle. Able to be reconfigured in the field for a multitude of roles ranging from MOUT/CQB to multi-kilometer sharpshooting, the ACR can probably get the job done. Handguns at this level are usually the latest models from Glock, Beretta, H&K, Colt, and many other manufacturers.

High Tech: Now we get to NATO and megacorps. The rifle of choice at this level is the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Raijin. An electronic-firing rifle capable of discharging 5000 rounds per minute with little to no recoil and pinpoint accuracy, the mere sight of this weapon is a deterrent. Effective in almost any environment, the Raijin is the assault rifle of the space age.

Experimental: Directed energy weapons are dismissed by many critics as impractical and expensive, but there's just something satisfying about turning your enemy into a charred pile of ash. The leader in this market is Applied Energetics. They sell, to a select group of customers, a prototype LIPC (laser-induced plasma channel) weapon. A laser ionizes the surrounding atmosphere, creating a plasma channel from the weapon to the target down which an extremely high voltage current is sent. The effect is instantly lethal against targets without appropriate shielding.

Weaponry (Spacecraft)

The main mounted weapon of choice is the coilgun. Often gimballed and controlled by targeting computers, magnetic coils accelerate a projectile to high velocity. At large scales, such as the spinal weapon of the NSS Eidolon, these are called mass drivers and can deliver hydrogen-bomb levels of energy to a target every minute. Many spacecraft, especially those small enough to be disrupted by the recoil of a coilgun, use electronic-firing rotary cannons, such as the General Dynamics GAU-39/S "Liberator" 50mm.

The NSS Intrepid XDS-5

The NSS Intrepid lands at Edwards AFB.

Type: Experimental Deep-Space Research Frigate

History: Developed by a consortium of megacorps including industry titan Boeing, Lockheed Grumman, and Intel, the NSS Intrepid is the current pinnacle of spacecraft technology. As a member of its mission, you've been granted access to this classified specification.

Hull: Boeing XDS-5 Carbon Nanotube Composite Hull (140 meter axis)

Power Plant: Sandia Corporation deuterium/tritium fusion reactor

Propulsion Systems:

• Sandia Corporation high-efficiency Alcubierre-class FTL drive
• Lockheed Grumman magnetoplasmadynamic thruster suite
• NASA JPL launch/backup fixed chemical thrusters

Weapons:

• 1x fixed General Dynamics CG-4 240mm coilgun
• 4x gimballed General Dynamics GAU-39/S "Liberator" 50mm electronic-fire rotary cannon
• Intel EWAR suite
• Lockheed Grumman point defense system

Support Systems:

• 3 ZFLOP Intel flight computer with autonomous agent interface
• Siemens AG integrated life support and medical bay
• Integrated sensor array

Roles

I will be playing the ship's AA (autonomous agent), the ship's medical doctor, and NPCs. The following roles are available for players, the listed players have expressed interest:

• Captain *
  
  • @ClocktowerEchos
  • @The Spectre
  • @catchamber
• Chief Officer
  
  • @ClocktowerEchos
  • @The Spectre
• Senior Engineer *
  
  • @ClocktowerEchos
• Security Personnel (1 to 3 players)
  
  • @Lexicon
• Scientists (1 to 3 players)
  
  • @Rekaigan
  • @Leodiensian

* Minimum crew required for the ship to fly.

General interest: @Plank Sinatra, @Kangaroo, @Dragoknighte

If there is a role you would like that you do not see here, please feel free to suggest it. I'm aiming for 4-5 players. I will have my character sheet for the doctor up soon so you have an idea of what to expect on that front. As far as the game goes, hopefully you've gotten an idea of the tone from what's here. There will be mystery, exploration, politics, and living trapped in very tight quarters with other people for long periods of time. Please let me know if you're interested, and feel free to ask any questions. More setting information may be up here soon, and definitely will be up in the IC/OOC.

Rules

These are here so you can make sure this game will be a good fit for you before investing your valuable time.

Interaction:

• We will treat each other like we are all in the same room sitting at a table trying to have fun. Anonyminity is not an excuse for assholery.
• We are all partners in creating a collaborative fiction with equally valid contributions. Everyone (including the GM) will make their best effort to respect the choices a character makes. In return, everyone (including the GM) will make their best effort to have their characters behave in a way consistent with their personality and environment. Please no god-modding or metagaming, unless your character is actually a god. Then go for it.
• Please try to keep as much interaction as possible in public. If scheming must be done in private, by all means, start a PM. But it works better if we can call stay up to speed on what's going on.

Posting:

• A post order will be enforced.
• On your turn, you will have one week (seven 24-hour days) to make a post.
• If there is something your character must absolutely respond to out of order, immediately make a post indicating you're going to interject, then edit it ASAP with actual content. Please have this content done within 12 hours to avoid slowing things down.

