Encounter description/location

1) a trader ship adrift a 15-20 lightyears off the nearest trade route
2) a giant cargo transport that never reached his destination on the edge of a system
3) a line battleship well-hidden in strategic position inside of the asteroid belt
4) a "spaceforce number one" of a certain subsector whose on the last leg of the route to galactic capitol
5) spaceship of unknown design and purpose, lying on the dark side of the moon
6) Space station orbiting a black hole
7) Luxury yacht lying on the bottom of the ocean
8) Mining ship slowly falling down onto the broken planet it mined
9) Ship-arc, still plummeting through the void but hopelessly off-course
10) A military shipyard in the asteroid belt, where there isn't supposed to be one
10b) The asteroid belt isn't supposed to be there either.

just in case you don't post this one, seeing as this one kept me up

> a spaceship that looks entirely normal except only one side seems to face you. No matter how fast you fly around it, you can only see the same side. Drones and probes sent to fly around it send either static or unreadable transmissions.

Sensors and scanners however report that the spaceships is entirely normal.

11) a piece of a gigantic space station, which also betray its alien origins
12) an asteroid; but scans show that it's been hollowed out and used as a base or outpost
13) a gigantic mazelike labyrinth beneath a planet's surface
14) a mass of organic material surrounding an unidentified hull floating in a nebula
15) an abandoned colony in a remote ice/desert/jungle planet
16) a massive planet-killing kamikaze ship in the ancient debris fields
17) a mass of anomalous space debris clumped together
18) a chunk of planet crust transformed into an arkship slowly drifting across space
19) a debris field containing several small ships of unknown design
20) an abandoned naval ship in space (think of titanic, but somehow it's found in the asteroid belt)

oh and another one I remember

>the spaceship from a distance seems to look normal until closer inspection gives you a slight feeling of discomfort. Minutes pass until you realize the spaceship looks as if it's been pulled apart and then put together, except some of the parts of the spaceship seem wrong or missing.

You land on an asteroid. It shows signs of habitation but nothing is ever found except for the odd diary entry. Nothing ever happens on the asteroid but you still make the entire encounter tense.

>>14853602
I was sure i had this one... and, strangely enough i can't find it.
Oh well. Filing it.

>>14853602
>Drones and probes sent to fly around it send either static or unreadable transmissions.

How about drones and probes set to fly around it always see the same side as well?

21) Ship crashed on planet
22) Ship permanently attached to another ship so that engines can work together
23) Two ships, which were apparently in the middle of some sort of boarding action.
24) A collision between two ships.
25) Multiple ships merged together into an orbital station.
26) Ship merged with an asteroid- half or more sticking out.
27) Ship that crash-landed on a planet.
28) An underground spaceship; in strangely wholesome condition; its hyper drives even seem to be primed.
29) A blimp outfitted for space travel, in the asteroid belt made of chunks of a planet.
30) The ship you are currently on.

and last one I remember

You encounter a spaceship that for all intents and purposes looks normal. You are sure your sensors are not being jammed or malfunctioning. This would be fine except the reports from the sensors indicate that there is nothing at all where you see the spaceship is.

For some reason you also think the spaceship is moving slowly towards you but can't be sure because the motion/range sensors don't even pick up the spaceship.

>>14853635
yeah that could work well, that would also take care of any players with multiple spaceships under their command.

I like where this thread is going...

31) A generation ship arrives at a planet, having obviously been dispatched long before FTL was developed. It's not recorded in any logs.
32) Giant warship drifting in the old battlespace, surrounded by remnants of other ships. It seems to have been abandoned.
33) Mining complex in the asteroid field; it drifts unattached to any celestial body.
34) Appendage, head or part of torso of a – from the looks of it – giant, possible planetoid-sized robot.
35) Bioship, dying or in coma.

That would be all with the first table, that in principle describes what type of ship is encountered.
Next tabel coming up: scan results.

A favorite of mine from Eclipse Phase it is more planetside than open space but I love the idea and it is applicble elsewhere

In the TQZ, there’re several highways that still look drivable. Stay the hell off them. Smuggler buddy of mine tried to drive on the Romanesco, a stretch of the M-4 that’s become a wild artificial. The self-repair systems went technical during the Fall, and it started growing clusters of twisting, fractalized side roads. It’s called the Romanesco ‘cause of the spirals and the green coloration it’s started to develop. It’s not an exsurgent—but it will try to eat your vehicle and everyone inside to build more of itself.

>>14853643
Scan result table
1) Holes in the hull, obviously made by asteroid impacts
2) Broken parts of the hull orbiting the ship
3) Several figures in space suits, that are affixed by chains to the hull; scanners cannot detect any lifesigns inside
4) parts of the ship's hull are reflective; that is certainly not how it was designed; scans reveal changed composure of the material
5) Several asteroids are flying in formation with the ship; for some reason they are all connected together

6) Several new, pyramid-like structures have been added to the hull of the ship; some of them are clearly unfinished
7) In the wake of the ship follows the rainbow luminescence; scans doesn't help to make any sense of it - at least, on this distance
8) Electric discharges are seen on the hull of the ship
9) For some reason, measuring the distance is proving to the difficult; instrumentation returns varying and conflicting data about position of the ship (conflicting - as in, different position in different spectrums etc)
10) parts of the ship's structure are missing; as if someone carefully dismantled the ship and put it together without them

11) There are holes in the hull, obviously made by impact detonations
12) parts of hull are, for some reason, budged
13) Hull is covered in giant sized arcane symbols/incantations; spectrum analisys shows they are made with organic components
14) There are visibly signs of battle on hull, that were hastily repaired from the view of things
15) Viewscreens of the ship are absolutely black; they do not radiate on any frequency, as far as the scanners can tell

16) around the ship, like an escort, fly in orderly fashion hundreds of caskets, each, as the scans reveal, outfitted with still working magnetic vectoring unit, that are correcting the formation
17) there is a giant figurehead, apparently constructed from material removed from other parts of the ship
18) ship's hull is pierced in several place by boarding torpedoes; some of them are still there
19) ship is transmitting a lullaby on all or some waves
20) for no apparent reason ship shakes violently, and changes its course and rotation; it repeats with regular intervals, when observed for a long time

Idea time

-A small moon that looks like it's been bisected and the halves rotated slightly
-A tiny, heavily damaged vessel that seems to be venting a lot more atmosphere than it should be able to contain
-A trail of jettisoned shipping crates stretching back to a cargo ship with its doors literally ripped off and floating free
-A corpse with no visible origin, wearing only a standard gray jumpsuit. Once the first is picked up, you start to find more
-A very large tug maintaining a very low orbit around a planet by firing its thrusters at a constant rate. The crew is concerned only with "getting away" and will speak of nothing else
-A teddy bear
-A binary system in which the second, smaller star is positioned directly above the north "pole" of the larger, seeming to defy gravity
-The ship's PA starts to play parts of a song, hard to hear at first, but getting clearer and louder as time goes on. There is no apparent source, and shutting down or destroying the PA does not keep the song from getting louder
-A sleeper ship carrying 25,000 colonists, all dead. Records indicate they were deceased before boarding. A short while later only 24,999 are accounted for. Then 24,998

cont.

>>14853795
-A mirror several hundred kilometers wide, with no apparent thickness, showing a view that is very subtly different from reality. It begins to follow
-An experimental FTL engine is recovered. It performed exactly to specifications, except it arrived without the ship
-Two vessels of identical make and model are facing off against one another. Every single detail, from the scratches on the hull to the crew itself is the same, with no deviation. Both crews are obsessed with finding out who is "real"
-Sections of the ship are being "lost." Hatches that were once separated by entire modules are now directly connected, but EVA confirms that the ship looks exactly the same from the outside. Cutting into one of the "missing" sections reveals...
-A rather nondescript pulsar abruptly changes rotation speed and begins transmitting a message directly to the ship, in plain English
-Each and every crew member has pressed their face to the bridge screen, and is looking out into space. They are dead
-A ship sends a distress call, reporting that it has made an emergency landing on a nearby moon. Scans reveal that the ship was destroyed on impact, but the distress call continues, and two-way communications are possible, as if the ship is still there

HMS Victory to any station. Autodistress. HMS Victory to any station. Autodistress.

Seems pretty straightforward. Except that scans show the source of the transmission as a Conqueror class cruiser. Entered service about 200 years ago, retired a century later. Thirty-eight models total. And none of them were ever named Victory.

You come across the wreckage of a ship the class as yours. Upon boarding you find twisted human bodies merged with the hull. Their faces match your crewmates.

>>14853801
>>14853795
>-A teddy bear
Here goes my slee for tonight.
Filing away like a Fist of the North Star.
>-A binary system in which the second, smaller star is positioned directly above the north "pole" of the larger, seeming to defy gravity
Could you elaborate on the possible follow-up to this setup a little?..

>>14853863
The crew goes to investigate the impossible star. They reach the system, perform a few scans, and notice that the star doesn't appear to have a gravitational field. Then, suddenly, it drops, arcs, and begins accelerating towards them. Perhaps it also makes a scary face.

>>14853875

>>14853875
I see.

21) <unsufficient clearance>
22) <data expunged>
23) <data corrupted>
25) <deleted before reading as per standard procedure>
26) First structural scans indicate that the ship is split along the middle, chopped into two parts, but the cut did not cause the parts to drift away from each other
27) The ship transmits binary numbers. It is just counting upwards, but the current number is so huge that it's transmitting for 20 hours already.
28) It appears to be a large ship from the outside, but it's just the hull - empty inside. It does not seem to be built this way.
29) ship can only be approached at a single angle; speeding up or losing speed doesn't cause the ship to run forward or fall backwards; no matter how many attempts to circle around it are made, seen part of the ship doesn't changes; all probes sent to circle it are lost after launch
30) scanning can't seem to resolve details of ship's surface; if data are to be believed, ship is a perfectly flat surface limited by its outline

The teddy bear is a B5 joke reference I think.

>>14853906
Actually, it wasn't. I just thought it would be kind of creepy to find a teddy bear randomly floating in space.

31) there are several layers of paintjob on the ship, all partially lost; different heraldic are depicted on different layers
32) ship's shields are up, but they switch off and then go up again in regular intervals
33) ship's hull is in pristine condition; as if it left the port a couple of hours ago instead of a couple of millennia (centuries)
34) The vessels systems appear to be all operating at peak efficiency, though the crew is missing.
35) Scanners determine that the interior of the ship has somehow scrambled, entire decks are warped beyond recognition, though this may be interference.

>>14853920

So did the starfury pilot who ran in to one.

