You asked Tom how he had learned about the Deliverance, or how he was so certain that no one else had already looted it. He couldn’t give you a straight answer, only telling you that it was a chance of a lifetime. Apparently, the battleship carried on it an incredibly powerful object called the “Battery”, whose value was beyond measure to those who could appreciate its worth. According to Tom, it would be easy to find once you knew what you were looking for, but standing among the rubble and sheared metal of the hangar bay, you don’t even know where to start.

Well, you think, the hangar on its own is a scavenger’s paradise, filled with scrap metal, loose security panels, wiring, tubing, and a myriad of other salvageable junk. No one really understood how Wheel technology worked, and it was nearly impossible to acquire, which is why it was so valuable on the black market.

But your time here was limited, not only by your air, but who knew when the Wheel might decide to come looking for a wayward son. You look around the Hangar bay, noting signs pointing to the ARMORY, the BRIDGE, the ENGINE BAY, and the LIVING QUARTERS.

What should you do?
Should you:
1) Loot the HANGAR, or not?
2) Proceed to the ARMORY, BRIDGE, ENGINE BAY, or LIVING QUARTERS?

>>42672352
1. Yes loot

>>42672352
Did Tom give us specs on the size of this Battery? If we're going to have to unload everything to get it on our ship that's going to suck.

Loot but set stuff beside our ship til we know we have space for the most valuable scrap.

Lastly, how big is our ship? It sounds like a small ship.

Engine bay

>>42672352

2, Engine Bay, it seems like the most likely place to find a capital b Battery

>>42672558
>>42672662
>>42672818
>Loot the hangar, then proceed to the engine bay.
You give in to your scrap collecting instincts.

Deactivating your magnetic boots you bounce merrily around the hangar, filling your arms with whatever you can fit – with a thought to the future, of course.

The Wasp is a repurposed bunker-class fighter, a now-outdated model once built for long missions away from base. Naturally, this meant that it had a great deal of storage; space once used for food and ammunition now used to carry whichever junk you managed to find on your missions.

Even so, however, Tom never did tell you anything about the Battery besides “it’s there”. You have no idea how big it is, and so, instead of filling your vessel full of trash you’ll later have to remove, you coalesce the pieces of scrap into a more-or-less cohesive mass and wedge it under the Wasp’s hull. If there’s space for it later, you’ll bring it along.

With that done, you reactivate your boots and decide your next course of action. The Battery… you picture a television remote, or an alarm clock. If a battery can power those, maybe the Wheel’s spaceships are… battery powered?

>Whoops, forgot the trip.
>Also, let me know if these sections are too long.
--
An image of a Wheel shipyard crosses your mind. Instead of radioactive fuel rods, you see Wheel engineers carefully fitting in thousands of TV remote batteries, being extra-careful to fit positive to negative.
As absurd as the thought is, you proceed toward the engine bay. The ship is dead quiet, and you hear nothing but the sound of your breath and the muted thump of your suit as your feet are re and demagnetized. The hallways were unlit, some shredded to bits by the asteroids that had smashed into the battleship.

Following the signs, you eventually come to your destination. The Engine Bay was about the same size as the Hangar Bay, and from your vantage point on a walkway, you can tell it’s in a similar condition. The Deliverance’s massive engines were destroyed, both of them pierced by massive rocks. Scrap metal floated freely, some pieces rotating in the vacuum.

There is one key difference between the engine and hangar bays, though
A suited body floats in the center of the engine bay floor, latched onto a transparent container. You stand motionless for several seconds; the body does not stir.
What do you do?

>1) Hop the railing and propel yourself at the body at top speed.
>2) Take the stairs, approaching slowly and cautiously.
>3) Wait a little longer.

>>42673189
>2) Take the stairs, approaching slowly and cautiously.

>>42673189
>2) Take the stairs, approaching slowly and cautiously.

>>42673189
>>2) Take the stairs, approaching slowly and cautiously.

>>42673277
>>42673814
>>42673834
Feeling uneasy, you decide to take the stairs down to the engine bay floor.

The body is still as you descend and approach it. You examine your surroundings constantly, keeping your eyes peeled for threats. As a byproduct of your line of work, along with the lines of work before it, you consider yourself a fairly perceptive man.

