The remainder of the defrosts go far better, the other scientists (all civilian) being far less confrontational than Dr. Ketro upon release. Their confusion is palpable of course, and the explanation of their circumstances brings varied reactions ranging from disappointment to relief to tears. Though they universally refused to divulge classified information (at least for now) they were all willing to give their names, expertise, and whatever background information they knew on the war.

>10 Scientists, 9 male, 1 female
>Various fields; physics, mathematics, omnibiology (xeno and human), chemistry, and engineering -- many with doctorates in more than one of the fields.
>4 weapons specialists
>1 biologist
>2 materials specialists
>1 reactor specialist
>1 cyber specialist

In addition, they confirm that Dr. Ketro is well versed in most of the fields they are, holding multiple advanced doctorates and having worked as a specialist in the fields of weapons, materials science, reactors, cyber-disciplines, and jump-drives. You also note that all seem to have a faint air of respect as they talk about the man, though it is more obvious in some than others.

Afterward you adjourn to a conference room with Dai and ask for his opinions on both Ketro and the team itself.

“I trust your opinions in these matters, doctor Dai. Tell me honestly, what do you think about our new arrivals?” Your voice emanates from the hologram above the table but Dai doesn’t even look as he swivels one of the chairs around and sits heavily, the seat creaking under his mechanical bulk.

“Ketro is a viper. Only cares about himself, always has. Will do anything to get more power, reputation, whatever. Pays too much attention to budgets or other political reasons too, and keeps the safety margins too high. Doesn’t use the technology like it could be. Gates are an example, could have doubled the range by taking off most of the over-conservative safeties.”

“I see...” you drawl, switching subjects, “What about the rest of his team?”

Dai makes a derisive noise, “Dazzled by the man’s supposed reputation. Some decent minds there, but would bet he just used them as tools without them knowing. Be careful, so he doesn’t ensnare you too.”

==Map Legend==
Green Dotted Arrow: Last Jump
Yellow Dotted Arrow: Last-1 Jump
Red Dotted Arrow: Last-2 jump.
Green dot: Current position. (Currently Waran)
Yellow dot: Glassed planet and wrecked shipyard
Red dot: Orrin
Yellow Square: Your awakening position
Teal dotted zone: Hundred Systems Territory (Hundred Worlds Rebellion)

==Command Staff==
Lieutenant Kateryna Ivanova - Executive Officer
>Second Lieutenant Dray Parson - Intelligence Officer (Incapacitated)
Second Lieutenant Robert Tynes - Steward
Chun-Fan Dai - Chief Engineer
Third Lieutenant Mardigan “Guns” Rinn - Weapons Officer
Dr. Christof Burr - Physician

==Junior Officers==
Ensign Fie - Communictions Officer
Ensign DuBois - Staff officer
Ensign Tremko - Staff officer
Ensign Rao - Staff officer

Previous Threads:

1: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15474877/
2: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15527576/
3: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15547424/
4: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15558914/
5: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15581324/
6: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15603188/
7: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15626860/
8: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15671288/
9: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15681393/
10: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15702140/

Question: Can Dai use the reactor specialists assistance in helping to stabilize the reactor after each Jump?

Also, as unlikely as it may be, were any reactor or Jump drive components salvaged from the Asura? I assume that none of the other ships had parts that were useful.

Finally, I do have a project idea for Ketro and his team, that I'd like to have Dai consider: Ketro revealed that all Gates send FTL datasquirts concerning their status back to a central command and control station in the Sol system.
Would our FTL comm system, in its current state, be able to intercept those datasquirts if we were to be in the approximate location of the station, assuming that it got slagged?
Second, is it possible to send a virus-like command to a Gate that will force it to send a status datasquirt to our location, then transmit that command to every Gate that it's connected to, so that they will send a status datasquirt to us? Sort of like a virus creating a botnet.

Either of these two would tell us all active Gates, and then we can compare that to a map of all Gate, to come up with a list of de-activated Gates like the one at Orrin.

Give all the scientists the same information as Doctor Ketro. House them in the same location, under surveillance, if practical. Have them all interviewed by Ivanova, Dai, and self to ascertain usefulness, stability, etc. Also have them checked out by Burr.

Ask Ivanova and Dai their opinion on what more there is to be gained from this system, and what our next objective should be.

>could have doubled the range by taking off most of the over-conservative safeties.

"Really, Chief Dai? Do tell me more."

>scientists

These people are a literal goldmine. It was worth every ounce of precious lost-tech to get them.

Ask the cyber-specialist to assist with our re-integration process; that should help greatly.

>materials
>weapons

Convene these gentlemen immediately and present to them the difficulty of repairing our bleeding-edge weapons systems with the older-generation equipment that make up our only apparent salvage options for the near future. Let the life sciences folks have a crack at the aliens (or their corpses, if they've run out of food.) Turn these folks LOOSE.

>That feel when voidquest just started

It feels like a black hole in my chest, filled with nothing but so- er, sorry.

>>15726037
Sounds good, after they've been interviewed and vetted by Ivanova, Dai, and Burr, of course.

My suggestions for a to-do list:

1. Set Ketro to see what we can do about pwning the Gate control systems. If any sort of remote access or control is possible, or even finding out of the Sol station is still active, it's a plus.

2. Talk to Parson about his unresolved guilt, and that possibility that he stabbed us in the back.

3. Conference with the command staff, make sure that all sections are ready and able to deal with a fight. I'm tired of skulking around in the shadows. If we fight to Sol, start reclaiming systems, whatever we decide, I want to start being more direct.

>>15726072
If we're going to talk to Parson, and quite a few of us seemed to want to do that at the end of last session, I'd prefer to do it after we have a flesh-and-blood body again.
We should re-integrate with our body now, so that we can take advantage of the improved efficiency that it offers.

Would it be possible to put the aliens in cryo, if we run out of food for them?

>Next Move.

We're consistently voting to get more input from our officers, so that appears settled. Apart from that, our options at this base are settled: we've looted anything remotely useful and what remains requires capital-scale salvage/shipyard capabilities we do not possess. Our options would appear to be thus:

#1. Move on to the remaining small outposts in the immediate local gate network; prioritizing locations most likely to have survived 64,000 years of weathering intact (i.e. bases in non-corrosive atmospheres.)

#2. Move onto the Secondary node and re-connect it to the primary nodes, and go where we may. Since the local civilization doesn't appear to have access to the Primary node, we're going to be popping the cork on 64 millenia of isolation when we do that - should be fun!

And the huge elephant in the room, which we're going to encounter anyways if we use the gates at all:

#3. Determine our attitude towards the xenos. Do we simply prepare to plow through their "mighty Federation Battlefleet," or do we seek their help? There's countless avenues of approach if we want the latter; options all over the "carrot/stick" spectrum.

>>15726109
> Would it be possible to put the aliens in cryo, if we run out of food for them?

With the pack of (xeno)-biologists we just thawed out? Quite likely.

>>15726110
Well, it's been consistently shown that a non-corrosive atmosphere is not the problem when trying to find an intact Ophidian base or colony; it's a question of whether it would have survived the civil war, and if it had been mothballed properly so that defense sats would keep the xenos from getting their grubby hands on our tech.
For that, I think we need to look through the Gate Network again, and see if Ketro can come up with a way of getting mass status updates somehow.

As for this Grand Federation: my opinion is that we ignore them, and try to find these Inheritors that the xeno prisoners talked about. But if the Federation tries to come after us, we wipe them out. Utterly.

Two things:
1. Going to be a shorter thread tonight.
2. Talking with people is good and I love writing it but in the end you are the captain. If you want to leave the system then you need to decide where to go. If you want to do something you need to decide what to do.

>>15726167
>Well, it's been consistently shown that a non-corrosive atmosphere is not the problem when trying to find an intact Ophidian base or colony

I'm thinking about weapon systems and shield generators. The shield generators on Oorin suffered, but the energy cannons were almost all write-offs. And guns that've been floating in vacuum are invariably still attached to a hull of some sort, the disassembly of which requires ships best defined as "anything but ours." Odds are long against finding intact bases, yes, but if we're to attempt it we may as well target the best potential salvage opportunities first.

Esp. since Veddy is going to go fucking insane if his kleptomaniac players insist on looting everything not nailed down for weeks on end before moving on to PLOT and BLAMMO XENO. I know I will.

We're also missing another big point: with this pack of civilian scientists aboard, we're in a very good position to exploit the resources of a xeno civilization. They've got shipyard planets of their own, no doubt, which are doubtless superior to our meager capacity even with the tech gap. We could get a lot done rather quickly with their help, in exchange for a fifty-year jump in their meager tech (which would still pose no risk to us, but be comparatively invaluable to them.)

Just something to consider.

>>15726269
Been brought up before. One problem is we're shortcrewed - it takes people to run ships.

>>15726244
Interrogate the Xenos, learn about the inheritors. Also, are they even still alive? If so, get the xenobiologist to figure out what they can eat.

Also, how far away are the nearest empire bases? Please state in terms of number of Gates/Jumps we'd have to make.

>>15726269
If we're going to target the best chances for salvage, then that's to find systems that had bases, colonies, or outposts whose Gates are not responding, indicating that they were shutdown and that the facility might have been mothballed.
For that, we need Ketro's extensive knowledge of the Gate Network and how it works.
Either that, or, like with Warran, find a base that never had a Gate installed.
The last option is to interrogate the xenos again, and see if there are any systems that are known to be Precursor ruins, protected by their defense systems. Those we should be able to access and would be still intact.