36) Life scans detect one single, massive life form that spans the entire ship.
37) the prow of the ship has split open, seemingly on it's own to form a grim visage of a jagged toothed mouth.
38) Scanners detect messages written on the hull, nonsense like "Stay Away!" "Haunted!" "SOS!" "HELP!"
39) According to scanners, the vessel has split into three sections, though visual observation shows this to be otherwise.
40) Mass scanners show the ship to be 1/10th it's size, though it can be clearly seen to be a full sized vessel.

>>14853875
"Cauldron" by Jack McDevitt had a similar plot IIRC. Space nebula was sending out civilization destroying clouds because it wanted to contact other intelligences.

Adding to awesomeness.

-In the depths of space the crew goes to sleep around a normal planet, wakes up to find its ship disabled and seemingly floating in liquid.

-Space Opera. Literally.

-You find yourself scanning a seemingly giant space tortoise with four elephants on it's back holding up a world cruising by your ship. Minutes later a giant shark is seen chasing it.

-Lasers and Phasers finally have it out in an all out brawl.

-The 'Grey's have been kidnapping our people and mutilating our delicious cattle for generations! And it's been found out they only do this because they are assholes. Sol Military forces respond with the first galactic prank war.

-Perfect replica of the planet Earth. But only because Earth broadcasts are great fun, and aliens have decided to make a world sized amusement park.

-The moon gets uppity. Decides to shack up on mars for a bit. The whore.

-First foray outside our solar system? Amazing. Until the ship hits a wall. Again, literally.

-Landing on a planet filled with humans. But something isn't quite right about these folks...

-Space rednecks.

-An asteroid comes danger close to Earth's orbit. Days later a second one does the same, this one however has a sign that say 'Sorry!'

-Space bugs invade the ship. Seems all they were after were our delicious flowers though.

-Space Flowers invade the ship. Seems all they were after were our delicious bugs though.

-First contact. Our heroic captain finds out the way these aliens say hello though is by punching people in the face. Hilarity ensues.

41) according to scanners, the entire vessel has been hollowed out, and inside is a thriving zero-G biosphere.
42) The vessels surface seems to scatter any radiation that strikes it, giving it a strange rainbow like color
43) The vessel has been blasted to a hulk, impact holes and laser scarring are on a scale unlike you have ever seen.
44) A full quarter of the vessel appears to have been neatly sliced from the ship, as if someone cut it with an impossibly large and sharp knife.
45) sections of the ship seem to push out or sink into the vessel in perfect square sections.

I need a system to play this in now.

You come across an incredibly advanced, but utterly deserted, ship. Oddly, it is perfectly made for human operation.

Further investigation reveals that it does, in fact, house a crew. Every single system and subsystem is controlled by a single, human mind, stored in the computer. Every door is operated by one mind devoted to that task alone, unable to sense anything but a persons proximity and heading relative to their one door, and unable to act in any way but to open or close the door. Every light, every camera, every turbolift, all operated by a single human mind wedded to the task alone. This goes up to the engines, the powerplant, the weapons.

They become gradually aware of the presence of the intruders, through what limited communication is possible between them. Most of them have been driven quite mad by their years of isolation, and they try to do whatever they can to make life difficult for the intruders.

46) The entire ship appears to have been re-purposed as a city in space, countless life forms are detected inside.
47) Unstable fusion reactions can be detected in the interior of the vessel, far larger then normal. Optic scanners detect a message on the hull.. "SUCKER!"
48) The ship appears to have it's center ripped open, revealing a glittering and gleaming portal to an unknown realm.
49) Massive claw marks scar the vessel, several holes on the hull suggest teeth marks.
50) Sensors detect that the crew are dead at their stations, but the systems of the ship are operating as if they were still manned.

As you approach all the background stars fade into total blackness.

>>14853993

>-Space Opera. Literally.

Watch Magnetic Rose. Short animated film, part of a collection called "Memories".

51) A communications signal is broadcasting, but appears to be static, until you do more detailed analysis...
52) The vessel has suffered heavily in the thousands of years it has been left derelict. Rust coats the walls of it's atmosphere-less halls... wait..
53) The vessel hangs in space in rubble, next to it is the corpse of something that may once have been living.
54) blistered along it's hull are hive like structures... the sensors detect life signs exiting the blisters in ever increasing numbers.
55) Scans reveal multiple docking ports inside the ship. Inside of many of them are shuttles, but even the distant scans show all of them as unique and non-repeating.

The computers read that the crew are healthy in cryosleep after performing a normal departure. Except the people inside the cryotubes are small children.

A ship is found in a simple orbit, far from the event horizon of a black hole. It is a sizable vessel, though only around five metres from the hull can be penetrated by scanners.

The boarding party enters, and does some investigation. They can find no signs of recent habitation, though it still has fresh air. A set of maps indicates that there might be colonists deeper inside, in cryosleep. So the boarding party goes deeper. And deeper. And deeper, until they have traveled through such a distance of corridors that they should have come out the other side of the ship. This vessel appears to be larger on the inside. Now they start to meet the colonists, or their descendants. They've been in here for generations, and still haven't been able to find the way to get to the hull.

56) Ship is making lumps frequently inside a system. After some analysis a pattern can be found and next jump predicted; however after several jumps analysis needs to start anew.
57) Ship is making rounds over a killed planet; automatic requests are sent in regular intervals in different codes and languages. All old ones.
58) Ship is transmitting SOS codes and authorizes itself by current code system. However, the specs for identity it broadcasts are nothing like what ship's signatures are.
58b) If conversation is made, all inquries regarding that will be met with utter confusion.
59) Scans reveal that modules that constitute the ship all have capabilities of independency.
59b) Ship is found as a several modules traversing through asteroid field. Once boarded, automatic reassembly process begins.
60) Scans reveal a gravitational anomaly inside the ship. And spectral analisys of the materials that are leaking from the holes made by internal explosions reveal them as dangerous pathogens. And temperature in several parts of the ship, particularly ones where usually are work posts of the crew, temperature is extremely high, like a cooling off plasma.
60b) It is a space station.
61) ship is recognized as long lost prototype with hyperspace travel capabilities. sensors show it automatically attempting translation into hyperspace every 0.1 s, reappearing 0.0001 s later. getting inside will be difficult.

And that's the end of the scan results table additions from this thread not included)
Next one will be "discoveries after boarding" table... except there is nothing there now
I have to leave now for a few hours. Please do not let the thread die.

You locate a ship known to be operated by pirates. The crew are all dead from a engine radiation overdose. The cause appears to be sabotage.

After a miscalculated FTL jump your ship appears in to a nebula. All star configurations seem to be un-mapped.

you are lost in space

The crew detects an apparent distress beacon coming from a distant border world.

This is what they find.

+ Your ship encounters an emergency deceleration from FTL due to an unexpected gravitic anomaly in dead space. Brief pings reveal that your ship is surrounded by a debris field comprised entirely of ships. Although most are obliterated beyond recognition by the means of their destruction and the years of mindless drifting, the few larger remnants appear to be of human make - similar to a style dating back to shortly after the first galactic expansion period. More extensive scans reveal that the ships fall into two broad styles of construction, and their distribution patter seems to indicate this is a wreckage field from a firefight.

They also indicate that the total mass of the field is 25% greater than the combined mass of every human starship ever built.

+Scanners have picked up a single cryovac escape pod, floating in a slowly-decaying orbit around a dead star. Scans indicate the pod is an evacuee from the ISS Adamastor, the first FTL colony ship dispatched from Earth, with whom contact was never re-established after the first jump. The Adamastor was last seen 300 years ago - and for a location clear over the other side of the Galactic Core.

+You wake up from long-haul suspension with far more discomfort and sluggishness than usual, in a manner reminiscent of the suspension tank's emergency low-power protocols. Your ship has suffered from what appears to be a complete maintenance failure, as every operational system has degraded to near-disablement. All electronic systems have gone down, and even the decking is strangely brittle. There is so little power in the ship's circuits that the only functioning device is a single LED clock-calendar; a novelty a shipmate brought from home.

The calendar reads the date you were supposed to awaken - five hundred years ago.

Upon waking up, you and your crewmates notice something is wrong. Not with the ship, but with the stars. There aren't enough of them. And the ones that are there, are now red, as though they're very old.


Furthermore, they appear to be in orbit around a sun slightly larger than our own. That's fine. What's more concerning is the Ringworld orbiting it, that appears to have a to scale replica of Earth on it. Along with thousands of other worlds.

Your crew begin to pick up signals from the Ring. The only understandable ones are radio transmissions from Earth. During the Cold War.

After emerging from cryosleep you notice that all written text on the ship, including computer systems is in a language you've never seen before. Likewise your organizational insignias are completely different to what you remember.

When you raise the issue with your fellow crew members they all noticed the same. However none of you can agree with what the original insignia and text were.

Oh space, why you so scary?

>>14854108
doctor, we need to leave now!

You know creepy it is being in hospital service corridors? Or late night hotel corridors, and similar stuff.

Well imagine how horrible it would be to end up in a generation ships version. Huge, kilometer long hallways. Dimly lit. Completely deserted. And all alone. You'd spend ages struggling to find an exit to more populated parts of the ship, and, relived, you finally do. You've forgotten how you even got into the service ways in the first place. Must have been a crazy night. Heh.

But then you find the last doorway to the main atrium. And there's still no one. Anywhere.

>>14854273
The first one reminds me of a short story I read where a passenger ship's hyperdrive goes wrong. When the crew emerge from hyperspace most of the stars are already dead. Pretty creepy.

emerging from a rip in the fabric of spacetime is what apears to be the prow of a ship large enough to have its own asteroid belt created by what appear to be the ruins of of the solar system it resides in. Any attempt to focus on the rip fails and the ship appears to be alternately inching it way in or out of this universe

+ You've embarked on a historic mission, armed with the first functional radio reciever capable of working while FTL, and tasked with flying in from the projected rim of Earth's radio projection bubble at 1895, capturing all of pre-disapora humanity's radio transmissions. The expedition proceeds smoothly for ten years, much of your crew's entertainment coming from the flight computer, set to filter out the recorded times and channels of history's most significant transmissions, determined by keywords. You are all given a magnificent summation of our own progress over the centuries of modern man, and in the last weeks of the voyage, begin hearing pre-scheduled news reports of the last ten years to help you catch up. But as you hit one LY out, every siungle band suddenly and instantly devolves into panicked alarms, tortured screaming, and incoherent tirades of apocalyptic madness. Then, after three day's worth of transmissions, the entire radio spectrum goes silent.

You are still a relative-month out from Earth.

>>14854393
The fools! They finally did it! They finally did it! Built an interdimensional dildo!

The twist from Pandorum is pretty cool.

