Roll 55
POI's:You can make up POI's. In fact, please do. That would take some work off me.
This list is unfinished.
In 2728, war between the Ross and the Centarui happened as per the usual. Both empires initially attempted to attack each other's homeworlds instead of major colonies. The Centauri government, to make things horrible for the Ross, built massive walls overlooking the Ross' major landing zone, and affixed howitzers and flak cannons atop its supports.
Seeing the wall's construction, the Ross at first ignored it, executing sieges against the city as per standard procedure.
As the wall expanded sideways, however, the Ross had to travel further and further--while taking fire--in order to move around it.
Eventually, seeing as the Centauri would eventually expand the wall to circle the entire city, the Ross gave up.
They retreated, and began attacking colonies, returning to a more traditional form of warfare.
Today, the bulwark is largely unused, but due to the massive costs involved in removing the thing, the Centauri government has simply let it stand. More recently, junkers have been attempting to cut parts of the wall off to sell as high-quality steel, as well as collecting the rusting howitzers and cannons still in place.
A
launch loop that links Empire City to an orbital network of space elevators, other launch loops, hypersonic trams, cargo drop platforms, and stations. It is
always bustling with cargo, passengers, and even ships being lowered and raised into orbit.
The structure itself has lasted nearly 850 years, having been set up by Centauri engineers 50 years after the
Centauri first landed in the ocean. One of the deflector stations, in fact, is centered around the floating remains of the colony ship.
The launch loop costs 10 credits per ride, with an additional credit for every metric ton of cargo shipped.
(Until I post a writeup on planet Centauri, I'll say here that the
Centauri carried with it a miniature city, complete with state-of-the-art recycling systems, even for the 2090's, when it was started and finished. Upon landing, the ship's engine and hull was dismantled for materials and electronics while the reactor was used to power the first settlement, built on top of the buoyant colony ship.
Centauri Prime was discovered to have little if any ocean currents due to a conveniently large moon that orbited about 1.2 times every Earth-day, eclipsing the sun every night, keeping the planet's surface shielded from the star. Centauri Prime has a very, very long day of 320 days, and a year of 340 days.
Every 14-15 years or so, the planet's lit side becomes its dark side, freezing everything and forcing wildlife to migrate. Centauri cities are usually fitted with artificial heating to protect themselves, or simply built on top of large geothermal vents, like Empire City).
Empire Launch Station has a deflector setup underneath the city plaza. The ring is not very well protected, because it is firstly unknown to most citizens, and secondly there are two main entrances, both of which are locked down unless maintenance is required.
Technically not part of the city, but nonetheless important, the massive lava pit near the city radiates heat which protects the general area from freezing over during a 'dark decade.'
The Empire City Emergency Lava Pit Sealing system consists of a massive tungsten door, powered by an equally massive set of servos. When activated, it can seal the lava pit in case of volcanic activity. Hostile attempts have actually been made to sabotage the system during the Ross-Centauri war of 2928, but the results of those attempts have since been repaired after a short period of civil panic and a slight increase in government spending resulting from the possibility of an eruption.
The lava pit has yet been stable since its discovery. Owing to the planet's lack of rotation, scientists have guessed that because the planet lacks strong magma currents, no eruptions should occur in the near future. While the planet does have a lot of magma pressure--resulting in lava pits, the pressure rarely fluctuates unlike that of Earth.
Surrounded by a high wall, the pit is a common tourist attraction during the 'light decades.' However, during 'dark decades,' the surface of the pit cools over and hardens temporarily.
The pit's industrial use is obviously power. The massive amount of heat in the lava allows factories to pump it from the pit's surface and use it for local power generation. A lava distribution system exists and is run by the Centauri Civil Works Institute, both pumping and distributing lava to nearby factories in order to reduce power costs.
Located in "The Drop Crater"--a crater formed through centuries of cargo drops--Alpha Drop Zone features a nearby recovery and repackaging station designed to retrieve cargo dropped from orbit. The cargo drop process is quite simple, really. You drop cargo off at an orbital drop station, paying 3 credits per disposable shock-absorbing crate, and it is subsequently dropped from orbit. This system has been around for ages, quite literally, and still works today as a simple method of transporting cargo via gravity.
'Poor' in today's terms doesn't quite mean what it did in the modern era. Food is so cheap now that rarely will people lack the money to buy food. Simply due to the massive demand for food, agriculture organizations can provide basic food for free, even.
Luxury food, of course, remains out of reach from the poor. So do many forms of electronics.
However, the residents of Spark District are not useless, unemployed beggars. They often work in scrap fields, ship repair shops, gun stores and ranges, and in some cases, they operate with the black market.
The reactor is essentially what powers the city. It is a huge, massive, colossal, gigantic cylindrical structure measuring two kilometers in height and roughly four hundred in width. At its base is a joint-uranium mine and nuclear lab. While miners toil away mining pitchblende, geothermal power is used to smelt the ore and extract the uranium, then turn it into plutonium by feeding into the reactor's first breeding stage, which is used to power the next stage.
