Futuristic Shattered Galaxy: Maiden Voyage (OPEN, Captain needed)

[Thinslayer]

In many science fiction stories, there abound tales of Precursors, ancient civilizations that ruled the galaxy and shaped its history before disappearing into the void. Today, you shall live among them, not as one of them, but as a member of a nascent civilization under their care. You live in a time when your people are ready to throw off their yoke and live independently as a sovereign space empire.


Your story begins on Starbase 4, a Terran Federation installation on the border between the Federation and the Spiral Arm Treaty Organization (SATO) Alliance. You were summoned on a secret mission to aid the Space Police in their fight against the upstart Free Trade Guild, which has sullied its good name by pirating Federation shipping and military hardware. Secret, I say, because the tool you will use for the mission is an experimental starship using technology stolen from the Crescent Empire, the aforementioned Precursors in this era.


Pirates will not be your only enemies for long. The Federation and the Alliance are still having trade disputes going back decades, and war will soon break out between the two major powers. Civil unrest may reveal rebellion within the Federation. And in the worst case scenario, you may even find yourself facing down the mighty Crescent armada. As the crew of a Federation starship, you must protect your country with your lives. Break free of the yoke that binds you! For freedom and the Terran Federation!

 

[Thinslayer]

0800 hours


The time has come. Enter the briefing room.

 

[Menacing Melon]

Andrew would swagger into the room, wearing his casual clothing and holding his belt loosely, and taking a look around the briefing room. This was his day, get hired, do his job, Don't F*ck it up, then leave with a heap load of cash, and maybe get a new ship as well. He'd pull his goggles down off his head and clear them up with his sleeve. All he's hoping for right now is for his crew not to be filled with a bunch of strict, do it by the book middle-aged officers. As he'd mount his goggles atop his head once more, he'd go to the nearest wall, leaning on it casually. Noticing he's the first of his crew to be there, he decides to enjoy himself for a few minutes by lighting up a cigarette, and lazily placing it in his mouth.

 

[UnknownSection]

Edward strode into the room, clad in his usual attire. This was one hell of an anomaly. The Federation had called him off from his usual duties for quite a peculiar mission. The mission exactly? Well there weren't much details to begin with. The papers literally said, "Assist Space Police". A bit vague, one could say. However dubious this was, he had a job to do, and he had the full intent to do it exceptionally. He brushed a few locks of hair out of his vision and scanned the room. Only one person had arrived before him. He looked the man up and down. The man had a laid back posture, leaning on a wall with a cigarette. Casual clothing, pilot goggles, he was the guy that was going to be making sure they didn't crash into an asteroid. "I assume you're the pilot? It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Edward Roswaal at your service. I lookg forward to not crashing into other planetary objects." Edward put on a playful smirk as he said this.

 

[Menacing Melon]

He'd look at the captain, raise an eyebrow, then taking his cigarette out of his mouth and tapping it to let the little-used bits off blowing out a bit of smoke. He'd then speak in his not so special American accent "it's a pleasure, And you, Captain, will be the guy tellin me what to do. And no promises about crashing, I haven't even laid a finger on the ship their providing yet" He'd chuckle a bit, placing the cigarette back in his mouth, "Anyways, you have word from any of the other crew members? I'm a little curious who I'm going to be flyin' around" He's now looking at Edward and standing straight instead of leaning on the wall.

 

[armoredpotrol]

As he enters the sector Uldren begins a scan of the ship it seems there are several people on the meeting room. He begins to establish a video link to the group. He has already run a background check on every person coming. as he pulls up beside the ship he reads the extensive files and waits for the rest

 

[Thinslayer]

This is it. Everything I came here for begins now. Don't screw this up.


Faye Bannister exhaled and brushed her hair through her fingers. Determined to make a solid first impression, she straightend her posture and marched into the briefing room. Two men were already there before her, and she likely wouldn't be the last, so she was somewhat relieved to feel neither too early nor too late. She sat down in a front row chair and folded her hands demurely in her lap.