Here's 'Spacewreck', by Stewart Cowley. From the awesome "Terran Trade Authority" series (a must-have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terran_Trade_Authority). Contains some very odd and sinister ideas.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QQVFV1NK

Orbiting a distant star, you find what looks like a plasma research outpost that's been recently derelict. Up close, it's an utter mess, with obvious signs of numerous explosions, sabotage, vandalism, and accidents caused by incompetence. There appear to be no living crew on board, though plenty of corpses hidden around the place- including the command staff. To top it off, the place was an outdated cut-corner piece of crap when it was new, with outdated bargain bin computers and equipment.

Don't let this die!

>>14854577
>but the ship logs indicate it died twenty years ago
>and was cremated
>THEN WHO WAS CAPTAIN

>>14854633
But then, why are you here, cosmonaut?
This ship had passed the Event Horizon eons ago, why are you still here?

>>14854673
>Too much green, comrade abomination. Too much green...

>>14854467

So, hello again.
Next table is the easies one to fill up, in my opinion. It is "Random journal entries" - that range from mundane to amusing.


1. They have come.
2. Make us whole.
3. Someone is stealing my sugar cubes. I know it.
4. Mom called today. She seemed to be worried about Dad's health.
5. Navigator swears we are on the course. Is he really that blind or... in any case, it's my duty as captain to sort things out.

Please, feel free to add. Thanks for a good Baron for his contributions.

>>14854699
Put down the fucking stun baton.

6. Engineer claims that with his modifications we will be able to make our jump distance 1.2 times bigger. Good old ***, i knew he won't let me down.
7. Curious. It appears that one of the antennae's rotation mechanism is broken. Good thing HAL noticed that in time. I'm going outside to repair it now.
8. I can hear them slithering in the vents.
9. No one can judge me.. I did what anyone'd have done
10. The stars are wrong.

11. Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I have seen the end of the universe.
And so will you.
12. He is awake.
13. He bathes beneath the Black Sun.
14. They came for me.
15. Help me, I am dying.

>>14854739
Was too scared, forgot my picture

16. He is behind you.
17. It touched me.
18. They come in darkness. Stick to the light.
19. Shoot at their limbs.
20. Breath out and know release.

>>14854708
>Ivan's dead. Died the same way Bruce did the other week. No man should die like that...
>Where the fuck did supply section pick up this food? God it tastes like cardboard and comes out like acid
>I've worked as an astronavigator for the past 30 years. Never have I encountered a phenomenon like this. I keep going through the numbers, the equations, it just doesn't make any sense.
>You know what I miss? Watching a good old fashioned game of baseball. Holovideos aren't the same. Not even close
>This will undoubtedly be my final entry. Though my crew have battled on bravely we have finally reached the desperate limits of our endurance. Julia my love, tell little Cathryn that her father died a hero.

21. Tomorrow the land promised to our ancestors will be ours.
22. I told her that was a mistake!
23. The chef is kind of cute.
24. Dark side holds the answer.
25. They were always waiting for us.

>>14854708
- the will of the one shall be fulfilled. all is one. one is all.
- strange, we haven't got these levels of trace gases before.
- dear diary, I think I'm getting paranoid, crew members have vanished without a trace. I think it has something to do with the shadows I keep seeing lately. The Doc gave me some meds but it just made the hallucinations worse.
- traveler's log, day 3: This is my first log since waking from cryosleep three days ago. It seems that I'm the last to wake up. Nobody's here though. I'm staying in my predesignated room for now.

26. Chief engineer is getting too familiar with the A.I. It creeps me out every time they call each other 'darling'.
27. I am sick and tired of this bland diet. I know *** still has some sugar... surely he won't miss a cube or two.
28. ##-##.#### All is going well. p.s. i think i'll ask doc to tone things down a bit. I can hear screams on the bridge all the way from medbay.
29.Am i really the only one who can hear stars singing?
30. I am retiring after this last strip. Father shouldn't leave his babies alone for too long.

Not sure this would make a good game, BUT, your ship's engines break. You were going the absolute fastest a ship could go when it did so. You have no way of stopping. It would take a rescue vessel ten years to reach where you are now, let alone catch you.

Imagine how fucking horrible that would be.

>Captain keeps giving me funny looks.
>The rattling at night never stops.
>I had that dream again, the one with my wife in the bath and the bottle of wine.
> Has my hair always been this colour?

ade me on facebook pls

>>14854781
Fuck yeah, Flak Frigate. Nothing brings tears to my eyes like seeing the other guy's "fighter rush" fly into a formation of these wonderful babies.

>>14854813
and the crews are desperately trying to stop the spaceship but it just keeps on going further and further away from civilization. After a month or so of near FTL travel, the crew begs to crash into something, a comet, a large concentration of debris, a planet or even a sun. But for some reason, they dodge all of that even when physics dictate they should have.

31. Inside is Red
Outside is Black
Now at the end
No chance to turn back
32. (in a journal near a big broken machine)
I heard the clunking noise again yesterday, nothing appears wrong on the diagnostics but when the machines on, the quiet humming, like a laundry drier, there is that clunking noise. I always hear it when I'm alone, like I'm not even sure its real, but then I hear it again and I'm sure it is.
33. (separate entry)
It's something in the machine, I'm sure of it now, it takes a few minuets for it to get going but I'm sure its in one of the cyllanders. If I cut the thing open I'll wreck it for sure and the foreman will have my head. There it is again.
Checked the Diagnostics, twice.
No ones been in here but me for the past 3 weeks and I haven't left my station except for meals or to use the bathroom. I swear the clunking gets louder the farther I am from it. I've started recording when I hear it and from what part of the machine.
34. (separate entry)
Twice now then once more in the other one. two parts, two clunks, the signal, a code perhaps?
It's Morse, or, or, perhaps I'm still imagining it, Rodgers said he couldn't hear it when he came to ask why I'd missed my shift today. It's telling me, they speak to me.
35. (separate entry)
I cant make it out, the code is nonsense the words scrambled. I tried ignoring it today and catching up on the shifts I've been missing manning the machines inputs. But i could hear it, louder than before so I left to Unit 2's machine.

>>14854841
hey, you
stop it

>>14854841
I assume you meant shouldn't have? And yeah, christ the only way to make that worse would be to make it literally hell. At least if it was a cold uncaring cosmos you'd be able to die and end it all. Dodging all that implies this is supernatural and nasty.

>>14854843

Your ship wakes you up from cryosleep.

This is most unusual, since you're in the middle of interstellar space, and so you and the rest of the crew try to figure out what is wrong. The ships computer is detailing an unspecified 'general error', so it's got to be a deck by deck internal and spacewalking check, before you go back into hyperspace.

It later becomes apparent that a few of the crew were awake before everyone else, though they can't account for why they would have been woken up first. And as no damage or failures can be found on the ship, but the computer still registers an error and so will not allow hyperspace, things start to get tense.

>>14854843
(cont.)

36.(separate entry)
Its here, ever present, that goddamn clunking noise, here, here in my quarters. I've locked the door they don't want me to decifer the code, they don't want us to speak.
37. (some other security log)
Engineering Unit 1 requires replacement Machine-Operations supervisor, Former Supervisor is missing and is believed to have committed suicide, investigations having found ample evidence on the walls of blood-loss and cryptic Binary Code written in Supervisors handwriting. Haven't made heads or tails of it yet. Logs will read Supervisor as M.I.A.
End of Entry
38. ##.##-###x Johnson went missing
##.##-###y Jefferson went missing. 'Missing' missing. TODO: edit it when i have time.
39. If you are reading this then you are standing where I stood and doing what I did. And soon you will be like me. (permanent marker on the wall)
40. Poor fools, I told them he wou

>Right now more then anything... I envy the dead. But I can't stop now, I must fight on for the sake of the living.
>Finally figured out why we were getting that error on the aft search radar, Old Gary left a spanner in the control unit and it shorted out. That guy's gotta be due to retire soon.
>Somebody shut down the atmosphere processors the other day, I turned them all back on before anything bad could happen. No idea who it was, computer logs come up blank. But why would somebody attempt such a stupid thing in the first place?
>Man corporate is busting my balls over operations costs At least the surplus food we bought for a bargain will help us meet budget. I've also delayed the major rebuild and refurb work, hopefully nothing will go wrong in the mean time.
>Sanity. "Sanity" is but a pathetic blindfold, hiding ones eyes from the unthinkable truth. I've seen it. They've all seen it too. They will cower. But I will act.

41. Projected route places us within the anomaly. Initial sensors read strong gravitational effects. Correction sensors have ceased to detect the anomaly. Strange.
42. I swear i have seen the exact same constellations several days or weeks ago. Why won't navigator admit his instruments are busted?
43. If they think they are conspiring against me in secret, they are wrong. It's MY ship, and there will be NO mutiny!!!
44. I'd trade my soul for a bushel of apples right now.
45. Fluffy hasn't returned yet. It's worrying. My poor little pussy has never been on his walks so long before.

I love this thread. Any suggestions for games to apply these to?

46. It's worth ten ships such as ours!
47. Everybody. Congratulations!!!
48. Ten thousand beer bottles on the wall. Take one, pass it around. Nine thousands nine hundreds ninety nine beer bottles on the wall. Take one, pass it around...
49. Like a distant planet, I hunger for the sun's light.
Metal and void are no substitutes for earth and sky.
50. Minor problem with the singularity drive.

>>14855170

As an old Traveller fan I'd say you could run more than a few stories of that with material in this thread.

And I'm sure a lot of it could be worked into Star Wars/Star Trek etc as well.

I wish I could remember where I read this but there was a story about a crew noticing that something was exactly copying their moves over a series of weeks and days, slowly changing from a crudely defined blip on the radar into something much bigger.

As it gets closer and the crew is panicking, taking evasive action which the ship copies almost in advance they get their first proper look at it and realize it's horrendously battle damaged, missing huge chunks and not physically capable of moving like it is. Weapons fire does not seem to effect it.

Closer inspection reveals that this wreck is actually the ship the crew are on, but after something terrible has happened to it and it's still closing in - before the crew can abandon their vessel and get to safety the wreck rams into them, causing no damage at all, seeming to merge into the existing ship.

The only physical evidence is a single station with a single body somewhere in the ship, in a dark and disused corner. The crew finds a badly corrupted log and try to read it.

It's then revealed that this wreck is a precursor of their future and was foreshadowing of what is going to happen soon.

>ship is transmitting a lullaby on all or some waves

NOPE

51. Thought I heard a fly buzzing about my quarters... Probably something with the equipment. With sanitation the way it is, stowaway organisms couldn't survive this long.
Log 1789: We've made it out of the slipstream. About time, I say. Computers been all hell during the travel, I thought they made these things to last such jumps.

Log 1790: I heard from friend who works at the bridge that we're not where we were supposed to be.

Log 1791: Engine rooms under lockdown. Captain sealed the bridge off too. What the hell is happening!

Log 1792: I can hear whispering, its there all the time, so annoying. I think saw a ghost too today.

