RPG: Starscape

[Toast of Awesomeness]

IC: Interesting. Perhaps....No. Too soon to say. There was one Great All, nothing more. This was simply an untamed beast.Nevertheless, the reply was sent in accordance with the pattern.

[Silvan Haven]

System 40

 

IC: A message arrived over the hyperwave comms prompting the Tlofo to power up its FTL drive and vanish from the system and reappearing just over a lightyear away.

 

OOC: Scout ship to system 31

[Alex Humva]

IC [To Xom]:

 

The AI took an odd amount of time; perhaps another programming glitch, perhaps long thought. "We wish to conduct business on this planet's moon. Boarding one of our ships is inadvisable. Emissaries will be sent to the following coordinates."

[Xomeron]

Outsiders:

 

The response came not long afterward. "That will be acceptable. We moving there now." It took the Outsider ship several hours of thrusting to make the rendezvous with the moon and match its velocity. After establishing a rather twisty orbit around the thing, a single small pod descended from the ship to the desired coordinates.

 

Setting: System 30

 

Once, it had been a planet.

 

Those days were long past. In the interim, it had been a rogue planet; its Ballistic trajectory could be tracked easily enough; accounting for stellar drift, it was a long curve, ending in System 30, tracked backwards through system 35 and 38, to system 42, where its trajectory had clearly originated. It had begun its life with massive velocity, but much of that had been sapped away by interstellar dust and the gravity wells of those stars it passed through. Its outer shell had been blasted away when its life began, leaving a core of rock and ice.

 

Passing into the home star system of the Drekians, it was, relative to the star, moving a leisurely ninety kilometers per second. In behavior, it resembled a comet, except that its trajectory was ballistic rather than elliptical. It would pass rather close to the star, though it was far enough off the plane of the system it couldn't possibly threaten the planets.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Xomeron

[Alex Humva]

IC [To Xom]:

 

Not long later a Natsirt pod descended to the surface of the moon. It was a simplistic thing, not meant for atmospheric re-entry but good enough to scout asteroids for materials. After the decades it had been sufficiently beaten up, but it still held that futuristic feel of something that was made to get the job done. From it descended a spaceman and a lieutenant, who had drawn some terrible straws. They were clad in thick, nigh-formless space suits, designed for heavy and dangerous asteroid mining as well as heavy radiation bursts from the odd black hole.

 

They said nothing for the moment; after all, how does one talk in the space? Instead, they waited to see what radio frequency these aliens would communicate on.

[Xomeron]

Outsiders:

 

The alien was odd in form. It stood around two meters tall; bilaterally asymmetrical, and vaguely reptilian, with a set of killing teeth. The three arms on its right side were long, with fine manipulators for fingers. On its right side was one massive arm clearly meant for heavy lifting, and one small arm with a claw on it. All this was visible due to the clear plastic pressure suit it wore. The creature did not speak, but on the same radio frequency the Outsider ship had contacted the Natsirt, a monotonic voice spoke over the radio in Natsirt.

 

"Hello. I am called skrreee-ekth(obviously the translator could not handle proper nouns) and I speak for the Outsiders. Shall we exchange cultures?"

[Alex Humva]

IC [To Xom]:

 

"Transmission will commence shortly." The diplomatic AI still spoke, while a plethora of texts, audios, and videos were sent over on the channel. It recounted Natsirt history from when they smacked rocks together into their space age. Strangely enough, however, it cut off directly at the formation of the Trilateral Alliance of Planets. No response came as to why, indicating that this wasn't something unexpected.

[Xomeron]

Outsiders:

 

No one was reading over the data as it came in, so no questions were asked. In response, an utterly massive trove of information poured through the channel, dictating the rise of the Outsiders out in the cold and the empty, their journey from mindless frostlife to their traveling merchant state among the stars. While certainly fascinating to historians, it was otherwise rather bland, unmarked by war, conquest, or scandal.