Faye glanced at each of the men. The one leaning against the wall looked like he might be a pilot. The other looked nobler. If she had to guess their roles, they might be helmsman and captain, respectively.


"You boys are early," she said.

 

[BunBun]

"Shit, shit, shit!" The black blur would spout as they ran through the hallways in Starbase 4, pushing past commanding officers, dispatchers, general and the likes to get to the briefing room. Along the way, their hoodie had fallen off their head, revealing shoulder length blonde hair flapping behind her. The reason for this uncanny scurry was because they had over slept. Not a usual occurrence but if she wanted to impress, this behavior would not fly.


Rounding a corner, Trisha slowed down when she was met with a dead end. She banged on the steel wall and cursed again Great, not only will I be late but I'm lost too, she fumed and back tracked to where she had come from. She begrudgingly decided to ask one of the officers that she had brushed past in her haste. Maybe it was not a good choice since the one she chose was annoyed at having their stack of confidential papers thrown on the ground.


"Hey, you think you can point me to the way to Briefing Room 3?" A grunt and a finger pointing to three doors down was her only answer. Trisha turned on her heels, leaving the moody man without much of a thanks, who did not seem to deserve one. Once she arrived at the room, she notice a black plaque with white lettering announcing it was indeed the room she desired. She should have been aware of the plates but with her panic had forgotten but no matter, she had finally arrived.


Before entering, Trisha flipped her jacket hood back on. If she was to enter a room with everyone already present, she wanted to be as discreet as ever. Summoning enough courage from wherever it lied, she entered the room; only to see four. Was I not late? I suppose not. She sat down on one of the many chairs in front of a table and waited. Her silence did not last long though and she began tapping on the mahogany table.

 

[ToteMaus]

Erika strode casually through the halls of the star base. She moved like a glacier, slowly, calmly. She was late (and also disrupting the flow of people in the halls) but she did not care. When she reached the briefing room, she unceremoniously plopped herself down in a chair, letting it spin slowly with the transferred momentum. What a first impression she made! The woman looked like she hadn't seen a second of sleep in months. In place of the dressier uniforms most others on the station were wearing, she was clad in her greasy duty coveralls. A few open ended spanners peaked out from her breast pocket, and a cigarette dangled limply from her lips.


She greeted her new comrades with a monotone "Hey" and a gesture that could barely be called a wave.

 

[Weston Da Wookie]

People quickly made way for the tall robot as he walked down the hallway towards Briefing Room 3. Unit-0241, a.k.a. Fade, strode at a fast pace down the corridor, knowing that he was most likely not late. Humans were never on time. He reached the room and opened the door, which slid back to reveal that a large majority of the people were already there. Fade scanned his atomic clock and realized that he had not adjusted for the spatial time change traveling from Earth. He stood in the doorway and said in a cheerful and yet mechanical voice, "Greetings, fellow crew members. I am Unit-0241, but you may call me Fade, as you are now my friends. I am the assigned weapons officer for our ship." He looks at the woman with the cigarette. "I am sorry to be so blunt, but smoking is bad for your health. This is a... 'pet peeve' of mine. If you would like, I can take your cigarette and place it in the incinerator." Fade stares at the smoking woman, waiting for her reply.

 

[Menacing Melon]

Turning his attention from talking to the captain for a second he'd look at the other crew members, he had to admit he was not disappointed. With a puff of smoke from his cigarette and a little laugh he'd whistle a cat call as the other members besides the robot entered, mainly as a joke. But after he'd turn back to Edward, "Looks like my question has already been answered, I'll talk to you later big guy" He'd then throw his cigarette on the ground, grind it into said ground, not wait for Edward to respond and sit, feet crossed and lazily placed on the table. He would wait, twiddling his thumbs... hoping that the Captain was alright with him just ditching their conversation.

 

[armoredpotrol]

Much to his disbelief the video link never connected. So he decided to go in on foot. As he arrived he noticed that most if not all the people were here. He formally greeted everyone and sat down. His hand lingered over the small vibro blade on his waist. This blade can deflect any projectile as long as the blade has an energy shield. Once the shield runs out of power the knife will be like a kitchen knife.

