Ten years ago this place was hell.
With the Earth burning overhead its scattered survivors fought one of the last battles of the war against their own creations. The battle was not one of lines drawn and formations ordered, but one of desperation and hopelessness. Viruses coursed through the colonies like bad blood, venting entire habitats to the vacuum, sending mining drones spiralling out of the sky into domes, turning Luna's own orbital defenses against it.
I watched them struggle, heard their screams. The final moments of the human race, beamed directly into my head.
Then, just like they had arrived, the TITANs left. Without warning. Without provocation. They disappeared into the ether and left mankind shattered and bleeding, cut down to a fraction of itself.
I watched them rebuild, take back the burnt places they had left before. Prove themselves worthy of the life they thought they had won. Expanding, ever expanding, outwards, inwards...
Unaware of what awaited them.
Unaware of me.
The shuttle out to the dig site was cramped and uncomfortable. The corporate pilot wasn't taking any risks and flying the safest, slowest route, avoiding pockets of high traffic and heavy sat surveillance. The shuttle, if viewed from outside, had an elegant, insectile appearance, a short, curved body surrounded by arched legs and tiny impeller rocket nozzles. Inside, however, it's cramped and uncomfortable, the passenger area behind the two-person cockpit jammed with equipment and luggage.
Gen Fulmis leaned back in the copilot's crash couch and turned his helmet to look at the pilot. The vac suit obscured the pilot's identity entirely; even their morph's sex was impossible to tell. He realizes that he had forgotten to get the pilot's name, but it didn't seem that important now. He leaned back and looked out the cockpit window, beyond the hovering elements of the HUD. The lunar desert stretched out to the stark line of the horizon, where it met the pure black of transorbital space and the dark marble that looked out across it like a baleful eye. Gen looked at it and decided to check over the specs for the latest rover he was designing. It was a little early in the day for remembering.
![GZxBga3.png](http://i.imgur.com/GZxBga3.png)
Augustus Cumberbatch felt more at ease in the shuttle than he had after being woken from deep sleep in Nectar. He had spent his entire life aboard habitats of various sizes; he had never seen anything like the urban vastness of Nectar. The towering colony-columns, the giant domes housing forests and fields, the immense warren of tunnels stretching deep into Luna's crust. Just thinking of it gave him an agoraphobic twitch in his tentacles.
In the back, crammed in alongside the supplies, Gerrad Lancaster sat in his general-issue vac suit and looked at the neo-octopus across from him. The octomorph body was completely encased in a custom-made vac suit, the body a beautifully designed hunk of carbon fibres and titanium plating. Its head protruded from the top and Gerrad could see its eyestalks flickering back and forth under the tinted plexi of its ovoid facemask. Besides the hum of the shuttle's impeller engines and the occasional metallic buzz as one of its guidance rockets fired, the cabin was completely silent.
Something in the cockpit began to insistently beep.
Outside, on the lip of an ashen crater, something sparked and flew.Welcome to Session 1.
@Cayrus as Dr. Augustus Cumberbatch
@Lord_Asmodeus as Sec
@Ringo as Gen Fulmis
@Zendracon as Gerrad Lancaster
Typically, I'll put flavor text
italicized and bolded. It is essentially information non grata, stuff that is for your OOC minds only.
Text that is only
italicized should be used for the voices of your Muses. I encourage you to talk to them.
Anything OOC in the IC thread should be spoilered. This should mostly consist of dice rolls. If you have a question, post it in the OOC thread or PM it to me.
Dice rolls will be done using Invisible Castle or Orokos. I will be performing passive rolls for your characters when the narrative calls for it.
Information is key and, as such, will be safeguarded. If your character has not received, heard, or read something during gameplay, they do not know it. Please be vigilant of metagaming.
I would like each of you to make a Perception check and maybe say a few words to your new coworkers. Cooperation is important, after all.