Log 1793: ...................They're here
51.) Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
52.) The drive section was supposed to be sealed when they failed, but I can hear scratching and voices in there. Who could survive that level of radiation?
53.) Smith is reporting sounds from the engineering section again; this time he assaulted one of my nurses when she suggested space psychosis. Reports that someone 'said his name' and tried to tap something in morse code. Recommending sedation, a move of quarters, and supervision for further violent outbursts.
54.) They told me I could have a soft pen as long as I behaved. Was okay for the first couple of days. Hearing tapping in the utility ducts now. Chuckling from power outlets. Going to fix this, just need time.
55.) Smith has shown considerable recovery in the past week. Recommending a decrease in sedatives to reduce the embarrassing and painful secondary symptoms.

I love you OP. Never stop.

>>14855249
>derelict seems battle damaged
>weapons fire do not seem to affect it
Congratulations, you have just blown your own ship. How does it feel having temporal distruption-assisted suicide?

unresponsive ship in a nebula

the investigating crew finds no one at firs, suddenly to their horror find that certain parts of the ship can become liquefied at random and absorb people in to then, then solidify

the recovery ship blows up ...

>>14855306
Fuck yo nope, Nigguh. Ain't no nigguh nope.

>>14855374
Sadly, i am almost out of gathered material.
But if people posted some aliens, that would've been nice.

55.) Smith has shown considerable recovery in the past week. Recommending a decrease in sedatives to reduce the embarrassing and painful secondary symptoms.
56.) Called in a guard during late night, faked an injury. Tried to take his pulse pistol and knock him out, but he fought back and I had to shoot him. Hiding in the engineering ducts - I know them better than anyone.

57) I still hear scratching.
58) WERE GOIN TOBE WITH THA ANGELS NOW.
59) This is nothing like they promised. They lied.
60) Cryogenics has made me a thousand years old and left me with the wisdom of a child.

Encounter this.
Look at those damn eyes.

you discover an alien race

These links might be of some use to you guys.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12180900/
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12130366/#12131404

I rememeber that night, couldn't go to sleep ^^

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/8892669/

There is an awesome thread archived where a GM tlaks about the way he mindfucked his players in the mazelike caves under Mars, and the way he cultivated a terrible sense of discomfort in them. If someone knows what i'm talking about and could provide the link, that would be nice.

>>14853793

mary had a little lamb...little lamb...little lamb...

after returning from a mission, the involved crewmembers become increasingly amorous and begin pairing off. The resulting offspring are nowhere near human.

boarding a derelict, the crew is found frozen in place, as if they had all just stopped moving while going about their daily routine. They are all dead, and their bodies crumble to particulate dust at the slightest disturbance.

A meeting with a passing human ship shows it to be filled with horrific aliens speaking an indecipherable tongue. They otherwise act like normal humans and are confused by the way to react to them.

The ship's computer begins returning nonsensical messages and instructions. Some are only typos, some grow malicious. (Crew population has exceeded recommended numbers. Report to the deck 6 armory.)

Your sensors discover an incredible find - a world layered in dense crystal formations and some of the strongest compounds known to science. A repeating message in thousands of unknown languages has been carved into the surface in letters kilometers across. Some of the script is millions of years old, some written quite recently. If translated, they are all some variation of 'danger' 'stay away' 'do not open.' The world is hollow, and there may be something moving inside.

>>14855468
Hey, i remember those threads! Good times all around

You detect a morse code distress signal on old short wave bands. When you arrive at the source you find what look like several 20th century naval warships fused together at odd angles.

Derelict ship of unknown design is found in the corona of a star. Its orbit decays exponentially. Trying to recover it would be extremely hard and expensive in the limited time-frame. But there may be enough time for a quick recon, if you can gather tech to survive the harsh environs - either a remote probe or shielded pod.

61) There were people here, but not there aren't.
62) I put her on a pedestal to look up her skirt.
63) I knew you'd read this.
64) I thought killing them would make the noise go away. Now I know the noise was me.
65) My hand went bad, so I cut it off.

thanks guys not sleeping tonight as well

pump some Lustmord to go with these and you're all set.

the people are dead now but the ship is alive

-There is a single droid who believes he's a long-dead captain of a lost starship, his capabilities of speech and reasoning are far beyond what is possible by current standards.
-Transmission that echoes through the whole ship repeating the same bleak or cryptic message.
-No John, you are the demons
-Hull has been twisted and morphed by unknown forces into a single or multiple faces. They appear to be in agony.
-As a part of an exploratory team you begin to hear someone else's breathing other than yours in your helmet.

Doing my best to contribute to a great thread.

>>14853795
Dear god,

If its the teddy bear from Screamers, the PCs are doomed I tell you, DOOOOOMED.

Crew is hired to fly a ship, which was recently reclaimed after major accident, which killed most of it's previous crew.

One night crew is woken up in the night by banging noises, which are spreading through coolant pipes. After two days of disturbed sleep, crew realises that bangs contain morse-encoded message

-"A-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n. . ."
"A-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n. . ."
"A-m-b-e-h-i-n-d-b-u-l-k-h-e-a-d."
"I-c-e-e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. . ."
"R-e-a-c-t-o-r-v-e-s-s-e-l-c-r-a-c-k-e-d,"
"C-o-m-e-i-n-p-r-a-t-t-c-o-m-e-i-n. . ."
"W-a-y-n-e-h-e-r-e-s-i-m-o-n. . ."
"P-r-a-t-t-i-n-s-i-x-t-h-t-o-l-a-s-t-h-o-l-d. . . ,"
"H-i-s-b-o-t-t-l-e-d-o-w-n-t-o-t-h-i-r-t-y-m-i-n-u-s. . ."
"C-o-m-e-i-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n. . ."
"P-r-a-t-t-p-r-a-t-t-p-r-a-t-t-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-d-o-e-s-n-t-a-n-s-w-e-r-o-x-y-g-e-n-i-n-n-u-m-b-e-
r-s-
e-v-e-n-c-a-n-y-o-u-t-r-a-n-s-f-e-r-o-v-e-r. . ."
"S-i-m-o-n-t-o-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-p-r-a-t-t-i-n-n-u-m-b-e-r-s-i-x-b-e-h-i-n-d-b-u-1-k-h-e-a-d-t-o-l-
a-s
-t-b-o-t-t-l-e-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-c-o-m-e-i-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n. . ."
"R-e-c-e-p-t-i-o-n-w-e-a-k-r-e-c-e-p-t-i-o-n-w-e-a-k. . ."
"C-o-m-e-i-n-p-r-a-t-t-c-o-m-e-i-n-p-r-a-t-t-o-v-e-r. . ."
"W-a-y-n-e-h-e-r-e-p-r-a-t-t-d-o-e-s-n-t-a-n-s-w-e-r. . ."
"S-i-m-o-n-t-o-w-a-y-n-e-i-h-e-a-r-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-b-e-l-o-w-m-e. . ."
"M-o-m-s-s-e-n-c-u-t-o-f-f-p-r-a-t-t-l-o-s-i-n-g-o-x-y-g-e-n. . ."
"D-o-e-s-n-t-a-n-s-w-e-r-d-o-e-s-n-t-a-n-s-w-e-r. . ."
"C-o-m-e-i-n-p-r-a-t-t-c-o-m-e-i-n-o-v-e-r. . ."
"W-a-y-n-e-h-e-r-e-c-o-m-e-i-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-c-o-m-e-i-n. . ."
"S-i-m-o-n-w-a-y-n-e-p-o-t-t-e-r-p-r-a-t-t-d-o-w-n-t-o-z-e-r-o-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-d-o-e-s-n-t-a-n-s-
w
-e-r. . ."
"M-o-m-s-s-e-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-c-o-m-e-i-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-m-o-m-s
-s-e-n. . ."

-Every step you take on board of a derelict ship feels like your stepping on your own testicles.

Even if you're a lady.

-The space is great, why shield ourselves in that ship, why hide ?!?

-We must seek wisdom of the stars, we must go free.

the ship is found with its airlocks open

>>14855641

Suddenly, one of crew decides to interfere and starts sending his own morse message:
"W-h-y-d-o-e-s-n-t-m-o-m-s-s-e-n-a-n-s-w-e-r. . ."

After brief moment, pipe chimes again:
"B-e-c-a-u-s-e-h-i-s-r-i-g-h-t. . ."
Pause
"I-s-t-h-a-t-y-o-u-s-i-m-o-n. . ."
"T-h-i-s-i-s-s-i-m-o-n. . . w-h-o-i-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g. . ."
"W-h-o-w-a-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g-i-d-e-n-t-i-f-y-y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f-w-h-o-w-a-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g. .
. w-h-o-w-a-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g. . .
w-h-o-w-a-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g-w-h-o-w-a-s-s-i-g-n-a-l-i-n-g-t-h-i-s-i-s-s-i-m-o-n-t-h-i-s-i-s-w-a-y-
n-e-c-o-m-e-i-n. . ."

>>14855641
That's rough. Can you imagine explaining to that last guy after pulling him out that he and his friends kept you up all night with their incessant clanking?

>>14855468
Disregard what i waid, i posted that fucking thread ^^
But i lost the second part of first one.

When investigating a derelict ship the decayed bodies of the crew seem a little off. Arms, legs or other appendages seem a little too long or out of proportion, some things that should have decayed haven't and still seem fresh. Anytime they go past the mess deck things are different, like the crew has been going through their usual meal rotation.

Journey into the oldest parts of the galaxy. It is well-known that there are no humans living there, and no alien civilization enocuntered (if any) mentions it.
Upon arriving into one of the star systems there, you discover a single settlement on a planet. All of it however resemble Human design. No activity is picked up at all. You descend and begin to explore it. You encounter strange architecture by times. However little by little minor incidents start to happen- motion sensors coming online randomly, seeing things move with the corner of your eye, see moving shapes far away but they disappear when you close in, teammates say they are having visions, poltergeist activities, etc.
Is it because there are singularities on the settlement? Is it because you're in the only absolute unknown place in the galaxy and it tarts to twist your mind? Is it space ghosts? Where there really humans here? What thhe hell happened? Are the incidents going to get bigger? And is there anything alive here?

http://freetexthost.com/ko3g5m46je

Transcript of a Sputnik Lost game.

Pic related.

>>14855641
>>14855658

You cheat, that is Stanislaw Lem's story! You guys must read it. Here is a collection of five short stories:
http://www.mediafire.com/?oweqaqvqp2z7vga

The one about morse code is 'Terminus'. Lem had amazing knowledge about space exploration, physics and technology at the time he wrote those novels. They are really outstanding.

>They said they were going to fix my legs, give me cybernetics so I could go back to work. I just wanted to go back to work right now. I know damn well that you don't need to wait a week to take somebodies leg off.

>Just came to after the op. Sure, my legs are gone now- But I haven't gotten the replacements either. Seriously, I've seen guys go in for worse before. It never took this long.