 

"With the exchange of cultures done with, perhaps we can talk business. We Outsiders are traders, merchants, and collectors. We would trade knowledge for trinkets of your culture, significant objects of your history, samples of your life-code, and whatever else may strike our fancy. From the temperature of your bodies I can draw only the most meager of assumptions; may we know about your bodies and your life-code, so that we could know which form of knowledge you would swallow best?"

[Alex Humva]

IC [To Xom]:

 

"You may not." The AI kept it's tone at benign emotion. "It is restricted information. We do, however, have relics that would be acceptable forms of currency."

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: The ship popped into existence at the outer limits of the local solar system, sitting there performing scans with their more ordinary sensors for several hours before sending out a hyperwave pulse. It was strong enough to give them a good view of some of whatever it could detect within the solar system, without being able to be made out by anyone in the next system over.

[Xomeron]

Outsiders:

 

"Our knowledge will have to be taught, then, not simply ingested. It is far simpler this way."

 

Setting: System 31

 

The system contained a Pressure Cooker world, two Reduced Atmosphere worlds(one of which was strangely large for its air pressure, and emitted oddly high background radiation) along with a Gas Giant and an Asteroid Belt

[Kothra]

IC(Expeditionary Fleet Alpha, System 13): The FCS Telakra and its escort had finally reached their destination. They were currently in orbit around the anomalous planet that the Alpha Vikren crew had discovered in the first expedition. The crews were searching for an ideal landing zone that would put them not too far from the assumed source of radiation. They were also double checking the environmental suits of the expeditionary team to ensure their safety. While the planet had an atmosphere, it wasn't all that much, let alone breathable.

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: The scoutship began the extensive project of conducting in depth scans of the system, starting with the large reduced atmosphere. Flying in low orbit while scanning and recording everything they could about the planet.

[BenLuke]

Setting: System 30

 

Once, it had been a planet.

 

Those days were long past. In the interim, it had been a rogue planet; its Ballistic trajectory could be tracked easily enough; accounting for stellar drift, it was a long curve, ending in System 30, tracked backwards through system 35 and 38, to system 42, where its trajectory had clearly originated. It had begun its life with massive velocity, but much of that had been sapped away by interstellar dust and the gravity wells of those stars it passed through. Its outer shell had been blasted away when its life began, leaving a core of rock and ice.

 

Passing into the home star system of the Drekians, it was, relative to the star, moving a leisurely ninety kilometers per second. In behavior, it resembled a comet, except that its trajectory was ballistic rather than elliptical. It would pass rather close to the star, though it was far enough off the plane of the system it couldn't possibly threaten the planets.

 

IC:

 

There was a new light in the sky.

 

Not Joutoma's sky, the object's distance and orbit made it impossible to see with the naked eye, but the satellite telescopes circling the Drekian homeworld could see it all too well, it's appearance soon catching the attention of the astronomers monitoring them, and brief deliberation, triggered the dispatch small unmanned probe to conduct a complete analysis.

 

- - - -

 

The room of scientists watched the grainy feed of the probe's landing with baited breath, wondering at what they might find. In all likelihood the exoplanet would be merely the hunk of rock it appeared to be, but they wouldn't stop themselves from hoping, or dreading, that they'd find something more.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Javert

[thelonewander]

OCC:

 

 

User-name: thelonewander

 

Species Name: Sangluni

 

Biology: The Sangluni are bipedal creatures, standing at around 6 feet tall. Evolution was at work here, as the Sangluni over time grew fur to survive the slightly colder climate of Sanlunar. Their legs are oddly designed, as the thigh goes out, then the calf bends back on a joint, and then another segment is what connects the ankle to the rest of the leg. The head is also most odd. The mouth is split into four mandibles, giving them a wider range of sound. The bottom two can lock together, letting Sangluni use the normal type mouth. They also sport a set of short claws on each hand, and move much faster. They also have fur. There is anywhere from pitch black to pure white for fur colors. They will also have spots of some sort depending on where they grew up in. Their hearing is also heightened by a good degree, being on par with most wolves/canines. Their life spans are about the same as a human,and are built on the same DNA/chemical make-up as humans.