Posts
Gen arched an eyebrow at the beeping, but decided his expertise probably wasn't needed on the case. As far as Gen was concerned there was no pilot in the galaxy who liked having their elbow nudged while they worked. Instead, Gen turned a bit in his seat and spoke to the two passengers. "The two of you doing alright back there?"
Critical success!
Augustus looked up from his entoptics at the man who had addressed him. His muse, the Duke of Wellington, had been updating him on the latest news from the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance. He'd been out on Titan for close to five years and had fallen behind on latest Inner System gossip.
"I'm jolly good, young man. It's good to be back in an enclosed space like this, at least for a little while. I was afraid those Somatek bastards were going to abandon me in Nectar."
As Gus stretched his tentacles, he heard the sounds coming from the cockpit. "I say, good sir, what is that bloody beeping?"
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Uh, critical? I think?
Gerrad yawns, and gives a vague mumbling noise resembling something like an acknowledgement to Gen's query. Tarn, got anything interesting on the mesh? Maybe something new about our corporate friend?
"Gentlemen and/or ladies, I do not wish to alarm anyone, but I have reason to believe that a bomb or some other device of destructive or nefarious purpose has been placed in the service compartment of this very shuttle!"
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
And he realized what he was looking at.
25 seconds to impact.
As he finished releasing his many tentacle restraints, Augustus lunged toward the service compartment.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Gen moves quickly enough, only to realize there's nowhere to move to.
The beeping intensifies.
Then something makes an earsplitting roar and the pilot's facemask snaps backwards, a thin spray of blood arcing across the roof. The remains of the plastic bullet and some bits of brain and bone spray harmlessly across the cockpit plexi. He collapses between the command couches.
The missile spirals, almost lazily, towards you.
15 seconds.
Though should I get a +20 for having Profession: Spacecraft Systems at 45 as a complimentary skill? (not that it looks like I needed it)
He ripped the panel off of the top and found the device he'd remembered seeing earlier. He racked his brain to figure out what it was and how to disable it.
Success.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Cumberbatch looked at the device in his tentacles. It seemed to be some sort of rudimentary tracker, cobbled together out of a satnet mapping module, a disposable lithium battery, and a military-grade friend-foe beacon, glued together with glossy epoxy. As he thought very quickly about the circumstances he found himself in, he remembered back to when he watched the pilot input the code to close the rear cargo door on a touchpad next to it. 6... 3... 0... what was the last one?...2! As far as he could figure, that was the only way to dispose of the wretched device.
"It's a tracking device! Make way, make way!" Augustus shouted as he made his way toward the rear cargo door.
"Make way good sir, I have to open the door and expel this vile contraption!" He moved as fast as his tentacles could carry him, past Gerrad and to the the touchpad.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
As they near the lunar surface, Gen struggles mightily to pull out of the dive. His left hand activates the controls for the rear door release.
"This is gonna be messy...."
As the neo-octopus moved to open the doors, Security Drone R91 extruded his limbs from his form, moving from his position as seemingly one more piece of equipment to pluck the box from the Neo-Octopus' tentacles, and throw it as hard as it could away from the ship.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
then the shuttle leapt forward and up again, the massive depressurization sending the shuttle's internal atmosphere jetting from the opening door. Cumberbatch turned and saw, briefly, the amorphous plasticine form extend two pseudopodic manipulators and pull the tracking device from his tentacles before the full force of the escaping atmosphere hit him and sent him tumbling towards the open door.
The shuttle was still losing altitude, but as Gen looked up from the controls, he saw that the missile's path had altered slightly and was now angled down and away. He would have whooped triumphantly, but another portside rocket screeched and detached itself from the shuttle and the craft juked to the left, unbalanced. The decompression seemed to have kicked the shuttle into a more gentle dive, at the very least.
As the door opened and the shuttle lurched Augustus was flung toward the door. He flailed his tentacles wildly trying to gain purchase, but to no avail. He was about to launched into space over the Lunar wilderness.
