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[Digital Hellhound]

This be the OOC thread. IC thread can be found here!

¤SOLAR¤

The Sol System of the 23rd Century is a strange, fractured world. The light of her star shelters all of Earth's lost children; a hundred thousand distinct societies and factions, a million strains of Man and Machine, billions of strange, sovereign souls building their own future, making their own path across the breadth of the System. This is not a Mankind united and whole. Earth stands a scarred ruin, poor and desolate, and in the absence of her guidance, Man's scattered colonies, stations and refuges have grown lone and independent. To survive, they have changed, evolved, adapted. Mechanical, biotechnological and mental augmentations and alterations are not merely commonplace, they are practically omnipresent.

It is a place of wonder, of endless diversity, of impossible technology, of powerful faith, of endless creation. And it is also a place of danger, of secrets; a place of Mankind in its countless forms and pursuits.

In the outer reaches of Sol, far from the Sun's radiance, the less successful of Earth's offspring wait to be discovered. Old, failed colonies, isolationist stations, lost ships, outcast groups, unorthodox research stations - they all exist outside the web of communication and trade that holds the inner system together; known as 'echoes', they draw in the foolish and the bold to seek riches, knowledge, technology and fame for themselves. Inwards, the struggles and rivalries of Sol's endless factions and individuals provide ample work, passion or simple entertainment for thousands and thousands of her denizens.

---

Spoiler: What's all this then, eh? (click to show/hide)

Hello! This is a game I've been working on for quite some time. You, the players, take the roles of five inhabitants of a futuristic Solar System and set out to make your own path in the world; whether it's riches and power, wanderlust, vengeance, a need for adventure, spiritual enlightenment or anything else you'd like. There are plenty of folks offering work. Engage in fightin', explorin', intriguin', sciencin' and enjoyin' across Sol as you see fit.

In this time and place, augmentations and implants are everywhere, with all the consequences that implies. More than that, this is a world of individuals. There are no great powers or nations vying for control of Sol; instead, there is a broad Solar society composed of endless individuals and small groups and factions all pursuing their own goals. The world is free, if chaotic, and players are encouraged to go wild with their characters and their place in the world - an ordinary team might be composed of:

-A hard-as-nails cyborg cowboy from Mars.
-A shared mind community inhabiting the body of a teen girl.
-A petite, androgynous human with enough hidden armaments to level a city.
-A hovering, many-tentacled robot squid searching for the base code of God.
-A clone drifter embittered by memories of her countless deaths over the centuries.

Or such.

This is a fairly soft scifi setting - I'm no scientist. Inspirations include; Dan Simmons' books, the Culture books, Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief books, Deus Ex and various cyberpunky things, and probably many others.

Spoiler: Backstory (click to show/hide)

How have we come to this? To begin with Earth; the birthplace of humanity is scarred, fallen, but far from gone. A century ago, it thrived, science and technology advancing in bounds and leaps with every passing year. Impossible things were handed out to Mankind with ever-increasing pace - immortality and perfect health, whether through mind uploading, cloning, longevity treatments or gene-modded bodies; ever-present connection and communication, achieved through a global information network spread through clouds of nanobots; advanced fusion; clean environments; true AIs; uplifting into sapience; colonies on Mars and beyond - utopia seemed within grasp.

But such rapid advancement brought its own demons. Weapons grew in power and complexity, but counter-measures against had no hope of keeping up. The exact incident or cause of the Rampancy is lost to history, but whether by design or incompetence, someone lost control of their experimental nanocloud weapon and found themselves quite unable to stop it.

So began the Descent. Rampant EMP nanotech began to creep into the data-sphere that enveloped the Earth, growing exponentially, evolving and learning beyond anything humanity had to fight it. It was a slow death, but death nevertheless. The nanotech destroyed all advanced technology it touched. It spread through rain, with storms, with ocean waves and wind, warping the weather and turning the very world against its children. Cities fell, then nations, then continents, all descending into darkness and silence. The complex marvels of technology that had upheld Earth's near-perfect cities and environment collapsed with catastrophic consequences. Where governments failed to act in time, the clouds detonated entire weapon stores, scarring the world with fire and radiation.