The silence is overwhelming and perhaps because of all the nothing, your heartbeat quickens. The spacesuit is of a type you’ve never seen before, meaning it most likely belongs to a member of the Wheel. Coming closer, you realize that the suits hands have magnetic clips, which is how it’s remained attached to the container it’s holding.

The suit’s reflective visor is down, and there’s no way to tell who’s behind it, or if there even is someone back there in the first place. Circling around the suit, you notice a PDA is wedged between the suit’s right hand and the transparent container.

Kneeling down to examine the container, you find it completely empty save for one thing:

A small, rectangular, and shiny-black box sits fitted into some sort of receptacle. The box is completely featureless, save for three faintly-glowing circular green lights.

What do you do?

>1) Prod the suit – check more rigorously for any signs of life.
>2) Examine the PDA.
>3) Fiddle with the black box.

>>42673905
>1) Prod the suit – check more rigorously for any signs of life.

>>42673905
>2) Examine the PDA.

>>42673905 #
>1) Prod the suit – check more rigorously for any signs of life.
Say it with me now; do not bait the jump scare.

>>42673986
>>42674269
You decide to give the suit a more rigorous prodding. First, you’ll have to get it out of its’ awkward position, hunched over the transparent container.

With a fair bit of force, you rip the left hand off. You do the same for the right hand, but ripping the magnetized hand off sends the PDA floating off into the engine bay!

Roll 1d10 to try and catch the PDA! If you miss it now, you’ll have to give up on finding it later. You’ve already spent time gathering all that scrap, and as far as you know, you’re not any closer to finding the Battery.

>Roll >5 to successfully catch the PDA. Highest roll will be counted.

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>42674490
PDA

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>42674490

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>42674490

>>42674600
>>42674571
>>42674522
Sweet Catch, dude!

You grab the PDA and stow it in one of your own suit’s pouches.

Moving back to the other suit, which is now also threatening to float off, you lay it flat on the engine bay’s floor. The suit is plated with a thin layer of protective material around the body’s vital areas. Applying pressure at the arms, you can definitely feel flesh and bone – or at least something that feels a lot like it – beneath. So there is a person in there after all.

There’s a nameplate on the suit’s chest - “DENREI”. Below that, “ENGINEER CORPS”. Mr(?). Denrei’s rank is plated on his shoulder, but the symbols are unfamiliar. The Wheel must use a different system than the Confederacy.

You give Denrei a vigorous shake, but if he’s alive, he doesn’t show it. His oxygen tank looks like it could fit around seven or eight hours’ worth, but you can’t tell if there’s any left by the weight. For some reason, these Wheel tanks don’t have an external gauge.

But then, Denrei grabs your shoulder.

Your jaw drops and you’re frozen, glued to the floor by your magnetic boots. You were all but certain the person in the suit below you was dead; otherwise, your well-trained reflexes would have knocked the hand out of the way near instantly.

You stare into the reflective visor, seeing only your own shocked, helmeted face.

With his other hand, Denrei points up to the walkway behind you.

1) Look.
2) Knock Denrei away and enter a defensive stance.
3) Say something <Write In>.

>>42674897
Damnit, I forgot the trip again. Sorry!

>>42674897
>1) Look.
>3 RAnk name and status

>>42674897
>1) Look.

>>42674897
Look.

>>42675042
>>42674995
>>42674993
>>42674920
You follow Denrei’s pointing hand.

On the walkway where you stood moments ago was a figure barely visible in the bay’s dim lighting. He was dressed in combat fatigues and a black leather jacket with a conspicuous red scarf. You made careful notice of all these details because this is not at all proper attire for surviving in a vacuum.

Besides that the figure wore a pure ivory white mask, with thin slits cut out for eyes. A design of blue lines drooped from the corners, as if the mask was crying. A slit for the mouth curved upward in a barely-noticeable smile. A scabbard with a sheathed sword hung on a belt around his waist.

You are at a loss for words and actions. What you’re seeing makes no sense at all.

The man’s hand moves to his waist, and he unsheathes his sword, pointing it directly at you. You find your focus drawn towards its point, and as it is, you feel a little more… strange. The world around you begins to swim and fade to black. You feel a peculiar sensation, as those the ground is giving away below you, and you’re falling, naked, into something that must be the fourth dimension, through a crack between the planes.