The next stage is a massive fission core. While fusion remains far more efficient than fission, the city's near boundless uranium deposits make it far cheaper to simply use fission for power rather than fusion. The reactor was completed two decades ago and has proven to be a far, far superior source of power than the previously used geothermal vents, which have now been utilized solely for magma powered factories.
The Light's Stead is a large tavern located in the Spark District just outside of the slums, because of this it is frequented by Black Market Dealers, Arms Runners, and Mercenaries of all kinds. Because of this the place has a rule where all weapons are scanned before entrance, and anything fore more then personal defense is not allowed on the grounds.
Any form of government security stays far away from this establishment due to the numerous number of lawbreakers who would attack them on sight. This place is also one for meetings between the Dealers, and their customers as well as a place to make contacts in the Black Market, and Arms Runners.
The Arms Runners are a special criminal organization that works for anyone who wishes to get things where the opposition's resistance is to great for others to get through. They are trained highly in stealth, assassination, and information gathering making them the perfect decision if you want someone to escort your supplies to their destination. Though, because of their unique neutral status in the Criminal Underworld they are extremely cautious, and will never support anyone in the destruction of any small crime group no matter what the reward is.
yelled once more as he prepared to fire again.
[3] The three mongers continued to hide behind the tank. Perhaps they were scared of the autocannon drone? [4] Zakroff checked that the drone's fire mode was set to "Hold," and shouted again:
"The drone is off. Get out of there, leaving your weapons behind, or else I will blast that coolant tank along with the rest of you!"The three quickly took off, weapons dropped, and entered one of the corrugated aluminum houses.
ZakroffPeace Monger "Charlie"-40hp-4d {LOOT}
Peace Monger "Tommy"-144-5d {LOOT}
Peace Monger "Stanley"-200-8d {LOOT}Peace Monger "Da Boss"--3840hp-12d {LOOT}Peace Monger "Rob"-0hp-2d {LOOT} --------
Varron [6-1] miraculously focused on his fall and slowed himself to a gradual halt just above the ground.
Kayle--having just moved underneath Varron's position to somehow catch him if possible, stepped out of the way as Varron lowered himself, placing both feet firmly on the ground.
Caplus came running up to the two and apologized for getting into the mess... Kayle nodded, muttering,
"Annoying beasts..."She then continued,
"Look, Caplus, we're tracking down this odd fungus. Do you want to come with us?" Caplus made a curious expression, but it quickly turned into a normal one, as if he understood.
"Yes, I think I know what you'e talking about. I'll come..."His gorves continued to float away.
(No I will not let you force me into extremely lengthy and obvious plot holes by letting you just bring 3 gorves along
)
All three received a message from Amatin:
The admiral in charge of our mission has more brains than the entire Centauri government. Informing him about the fungus, its properties and the government's current actions is the first step that we should take.
Kayle, my life-draining doesn't seem to affect soulless lifeforms. Could you try your form of the spell on the fungus?
Kayle received the message, and then slung her weapon. She cleared her mind momentarily and looked at the fungus. It glowed a dim red to her... to everyone else, she supposed, it was more bluish... maybe teal. She reluctantly began to drain life from it. [1] The fungus contained little life to speak of, however. Simple fungal colonies were little more than a collection of cells. Though she expected more health from even a number of fungus globs, she only gained about 3hp from a roughly 3x3 meter patch of globs.
This fungus has something peculiar about it... it's barely alive, by my power's standards. I've drained life from animals and plants before, so I don't get why fungi would be any different. Who knows?
Anyway, I'll be cleaning up the fungus from the Reactor to the plaza... good thing the last windstorm was yesterday, otherwise who knows how far it could have spread?
The group of three made their way to the plaza...
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Milia darted out the front door, silently, and ran toward the city plaza. She replied to Amatin's message while running--the cloak nullified most of her inertial mass, so her equipment swinging from her running motions didn't affect her.
Alright I'm coming... I almost got myself arrested stealing office supplies but I'll get back soon. Apparently there's a gorv problem in the city... they're terrorizing the populace. I don't know what a gorv is, but they sound very dangerous, I don't think we can help right now.
While running down Spark Road, Milia stepped on something squishy. She looked down at her feet, and noticed some blue slime on the soles of her shoes. She picked up an odd smell emanating from it... removing her shoe, she brought it closer to her face to examine it when suddenly, it turned black and dessicated.
Milia tossed the shoe to the ground as she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around to see Kayle, Varron, and Caplus running toward her from the distance.
Kayle shouted,
"No, don't do that! It's a fungus... you might breath in some spores...""Alright then, thanks for killing it..." replied Milia.
"Well, I'm not sure if I got any of the spores," continued Kayle, slowing down a few meters from Milia, with the other two wizards trailing behind, panting.
