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synodiporia_ooc2016-01-05 10:23 pm
powersthatbe) wrote in synodiporia_ooc2016-01-05 10:23 pm
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ESCAPE FROM JUNKWORLD: JAUNT INFO.
Welcome to the Junkworld of Gehenna: a radioactive cinder twice the size of Earth, used as a rubbish heap and ship graveyard for centuries by cultures across the cosmos, guarded by automated gunstations (left by cultures from across the cosmos), and with its only native inhabitants being Leaping Fireworms who feed on metals and thrive in heavy-gravity environments. Occasionally used as a penal colony as well, but really a death sentence - the only way people are sent to Gehenna is being placed in gutted ships in decaying, unguided re-entry orbits. Still, over the centuries, some have survived this process, and settlements have grown on the surface, giving the world a total population in the high hundreds or low thousands.
And now, the Tachyon Storm is coming. Nobody knows exactly what that means, but it’s bad.
You see, tachyons are particles that travel faster than light and back in time, and the slower they are, the more energy they have. And what few sensors on Gehenna work have started detecting increasing bursts of tachyon radiation, denser and denser, slower and slower moving. The best guess is that some incredible high-energy phenomenon is coming in the near future. No normal lightspeed shockwave can be seen before it hits - so by the time anyone knows what it is, it’ll be too late. And judging by the rate the tachyons are slowing down, it’s only a few weeks away.
The refugees, prisoners, scavengers, smugglers, and accidental colonists of Gehenna have a plan - or some of them do. Smuggler ships small enough to slip to the surface past the automated gun satellites are too small to travel faster than light, and they don’t have time to call for a ride. But the planet is all but covered in wrecks, hulks, derelicts, and crashes, and two large, durable vessels of dubious design are nearly intact. It’s just barely possible to put them together, strap on the smuggler vessels as armed outriders, and blast off for escape.
But as the source of the Tachyon Storm gets closer, things are getting weird. The laws of physics are bending or breaking entirely. The ships, barely understandable or able to be kept together as it is, are behaving in strange ways, and that strangeness is carrying over to the synthetics and cyborgs who interface with ship systems to operate them. And everyone on Junkworld Gehenna had an agenda or an axe to grind, anyway - trustworthy, safe, sane people don’t wind up banished to radioactive cinders, after all.
Ancient, unknown ships falling apart around them. The combined dark secrets, dubious pasts, and skeletons in the closet of a hundred different interstellar scofflaws. Even with an oncoming shockwave approaching at least as fast as light, the open question is still: what’s going to get around to killing them first?
CASTING CALL
Synthetic Revolutionary - exiled for advocating synthetic revolution, this android is an ideologue. They’ve made themselves Interface Officer for the Corona by the simple expedient of encrypting all its computer systems. We’d like to see this role played by someone who expects to make Skill AC.
Diabolin Criminal - a volatile psychotic psionic who spent centuries in a cryotube and came out still expecting to be the nobility of the cosmos, this being is simply too dangerous to turn away, more than capable of sabotage or assassination. This role has no special AC requirements, but should be someone comfortable with taking initiative & playing negative CR.
Hecatite Archaeologist - a scientist in willing exile to study the wreckage on-planet, they’re an academic who insists on being captain or chief engineer of the Empress of Moths for their own reasons, and because they’re the only one with even a vague idea of how it works or how to fix it. Optionally, they may be partnered with a second archaeologist of any species in the other role. If played as a single part, we’d like this role to be played by someone who expects to make Double Skill AC. If played as two parts, there are no special AC requirements.
Gorgon Astronomer - a dreamy, abstract cyborg navigator, a mathematician and sensor specialist who first detected the Tachyon Storm, is trying to understand it, and who may be the only hope of correctly navigating away from it. The more they know about it, the more cryptic and mystical they sound. This part should be played by someone who expects to make Skill AC.
Synthetic Pinocchio - A Synthetic, heavily self-modified, originally modeled after the alien species of the player’s choice, they’re currently acting as Interface Officer of the Empress of Moths. Their real interest, however, is in becoming more like an organic sentient being, whose lives and behaviors fascinate them. Hostile to the Revolutionary. If they serve as Interface Officer, we’d like this part to be played by someone who expects to make Skill AC. If another Traveler playing a Synthetic takes over as Interface Officer, there is no special AC expectation.
Please sign up for the above roles here! And please note that the AC expectations are just that - they’re not requirements, only preferences. If you’re enthusiastic about the character and ready to thread actively and take initiative, we’re less worried about the specific number of comments.
We’re going to try to cast these roles by 6 PM CST January 7th, to give people time to plan with them. It’s still not first-come, first-serve, but let us know if you’re interested ASAP!