You wake to the coming and going of the surf. Your right arm thrusts out, gripping a mask that lies beside you. Dragging the mask through the sand you stand up, your joints cracking and straining, bones that had lain still until today. Naked, on a beach, jungle behind you, a mask in your hand. You fit it over your- my- face.

This man was me.

Now I was clothed. The mask was the key. I knew what I had to do.

>>42675245
I traveled to elsewhere in time and space, to a room where a man and a woman finalized the results of years of research. A desktop lamp was their only source of light.

“Well, that’s everything,” the man said.

“Jesus, that’s a thick file.”

“There’s a lot in it. You were there. You know how hard it was.”

“Yeah, and now we’re going to stick it into a filing cabinet to gather dust.”

“That’s right.”

Somebody sighed, but I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Kind of a shame,” the man said.

“I guess it’s too late now, anyway,” the woman shook her head. “Are we going to give it a name?”

“What kind of name could you give something like this?”

“It’d be a shame to just leave it as ‘REPORT NUMBER FOUR ZERO ZERO FOUR.’”

“Well, now that I think about it, there is actually one word that could sum all this shit up.”

"What is it?" I asked. The man cringed slightly at my words, as if remembering painful memories from long ago.

“Really?" the woman said, bringing the man back to the present. "What’s that?”
I dove in closer, struggling to hear the answer.

You take in a breath of air deeper than any you've ever taken before. Several more follow it. The walkway is empty. The engine bay is empty except for you and Denrei, whose hand is now beginning to droop.

Sweat pouring down your brow, you turn back to the man on the ground. Checking your heads up display, you look for open communications channels. You find one.
“What the fuck is going on!?” You scream. “What the fuck was that!?”
Denrei is silent for a few moments. You are left with your ragged breathing, until, finally.
“I…” he says, “I’ve played my part.”
His grip on your shoulder loosens, and his arms float limply in the vacuum.

>>42675350
You retain your composure for several minutes, before standing up, letting loose a primal scream, and kicking the body as hard as you can. It floats off until it hits the ceiling of the engine bay, where it bounces off and begins a lazy journey, flipping over and over again throughout the room.

Your breathing is beginning to return to normal. You check over your shoulder at the walkway once again – the masked man is nowhere to be found. How could he be? How could there even be someone like that here in the first place?

There’s no point thinking about the impossible. Focus on the task at hand.

You’re here to get the Battery. What do you do?

>1) Check the PDA
>2) Fiddle with the Black Box

>>42675384

wat.

Also >1) Check the PDA

>>42675384
>>1) Check the PDA

>>42675384
>1) Check the PDA
>2) Fiddle with the Black Box

>>42675384
...
K. Check our oxygen supply for Aerosolized LSD, and
>1) Check the PDA

>>42675424
>>42675439
>>42675447
>>42675632
You should check out the PDA, it seems pretty important.

Ignoring the persisting ringing in your ears, you decide to check the PDA. You remove it from the pouch and tap the screen. Luckily, it works exactly like any other PDA or smartphone you’ve seen in Confederate space.

BTDIAG128 seems to be the name of the currently running application. It looks like a type of diagnostic tool for – a Battery! The display features a bunch of tables with numbers that don’t really mean anything to you, but, most tellingly, there is a prominent cross-sectional diagram of a rectangular box, with parts of it lit up in yellow, green, and red; mostly red.

You glance over at the black box in the transparent container. The lights that were once faintly green have now turned yellow.

That little black box, that looks like it could fit in a gym bag – that’s the Battery. You’re not sure how to feel about this. What else would a battery be doing in a ships engine bay other than powering the engines? Could this small box really achieve the same power output as the power of nuclear fusion did in Confederate ships? If so, then how far ahead were the Wheel compared to their Confederate enemies? And if this one box had enough juice to power an entire battleship… how much could it be worth on the black market?

There’s no way you’re leaving without the Battery.

The Diagnostic Tool has one more option that you more or less understand: SAFE EJECT. On the other hand, you can’t really see anything holding the Battery in place. What do you do?

>1) Press SAFE EJECT.
>2) Who safely removes hardware anyway? Just grab the Battery and be on your way.
>3) Mash the PDA wildly.

>>42675788
>1) Press SAFE EJECT.