It took years, but no corner of the Earth survived untouched. An entire generation lived their life with the knowledge of inevitable, certain doom - but they did not simply stand and wait for the end. Those with vision began to build. Mankind had already built its first colonies on its sister planets and crowned Earth with artificial rings and stations; these would provide refuge for the masses below. Millions fled in great arks or stations thrown out into the void, building and using all manner of spacecraft.

As governments on Earth began to fall and their authority crumble, these colonies and refuges were left to make their own decisions. Many thought Earth a lost cause - colonials descended to Earth to loot surviving technology and infrastructure to ensure their own future, further adding to the chaos and devastation below. Others helped evacuate as many as they could, sometimes dooming themselves to infighting and overpopulation as a result.

Decades passed with Earth dark and cut off, ruled by the Rampancy, while across the solar system its many refugees hung on to life. Isolation and desperation led them to take strange paths; to survive in their new environments, these refugees changed themselves, transforming themselves with technology to a degree unseen in pre-Descent Earth. Colonies of AIs and robot workers, left uncontrolled and scattered, formed their own fledgling societies. Eventually, the Orbitals, inhabitants of the artificial rings over Earth built before and during the Descent over the world, descended back to the homeworld armed with breakthroughs in containment tech and purged the Rampancy from her skies - except for a few rogue clouds which still trouble Earth's people to this day.

Today, a century from the Descent, a bewildering variety of societies and cultures stand independent in whatever corner of the system they've claimed out for themselves, and millions travel between them, seeking power, wealth, fame, glory - or enlightenment, answers, meaning to existence, or stranger things. For Sol is a place of many marvels and many unknowns; countless stations and ships still wait in the outer reaches, dark, shut-off from outside eyes. Abandoned colonies, experiments, failed arks, hidden weapons, they hold their secrets in wait for anyone brave enough to claim them. There is always someone willing to pay for such things and always someone to take the job.

Spoiler: Overview of the Solar System (click to show/hide)

It is impossible to fully describe Sol in all her splendour. There are, though, a number of major societies and strains of Man and Machine worth of examining.

Earth
The Earthborn - also known as left-behinds, dusters, blighters, terras, and many other unfortunate titles - populate poor worn Earth under traditional, conservative governments, if any. The planet still suffers from the Descent, but the quality of life for most people is decent enough these days. Technology ranges from modern-day to futuristic, but never as high as off-world. Augments are rare and usually gifted by the Orbitals, or self-made and thus bulky and crude. Rogue rampant nanoclouds still hold back Earth's progress, falling without warning to damage technology.

Many Earthborn view the rest of humanity with resentment and suspicion, if not outright revulsion, though many others are eager to get out into the wider world to see all its marvels. Earth's nations are heavily dependent on the Orbitals, though the latter will claim they are sovereign and free to do as they wish. Parts of the world are rather savage, with anarchy and chaos reigning still.

In-game, choosing to play an Earthborn is a sort of self-imposed challenge. They'll start with no or few augs, mostly lower skills and patronizing looks from everyone else in Sol.

The Orbitals
Circling Earth are her Rings, massive artificial constructs composed of modular habitats and hidden, potent weaponry. The Orbitals who dwell within grew powerful and rich from their looting of Earth during the Descent, providing for a luxurious quality of life. Most everyday things are beyond scarcity and even starships are easily obtainable to just about anyone. Orbital society is almost carefree and hedonistic, as well as highly tolerant and diverse, with a high level of augmentation and change from the baseline human form throughout. Their societies function on a direct-democracy basis, with every issue voted on and put into effect through automated systems at a moment's notice. An Orbital on a mission is a power unto themselves.

Many Orbitals see themselves as the benevolent protectors of Earth and control access to and off the planet with almost jealous vigilance. Their superior attitude, possessiveness of Earth and general strangeness from widespread augmentation tends to alienate them from the rest of Sol fairly effectively, but when you're as powerful and advanced as they are, why worry?