>Another op. I have my legs now, but I'm not sure why they had to take them off at the thigh when my issue was at the calf.

Wait a second. Are....Are those cyber-ports?! What the he-

>>14855766
I've got no idea what's going on with the morse code thing, so are they all just trapped and dying or what?

>>14855790

>The bastards. They've taken my arm. I'm a mechanic. I just want to go back to work. I haven't seen anybody in an age and I sure as hell can't hear anything either. Why the hell did they take my arm?! I came in here to get my legs fixed after the accident. I...I just want to go back to work...

>>14855796

Do read the story I liked. From what I remember the intercomms were broken in course of the catastrophe, so astronauts had to communicate by sending morse code through coolant pipes. I don't think all the events of catastrophe are explained, but maybe you can piece together better picture that I did.

The source of banging is in actuality a maintenance robot, which too was reclaimed from catastrophe. It is mending coolant leaks with puty, and in process appears to re-broadcast morse code it has remembered from the time of accident.

Abnormal radio emissions coming from a distant comet.
Patrol ship with small specialist crew sent to investigate
When closing in, gravimeters detects some serious fuckup in space time fabric
Optical sensors detect late 20th century boat partialy incrusted in the comet.
Crew goes EVA.
On first door, the name of the ship. Goddamn BOREALIS.

The party stumbles across a floating blue box n space
Attempts to open it will reveal a horribly eccentric man whos asks them to accompany him on a journey through time and space

>>14855919
><static crackle>
>Cave Johnson here!

>>14854843
I'm very unsure, so please confirm my suspicions: Terminus, from Tales of Pirx the Pilot. Correct?

>>14855965
>>14855965
>>14855965

I'm sold.

>>14855965
Good end?
Or just a beginning?

Time to wrap the thread, i suppose.
Thanks to all who participated.

The standard constant signals coming off of any decent sized ship suddenly stop from one ship out in the far orbits (pre-FTL times).

It just drops of the map.

A camera probe is sent to investigate. Sends back pictures of people in space suits crawling about the hull. They seem to be trying to tear a hole in the side of the ship to allow the air to push them back in-system.

The main engines are firing towards the inner-system but the ship is not moving.

The probe moves a bit closer. The inhabitants of the suit appear to be dead a decaying. There are things still bound t them like the puppeteer but also the strings.

The probe is now close enough to read the worlds they carved into the hull and ablative armour:

WE HAVE SEEN THE HOWLING FACE OF THE SUN
WE CAN NOT GET OUT
IT HOLDS US DOWN AND BACK AND HERE
STARE AT THE ABYSS AND IT STARES BACK

Here's a nightmare story in space.
No FTL, cryosleep exists, but causes almost harmless brain damage, effects are only noticeable after hundreds of sleeps. There are no pilots- ships are navigated by computer.

You wake up from cryosleep earlier than you should. You are in deep space, middle on nowhere, on an extremely rarely used route. The cause is automatic distress signal from your sister ship (the very same model as yours). You investigate and find the crew dead, after life support systems failed. They've been dead for a few years. There are logs and writings - on the computer, in paper notebooks, on the walls. They are dated (well, most of them, there's a week's worth of dates) and deteriorate over time - misspelling words, becoming more childlike, finally ending in simplistic pictures and mindless scribbles. They tell about the ship stopping in this location for no reason, and an error with the cryogenic control: the crew was automatically woken up mere seconds after going to sleep, only to find out the ship hasn't engaged its engines. After the second time they tried to fix the problem. They found no mechanical failure, it was a software problem. They would have to reprogram the buggy drivers and maybe even the OS itself - hundreds of millions of lines of code. They had to work fast, because there were only emergency supplies and life support (the crew wasn't supposed to wake up until safely landed). They found and fixed many bugs they thought were related to their problem. But the only way to test their fixes without specialistic debugging hardware was to go to cryosleep again. The cryosleep module shows thousands logged sleep cycles. The computer's internal bugtracking system shows tens of thousands of patches made. The last thousand or so actually break more things.
Then you realize you have the same exact setup as your sister ship. And are at the same location. You have the same bug. And you're running out of time.

Your ship receives orders to rendezvous with another ship and receive cargo, but when you reach the meeting point you find the other ship seemingly derelict.

After some exploration, you find that all members of the other ships crew, but one, have drowned in their own environment suits on a strange slime, except for one crew member who is in shock, and even then is mute. A bit more investigation reveals the ship was also smuggling highly illegal, highly dangerous drugs.

What do?

In TNT: Evilution the UAC once again are intent on developing and experimenting with dimensional gateway technology. They set up a base on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, with a solid detachment of space marines for protection. The marines do their job well: when the first experimental gateway is opened they annihilate the forces of Hell. Anything that came through the gateway was immediately destroyed by the marines, and so research on the gateways continued.

Later, the yearly supply ship came earlier than expected, and looks strange and unusually large on the radar. The personnel of the base go out to behold the terrible truth: it is a spaceship from Hell, built of steel, stone, flesh, bone and corruption. The ship's enormous gates open to unleash a rain of demons on the base. Quickly, the whole base is overrun, and everyone is slain or zombified.

>>14856411
>What do?
I think the correct answer is 'get tentacle raped', if I'm remembering that movie correctly

The Ghost Ship in Homeworld would be a fairly good spooky encounter.

In the middle of a nebula or debris field, there is an inexplicable clearing that forms a deliberate geometric shape. Within the clearing, there is a structure of some kind. It appears derelict, half-destroyed, and inert. Its surface is billions of years old and impenetrable to any amount of scanning. There is a strange field around the object extending only a few meters. Any object that touches the field immediately loses inertia and is drained of all power. Moreover, any ship larger than a small probe that comes within a few kilometers of the structure will be bombarded by an unidentifiable signal that subverts their computerized systems and causes them to go haywire, "hijacking" all ships that approach and remotely controlling them. The controlled ships appear to single-mindedly "defend" the structure, attacking all approaching ships. If lured too far away from the structure, the subversive signal appears to dissipate and lose its effect.

A perfect black-body sphere ten thousand meters across.

A massive AI ship with the size of a moon enters the newly colonized solar system.

oblivious to the colony and the other ships it directs itself to the sun and start.... harvesting it

it do not responds to any form of communication

Spaaaaace Kooook.

SPAAAAACE KOOOOOOK!

Suddenly the ship rapidly decelerates causing numerous failures and structural damage. It appears it hit a large gas field... oxygen field. Held by "something" within a large asteroid field. Scans reveal live signatures, large ones. They are moving toward you in the darkness of space.

Ok ok get this:
Event Horizon. But instead of hell the portal leads to [spoiler] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF-yh4mU6ps [/spoiler]

don't let this die, or else

Ok. Some other content made by comrades i respect and care about.
Massive copypaste abound.
“WE WON’T NEED EYES”
TEST SCRIPT – PROLOGUE

NOTE: This is rough script I put together for the prologue and beginning. The main focus of this is to show the Gate Crash and establish the main characters, so it is fairly light on scares.
PANEL 1:
Blank panel with a single caption in the center
"I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear" – St. Vincent “Paris is Burning”


PANEL 2:
Deep space. The large jump gate is the most prominent feature in the panel. Dozens of starships are shown coming in and out of the artificially generated wormhole. Most of the ships are bulky, Spartan freighters and transport vessels. There are also some military vessels that stand out due to their more elongated appearance and heavy weaponry. In the preceding boxed, GATE CONTROL relays orders to the vessels.
GATE CONTROL
“This is Gate Control to Albatross, you are cleared for jump. Happy trails.”

ALBATROSS (NOT SPECIFIED)
“Roger. Headin’ out”
WARSHIP
“This is the UPV MUNINN. Requesting to be moved off the queue. Over.”
GATE CONTROL
“Acknowledged, Muninn. We will move you up the queue at once. Attention all vessels: military starships have first priority.”
RANDOM SHIP
“What? We’ve been waiting in this goddamn for two hours! I gotta get this uranium shipment to Sol in the next couple’a days or Gaiate—“
GATE CONTROL
“Stop getting your panties in a twist. You’ll be out once it’s your time.”

>>14857375
PANEL 3
Scene pans upward to reveal the ENKIDU in the far distance speeding towards the JUMP GATE. Vessels continue filing in and out of the wormhole.
GATE CONTROL 1
“I’m picking up a new signature less than 100 clicks from the gate. Other side of traffic.”
GATE CONTROL 2
“That’s strange...do you have a proper ID?”
GATE CONTROL 1
“Hold on: Getting a clearer visual”

PANEL 4
Establishing shot of the ENKIDU speeding towards the gate. The ENKIDU shows many signs of wear and heavy use thorough the years. However, there is nothing to indicate that anything is wrong with the battleship aside from the fact that its on a collision course with the JUMP GATE.
GATE CONTROL 2
“I have a positive ID of the starship; it’s the battleship UPV Enkidu. Can’t tell where the hell it came from though”

GATE CONTROL 1
“Is it operating on pulse overdrive?”
GATE CONTROL 2
“Negative. I’m not picking up any trails or a residual mini wormhole anywhere.”
GATE CONTROL 1
“No matter. Open up comms with the Enkidu.”

PANEL 5
Another shot of the ENKIDU approaching the JUMP GATE. This time, there are a few very subtle hints that all is not right with the ship. For instance, upon close inspections the words “HELP ME” have been scratched onto the side of a rail gun. A silhouette of a woman (possible Sally) is also visible in the ship itself.
GATE CONTROL 1
“This is Gate Control to the Enkidu. Request that you change trajectory away from the gate, over…Gate Control to Enkidu. Be advised: you are on a collision course with the jump gate. Please change your course immediately. Over.”
…
“Enkidu you will be crashing into this gate in the next twenty minutes if you do not change your course now.”

>>14857396
PANEL 6
A warship emerges out of the cluster of vessels around the JUMP GATE to meet with the ENKIDU. This vessel is significantly smaller; around frigate level. It’s also in nearly pristine condition, having never served in as many theatres as the ENKIDU.”
GATE CONTROL 1
“Dammit…Gate Control to Muninn; we have an out of control battleship with some busted comms. Designation is the Enkidu. Can you flag them down for us?”
MUNINN
“This is the Muninn; we’ll give it a shot. Make sure Hydrogen Boy doesn’t try to cut in line.”

PANEL 7
The MUNINN is advancing towards the ENKIDU, which at this point is within viewing distance of the other ships. Again, nothing seems particularly out of the ordinary with the battleship, and the MUNINN approaches nonchalantly. The ENKIDU, however, has its weapons pointed to the front and ready.
MUNINN 1
“Dawson, flash the alert single to the Enkidu.