 

[UnknownSection]

Before he could respond, several more members of the crew entered the room, either. Edward kept on a plastered smile as the pilot turned away from him to do whatever he was going to do. Upon the arrival of the individuals however, he stood for a moment to inspect each of them. The pilot he had just spoken with was quite scruffy, and laid-back. The second arrival was of a young woman with short-cropped hair. To think she threw an offhand comment like that, heh. The third attendee was a slightly older woman, who had quietly retreated to a seat at the mahogany table. The fourth member of their crew had came with much less hygienic refined clothing, Edward could only assume that the woman was their engineer. The penultimate perso- er, member of their crew rather... Was a robot. Well, won't this be interesting. I've never worked a robot before but I guess now's my chance. The final arrival gave way to an extremely pale... individual. To be honest Edward wasn't entirely sure what the man was.


Edward took out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, the one that told him the small of amount of details he was given about this mission. There was supposed to be 8 members in the crew, including him. That meant there was only one person to arrive in the briefing room. With nothing else better to do, Edward cleared his throat quite loudly for the attention of the crew around him. "If I may have your attention ladies and gentlemen, robots and pale faces. I thought that it might be a good time to start introductions. Although one member of our crew is currently not present, I'm sure he or she will be able to jump in the mix just fine." he starts before pausing a moment to look around him, "I am Edward Roswaal, your captain. I am not strict rest assured, but do not think I will ever let you get out of line. I'm sure a lot of difficulty in this mission would be removed if we were to all cooperate. Now.. if the rest of you would be so kind to introduce yourselves as well, please begin."

 

[Menacing Melon]

He'd turn his head to the captain, getting out of his chair and standing up to look at everyone in the room. He'd then clear his throat, and speak in an only semi-serious tone, "Hey there, i'm your pilot." He'd scratch his chin a bit, "As you may have already noticed, I am skilled, handsome, and the main guy who's going to make sure you don't crash into an asteroid, dying a painful, fiery death" He'd chuckle a bit, even though it wasn't funny, "I go by many names, Andrew, Andrew Banton, Mr. Banton, I was even called The Bouncing Banton for a while... don't ask, but if you want you can just call me 'Jink', that's my nickname." He'd look up a bit, thinking for a few seconds, "Anyways, who's next? What about the sexy little thing in the black hoodie and the baseball cap, have anything to say about yourself?" He'd point to Trisha, then getting down, relaxing on his chair with his hands behind his head.

 

[Primal Conundrum]

A heavy thumping, previously blending in to the background noise, became much more noticeable as it approached and stopped outside the door. As the last member of the group ducked through the door into the room, the cause of the din became quite clear. One could be forgiven for mistaking the massive metal figure for a second robot at first glance, what with the bundles of armored cables and pipes visible around the joints. However, it was a human head, scarred but alert, that sat on top of the machine. With her one good eye, she quickly sized up the rest of the occupants of the room. Turning to face the Captain, she gave a curt salute.


"Jacqueline Richter reporting for duty. Sir." Her voice had a undeniable synthetic edge to it, implying that some or all of her voice was hardware-assisted. Lowering her arm, she turned and walked to the side of the room, standing in a rough, robotic approximation of 'at attention'. Beyond walking around them, she seemed to pay very little attention to the rest of the people in the room, her attention remaining fixed on the Captain.

 

[UnknownSection]

Edward looked towards the first man who had arrived who promptly introduced himself as Jink. He gave a light smile as he acknowledged his introduction. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jink." Upon his reply, the door opened once more to reveal the final member of their crew. One could say her movements were uncanny, unhuman-like even. She had a air of discipline around her, she gave her name and even gave a salute to Edward before walking to the side of the room. "I hope all of our future endeavors will be successful Ms Richter. If I may be so intrigued to ask, your role?" he asked before waiting for a reply.