The Orbitals are a sort of proto-Culture, happy to sit in glorious, luxurious detachment and hedonism at the heart of the solar system. Choosing to play an Orbital will ensure you'll start with nice augs and tech, with an added bonus for likely looking prettier than anyone else in Sol.

The Remnants
The descendants of those in the colonies established before the Descent, on the Moon, Mars, Titan and elsewhere. They are not an unified group, but they are characterized by a high level of adaptation to their native environments. They're generally thought to be a practical, pragmatic people, with practical augs, sacrificing looks for use and effectiveness. Though usually they still resemble baseline humans, exceptions exist - communities that have altered themselves radically to survive in high gravity, extreme temperatures, toxic air and so on. Some remnants live in isolated settlements, focusing on survival, but others have swelled to proportions nearing cities on pre-Descent Earth - the largest remnant city is Tharsis Anchorage on Mars, hosting tens of millions, with enormous shipyards, highly advanced technology and a quality of life on level with the Orbitals.

The Machines
As Earth thrived and then fell, it raised another race to stand beside Man. Robots, often called autos or automata, come in many forms and have spread through the solar system. Androids, created in Man's image, are often possessed by a strange spirituality and Obsession with humanity; they seek meanings and enlightenment much like those who created them. Much less human are the descendants of bots from mining collectives and industrial complexes, or even more alien beings such as nano-tech cloud-minds and unbound AIs, free from any physical shell. They coexist with Mankind with only occasional conflict, seeking to make their own path in this brave new world.

Playing a robot is not so different from playing a (trans)human, though many augs and implants function slightly differently given the lack of flesh and blood. Playing a Machine without any physical shell is, I'm afraid, not an option.

Outsolars/Silents/Echoes
Only a group for convenience's sake, outsolars are the isolated ships, colonies and stations in the far reaches of the solar system that have little to do with the rest of its inhabitants. Some of these places are fiercely isolationist and shut-off by choice, others are failed and damaged, barely even aware of a wider world. Often home to radical transhuman experiments, hostile isolationists, regressed tribals, scientific communes turned religious orders by centuries of dogmatic repetition, and colonists so changed to survive their new environments they are scarcely recognizable as human. Some host powerful pre-Descent weapons and technology highly valued by the powers of Sol.

Players can't really play echoes, except ones who have left their homes behind and joined greater Solar society. Those might prove... interesting.

These are the largest groups - there are plenty of minor stations, wandering ships, hive mind communes, individual experiments etc. in civilized Sol that the players can hail from.

Spoiler: Mechanics (click to show/hide)

I'm using a simple-ish d20 system for this. General Actions have a difficulty; you roll a 1d20. If the result is over that difficulty, it's a success, if not, a failure. A natural 20 is a critical or automatic success while a 1 is a similar failure. Characters have a number of skills such as Engineering or Void Navigation; being skilled in something grants a bonus to that roll. Having Piloting I would grant a +5 to a Piloting action, or Charm II a +10 to a Charm action. Other bonuses and penalties depend on the situation and context.

All characters have HP, Security rating - a measure of the security of their systems and augs - and various Augs, Skills and Equipment.

Combat works with rolls of Aim (in ranged) or Melee (in... melee) versus a target's Dodge. Skills, ranges, weapon traits, etc. all provide modifiers. On a hit, damage is applied, with shields and armor reducing. It's a simple enough system that further details will become pretty clear in practice.

Hacking is an important facet of the game - practically everything is augmented, connected and vulnerable. Hacking and counter-hacking works with the Data skill. A hacker attempting to influence a system will first Breach it, rolling against the target's Security. The target may then Detect them and engage in active security measures; if they don't, they have to hope their passive protection is enough. Once in, a hacker can then take Action, as much as they like, trying to affect the target's systems in some way. A player can just describe what they attempt to do, but common hacking actions include;

-Hack Security: Permanently or temporarily compromises target Security, reducing the difficulty of further hacking.
-Disrupt: Affects targeted aug or system in some way to hamper its effectiveness or temporarily shut it down.
-Control: Takes over a targeted aug or system from the user's control.
-Shut Down: Forces targeted aug or system to shut down, and possibly prevents it from rebooting entirely.
-Overload: Diverts extra power to targeted aug or system, potentially causing permanent damage or destruction.

