>>26695052
Bump.

>>26695134
Bump.

>>26695189
Ready to go guys.

>>26695052

if you're still around:

1) I have no idea what this is about. A two-sentence hook/intro isn't really doing it, I'm afraid.

2) oh god why are there so many stats after such a tiny hook/intro

3) Why do I have a Free Fall stat/skill but lack a zero-g skill? Am I expected to be skydiving?

>>26695364

1) You are a space pilot with your own mining ship. The two sentence intro is really everything that has happened so far, this quest is just starting.

2) Because the modular character generation method is actually fairly easy to load up all the stats.

3) Free fall is zero g maneuvering.

I have no idea as to what's going on.

Report the attack to whoever it is we should be reporting it to.

>>26695422
Attack already reported, military response imminent.

>>26695052
why do we have a language of only 30? wasn't the native one at 70+INT?
Also some more of the background would be useful, can you atleast give us his motivation block?

You have a brand new audience here, OP. Cater to us!

>>26695489
Ignore the language block, I just forgot to remove that. I scrapped that skill to give 30 points to be spent on other things, as you players decide.

As for his motivations, that was never really touched upon, but I would say.

Exploration+ ME tech+ Colonization+

Or whatever you guys come up with.

>>26695501
Ready willing and able, but what are your actions?

>>26695532
I don't know. Sitrep?

>>26695532
What is going on, and what are our motivations?

>>26695539

You are in a mining and prospecting ship (yet unnamed) An unknown hostile force has just destroyed the fleet you were with while attempting to explore a new stellar system on the far side of the Shanxi relay.

You have just managed to dodge enemy ships and fighters and made it back under the guns of the Shanxi orbital defense grid. your ship is undamaged, and equipped with defensive laser turrets capable of point defense and light combat duties.

>>26695532
Where are we? What are we supposed to do? Who are we working for? What do we do for a living?

>>26695560
I dunno, I guess we go home?

>>26695553
You are a freelance asteroid miner and prospector, you are beholden to no major organizations or groups, and have no major responsibilities.

Personal motivations have not been decided upon by the players.

>>26695532
>Ready willing and able, but what are your actions?
Make sure our beloved ship is safe, and post on the local mesh about this weird ship that attacked you, make sure that colony authorities know about unknown activity nearby

>>26695570
Ok, go prospect some asteroids then.

>>26695569
You could land your ship on the planet. But be advised that the enemy fleet is still in system and about to engage the defense grid over the colony.

>>26695578
Hostile ships are still in system.

>>26695560
We've just been attacked by unknown, possibly alien vessels. They will be through the relay any moment now.

PAAAAAAAAAANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC

>>26695411
Fair enough.

Still, your hook/intro needs more info.

>Who Johnathan Sharp, last of the true astronauts [Good]
>What? Fled attackers? Now safe? [Good?]
>Where? mass relay at Shanxi colony [Good?]
>When? No idea. Likely stuck in a warp bubble and slightly out of phase. [Poor]
>How? some sort of nondescript ship .later post says mining ship? [Questionable]
>Why? What is my mission/goal? [nonexistent]

As a newcomer, your hook doesn't make me want to read the archive to answer those 5 simple questions. Hopefully this is helpful and contributes to your continued success in running this, as new blood is usually vital.

>>26695422
Very much what this guy says. I have no face and must contact the colony administrator to spread warning of this event or something

>>26695588
Go to some other system then, we're not paid to fight.

>>26695605
Shanxi knows of the enemy now. It's time to play Paul Revere. Set course for the nearest system! The Aliens are coming! The Aliens are coming

>>26695588
>>26695589
>>26695603
Alright, let's get some details then

What's the current makeup of our ship? How many crew do we have? Is the ship itself armed? What do we know about the alien vessels? You did an awesome writeup for EP/ME in fluff, but Quest-running could use just as much detail.

>>26695603
Okay, thanks for input.

When. Ten years into the golden age of transhuman expansion and colonization. Meta time, the mass effect first contact war.
How. Privately owned mining vessel, one occupant, minimal weapons.
Why. You wanted to stay ahead of the crowded space of 'civilized' colonies, and stick to the frontier. You were doing some expiration in Shanxi when you and the fleet you were with was decimated by unknown hostiles. Current objective: Don't die.

>>26695647
Ok, let's not die. Get the hell out of this system.

>>26695633
>>26695605
Your ships is not capable of FTL travel, and the hostile ships are between you and the relay.

But with your piloting skill it could be possible to run the blockade, though the main force of their fleet is directly between you and the relay, a direct path would take you through the middle of their forces.

>>26695665

Also, you are in a bouncer morph. If nobody objects the extra+5 aptitude goes into reflexes, to make piloting better.

>>26695665
Nah, land instead and wait out the enemy attack. Get boozed up and hire some hookers.

>>26695665
How does our mining equipment work? We may be able to use it to slingshot ourselves right through the heart of the enemy fleet. Furthermore, is it possible to try and use some of the other Alliance ships as a 'buffer' between ourselves and the heart of the enemy fleet?

>>26695665
What's Shanxi's reaction to all of this? Have they responded to our mesh uploads? Are they mobilizing?

>>26695676
What is a bouncer morph?

>>26695665
do w have any locations within the system like asteroid belts, where we can hunker down for some time, and if there are get there and keep our head down

>>26695682
I don't see why we should take the enormous risk to fly through the enemy fleet when we could just land instead and wait it out. There's no profit in heroics.

>>26695689
Seconding hiding.

>>26695685
Military response in progress, orbital defense satellites arming, defense boats moving to intercept. Combat has not yet begun, your warning only just got through.