 

Government: The Sangluni use something akin to a democratic theocracy. The democratic part works basically like how America's does. The catch is that the priest from each of the divine beings the Sangluni believe in have huge sway with the government. This system has been in place for over 3 centuries, and is unlikely to change short of an uprising.

 

Psychology: The Sangluni believe in two ways of thought. The first is that of the blade, and those that follow Zoltan, their god of war, fighting, vengeance, and violence in general. They believe that must fight for what they want if someone else has it, and to take it into their own hands should someone wrong them.

 

Those under the fellowship of Talven, the goddess of peace, diplomacy, and things of that nature, are much more calm, and less likely to rip your throat out. Talven's followers are the diplomats and traders of the race. They also play a much more supportive role in combat situations then those under Zoltan.

 

Of course they all believe in Lunar, their god of above all gods. Lunar is said to be the father of both Zoltan and Talven, so Lunar is mostly referred to as the Alpha, as he is the leader, and highest of high beings. Lunar himself has no priests, for he doesn't need them, at least that is what most will tell you.

 

One last detail. All Sangluni hold honor up very high. To lose one's honor is a good enough reason to kill yourself. Dis-honorable acts would be things like war crimes, and putting your own survival before your crew or squad. Doctors till about three hundred years ago were considered dis-honorable men, as they took your blood, which was what most back then considered their honor. Now, most only become doctors if they can't serve in the military, or they become politicians and diplomats.

 

History: The history of the Sangluni is long, and very drawn out. So this will be the crash course version of it. The Sangluni started out as nomadic tribes, wandering all over the snow cover lands of Sanglunar. As time passed, the tribes interacted, came together, sometimes peacefully, sometimes with extra amounts of blood and guts. During this time, the ones who became warriors were given much respect, and it even played over into the more modern times to follow. About a hundred years, and wandering tribes are no longer existent. They had all formed villages, and a few large towns. This was the time known as the age of growth, as industry and services both increased, so to did education. Of course, as things of that nature grow, so do weapons, and military tech. With expanding military, cities were getting afraid of each other. Countries were formed by alliances made with neighbors. Now fast forward about 25 years, and things really get interesting in the southern countries. One country, Genshia, had been developing nuclear weapons. They went to war with a neighboring country, and dropped the first atomic bomb. This sent shock-waves throughout the planet, in the political sense, as the devastation was seen by all. This lead to a ban on use of any and all nuclear ordinance on the home-world. To pay for their crimes, Genshia as a whole country, nuked it's self, just before the treaty could be signed by all. Now, fast forward to about three centuries ago, and the rise of a unified world is seen. Deciding on a government took ages, and when one was pick for good, it stayed, as it was able to appeal to both the monks and priest of the religious temples, and the politicians who wanted to have a government and not a bunch of raving priests. Now, fast forward one more time to the modern day, and the Sangluni are now launching themselves beyond the home system, to explore what ever may be out there.

 

Homeworld Name: Sanglunar. Named in honor of the Alpha, the one who made them and gave them life

 

Homeworld Location: cluster 16

 

Map Color: blue

 

Advances Taken:

Predatory Physiology

CHON independent environments

AI Systems

Hyper-drive

Advanced Cybernetics

Proud Warrior Race

 

 

-Ship classes of the Sanglunar Fleet-

 

Name: Infiltrator-class Corvette

Description: small. Scout ship. Designed to scout out an area and bring back info. Second smallest ship class in the fleet, only beat by the Sword-class single fighters.

Reactor: Nuclear fusion

Propulsion: Ramjet

FTL Drive: Hyper-drive

Armament: two laser batteries, mounted on the underside fore and atf sections

Defensive Systems: Stealth systems, able to hide from most forms of detection, except visible light. Windows and cameras are the down fall of the Infiltrator's stealth system.