MUNINN 2
“Sir, it looks like the Enkidu is shifting starboard closer to the jump gate. I dunno what’s going on-“

PANEL 8
Closup on the ENKIDU. It’s port and forward weapons batteries open fire. Tungsten rounds erupt from the rail guns in white tracer streaks. This time it is more evident that there is something wrong with the ship: It’s windows and port holes are either completely blank or smeared with blood. All save for one window, which has an abstract, shadowy figure peer out inquisitively at the inevitable carnage.
MUNINN 2
“Shit, incoming fire!”

>>14857462
PANEL 10
The view zooms out to show the JUMP GATE and crowd of vessels. In the distance, the ENKIDU has almost destroyed the MUNINN. A small armada of military vessels break off and rush to the aide of the MUNINN. They are all smaller vessels, mostly patrol ships and a couple frigates. Hardly anything capable of destroying the ENKIDU. The civilian vessels remain in their line.
GATE CONTROL
“This is Gate Control to all vessels: Please break course and move 115 kms from the gate. Repeat: break course and move 115 km from the gate. This is not a drill.”
RANDOM CIVILIAN SHIP 1
“What the fuck is going on here?! We have the right to know why you’re making us break off, control!”
RANDOM CIVLIAN SHIP 2
“Why are all the military vessels moving out of queue? Are we being attacked?”
RANDOM CIVLIAN SHIP 3
“Oh my God! I’m picking up fire on our sensors!”

PANEL 11
Shot of the ARMADA desperately attacking the ENKIDU. The ships have attempted to form a cone-like formation: the smaller ships are in the front using their speed and agility to attempt to avoid getting hit. The larger vessels are along the perimeter in the back providing fire support. Tracer fire from rail runs streak all throughout the panel, as well as swarms of missiles akin to the “Itano Circus” from Macross. Off to the side of the formation, the MUNINN Has been all but destroyed. It’s listing motionless in space while fire and debris billow out of it. A handful of escape pods and shuttles can be seen scuttling away.

MILITARY VESSEL 1
“Dammit, they’ve already fragged the MUNINN! Concentrate all fire on the Enkidu’s engines and fire control! We need to stop these bastards immediately!”
MILITARY VESSEL 2
“It’s pointless; her plating’s too thick and the PDS is neutralizing most of our rounds!”
MILITARY VESSEL 1
“You don’t wanna know what happens if that ship hits the gate. Keep firing!”

>>14857496
PANEL 12
Chaos has erupted near the jump gate. The civilian vessels have already seen the carnage unfolding and are trying to escape. The ships are either escaping the gate or trying to rush into already. Already, several have collided we each other and exploded. In the background, ENKIDU is making short work of the defending armada in its relentless drive to the jump gate.
GATE CONTROL 1
“Remain calm everyone! Please remain-FUCK! Why isn’t the gate shutting down?!”
GATE CONTROL 2
“We’re trying but if we accelerate the process the wormhole might collapse anyways!”
GATE CONTROL 1
“Fuck…fine, everyone get to the shuttles. We need to haul ass NOW!”

PANEL 13
The ENKIDU is speeding through the broken armada, battle scarred but completely intact. Most of the ships have either been destroyed and are attempting to limp away. The ENKIDU’s weapons continue to fire as it is moments away from the jump gate. The area is still filled with civilian ships trying to escape.
GATE CONTROL
“AUTOMATED DISTRESS WARNING: DESTRUCTION OF JUMP GATE IMMINENT. ALL VESSELS IN VICINITY MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

PANEL 14
Closeup of the ENKIDU smashing through the jump gate. The superstructure is destroyed in a cascade of explosives. The few shuttles that have managed to get out are quickly engulfed by the explosions from the gate. In the center, the artificially generated wormhole begins to fluctuate violently.
GATE CONTROL
“AUTOMATED DEFEN-

PANEL 15
Spread page. A massive, shockwave-like explosion obliterates the jump gate (and presumably the ENKIDU) and unleashes on the rest of space. The many civilian and military vessels too slow to escape are caught in the crossfire. The explosion tears apart entire chunks of their hulls like they were made of paper.

>>14857509
PANEL 16
Blank page with single caption in center
“Ten Years Later”

PANEL 17
The SALVAGE VESSEL is speeding to its destination. All lights save for a handful placed around the exterior of the ship are off. Surrounding the SALVAGE VESSEL are countless wrecks and debris of the ships, satellites, space stations, etc. destroyed by the Gate Crash. The wreckage runs the gamut from being generally recognizable to clustered bits of debris. Some wreckages appear to be wrapped and twisted around each other, forming something reminiscent of space hulks.

PANEL 18
Interior of the SALVAGE VESSEL. Men’s quarters. The room is taken up by four bunks and four large footlockers. One bunk is taken up with a pile of extra uniforms and equipments. JACK and HOLLIS are sleeping in their bunks. HANK has left his punk and is meditating at the end of the room opposite of the doorway. He has set up a miniature Zen Buddhist shrine with a statue of Buddha, a bansai tree, a small rock garden, artificial incense, and a picture of HANK as a soldier with his old squad. He is already fully dressed in his work coveralls and have carefully trimmed his hair and beard; leftover habits from his days in the military.

A dead person in a spacesuit, drifting.

Has a nametag on it saying "Major Tom".

>>14857592
PANEL 19
An alarm sounds in the quarters. The lights instantly brighten as HANK slowly rises from his shrine. HOLLIS and JACK are reluctantly waking up, looking like they’ve clearly not had enough sleep in a while. Both are wearing only their work pants and wifebeaters.
There’s more of a focus on the state of the two crewmembers’ bunks. JACK has filled the wall closest to his bed with a various assortment of tools, bolts, screws, and several pictures. One picture is of him as a boy living in a run-down apartment. Other photos are of him hanging out with friends and working on different wrecks in space. At least one photo is of him and JANE. There also appears to be a mugshot of him as a teenager. In comparison, HOLLIS’s wallspace is sparse; the only photo is a framed picture of him in a suit with his wife and daughters.

PANEL 20
Another focus on the bunk. JACK is sitting on the edge of his bed with one hand resting on his temple. HOLLIS is climbing down from a latter on the end of the bunks.
JACK
“You know I could always smash that damn thing for you. Give us all a couple more hours of shuteye.”
HOLLIS
“Go ahead! It’s not like we’re going to need that thing in case, I don’t know, a fire breaks out or the ship depressurizes.”
JACK
“Just sayin’ man; it ain’t like that government prick is gonna yell at us for a safety violation.”

>>14857592
PANEL 21
In the foreground, HANK is fastening on a utility vest and equipment. He is grinning slightly while focused on his tools. In the background, HOLLIS is crouched near a footlocker and motioning to HANK with his thumb. JACK is opening up the other footlocker and removing a towel and toiletries.
HOLLIS
“What you need to do is be more like Hank over there. The guy woke up at…when did you wake up Hank?”
HANK
“zero-dark-thirty UST, sir. Have been for almost twenty years.”
HOLLIS
“You see? He wakes up a good hour and a half before your lazy ass and you don’t hear him complaining.”
JACK
“Guess I need to be an ex-soldier or corporate exec like you guys.”

PANEL 22
Corridor. The corridor of the SALVAGE vessel that contains the men’s and women’s sleeping quarters is lined with old, torn, posters. One prominent poster is a brightly colored advertisement for GaiaTech, showing a smiling nuclear family in a lush corn field with the caption “A NEW FRONTIER. AN EXCITING TOMORROW.” Another larger poster is a “Keep Calm and Carry On”-style propaganda poster for the interim Colonial government. This one urges the population to obey whatever the government tells them in a passive-aggressive manner (suggestion “WE’RE LOOKING OUT FOR YOU”). Aside from these posters are a hodgepodge of old movie, artist, and super model posters presumably placed up there by APPLEGATE. JACK is emerging out of his quarters, carrying a towel, spare clothes, and some soap under one arm. Near the other end of the corridor is JANE carefully braiding her hair.
HOLLIS (OFFPANEL)
“15 minutes max, Jack. We can’t afford to waste water.”
JACK
“Got it.”
JANE
“Pissing off the boss already?”

>>14857632
PANEL 23
Closeup on JACK. Jack is in the background walking closer to her, smiling. JANE is looking back with a small and weary frown.
JACK
“Of course not! I’m a model citizen. So how was your night?”
JANE
“Not good. My ‘43 Andrew’s Sisters’ recording was corrupted again. Plus Applegate keeps me up with her movies and the goddamn Daisy Bell song all the time…I just wish we could’ve left her back home.”

PANEL 24
JACK is resting his right arm on JANE’s shoulders while looking into her eyes and grinning sofly. JANE is looking back sheepishly but a littler happier than before.
JACK
“She’s still just a kid getting used to workin’ out here. Just focus on your job and she’ll get better.”
JANE
“I guess you’re right, Jack. I still wish he paid more attention to her mission, you know? It’s bad enough that we’re this close to where it happened.”

PANEL 25
Closeup on the two with more of a focus on JANE. JANE is now looking a bit more outwards, fixated on her own thoughts. She also looks more worried and is habitually playing with a couple loose strands of her hair.
JACK
“You think this place is haunted.”
JANE
“What? No. Ghosts don’t exist. It’s just that no one has gone through this area in a decade. All this wreckage is making the trip more dangerous than going through a minefield. And It’s not just the physical debris themselves; they’re all giving off a magnetic pulse that’s interfering with our electrical systems. If they can get to my player they can definitely get to the ship’s computer, then its files will be corrupted and assuming we don’t smash into a hulk while we’re asleep we might drift off course and…and…
Fuck, we really shouldn’t be this far out.”
>myship when i have no ship anymore

>>14857661
PANEL 26
JACK brings JANE closer in to calm her down. He’s still grinning, but its clear from his face and body language that he’s concerned about JANE’s feelings. JANE still looks worried.
JACK
“It’s okay honey. We would’ve known already if the ships were fucking us up. Besides, I know you can still lead us in and out of here.”
JANE
“…Yeah…I but I’m still a little worried.”

PANEL 27
JACK is walking to the shower room, while still looking at JANE. JANE is heading to the bridge, looking calmer and happier than previously.
JACK
“Well, I gotta go take my shower. Wanna join me?”
JANE
“Tempting…but I know Hollis will snap if we do. Maybe later.”

PANEL 28
Transition shot of the SALVAGE VESSEL.

PANEL 29
Ship’s bridge. The bridge is configured more like the cockpit of a large aircraft than any ship. APPLEGATE is at the front of the bridge in the pilot’s, surrounded by old digital instruments and readouts. APPLEGATE has also adorned the top of the panel with bobbleheads of Communist figures. To the right of the instrument panel is JANE manning a large navigational computer. Unlike the ship’s controls, the computer appears much newer and more sophisticated, with holographic keys and 3 large monitors projecting a torrent of information. A “captains chair” is in the center of the room. It’s actually nothing more complicated than a chair bolted in and a couple private view screens. HANK and JACK are in the rear of the bridge running a check on their equipment. HOLLIS is entering the bridge and heading to his chair.
HOLLIS
“Status”
APPLEGATE
“Everything’s green. Ship still maintaining pulse speed.”