>>26695682
You deploy automated mining drones to farm asteroids, moving through a little clump of rocks and using your main ship as a prospecting and scanning ship, directing the mining bots.

>>26695697
>There's no profit in heroics.
Except that's what Sharp's all about. Flying into the face of danger, charting new worlds! Johnathan Sharp laughs in the face of danger! HA!

>>26695688

Body specialized to living in space. Your feet are like extra hands with fingers and a thumb. This does mean you run slower in gravity though.

>>26695705
There's laughing at danger and then there's being suicidal. Flying through the enemy fleet for no real benefit is the second.

>>26695701
>>26695701
Wait until combat begins, then make a break for the relay when most of them are otherwise occupied.

>>26695701
Right then. Seems like our bots could be of some use, at least. Ask the colony defense commanders what assistance we can render, if any, and prepare to find some asteroids or debris to take cover in. If nothing else, we can use our mining drones to strip the leftover ships bare.

>>26695712
Okay, are you going to hide, or try to run the blockade as they engage the Alliance defense ships, or land on the planet and go to ground?

I see no reason to take major risks. There are defenses in place, get behind them.

>>26695701
>drone control

I'm thinking we sit behind and in a support position of the defense force, contacting the colony administration to release any drones they can to us and we'll run them as kinetic kill devices in support of the main defense force.

Does the defense force look to be outnumbered or otherwise 'oh shit we're boned'? We saw the enemy ships destroy the mining group, so we should be able to tell if their ships have massively better weapons.

>>26695743
Slipping away to hide by some asteroids seems to be the most popular idea, any objections?

>>26695766
Defense forces are equal in ships, and have the defense sats to help them.

But the aggressor ships seem to be ungodly fast and agile, and resistant to damage.

>>26695733
Those droids are expensive professional equipment. I'd rather not risk them on some half-cocked plan that very well might make no difference in the proceedings.

>>26695762
Shanxi falls to the enemy in theoriginal Mass Effect. It's only when reinforcfents arrive from Arcturus Station that Shanxi is reclaimed

>>26695766
They're mining drones, not military drones anon. Attacking with them would be exactly like using your laptop as a hammer - inefficient and wasteful.

>>26695768
Going with slipping away and hiding.

>>26695808
>mining drones
Yes, and they're likely robust, redundant and utilitarian in nature to deal with micrometeorite strikes and other debris found in their working environment.

The only reason they wouldn't work as suicide KKDs is if they're slow as putty.

And the plan was to ask the colony to provide us with whatever drones they could so we could use -those-.

If we happen to escape the fall of the colony with some of them still intact and in our hold? Profit.

>>26695837
Hiding sounds the wise choice at the moment. Let's stick with that.

>>26695837

Works.

>>26695837
OP, when you start a quest you should totally have a couple of pre-written pieces ready, based on what are the most likely actions players take. It's important to get the action flowing early and fast.

>>26695837

“This is Captain Sharp to Shanxi colony control. I’ll let the professionals handle this, I’m moving out of here.”

“Acknowledged Sharp.” Comes the reply, “Military vessels are vectoring in to engage, keep your head down. And thanks for the heads up.”

“Glad I could help.” You say, laying in a course for the asteroid belt some distance away.

You switch the main viewscreen over to display sensor returns from behind the ship as you rocket off away from the enemy ships, your vessels tiny ME core straining to keep you out of the range of those guns. Speed doesn’t seem to be a problem for the hostiles though, as they are moving towards Shanxi faster than any other ship you’ve ever seen, you have no doubt they could overtake you easily. Thankfully though, they seem to be preoccupied with the large military response the Shanxi defense forces have mobilized.

You watch as a barrage of antimatter torpedoes erupt across one of the enemy ships, blasting off one of the wing like appendages, doing frighteningly little damage to the entire craft. One of the enemy ships fires a kinetic accelerator that rips clean through a defense boat, the stricken craft wallowing to port as it vents gas and liquid.

It seems that you have not been ignored completely though, another three fighter craft are vectoring after you, you calculate you will not be able to reach the belt before they are upon you.

Roll for piloting and gunnery to evade and fight them off until you reach the belt.


Roll 1 d100, rolling low is good, state the skill you are rolling for as you roll.

Rolled 11, 87 = 98

>>26695981
Piloting, gunnery.
Radio them that we're a civilian ship.

Rolled 48

>>26695981
Pilot: Spacecraft

Let's do some barrel rolls to throw off whatever targeting computers they may have, maybe try and strobe them with... Hey, does our ship have any telecommunications suites? Can we try to use our software to engage in some electronic warfare against them?

>>26695977
Also, I don't frankly give a flying fuck about our stats, what interests me is the personality of our main character. You've used twenty lines for the former, and not a single on for the latter. How are we supposed to be invested in this character since he's a complete blank slate? I'm not going to go through the archived thread to find out, you need to state important things like that in the opening blurb!

>>26696033
He is a blank slate, because the players have not decided what is important to him yet. He is an explorer, a discoverer, he likes a disciplined organization, but a free society. He dislikes people crowding up 'his' sky, and wants to stay on the frontier and cutting edge. He has a thing for old school tech and keeps a slide rule with him as a lucky charm.

Rolled 5

>>26695981
Rolling gunnery

>>26696033
Also this. You did some fantastic characterization of the setting, but as a Quest, this lacks a bit of the vibrancy/characterization we could use and really need.

>>26696054
>He is a blank slate
I.e. a boring character. You need some defining aspects on him for him to grasp readers. Maybe he's a scoundrel and a happy go lucky adventurer?

>>26695981

The pursuing craft fire some kind of small kinetic kill weapon, but you dodge and twist and easily evade their attacks. Your attack is as about as effective as theirs unfortunately, your lasers unable to do any damage to the craft, though at the speed you are going your barely manage to hit them long enough to do any damage at all. You decide to try and get them off your back in some other way though.