>>15726244
>If you want to leave the system then you need to decide where to go. If you want to do something you need to decide what to do.

Kind of hard when our sum total knowledge is a listing of bases that existed 64,000 years ago and empirically-observed survival odds for them are approx. LOL percent. Unless you specifically want us to go blundering around blind, we're going to scratch for more data.

Either give us something to work with, or say outright that this is (Big Scary) Void quest and scant intelligence is just status quo.

Then we'll know when our information-gathering ability has been exhausted and it's time to do stuff.

>>15726308
Automation and networking can allow us to run a fleet from the Harbinger. Not as efficiently, perhaps, and with severe limitations if we are limited to lightspeed transmission/reception, but it is possible.

>>15726167

Putting aside moral concerns for the moment, why? Seriously, what strategic or tactical advantage is there to wiping them out? They don't pose a threat to us, they don't hold territory we have the ability to claim, they aren't protecting any material resources we need. What they do have is manpower.

There are, compared to our current crew and the known human population (which are the same at the moment), rather a lot of them. I motion that the greatest benefit we could get from them is themselves. And we don't have the equipment or manpower to forcibly enslave them. So we need their cooperation. Certainly we can use the carrot and the stick in combination, but they're just a liability if we have to spend all our time putting down rebellions and watching out for sabotage.

A good model would be claiming them as a Colonial Protectorate. We recognize their right to inhabit Ophidian territory and not be exterminated, they recognize that we're the ultimate boss and what we say goes. We unlock some of the civilian level black box tech they've salvaged, they turn over the military tech they're holding on to and provide us with the labor for whatever construction projects we feel are essential.

Basically we turn the Federation into a starter set for our New Ophidian Empire. A section of space to fortify, a source of supplies that saves us the time of constantly salvaging ruins, somewhere safe to expand and explore from.

Are any of the scientists language specialists? If not, can we get their names and specialties?

>>15726338
Why go with the Federation, rather than the Inheritors? I think it's far too premature to start allying ourselves with a faction whose internal workings we have no idea about.
Also, for them to be of any use, we'd have to let them work with technology far closer to our level than what I'm comfortable with allowing, if they're going to be useful at all in repairing some of the more critical systems.

>>15726346
See
>>15725863

>>15726308
>implying buying ships

Pffft, let the damn aliens operate 'em. We can scurry away with the advanced components while they fawn over the scrap metal which is an excellent haul by their standards. We've got enough of that shit already.

ACTION: Consult our "guests" and pick a nearby system with or very near a jumpgate, populated by a smaller subjugated faction of this "Federation." Open polite communications and find out as much about these "inheritors" as possible. We'll decide our next move from there.

And above all, determine if xeno ships have independent FTL capability, or if they are COMPLETELY dependent on gates. If they are, I very much doubt they've got much that can scratch us.

rolled 5 = 5

>>15726244
>>15726244

Ask Ketro the bases that had the heaviest defenses out of the three factions: the strongholds of each faction. These are likely the drawback locations, and stand a better chance of having the materials and crew we need for a full resupply.

Ask the cyber-specialist to look over our body and make any adjustments that our ship specialist missed.

Booting up our meatbag should be our immediate priority.

>>15726335
We're looking to go beyond just a fleet and want to recreate the Empire though, and for that, we need people. Furthermore, networking is going to prevent us from spreading our assets.

>>15726424

It's not "ally". It's "conquer". First we conquer the Federation, then we conquer the Inheritors, and so on as we reclaim systems and follow the Gate network back to Sol.

>>15726442

>Using my template...

Yessss....Yesssss...

>>15726424
>Why go with the Federation, rather than the Inheritors?

You mean the faction that's a BEDTIME STORY for the local xenos? We need to FIND the fuckers first, if they even still exist. Dayum, son. I misremembered older threads myself many times, but dayum.

Vedibere, are you writing?
Can we get some of the actions out of the way while we decide where to go?
I mean, getting a list of what bases we can get to in the subnet we were on would let us focus on where to go.
Then there's the action of asking Ketro about intercepting or somehow rerouting the Gate status data squirts.
And getting our body re-integrated would be nice.

>Interrogate the Xenos, learn about the inheritors.
They don't know shit, just that they are bogeymen who keep trying to kill the Federation. Supposedly they were locked away long ago blah blah legends.

>Also, are they even still alive?
Pretty much on the last rations, they will be starving before long.

>>15726332
>what is this I don't even
You /want/ me to metagame you information and then railroad you? Sorry, I don't roll that way.

>Inheritors/Federation
I was really hoping to avoid mentioning this outright, but look at the fucking map. You jumped 20k LY from the edge of that particular gate net.. The Federation and Inheritors or whatever else was over there on that gate subnet are way. the fuck. away.

Now, you can jump back there but it will take another month or so, just like it did to get where you are.

>>15726464
Oh yes. 'Conquer'. And how exactly do you intend for us to do that with a single ship of people? Unlike when the ship was first made, we don't have an entire civilization backing us. It's impossible to 'conquer' them right now. All we would be doing is slaughtering them.

>>15726469

Yeah there was pretty much no way in hell I could've not saved that one.

>>15726461
Then it would be a mistake to link up with the Federation now, when we have so little information about the fate of the Empire and humanity and general. Networking would indeed prevent us from spreading our assets, but in the short-term, that is not a very pressing problem, particularly since the ships we could acquire from the Federation are very unlikely to be of much use without direct support from the Harbinger.

>>15726491

So can we get some possible destinations from our current position? What do our databases say about nearby bases/outposts/etc?

>>15726476
I know that we don't have clear locations or even which way the Inheritors are located. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't search them out.
Dealing with this Federation in any way outside of turning their ships in holed hulks if they shoot at us is unnecessary. Giving them the tech needed to repair us means giving them the technology to start making ships that can give us trouble.

>>15726540
On gates or off? Within what kind of radius? In a specific direction? Size of base? Any specific requirements? ect. ect.

The galaxy is big. Very. Very. Big.

For the same reason I'm not going to draw out the MILLIONS of gates spread throughout it, I'm not going to just list every base within a 30k lightyear radius. It would take up pages and pages.

Give specifics to look for so it can be narrowed down.

>>15726491
According to our databanks, what military bases and colonies are around us?

>>15726570
Specifics:
Gate status: Off/None
Military Base, small.
Preferably with a human-compatible atmosphere.

>>15726601
Oh, and prioritize Armada facilities over Army, and those systems that had a shipyard of any kind of those that don't.

If a world had a shipyard that could handle capital ships, please include that as well.

>>15726037
I agree with this plan for the scientists. Assign them to projects that best suit their abilities.
>>15726102
Re-integration with our body could have some great psychological benefits when talking to Parson, and could be a morale boost to the crew in general. Have that cyber specialist help out Burr with it.
>>15726338
>>15726424
Both of these have a point: the basic fact is that we don't really know much about the Federation or the Inheritors. We shouldn't be siding with one or the other before we know more.

>>15726601
There are two, one at 3k LY and one at 3.5k LY in the opposite direction. One is a research station on a rocky planetoid and the other is a colony guardian base much like Orrin. Both are Army facilities.

There are eight worlds with Armada shipyards within a 7k LY radius, mostly light ship repair. One is capable of smaller capital classes like frigates. All are on the gate net. Other specifics such as habitability, population and so forth vary.

>>15726570
OK, what bases are within 1 jump? Do any of them have gates?

rolled 11 = 11

>>15726660

Once we've reintegrated with our body, warp to the Armada world with the shipyard. When we get there, we should attempt to search for materials that will allow us to repair our long-range scanners and coms; hell, if they're as good as the rest of the ship, we may even be able to scan directly into the past to see what happened on a large scale: what worlds were destroyed, what suns were exploded.

If this takes multiple jumps, so be it.

>>15726660
Do our databanks list what the research station was specialized in?
If it was high-energy weapons, it might have workshops and tools needed to do some of the repairs we haven't been able to do yet.
Also, is either the research station or the Army base along the way to the Armada shipyard that can handle up to frigates?

>>15726660
Do the best of our knowledge, what kind of research station was it? And can you ask Dai and/or Ketro if they know about it?

>>15726618
Seconded. I doubt we'll find a capital grade yard intact but ANY at this point would be better than none.

For the situation with the alien prosoners I have a suggestion. Find out if they would be able to survive cryo. If so we tell them that we would wish to reward them for cooperating but are running out of supplies and offer them the chance to go into cryo to be relased at a later date. We could find a use for them later weather we decide to conquer or deal with their respective people.

>Do our databanks list what the research station was specialized in? If it was high-energy weapons...
Why would that be in your databanks? Come on people, use common sense. You are a warship. If you were captured that information could potentially be taken. Things like that are on a need to know basis. The fact it's listed at all in your databanks probably means it's NOT an weapons or super-high-tech research facility.

>Also, is either the research station or the Army base along the way to the Armada shipyard that can handle up to frigates?
You could stop off at the colony base without adding another jump, yes.

Are those quadrupedal aliens SUPPOSED to be ripoffs of the Elcor from Mass Effect?

>>15726749
Alright, let's go to the colony base on our way to the Armada shipyard that handles frigates.
Since it's only 3.5k LY, we should be able to do it in 1 Jump, then get to the Armada shipyard in another.

