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[Ama]

"My name is pronounced Slvia and yes, you can come, but be warned this information can not be allowed to spread."

"As you know, my people have wondered the stars for many, many years and in our travels we have had to hide from our destroyers by joining various organizations or goverments. I am a member of the Guild and I`m afraid some Guild agents have been tasked with shutting down SpaceInc, by causing all kinds of nasty things like riots. I`m afraid you will need to find another company to sponser you, because SpaceInc will probably be having some problems in the near future. I`m afraid I must ask you to not let this information spread from this room, for I have no desire to be hunted by the Guild."

[~Neri]

((I recommend pming the peeps in the mission thread who aren't posting and asking them to turn on notifications.

[_DivideByZero_]

Port Anchorage, Northern Ridge, Askarian | 233d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Askarian Shores
Snow (Low visibility. Actions toward distant objects incur a small penalty based on distance)
Freezing Wind (-1 to all actions when exposed)

"The assasin had good and proper mind control technology, god's sake. And a shitload of grenades. And a bad habit of shooting everyone on sight. I know one thing, we gotta go. Now."

"Mind control? The cap'n got mind controlled by your guy. He wasn't a fan of it."

The officer nods and reluctantly agrees. He promises to the fishers that he will organize a rescue operation at the current latitude to pick up any survivors that may have been trapped inside the sinking ship. The fishers are quick to point out something.

"Askarian isn't just an M-class covered in water. It's literally a ball of ice that happens to be melted on one side. You don't just fall to the bottom, you keep going. Eventually the ice is compressed past its critical point, resulting in a fuzzy phase transition from liquid to solid. By the time you get to that point, though, you're crushed. There's no salvaging a boat once it's gone down."

Point taken. Regardless, the pilot hits the throttle and the plane skis over the water for an efficient takeoff. Conserving fuel is important on Askarian as the thin atmosphere means it's expensive for a plane to lift off. Any lift the pilot can scrape out of the air is fuel that doesn't have to be burned just to stay flying.

...

The plane comes to a landing along Port Anchorage, a small floating town anchored to the icy cliffs. The actual installation is a series of old barges repurposed to serve as platforms for buildings and landing pads. It's not organized in the slightest. Ships are arranged haphazardly, blending seamlessly with the barges along every nook and cranny that's open to sea.

The habitation here consists mostly of old boats with their engines gutted, using the decks as ad-hoc meeting places, bars, offices, and markets. Despite the situation, the amenities are fairly high quality compared to port Newton. Despite their age, the interiors of the ships are maintained in almost pristine condition, which is important to not drive its permanent residents insane. The first ship you board, the husk of the ASC Treeline, features self-cleaning carpets providing a crimson accent to the brass-tinted hallways. The doors, though made of metal, have been decorates with thin veneers of luxury wood from off-world, creating an almost surreal experience of being in a ship that doesn't want to be a ship.

A man in a purple naval uniform and fabulous curly white hair greets you and your party.
"Welcome my friends, I see that your ride has taken a few hits. What's the deal, pirates? Engineering accident? Anyway, my humble employees shall fix it for you at a modest price. What else can I get for you?"

It seems the folk here are more enlightened, and also classy! The first room of the ship open to visitors is a vast hall decorated with a silver chandelier, exotic plants from the jungle world of Hawran, and various preserved fish, both whole and skeletal, adorning the walls. A large steel anchor resides on one end of the room, noticeably tilting the entire ship to one side, but present nonetheless for gentlemen and sailors to take selfies next to. All-in-all, this is a welcome break from the drab banalities of Port Newton.

A group of mercenaries, merchants, classy folk, and sailors seem to be gambling at a large table where they launch marbles onto a rotating platform with gates. Another group seems subdivided into two homogenous groups, one of scruffy sailor folk and one of merchants wearing space-age white uniforms. They seem to all be drunk, and are arguing about which profession is the mightiest of them all. Naturally, the sailors think of harvesting local fauna as an art, while the traders value silver tongues and smooth brokering skills over the actual production of goods.

...

Habitat Ship Gamma, Askarian Orbit | 233d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Urban Station
City Manners (-1 to first impressions)

Simple really, ask the engineers to get it for me!

You ask the engineers if they can get the item for you.
[3] "Uh, how did it get up there in the first place?"
"I'll start programming the crane."
"Okay, but this is a bit of an unusual situation. Seriously, how do you misplace an item in between the 9# and 8# floors of a restricted construction site?"