“This is Captain Jonathan Sharp, this is a civilian vessel with minimal defenses only, please cease your attack at once.”

No response.

Undeterred, you redline the engines and scream into the asteroid belt, cutting the main engines and relying on cold gas maneuvering thrusters and momentum to carry you through. You dodge around asteroids, send off decoys in the form of mining drones only to cut their engines and cause the sensor contacts to vanish. After half an hour or so of playing cat and mouse you finally manage to evade the fighters, though you are unsure of whether they have moved off or are still hunting you.

But for the moment, you are safe.

What now?

>>26696091
Sit tight, wait it out.

>>26696069
>>26696079

Okay, how about this?

Jonathan sharp sees himself as an adventurer of sorts. The kind of man who will go anywhere and do anything to discover some new secret, chart an unknown system, find some great treasure or historical truth. He is an explorer, always has been, and feels most at home when on the cutting edge of civilization seeing things that no living man was witnessed before.

He keeps going forward, wanting to see what lies over that horizon.

>>26696091
Now we wait and observe.

>>26696123
Much better!

>>26696134
The original character idea was made my a player, so I didn't want to put a deeper character onto it and rather let the players do it. But since you asked, that's what I saw as most fitting.

Exploration+ ME technology+ Stagnation-

>>26696128
>>26696122
Sitting tight.

>>26696123
Much better, as >>26696134 has said.

>>26696128
>>26696122
>>26696180
Yep, let's wait and see what happens while shit goes down.

>>26696091

are the mining drones we sent out as decoys still in contact with us?

Can we use sensors or mk 2 digital eyeballs from the drones to set up a little network to detect anything moving around near us?

Are we reading any communications from the colony?

>>26696193

Already doing all that.

>>26696212

You power off all nonessential systems and go silent, sitting and waiting. Every once and a while you get a return on a passive sensor contact, or one of the scattered mining drones notices something, but you never get anything concrete beyond ‘something’s out there’ though if you had to hazard a guess you would say the hostile fighters are still hunting you. Though there is a little bit of light-lag from Shanxi, you keep yourself apprised of the situation developing in orbit.

It seems that the battle over Shanxi has begun in earnest, with the system defense boats clashing with the unknown hostiles. Again, you are intrigued by the resilience of the unknown ships, able to take hits you would think would tear them apart and keep going. But when they do get hit, they get hit hard, venting atmosphere and losing power. Knowing ships like you do, you would speculate that they have lots of open area and crew quarters, odd for a warship. It is far more efficient for them to just have the crew as infomorphs in the computers.

Regardless of this oddity, the enemy ships appear to be formidable combatants. But, eventually, the tide of battle seems to turn in the favor of the defenders, the enemy fleet fleeing back to the relay at a speed no ships you have ever seen could possibly match, trailing debris and venting atmosphere from some damaged ships. Considering that no enemy ships are still seen in the system, and that your drones have not spotted anything moving for some time, it would seem it is safe to come out from hiding.

Actions?

>>26696212
Cool.

How many mining drones do we carry and how many are deployed? Can we get a quick rundown on what sort of equipment the drones have installed?

Are we currently located on an asteroid or are we free-floating?

>>26696258
Give it another 10 hours and then move towards the station.

>>26696260

Bots are equipped with engines, small cutting lasers for mining, and nanobot hives to clear away debris and remove major impurities from discovered ore. You have ten such drones, all of which you deployed in a network around you to act as sensors and decoys.

You are currently anchored on an asteroid, on the side facing away from the sun.

>>26696258

Have a mining drone or two move around actively, if there are still fighters they should be drawn to that activity.

We can move out after that, if nothing takes the bait.

Haul ass to the colony and see if we can assist with SAR and maybe get our mining drones working to corral debris as a paid job or just snag some of it for ourselves.

>>26696322
This.

Also, let's have the rest of the drones get to work salvaging those alien ships. Those weapons they have on them will fetch us some fat stacks of moolah, I think.

>>26696288
>>26696322

Okay.

>>26696347

You wait a few more hours, still nothing. You command two of your mining drones to start moving, hoping to attract the attention of anything still lurking in the asteroid field to attack you, but thankfully nothing seems to jump out from any shadows to engage them. After that, you set course back for the colony, at maximum speed, only pausing to collect your mining drones. You activate active sensors and check back in with the colony command.

“This is Captain Sharp, I am returning to Shanxi orbit. I am volunteering my services search and rescue as well as recovery of debris, please advise.”

“Captain Sharp this is Shanxi control, we are currently engaging in search and rescue operations, if you find any emergency beacons let us know, but of the two ships destroyed we have already recovered most of the black boxes and are continuing to sweep the area. Any recovery of debris from the unknown ships is authorized, but it is requested that you share it with the rest of the authorities here so that we can analyze the data.”

“Acknowledged, Sharp out.”


Roll asteroid mining profession to see if you find anything good.

also, be advised that Shanxi has a lot of influences from the Autonomist Alliance, and turning over your salvage to them could get you a nice rep gain from that faction.

Rolled 93

>>26696442

Salvage, ho!

Also requesting information about our current ship/drones

Rolled 71

>>26696442
For mining.

Also, let's turn it over to them, then. Let's also try to find a relatively intact ship and head over into it in our physical body. I want to see what we can uncover on these aliens with some in-person investigation.

Have other human settlements been contacted yet? Those aliums are gonna be back.

>>26696477

You scan the debris field, but sadly you don’t turn up anything of very much use. You get some fragments and large pieces of hull, but you do not find any intact pieces of technology or corpses after your first sweep, which takes several hours. Though what you did find could get you a nice little bonus with the AA down on the planet.