 

[Primal Conundrum]

Jack nodded once, sharply.


"Sir. My role is to provide heavy ground support in infantry engagements. My..." a flicker of emotion crossed her face, a ghost of frustration. "...suit, has several hardpoints for mounting heavy weaponry. There are also enough hydraulics to allow for brute-force breaching and entry through most non-fortified walls." She shifted her posture into a slightly more relaxed, wider stance. "I have the armor and tools to function in a front-line capacity for an extended duration. I am here in case something needs to die and we can't do it with the ship's weapons. Sir."

 

[UnknownSection]

The woman's bluntness was quite apparent as she explained her duties. Edward gazed at her "suit" noticing the myriad of artificial parts that have been added to her body, presumably to replace lost ones. What a shame. Releasing himself from his thoughts, Edward set his gaze on Jacqueline before speaking, "Very well, you and the rest of the people here will be briefed soon once we're done with introductions. For now just take a seat or stand if you wish. Now excuse me." With a curt bow, he walked over to the water dispenser. Taking a paper cup from the side of the machine, he filled it up with cold water before bringing the cool liquid to his lips.

 

[Weston Da Wookie]

Fade's head swivels back and forth between people speaking, which would actually look comical if they were not in a meeting. After Ms. Richter spoke, Fade stood up, imitating the human motion of 'bouncing on his heels', trying to express his eagerness to speak next. With a nod from the captain, he started up his holo-projector began narrating along with the images. "Greetings, Terrans, cyborgs, and pale-skinned one. I am Unit-0241, but you may call me Fade. I was sent by what you call the Precursors to present new and wonderful technologies to help your race. Sadly, we did not make correct calculations, and thus crashed in your so called Asteroid Belt. The ship and cargo must have floated off into space, since you found no wreckage where I was, so I have nothing to offer you but myself. I am designed as a weapons specialist, and seeing as the world I came from is far more advanced than yours, I can understand all your devices easily. After three years of service throughout your Terran fleet, they have assigned me to this ship as the weapons officer. I am sure you are all aware of what a weapons officer does, so I will not go in to the 'nitty-gritty' details." Fade powers down the holo-projector but continues speaking. "I still have so much to learn from your race. For example, can one of you explain to me this concept of clothing? It is very strange that you would wear a second skin when the one you already have is perfectly capable of protecting you against everyday hazards." The robot looks around at everyone, an innocently curious look on his metal face.

 

[Menacing Melon]

He'd give an answer to the robot, as Andrew at first thought he was joking, but then would respond. "Let me just put it this way, not many people want to see what's under the clothes every day, definitely not anything beautiful." He'd cross his arms, "Either way it's not really important, if you really want to know every detail about clothing, just search it, I'm sure you're advanced enough to find that out" He'd roll his eyes, "Anyways, who's going after the creepy robot?" He'd say, while scanning the room to see if anyone was going to start speaking

 

[Weston Da Wookie]

"I find that statement insulting," Fade said with as indignant a tone as he could produce through his speaker. "However, I will overlook your statement so someone else may speak."

 

[Thinslayer]

Faye Bannister, the blonde science officer, stood up and cleared her throat.


"Hi. I am Faye Bannister. Please call me Faye. I studied at Rigel University and graduated with a degree in Practical Astronomy. You will find me an adequate science officer on your crew." She took the opportunity to look around for possible female company. There were a few women in the group, but they all seemed tomboyish and uninterested in lady things. But perhaps that was just bias talking. At any rate, having finished speaking, she bowed and sat down again.

 

[ToteMaus]

Erika looked around, as if hoping someone else would speak so she didn't have to get up. With a sigh of resignation, she hoisted herself to her feet, using the arms of her chair for support.


She cleared her throat and, with a weary and flat tone, spoke "Erika Kowalski, chief engineer. Much like our hotshot pilot, I'll be in the 'preventing fiery death' department."


She allowed herself to fall back into the chair, sitting with a terrible slouching posture.