...

"My name is pronounced Slvia and yes, you can come, but be warned this information can not be allowed to spread."

"As you know, my people have wondered the stars for many, many years and in our travels we have had to hide from our destroyers by joining various organizations or goverments. I am a member of the Guild and I`m afraid some Guild agents have been tasked with shutting down SpaceInc, by causing all kinds of nasty things like riots. I`m afraid you will need to find another company to sponser you, because SpaceInc will probably be having some problems in the near future. I`m afraid I must ask you to not let this information spread from this room, for I have no desire to be hunted by the Guild."

[5] "What? You're serious? Well, thanks for telling me that. I figured the Guild was up to something in the system... a private contract, I suppose. Well, if SpaceInc is going down under, I wonder if I can get "
"Georgia? Now we're talking. The revolution in Georgia is taking its toll on the banks. One of the biggest banks on Francia is just about to go defunct since the rebels announced they will not allow business with loyalist-protected parties. With it gone, stocks are rising on the other moons. Maybe you can find some new millionaire to sell your pitch to. I think they'll bite."
The scientist lets out a sigh.
"I guess that's a plan... I really wanted to get SpaceInc's support on this. Slvia... do you think that the Guild will... fail? I know you're not supposed to leak info, but what kind of attack are we looking at, a full-on raid? A small-scale hack? What are they doing to SpaceInc?"

...

The Jolly Roger, Franz| 238d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Burgundy Lobby
Heavy Chatter (-1 Intellect, +2 Stealth)

"Ow."

Damn, he's good. Maybe I should've used the assault rifle instead... Nah, I still killed a guy.
Gonna need a way to get in there... f*** it, I got regeneration.

Ready my spear and assault rifle. Kick myself back towards the door, tell Alice I'm coming through.
Use the assault rifle to spray at the red guy, and try to get withing poking range of the floating crewmen.

Initiative:
[1] Vax
[4] Alice
[6-2] Red Guy

(3-Alice) vs (4-Red Guy) Alice and the armored combatant trade bullets generously. While Alice's suit continues to take more hits, the Red Guy's suit absorbs most of Alice's assault rifle fire. The Red Guy doesn't like being hit, so he jets back and takes cover behind the plasma conduit, but Alice pursues and winds around.

[5] vs (4) You fire a few shots at the Red Guy. They should have hit, but the Red Guy takes cover behind the plasma conduit and, well, the bullets hit it. It turns out that it's not made of transparent glass like you thought it was. Instead it's a metal tube with holographic screens lined up across its surface, designed to make it clear whether or not the conduit is running. Probably a good thing, since the plasma stream would probably burn a human's eyes.

Anyway, you figure this out because the screens all go black as soon as the bullet hits.

The Flying Crewman comes to the door and bounces off, dropping the magazine he was formerly trying to load. Looks like he wasn't prepared. You approach the door.

[Happy Demon]

My slimy comrade will be more wounded, but I must kill the crewman first.

Stab the flying crewman. Also run towards the red guy.

[SaberToothTiger]

Give back all borrowed stuff to the owner of the ship and offer him 80% of the bounty for Orion (if we get it). Walk to the gamblers, and throw around $40 in space-bucks on the table
"In."

((What's the name of the currency in the game?))

[Happy Demon]

((Gold, but some places seem to have non-gold currency.))

[_DivideByZero_]

The most common form of currency in the sector is raw gold, as trust-based currencies don't fly in an age of relativistic communications. There are occasionally secondary forms of currency, most often representing ownership of gold, but the difficulty is that should the bills travel too far from their gold, it becomes difficult to verify that the currency truly has value.

The Guild has its own set of "Credit Chips," which are widely accepted because the Guild makes periodic runs around the human sector and is a trusted entity. Usually. The introduction of credit chips has made purchasing equipment and outfitting troops much more efficient.

[Ama]

"They have sent members of the Guild to cause riots and just generally cause chaos and distrust of SpaceInc to spread. I have no idea what these members can do but if they fail the Guild will just send another team until SpaceInc comes crashing down. Sorry, your just going to have to have someone else to accept your pitch."

[Gamerlord]

"It involves depressurisation, aliens and a possible diplomatic incident if I don't get it back. Apart from that the guy who told me to get it told me nothing."

