Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Long updates!

1 (50%)

Short updates!

0 (0%)

Don't care; just give me hot ship-on-ship action.

1 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 2

[Iris]

Spoiler: Oh god, she did it again (click to show/hide)

Feeling cute, might delete later. I had a dream about this and thought it would make an excellent forum game, so here it is. Also an experiment with more dramatic, long-form writing; with more focus on characters and less focus on rote tasks. This is an SG, and you control the Commander, but hopefully, this will be... different from my earlier games.

Dauntless waited, like a sprinter on the blocks. Her hull was in aetherdock, and an observer might have called it peaceful: the snaking tubes connecting her tanks to the supply, the cranes that would soon tear out her missiles and furnace -

She wasn't having any of that.

Dauntless waited, anticipating the silent pistol. She ticked down the seconds, one by one.

3
2
1-

She rose.

---

"You say you just... found her?" The Commander rubbed his temples, baffled.

Genevieve nodded.

"A battleship with armament enough to put half of the Colonial Fleet to shame, just floating free?"

"Aye, sir. She looked damaged and was barely conscious. We've let her recover in drydock - although we barely had one big enough for her - but... she'd really like to talk to you."

The Commander sighed.

"Send her in."

Spoiler: Dossier: Dauntless (click to show/hide)

Class: [Unknown]-class Missile Battleship
Personality/Bio: [Unknown]

• Likes/dislikes: [Unknown]

Rank/Stats: S-tier

• Armour: C
• Speed: B
• Offensive Armament: S
• Defensive Armament: A
• Parasites: C

[Sanyachan]

ooo fun

[Glass]

Interesting. I’ll be paying attention to this.

Should we already be starting to provide suggestions, or will there be a second post where decisions are available?

[Superdorf]

Looks like we're a sentient space-battleship, with enormous firepower, decent point defenses, and... a secondary "body", maybe? I'm not sure what's going on with the silent pistol.

What material self-states and/or projections are currently available to us?
Where are we? What are the people who've taken us in like?

[Iris]

Interesting. I’ll be paying attention to this.

Should we already be starting to provide suggestions, or will there be a second post where decisions are available?

You can suggest things at any time. The Commander is a bit of a blank slate, but he has some... autopilot, so to speak.

Looks like we're a sentient space-battleship, with enormous firepower, decent point defenses, and... a secondary "body", maybe? I'm not sure what's going on with the silent pistol.

What material self-states and/or projections are currently available to us?
Where are we? What are the people who've taken us in like?

Unfortunately, I might not have been clear. Dauntless is in fact an NPC. I can answer questions if you still have them, though I would much prefer to try to weave them into the narrative. Hopefully, this conversation between the Commander and Dauntless may clear things up.

[Superdorf]

...I'm an idiot.

Yeah ok, let's try this again. Adjust mustache, straighten naval miter, all that jazz.
How familiar are we with ship sentience?

[Iris]

It was the Commander's job, as the leader of Anchorage 3, to... shepherd the ships under his care. He supposed it would be easier if ships weren't... frighteningly human, at times, but he got used to it. He never understood what caused it - some quirk in the build process, probably. It came with leading the largest collection of steamships in the fleet and being tasked with keeping them happy and ready for battle.

He turned his attention to the ship in front of him, who had just come into the office. In some ways, she was disconcertingly like Genevieve - they were both tall, blue-eyed, slightly tan, and wearing a military uniform. The differences were in the colours; Genevieve had black hair and camo fatigues, while the newcomer was blonde and wearing the fanciest dress uniform he'd ever seen. She carried herself gracefully, but there was a weariness evident in her movements.

Dauntless nodded at him, congenially.

"I'm told you're the base commander."

[Sanyachan]

> "Yes, that would be me. What brings you here?"

[Superdorf]

> "Yes, that would be me. What brings you here?"

Good start, +1

[Iris]

"Yes, that would be me. What brings you here?"

"My builders and I had a... disagreement about my future."

The battleship chuckled.

"So I defected. I'd like to apply for asylum in your fleet."

The Commander stood up and looked at Dauntless closely.

"You... weren't built by humans, were you? Your hull is made of iron, not brass. You don't carry high-calibre cannon. I can't even tell you what you're powered by. What are you?"

The vessel smiled thinly. "I'll let you reverse-engineer me, as part of the deal. You're going to need it. Do we have an agreement?"

[Sanyachan]

>"You...? Ahem, excuse me.

blink blink

"Errr, I think that can bearranged?"

[Glass]

>”I believe that we will need details about your... prior employers, but your offer is broadly agreeable, yes.”|

[Iris]

If there is not currently consensus, and the most popular suggestions don't conflict, in the interest of keeping things moving I might try to capture the intent of all of them. Additionally, if making a decision is too hard, you can vote to delegate to the Commander himself (in which case he will choose what is most attractive to him.)


"Excuse me?"

Both of them stared at each other for a brief moment.

"I mean, of course, although I would like more information on your... former employers?"

Dauntless nodded. "I suppose I couldn't keep it secret for long. I was built by an alien species as you guessed. I recognize that I obsolete your fleet with my presence, Commander, but to them, I'm a second-rate ship."

She paused, raising her hand as if to demonstrate a point, but all that did was throw the tremor it had picked up into sharp relief.

"I served them faithfully for years and they saw fit to cannibalize me for parts like an animal.""

Dauntless's breathing had turned laboured and her voice was trembling. There was a brief moment of calm, and then in an instant, she exploded.

"I was the pride of my fleet and they threw me away like trash!"

Dauntless stared for a moment, in shock at what she had just done. Belatedly, she covered her mouth and looked away.

"Apologies, Commander. My feelings are strong on this topic."

There was an uncomfortable silence, and then she continued.

"When my builders notice where I've escaped to, they will almost certainly invade. A ship with my firepower is the least of your worries then, Commander."

[Sanyachan]

>Rethink entire carreer

"Excuse me what"

>close and open mouth like a fish out of water

[Superdorf]

Alright, so we can't afford to turn this down. We're presumably gonna get attacked by something from the great beyond regardless of what we do here.

Given the interplanetary consequences, do we have the authority to make this decision?

If so... yeah, we have a deal. Dauntless will lie low for the time being, while the reverse-engineering process begins ASAP. We need to get a secure call in to our superiors and/or manufacturing base, requesting mass factory mobilization towards the production of alien war tech. Find out from Dauntless what kinds of enemy equipment we'll be dealing with, and plan our materiel accordingly.

Also, consider assigning Dauntless a full-time counselor. If our new mega-battleship has that much pent-up emotion from previous service, we'd rather smooth out any potential explosions (metaphorical or otherwise) while she's in dry-dock. At very least, she could probably use the friendly ear.