"I can only drain life from what I consciously perceive. The spores are too small to note...""Really? I can see them just fine...""No! Don't do that! uh... what color are they?""Blue... turning green. I didn't breath any of them in. Anyway, I think they weren't mature yet. They seem to be dying.""Roger."The four continued on and met up with Jaffar in the plaza.
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Amatin pulled the soul of one of the remaining snakes (this one was scurrying into a tunnel), into the corpse of one of its fried--no, just cooked--neighbors. These animals were soulish... like most mammals and reptiles, they had something reminiscent of a soul. It was sufficient, at least, for his powers to work on them.
[6] The new resultant zombie twitched. The body itself was ruined and immobile... but somehow, the soul was causing the body to move!
Amatin ordered the zombie weasel snake (with his mind) to retrieve the backpack. The snake obeyed, inching toward the backpack, biting it, and dragging it up the side of the pit, allowing Amatin to reach down and grab the backpack. He then removed a PDW and shot the zombie multiple times. It fell back down to the center of the pit.
New Spell: Zombification!Amatin opened up the backpack... minding the bite marks left by the snake. He pulled out a can of... Monstershot... a highly addictive contraband drink that contained malodestrin--the most addictive drug known. Malodestrin didn't even produce a high... or any effects for that matter. Scientists had not quite yet determined what causes malodestrin to be so addictive, but barring the fact that a single gram of powder can get a person addicted for life without treatment, it wasn't very different, function-wise, from baking soda.
The backpack also contained some other stuff, most notably a PowerPencil™ and a notepad. He opened the pad up to the last page... which had a bit of... blood on the side of the page. He read it:
Notes from presentation:
Vulcanus. The center of research for the last decade. Once thought to be a barren volcanic planet with nothing worth noting, it's been fought over by he Centauri and Ross since that one report about the signatures underneath the regolith. There's some extremely dense metals down there, and the Centauri wanted to mine it for possible nuclear fuel, while Ross wanted to--
(The text ends abruptly with a single solid line--partly digging into the paper--leading off the edge. The page was slightly crumpled, as if the owner quickly put it back into the backpack)
Amatin flipped through the previous pages in the notebook. They looked like college notes, with each page outlining a different presentation. They looked slowly-written, so hey had to have been taken after the presentation itself. Amatin's experience with the university had taught him that Centauri professors spoke very, very quickly.
Hey Amatin, you back yet? The rest of us besides Herros and that Merchant of Death guy are here. We might need you for this...
On my way there now...
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With most of the group back,
Jaffar turned to Kayle.
"You got the fungus in that direction dealt with? Good. Now we just have this mess and the trail back to the ship to deal with. Can you sanitize the ship with your powers?""Sure."Jaffar turned around to see another group of city workers approaching. This time, they brought a large, blue tank on caster wheels with them. Four hoses linked to foam-covered nozzles were attached to the base of the tank. The four workers were all donning HEV suits.
"What now..."One of the workers responded in his high-pitched rural Centauri accent, opening his helmet,
"Liquid helium treatment at the ready! Hey, where's the ashes? And oh my! That stuff...""Liquid helium... the fungus is designed for very, very hot climates... yeah that should work. How did you know to bring liquid helium?""I dunno, council told us to about ten minutes after the first group left. I think they got a call from someone..."The inspector interrupted.
"Yes, I ordered that. Let's try it on a small patch first to see how well it works."The workers drew the tank closer and sprayed down a meter-wide patch of fungus. After the treatment, the worker kicked the fungus, shattering it into smaller pieces.
"It's probably not dead yet. We can get a vacuum team to clean out the fungus. We can take it from here. May we have temporary access codes to your ship?"(After answering)
Attention wizards, I understand that you have just helped save our planet from a total invasion. We've interrogated the Ross Admiral, and according to him:
-The Ross Fleet had four troopships--filled with heavy infantry and ground vehicles.
-This was most of the Ross offensive force. Obviously the defensive forces are still stationed back in the home systems.
-None of them know who Van Buren is. He showed up one day and convinced the Ross Congress to invade Centauri Prime. Go figure.
-No official Ross expedition to Vulcanus was planned. Van Buren was talking about it on the bridge, am I correct? If not, Van Buren did mention Vulcanus as "one of his chief interests" to the admiral, quote-unquote.
Anyway, we need you here, soon. Van Buren... escaped. Amatin, you did your best, it's not your fault. It's ours... we had a wizard of our own attempt to communicate with him... and... it's complicated. He gained some new abilities other than the ones the Ross Admiral reported seeing, it seems. We... we have his body... just not him. But Van Buren is out of the building, and we could use your help in dealing with him.
You're our best graduates... in fact, ignore the figure the university gave you... about a 50% graduation rate. It's really quite slim in terms of your levels, otherwise we would have an army of wizards at the ready. I'll explain at the hospital. Get here soon. Admiral Scott, out.
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Topic: Space Wizard RTD: Rolls. (Read 86023 times)