Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

Your ship, deep space, anything that is not happening inside the Citi Gateway or Ingaba...

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06 Jan 2017, 12:23pm
Urgent bulletin from the imperial special activities division:
All commanders, be wary when exploring space, our greatest threat yet has just revealed itself to us... First contact has been achieved, repeat, first contact has been achieved, any information from any encounters will be greatly appreciated as it will help us fight this threat, be safe commanders.
Long live the empire

-Sub commander Richardson - imperial special activities division
06 Jan 2017, 1:38pm
Several jumps from Inara, No Data Available tore itself from hyperspace with a massive blue star filling the view screen. Arcing the ship hard to port to set up a fuel scoop and next jump, Phisto noticed his comm panel lit up - it was Marcus.

Putting on his best bored traffic controller voice, "Zorgon Peterson Sierra Oscar November receiving your hail, Falcon Delacy November Sierria Indigo," Phisto chuckled audibly into the comms panel, dropping the act, "What's up, Marcus?"
06 Jan 2017, 11:35pm
As the coms opens you hear the pops and scratches of the silence on the other end... barely audible you hear a man speaking to himself quietly "zipson?" He clears his throat.

"You're still alive. That's always a good sign. I've got some interesting news.... but before I get started in, how you doing out there. Over."
07 Jan 2017, 12:01am
He called back. This is really happening, isn't it?

"Why, hello Marcus, good to hear your voice.  I'm doing fine, thanks," Phisto cut his most recent frameshift charge so he could continue the conversation uninterrupted,  "Only a few jumps from the Dark Sector at this stage. Been mulling over what I might find out here.  Figure we got on the ball pretty fast, but you know the likes of the Empire or Federation have had guys on standby for decades, hell, maybe centuries.  Figure I'll see them mixed in with go-getters like ourselves."

Interesting news, so soon? And what the hell was "zipson?"

"What you got for me? Over."


Last edit: 07 Jan 2017, 12:17am
07 Jan 2017, 2:19am
After a few seconds of pops and clicks Marcus clears his throat.

"On my way through a more obscure area of the Neutron highway, I started to do some less traditional and ethical forms of Data Mining, and I think I might be on to something..."

He's going to think I'm crazy, and he'd probably be right.

You hear the audible prompts on the other end of the com as Marcus enters some information into his Holo. Shortly after a message pops up on your screen containing the following Navigational information.

HIP 21776
HIP 22185
Mintaka
Alnitak
39 Delta Persei
BD+28 4211
HR 7601
HIP 95924


He continues...

"Bear with me here, now I am no professor on our new friends here, but strictly speaking from a physics and quantum mechancic-y point of view..."

He pauses for a moment.

"If I lived in witch-space, from an energy and information standpoint, I'd probably want to be as close or in access to as many access points with healthy mass clusters to make things easier for me-- relative to my perspective of time that is. Let's just give these guys some credit that they can at the very least travel forward in the 4th dimension far more efficiently than anything we will come up with over the next few thousand years... They are physical beings, so I don't see it plausible that they do better than that, or we'd probably know what they wanted by now. They would too, and that doesn't make scans very realistic-- anyway..."

He clears his throat again.

"I went ahead and started investigating a reverse-plot from my location to the bubble, more specifically Aries Dark to the core to see what would pop up in relation to stars riding the Chandrasekhar limit as well as any point of interest more dense than 2.5 solar masses just in case our new friends might actually be somewhere along the route to the colonies-- Phisto, Aries dark seems to be one of the densest areas of B,O, and non-sequential there is in our civilized space. Further, there is a pretty clear path of them that makes a highly effective route to Witch Head, Orin, and Barnard's Loop. Now I don't know what they feed on, or their organic compounds obviously, but if i were looking for hard elements, or pretty much any element I needed to survive, I'd head for Nebula or Super Nova, every time."

He waits.. "You following me here?"

After a pause he assumes he's lost his audience.

"Nevermind that, the interesting part is I took the risk of breaking a few laws out here in the middle of nowhere, found a couple encrypted channels that felt imperial, and politely intercepted their nav data in sectors close by... was able to use that cartodata to track down more than a few stars equal to or greater than 2.5 in my area, landed in a very interesting system with a Neutron that was about to collapse, orbited by, count them 5 stellar mass black holes- and a single body capable of planetary landing....

He waits... if you could see the shit eating grin on his face...

"You'll never guess what I found..."
07 Jan 2017, 3:11am
Phisto kept his hand far away from his frame shift drive.  He wasn't even watching where he was going at this stage.  Staring out into the middle distance, he sat riveted to Marcus' explanation.

Good thing you're in space.  Nothing to hit.

"No, Marcus, I'm following well enough. Like you said, this sort of thing isn't my raison d'etre either, but hell, everything's made from exploded stars, why wouldn't you go there for food?  Cutting out billions of years of middle-men, really."

Our fuel scoops just scratch the surface of what's possible; a shame so few know that.

"What did you find?"