Detection Systems: EM, Gravimetric, Magnetometric, Radiometric.

Cost: 3 Money, 3 CHON, 5 days

Upkeep: 2 Money, 0 CHON

 

Notice: will make first post tomorrow.

Edited April 30, 2013 by thelonewander

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

OOC: Hmm, a bunch of single-mind bacteria with no vocal language meeting a bunch of single-mind trees with no vocal language. Hoo boy, communication is going to be tricky here...

 

 

IC: So, living, sentient...time to investigate. The Shei-Al scout ship descended into the planet's lower atmosphere

[Toast of Awesomeness]

OOC: I know, this won't be easy. :PIC: So. Perhaps the Great All was not the sole being.As the creature descended, dischargers were kept trained on it, just in case. A circle of the trees below pulled their branches back, signaling where the creature should land.

Edited April 30, 2013 by Toast of Awesomeness

[thelonewander]

IC:

 

(System 16, just outside of Sanglunar orbit)

 

They had done it. they had finally done it. After almost 3 years, the first manned ship with FTL abilities had finally broken orbit. The crew were quite. let the people back home celebrate. They had work to do, which was to visit the closet system to them, which was system 12 The crew was composed of only a handful of people. the needed officers, pilots, and engineers, along with a small squad of soldiers, and two diplomats. The on board AI gave notice that they would take about three hours to reach a spot safe enough to use the Hyper-drive.

 

-3 hours later-

 

"Sir, we are in position to activate the hyper drive. It will take us approximately 4 hours to reach the next system. Do you want to activate the drive now? " the AI asked, ready to activate the drive. "Yes, give the crew a a mintue to find their seats." The captain said. Pressing the button for the intercom, the captain cleared his throat, and spoke clearly and quickly. "Crew, time to find your seats. we will jump in a few seconds." He cut the link. A few seconds after everyone was seated, they jumped, heading for system 12.

[Xomeron]

Setting: System 30

 

The exoplanet had nothing particularly notable about it at first glance; it was a hunk of rock and ice, like many thousands of others hurtling through interstellar space. The rock did bear an unusually high level of radiation; the two possible indications being, first, that the radiation had been produced in the supernova which obviously launched the rock out of system 42, or that the free-flying exoplanet was thick with fissile materials.

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: the presence of radioactive materials and the constant egging of the onboard archeologists, caused the captain of the ship to decide on an even lower flyby. This one taking place within the atmosphere of the planet. Using the gravity gradiometer in addition to just about every other type of sensor they had on board, a scan was taken of the area, both above, and below ground. The ships AI prioritized searches for anything that might have been made by intelligent life.

[Xomeron]

IC:

 

The Gradiometer made clear the statification of the exoplanet was minor; a set of high-density materials at the center(approximate atomic numbers 90-115), a good deal of metamorphic rock, and water and CO2 ice at the edges. The ground-penetrating radar, however, showed that a tunnel around three centemeters in diameter had been dug from the edge halfway to the core.

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: After several hours of discussion, a decision was reached and the ship was set down near the opening to the tunnel and a science team was sent out. The first thing they did was try and use an ultra sensitive camera to see what was down the hole.

[Xomeron]

System 31

 

The hole looked fairly normal; water ice had lined the sides, and starlight faintly shone in, producing a rather eye-pleasing ice cave, with nothing clearly unusual about it

Edited May 3, 2013 by Xomeron

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: A remote controlled probe was taken from the ship and sent down the "pipe". While this was happening, the science team was gathering samples and running tests on just about everything they could find.

 

All while wearing fully sealed environmental suites of course.

[Xomeron]

System 31

 

The probe traveled happily, following the tunnel down a bend, where it encountered a collection of dust, large ice crystals, and a bright purple worm which dug out of the wall and fell onto the probe from above before beginning to eat the probe's armor away. Six more worms joined it after a few moments, at which point they had eaten enough of the probe to cut off its communication with the surface.