>>42675788
>1) Press SAFE EJECT.

>>42675788
>1) Press SAFE EJECT.
You don't mess around with junk you don't understand!

>>42675788
>1) Press SAFE EJECT.

>Inb4 we get shot out of the ship

>>42675876
At least it'll be safe.

>>42675960
>>42675876
>>42675875
>>42675864
>>42675823
You should press SAFE EJECT. It’s the wisest course of action.

You press SAFE EJECT. A dialog box appears, demanding credentials, along with a warning that the Deliverance will run on solar power until the battery is replaced. Under these conditions, the ship will not be able to accelerate to Close-to-light speeds, or initiate a 4-D jump.

Fortunately for you, the credentials are pre-entered: GDENREI and ********.
You confirm your desire to safely eject the battery. Perhaps, if the ship’s electrical infrastructure had not been completely destroyed and the battery was powering something other than most probably itself and its immediate surroundings, sirens would have sounded and some other hubbub would have occurred to signify the entire battleship’s main power source being removed.

The transparent container slides apart, exposing the battery inside. Giving the container a knock, you realize your foolishness – you thought it’d be easy to slide it off, but this container was completely unscathed despite the devastation in the rest of the engine bay. Furthermore, it was magnetic; you honestly have no idea what this material could be. Whatever it is, it’s definitely very resistant.

With a click, the Battery is ejected, and begins to float off. The dull yellow lights turn red, then extinguish entirely. You grab it and tuck it under your arm. As you walk back to the hangar from the engine bay, you sincerely hope the Battery isn’t radioactive. Your spacesuit offers some rudimentary protection – but who knows what longer exposure would do to you. You have a Geiger counter in the Space Wasp, which, in retrospect, you really should start bringing with you.

Back in the hangar, you’re confronted with the pile of scrap you assembled earlier. What do you do?

1)You spent all the effort piling up. The Battery’s really small, so you can fit it all into the Wasp with ease.
2)Leave it and get out of here.

>>42676165
>1)You spent all the effort piling up. The Battery’s really small, so you can fit it all into the Wasp with ease.

>>42676165
>)You spent all the effort piling up. The Battery’s really small, so you can fit it all into the Wasp with ease.

Oh, also, check our air supply for aerosolized LSD.

>>42676165
>1)You spent all the effort piling up. The Battery’s really small, so you can fit it all into the Wasp with ease.

>>42676318
>>42676296
>>42676292
Don’t let all your work go to waste!

You open the Wasp’s cockpit and grab your Geiger counter. A cursory examination shows nothing special. However the battery works, it’s not radioactive. You open the rear compartment, and stow the Battery in a safe spot.

You check the gauge attached to your oxygen tank currently floating around your waist. You’ve got three hours of pure, sweet oxygen left, plenty of time to get all this valuable scrap into the Wasp. And you do so, with pleasure. You probably won’t be able to sell the Battery right away, since you’ll want to find someone who can really appreciate its value. Some quick money would be useful in the meantime; and it’ll probably be good money too, if you manage to sell it to one of your low-level contacts in the Confederacy.

Satisfied with your acquisitions, and with the memories of that strange, impossible scene in the engine bay already fading, you hop in the cockpit and close it. Once the pressurization completes, you remove your helmet and start up the engines. The Wasp putters out of the hangar of the DELIVERANCE an back into the asteroid belt.

As you’re making your way back out to open space, you bring the Wasp to a halt. The space outside the belt, calm and dotted with the feeble lights of distant stars begins to twist, bulging outwards. Directly to your front, but according to your sensors, a hundred kilometers away, the bulge cracks open. Light spills out from the crack, hues of purple, green and blue, mixed together in an ethereal glow.

You’re no physicist, nor do you concern yourself with the inner workings of faster than light travel, but you’d seen a warship enter a system a few years back and it looked quite similar to the spectacle you’re presently observing. You have a feeling however that this isn’t the Deep Space Confederacy here to slap you with a looting ticket.

>>42676628
A solemn form makes its way out of the glowing wound in space, trans-dimensional lightning striking its hull from the realm it had just exited. Lights blink in unison around the opening of a large barrel in the ships nose. The entire vessel is otherwise devoid of light.
You feel as though your breath’s been punched out of you. You’d left as soon as Tom gave him the news, and Tom assured you that you could get out in time. But between the scrap gathering and the nonsense in the engine bay, you were out of luck. The Wheel had come to take back what was theirs.