>>15726491
>I was really hoping to avoid mentioning this outright, but look at the fucking map. You jumped 20k LY from the edge of that particular gate net.. The Federation and Inheritors or whatever else was over there on that gate subnet are way. the fuck. away.

And they happen to be the only corner of the galaxy we know FUCK-ALL ABOUT! What the FUCK else do you think we're gonna do, asshole? That's all we've got to WORK with! Without that, there's exactly two inputs we can give you:

1. Bumble around this area blindly,
2. Hop on the gate network, head towards Sol (most likely suicide, all observations considered.)

#2 goes against everybody's ingrained sense of plot progression (or in-game, simple sanity with our toothless ship) and #1. will have you bitching about not having enough input to write on.

>>15726749
Ask Ketro and Dai if they know anything about the research station.

>>15726801

And when anybody mentions this they get:

>You /want/ me to metagame you information and then railroad you? Sorry, I don't roll that way

It's not "metagame" info to tell us we've gotten all the useful musings of our subordinates we're going to get, and that we've exhausted common-sense routes of inquiry. That just saves us time sitting around playing fucking guessing games because we've got fuck-all to work with. And as I specifically said, telling us "THAT'S ALL THERE IS, FUCK YOU, DEAL WITH IT" would be perfectly acceptable. We'd understand that lack of info itself is a component of the story, delight in that, and get on with things.

But every time we ask for more direction in working WITH you to provide the input you want faster and with more clarity, you drop trou and shit on us. Well fuck you very much, Veddy. I've ran my own quest thread, it's decently popular, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the demands of such. You're getting a level of respect unheard of even a year ago, when quest threads were actively persecuted by asspained report spammers. In short you've already gotten away with a massive amount of bullshit, but even your solid writing ability isn't going to keep people from getting frustrated as hell at this point. I fully endorse writers laying down the law on retarded anons, but we're well beyond that now.

Your quest. Your show. But don't you bitch at us for problems of your own creation.

>>15726660

can we get info on the atmosphere/wildlife of the planets?

Surely we'd at least know if the planets could sustain human life or had dangerous predators to watch out for?

At the very least, we should go somewhere with a chance of providing us with rations or water.

Also, vedibere, you said there were 10 specialists, but you only counted 9 specialties.4+1+2+1+1

>>15726874
I think he was including Ketro in that count.

>>15726887
Could have sworn I remember the AI saying it's cargo was 10 plus 1

>>15726887
There were 11 occupied cryopods.
So it would be Ketro + 10 members of his team.

>>15726820
>>15726801
I gotta agree with this anon, Vedibere.

Often times we either don't have enough to go on to make a decision, or we don't know what parameters we want to narrow things down for you.

Frankly, we just don't know the right questions to ask you, and you keep acting like we're retarded as a result. It's getting pretty insulting.

Now, I understand entirely that there are some retards out there asking completely retarded things [e.g.; "bump them"], and some who are just asking questions that have already been asked over and over, but at the same time I frequently feel like you're expecting us to know more than we do.

>>15726941
*already been answered

>>15726941
>>15726820
>>15726801
Going along with these guys, even though you circled the area of the Hundred Systems, you didn't indicate how much area, however small, that the Federation takes up. That would have made it much easier to understand just how far we are from the edge of Federation space. I mean, we've had this information since we interrogated the prisoners which was a few threads ago.

>>15726491
I doubt we'll ever see the Federation again but it's not like we're short of memory so we may as well get as much info from the xenos as we can before they die. Stuff like where the seat of government is, significant military bases, etc. that may come in useful if we do have to deal with them again. But that's not really worth putting in an update.

Generally, I think we should be slowly moving towards Sol. As far as we know, there was no outside threat and the Empire collapsed through civil war. Earth seems like a planet that humans would not want to glass - it's culturally significant and all the factions probably have some influence there. Also things like the gate control centre you'd want to capture rather than destroy.

>>15727000
Right, it's hard to imagine anyone glassing the homeworld, with all of the social backlash that would create. But if they had survived, wouldn't Humanity have gotten back up in 64,000 years? Doesn't the fact that xenos are around and were picking at the bones of Imperial worlds imply that Sol might also have been wiped out, perhaps by rebelling xenos who took advantage of the civil war and the weakened human factions?

I'm just throwing out an idea here, perhaps we shouldn't let our 'guests' die off so easily. Maybe we should drop them off along the way, thank them for their 'cooperation' in this matter, and inform them that further degradation of Ophidian Empire property will be met with similar reactions. Personally, I was against destroying the civilian ships at the shipyard, but it does match up to what the Empire would be expected to do.

>>15727082
We're too far away from Federation space, and I don't want to bother with trying to find a biosphere that's compatible with two very opposed physiologies. I'd rather just have the bio scientist examine them and then throw them in cryo.

>>15727082

We can just jam 'em into cryo to delay the decision. Between our resident specialists the task should be feasible.

I totally forgot the chemist. Mah bad.

Add in:
>1 Chemistry specialist

>>15726719
here, firsting and fourthing cryo for aliens again.

>>15727082
>>15727118

>>15727100
>>15727118
Hmm...Vedibere, I'm not sure if this was asked, but would we need to go back through Federation space Gates on our way to the Armada base with frigate repair capabilities?

>>15727078
Sure, I'd expect a revival in 64,000 years. We are right on the other side of the galaxy from sol though. Maybe they're just being really slow about it, or not wanting to overextend after the disaster that ended the last Empire.
It's just that we ruled pretty much the entire galaxy, subject races probably weren't allowed significant militaries. Our ships could wipe out entire armadas of aliens all on their own. I just don't see how a civil war could weaken us so much that we could be wiped out with technology that superior. Obviously there could be other factors we don't know about, but Sol also seems a likely place to find out about them.

Okay, I called in an outside consultant to review this problem you guys are having with the quest, specifically:
>>15726820
>>15726801

He will be posting with his analysis soon. I tend to agree with him, but since I am an involved party I will let him list out what the issue is.

>cryo
Big armored alien won't fit since these were designed for humans, but bird-alien will. Xenobiologist will need about a week and she can't promise that it will live through the croy process. She's never seen the species before, after all.

Look, what's the point of going to yet another back of the ass end of nowhere shipyard that's only equipped to handle ships a fraction of our size. We're not a cargo ship, and we're already overflowing with salvaged materials, remember? We're also losing weeks at a time by not making use of the Gates.

Let's warp to the nearest Federation system on the Gate network. We tap our two guests as mouthpieces, let them get some food before they die, and tell them to send a message to the Federation ruling body.

They have a week to clear a path through the Gates for us to travel to their capital system to commence negotiations. If a path is not ready in one week, we're making a path and the negotiations will be demands. I think that sets the right tone. Then we can stop with this slow ass warp crawls and get a larger area opened up for our easy use.

What is this shit about cooperating with xenos?

We now KNOW there are more Empire holdouts, and maybe human successors. Xenos exist only to be purged. We're making good progress, just continue to seek out the other four ships/battlestations.

>>15727269
If they're smart, and I'm willing to bet they're at least not stupid, being interstellar traveling species and all, then they'll likely have a lot of military presence on the way to their capital, especially now that we've made our return public to them. That, and they probably won't be to open to talk with us over foodstuffs, considering we killed hundreds of defenseless civilian salvagers.

>>15727269
It'll take a month of Jumps to get to a system with a Gate in the Federation's subnet.

>>15727324

Yes, pissing of the ancient race with the gigantic superweapon of death is smart. They are totally going to man the barricades against us, instead of having the good sense to know when to roll over and suck up to the new superpower in the galaxy. Really?

At least I thought he was posting soon.

>>15727410
Your consultant wasn't by chance another notoriously slow writefag, was it?

Anon, I think you have a fundamental miscommunication with Vedibere here. I've tried to look at this from both sides, and here's what I think the problem is: anon is playing, depending on individual, a nation builder or a CRP. Vedibere is running the quest as more of a mystery/exploration game with RPG, nation building, and combat elements.

For the quest to work, anon needs to stop looking for certainty. It's a goddamn mystery, explore! Sure, you might blunder around a little bit. However, you need to examine the galaxy around you, find out what's happened while you were gone, and determine what precipitated the strange disappearance of the empire. Right now, anon is spending it's time picking up salvage in its superbattleship and developing the personality of the crew. AKA, you're filling your inventory and improving your relationship scores. Take action instead! Vedibere has piles of ideas for great locations and interesting encounters. Give him an opportunity to use them instead of sitting on your hands trying to wring every little bit out of every single site. Remember, mystery and exploration game, not a CRPG.

>>15727442
Yes, though he has never posted on /tg/ to my knowledge. So it's not WriterDude.

A couple of crucial things I noticed anon keep doing that might need to change: Stop picking up salvage you can't use. You are hurting yourself and anywhere that can repair you that's intact is going to have some of that stuff anyway. Stop worrying so much about local conflicts and local maps. The galaxy is HUGE. Look at the map. Look at how much area you've actually been to. Yeah, you're a pimple on the ass of God. The political consequences of screwing with the piddling little nation states you've found are probably irrelevant (do not take this as word of god, Vedibere hasn't told me anything about that). Lastly, stop trying to have the crew make decisions for you. Anonymous is the captain. The crew is not a font of Vedibere's metagame knowledge, they are just as lost as you are! Anything the crew has to say is going to be informed speculation, unless it's in their specific area of expertise. Feel free to ignore my advice if you want, I am just another pseudo-anon after all, but I think it will make your experience a little smoother.