Space Combat is a more complex version of regular combat; all characters aboard a ship can take actions such as firing the guns, getting targeting solutions, taking evasive manouvers, changing the distance between your enemy, supercharging the engines, hacking enemy missiles, etc. Different ranges suit different styles of fighting best - torpedoes and missiles are best at Long Range, whereas hacking is best done in Close or Knife Range, for example. I'll explain the mechanics in further detail when there's need.

Spoiler: Classes (click to show/hide)

There are six Classes that determine your starting build and access to some of the better and rarer augs in the game. You may choose a Combo of two Classes, offering access to both and a potent Combo Aug at start, or to focus on one Class for a more developed and focused start. Combos allow you more focus/specialization/stuff for your character idea - if you want to be a warship pilot, for example, you could go for a Jockey-Destroyer, or if you want that extra protection and security for your tech, you could go for a Hardened-Tech Head.

The Classes are:

Hardened (tough, hardy survivalists with augs ensuring they can withstand extreme environments, navigate difficult terrain and weather all kinds of attacks and conditions)
Tech-Head (hackers, data manipulators, these individuals have the knowledge and augs to slip into any system and mold it to their liking)
Jockey (short for 'void jockey', these are master starship pilots with augs focused on control and use of ships and other vehicles)
Operative (subtle and discreet, Operatives are auged up with technology of espionage, stealth and subterfuge)
Thinker (Thinkers are armed with knowledge and information, as well as augs boosting their intellect and social skills)
Destroyer (unsubtle and destructive, Destroyers have combat augs, direct killing power and an endless capacity for ass-kicking)

Spoiler: Character App (click to show/hide)

Name: What do we call you?
Gender: How do we refer to you? A significant part of Sol's inhabitants know nothing of traditional gender norms and ideas, though others resemble the world of Old Earth more.
Appearance: What do you look like? Solars come in many shapes and forms, from outwardly more-or-less human to tentacloid robots to a swarm of nanobots locked in physical form. For the sake of my sanity, characters the size of mountains or mice are discouraged.
Background: Where do you hail from? What have you done with your life? What do you want? This does not need to be a wall of text, though giving me plot hooks and detailed new places and peoples is lovely.
Class: You may either choose a combo of two Classes or to focus on one Class. See the Classes spoiler for more details.

Much of Sol is undefined to give you room to worldbuild in your app. Feel free to describe augs and alterations your character might have, too - they'll likely make it in, unless they are incredibly overpowered.

Apps are chosen based on quality; this ain't first-come, first-serve.

Player List
1. Zahir Spencer [Taricus]
2. Brooklyn of Clan Spyche [Dwarmin]
3. OCOS-998 [MonkeyHead]
4. Medulla-3 [GiglameshDespair]
5. Karysse Sharid/Dogbite [Rolepgeek]

Waitlist
1. Jira Alcyone [Tiruin]
2. Vladlen Polzin [Playergamer]
3. Headache [somemildmanneredidiot]
4. Galactica Minor [IronyOwl]
5. Sir Bedivere Dagonet of Dublin [Ghazkull]
6. Jilosko Thompson/Oklahoma/Bastard [My Name Is Immaterial]
7. Jackson Bradford [Pencil_Art]
8. Erdus Midun, HARBINGER OF THE CLEANSING FIRE [Ardent Debater]
9. Auto-Colony 22 Heavy Personal Weapon System MK33 Designation 60892, Onboard AI Unit [Egan_BW]
10. Alfy Gena [DigitalDemon]
11. Antony Berners-Lee II [TheBiggerFish]
12. Woxir [snowdwarf]
13. Catherine [AbstractTraitorHero]


That was quite a bit of writing. Please ask any questions that might pop into mind!

[crazyabe]

PTW May make a Sheet.

[GiglameshDespair]

I have no idea what kind of character I'll make, but I'll probably make one.