You could give it another sweep if you wanted, though the difficulty penalty will increase as you keep retrying.

Rolled 97

>>26696442
Time for loot.

>>26696520
The QE network is already being used to relay information about the conflict to other systems.

>>26696480
Is there ever a reason to send our physical body to do the investigating, though? A remote would always be more agile and better equipped than a fleshbag.

Rolled 50

>>26696552
One more sweep.

>>26696588
You don't have a drone of the correct proportions to get into a ship, the mining drones are too big.

>>26696552

We'll do another sweep and turn in half of our finds to the locals. We likely know of another place to bring the other half of the salvage, and we can probably get quite a bit more for it if we bring at least 1 good portion of hull to be looked at.

>>26696597
This time you turn up something, though not terribly much. You manage to find a fragment of some kind of internal component, seemingly based on mass effect technology, though you cannot speculate at its function. More interesting is the other thing you find, it seems to be some biological debris thrown into the device as the ship was damaged, a hunk of burned and frozen flesh, though you imagine it would be of curiosity to the scientists below.

Actions? You don’t think you could find much else up here.

>>26696629
Let's go in our physical form to crawl through some of the ships. There's bound to be some intact rooms or sections of fuselage that we can hop through, especially in our flesh sleeve. Let's take what we have and store it in the cargo hold for now, though.

>>26696629
Let's cash in our findings and get some booze and hookers already!

>>26696646
We didn't find any intact ships.

>>26696646
No enemy ships were destroyed, they were simply damaged and left behind trails of debris.

>>26696647
Exotic hookers, that is. We're the guy who's going where no man has gone before.

Time to turn in the loot.
Head for the station, let's see who's buying and at what prices.

>>26696676
This is just like my Eve Onlines

>>26696656
Aha, so there's no intact ships, or are there still ships that are relatively whole?

>>26696733
see
>>26696656

>>26696629


You make way for the orbital station, deciding to split your loot between selling it and giving it to the autonomists. You find a decent buyer after a little searching and pass off your loot to him. He gives you a good price for the unusual bits of metal and a sample of the biological material, bringing your total of 5,800 credits. You also gain a +10 to your @-rep standing, the Autonomists thankful for your donation of some of your loot.

Actions?

>>26696753
Blackjack and hookers?

Before we move on to that, let's see what autonomist facilities are around - what services we can get from them.

>>26696753
Booze and hookers! Female impersonator hookers with augments!

>>26696781
>>26696785
B-but guys the Turians will be back soon.

>>26696753

Requesting info on our ship.

Does it have room for additional crew or for upgrades?

>>26696753
First, get on the mesh and check that knowledge of this attack has spread beyond Shanxi, via QEC or courier boat. Then, I suppose we sit tight and wait for reinforcements. See if we can get any sort of bigger guns for our ship through money or @-rep: it looks like a major war is on the horizon.

>>26696811
The more reason to hurry then. We gotta get our mack on, a man got needs.

>>26696811
Well, we will be sure to sell the guys making the ships that will be killing the turians some raw materials and shit.
Later.
But now, hookers.

>>26696832
If major war is on the horizon it means it's high time to get the hell out of Dodge. We have a civilian ship not a warship, we're a prospector not a combat pilot.

>>26696848

if major war is on the horizon, we're clearly going to have to upgrade our ship to war profiteer.

>>26696830

It has some more room, but you are capable of operating it on your own easily enough.

>>26696832
You could look for better thrusters to give you an edge in piloting, or perhaps a gunnery AI that can shoot better than you can.

>>26696865
Thrusters wouldn't be a bad investment since it looks like we're going to be running away a lot in the near future. See how long it would take them fitted, and if we still have time to exit the system.

>>26696864
Nah, let's be an explorer instead.

>>26696848
...Yeah, that's probably best. Take on anyone who wants to leave the system physically and head towards a more heavily-defended system. Still probably should get that gun- it's unlikely the unknowns will be content to attack Shanxi and nowhere else.
Or, alternatively, we could set our ships' autopilot to some safe mothball orbit back at Sol and volunteer our services for the Shanxi defense force. We're a fuckawesome pilot- I'm sure they'd be happy to have us.

>>26696884
I support this. As neat as it would be to see the First Contact War firsthand on Shanxi, I don't think Sharp would like being planetbound for months

>>26696884
Thrusters would, in my book, give you a better top speed, which would be largely a fluff upgrade, which I would use to justify you getting away in straight races, and decrease difficulty penalties for fast maneuvering.

You could get one installed in three days.

(and no, I am not so cruel as to let your ship get destroyed while it is getting upgraded. Yet.)

>>26696865
Gunnery AI. We need help with gunnery more than we need help with piloting.

>>26696905

This had not occurred to me, good idea.

You could ditch the mining ship and sign on with the defense forces as a fighter pilot, the military here is heavily AA, so they are basically a volunteer militia and would probably accept you considering your rep with them.

>>26696905
Then again we're kind of a loner - we like to make our own paths, not take orders from some military guy. I'd rather go exploring and perhaps find the source of these attacks?

Well, we are officially the first person in history to make contact with a council race. That's bound to be written down somewhere, right?

Aside from that, how about we contact the Autonomists and see if they have any work for us. Since they will probably be the ones who will get most of this salvage and the ones who will reverse engineer all of this delicious technology, we can expect them to get quite an edge in just about every aspect soon. It would be a good idea to build up more credit with them now.

>>26696955
The original idea was that he was an old NASA astronaut, and is comfortable in a structured purposeful organization, but he has been on his own for a long time now.