[Happy Demon]

((Ok, looking back I saw a flaw in the Ogre description, I mentioned flesh color twice, it was supposed to be flesh and skin. As in red flesh and human colored skin. It's corrected now.))
((Also, modified the Off-world fluff to use the correct off-world name of the Sludge.))
((Anyway, fluff.))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Speartail's life

On the planet of P769-524-FF-67532-Gamma (Bob) it's hard to raise children, as they're not very good at proper jobs, and death is rampant.
Speartail families often have problems raising their young and keeping themselves fed, so the children are also put to whatever work they can.
It's common for children to enter gangs at the age of 9, being sent on dangerous assignments for the benefit of their superiors, most times these are adult Speartails, but sometimes it's other types of mutant.
These assignments range from theft and espionage, to attacking other gangs and killing Wyrms. Wyrms are killed so their bodies can be displayed as trophies, but they're quite hard to take down, requiring an army of Speartails consisting of at least 2 000 mutants.
Goliaths and Strong-arms are far better at surviving, even the cross breeds do better, which makes many Speartails resentful towards them.

By the time a Speartail is 11 years old they've gotten to know their regenerative ability quite well, letting them judge whether it's better to let wounds grow, or amputate the part to regenerate a new one.
Lucky Speartails are accepted into military training at Mantis Fortress at the age of 11, as that's the minimum age requirement for entering (though they don't come out until they're 31).
By the time the Speartails reach 13, they're legally allowed to drink alcohol, but this is also when the superior gang members start using drugs on them.
Most of the drugs they use are either physical enhancements which are often deadly in the long-run, or mind altering ones which lets the superiors brainwash them.
The chance of a Speartail dying is about 75% at the age of 13-15, but some get mentally scarred from abuse, stress, or drugs.

When a Speartail reaches 15 years old they're given the option to use guns rather than melee weapons, many do, but some stick to close quarters, or are used for other tasks.
Speartail guns are quite volatile and low quality, leading to a lot of them exploding in it's user's hands, but the Speartails often survive and regenerate their lost parts.
At 17 their bodies are fully developed, which enhances their regeneration, becoming 4 times faster, most who make it to this age have quite a reputation.
Most gangs accept Speartails into the higher ranks when they're 17 years old, where they can recruit new children and abuse new recruits as they please.

Edit: ((More fluff!))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edible Africans
A kinda-but-not-really racist piece of candy.

Most inhabitants of P769-524-FF-67532-Gamma (Bob) are either white humans, mutants, or Sludge, and as such, there's only one place where one can see anything resembling dark-skinned humans.
There's a brand of candy, with human shaped dark pieces, it's called Edible Africans, and features an Afro-American supermodel on the front.
It tastes somewhat like sweet and salty meat, and has caused some confusion when a mutant gets off-world, and/or encounters dark-skinned humans.
It got made after the 3rd war by the Deli-nocturnal corporation as a short joke, but it ended up getting so popular they just continued with it (many had never tasted candy before).
Deli-nocturnal had previously done production of cakes and stealth fighters (there are weirder combinations), but when the Edible Africans became a hit, they dedicated themselves to candy production.

The Deli-nocturnal corporation has been given a bad reputation off-world because of this product, but they're rich now, so they don't care.
Deli-nocturnal does make cakes and stealth fighters from time to time, but the Edible Africans are of top priority.

Edit 2:((Crunch guardsman: "Sir, the Fluffy forces are attacking."
Crunch commissar: "Stand fast men, we have trained for this very moment, we wi-"
Fluffy berserkers: "Fluff for the Fluff God, text for the throne of Fluff!"
Crunch commissar: "Berserkers?! Change of plans, retreat!"
Crunch guardsman: "Codex, save us!"
*Absolute slaughter*))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Swampbike

The landscape of P769-524-FF-67532-Gamma (Bob) is different to most planets in that it still retains most of it's flora, rather than replacing it with giant mega-cities, the cities are quite compact with space between.
The main transportation lines are air and sea, as the ground is swampy, uneven, and littered with roots and plants.
The M5A14 Swampbike is made specifically for these conditions, it's a motorcycle with wide tires, soft suspension, corrosion resistant plating, powerful engine, and a light frame.
Cars would get stuck in the messy terrain, and all attempts at proper roads have failed due to the soft terrain, and uneven root placement.
There's also the ever present danger of being pulled into the ground, even on land that appears safe, a light frame, wide tires, and a powerful engine lets the Swampbike safely traverse such terrain.