>>15727266
Remember omnipotence quest, when you gave us no direction at all and then got pissed off at what we were doing and just quit? Yes, railroading is bad - but there's a balance. Some plot hooks to chase would be nice rather than just wandering around aimlessly with the eventual goal of re-establishing the Empire somehow. Just my opinion - I'm no 'expert quest analysis consultant' or anything.

>>15727489
Bad form, that's not at all why I quit OmniQuest, as I've stated before.

Can we just get on with this shit already? Jump to the damn research station, Put Ketro and his team to work, get our meatpuppet running, and kick some xeno ass.

>>15727540
Agreed. In three hours, yet again, we've mostly accomplished bitching.

Put the materials specialists under the control of Tynes, the Biologist and the Chemist with Burr, the weapon specialists with Dai if they're the buildy kind, or with Rinn if they're the shooty kind. Reactor guy goes to Dai. Cyber guy goes to Burr if it's cybernetic implants, or to Dai if it's computer systems. Ketro is under the direct authority of Dai. That'll really make him squirm. Ketro has to do everything Dai tells him to.

>>15727576
Doing everything possible to troll Ketro might be counterproductive.

I have to agree, I've made the point before; we simply need to take risks.

This doesn't strike me as a quest where we will rule all from atop our ivory tower.We're mostly the grunts (elite grunts, mind you), down in the dirt and mud getting things done with the empire with our metaphorical hands.

We need to stop playing it safe, and actually go do something. Now, I admit to being guilty of trying to get us out of critical damage too, but I suppose we'll never find the parts we need if we don't stick our neck into something dangerous.

Let's give it a try, and if we end up fucked we can always go back to playing it safe again. I'm pretty sure can afford the attempt at least.

>>15727540
>>15727551

I agree.

>>15727512
I don't blame you for quitting, it wasn't really going very well, and mostly what we were doing was just watching. You could have practically written the entire thread up beforehand. But from my perspective it was just 'Tissa gets captured and you do nothing as usual, no chance to respond to that. Next thread on Friday' and then nothing until suddenly you turn up with this quest a month later. If you've stated why you quit before I haven't seen it, but I thought it was pretty obvious. The point was that I think the reason that it went like that was the complete lack of direction. I apologise if my trying to give some constructive advice offended you - I'm kind of tired so I'm probably not at my most eloquent at the moment.

>>15727540

seconding this

Fair enough. I'll drop my agitation for immediate conquest.

Still, that leaves us to decide on our next detestation. Since we're as overstocked with parts as we can manage, it seems to me that information is the next priority. What suggestions do we have for the best place to get it from? I'm a little short on time to comb the past threads for ideas, but maybe someone remembers something I don't.

>>15727656
No offense taken, man. I've stated it a couple times before but the threads passed. Basically, I didn't mind doing a whole lot of writing with little input but 4chan did not lend itself to that. What was needed was a much slower forum where I could take time between said posts. It was a format and venue issue more than anything else, and it's only on hiatus anyway. If there is demand and a place to run it I wouldn't mind doing it again after VQ.

That said guys: I am writing now so it's cool. Screening, xenos, body, chatting with Ivanova, prepping for jump, and stuff like that is all being handled. Next update will leave you in the middle of the command staff meeting so you can go ahead and start planning what topics you want your staff to discuss before you leave if anything.

>>15727706
Possible topics:

1. The new personnel
2. Specifically, that (apparent) dick Ketro
3. Our prisoners
4. Parson
5. Attitude toward xenos in general, potential compromises
6. The gate system
7. The fall of the empire
8. Our next few destinations
9. Humanity
10. Recreation on board ship
11. What we're going to do with all our cargo
12. The state of the ship
13. The state of morale
14. Bean paste

>>15727683

Research station will likely be a good spot for data. Even if they wiped the drives, there may be scientific equipment that could be used to repair or augment our damaged sensors.

Hopefully we'll get data, though.

>>15727683
>I'll drop my agitation for immediate conquest.
Also, I don't mind at all if you go around conquering things. (if you can... muhahah?) That's just yet another form of exploration, and this is a sandbox game rather than anything set. You can do what you want. I was trying to prod you into doing something earlier because, as was so eloquently put, your crew is not some magical font of metagame knowledge. You can and SHOULD consult them any time you have a question or task in their area of expertise, but relying on them to tell you where to go and what to do doesn't work out since they don't know that any more than you do. You are the captain, after all.

So, basically, if you want to conquer and think you can then be my guest.

Ah, this familiar struggle.

>I need to go to bed.
>No, Void Quest.
>No, no, I need to go to bed. Work tomorrow.
>No, Void Quest.
>But the thread will still be here in the morning.
>No, they will ram Parson with a sun, to xenos.

Fuck it, I'll just buy that stronger mexican coffee.

>>15727803
They may not know any more than we do, but they do have different perspectives. Though the final decision rests with us, obviously, expect us to consult our officers whenever possible, because we do lack direction, and they give us some.

Our indecisiveness, plus the (serious!) suggestions that we do things like ram a starship out of a sun, makes me think that our character's more fucked up than Parson.

>>15727838
Fair enough.

Also, roll 1d10 for revival complications.

rolled 7 = 7

>>15727871

rolled 4 = 4

>>15727871
BRACE FOR IMPACT

rolled 1 = 1

>>15727871

rolling for superpowers

>>15727803
>So, basically, if you want to conquer and think you can then be my guest.
I'm fairly sure we'd be able to conquer something on the level of the Federation, but hold it? With one ship? When the entire population hates us and is of a completely different species? Seems like we'd be stuck micromanaging this mini empire for the rest of the quest, or they'd all declare independence as soon as we left again.

>>15727903
Unless we perhaps gave them some incentive to be a part of the New Ophidian Empire.

"Stay with us for ten years and you get unisteel. Fifty and we'll give you these awesome lasers. A century gets you a never-ending source of energy!"

By which point we will have thoroughly indoctrinated their children through automated, galaxy-famous Ophidian Propaganda (TM)

It's only five easy payments of $19.99 guys, come on.

>>15727945
Some* assembly required.


*all

>>15727467
>Anon, I think you have a fundamental miscommunication with Vedibere here. I've tried to look at this from both sides, and here's what I think the problem is: anon is playing, depending on individual, a nation builder or a CRP. Vedibere is running the quest as more of a mystery/exploration game with RPG, nation building, and combat elements.

A-freaking-men. What I was originally getting at here >>15726332 was this very concept. The availability of information (or lack thereof) would necessarily determine the kind of game this quest will be, and anon is perfectly happy to play either kind.

tl;dr if we are SUPPOSED to be short of info, let us know that and we'll happily stop grubbing for more.

RAM KETRO
WITH PARSONS
BUT GENTLY

More seriously, hop to the research station and see what's up. We ultimately want to find a Shipyard that's OFF the gate network, or a Shipyard at a tertiary or terminal node. If we find those, we're golden.

I don't know where to look, but a listening post or a MilCommand post that can give us Locations of space battles will be very valuable. If we know where the space battles took place, we can maybe recover more Black Boxes or information.

Since we're a military ship, we probably know of military command posts - a list of nearby ones would be helpful, sorted by how high/low on the Gate network they are.

Talk to Parsons. Tell him that his Great House probably set him up to drive the Harbinger into a supernova. Inform him that while we don't blame or hate him for it, but that we expect him to (eventually) get over it and resume his job.

Ketro - Duct-tape Ivanova to him. Not literally, but Spooks know how to counter Spooks. We'll need to babysit the prick, unfortunately, but that's what Ivanova's there for.
We'll need to promote an Ensign to the communications console to take over Iva's duty but that shouldn't be too hard.

Finally, give the Aliens an honorable burial.

>>15727963
I think we're supposed to be short on info about WHETHER we have information or not.

>>15727995
>I think
What, you're short of info about that as well? At some point we have to actually know something, surely.

>>15727744
>1. The new personnel
Keep them away from Ketro and let them work on their area of expertise. They'll tell us useful info when they're ready.
>2. Specifically, that (apparent) dick Ketro
The less contact he has with the crew and with the ship systems, the better.
>3. Our prisoners
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
>4. Parson
Talk to him
>5. Attitude toward xenos in general, potential compromises
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Or, if they are already IN space
LASERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS
>6. The gate system
Anything connected to it and online is likely fucked. Focus on tertiary nodes, or nodes off the grid, until we know more.
>7. The fall of the empire
ACQUIRE INFORMATION, REMAKE EMPIRE.
>8. Our next few destinations
Research station is a good bet.
>9. Humanity
ACQUIRE HUMANS, REMAKE HUMANITY.
>10. Recreation on board ship
There needs to be a game where we try to gently tap a soap bubble with a giant steel shotput.
>11. What we're going to do with all our cargo
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
>12. The state of the ship
Find Shipyard
>13. The state of morale
I cannot into NPC, someone else handle this.
>14. Bean paste
Hopefully we'll find an agricultural world eventually. :[

>>15728052
We DEFINITELY know that our knowledge is incomplete.

Guys what if

guys, listen

what if we

guys, guys listen guys

what if we took Ivanova

guys

what if we took Ivanova, and we had her push Ketro out an airlock?

>>15728089
Needs more airlock.

>>15728089
I support this, but only if we do it to Parsons too.

>>15728089
That would be marvelously stupid, given what Ketro knows.