Either way could be justified, and the AA militia is not very strict in any case.

Running the relay and investigating the source is another interesting possibility for adventure though.

Or perhaps approach the AA with a proposal to head through the relay to investigate, and just request they give you a little more killy for your ship?

>>26696987
Honestly I'd rather not get stuck on Shanxi and grind enemy mobs, thank you very much.

>>26696945
Let's volunteer our services as a pilot, but have a request that our mining barge be retrofitted as a combat drone carrier/CnC ship for combat drones. That way we can keep our salvaging operations going (making fat loot), but we can stay alive.

Also, how much would it cost for some combat sleeves and some infomorphs to pilot them?

>>26697020
New morphs are considerably outside your price range at the moment.

There isn't much of a point in adding weapons to our vessel, as the enemy ships were proven to be significantly better.

Adding fighting gear isn't going to make a difference.

>>26696987
Heading through the relay alone sounds like an excellent way to get restored from backup. If we're going to do that, I suggest we try to assemble a few allies first. But my vote is volunteering for the defense force, whether with or without our ship.

>>26697020
To be clear, you would not lose your mining ship, but you would keep it out of the way and fly a purpose-built combat ship into battle, probably a dogfighter considering your piloting skills.

>>26697061
Also, you would be directly sleeved into the fighter, or at least an Alpha fork of you would be, with another Alpha going about your daily life in your normal morph.

How strong is EP transhumanity compared to ME humanity? Do you have links to old fluff threads?

>>26697061
Please let's not, that would honestly speaking bore me to tears.

>>26697086
Better in every regard.
Our ships are still behind council ships, but we should rape the shit out of then in personal combat.

>>26697116
>>26697116
Then why did our ships end up plinking off of Turian ships?

>>26697106
Then the alternatives are a.) espionage mission through the relay or b.) get the hell out of Dodge. As getting the hell out of dodge would almost certainly be fairly boring, let's start gering up for an expedition.

>>26697156
Because we had more of them.
The turians didn't lose any ships, they just took damage.

>>26697106
Honestly speaking just GTFO the system and waiting until the noise stops would bore me to tears.

Jonathan Sharp, fighter pilot sounds a lot more interesting than Jonathan Sharp, guy who hid in another system.

>>26697159
I kind of want to see what Arcturus Station would look like all Eclipse Phased, but yeah Sharp would rather prefer striking out boldly

>>26697156
We're better in almost every way except that we have almost no element zero, that means slow ass ships with shitty shields.

>>26697159
Seconding a, that sounds like a proper adventure!

>>26697181
Question. What kind of on-board manufacturing does our ship have?

>>26697181
Okay, so it sounds like a popular option is to approach the AA with the intention of leading a one ace espionage mission through the relay to figure out exactly where they came from, and see if they have anything to offer you to help you accomplish that, possibly asking to borrow a better ship.

Anything else to add?

>>26697222
Describe local color, hookers on the station. Also, introduce some interesting NPCs to interact with.

>>26697212

You have a decent sized desktop cornucopia machine built onto your ship, the product of a long period of work and upgrades. It can make most any kind of food or drink, as well as weapons as large as SMGs in a single go. Larger weapons or devices must be manufactured in parts and assembled, which takes longer.

>>26697222
I would ask for volunteers to accompany us- a solo recon mission sounds like a good way to get killed, and the others might have skills that we lack.

>>26697281
First- is our @-rep high enough to get a better recon/warship for this? An asteroid hauler is not my idea of a good recon ship.

>>26697345
Not high enough to get one for permanent use, but they would probably lend you one for a mission like this, considering you're crazy enough, and a badass pilot enough to maybe pull it off.

>>26697364
Excellent. What's available? Preferably something with QEC so we can get data back to Shanxi, if if we don't.

>>26697396
The kind of ship they would give you is about the same size as your current ship, a decent sized business jet basically. Except its internals would be taken up by engines and weapons storage rather than cargo bays and ore processing.

Basically a really big fighter ship for long range reconnaissance and behind enemy lines skulduggery. Just try to bring it back in once piece. And they would probably put a QE on it for an important mission like this.

>>26697435
What's the drone complement like? I suspect we're going to need lots of decoys.

>>26697472

Half a dozen decoy pods, basically transmitters with little engines meant to draw off pursuit by mimicking the transmissions of the main ship. No combat capable drones through, but it does have some nice plasma canons, and a targeting AI to fire them. Because you're not terribly good with gunnery.

>>26697509

So is this what you guys are going with? The thread is getting quiet and it has been a while since we actually did anything.

>>26697520
Yeah, this sounds good, waiting on you.

>>26697520
Sounds like a plan.

>>26697596
Right, proceeding.

>>26697520
Well, you really haven't provided any hooks for us to follow. We've just kinda been tossing things out there that would be fun to do. You kinda dropped the ball on providing us with a scenario to grab and hold our attention. I mean, an unknown alien race opens fire on an expedition, almost annihilates them, then chases the survivors back to their planet whereupon they scare the living daylights out of the orbital defenders before slinking away. There is so much excitement and "holy shit"ness, but we've just been kinda loitering around going 'oh hmm that's cool.' Why wasn't Sharp contacted by whoever's in charge of Shanxi for intel and further orders? Our first contact with an alien race was a salvo of lead. Transhumanity should be freaking the fuck out right now and grilling anyone who encountered them for info.

>>26697684
You just decided to offer your info and services to them. Currently Sharp is not a part of any great mission or organization, something that is now changing that you have decided to sign on with the AA militia for this expedition. I just wanted to give the players some choice in what they wanted to commit themselves to, rather than just telling them 'go here do that right now', so they just have to roll to see if they screw it up or not.