The Swampbike also protects it's frame from the corrosive air with plating, letting it survive longer than most vehicles in the swamp.
The M5A14 is made by the Arktos Company, who after helping in the 3rd war, was allowed to stay, they're mostly making vehicles nowadays.
There's also the M5A13, an earlier variant, it's not as fast as the M5A14, but it got armor to better protect it's pilot.

Edit 3: ((In the softness of the 202nd decade, there is only fluff.))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Lev-buggy

The Lev-buggy 1A is an early test of functional land transportation on P769-524-FF-67532-Gamma (Bob), the ground is considered too treacherous to drive on, so they try to ride over it instead.
While using Swampbikes is fine for people, transporting cargo is difficult, so the Lev-buggy was developed, it can carry up to 1 Tonn of cargo (passengers included).
It has 2 front seats and 3 back seats, though there are some with only 1 seat made for Goliaths and Strong-arms, with 250 kg more carrying capacity.
But the Lev-buggy is expensive and has a lot of technical difficulties, which is still being worked on.
The Lev-buggy is produced by the Swamp-panzer Corporation, who mostly deal with urban vehicles, where the ground is solid.

Though there is talk of a new variant coming in, which fixes problems, enhances power, and has armor.

[_DivideByZero_]

Port Anchorage, Northern Ridge, Askarian | 233d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Askarian Shores
Snow (Low visibility. Actions toward distant objects incur a small penalty based on distance)
Freezing Wind (-1 to all actions when exposed)

Give back all borrowed stuff to the owner of the ship and offer him 80% of the bounty for Orion (if we get it).

The captain, who seemed a bit traumatized by the events, gladly accepts a payment in advance. Currently you haven't turned Orion in yet, but once you get into space the bureaucrats will do their thing and make sure the wanted individual is delivered. With that settled, the fisherman goes off and buys something to drink while you approach the gamblers at the table and toss down a few specks of gold.

Walk to the gamblers, and throw around $40 in space-bucks on the table
"In."

The game appears to be one of luck, but also involving a little of user input. A swivelling launcher propels a marble into a sloped disk, and the marble will veer toward the center. The slope is steeply sloped in the center and mostly level around the edges, much like a gravity well. You've got a bit of experience with orbital mechanics, although that experience is chiefly of the "make sure the computer that does all the work isn't broken" kind. Still, you vaguely know the shapes of orbits. The rotation causes the whole scenario to resemble a rapidly rotating black hole, although without a decent simulation of relativity it'll only come as an approximation of the real thing. Still, you've practiced doing gravity assists around a black hole on a simulator, just in case you ever get into some really stupid situation where you need it.

The object is to launch a ball into the disk, which has several basket-like catchers spread out evenly, and have it reach the center. You do this to win a share of the gambled currency. Some of the catchers are already filled to the brim with marbles, and you've observed several occasions when a ball would just bounce out of one.

You'll get about five throws with what you've added to the jackpot. Thus far, nobody has been able to get the ball in the center. Even one self-proclaimed physicist and starship pilot failed horribly after a couple dozen runs.

...

Habitat Ship Gamma, Askarian Orbit | 233d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Urban Station
City Manners (-1 to first impressions)

"They have sent members of the Guild to cause riots and just generally cause chaos and distrust of SpaceInc to spread. I have no idea what these members can do but if they fail the Guild will just send another team until SpaceInc comes crashing down. Sorry, your just going to have to have someone else to accept your pitch."

"Blast it. Well, again, thank you for telling me, I would have found myself in a pretty rough situation if I went ahead with my plan. Now... what about the stocks rising on the other moons? Why would it happen?"
"Normally such a thing would hurt trading. However, Francia had a lot of huge firms that dominated the market. With them gone, new banks are rising to take their place, and investors are moving to the other moons for safety."
"I see... well, let me pack up my things. I'm going to travel there to see if you're right."
"That's my next business trip. We leave in a day or two. You can hitch a ride on my ship if you want."
"Thanks, I'll do that."

...

"It involves depressurisation, aliens and a possible diplomatic incident if I don't get it back. Apart from that the guy who told me to get it told me nothing."

"Right, right...."

He heads off to work locating the object and moving the crane to get it. He pushes the other engineer away. "Don't joke around." he grunts.

[3] The container is fairly easy to spot with the crane's built-in camera. However, you spot something a little more bizzare: there is now a full-sized bush growing next to it. On the wet concrete. The engineer retrieves the canister and drops it off for you in the center of the construction site. Then, he clears the bush away by scraping it off using the crane head. It is yanked out of the ground with ease and rolls off the edge of the site.