[AbstractTraitorHero]

Trying something new.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name:Catherine or their serial number C3Thr3N on the back of their head.
Gender:This one prefers the female gender both in reference to oneself and  in romantic settings.
Appearance:A wrecked and dilapidated mess of steel and various other materials shaped like a human body.Its head has hair shaped protrusions that are in a wavy style covering her destroyed right eye she is 6ft1 and her main color scheme is blue and green most of her body is completely destroyed but it is still operational.

Background:She hails from earth itself originally and during the catastrophe she was shoved inside a escape pod by her inventor in a attempt to save his creation.It Seems that some of the nanobots are still  within her which highly corrupted her programming and as such helped form her new....Beliefs.She believes that she is human, that robots are human and that humans are robots and she wants to kill all robots to completely annihilate  them.To prove human superiority  she will fake a like of filthy filthy robots until she can ahhnilate them.Will her programming be fixed or will she try to ahhnilate  all of humanity? Let's find out fresh outta a escape pod and finally awakened.

Class: Thinker and Destroyer.
 

[MonkeyHead]

This looks like outstanding fun. Allow me to apply.

Name: OCOS-998

Gender: OCOS-998 superficially resembles a human female, and is generally labelled as such.

Appearance: To the untrained eye OCOS-998 looks like a 5 ft 8 classical human female with a lithe athletic bearing. Short blonde hair tied back. She has a preference to configure her eyes to be green. Pale skin, freckles. If someone were to spend any time observing OCOS-998, they would notice that she moved in a very purposeful, deliberate manner.

Background: The OCOS series of covert operative synths are a recent addition to the Orbitals plethora of strategic assets. They represent a state of the art application of machine sentience and engineering. Each unit's skull features a "brain" built of bleeding edge optical and quantum computing substrates, running a truly sentient "mind" capable of stunning feats of analysis and decision making that makes the human mind look truly second rate. Each mind is nurtured into a truly individual personality over a demanding 18 month development period. Like all Orbital technologies, it is fully on-line, jacked in to all networked data systems allowing for real time uploading and downloading of nearly anything. An OCOS units sensory suite is truly remarkable, with visual acuity across the whole electromagnetic spectrum (featuring increased range and sensitivity compared to the human eye) and auditory sensitivity into both infra and ultrasound. The body of each OCOS unit is a hybrid of advanced mechanical and organic technologies, though the organic elements are mainly there to fool the mark-1 human sensory apparatus into thinking it is looking at, listening to, smelling and physically touching a non-threatening human. Beneath the functional skin and muscle layers one would find a carefully sculpted foam metal alloy skeleton whose motion is enhanced by small but powerful and precise electromagnetic actuators. The skeleton houses a set of organs grown in labs but overhauled with the best Orbital engineers have to offer: Lungs with filters to prevent ingress of harmful gases and storage tanks to provide oxygen enough to survive for 45 minutes in a low oxygen environment. A servo assisted heart circulating hyperoxygeneated blood at triple the pressure of a typical human. The blood itself is loaded with nanotech self repair devices and highly miniaturised hydrogen fuel cells capable of supporting the entire unit for almost an hour as an emergency energy source, or for providing a short lived overdrive. A simplified and streamlined digestive system. All in all, an OCOS unit represents the pinnacle of espionage technologies available in the Sol system, designed to go where they please and do as what they please in order to enhance the intelligence gathering abilities of the Orbital security apparatus. In this, they are unmatched. They are fast, intelligent, capable, and dangerous. Outside of high ranking Orbital officials, nobody knows such a high value asset exists. 998 is fresh off the line, and has been given the standard remit to do as she sees fit in the Sol system, gathering any and all information about the other factions in the system.


Class: Operative, Tech-Head

[AbstractTraitorHero]

Any problems with my sheet?

[GiglameshDespair]

Any problems with my sheet?

You need to go through your sheet again. The background seems to be rather jumbled.

[AbstractTraitorHero]

Which part?

[TopHat]

PTW.