Your Bunker-Class Space Wasp is meant for long forays, sure, but not quick escapes. Like all small craft, it’s incapable of 4-D jumps and needs time to calculate a safe route for Close-to-Light speed travel. The time it would take to determine the route would be plenty for the Wheel to apprehend you.

And who knew what would happen then?

As you contemplate your options, the battleship opens a communications channel with you. You see the low-resolution face of a grey-uniformed man appear on one of the Wasp’s monitors.

“Attention Scavenger!” he says. “This is the Wheel battleship Expulsion. Power down your shields and weapons and stay where you are. We will come to retrieve you shortly.”

What do you do?

>1) Stay put. Do as you’re told.
>2) Move back into the Asteroid field.
>3) Say something <Write in>

>>42676794
>>2) Move back into the Asteroid field.

>>42676794
>>2) Move back into the Asteroid field.

>>42676843
>>42676830
Get back! Hide!

You throw the engines in reverse, moving back into the field. It should be a bit harder for them to track you in here. Another message comes in from the Expulsion’s bridge.
“Scavenger, you have chosen not to comply. There is a risk that you are in possession of our technology. Stop immediately for interrogation, or we will have to take retaliatory measures.”

Not like there was any chance this wasn’t going to happen; you continue your reverse into the field. You’re proud of highly the Wheel think of you, but in reality the Space Wasp has no shields or weapons to speak of. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. While its original weapons were long obsolete, the Wasp did have one Class-4 laser, welded onto the side by a toothless scrapyard merchant. However, a drunken fight at a pit-stop tavern led to an act of petty vandalism by the offended party, leaving the laser out of order. Furthermore, the lack of shields meant that any dent in the hull was one that you’d have to get out with a hammer, pay to get fixed, or the most likely option, leave as it was.

Your reverie is broken by an insistent beeping from the Wasp’s computers. Several small, rapidly moving objects are approaching the Wasp. Missiles. They’re sending missiles! From a battleship against a single, obsolete fighter. Looks like the Wheel’s protectiveness of their technology really doesn’t know any limits.

Your best shot right now is to get to the other side of the planet. There, you’d have a minute or two to plan out a deeper strategy while the much larger Wheel battleship repositions. In the meantime though, you’ll have to do your best to avoid the three salvos approaching your position.

Roll 3d10. Highest sum total will be counted.

Rolled 5, 4, 5 = 14 (3d10)

>>42677111

Rolled 2, 1, 10 = 13 (3d10)

>>42677111

Rolled 10, 2, 5 = 17 (3d10)

>>42677111

Rolled 4, 7, 7 = 18 (3d10)

>>42677111

>>42677287
As the first salvo hits, you position yourself strategically: the resulting explosion generates a ton of debris, making it much harder for the remaining two salvos to penetrate deeper into the belt (+2 to subsequent rolls)
The next salvo does nothing more than pepper the Wasp with a hail of pebbles. A somewhat larger rock smashes into the Wasp’s viewport, causing a snaking, but superficial crack. You push the engines as fast as you can handle with manual steering.
The third salvo hits an asteroid nearby. The shockwave sends the Wasp barrel-rolling planetside, narrowly avoiding debris created by the explosion itself. You right the Wasp, only to find yourself slowing down and approaching the atmosphere. You push the throttle higher and make it back into the asteroid belt. According to your sensors, the Wheel’s battleship has already begun to move.
You await a fourth salvo, but it doesn’t come.

Looking out of the field, you notice another bulge forming in space, two hundred kilometers away from the last one and slightly smaller. Soon, the Expulsion stops its repositioning as well.

A familiar scene plays out as a Confederate Battlecruiser peels out of the fourth dimension. You slow down and halt, hidden from sight behind an asteroid. You can’t hide from sensors though, and soon, a channel opens from the Confederates.

“Attention, Bunker-Class Vessel!” A blue-uniformed talking head appears on your monitor. “I am Officer Menoff, speaking on behalf of Captain Stefan Sonett of the Deep Space Confederacy Ship Battlecruiser Pretoria. By order of the Military Secretariat of the Outer Rim, we extend our jurisdiction over this planet. Turn off your weapons, shield, and engine, and remain where you are.”