>>26697733
Yeah, but by doing that you're not giving us any context or framework to go off of. You're painting an incomplete picture here.

>>26696442

You consider your options. You could just leave the system, but since when has Jonathan Sharp run from danger? Never to your knowledge, and you know him better than most. So rather than hide and wait whatever conflict you now face out, you decide to take a more active involvement. Besides, you’re curious to see where these unknown aggressors came from now. So you put through a call to the command center of the AA militia tasked with defending the colony.

“What do you want, Sharp is it?” A male voice asks.

“Captain Sharp.” You correct, politely, “And it isn’t what I want, but what you want. I am here to offer my services.”

“Services?” The man asks, unconvinced. “Explain.”

“Of course. I am an experienced pilot and explorer, and was one of the survivors of the fleet that encountered these attackers. I do of course offer to provide you with a full account of my experience, but I have something a little more dramatic in mind, something that will get you much more information than simply an interview.”

“Go on?” The man asks, seemingly intrigued despite himself.

“I propose to take a ship through the relay to the system where we were initially attacked. From there I will explore and attempt to locate the source of the attacking hostiles. I would then relay any and all information I recovered back to you for analysis.”

“An interesting proposal, what do you have to commit to this endeavor?”

You forward him your skill profile. “Only my skill as a pilot and explorer, I am afraid that my own ship is not well suited to the task. If you were to provide me with a better craft I could turn up a lot more, and probably get back alive even.”

“Impressive record. Alright Sharp I’ll consider your request, in the meantime come planetside for a proper interview, we need to know everything you do before you go off blazing into parts unknown.”

>>26697841

Anything specific to do on the planet, or just sit tight, do your interviews, and wait until your ship is cleared for launch?

>>26697854
What are our options to do on the planet? Frolic in meadows? Snort spaceblow off of a synth-hooker?

>>26697871
Shop for specialized equipment you might need, get a body mod you can afford if you think it might help you, do a networking search to see if you could turn up anything on the ships that attacked you, such as any known or theorized weaknesses.

>>26697854
Lets get down to business and go straight to the interview. Time is limited, and we don't know when they'll be back. Also, I don't think we should do this alone, lets see if we could team up with any other highly skilled volunteers to make a small elite team of bad asses.

>>26697930
Five teenagers with attitude, etc

>>26697893
Review what the eggheads have managed to come up with on these attackers. Knowledge is power.

>>26697934
>>26697930
There's not really a lot of room on the ship for other people, but if you wanted you could probably get one other person to go with you.

What kind of help are you in the market for? Heavy assault? Hacker expert? An AI to help you with tech analysis and fabrication? Something else?

>>26697954
Right, roll networking (45) to see if you can find anything useful from others who fought the invaders.

Rolled 95

>>26697956
Definitely a hacker. So what king of ship are we getting?

>>26697973
Rolling.

>>26697992

As I have said, your ship is basically an overlarge fighter with minimal internal space. Your personal morph will reside in the cockpit, but you will basically be directly sleeved into the ship itself. There is minimal room for anything other than weapons and engines, but you have some room for other people, though only really one for long term hauls.

>>26697992

Sadly, you fail to find any useful information, only repeats of what you already know. That their ships are fast and appear to have energy shielding beyond that of what the Alliance can field. Nothing new to you.

What's Firewall doing in all of this?

>>26698009
Hacker/Communication expert. Getting into their systems would be just as important as just figuring out where they are.

>>26698027
Sending their top agents to go and reinforce the colony, preparing for an OH SHIT tier X-Risk, and generally trying to get their hands on any alien tech they can find.

Shepard has been deployed to Shanxi.

>>26698064
Any possibility of getting their assistance in our expedition?

>>26698044
>>26697992
Any objection to taking a hacker with us?

>>26698096
Jonathan Sharp is not a Firewall agent, and is not aware of their existence.

>>26698111
Anything else to do on the planet? I am assuming you want to take basic combat gear, which will be provided, but anything specific, or any body mods you want to take?

>>26698160
If nobody says anything you are just moving on with nothing else happening.

>>26698160
Unless we're planning to participate in any boarding actions, I don't think we need much in the way of ground combat gear. Any mods that will boost our piloting and gunnery skill should be taken, though. Does the ship have a gunnery AI?

>>26698254
We don't know what else to do. I'm completely unfamiliar with Eclipse Phase.

>>26698299
Ship will have a gunnery AI. Not much personality, but it can shoot better than you, as well as your hacker companion.

You might find it interesting to land on planets to do groundside recon if you find a planet with life, but your ships is not equipped to board anything that's really meant for combat.

>>26698345
Also, groundside combat gear might be useful in the unlikely event that Jonathan Sharp, Ace Pilot, gets shot down.

>>26698379
Can we fit an infomorph- or AI-controlled combat synthmorph on board anywhere?

>>26698379
In that cace, get some armor and a pistol for each hand. All four of them.

>>26698433
That was my intention yes, hacking and combat, though he would be better at hacking than combat.

>>26698436
You are not ambidextrous, and you cannot use your lower hands in an environment with gravity.

>>26698448
Well then, get some body armor and an SMG and pistol- the best designs our cornucopia can make- and we're good to go.

>>26698493
Also, the armory on the ship should have a combat rifle. FYI.

Anything else or get this show on the road?

>>26698517

You spend the next few days being interviewed by various members of military intelligence, telling them the same story about what happened to you and your ship. Sensor logs from your ship are poured over in detail, compared to others, and then they come back with more questions. Eventually they seem convinced you have given them everything you can, so they finally tell you that your mission has been approved. They have also mentioned something about providing a companion for the mission, a hacker specialist to help you interpret any enemy systems you may come across.