Content:

• The following subjects should be avoided: anything prohibited by forum rules, obviously. Fair warning: I like to offer my players difficult ethical choices in the course of the game. At risk of being trite, if watching the evening news bothers you, this may not be the game for you. However, explicit violence, language, etc. should be the exception, not the rule. The majority of this game should be right around PG-13. If something bothers you, send me a PM - we can work it out one way or another.
• Reading text in long, semi-comprehensible, unpunctuated blocks makes me do irrational things like quitting roleplays and committing myself to a life of isolation and self-denial as a monk in a Benedictine abbey. Please have mercy, as I will read everything you post. Use punctuation, separate your text into paragraphs, and use spellcheck if you need it.
• I encourage romance. Fade anything unredeemably saccharine to black.

I think that pretty much covers it. Please ask if you need clarification about anything.

---

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a physicist/astronomer/very smart person. I just write code. I'm aiming for hard SF here but there's bound to be some stuff that just doesn't make sense. Please don't hate me too much.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

@ravenDivinity
Sorry about that, I'll try to pick up the pace a bit.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

@ravenDivinity

Grant released Darius's hand, noticing a faint tremble. Understandable, considering the situation. Grant would probably be trembling soon too, after the adrenaline wore off. That reminded him of the first time he'd appeared in court. He was second chair on an M&A case, a hostile takeover. He remembered looking across the aisle at the poor sap who'd be losing her business to his firm's client, a huge multinational. He remembered her looking back at him with not anger, but sadness and confusion. He'd trembled then, felt like shit. A few years later he'd have done it without a second thought. Business is business, and a job is a job. That was always the reasoning. Well, maybe he could actually see some justice borne out here. Maybe he could do some good.

"Alright Darius, sure, let's do the walk and talk. It's a maneuver I'm pretty familiar with." Grant started walking over towards John. "Before all of," Grant wove his hand towards their surroundings, "this, I lived in New York and L.A. Seems like everyone is always on the move in the city. You start to take things for granted. Get jaded, cynical even, if you're not careful. You start to think you may even have things figured out. Especially if you're some big shot lawyer who's young and arrogant. Then something like this happens..." Grant trailed off as they reached John. His body looked, well, decimated. Grant knelt down, covering his nose with a sleeve. He'd never been in criminal law, but some of his associates had told him stories about the murder scene investigations.

"Ah, fuck, I think he's dead. I completely agree with what you said but... damn. No one deserves to die like this." Grant stood up and turned his back to the body. "Maybe we should just try to forget about this, you know." As if. The idea of having a normal conversation seemed patently absurd at this point, but he didn't really have anything else to say. "So, ah, what's your story? If you don't want to talk about it, I get it. I'm just used to running my mouth at complete strangers." Grant smiled, aiming for some levity. In hindsight, maybe now wasn't the best time.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

"Any ideas for where we go from here, uh, Grant?" said Darius as the teenager walked over to him.

That's a damn good question, thought Grant as he instinctively reached into his shirt pocket, forgetting that the pack of Marlboro Lights he kept there for moments such as these was now gone, simply vanished. He'd been paid $230,000 a year to come up with good answers to tough questions (or at least good-sounding ones) and now he was coming up empty, something that was becoming a trend in this, as the man in the lab coat had put it, brave new world. All his years of study, his overpriced Harvard education, were beginning to appear more and more worthless here. He almost laughed when he realized his martial arts hobby that cost $50 a month in gym membership fees would be more valuable. He had to say something though. Even stating the obvious would be preferable to standing there with his mouth hanging open, dumbfounded.

"We should see if... John? Yeah, I think that's right. We should see if John is alive. Maybe he's a doctor or scientist - he could know something about this place." Grant was aiming for sounding calm and confident - well, he managed to not stammer, at least. "I suppose we should get to know each other as well. It looks like we're going to be spending some time working together. To, uh, overthrow some gods." Grant fell silent when he realized how ridiculous that sounded. He fell back on custom to break the awkward silence and stuck out his hand. "As you obviously know, I'm Grant. Grant Raskstål. Darius, right?"

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

Grant began to charge after the bear as it tried to escape with the green girl, but quickly realized he was far outstripped by the bear's four-legged sprint. Standing, out of breath and slightly dazed, he took a moment to do a mental inventory of what had happened in the past - what felt like - seconds. Perhaps it was time to start operating on the assumption that there was actually some truth to what the so called goddess had said. Perhaps it was time to assume that this was actually happening, and not just some sort of dream or vision. I woke up in that bed... almost like a pod. The stuff in there looked... electronic? This place doesn't look like any environment I know of on earth. And that thing... a bear? Grant was starting to wish he remembered the Biology he'd taken. Although he was pretty sure no species existed that looked like that. And then there was the issue of this sword. He brought it up in front of his face to examine.