>>15728097
This, if the airlock is next to a sun.

Not just any sun, no. Like one of the supermassive stars that makes Sol look like a mote of dust.

>>15728103
Hence why he purposely phrased it in such a silly way.

>>15728089
you, yes you, i want you to have my Firstborn.

tempting as it is, we probably shouldn't shove him out an airlock... yet

>>15728089
>>15728097
Okay, I'm not seriously suggesting we do this, but IF, that is IF we ever feel the pressing need to kill both Parson and Ketro, we should strap both of them to the clustereater and drop it into the Federation's home system.

>>15728089
>>15728093
>>15728097
>>15728106
>>15728118
>>15728128

Oh u gais

u gais

>>15728128
What a waste of such an awesome limited-edition bomb. It can destroy an entire star system and you're using it to kill two people. Maybe the worthless backwards xeno civilisation just about counts as a third person.

Hello, Dr. Ketro.
You require at least GREEN level access to use that terminal.

I hereby announce the notion of installing the Empire's equivalent of the microsoft paperclip-san on Ketro's terminal.

>>15728174
I'd say Ketro himself is much more valuable than the bomb. If we're going from the "humanity is now an endangered species" viewpoint, both people are more valuable.

>>15728177
"Well...well what level access do I have then?"

"You are currently in possession of a FUCK YOU level clearance. With this level of clearance you are capable of accessing GO FUCK YOURSELF. The airlocks will now open. Have a nice day."

>>15728193
We have their genetic samples. We will excise the TRAITOR gene, and then clone them.

>>15728198
With what hardware?

>>15728193
>Ketro
>Valuable

>>15728211
With the Hardware currently located in Auxilliary complexes that are currently powered down, and in an unknown location.
It is your task, troubleshooter, to sift through these reams of information fed directly from a wonky long-range scanner, and determine which unknown and undescribed star system has the required technology in it.
The Drones will assist you if required.

>>15728214

>>15728192
Not annoying enough.

rolled 946187 = 946187

>>15728236
Challenge accepted.

>>15728236
>you have no information
>your task is to find and disarm the mines in this room
>there is no exit
>these drones will beat you if required
>just kidding, they'll beat you anyway

>>15728243
My god.
I have seen the demons that will erase the cosmos, leaving nothing in their wake but echoes.
And they are us.

>>15728236
>long-range scanner
Hey yeah, we should really get those fixed. Exploring would be a lot easier if we didn't actually have to visit every single system in the galaxy to see if they have good stuff.

rolled 89 = 89

>>15727871
Hang on, Verdibere hasn't posted for a while.
Rolling 1d100 for Verdibere complications, aiming low (low = less complications)

>>15728278
You.

Never roll again.

>>15728278
What travesty have you just bestowed upon our glorious leader?

>>15728278
Uh-oh. Well, his computer didn't literally explode, but it looks like he's probably got unexpected relatives walking in on him. While he was masturbating.

>>15728294
Ah, false alarm. He just stubbed his toe.

>>15728278
Somewhere, in an undisclosed location, Vedibere silently explodes.

>>15728294
And then reforms, like Cthulhu after being struck by a coaster.

>>15728278
Pfft. The solution in such a situation is to look over calmly and say, "Hey. What's up? Be with you in a second, a bit busy here."

But no, I'm actually writing still. All that is left is Ivanova chat and the first bit of the meeting... unless you want to change it from dissecting the quadraped and freezing the bird to spacing them both or something?

>>15728320
No, that's fine.

It seems your players only have two modes, Vedibere. Bitching and silliness.

>>15728292
Totally meant to link to this one.

>>15728329
And lurking. Dont forget lurking.

>>15728320
I go to have dinner and I come back to find you dissecting the aliens, Anons? Geez, who even...give the damn thing a decent burial. Respect the dead, even if they are xenos.

>>15728442
Fuck no!

The are xeno scum, don't waste the effort and defile human tradition!

By the way, what'd you eat?

>>15728320
>>15728320
>quadraped

The mouthy assbreather? Fuck 'im. The bird can live, he was polite....

... and he's a salvage engineer of some sort, which is potentially useful (low potential, but potential.) Keep on rollin.

>>15728442
The Empire would dissect. We dissect. No respect for xenos unless we decide to disregard our Imperial roots, which isn't likely to happen right now.

>>15728442
I agree with you man, but it looks like we werent going to be able to cryofreeze the one and he was running out of food. Hopefully the bird type one survives.

>>15728486
>Xeno
>Survives
>Hopefully

The bird was cooperative and should be spared. The assbreather not so much.

>>15728458
1st: I had...wait, why the hell am I explaining this?
2nd: What in blazing suns does dissection get us? Seriously, what possible information could we glean from it? What their skeletal structure is like? The color of their damned splean(s)? It's not like we're going to have to go into unarmed combat against them anytime soon, now is it?

>>15728497
Keep the 40k out. It makes most things that aren't 40k worse

>>15728517
Dat's heresy.

Lots of xeno sympathizers here.
I'm not sure I understand what's going on. We're keeping the bird in case it proves useful again, right? Not out of some pity or something for the thing. Right, /tg/?

>>15728515
>What in blazing suns does dissection get us?

A greater understanding of their biology. Why do you think dissection is done?

If the alien's going to die anyway, we might as well learn what we can from its corpse. We could spend the time it has left "examining" it, but that's more morally dubious, even for the Empire. In my limited understanding, of course.

Giving it a void burial is pointless, unless we're willing to explain to the crew why we're doing it, which we would only do if we're attempting to change Imperial policy. And we are not.

>>15728515
No, this is important Orion, what did you eat?

>>15728534
Of course.
The original idea was to space it after interrogation, but we found that it may prove more useful later.

As for dissecting the Quadraped; why not? We should dissect it for Human Science!

>>15728515
Also, I'd like to point out, that:
A) Time spent on unneccesary dissection is time better spent on fixing our body.
B) Giving the quadruped an honorable burial and letting the avian see that we're not emotionless monsters from the black could be helpful. Plus, we're putting it into cryo to make sure it doesn't die painfully due to starvation. For our own benefit, yes, but still.

>>15728568
Yes! For science.

Also, we have no idea what their culture is like. Maybe the assbreathers would take great offense to being chucked out an airlock at death. Maybe you're doing more harm than good, Mr. I hate Humanity. Maybe if you'd take a minute to understand that xenos have no place is the realm of man, you'd see we need to open them up to better understand how to kill them.

>>15728567
I ate frelling protein cubes, happy? They were blue.

>>15728597
>Time spent on unneccesary dissection is time better spent on fixing our body.

1. I disagree that the dissection is unnecessary.
2. This is not a zero-sum game. We can do both.
3. We have a vast excess of time.

>Giving the quadruped an honorable burial and letting the avian see that we're not emotionless monsters from the black could be helpful.

We completely obliterated an entire system's worth of civilian salvage craft. We also killed a resisting prisoner. Giving on alien a void burial will do nothing.

>Plus, we're putting it into cryo to make sure it doesn't die painfully due to starvation. For our own benefit, yes, but still.

And it will do well to remember that as soon as it stops being useful, it will share the same fate as the others.

The Ophidian Empire is not an equal-opportunity employer. It is humanity first, always.

>>15728515
Dissection is better than burial. The crew are the only people who will ever find out what happened to these guys, and they're used to a xenophobic HFY attitude. Why would they care about a funeral? We don't even know their traditions. Maybe they like being dissected after death and find burial deeply disrespectful (ok we could just ask them about that). We left thousands of these xenos which we randomly killed just floating around in space and shut off the jump gate so the Federation can't reach the corpses or even be certain they're dead. Why should we be respectful with this one particular corpse? It's just a completely random thing to do.

>>15728568
>>15728623
Humanity is not of a single mindset. As there were many voices in the Imperial Council, so too are we the many opinions that make up the captain. And I'm sticking to my opinion. Vedibere, you have my vote: do not dissect the quadruped.

>>15728658
>rations running out

>Hey, so what do your people do with your dead anyway?

>>15728666
And on this particular action, your opinion will be buried underneath ours, and it will be crushed under the weight of our consensus.

>>15728666
No, all the voices were the same HFY they only disagreed what colors to wear while killing the shit out of everything.

>>15728666
The captain has already made his opinion of xenos quite clear. He has caused countless alien civilians to meet perfectly avoidable deaths. This is in line with the policies of the Ophidian Empire. What you are suggestion flies in the face of our previously-established character and does not lend us a favorable appearance.

>>15728658
Actually, that's an excellent compromise. Ask the quadruped what it wants done with its body.

I hope, sincerely hope, that should xeno sympathizers ever gain a majority voice that the crew mutinies and kills the traitor scum (again).

We know getting shot kills them, what's the point of dissecting?

Not that I care, mind, we shot all our chances at diplomacy when we blasted through the gate system, just saiyan.

>>15728709
They'll just lightly bump the traitor(s).

>>15728709
"...could you repeat that order, Captain?"

"We are going to bake the Federation a cake."

"PULL THE CORE THE CAPTAIN'S GONE RAMPANT!"

>>15728717
>all our chances of diplomacy

>who would know?

>we could claim anything, at any point.

>don't even know if they would care

>killed thousands

Also

>diplomacy

>with xenos

>>15728717
We could at least find out if they're particularly vulnerable to certain things. Our xenobiologist might also find it useful to have certain physical details on record, should we recover a "damaged" member of their species and need to repair it so that it may survive further interrogation.