Your mining ship is safely stored away and taken care of, and they finally take you to see the ship they have earmarked for your use on this mission.

“This is the Valkyrie.” The Autonomist techie walking with you says, “She’s a fast little ship, laser and particle accelerator weaponry, advanced sensors, onboard nanofabricator, self-repairing smart material hull, with an onboard AI to handle weapons and maintenance duties. She’s got some basic resource harvesting capability, but only enough to help keep it stocked with resources to make repairs, nothing fancy. Internal space is minimal, so you’ll be plugged directly into the ship on life support for most of the mission, unless you get out for some reason. Also, I believe someone is here waiting for you.”

>>26698627

You turn and see a smooth, black shelled synthmorph walking towards you. It turns its smooth featureless face to examine you.

“Hello.” Says the synthmorph. “I am OTTO, I have been assigned to accompany you on this mission. I am experienced in bypassing numerous forms of electronic defenses, and am capable of ground combat if needed.”

“Thank you Otto, I’m sure we’ll work well together.” You say.

“Indeed, I shall board the ship now. Have a nice day.” Otto says.

Launching now.

>>26698627
Sounds like a great ship. So who's the guy?

>>26698672

You board the ship yourself, climbing through the internal space and eventually into the pilot dock in the middle of the ship. You always have had a certain fondness for solid controls in your hands, but direct mental interface works great too. You settle back into your chair as the connection harness gently secures itself to your head, and a moment later you are slipping away.

An indeterminate time later, you open your eyes. You are looking at the hangar bay. You look left, and realize you can already see left, and right, and up and down and every direction at once. You try to flex your hand, feeling a flat on the sleek wing beside you flexing. You examine your borrowed body, running a mental diagnostic of all your systems, and finding everything to be in perfect working order. You activate your communication system and listen to the radio traffic of the colony filtering through the electromagnetic winds.

Right then, time to lift off.

You roll across the ground and out of the hangar bay, getting onto a launch pad. You activate your VTOL jets and launch yourself into the sky, blue-white engine flare screaming behind you, wind whipping over your metallic skin. You give into the temptation and do a few barrel rolls, before gunning it for orbit.

>>26698672
He doesn't sound quite human. Either he's just very formal, or an AI of some kind. What's his profile say?

>>26698763

You do a quick search on him, and discover that this Otto character is an AGI, with a slightly nebulous background. But he has been working well with the Alliance for several years as an information expert, and recently relocated to Shanxi.

>>26698752

Once you get to orbit you think a few details over to flight control, getting a flight plan with the rest of the fleet, before setting course for the relay. But before you can get further than a little way, you pick up some wide band transmissions from the colony, you tap into them, paying close attention to a signal on a military frequency.

“This is Shanxi control to all units, we are detecting a large fleet of ships closing on the colony, profiles match the ships which attacked earlier, prepare to engage.”

A private comm opens to the Valkyrie. “Sharp, we need that intel now more than ever, get your ass out of the system as fast as you can we’re about to be up to our eyes in invaders!”

State actions and roll skills as needed.

Rolled 81

>>26698898
Swing away from best estimated enemy sensor range and coast/cold-jet towards the relay. Once we're through, start heading for... whatever looks like signs of civilization. Rolling for piloting.

Rolled 46

>>26698898
Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge past the ships and do our mission. Tell OTTO to keep an eye on any fighters that try to get us.

>>26699014
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!

>>26698898

You fire up the ME core and get as much speed as you can before deactivating your engines, coasting the rest of the way, using ballistic trajectory and cold gas thrusters to maneuver around what you hope is the edge of their primary sensor range. You wonder if you got a little too close to one of their ships, but it seems that they are far more interested in the large Alliance fleet hovering over the planet than a single momentary blip on their sensors. You manage to shoot past unnoticed. At least until you activate the mass relay and go hurtling off to the system where you originally encountered the hostiles, but by that point they are far too preoccupied with engaging the Alliance fleet to turn back now.

You emerge into the system on the far side of the relay. All systems check green, and you start scanning the system. The long range sensors on this ship are considerably better than on your prospector, so you hope to turn up something more useful this time, at least before something equally terrible happens.

You set a course to slingshot through the system, and set out, listening to the solar wind whistling through the space around you.

You scan for a while, hoping to find something interesting, the long hours ticking by as you go from planet to planet. This may take a while.

Rolled 81

>>26699159
Pretty sure if there was anything interesting in this system, it would have been spotted by the initial exploration. Thoroughness is a virtue, but we need to get data fast if its to do any good. On to the next system.

>>26698898
Welp, there goes Shanxi.

Rolled 21

>>26699159
"So, how ya doin OTTO?"

Lets learn more about our crew mate while we look around.

ME1 soundtrack for your listening pleasure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m_G5giAvt4

>>26699259
Where did it all go so wrong ;_;

OP do you know where I can find the rulebooks for Eclipse Phase online? This setting has really caught my interest

>>26699159

As you take your scans you open a communication line to Otto.

[Otto, how’re you doing back there?]

[Hello. I am functioning perfectly.] Comes the simple reply.

[No, no, I mean how are you holding up, any thoughts or concerns? I just want to get to know you if we’re going on a mission like this together.]

[Very well. What do you want to know?]

[Well, where do you come from? What did you do before you signed on with the Shanxi defense force?]

[My initial origins are unknown to me.] Otto says, [I suspect that my memories of my creation and early existence have been erased. Before Shanxi I worked as an information retrieval agent for various clients throughout Alliance space.]

You would nod if you still had a movable head. [I see, and what do you hope to do with you life?]

[Continue existing.]

[I guess I can’t fault that.]

[Have a nice day.]