[GiglameshDespair]

Background:She hails from earth itself originally and she was horribly damaged  and wrecked  upon exiting  the earths atmosphere in a escape pod that she was shoved in by her inventor and it Seems that some of the nanobots are still  within her corruption has set in.

[AbstractTraitorHero]

Fixed I believe it makes much more sense now.

[TheBiggerFish]

Spoiler: WIP?  Sort of WIP.  Ish.  Welcoming comments, at least. (click to show/hide)

Name: Antony Berners-Lee II
Gender: Male.
Appearance: Antony, externally, holds true to his human heritage, despite having significant augment replacements for extra processing power and input bandwidth (sensors for everything you could think of, if possible) to the point that he is essentially robotic, if simulating humanity.  He even wears a headset that looks like glasses.
Background: Antony traces his descent from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the Internet.  It's somewhat ironic, then, that in a quest for security in body, his hardware is completely wireless-less, save for a tablet inset upon his arm that he uses to mechanically interface with the outside network (including a network cable), and his headset, a slightly easier, if less versatile, method for doing the same.

If it is absolutely necessary, Antony has a physical cable he can plug into things to network his whole body directly.
Class: Tech-head x2.

[Dwarmin]

Interest check.

I'd like to join, but it'll be a day or so before I can submit anything. I expect the game will be filled by then!

[spümpkin]

Interesting!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Alfy Gena
Gender: Undefined/It.
Appearance/Personality: Appearing to be a small child in a robe, Alfy constantly wears a brown cloak, and Its face is never seen, besides two glowing eyes. It is short, and speaks only in sign language. If Its robe was torn or fell off, it would appear to still be black, with only two glowing eyes. Its an augmentation, it would seem. Besides that, It doesn't enjoy hanging around others very much, and this might explain the selective mutism. It generally enjoys stargazing, or piloting Its ship, or repairing said ship. It has an obsession with the stars, and believes them to be Its true home.
Background: Alfy came from a group of others like it on Mars, in a lone colony somewhere on the barren plains. Spending most of Its life surrounded by mechanics, It grew up as a tinkerer, and then sold enough repaired scrap to afford a ship, which It used to fly off the planet, and found solace among the stars. It had never fit in among Its people, but in the stars it felt as It had a home. Now, Its only goal is to protect, and explore the stars for as long as It lives. However, It still wonders about the origin of Its people, and how they came to be, which haunts It on the occasional night, leaving It wandering around the empty halls of Its ship, reminiscing. It became selectively mute after repeatedly being bullied for Its voice, and will only ever talk in one-on-one conversations, and then only when talked to about things it enjoys. It developed a love for the stars, as It spent every night gazing up at them, and developing telescopes to see further into the blackness. It never knew anything about the stars, besides that It loved them.
Class: Tech-Head/Jockey

[Rolepgeek]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Karysse Sharid aka "Dogbite"
Gender: Female, not that she much cares.

Appearance: The pirates of old Earth were said to wear eye-patches and replace lost limbs with pegs or hooks. On Venus, you're considered a rookie up until your third set of eyes. Getting your lungs replaced, at least once, is an inevitability. Some even go full-blown robot, locking themselves in underneath multiple redundancies of airtight seals. Karysse went a different route. She stayed mostly human, replacing the parts that failed only when she had to. Her eyes are actually organic, unlike most, though this means she's gone through almost six sets. They're nearly as good as any cybernetic ones; working with the same doc each time means he can make adjustments. Her lungs are still artificial, as is most of her trachea, and her mouth has had some heavy adjustments on the inside, and her chin and lower jaw are mostly cybernetic. She keeps her hair shaved close, and her face and body are pockmarked with scars. She lost her right arm during one particularly nasty skirmish, and had the replacement heavily reinforced. Most of her ribs and three vertebrae are 'false' as well. Not that most of this can be seen from outside. Earthborn tend to have some comparatively conservative views regarding augmentation, and Kar's not much of an exception. Her face and extremities tend to be the only places where her augs show through. Still, her Remnant lifestyle means that she has plenty of tech augs stored away in her skull, shoulders, and back. She's usually wearing her old armored suit; not wearing one meant you were liable to get real hurt when the fighting started back when she was working on a cloud-buster.