Mouthbreathers, the lot of you.

First off: Dissection is fucking useless. We have no interest nor need to learn about their biology. It wastes our time and our good doctor's time.

Next, for fucks sake, they're aliens. Our options are kill em, let em starve, let em go (Not on our fucking shuttles we're not), or divert resources towards finding a way to feed them (fat fucking chance).

Third, learn some basic sociology you fucking idiots. No group shares universal opinion on something. If you're going to kill the goddamn non-human resource drains, then do it for the right reasons (too difficult/no need/benefit to keeping them around), not your stupid fucking "Herpderp xenos filth spacemarooon lololololol emperor disapproves" 40shit garbage.

Jesus, the lot of you are idiots.

>>15728795
I disagree.

>>15728795
>inb4 hurr u mad bro?

Yes I mad.

>>15728726
Okay, I feel the need to point out (can't believe I actually feel the need to do this) that I'm not suggesting we lay down like a new puppy for the Federation. Hell, if needs be, we can threaten them with the clustereater- not saying we should, but we can. It's just that we're not back to 100% yet, and they might have some heavier guns than we know of. A small attempt to repair terribly, terribly shattered diplomatic relations could keep us from getting some new- maybe not survival threatening, but still damaging- holes in our hull.

Dissection is worthwhile. It's not like our doctors have lot to do after our revival anyway. We're not currently in combat. And the dissection would likely take all of 8 or 9 hours.

ITT: one autist with a bleeding heart trying to shout down all of /tg/.

>>15728795
>Dissection is fucking useless. We have no interest nor need to learn about their biology.

I disagree.

>Our options are kill em, let em starve, let em go

Or freeze em. With the quadruped, that is not an option, so we will either let him starve or kill him.

>If you're going to kill the goddamn non-human resource drains, then do it for the right reasons (too difficult/no need/benefit to keeping them around)

That's exactly what we're doing, now. There is only one alien we are considering killing: The quadruped, because otherwise he'll just starve to death. In previous threads, we pointlessly killed an assload of civilians, but that's in the (relative) past now.

>>15728834
That assload of xenos were looting our stuff.
That's our stuff! Human stuff! Not Xeno stuff.

>>15728809
I don't see any point to going back now, but we might return later. I won't make any comment on repairing diplomatic relations, but it is generally accepted that their military is worth about as much as a carton of dog farts against us.

>>15728833
Bless his little soul.

You finish with Dai (after a long and painfully detailed account of how Ketro was a fool and removing half the safeties of the gates would have been far better) and summon both Ivanova and Burr to the selfsame councilroom. You quickly lay out the specifics of the vetting process you want the science team to go through and, if they pass satisfactorily, to have them begin working on either effecting repairs or finding out ways to repair your higher tech-tier weaponry with the older parts salvaged from other ships.

That taken care of, you switch to two other vital matters: The xenos and your body. The xenos are easy enough to take care of, the bird thing you judge fit for an attempt at cryo and the large quadraped... well, dissection you suppose.

Your body, though....

################

Three days pass, waiting for the various new arrivals to assimilate and meld into the new duties you have assigned them. There seems to be some tension, though... they remain separate from the military personnel, even off duty, and keep to themselves rather than meld fully. At least for now, you suppose it could be shock at their sudden new circumstances that is holding them back after all.

Still, they perform their duties well; nowhere is this more evident to you than the cyber-specialist, Rudolf Statten, as he assists Dr. Burr in your revival. Their skilled hands fly across your inert form, various tubes and needles pricking your inert flesh at various points to keep the slowly reviving cells from necrosis even as they tune your delicate cyberware.

>>15728833
Damnit Adun!

Oh, wait...

>>15728795
>the right reasons (too difficult/no need/benefit to keeping them around)
>not your stupid fucking "Herpderp xenos filth spacemarooon lololololol emperor disapproves" 40shit garbage.
You would not kill off a human just because they had passed the peak of their usefulness. You are displaying the exact xenophobic attitude you say you hate. As we all seem agreed on killing the aliens, can we just stop arguing and get it over with?

At last, though, all is prepared. Thick data transfer cables are run from the nearest hub to medbay, linked eventually to the rear jacks at the base of your skull. Delicate fine-tuning of the firmware inside is carried out as diagnostics are run, the woefully inadequate measures nonetheless applied to the extent they can be. Still, when both Burr and Statten look up and nod you feel confident. Good.

Slowly, carefully, you slip through the winding cables and into the prepared node of your cyberware. You flow in settling into the cool dark space as Burr reaches over, over, over to the life support machines.

Disconnection. A jolt to revive your metabolic processes and life support warez.

Pain shrieks through your mind at the touch, a horrific groping spectre ripping through your mind with razor claws. For a split second you are no longer the ship, no longer a vessel of war or a captain in the Armada. You are simply a frail mortal, shrieking in pain on a hospital bed.

“Restraints!” Dr. Burr screams over your wail of agony even as he leaps forward to grab your thrashing body. Statten joins him, and together the wrestle with your form, back arching in agony, before Kara manages to cinch the straps on your arms and legs.

“We need to disconnect him, quickly!” Statten shouts, but Burr shakes his head, “No! He’ll make it. Thirty seconds!”

*
***
******
********* System
******
***
*
***
******
********* Online
******
***
*

>>15728858
>At least for now, you suppose it could be shock at their sudden new circumstances that is holding them back after all.

Pah, they're just civvies on a military boat.

Anyone want to revive all those team building exercises from, what, thread 4 or 5?

You snap awake, the icy blackness that was threatening to engulf you receeding. Your optical sensors click back into focus, along with two new ones... your body. A strange feeling. You’re not sure how to describe it, or even if you would feel comfortable doing so.

“Welcome back, captain.” Burr says, smiling

“Hurts.” you grunt, and the doctor furrows his brow. “What does? Where?”

“Everywhere.”

“Ah.” he nods, “You had a bit of feedback from the last datalogs of what the body experienced. Did it damage anything?” The last few words betray concern at more than just the integrity of your body.

“No,” you croak, shaking your head, “System diagnostics normal. Just a pain in the... everything.”

Burr lets out a breath and nods, “Good. Well then, I would advise turning off the pain sensors and putting your body into sleep mode then and letting it recover for a while...”

“I’m afraid I’ve already preempted you, doctor.” Your voice once again flows smoothly from the medbay speakers, “As pleasant as having a humanoid form is again, I’d rather not strain it excessively yet. Thank you, all of you.”

Amid smiles of pleased success, not the least of which is upon the face of your own slumbering form, you depart once more to fulfill your duties.

###########################

You enter the upper conference room slowly, door whisking open in front of you. Ivanova is waiting for you, leaning easily against the dark mahogany table with arms crossed. As you creep through the door a small grin plays across her lips and she raises here eyebrows in mock surprise, “My, my Kapitan. You’re certainly looking better.”

You make a face as you limp your way around the table, collapsing into the chair at its head with a soft grunt of pain. Much has healed in the past day, you admit, but you’re still very sore... and walking around with the various pain sensors off is more like to encourage damage from strain in the long term.

You heave a sigh, “Kateryna, have some respect for the dead.” She chuckles, and you continue, “As you know I’ve called a staff meeting in an hour, but first I want your opinion on some things.”

“Our destination?” she asks, turning and sitting in her seat to your immediate right, all business once again.

You nod, “Yes, among other things. I also would like your opinion on doctor Ketro, as I assume you have been observing him the past few days like I asked.”

“Of course, Kapitan.” she sits back and folds her hands in her lap briefly, frowning, before looking over to you, “First, Ketro I think. I’ve dealt with him before a few times, though he... won’t remember me. Political, canny, very smart. Equal to Dai in the fields they share. Dai doesn’t like him, Ketro has preempted him on some published papers and theories. Ketro doesn’t like Dai either, for... well, much the same reasons. There were rumors he had his eye on a council seat, and he certainly had the pull to make a run at it.”

She leans forward briefly, pulling up a schematic on the overhead holo “I found two breaches in the security systems around the barracks he is contained in, neither critical or allowing access to anything, but I believe he might have caused them. From the pattern I believe, speculatively, that he might be attempting to map the door control switches.”

“I see,” you nod, “those were the two emergency repairs you notified me about?”

“Yes, sir. I would be careful and monitor him heavily, were I you. All said, though, he is a brilliant scientist and educated in... well, an astoundingly broad range of fields. A valuable asset, though potentially a double edged one.”

You pause, digesting the news, before signaling her to continue, “And what about our destination? Do you have any recommendations?”

She pauses, briefly, before shaking her head, “No, sir. I... doubt... that any covert bases constructed by the Empire would be in this area. Most are generally in remote parts or concealed under high security on core worlds.”

“I see. And if we were to near any of these, do you think it would be possible to notice them.”

Your second pauses for a bit, before nodding, “I think that it is possible, the sensors might be able to pick up anomalies in... a general direction.”

You sit back in your chair and nod, “Thank you, Kateryna. I’ll bear that in mind. If you find any such signs then please report them immediately. The staff meeting is in an hour.”

At that your XO rises, heading for the door as you rest your head on the conference table.

“Sir?”

You look up just in time to catch something flying through the air. “Wha-?”

“Welcome back.”

The door slides closed behind her even as you look down. Resting in your hands is... a small bar. Chocolate, still wrapped. You blink at the sight. You don’t remember taking on any, or even having any aboard before the incident.