What do you do?
>1) Stay put.
>2) Continue enacting your escape plan.
>3) Say Something <Write In>

>>42677556
Whoops, this post wasn't up when I wrote the update. In the future I'll specify how long the rolling will go on for. Sorry!

>>42677657
>2) Continue enacting your escape plan.

>>42677657
>>2) Continue enacting your escape plan.

>>42677772
>>42677736
One transgalactic government… is much like another.

Though you’re officially a citizen of the Confederacy, this isn’t the first time you’ve run up against their authority. You speed back up and proceed to the other side of the planet, the pale blue light once more becoming visible way at the other end of this solar system. Checking the sensors, you see both the Confederates and the Wheel ships staying where they are, probably undergoing some sort of negotiations. Hoping to sneak away during the politicking, you drift out of the asteroid belt and start your computer on route calculations.

Officially, this planet was in the neutral buffer zone of planets that separated the outer rims of the Confederacy and the Wheel. Presumably, the Wheel wanted access to their wrecked ship – and the Confederates wanted the same thing. Like many other border incidents that happened these days, ambassadors would be called in, conversations would be had, people of local influence would be bribed, and catastrophe would be averted.

Or maybe not. Things can change in a moment.

Dozens of triangles pour out of the Wheel battleship, heading toward your ship. And boy, those fighters are fast.
You slam reverse, cancelling the route acquisition and returning to the asteroid belt. The Wasp’s bulk absorbs most of the rocks, the rest vapourized in its engines. Soon the Wasp comes to a halt with a crash, its rear meeting a much larger asteroid. The impact knocks out the cabin light, leaving you in the red glow of emergency bulbs.

Next, the world around you explodes in a flash of light and fire. The Space Wasp is pelted with more stone as the fighters fire off their first salvo. You see indistinct shapes moving toward you. Regaining your composure, you check the Wasp’s systems. To your bemusement, you discover your non-functional laser had been smashed to pieces by an asteroid. How will you defeat the Wheel and the Confederates now that your secret weapon was fully out of commission?

But this was no time for self-depreciating humour. You lock your goggles back over your eyes and restart your engines. Dodging asteroids, you have only a few seconds to glance out at the events transpiring outside the belt. While the missiles continued to fly towards you, your sensors show that the Wheel fighters had changed course. The battleship had begun to change orientation as well. You make it back to the edge of the asteroid belt and drift slowly outward.

Dozens of triangles pour out of the Wheel battleship, heading toward your ship. And boy, those fighters are fast.

You slam reverse, cancelling the route acquisition and returning to the asteroid belt. The Wasp’s bulk absorbs most of the rocks, the rest vapourized in its engines. Soon the Wasp comes to a halt with a crash, its rear meeting a much larger asteroid. The impact knocks out the cabin light, leaving you in the red glow of emergency bulbs.

Next, the world around you explodes in a flash of light and fire. The Space Wasp is pelted with more stone as the fighters fire off their first salvo. You see indistinct shapes moving toward you. Regaining your composure, you check the Wasp’s systems. To your bemusement, you discover your non-functional laser had been smashed to pieces by an asteroid. How will you defeat the Wheel and the Confederates now that your secret weapon was fully out of commission?

But this was no time for self-depreciating humour. You lock your goggles back over your eyes and restart your engines. Dodging asteroids, you have only a few seconds to glance out at the events transpiring outside the belt. While the missiles continued to fly towards you, your sensors show that the Wheel fighters had changed course. The battleship had begun to change orientation as well. You make it back to the edge of the asteroid belt and drift slowly outward.

For some reason, the Expulsion and Pretoria had entered combat. You had no solid idea as to what lead to this disagreement, but the launching of fighters – even though they were meant for you – may have trigged the Confederate Captain.

The Confederate Battlecruiser had been joined by two missile frigates, attacking from a distance while the cruiser absorbed most of the fire. It and the Wheel battleship change orientation frequently, attempting to get in the sights of each other’s linear accelerators. The Battlecruiser’s shield is a constant glowing oval, flames from exploding missiles blooming in perfect spheres around it. Streaks of rocket fuel and the bright greens of Wheel lasers fill the space between the opposing sides.