The engineer hands you a shiny yellow hat. "Grab it yourself." You head into the otherwise restricted area to pick up the canister, which is a little heavy to run with after you've got it. You haul it up a dirt ramp out of the foundation-in-progress, and kindly return the hat to the engineer once you are out.

The wind blows a bit. Some of the trees are swaying. A stray page floats over the roof of a building. You could have sworn you heard music when it was close by.

A large Guild cruiser appears overhead, initially appearing to spin but then matching its spin with that of the floors. Now is about the time for routine inspections of the drive bloc, and to do this a ship has to match rotation with the station and dock with the front of the drives by entering the loving arms of the city-ship. It can't approach from the back because that's directly in the patch of the radiation from the drive, and repair crews would rather not expose themselves to danger.
Back in the park, a police officer comes to investigate the strange patch of ejecta from the shuttle you launched yourself out of. He doesn't have any reason to suspect you did it, of course, but since you can see him, he can see you.

...

The Jolly Roger, Franz| 238d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Zero Gravity
All items have no weight penalty.

My slimy comrade will be more wounded, but I must kill the crewman first.

Stab the flying crewman. Also run towards the red guy.

Initiative:
[5] Red Guy
[4+1] Vax
[4] Alice
[4] Flying Crewman

(1) vs [6+2] The Red Guy fires at you!  From behind cover, though. He is unable to see you, but noticing your heavy rifle as a threat, he is trying to suppress you. Of course he doesn't even come close as you haven't passed through the door yet. You are able to hit the Flying Crewman at no threat to safety.

[5+2] vs (2) The Flying Crewman stands no chance. Your spear punches right through his suit, allowing you to launch him in any direction you choose, or use him as a shield. You kick his weapon out of his hand, and your armor's strength means that he is now unable to wrestle you.


(4) vs (2+2) Alice fires at the Red Guy, keeping him suppressed for next turn. Red Guy won't be able to attack.

For purposes of wrestling, your total Strength is now used as defense. Currently, your suit cancels out its weight penalty, but the weight isn't factored here.
(1) vs [1+1] You're not very talented at wrestling, but neither is this bloke. He remains stuck on your spear. In fact, his suit's self-healing systems have cemented the hole in his suit shut from the vacuum, keeping the spear attached.

Still, this highlights a problem. Your armor is barely strong enough to hold its own weight. In Zero G it's manageable, but if you get on the grav-ring or go planetside you will find that your power armor isn't particularly capable. Still, you got it for free.

[Happy Demon]

((Random pointless question: Does the Puma Mobile suit have a see through visor, or does it hide the face?))

My equipment is gonna be a pain in gravity, need to get rid of some of it. I know!

"Hammer time!"

Smack the crewman with the power hammer, and use the corpse as cover, it even has a handle (spear).

[~Neri]

((If it's rated for space, I can guess it probably has bullet proof reflective glass to prevent micro debris and solar radiation from causing major damage to the opperator.

[Gamerlord]

Salute him, grab the cylinder and head back to base, pausing to thank the engineers along the way.

[_DivideByZero_]

((Random pointless question: Does the Puma Mobile suit have a see through visor, or does it hide the face?))

My equipment is gonna be a pain in gravity, need to get rid of some of it. I know!

"Hammer time!"

Smack the crewman with the power hammer, and use the corpse as cover, it even has a handle (spear).

((Probably reflective, to protect against flashbangs, shocks from plasma weaponry, big explosions, etc. Black visors are unlikely since they'd absorb heat. That's the issue with those black lens on telescopes for looking at the sun--they absorb a lot of the light and heat up. When it cracks, your retina is gone before you have time to close your eye.

The whole suit is sealed since you'd be dead right now if it wasn't.


Also--I just realized that weight isn't worded such that it adds up with multiple items in your inventory. I'm going to change it so that it does, but I am also going to make a bunch of items lighter in your inventory to compensate.

Aaaaalso, it doesn't make sense that your power hammer is single use since you can still beat people with a heavy item. Now it just reduces the power by -3 the first time you use it.))

((If it's rated for space, I can guess it probably has bullet proof reflective glass to prevent micro debris and solar radiation from causing major damage to the opperator.

((Depends on the micro debris, I'm not sure how hard that is to protect against with a glass visor. My guess is that it would be two-three layers of glass that doesn't need to be reflective, followed by a reflective layer on the inside. That way high-energy debris doesn't shatter the only thing keeping the vacuum out.))