##############

The table is once again set with your command staff around it, Parson’s seat vacant on your immediate left. There is one addition this time, though. A seat beyond Burr is occupied by Dr. Ketro, his pinched face swiveling to take in the faces of your officers.

“Gentlemen, lady,” you say, standing, “I believe you all have heard of our new additions. This is doctor Ketro. he will be joining us for part of the meeting.”

Nods and murmurs of assent follow, paired with a dark glare by Dai, as you sit.

“Now, the first order of business is...”

The first order of business is Ivanova.

Now that we have a body back, we are capable of providing dickings. The question at hand is, how can we make her more receptive to said dickings?

>>15728930
>/tg/

Truly, a one-track mind.

>>15727744
Seconding this.
I'll put some effort towards fleshing it out in a bit.

>>15728941
Honestly, I'm surprised no one brought it up prior to this. I'm almost positive the drones have a vibration function somewhere.

>>15728896

SHE'S BEEN SMUGGLING AND HOARDING CHOCOLATE

SPACE HER

>>15728941
Personally, I like the way it was concealed up until this point. A perfect ambush, if only we were fit enough to do it.

>>15728930
No fraternizing with crew. We're the captain of a military ship. And there are slightly more important issues at the moment than making sure our dick still works.

parsons. what is he planning? perhaps we should interrogate him...

>>15728903
The crew. As far as we know, we are all that remains of humanity. While we may yet discover more humans, either in cryo or out, right now we're it. We owe it to the Empire to work together, etc. etc. leave the petty squabbling at the airlock. Cooperation is good.

>>15728903
First order of business: our immediate destination.

I'm for going to the capital shipyard we know is about 7k LY away, stopping at the Army base that's on the way.
Unless either Dai or Ketro believe that the research station might have tools and parts needed to fix the sensor array.

As someone who was all ampted up to kill Parson, I admit to feeling a little bad about it now. Maybe we should talk to him now that we have a face to relate to again?

Anyhow, Ketro has the power to be a real fucking threat. With hacking and politicking skills that could quickly see us perma dead. He could probably be brought over, but the path would be long and rocky. My vote is killing him. Quietly and when we have a good chance to cover it up. But I doubt that will get a majority, though I fear leaving him locked up will eventually give him time enough to break out.

>>15728970

Double team?

>>15728903

Visit Sol!

Maybe it's a bad idea, but enough with this mucking about.

>>15729016
and let's ditch that damn unisteel. we don't need that shit.

except enough to let them continue their laser tag exorcises.

>>15729020
We could just have Burr and the nameless cyberneticist implant him with some surveillance hardware.

>>15729025
After we spent so much time collecting it? Let's ditch it when we have something better to replace it.

>>15729025
Ditch it? Ditch unisteel?
You DO know this is Void Quest, right?

We fucking LOVE that shit. Would probably make a body from it if ours didn't work out. You sir, are fucking insane.

(also, most of our scrap is probably lesser alloys anyway)

Capital shipyard seems a decent bet. If we keep following up on prospects, we might actually find a usable one.

Ah well, I admit defeat. Anyways, let's get to this meeting.

1st) We need to discuss our new crew members. Make sure everyone is getting along.

2nd) How are the new projects of the science team members coming along? Has anything actually been completed?

3rd) How are our resources?

4th) Recommendations on a type of destination.

>>15729023
i'm thinking that's for when we're in better repair. there might be alot of guns there. guns that don;t like us. guns that hurt.

as for the meeting, we could also discuss any secret places Ketro.
captcha: the istiven. we must virus bomb the xenos

So, our new crew members.

I'd like to discus loyalty and how well they are integrating.

Cold stares at Ketro....

>>15729075

maybe he needs a good dicking.

>>15729040
>>15729049

/tg/ - Pack Rats

>>15729090
After we chase him through the corridors with a vibrating drone, he will not.

>mental image

Prediction: If we set Ketro free, he will see an ally with Parson. He's dumped a lot into socail skills, and seems as intelligent as Dai. Wait. Dai is pretty admech bro tier, he's about as sociable as you'd expect. Ketro has politicking and SCIENCE?

I don't trust the bastard, not at all.

>>15729111
I'd give you a dicking for that laugh you just gave me.

I picture the drone arms spread wide, ready for the embrace.

>>15729128
Vibration: ON

WHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

>>15729097
"Why did you just toss all my health potions into the lake?"

"We might need the pack space for loot later."

"We just LEFT the dungeon."

*shrug*

>>15729114
I dunno, I see Ketro as a reoccurring villain. Setting up shop somewhere in a dark corner of the ship and generally kicking up a ruckus. But always coming together with Dai when shit hits the fan in a classic power of friendship victory.

Gotta lay off the weeaboo cartoons. They're starting to bleed through everything I see now.

>>15729143

WELCOME TO THE GOOD SHIP HARBINGER KETRO

REMEMBER, I'M ALWAYS WATCHING

>>15729128
"This is a masterfully designed image of a drone and a scientist. The scientist is in the fetal position. The drone is vibrating rapidly."

Vedibere, would it happen that either of the Army Outposts could be used as midway points to move toward one of the Armada bases?

>>15729205
If anyone ever asks why VQ is the best quest ever, they need only read that post.

>>15729209
Yes. Already answered here: >>15726749

>>15729148
more like "why did you throw my sticks away?"
"because we're going to a fucking forest"

Requesting a bit of lore.

From my understanding, our primary warheads of smaller singularity types. Assuming we lack the ability to just shit out singularities aboard our ship, is there another popular types used by the Empire?

Like, are plasma or anti matter or even nukes used when singularity warheads are not available or whatever reason undesirable? Is anything like that within our capabilities (assuming we loot the necessary raw materials) to produce aboard the Harbringer?

And lastly, out of sheer morbid curiosity, even though likely a lesser tech are nuclear weapons utilized at all within the Empire? If so, how?

(heh capcha: studies infohun)

>>15729245
Well, no. It's more like:
"Why did you throw all of my needles, thread, and bolts of cloth away?"
"Because we're going to a town that has a tailor."
*7 burnt out towns later*
"I wish I still had my needle, thread, and cloth so I could fix my clothes."

>What the hell happened to my post?

Anyways once we've moved on to more serious matters I think I'm going to agree with this post.

>>15727744
>Possible topics:

>1. The new personnel
>2. Specifically, that (apparent) dick Ketro
>3. Our prisoners
>4. Parson
>5. Attitude toward xenos in general, potential compromises
>6. The gate system
>7. The fall of the empire
>8. Our next few destinations
>9. Humanity
>10. Recreation on board ship
>11. What we're going to do with all our cargo
>12. The state of the ship
>13. The state of morale

These all seem rather good.

>10. Recreation on board ship

DICKINGS!

>>15727744
>>15729288

Let's skip that second one since Ketro's in the room.

We can always put him in Parson's brig later.

>>15729285
>From my understanding, our primary warheads of smaller singularity types.
No, those are your most powerful missiles.

>other kinds?
Yes, your primary missiles are nuclear, launched in enormous salvos of a thousand at a time. There are other intermediate levels like Antimatter, Protonic, ect. all the way up to Singularity at the top. You don't carry too many of those, they are ridiculously expensive.

>>15729285
>>15729330

It's our FTL laser beams that are the hot shit anyway. Missiles are for primitives.

>>15729330
How large are these nukes? Like, hiroshima sized? 200x hiroshima? 20,000x hiroshima?

>>15729320
P) Say, what're you in for?

K) Heresy.

P) Me too. Been here awhile, don't think they're letting me out.

K) I happen to be in need of a few additional crewmen, you see I've modified my cyberware to open this room as something of a contingency. After we get out of here, what do you say about calling me captain and getting back the Earth?

P) Will you bring back my family?

K) Of course, join my side and you too shall have the power to save the ones you love.

>>15729349
They are plot sized, unless you have a specific reason for asking.

>>15729330
Ah, thanks.

Is the tech to make more something that would be too hard to re purpose existing infrastructure to?

>>15729238

bah, guess i lost it in the shitstorm. my bad.


voting for:

Jump to Army Colony Guardian, followed by Jump to Armada frigate repair base

>>15729288
Okay, that only lists topics of discussion, not the captain's opinion so that it could be worked into the narrative.

>1. The new personnel
A little distance is going to be unavoidable; it's civvies and military, after all. But as long as everyone works together there should be no problems.
>2. Specifically, that (apparent) dick Ketro
Dr. Ketro's capabilities are well-documented. He'll work under Chief Engineer Dai in the interim.
>3. Our prisoners
Bird goes in cryo, the quadraped can be given a choice on how it wishes to die, now that its rations are nearly gone, then it is to be dissected, for SCIENCE!
>4. Parson
Should not bring it up in front of Ketro, I think. Should be a private thing.
>5. Attitude toward xenos in general, potential compromises
No direct antagonizing, will make compromises only if absolutely necessary.
>6. The gate system
Can we intercept the status updates to learn of Gates that are offline, indicating mothballed systems, as well as ones that are active and in use, indicating interstellar empires.
>7. The fall of the empire
How'd it happen, should we make an official mention of it to the crew. Thinking yes, because they'll get it from the scientists anyway.
>8. Our next few destinations
Go to the Armada shipyard that handles frigates, stopping at Army base on the way. Hope to get parts and tools to effect sensor array repairs.
>9. Humanity
We're still the best. 64,000 years, and the fucking xenos aren't even close.
>10. Recreation on board ship
Laser tag tourneys are authorized.
Enlisted vs Officers, Military vs Civvies, Bridge vs Engineering

>>15729413
>field too long
>11. What we're going to do with all our cargo
Have Tynes, Dai, Ketro, and engineers go through and keep only what they feel to be required for making more slapdash repairs. All medical supplies stay with us, though. The rest, can be placed in a stable orbit with a transponder so we can come back and pick it up if we need it later.
>12. The state of the ship
Get Jump Drive, Reactor, and Sensors repairs to the point where we can do some interstellar scanning.
>13. The state of morale
Open to suggestions.