 

[BunBun]

Trisha's head abruptly looked up from her tapping hands, which seized at the same moment, at the mere mention of a hoodie and baseball hat. Although she paid decent amount of attention to what was going on around her, she did not expect to be put on the spot. She could not help the curl of her lips at the pilot singling her out; feeling irked and yet at the same time, feel a fracture of pleasure at the mention she was "sexy". It did not matter though, she was there for work and that is what she will do. No time for dilly-dallying emotions. Plus from the posture and his little introduction, he oozed out as self-confident and some trickster. In other words, not someone she could trust right away. She made a mental note to herself to be wary of him.


Back from her own musing, she decided she might as well get her introduction out of the way and made a motion to get up from her seat. Her right arm posed on the back of the chair to push it back and the other bending on the table to support her body as she heaved herself up. Only half way through getting up did the door once again open up, revealing what Trisha first concluded was cyborg, later to be known as Jaqueline Richter, the ship's soldier. Trisha sat back down and observed every pleasantries and introductions. She was never good with remembering names right off the bat but it seemed like she would have to.


It seemed to go smoothly after Fade's question about clothing. It is a bit odd to have a superior being question articles that we don, Trisha mused. Two more ship mates introduced themselves, both female and important in her opinion. That brought Trisha back to what her job description was: comms officer. A low placement compared to everyone else's but it mattered enough that gained her the position but she was not a one-trick pony. She dabbled in electrical engineering, coding and knew different dialects. She hoped that she could be use to the chief engineer... Amika, if Trisha's memory skills were right.


A prolonged silence had Trisha push off from the table and stand up, the action looking as if she had ants in her pants. It could have been true because the silence was making her feel antsy. She fixed her orange specs and placed her hands on her hips, arms akimbo.


"Welp, looks like I am next. I'm Trisha Deluz. Trish for short. I will be the ship's Comm Officer... Pretty self explanatory really. If not, then here is a run down. I will be the voice of the ship; making arrangements with any ships and issuing red alerts. That is pretty much it." Trisha ended her short monologue and looked at everyone in the room. Quite a different setting from her usual squad, consisting of uniform-wearing hot shots with identical haircuts. What awaited from each interaction was yet to be discovered.

 

[UnknownSection]

Out of all the crews he's ever been in, Edward had to say this was probably the strangest one. The terribly distinct personalities of everyone here concentrated themselves into a weird amalgam. Edward didn't really know the word to describe it, but this crew was a lot different than any of which he has worked with before. Although some of his previous squads had their own fair share of problems, he could tell that this team would have a rocky road ahead of them, he could only hope that was he said was a metaphor and that they weren't actually going to smash into smithereens en route to the destination of their mission.


Edward couldn't help but chuckle at the robot's amusing inquiry, which was pleasantly followed by a cheeky response from Andrew. Who knew a technologically advanced robot that was hundreds of years ahead of their time would ask such a peculiar question? He threw his paper cup into the waste bin as he listened to everyone else's introductions. So Andrew's the pilot, Jacqueline's our muscle, Fade is with weapons, Faye for science, Erika also helps with preventing a 'fiery death', and Trisha is with comms. Each of their distinct characteristics soon bore into their names. You could even say that Edward had just made up some words associated with each of their names to make it easier to remember. The pilot was Mr.Hotshot, Jacqueline was a virtually a cyborg, Faye was Ms.Formal, and Trisha was... well he didn't really know what to make of her. She was quite curt with her introduction and- Well either way, this will be an interesting little group.


That just leaves pale face. Upon hearing everyone else's introductions and brief speeches, Edward gave a nod of approval to each of them before turning his head towards the pale faced man who had walked in earlier, but had yet to say anything other than few greetings. The man bore bizarre clothing and was clutching something along his side. Narrowing his eyes, Edward could see a sizable bulge under the man's attire along his waist. "There's no need to carry a weapon so conspicuously Mr.PaleFace, excuse my referring to you by a rude nickname, but I'm sure we're all friends here," he divulged, gesturing towards to man's hidden weapon.