Sword Image

Silver Knight Straight Sword from Dark Souls rendered in Skyrim

Steam was still rising off of it in wisps. Curious, he knelt down and placed it on the ground. The second he released his grip, the sword disappeared, dispersing into some sort of glowing particulate. Did I make that? Grant shook his head and stood back up. The absurdity of the situation overwhelmed him. Him, a lawyer from Los Angeles, had evidently been kidnapped to some alien world, imbued with magical powers, and left to fend for himself. Well, on second thought, he wasn't entirely alone. He turned around to face Darius. "So, you can throw ice spears then." Grant started laughing humorlessly, overwhelmed by the insanity of what had just happened.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

@JohnSolaris @ravenDivinity Finalizing a post right now.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

I'm ready to post Grant's next action in the fight against the plantbear but don't wan't to cut out @Magnato.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

Was everyone in this world an asshole? The man jogged off and left himself and the girl behind. Speaking of assholes, the man in the lab coat, John, was trying to talk. "John, hang on, we should all try to get back inside." He turned back to the girl. "I wouldn't believe anything you heard in that dream. Even if things seem different, there must be an explanation-" Her hands were changing into claws, like some sort of animal. Grant paused. "How are you doing-"

His vigilance paid off. As Darius emerged from the building behind them, vines shot from the now relatively healthy-looking bear. He glanced right, preparing to roll out of the way of the oncoming foliage, but when he shifted his center of gravity out of the low Wing Chun stance, he instead saw a small point of sky blue shimmering something appear on the wall of the building where he was looking. Before he could even begin to think about what this was, he felt his whole body being yanked, as if every part of him was tripping over something at the same time. For a nanosecond, the world around him turned into an incomprehensible swirl of light and color. He then slammed gracelessly against the wall of the facility a few feet away from where John had now passed out. His stumbled to his knees, his shoulder absorbing most of the blow. "What the hell was that?" He stood up unsteadily, trying to regain his composure and orientation, and felt a cylindrical object resting in his right hand. Looking down, he found he was holding a shimmering longsword. It looked extremely well-crafted, almost too perfect in its proportions and weight distribution. Vapor rose off of it, shrouding the blade, a blade that looked to be covered in a thin coat of frost over the ice blue metal. He brought the sword up into a guard stance, tip tracking the bear. No idea what's going on, but I'll take it...

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

"Darius, nice to meet you as well. Do you really believe all that about the pantheon and - " Grant spun as he heard the sound of some massive creature roaring and a forceful collision against the wall of the chamber. "What the hell was that?" He ran towards the door of the chamber and out into the verdant forest. He was greeted by the sight of a massive, for lack of a better word, plant-bear. The man in the lab coat lay disemboweled against the wall of the facility, and the bear looked not much better, chunks of its flesh festering like week-old wounds. He noticed the green girl stood slightly in front of him, between him and the bear. "Hey, you! Come with me - back into the building - the bear probably can't fit. Look, it's distracted - now's our chance. After that we can figure out a way to drag that guy back in with us." Grant spoke quietly but firmly, trying to avoid the attention of the bear-thing.

He felt an urge to move quickly, to get himself and this girl away from whatever abomination stood in front of them. It was strange, he almost felt like... jumping. This protective feeling was new as well. He'd never had kids, never wanted any, and had never felt the need to be a hero before. Why didn't he just run back inside? But, he couldn't leave the girl. Couldn't leave the man in the lab coat, no matter how much of an ass he sounded like. It just wouldn't be the correct thing to do. He noticed the other man who had walked out second was standing slightly further away. "Hey, what's your name?" Grant tapped him on the shoulder. "Maybe one of us can keep an eye on the bear, and the other grab the guy who's injured?" Grant kept his eyes on the bear, ready for any signs of further aggression, and felt his body instinctively fall into a Wing Chun fighting stance. His heart beat quickly - if this was a dream, he may be about to wake up - or go to sleep forever.

Cradle of Divinity (signups always open)

Grant

Grant had rarely ever been at a loss for words, but he was having trouble finding any now. One moment he was settling down for a rare Netflix binge session, the next he was waking up from a dream that reminded him of the time he had dropped acid in high school. The room he was in looked like a set from one of the shows his geeky friend Marshall had made him watch, "Doctor Who" or something. Even more interesting were the four other people in the room. One of them, a blonde guy in a lab coat, was going off about pranks and lawsuits. Well, good luck getting a judge to try this fairytale.

He looked down, half expecting to be naked. Luckily, he was still wearing his suit. This is going to be impractical as hell. The environment outside looked like some sort of forest. If this was a hallucination, it was something strong - maybe some sort of government experiment? No, he'd always laughed at conspiracy theories. Kidnapping? He didn't know of any place on Earth that looked like this. So, that left either some sort of coma or the afterlife. Neither of those sounded particularly pleasant. At least you didn't go to hell, surprisingly enough. Even so, Grant felt good. He had never had so much energy, so much vigor. The... thing in the dream had said something about magic. If this was some sort of vision, he might as well enjoy it. The lab coat said something else about lawsuits then walked outside.

"What's that guy's problem?" Grant looked more closely at the other three people in the room. Another blond man in clothes similar to what he sometimes saw homeless people in L.A. wearing. A younger looking boy, maybe 16 or 17. And a girl... was that girl green? Grant had to force himself to not stare. "Well, my name's Grant. Any of you have any idea what's going?"