>>15729413
Well put and well handled. Fucking seconded.

Agree that putting Ketro under Dai would solve the short term problem of what to do with him. Get him to agree here and now to answer to Dai. If he refuses, then we'll likely have to keep him isolated until another time.

We need to breif the officers about what we know of the Empire's fall. I'd say (hoping that we've gleaned everything the rest knew) having Ketro go over that in great detail is a must.

Going to the ship yard, and have engineering brainstorm ways to use any surviving equipment there to fix our weaponry. It won't be the best job the Empire ever did, but it may get a few of our canons up, and maybe get the bulk of our lasers working.

Getting the crew something better to eat than bean paste. Unless we intend to start coating it in bread and telling them it's Taiyaki we'll need to find a way to start producing something else. Now that we have a specialist in such a field maybe we can start planning on how we'll go about it and what we'll need.

How is the ship's condition anyway? Is there still a lot of areas with nothing but debris and still largely uninhabitable?

As Captain, We owe it to our crew, who have toiled and labored and supported us with extreme loyalty to learn our True Fate. Gentlemen & Lady, we turn our sights now to Sol. "Although we fear the worst, our duty is clear. We have served, valiantly and dutifully. Our mission is completed, and only one task yet remains. While here we limp from husk to husk, shelled out vestiges of Imperial Presence, our intuition pulls at us with a singular calling. *Return*. And rightly so; Sol is the cradle of life. The Earth is our homeland, our birthright, our origin, and our destination. We shall see this through. We are plotting a course Sol-ward.

(Action -> Jump to nearest active gate. Begin plans for Gate Cycling.)

Action - > Get Ketro & Dai to Work Together on projects. I don't care if it's a 1980's Montage. Right now they have bitter hatred, and while old habits die hard, I Want them to realize that with humanity estimated at < 50 survivors, that they should work together. 2 brains are better than one, and 2 GENIUS brains are better than that. Bicker if they want, but learn to work together. No one is going to publish a paper on board Harbinger, so no pressure. Just Succeed. And Learn from each other. Alternatively, use their suspicion against each other to drive results better. "Hey, Dai, can you lower the safety standard on Our Jump Drive to increase range?" "Hey Ketro, Dai is dropping these safety measures, can you find *a different way* to keep these jumps safe?"

You good Vedibere, or still need more?

>our body works again
>all thoughts go to sex

Vedibere, if you didn't see this coming (lol) then you have only yourself to blame.

I, for one, am all for fiat-ing in a reason why we can't have sex. It'll do wonders for the quality of the quest.

>>15729513
The plan with Our Engineer team, is that they clearly have similar interests. With no external judges, maybe some old grudges can be dropped? Who cares who published that paper, that council of peers is DEAAAAD. IN SPAAAACE.

ACTION) Ever jump along the way, do planetary surface scans. We would like a natural water source, as a priority, and some form of environment that can sustain plants. Eventually, we will want a reliable food source besides massive stocks of bean paste. As an alternative, Be on the lookout for indigenious flora and fauna that may be human edible. Does the rations we have for our non-human guests smell in anyway edible. Not saying take their food, but be aware of it as a possibility. We could be like the American Pilgrims, learning about food sources from the natives. (I know we are far away, but it stands to reason that other species may be terraform capable, or at least colony-capable).

>put Ketro under Dai

Excuse me? The two of them will murder each other.

Put them in charge of separate systems at opposite ends of the ship. Dai at the core since he's trustworthy. Ketro at something else. Sensors or something.

>>15729573
I'm good, just sort of occupied. I had planned to stop earlier than this but since I was woefully shitty on the update this time I'm trying to squeeze at least one more in between doing other stuff.

>>15729576
Been dead and exposed to space for 64,000 years. Medical science can revive the dead, but Damnit Jim, he's not a miracle worker.

B) To be a Space Captain / EI. Your spine gets replaced, and most of the nervous system. That's some vital body hardware to rewire. Something's got to give.

C) We were also exposed to 2 Supernovas at Roughly Point Blank Range. That's probably a decent bout of radiation, even through the shields. Giant F-Ray.

D) Ivanova's Spook headware has certain protocols. Remember the dentata from Snow Crash? Similar concept applies.

>>15729593
We need a clear pecking order, or they will just fight until one is established. It's a shortterm fix so we don't have to leave in his room. This will also give Dai an excuse to keep up with Ketro's doings and have the authority to shut him down should he go too far.

This is the best way to initiate short term order until we can better understand the man and the situation. Marking them as equals would cause a good bit of strife, instead of just telling Ketro that Dai is what kept us together and until we are no longer falling apart it's best he works under him to not undermine his efforts. (the wording is important, probably not best left to me but should plainly throw a beleiveable [if not true] reason for why Dai should have the reigns.)

Action -> Inform Parson that we have new crew. The news that we found HUMANS ought to cheer him up. We are still alone in the universe, but we are less alone than previously. If he wants to cling to hope as a coping mechanism, this is a great hope with which to do so. Also, as 'rehabilitation' let walk (under escort) around parts of the ship. He needs to see that he needs to get back to work. Maybe seeing a ship at work will remind him of that.

Research station may have something more valuable than FTL Comms and ship materials.

More likely to have something like a bio-research, which may be convertible into a gene-repository. Cloning, as a long term goal will only be possible with a planetside facility (or a space station), but not on the ship. Let's also collect spare cryotubes, if ever we see more. We may need them, more so than assorted alloys.

>>15729640
Dai DID design most of the systems of the Harbinger, and was its chief designer and engineer. It's only logical that he maintain his position as chief engineer.
While Dr. Ketro's abilities are appreciated, a science team doesn't fit onto a warship that well, except as civilian specialists to assist with specific jobs and systems.

Well, it's official I can't write while doing these other things.

However, I will now express my love for you nightcrew. Your lists and clearly plotted courses of action make me feel warm and fuzzy. I'll do the meeting and the jump in the next OP, will do it Friday at 18:00 since this was such a short thread.

If there is anything special you want to do in the interim then post away. I do have the ability to answer questions since my free time is in like two to five minute blocks, though.

Wake up at 06:30 MET
See Voidquest
> 6hrs, 1 update in writefaggotry
> /tg/ arguing and arguing
> shit gets done (i.e: SHIT (as in nothing gets done)

> y u guise so silli?
Always the same crap, egos egps everywhere incapable of reaching a consense fast... -.-'

>>15729788
Considering making an IRC for this reason. Going to see how next thread goes first, though.

That said, it was woefully shameful for me to not have just 'disregarded postings -> acquire writings' sooner.

>>15729849
On the basis of the whole drone raping Ketro musings I'm willing to overlook it this time.

The quest has gotten rather chaotic lately though, maybe IRC is the best way to reign it in some and give it better direction on our part. In all other situations I avoid IRC as nothing good ever comes from it, but should the call arise, I'd prepare my body and mind for a channel devoted to the quest.

Consensus, or even a real agreement of any sort, is going to be hard to come by as our available options increase. Too many people, too many disparate possibilities. I'm fine with Vedibere using whatever criteria he likes (clever ideas, reasonably IC for what's gone before, support from multiple voices in the violent hivemind for a single suggestion) and just going with it. Forward progress is better than trying to argue out every single choice. Even if it doesn't go the way I'm arguing for, I'd rather have more stuff happen than sit here shouting.

>>15729849
>>15730007
I don't know; will an IRC actually help in arriving at a consensus faster?

>>15730093
Persuasive augments backed by logic can be used to sway Vedibere to a specific position on matters.

Or, it will generate huge amounts of drama, as IRC is wont to do. Only time will tell.

Hey, looks like I managed to get into one of the threads before OP leaves!

Vedi, I love this quest, it is fucking awesome but you really ought to do something about the decision making process and the arguing.
This shit takes forever ... well, I only read from archives, so I can just skip it but I can imagine how exhausting that must be for you.
I suggest you set up deadline after the update, like 30 minutes, after the time passes you will update whenever or not anyone suggested to do anything. If no one managed to suggest to do anything, just update on your own discretion (which has high chance of being harmful).

That way we will have some progress at least and not endless amount of bickering.

On the other hand, seeing that people argue so much just shows how good you are at writing. Keep up the good work!

Okay, I am back to reading the thread.

>>15730151
I have considered that, but sometimes good ideas get posted later on and I have to retool to incorporate them when I do so.

Also, by all means participate.

Man, everybody's having a lot more fun then usual in this thread. I believe we've finally chilled out.

>>15730551
That's because it's wednesday. We'll perk back up come next thread.

>>15729413
>9. Humanity
>We're still the best. 64,000 years, and the fucking xenos aren't even close.
Additionally, "They can't even make unisteel. Did you see the readouts on their ship hulls? I've seen museum relics with more resilient hulls."