[Silvan Haven]

System 31

 

IC: The scientists watched their drone get eaten in fascinated horror. On the one hand, here was an entirely new species of life eating things that nothing back home was capable of. On the other hand, this entire planet could be infected with the things, possibly spelling the death of the entire crew. All the equipment was quickly packed up and the ship took of for the relative safety of space

 

A fairly in depth scan of the rest of the planets in the system were performed before the ship spun up its warp drive and headed to the next system on their list.

 

OOC: Scout ship to system 25.

[Xomeron]

System 32The worms quickly devoured all the metal in the probe, leaving plastic, rubber, and synthetics behind.

[Silvan Haven]

System 25

 

IC: Upon reaching the new system, the scout ship did a repeat of the last one. Several hours of normal scan as well as a hyperwaves pulse.

 

Hopefully this one would be slightly less dangerous.

[Xomeron]

System 25

 

This star system was an archaeologist's well hydrated dream. Two airless worlds, one hot and close to the star, one in orbit of the Terrestrial World. Next out was a reduced atmosphere world; even from a distance, the world had clearly been inhabited; vast cities stretched across the equator, blending into a massive sprawl. The Terrestrial World showed similar signs, with the addition of massive residual radioactivity and blast craters squarely in what had once been cities; one entire island-continent had been blasted nearly clean, showing no signs of habitation at all. The planet's upper atmosphere was littered with discarded satellites and space junk. In an orbit between the Terrestrial and Reduced Atmosphere planets, the radar showed an object that was apparently pushing everything in its path away from it, as indicated by the trajectories of random asteroids and particles. Farther out was a gas giant, its rings thickly occupied by satellites and stations, but otherwise seemingly normal. None of the seemingly civilized areas emitted EM or Hyperwave signals.

 

System 32

 

Upon checking the instruments, it would be clear that the purple worms had emitted a good deal of radiation as they were eating the probe.

[Silvan Haven]

System 25

 

IC: As the sensor reports started coming back in, the bridge crew went deadly silent. When they all had signed on for this mission they had all expected to discover aliens, the existence of those had been confirmed some time ago through a series of hyperwave transmission pulses from another race in a nearby system. This, however, was on an entirely different scale. The ruins of an advanced civilization, as shown by the existence of the station around the gas giant, lay before them. It raised a plethora of questions such as, "What were they like?", "What wiped them out?", "Could it come after us?", "What can we learn from this?".

 

After several minutes of stunned silence the captain spoke, "Well, we are not going to find out anything just sitting here with our beaks wide open. Helm, set a course for that thing that is repulsing everything around it. I want to make sure we dont get attacked by it while we comb the rest of this place."

 

The ramjet activated, sending the ship towards the object. While it continued to scan the area, a hyperwave comm was sent to the Homeworld, informing them of everything that had happened so far.

[thelonewander]

IC:

 

(Sangluni Scout ship, outer edge of system 12)

 

The Hyper-drive worked. It was miracle of science to the most of the crew, with the engineers being the only ones not surprised it worked. Having arrived at the system's edge, they startred up the scanners, trying to see what was around. They a few objects big enough to be planets but not what kind until they got closer.

[Xomeron]

System 12

 

The system contained a terrestrial World, an airless, two Pressure Cookers, a strangely large Reduced Atmosphere world, a Gas Giant, a Proto Star, and an Asteroid Belt.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Xomeron

[Alex Humva]

IC:

 

The Outsider talks went no where as time progressed. The Natsirt attitudes likely had something to do with that. As the months passed by and turned to years the Natsirt council came to the conclusion that this region of space was simply too populated for their tastes. So many ancient signals of many races crowded together, they knew that they could never survive in such a region of space. So using what materials and supplies they could gather they reinforced their vessels, sucked fuel from the worlds that had such things, and set back out into the stars. They would search for a new home once more, but everyone knew that it would likely be suicide. No one cared, though; the Natsirt were an extinct race, the very core of their beings rejected and destroyed in the ages past. They had no purpose in the universe anymore. Now, the cold of interstellar and, eventually, intergalactic space, was all they had left.