What do you do?

1) Now’s your chance!

>>42678042
>1) Now’s your chance!

>>42678067
Don’t waste this opportunity!

For whatever reason, the Confederates and the Wheel are fighting. Fights between ships where a single giant magnetically accelerated hunk of metal can spell the end of hundreds of crew members, concentration is key.

The route acquisition was mostly finished, and even the bunker-class fighter has some rudimentary memory. With the Confederates and the Wheel focused on each other, you take your chance. You punch in a set of coordinates, hit “RESUME CALCULATION”, and close your eyes.

--
Before, he closed his eyes from fear, but during his trip back "home", the Pilot eventually closed his eyes to sleep. And when he slept, he dreamt - of Catalysis.

With transgalactic entities such as the Wheel and the Deep Space Confederacy, where each side controlled hundreds of planets across dozens of solar systems, a confrontation like this would truthfully constitute nothing more than a border skirmish. “The Action at Carnegia”, as the combat would be named in the annals of the Confederacy, was a larger confrontation among dozens of similar incidents along the outer rim of the DSC. Because the Action eventually involved a capital ship on the side of the DSC and the destruction of a Wheel battleship, tensions between the Wheel and the Confederates finally began to escalate. Still, neither side could break out of their cages, not willing to risk total war, not a repeat of the strife that had ended four years ago.

The Fundamental Shift brought on the Rediscovery, and that brought on the status quo that would permeate and if not stopped consume the galaxy whole.

The Action at Carnegia was the spark that started the Reaction, but still, further movements were already underway.

File: Sheeeeeittt.jpg (38 KB, 500x406)

38 KB JPG

>>42678042
For real? it was a 1 choice answer?

>>42678127
And then, his dreams wandered, to a space familiar, but a time yet to come.

The man wasted no time putting on his coat; the woman wasn't in such a hurry.

“What’s this next section here? It’s been so long since we put together this part. I don’t even remember what happened this far back.”
“Huh? This part’s the really boring explanation. I wanted to delete it, you’re the one who insisted on keeping it in.”
“Oh, right. I like this part! Not everyone’s got a good historical background on this stuff. It’s worth a read.”
“No one wants to read all that. No one’s going to read all that! This thing is never getting out to the public anyway.”
“It might, some day. People deserve to know.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. I’m gonna go, it’s about time to free up the babysitter. Don’t stay too late.”
“I’ll see you at home.”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”

>SCAVENGER QUEST EPISODE 1: THE PILOT: END

>>42678152
thanks for running!

File: sq1.jpg (33 KB, 634x542)

33 KB JPG

That's all for now, folks!
Since this is my first time QMing, I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions you have.
My main concerns are that my "cutscenes" are too long and that there aren't enough points for reader input, which are kind of the main points of a quest. So if you feel that way, please let me know.

Also, if there's any other faux-pas I made, such as this
>>42678145
maybe? I don't know if that's a bad thing to do in quests. So if it is, please do so.

Also, if anyone has any questions about SCAVENGER QUEST, I would be happy to stick around for a bit and answer them. As for the continuation, I'll be back either tomorrow (but probably not) at around the same time or thursday.
As a parting gift, please enjoy this autistic ms paint drawing.
Thank you all for reading!

>>42678235
It was a fun read and set up for something bigger though the Mask stuff was completely out of left field. Though I guess we'll see where that goes.

For suggestions, 2-3 options plus an "Other" or "Write-in" option seems to be par for the course for quests.
If you'll have dicerolling, having a short thing explaining mechanics would be kind, especially if the Pilot is going to have something akin to a character sheet.
Also for dicerolling, a number of QMs seem to go best of 3 or 5 and give voting on options about a 5-15 minute window depending on how many players there are. 10 is a good sweet spot.
As well as this advice, suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com is good for archiving your quests (look at the archive list to get a feel for how long your description should be and how tagging works), Twitter is good to keep in contact with your playerbase and fellow QMs and Pastebins are godly for keeping information like a character sheet, mechanics, world info, etc. together.
On a final note, to talk to other QMs and readers in realtime, there's the #QMC and #ques/tg/enerals chatrooms on Rizon IRC and a Quest Thread General on weekends.

Good luck, Catalyst, I'll be reading!