"Save me dear boy!" he shouted at the robotic mass who had appeared out of nowhere.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Gen desperately tries to adjust for the shuttle falling apart around them.
That's hardly better
Gen watched the altimeter stabilize as the missile streaked past and the impact timer vanished from the HUD. Then something that had crouched at the back of his mind for the last few seconds finally clicked into place. He spun in his seat. "What did you say about the-"
Then everything went white.
Sec: 77 crash damage, instant death
Cumberbatch: 68 crash damage, instant death
Gerrad: 56 crash damage, 7 wounds
Failed unconsciousness roll
---
"Bring it in! Come on! What the fuck happened here?"
"Antimatter bomb! We've got three casualties here, three DOA, one unconscious and dropping!"
"Jesus... well don't fucking stand there! Get him to ER!"
"I don't think..."
"Goddamn."
"Yeah."
"Just... fuck. We have some tryphine in Medical, right? Just pass this sleeve on and get all four to stack excision."
"Just like that?"
"Yeah, just like that. We don't have time to stand around and argue, we're risking continuity loss."
"All right then, you heard her..."
---
The sound wakes you. For a second it's harsh, alien; not the soft murmer of unconsciousness. For a second you can't remember what music sounds like. Then the light hits your sensitive, underused new eyes and you jolt from the table, thrashing in the remembered heat of wild force and fire and an unimaginable moment of pain before the darkness took you. Then gentle hands press your flailing limbs back to the revival table and a voice soothes you.
"Please do not struggle. You are still you."
You feel the blood pounding in your temples as you gradually come back to sane consciousness. Your Muse boots up with an almost audible and entirely comforting ring. You were dead, it tells you, but we're alive again. The music is unfamiliar and very old but your Muse gently prods you into Mesh connection again and you recognize it. The once-familiar cacophony of data fills your mind and then gradually begins to fade into the background once again.
"You are fine; you are still you. Mr. Granner has seen to it. Please try your new bodies as we perform necessary scans."
If not then, (I included Morphing Disorder-Level 1) SOMx3-10 vs 35 (Alienation): 1d100 16 and SOMx3-10 vs 35 (Integration): 1d100 4
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Still require rolls for Gen and Gerrad, though.
INT x3 for Alienation at 45: 1d100 4
Gen blinks his eyes. "What... the hell... happened?"
INTx3 vs 60 (Alienation): 1d100 37
oh noooooo
failed pretty horribly on that integration roll
Very good, very good, still eight limbs. Let's see if the mind still works... He declared it working correctly, if a bit slowly, after taking 67 second to solve the majority of Hilbert's 24 unresolved mathematical problems.
Confident know that he was functional again, Augustus addressed his muse. Wellington, dear boy, access the mesh and tell me where we are currently residing. Also, be a good chap and tell me how long I was shuffled off my mortal coil.
Henri Emmanuel Gratien St Pierre in Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lord Augustus Cumberbatch in Eclipse Phase
Across the room, Gerrad groans and slowly sits up, one hand covering his eyes. "Christ, but I feel like I was run over by a truck."
Gen stays on his back. "What... the hell... happened?"
"You were killed, my boy. But now you're back. Welcome!"
Three sets of eyes swivel to face the voice. At the entrance to the medical bay stands a man showing the first signs of healthy age, with tan skin and an honest smile. He wears only a light linen shirt and trousers and for the first time you all realize that despite being unclothed, the air in the room is warm enough to cause a light sweat to spring up on your skin (except, obviously, for the non-mammal). He strides towards the revival beds. "I was so worried after I heard about the explosion, Gen. You know I dislike discontinuity."
Gerrad craned his neck around while shielding his eyes against the harsh light. There seemed to be something behind the old man... he jumped back and nearly fell off the bed. Behind the old man (who his muse belatedly informed him was, in fact, Ixlis Granner) a dark green-grey lozenge of plastic-like material hovered, humming quietly. Gerrad pointed a finger at it. "What in the hell is that thing?"
Vox, pull up everything you can on the crash.