>>26699317

http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/

http://www.mediafire.com/view/574d0rtwkbtxmum/%5BEclipse_Phase%5D_Transhuman.pdf

That should get you most of it. I would upload the files myself, but they don't fit.

>>26699412
Also, they are all released under creative commons, so downloading them online for free is completely legal. So no worries about piracy issues whatsoever.

>>26699412
Much appreciated, brah

>>26699259
I love that music.

Rolled 37

>>26699378
Have the sensors turned up anything?

>>26699468
No. Proceed to next system?

Rolled 83

>>26699480
Yep, lets not waste anymore time.

Rolled 45

>>26699480
Absolutely.

>>26699259
Damn, listening to that ending song makes me want to replay the whole damn trilogy.

That one song brings back the spirit of the entire ME universe, beginning to end, and damn but that is a beautiful feeling.

>>26699546
>>26699556
Eventually convince yourself that there is absolutely nothing of interest in this system. That in itself surprises you. The unknowns had a presence in this system, and yet they did not colonize it? Strange, transhumans would have been all over this system the moment they got there, as they would have done had you not been attacked. A shame, but you decide to head on to the next system and try your luck there. You access the relay and randomly pick one of the two other connections to visit, the great bolt of energy consuming your body and hurling you across the galaxy again.

>>26699596
I got a baaad feeling about this.

Rolled 73

>>26699632
Don't worry. The worst that can happen is that we get restored from backup.
Or find the TITANs. Either or.

>>26699668
Did we backup at Shanxi?

>>26699697
Yes. Even though you didn't say you did, you did.

>>26699596

Eventually convince yourself that there is absolutely nothing of interest in this system. That in itself surprises you. The unknowns had a presence in this system, and yet they did not colonize it? Strange, transhumans would have been all over this system the moment they got there, as they would have done had you not been attacked. A shame, but you decide to head on to the next system and try your luck there. You access the relay and randomly pick one of the two other connections to visit, the great bolt of energy consuming your body and hurling you across the galaxy again.

As soon as you get through the relay you take a look about with your various senses, and immediately notice a major difference between this system and the one you were just in. For one, there are clearly artificial signals bouncing around the system. You snag one passing radio broadcast and listen in, words in an utterly incomprehensible language washing over you. A quick sensor pulse reveals what seems to be an inhabited world. Judging from the amount of communications traffic they are sending out, not a terribly large colony, though you would have to fly closer to investigate that.

You are also detecting numerous ships and small stations and platforms, or at least their radio ghosts. And you think that at least one ship is on its way to the relay, though whether to investigate you or just to jump elsewhere you have no idea.

Actions?

>>26699758
Time for some covert electronic warfare. Tell OTTO to start decoding their language if he can and to record anything and everything.

>>26699758
Remain in EMCON. Passively gather data for a while, and have OTTO start trying to get into their systems. Avoid detection.

>>26699758
Ask OTTO if he can decipher anything from the electronic chatter. Keep out of sensor range of the ships and stay quiet. We don't want to risk being found.

>>26699855
>>26699868
What happens if we're caught?

>>26699894
We shoot and dodge our way back to the relay and hope the next system is less attentive.

>>26699894
Evasive maneuvers and hacking. Try not to kill anyone though. Unlike them, we don't shoot first and ask questions later like them.

>>26699936
It is perfectly acceptable to shoot second, you know.

>>26699758


[Otto, I want you to start recording everything we’re receiving. Try to decode anything useful you can and send as much as possible back on the QE.]

[Hello. I am working, however with no base for the language, it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to decode the language without significantly more detailed data.]

[Well, just do what you can, if all else fails at least send it back to Shanxi.]

[I am doing so, have a nice day.]

You get a quick burst of speed and sling yourself further into the system. Thankfully the ship seems to be more interested in the relay than you and simply jumps off to parts unknown.

[Otto, did you catch where that ship went?]

Otto flashes a simple confirmation code and continues his work.


--

Okay, it's almost dinnertime at the Proxy residence, so I think I'll be signing off for now, at least for the quest.

Thanks for playing, I'll take some time now to think out the consequences of this little expedition of yours, I didn't see this coming, but I have to say the possibilities for adventure are pretty cool.

I'll still be here to talk of course.

>>26699868
>>26699813
>>26699936
I say we stay dark, and have OTTO get to work on that decoding business with the language. I say we stay engines cool as much as we can and use ECC to baffle the oncoming ship.

Then, take what we can from it. Vent atmosphere and see if we can slave it to our own. Any info on the incoming vessel?

>>26700057
Still here if anyone wants to talk.

>>26701552
Is there a chance that we could meet up with Shepard?

>>26702029
Probably not during the first contact war, as Shepard is currently about to engage Turians on the ground on Shanxi, but who can say what the future holds.

>>26702260
Still here.

Since we have only one ship, it would be smart to deploy a sensor drone, or at least buoys with passive pickups, within the systems we scout. With limited active emissions, it's unlikely such small units would be detected very quickly. On our way back through these systems, we would either have the units dump their info to our ship and then self-destruct, or we'd physically retrieve them.

This would make it possible for us to gather data without our ship being physically present. It would also allow us to get eyes where our ship cannot go without great risk, since we shouldn't be lingering by mass relays for an extended period, or getting too close to colonies/ships.

>>26706644
As a matter of fact, we could try manufacturing limpet drones, if they could be stealthy enough. A tiny floating sensor package that attaches itself to the hull of a passing ship, and then dumps its memory in a single burst when it receives a specific code. We could launch them in clouds near mass relays.

Because this is an EP thread i'm hoping to get a bit of help. I'm a player who's never played EP before but -really- wants to get into it. Does anyone know of any games with patient GM's going around willing to take on another player?