Background: Karysse was one of the lucky few. Born on earth, orphaned, the usual story. Life wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. The girl was good with tech, though, even from a very young age. Took well to implants, knack for code and understanding software, the works. Got off-world first chance she could, patroned by a sympathetic Orbital. Unfortunately, that was more or less the extent of their generosity, and at 14, just a few months since getting above the planet, she was headed for Venus, gateway to the rest of the system.

Venus is both more and less hospitable than one might imagine. It's easier to live in the clouds than on the surface, and the heat and light that bathe the planet means that it's a bit warm, but perfect for growing crops, particularly given the composition of the atmosphere. At least, so long as you can filter out the sulfuric acid. When Karysse arrived, she was out of both cash and credit. The girl dropped planetside to look for work, and found it in Hephaestus, one of the larger floating colonies. Venus is a major trading port, and while much of the trade occurs in space, food production and, to a lesser extent, mineral export from the AI-operated mining facilities makes up a large part of the business, and it's still somewhat cheaper to produce the parts and various other equipment required to keep the massive farming shells running on the surface than it is to bring materials into orbit and back down again. Trade is most efficiently carried out by sky-ships, massive, specially designed airships able to use their balloons like sails to take advantage of the huge differences in windspeed through the atmosphere of the planet. Most of the trip from the surface is assisted by giant elevators fitted with flotation rings. The orbital facilities maintain a specifically neutral stance, but will give neither trade nor shelter to those who would pursue warlike endeavors in Venusian orbit. This lets them avoid many of the shipping wars that will sporadically break out between the various trade companies of Venus.

This lends itself particularly well to a very specific occupation. Piracy. And Karysse was in luck, as her skills meshed particularly well with what the crew of the Gilded Releaf needed. Electronic warfare was crucial to staying alive as a sky-pirate. Jamming missile systems, keeping targeting and communications intact...capturing a merchant vessel intact meant one needed boarding crew, usually carried out by troopers wearing armored flight suits, a distinctly specialized role on the pirate crew (and usually seen as a bunch of pansies who've never caught a lungful of atmos before). But it was a dangerous business; the merchants had no need for the pirate vessel to remain afloat, after all. After three years, the Captain, one Mr. David Reynards, gave her the post of Chief Electronics Officer. Which is to say, the ship's personal hacker. The nature of her profession meant that she was really more of a countermeasures specialist, and the Gilded Releaf was a very tough nut to crack, as was the squad of rocket-riders on board. Moreover, the girl earned the name Dogbite from the speed she scarfed down food...and the tactics she employed during the 'sparring bouts' organized belowdecks. It was an exciting life, if dangerous, and Karysse grew up with it and stayed with the boat until she was 25. That was when things went downhill.

No pirate lives forever, and whilst surging out of a bank of acid clouds, one of their target's roaming scout plane slammed into the main float-sail. The ensuing fight was short-lived and one-sided between the escort carrier and the ship, and the Gilded Releaf limped back to port, barely able to stay within tolerable pressure. Most of the crew was dead. Karysse's right leg was deeply gouged by acid. Replacement was expensive as always, and Captain Reynards spent a hefty chunk of the proceeds from sale of his broken ship on giving his crew back the parts they needed. There wasn't much to keep them together anymore, and while old buddies would stick together, most simply drifted off.

Karysse herself started working as a security specialist for data companies. While she was quite good at her job, piracy carries an air of unreputability, for some unfathomable reason, and she was rarely retained long after her past was discovered. Trust seems hard to come by as a pirate. It also probably didn't help that she peeked at a few records here and there. Just out of curiosity, of course. And, occasionally...a bit of profit. And now? Well, now the woman known as Dogbite has very little idea what to do with herself. She never really had a specific goal besides getting the hell off of Earth, before. Cash, a direction, and something more exciting than the drudgery of security programming and breach analysis for the last four years sound great.
Class: Hardened Tech-Head

Not quite done.

>.> Really? Everyone went with Tech-Head? Jeezus christ guys.