>>14857672
PANEL 30
Closeup of APPLEGATE at the cockpit with JANE in the background. JANE is looking over her shoulder at APPLEGATE who is focused on piloting the ship. APPLEGATE looks a little annoyed.
JANE
“Applegate, you’re drifting .055927 meters away from the nav coordinates. Please correct now.
APPLEGATE
“Big deal. I’m not even a friggin’ meter off.”

PANEL 31
Sort of reversal of the previous panel. APPLEGATE is now looking back at JANE. Both crewmembers are clearly at odds with each other.
JANE
“It’ll be a ‘big deal’ once we smash into a stray wreck and our bodies end up decompress in space. Realign your course now.”
APPLEGATE
“Well someone’s in a bitchy mood today. Fine, I’ll shift all of few fuckin’ centimeters to save us from imminent doom. You’re welcome by the way, asshole.”

PANEL 32
HOLLIS as stood up from his seat and is looking at the girls angrily. APPLEGATE and JANE are back looking at their respective screens. HANK and JACK are the background watching the fight, clearly amused at the little catfight going on.
HOLLIS
“Enough fighting. Applegate, those nav coordinates are the safest calculated path through this field. Any deviations and we risk damaging the ship or worse. Jane, just because Applegate’s the newbie doesn’t mean you can bite her head off whenever she fucks up. We were all green once. Am I clear?
JANE
“Yes sir.”
APPLEGATE
“Yeah boss”

PANEL 33
JANE is in the immediate foreground monitoring her computer system. HOLLIS is back sitting in his chair.
JANE
“Incoming transmission from the colony. Signature is government, likely Sanderson.”

PANEL 34
A small LCD screen lowers from ceiling in front of and above HOLLIS’ seat. There is nothing but static and the vague bust of a male figure on the screen.

>>14857681
PANEL 35
Similar to previous scene. SANDERSON is now visible on the screen, albeit in a low quality. SANDERSON’s appearance and demeanor screams “hardass.” He is clean shaven with a high-and-tight haircut and a clean, vaguely militaristic grey suit. He expression always judgmental and disapproving.
SANDERSON
“Hollis, your crew is scheduled to be jumping out of pulse drive and near visual range of the objective. I’m assuming you are still on schedule.”

PANEL 36
HOLLIS is sitting in the center of the panel looking directly at the screen. His arms are crossed and he looks confident while addressing SANDERSON. The other crewmembers can still be seen working but are also trying to watch the transmission.
HOLLIS
“We’re actually ahead of time by 10 minutes, Sir. At this rate my crew will be able to recover whatever you need and get it in time for the holidays. Now, I believe there was some talk about a pay raise for getting the job done early…”

PANEL 37
SANDERSON, still as hardassed as ever. It’s clear the transmission is a low quality one, with plenty of inferences, pixilation, color changes, etc.
SANDERSON
“Your compensation will depend on your performance and findings. I’ll decide whether you deserve the extra incentive. Your target should be within radar range now.”

HOLLIS
“Understood, sir. Applegate, get us out of pulse drive and

PANEL 38
Exterior of the SALVAGE VESSEL. The ship’s are powering out while retrorockets on the front activate. The idea is that the boosters “cushion” the SALVAGE VESSEL, allowing it to safely decelerate as opposed to smashing into whatever’s in front of it.
JANE
“Got a lock on the signature now. Sending you the coordinates, Applegate.”

>>14857688
PANEL 39
Back to the bridge. JANE is monitoring a radar signature on her computer. HOLLIS is still talking to SANDERSON in the background. Also in the background, HANK is staring at JANE’s computer.
JANE
“It looks like a big one, Hollis. I’ve haven’t seen anything this big in space before. Mind out of the gutter, Jack. Anyways, judging from the scanners I think it’s a battleship, but’s its bigger than anything in the database.”

PANEL 40
HANK is standing up. He looks concerned about the news.
HANK
“Wait, a battleship? That doesn’t make any sense. Last time I checked there was never anything larger than a destroyer in this system even before the Gate Crash. And the only time there ever was anything that big…”

PANEL 41
Back of HOLLIS while he is talking to SANDERSON.
HOLLIS
“Sir, are you sure this is what we’re looking for?”
SANDERSON
“You’ll have to find out.”
APPLEGATE
“G-guys?”

PANEL 42
Closeup of APPLEGATE at the controls. She looks like she just saw a ghost.
APPLEGATE
“I…I think you’re gonna wanna see this…”

>>14857706
PANEL 43
Spread of the ENKIDU dwarfing the SALVAGE VESSEL. Unlike previously, the ENKIDU is in unnervingly pristine condition. There is not a single scratch, burn, etc. to be found on the entire vessel. It even has freshly coated paint on its bow. This ship also appears shut down, with no light emitting from the inside.
PANEL 44
Bridge. The crew have all moved up to the front of the bridge. Everyone has looks of disbelief, shock, and fear.
JACK
“What the fuck…”
APPLEGATE
“H-how is that even possible?”
JANE
“My God…”
HOLLIS
“This can’t be happening. Get Sanderson on the HUD”

PANEL 45
The transmission from SANDERSON is now displayed on the window of the bridge in the HUD. SANDERSON now has a slight, smug, smirk on his face.
HOLLIS
“Sir, I don’t know what’s going on but I swear to God you just sent us to the-“
SANDERSON
“The Enkidu? You’ve reached the appropriate coordinates. Now commence with the operation as planned.”
PANEL 46
Back to the crew. HOLLIS looks mad at the lack of information being given. The rest of the crew is still confused.
HOLLIS
“Hold it! We run into a ship that’s supposed to have been dust for the past decade and now here it is looking like it just rolled off the assembly line! What the hell is going on?”

>>14857714
PANEL 47
SANDERSON, again
SANDERSON
“Hmmph, it’s exactly what it looks like. You’ve been contracted to investigate the Enkidu, salvage any valuable equipment and data, and tow the rest back. I though you’re team was supposed to be the best at their job.”

PANEL 48
Similar to PANEL46 but with a few differences. JANE is starting to play with her hair again. HANK seems to be in contemplative prayer. APPLEGATE is lightly singing/murmuring the first couple bars of Daisy Bell. HOLLIS is still confronting SANDERSON
HOLLIS
“We’re the best at wrecks that don’t happen to appear out of nowhere. We deserve the right to know what’s going on.”
SANDERSON
“Your only ‘right’ is to shut up and do your job.”

PANEL 50
JACK and JANE are off to the side. JACK looks pissed at whats going on.
JACK
“Hollis, this is bullshit. Why bother with the mission if he’s not gonna give us the full story?”
JANE
“I agree with Jack; this job is too sketchy to be worth it.”

PANEL 51
Back to SANDERSON and HOLLIS. Both are angrier with each other now.
SANDERSON
“Funny, I didn’t know it was SOP for the crew to tell the commander what to do.”
HOLLIS
“This ain’t a military vessel and I’ll decide how to handle my crew asshole. And they have a point: we signed up a for a ‘routine salvage op’. Not recovering the Enkidu while smokes getting blown up our ass 24/7”

>>14857724
PANEL 52
Similar panel as last. It’s hard to tell if SANDERSON is amused or annoyed at HOLLIS’ objections.
SANDERSON
“So you’re just going to walk away without fulfilling the contract.”
HOLLIS
“Business law states I have the right to nullify the contract if the client is being obstructive or hostile. I have no problem dragging your ass to court to prove it.”

PANEL 53
Closer view of SANDERSON
SANDERSON
“That’s too bad. I know you’re crewmembers won’t be happy when they return home. Especially your chief engineer. Jack, is it?”

PANEL 54
JACK is looking at the screen looking both confused and angry. JANE is at his side, worried.
JACK
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
PANEL 55
Back to SANDERSON.
SANDERSON
“I have it on good authority that you’re wanted for illicit arms and drug smuggling. Actually, it’s only one copy of the arrest warrant that has your name on it. Likely a bug in the photocopy. Still, it would be a damn shame if the wrong warrant was filed. Then we would have no choice but to detain you and impound this ship as accessory.”

PANEL 56
The crew is stunned. JACK looks downward, defeated and angry. JANE is shocked and holding onto JACK. HANK says nothing but looks angry. APPLEGATE and HOLLIS are simply pissed.
JANE
“b…but…”
APPLEGATE
“YOU SONUVABITCH! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO JACK!”

PANEL 57
SANDERSON, looking now at APPLEGATE.
SANDERSON
“Speaking of detaining procedures, we don’t need to need to make any clerical errors for you. Your association with the Campus Progressives and CAFD already makes you a prime suspect for a number of sedition cases going on. I’m surprised you were able to find work what with the mandated background checks.”

>>14857741
PANEL 58
Closeup of HOLLIS
HOLLIS
trumped up charges and drag our asses back to the colonies!”

PANEL 59
Shot of the crew looking at SANDERSON. The transmission is experiencing much more interference now.
SANDERSON
“So long as you’re in the rim of the system we will not actively investi…ate. I suggest you take this time to…inue wi…contract and recove…we need. I will…a constant commun….ens…..”

PANEL 60
The transmission cuts off. Leaving the sight of the titanic ENKIDU in front of the crew. HOLLIS turns back to his seat.

PANEL 61
HOLLIS sits back in his “captain’s chair,” still bitter. It’s clear that he is contemplating what course of action to take and is not happy with any of the potential outcomes. The rest of the crew are slowly resuming their stations. They are all either angry or scared. APPLEGATE turns in her chair to face HOLLIS.
APPLEGATE
“I’m sorry if I got you guys in trouble, Hollis.”
HOLLIS
“It’s not you’re fault. It’s just that we’re stuck with a bunch of assholes in charge.”

PANEL 62
Another angle of HOLLIS. He’s staring out at space, still contemplating his crew’s next course of action.
HOLLIS
“We can either look in the starship that’s supposed to be blasted across the fucking galaxy or go home and lose everything. The only option I see is the former, even if it feels like we’re being thrown into something.”

>>14857749
PANEL 63
JACK is standing up, equipment in hand. In spite of what has happened he is still his normal, laid-back self.
JACK
“I agree. Besides, it ain’t like a the ships gonna bite back or anything. We’ll get our money and this’ll be all behind us.”

PANEL 64
Outside shot of the SALVAGE VESSEL and the ENKIDU. This is meant more to show how towering the ENKIDU is in comparison to the smaller civilian vessel. Just as previously, a shadowy figure can be seen watching the ship.
HOLLIS
“Get your equipment ready and be back on the bridge in an hour. We got work to do.”