Last edit: 07 Jan 2017, 3:20am
07 Jan 2017, 8:23am
Marcus pauses for dramatic effect; the sound of static and interference becoming annoyingly more noticeable with every passing second.

"You remember those probes everybody was finding also not far from Pleadis? One's that were shutting ship system's down?"

Another brief pause...

"I fooooouuuund oooooneeeee.." He lets out a small snicker in the process...

"Nowhere close to civilized space I might add, but definitely in alignment with the general expedition routes being used to get out here. Phisto... whether we want to admit it or not, we're being followed. Why I couldn't even begin to speculate, but I imagine they've been watching for a while now. As for the Planetoid out here... There's an unusual and rather unnatural scarring... something pretty hot hit it pretty fast, and it doesn't look meteor... I'm on my way down now to take a closer look. Over."
07 Jan 2017, 4:01pm
He wasn't kidding.  Maybe that merchant is stuffed in that probe, too?

"Marcus, my word. You are good at finding things.  You might say it's too good to be true, but all your specifics have a way of providing... gravitas.  And besides, I like being followed - usually means I get to shoot something sooner rather than later."

Phisto smiled, and had to stop himself from flipping Data through a barrel roll.

"Ship's computer came up with the best sequence to follow based on your information from the bar, so I'm just going to follow that and see who I find out here.  If you got any tips, pass them along.  I'm going to start jumping again, so apologies in advance for any lag on my part. Over."

I can taste it.
08 Jan 2017, 9:07pm
A prompt informs Phisto that he has a message. It's from Marcus.

"I've made it to Colonia. Getting my bearings here and seeing if there's any recent intel that might be relevant. I'll be in touch. Stay safe commander. It's beautiful out here by the way. If it turns out there is a big to-do in the bubble and the Thargoids or whatever they are decide to cause the greater population a reason to get off their apathetic rear ends for once, you could always head out this way if things go south. It's a whole new world.


Over and out.

-M."
08 Jan 2017, 10:51pm
"What is she doing?" Cartlidge muttered to himself, impatiently tapping his fingers against the dashboard of his ship. It had been quite some time since Ten had last reported in, and he was starting to get worried.

Maybe I should head back. The bounty's gone dormant anyways. He switched his engines back on and turned the ship back towards the station.
08 Jan 2017, 11:25pm
Phisto closes his communications pad, and looks back up at the smoldering wreckage in front of him.  As the "scan complete" prompt appears, he rotates No Data Available, leveling a single plasma accelerator at the slowly tumbling hulk.  A single round later, the remains are incinerated.

Wonder what Marcus found on that planetoid.  Funny he didn't mention it... seemed so excited previously.

Phisto forwarded all the information he had collected thus far - seven ships, various types, all belonging to freelance explorers.  According to their data recorders, a few had been pulled by the Thargoid ship, but sadly only a couple had the experienced presence of mind to scan the ship and its wake.  Nothing appeared "official" yet either - Federals, Imperials, or even Alliance.

Patience, man. You've only been through a couple systems on your list.  Seven kills in that time, too.  At least you're not bored.

Once the data packet was on the way to Marcus, Phisto checked the scene one final time.  Satisfied there would be no signals to suggest anyone drop down here, much less figure out what happened, he swung Data around to the next system.
09 Jan 2017, 11:43pm
Slipping down into normal space just outside Maia's primary star, Phisto locked his throttle at maximum and the controls straight towards Maia B, then stood up and gazed around him.  The nebula, as always, was beautiful.  Blues and reds mushed together, while orange orbit lines from his heads up display subtly, yet violently cut through them.  Removing his Remlock flight helmet and setting it down on the console, he passed on a second burst of data to Marcus out in Colonia, then moved out of the cockpit area and headed to the belly of the ship.

Funny thing, space.  You're pointed directly at a black hole, but you'll die of old age long before you reach it.  Coasting on inertia long after running out of fuel, your now coffin would slowly accelerate, eventually being torn from existence by the incomprehensible energies before you.  Not a bad way to go, really.  Better make a note.

"But for now, a spot of tea, a snack, and some light reading while Data reloads her plasma accelerator stores," Phisto tapped his fingers gracefully over a control panel, engaging his ship's micro-manufacturing suite.  A mild, pleasant hum filled the ship as base materials were synthezied into plasma ammunition then loaded into the ship's reserves.

Modern technology is great, but 500 rounds of high grade plasma will take time, with physics being what it is.  Figure you have at least two hours before it's back to work.

Stepping into the kitchenette, Phisto picked out a light ration pack and set his food processor to brew.  Seconds later, he picked up his treat and walked back up torwards the cockpit, stopping in a small sitting area between the cockpit and the kitchenette, directly below a large window on the top of the Fer-De-Lance.

Sitting in a plain reclining chair, he tapped a button on the wall to deploy a holo-table.  Pulling up his ship's library, he virtually fingered through the bloated electronic stacks of books he had on file.  Slowing his browsing, he suddenly flipped to the "humor" section of the library, selecting a series of comics about a young boy and his pet cat that were once popular on his home world.  Phisto enjoyed their rapturous imaginations and sense of wonder, along with an almost criminal sense for mischief.