[Toast of Awesomeness]

IC: The Great All detected more movement in the void.Hmm. This space beyond the sky was much more full then had been previously thought. Well, nothing to do but wait and see if this creature approached as well.

[Silvan Haven]

System 25

 

IC: The scout ship reached the edge of the area affected by the unknown force. Going any closer was considered too risky so the hundred meter long ship simply floated in space, taking readings of the object with every single scanner they could point at it. The rest of them were pointed at the other planets in the system.

 

This was going to take a while to go through.

[Xomeron]

System 25

 

A camera with sufficient zoom would give a clear look at the source of the strange force; enough photographs, and it was clearly identifiable as a gravity generator, hooked up to a power source.

 

Why everything drifted away from it, no one could guess.

[Silvan Haven]

System 25

 

IC: The bridge crew stared at the image on the main screen for several seconds before one of the scientists spoke.

 

"Its an anti-gravity generator."

 

The rest of the crew all turned to look at him, prompting him to explain his line of thinking.

 

"That looks very similar to one of our gravity generators, only it is doing to opposite of what they normally do. Instead up pulling everything in, the field is pushing everything out. It speaks volumes about how advanced these people were. Not only did they expand through the entire system, but they were also capable of things that we have only theorized."

 

Silence again filled the room as everybody looked back at the device floating in the void before them. After giving the crew a minute, the captain spoke up.

 

"All the more reason to get cracking on this. We have an entire system to go through and its not getting any smaller. Helm, set me a course for one of those station around the gas giant. Lets hope they still have working computers in them. Also, spin up the Warp Drive, I want to be able to get away if something starts shooting at us."

 

The ship turned and made its way to the rings of the gas giant, picking one of the smaller station to stop next to.The first team aboard would be composed entirely of soldiers. No chances were being taken, helmet cams and a few extra sensor would be all that the scientists would get of the inside untill it had been deemed safe.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

OOC: Apologies for my long absence. GPR data, though fascinating enough to drive me to contemplate coffee, is not to be interpreted all in a day.

 

As the disco ball passed through system 8, rather than through a particular bit of relatively empty interstellar space outside of system 8, I will leave the noticing of it to in-system telescopes. Expect it to be seen on Tuesday.

 

BZP is being exceptionally laggy for me today, so my planned IC will be delayed until after sunrise.

[Kothra]

IC(Expeditionary Fleet Alpha, System 13): The leader of the research team took a step from the airlock. He was the first Kalarii to set foot on a planet in a different star system. However he did not have the time to stand there thinking. He was promptly followed by five other team members and four of the military guards that had accompanied them. From the Vikren came two crew members to also aid the exploration team. The rest of the crews and soldiers would stay behind to guard the ships.

 

From the FCS Telakra the team unloaded a pair of wheeled vehicles. One was a light jeep seating four people. The other was a larger truck loaded with research equipment in the back. Two explorers and two soldiers hopped into the jeep and the rest boarded the truck. The destination wasn't far, but it was deemed best to keep the ships out of any potential danger.

 

And so the team set off north toward the perceived source of radiation.

[thelonewander]

IC:

(Sangluni Infiltrator ship, middle of System 12)

 

 

After moving closer, the scanners showed the planets in the systems. The captain was stunned. Their had system had lucked out compared to here. Moving closer to the terrestrial world, the scans picked up signs of activity that wasn't normal. Seeing these signs of possibly other intelligent life was, to the captain, almost terrifying, yet he felt calm. This was the shining moment of the Sangluni. First contact. Patching through to the barracks where the marines where at, he called up the two he trusted most. “Thell and Jul Vadme report to the armory. Order will be give there.” Cutting the comm over to the science team, he told them to suit up and get ready for some field work. It was time to see what other life their was out in the cosmos. May Lunar look over us all