>the end of prologue

Although not a masterpiece, i suppose that's a good enough script from the amateur author.
Maybe some drawfag one day will make it into actual comic.
If anyone is interested, i can dump biographies of the characters. Meanwhile, the only other existing page of comic concept art.

Archie this thread, Omegon? I had to take the lists and lots of ideas to a word document

>>14857784
I am not very versed in the way of 4chan (i don't even lnow how to trip) so i have no idea how to go about archiving threads. If you want to - godspeed, i've all the stuff i liked saved in the word documen anyway. ) That was surprisingly productive thread (in comparsion to the previous one).

>>14857375
Man, i love you.
I loved the thread when we created the original ideas and characters, and was sadened not to see any news of it afterwards.

>>14857931
Well, several people (me included) got into contact after those threads via mail, and generated several further ideas; then one of them (whose name i have no right to disclose) wrote this script.
So, bios of the salvage crew, y/n?

ITT: anons and tripfags learn that easymodo auto-archives everything on the board

http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14853575

>>14857975

Yes please.

HOLLIS:
Hollis lived a good life before the Gate Crash. He had a lucrative career as a regional manager for GaiaTech; the largest terraforming corporation in Human-controlled space. Despite being assigned to a backwater system, he was still living comfortably with his wife and two daughters and gradually climbing up the corporate ladder. His rigid work ethic and determination was more than appreciated by his superiors, and he was confident that in a few he would be able to move back to Sol and assume a cushy position in the upper echelons of GaiaTech.
Then the Enkidu and the Gate Crash came. In the ensuring chaos and marshal law the resurgent government took all of GaiaTech’s local assets, leaving Hollis with nothing but a giant IOU. Then is wife decided this was the perfect time to leave and take the kids with her. However, while most men at this point would bury themselves in booze or drugs, Hollis squared his shoulders and searched for a new life in uncertain times.
Eventually he got a job as a salvager. It paid less than a quarter of his old salary, but he still had enough to pay the rent and put food on his table and buy expensive cigarettes (though he could never smoke on the job anymore). Soon enough he was able to get his own ship and crew and become noticeable enough to take some especially lucrative contracts for the government. His efforts have been rewarded, this time by having the lucrative contract to investigate the Enkidu and start up the warp gate.

>>14858073
Hollis fits the picture of an ideal leader. No-nonsense, dedicated in his work, and willing to perform even the most difficult tasks with his employees, he is constantly focused on ensuring the job is done and everyone gets paid and returns back unharmed. While he prides himself on treating all of his men and women well, he nevertheless attempts to keep friendships between him and the rest of the crew as distant as possible. This quality is one of the few things Jack, his second-in-command and the closest possible to a friend, often calls him out on.
Yet despite his hard and professional exterior the truth is that he is still reeling from losing his old job and family. Although he’ll never admit it, deep down he believes that once this job is done everything will automatically switch back to “normal”; he will become a corporate big shot at GaiaTech, his wife and kids will come back to him, and he’ll look back at the past ten years as just a bad dream. Whether this is simply a dream or an unhealthy delusion will be revealed in time.

APPLEGATE:
Applegate is the official “cherry” of the crew. She was barely a teenager during the Gate Crash and had never experienced life beyond her small corner of the galaxy. This did not prevent her from developing a deep interesting in traveling beyond her backwater colony to the more dense and civilized parts of the galaxy. She loved listening to what little music was left from the other colonies, watching movies about life on earth, and dressing up to look like celebrities light years away from her.
Oddly enough, this mostly shallow worship of pop culture gave way to awareness in what was going on in her now isolated system. The colonial government had asserted itself as the sole authority and was gradually clamping down on everyone civil liberties without opposition. Her love of pop stars and drama took a back seat to the study of great revolutionaries from Earth’s period and beyond. When Applegate eventually went to college, she found like-minded peers and teachers that believed that the government was now taking advantage of a disaster to promote authoritarian rule. I wasn’t long until she began taking part in demonstrations and political campaigns against the government’s indefinite martial law.

>>14858093
Applegate’s actions did not go unnoticed. The government turned their attention on activists they accused of trying to incite anarchy and a bloody civil war and began a harsh crackdown on students, intellectuals, and other members of the opposition. Applegate was lucky only in that she got blacklisted and thrown out of college as opposed to arrested. Still, she need food to eat and roof over her head, so her parents made a few connections and were able to get her work as a salvager for Hollis, a long time friend of the family.
Being a greenhorn, Applegate is a little out of place with the crew. While a hard worker and a decent pilot, she’s not used to the often boring and lengthy work salvagers do. Her blunt honesty and upfront personality have caused issues between her and other crewmates. In particular she has been having issues with Jane, even going as far as to purposely unnerve the specialist by humming “Daisy, Daisy” while piloting the ship or intentionally going off of Jane’s carefully plotted waypoints. Finally, Applegate is extremely excitable and superstitious. Ironically, despite always having the urge to leave her system, she has always been wary while traveling through space. It could be because it’s so intimidating in its size and emptiness. Or it could be a feeling that there are some things in time and space that man was never meant to comprehend.

JANE:
When she was only a little girl, Jane lost both her parents to a freak firestorm disaster caused by a botched terraforming project. She spent the rest of her childhood being shuffled around different orphanages, foster homes, and schools. Always shy and never spent a long enough time in one place to make long term friends, Jane began developing little quirks to cope and keep her happy. For one thing, she began growing her hair out especially long in an attempt to emulate Rapunzel. She also began to become obsessively interested in strange hobbies like collecting the recordings of ancient 20th Century artists like Henry Hall, the Ink Spots, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Eventually, Jane developed a fondness for computers and artificial intelligence. She loved the fact that, unlike the rest of her life, computers were perfectly orderly and logical; even the most sophisticated AI program would never lie to you, act irrationally, judge you, or hurt you. Like all of her other hobbies, Jane immersed herself in programming and operation to the point that she developed a borderline unnatural affinity for them.

>>14858104
She earned high grades in college and was immediately hired by a large IT firm. However, the Gate Crash occurred soon afterwards. The resurgent government decided that heavy industry and manufacturing took precedence over commerce and office work, and soon Jane found herself out of work. She eventually turned to the team as their computer specialist, which turned out to be better than expected. The crew accepted her despite all of her quirks and bizarre interests that have turned off others before. Jane even developed a steady relationship with Jack, the chief engineer and the only man that has ever fully accepted her unconventional traits and even loved her for it.
Despite her oddities and childhood Jane is far from being cold and calculating. Though still introverted, she gets along well with the crew, despite sometimes butting heads with Applegate over trivial issues. Her belief is that everything in life must run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, and uses her position within the crew to ensure this. She is especially sensitive to anything going wildly out of flux, whether it’s a job that goes beyond anything Hollis or the others have planned, or even something as inconceivable as the very things she turns to for comfort twisting into something unrecognizable and possibly hostile. But what are the odds of that happening?

JACK:
“Slacker” is a commonly brought up word to describe Jack, along with “apathetic” and “irreverent.” The bastard child of a working class mother, he developed a highly nonchalant attitude that many authority figures from his teachers to the police have labeled as the sure sign of a troublemaker. The truth though is that Jack had quickly grown accustomed hardships and difficulties in his life. He quickly rationalized that life sucked in general and there was no point to cry about when you can easily just solve your problems or move on. In that respect, he became much more level-headed than those around him, who would often turn to crime or other means to desperately escape their misfortunes.

>>14858139
It turns out that Jack’s demeanor is perfect as a salvager. No matter how stressful a certain task is, he always approaches it with the sense that it can be solved with little fuss. If it isn’t gonna cause the end of the galaxy, he rationalizes, then there’s no point worrying over it needlessly. This attitude allows him to make quick but thorough repairs/assessments/what have you and keep a cool head no matter what disaster happens. This has made Jack a favorite of the crew and their second in command. Jack maintains this demeanor well outside of work as well, alternating between relaxing at dive bars and spending a few quiet moments with his girlfriend, Jane.
Yet despite his calm and relaxed personality Jack secretly harbors a resentment for authority that goes deeper than any of Applegate’s hippie activism. He grew up in a society where his friends and his loved ones were either completely ignored or received the harshest punishments by the authorities. While he is good friends with his co workers, he is always suspicious of others’ motives, especially those that appear to come from of a government or military agency. It can be easily argued that Jack’s flippant attitude is also a way to distance himself from others. After all, Hell is other people.

HANK:
Hank has spent the grand majority of his adulthood knowing nothing but violence and misery. He joined the Army looking for adventure and glory like heroes in videogames and movies. However, he quickly discovered the hard way that there was nothing that was remotely fun about warfare. In little more than ten years, he was deployed to several “police actions” that lead to the deaths of countless millions and rendered more colonies than he could count desolate wastelands. He first took the carnage in stride with his fellow brothers in arms, but over time it ate away at his thoughts and emotions until he became a disturbed wreck; fearing that the sanity and humanity he had left would soon fade away.
When he was finally honorably discharged, Hank went on an arduous journey to redeem himself for the countless people he had directly and indirectly killed. He turned to Buddhism for spiritual healing and balance, and swore never to end the life of another being again. Immigrating to the colonies days before the crash, he took up the job as an engineer as a spiritual endeavor. He believes that a job of building and repairing for the benefit of others will make up for the destruction he has caused in the past and will make him whole again. The reestablishing of the warp gate, in his eyes, is one such work of humbleness and altruism.

>>14858158
His normally content demeanor and heavy discipline has made him a valuable asset of Hollis’ crew. He works diligently and treats the rest of the crew with the same respect and comradrie he experienced in the service. However, he adamantly refuses to talk about his old life before finding spirituality, a stance that is respected but has left some people suspicious.
The grim truth is that Hank is that has yet to come to turns with what he has experienced. He is all too aware that there is a vile part of him that knows how to slaughter and will give him the drive to do so, but he is all the more determined to ensure that these dark emotions never see the light of day. Consequently this has done nothing more but ensure that he remains conflicted about his life and alone in his own thoughts. If only, he feels, there was someone that can understand; someone that will help him turn away from the sins of the past and show him true peace.
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how about this
to begin with most spaceships and stations were manned, helped along by computer controls. Nowaddays with advances in ai most industrial space vehicles and complexes are automated. In fact some have no crew at all, especcialy the large orbital ore refineries. work crews come around every few cycles to check on things and perhaps make repairs, but apart from that most of them are empty.
now imagine visiting one as part of a work team or perhaps having to stop due to ship damage. it is eerily silent most of the time, the air has a stale smell to it. some areas are loud with the sound of turbines and industrial procceses, but others are silent. the only sounds mechanical or electronic in nature. imagine being alone there and having the constant feeling of being watched in that unerving silence.