Yes, something light.  It's been a heavy couple of days.

Phisto sipped his tea, took a bite of ration, and settled in.  The hum continued as he read, and soon his eyes drew heavy, lulling him to sleep.  Data continued at a steady pace towards Maia B.


Last edit: 10 Jan 2017, 12:01am
11 Jan 2017, 5:07pm
Many hours later, having completed his survey of the area around "First Contact" and Maia, Phisto wrapped up a third packet of data for Marcus and sent it on its way.

I suspect he'll find something very useful in this one.  That one ship actually knew how to fly.  Had better than average equipment too for just some bored amateur or wannabe alien hunter.

Phisto frowed as he pulled up his navigation computer.

Hope he finds it useful... and that he's ok.

He paused as his galaxy map zoomed to "Inara."  His thoughts returned to the merchant, who now seemed so very long ago.

It won't bring him back, but it'd be nice to find a few more.

Phisto slowly, and sadly, turned No Data Available towards his first jump, and engaged the frame shift drive.
13 Jan 2017, 9:59am
The sound of exiting from warp strikes Marcus like a slap to the side of the face, startling him awake. He had been dozing off behind the wheel again; honestly, who could blame him, Jaques had been on lock down for days now oddly enough, so instead of getting some much needed rest like any logical individual would, he decided to trek in closer to the core. Star after star, jump after jump, scan after scan, he'd been coming up far shorter than initially expected.

An uncomfortable and sharp inhale, followed by a stretch even a grumpy ol' dog would be proud of, animates Marcus into a half awake analysis of his surroundings. \

Oh right, middle of nowhere, in a rickety hand-me-down Rimliner. Yep, this is reality alright.

He lets out a yawn and a strange groan as he scans over his Holo's.

Well what do you know.

He pops up the panel and begins to go over the data sent by his comrade in charms.

'Phisto, you dog you..." A smirk escapes as he begins to lethargically process the data through his systems. With his free hand he brings up a comm and starts recording.

"Yeah, buddy, weather's great out here, but that's about all Colonia's turned up so far." He pauses-- "Well that's not entirely true. Sure you probably caught it on GalNET by now-- Artifacts made the 22k LY journey out here and ended up Locking Down Jaques. It's a problem because that's the only station that does me any good. I can't re outfit for stellar-explo without one of her docking bays, so I'm stuck making the best use out of this long-distant load out for a while."

Marcus looks around and admires the class A blue-white directly before him... He stands up and stretches again, grunting as he does.

"Not all bad though. Buncha pioneers out in these parts, and they're educated. Motivated. Preparing." He sighs.

"I may have been wrong about our new Alien tourists coming out here on their own-- but it's painfully obvious by now that there's at least a hypothesis that those artifacts are attracting them. Why a bunch of undercover company men masquerading as pirates want to lead them here is anyone's guess-- but one things for sure, it takes a lot of motivation to fly out 22 thousand light years with corrosive cargo that's liable to start an interstellar war. Somebody smarter than myself out there better be thinking about that one back at the bubble, because it's not a bunch of teenagers throwing temper tantrums. It's coordinated."

Marcus casually walks over to his System's panel that's currently ingesting Phisto's data...

"I'll let you know what I can find, as soon as I think I've found something here. And hey Phisto... Thanks for your help. Can't really remember the last time someone went out of their way for me that didn't owe me anything. Over and out partner."

Marcus stops the recording and continues to scan the data.

No coincidences... no victims... only volunteers.
19 Jan 2017, 8:45pm
A data packet flies free from Phisto's PDA through the wireless connections around Citi Gateway and into No Data Available's communications array.  Faster than anything save her makers could conceive, Data files a copy in her archives and then catapults it off to Commander Nsite (aka Marcus) near Colonia.

*ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION BEGINS*

Marcus,

I'm pleased to hear Colonia finds you well and hope my work has served you.  Having returned to Citi Gateway, I'm happy to say it's as... interesting... as ever.  There was a birthday party for a local warlord.  Her bodyguard held a black balloon, inscribed with the number "30" on it.  Macabre whimsy at its finest.  Dancing, drinking, and plenty of laughter was had for all.  I wonder if you would've liked it.

You see, some of these people here, they are full of potential.  There was a sublimely angry woman, the one-eyed man and his cyborg companion, the most enormous mechanic you've ever seen, and of course the pirate queen and her entire entourage.  They, along with you, have inspired me.  I can't yet say for what end, as there is so much still needed before I can give voice to it.  But rest assured, should you ever desire to pay me back for my work near Maia, this could be that opportunity.

Having just now re-read that last sentence, I realize how creepy that must sound.  Believe me when I say I only accept good deeds done on my behalf out of a sense of solidarity.  I will not accept debt, guilt, or any approximation of them.  In any case, fare well and take care.  I sense you are chasing true villains; people that serve the subjugation of all they see, and all we value.

I remain yours,
Phisto

*END ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION*

You care, don't you?


Last edit: 19 Jan 2017, 10:27pm

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