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Celeritas RP OOC Thread [CLOSED]

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Introduction and Information
  • Threadmarks
    • DB_Explorer

    DB_Explorer

    Purveyor of alternate realities.
    Location
    San Diego, California
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    Celeritas
    IC Thread Here
    Current Status: CLOSED - PLEASE SEE REBOOT


    ​
    • Original Hard Science Fiction Setting
    • No lengthy setting books to read
    • Tight Knit Crew
    • Centered on the Corporate Domains of the Jovian System
    • 4D6 modified FATE SRD
    • Tailored plot arcs based on character histories and skills ranging from smuggling, corporate sabotage and plain old mercenary work.
    • Posts every 2-3 days
    • 6-7 Players Total
    • Multiple factions and agendas that influence player options and are influenced in turn by player actions.
    • Progress personal and group reputation, skills and resources.

    Celeritas as a setting is set in the year 2417 and advances in space travel, material sciences and medical technologies have allowed humanity to colonize from Venus and the Largrange point colonies of the inner solar system to the ice rings of Saturn where the sun is lost among the others in the black. Faster than Light travel, and thus the ability to leave Sol, remains elusive despite advances in the manipulation of gravity. The roleplay will take inspiration from works such as Cowboy Bebop, Firefly and The Expanse. The focus is thus on the actions of a small crew and their ship, in this case the eponymous Celeritas in the area under the gravitational thrall of the largest of planets, Jupiter.


    The game will be running off the FATE roleplaying system with a few tweaks to bring skills in line to a scifi setting as well as wealth but the focus of the game will be on the narrative, the story. Why did you join on to this crew? Extensive reading up on the setting won't be needed as its hard science nature helps limit the esoteric, while information on places can be provided as one explores the setting.

    You will be responding to the request for crew from the Celeritas, which has just gotten a new Captain. The ship has no real history, neither does the captain and no connections to any major corporations or other such factions. Though they also don't mention requiring checks beyond making sure the pilot and doc are legitimately licensed….

    The text here will change as I move from a simple interest check and discussion to proper recruitment. Feel free to ask questions, ask about character ideas or work with other would be players to make characters. For more information on the FATE RP system you can look here, with characters being here.

    I would like to thank @Sushi for the blank character profile and the general page layout, including some of the BB code usage.

    Order of submission will not change chance of acceptance - in the end my choice of players will be to make the most interesting and balanced party for the game.

    Roster Game Sheets Setting Information Notes From the GM

    General Rules and Modification of FATE SRD

    • Notice does NOT influence turn order. Whomever posts first.
    • In addition to the default Four Actions, players can also use the Discover Action. It gives less Aspects and Invocations than a CA or Attack but can reveal important narrative details.
    • We're using a Non-Standard Skills List.
    • Resources removed and replaced with a Wealth Stress track
    • Wealth stress track does not recover with time.
    • Cyberware rules in effect
    • We're using 4d6 / 4d3 for FATE die / Fudge die.
      1-2 = -1
      3-4 = 0
      5-6 = +1

    Special Rules

    Wealth
    Most of the rules in place can be found here as previously linked, also as you have noticed there are links scattered throughout the post to link to the relevant sections of the FATE SRD. This section is here more to explain the extra rules I'm using to help the system work in the setting Celeritas takes place in. The two key changes are that to how wealth is treated as well as cybernetic augmentation.

    In normal FATE wealth is abstracted into a skill, resources, here that skill removed and replaced with wealth stress track. Wealth is used when your making an purchase outside of the mundane. Some items like augmentations or prosthetics or a very fancy piece of kit will have an attached wealth requirement. You can also use wealth to quickly settle matters that would take time with other skills - such as bribing a guard rather then intimidating or persuading him, or buying the bar a round of drinks rather then flirting with a mark.

    When you fail a purchase or mercantile roll - maybe you misjudged how much is needed to bribe a guard, or got overzealous during an auction. Rather then fail the roll you may take hit to your wealth stress equal to your shifts of failure. This allows you to continue with your action now and shifting any consequences farther down the line.

    As for starting wealth and removing stress. Starting wealth is defaulted to two boxes like Mental or Physical stress, additional boxes will be giving out by the GM based off aspects and characterization.. Unlike mental or physical stress though Wealth stress does not fade with time. To remove wealth stress you need to gain wealth, while gaining permanent wealth slots will require reaching Milestones.

    Augmentations

    Given the technology of the setting it is natural, expected even for people in various lines of work to have cybernetic enhancements and generally fall into prosthetics and augmentations. Prosthetics are different from augmentations in that a prosthetic merely intends to replicate the human norm and is standard for replacing a lost limb or even eye. Augmentations go beyond human and some people will lose perfectly functional body parts to gain these advantages.

    Starting the game with a prosthetic or two won't cost you anything or require an aspect usage. Starting with an augmentation requires two things. One you must use an aspect to reflect this choice and you have to spend a refresh point (reducing your total fate points by 1) to gain an augmentation to power your other augmentations. But your power plant, interfacing as it does with your blood stream to create power from the sugar in your blood lets you resists poisons and other pesky issues at the cost of a fate point. If this is your first augmentation the power supply is included with the fate point needed for the main augmentations.

    Now for the augmentations you get to choose between minor and major augmentations. Minor augmentations are like enhanced eyes giving you +1 to notice and an aspect like 'thermal vision' with each extra aspect being another minor augmentation. Minor augmentations generally don't overstress the body much. Every three minor augmentations cost a point of refresh regardless of being bought or on character creation.

    Major augmentations are things like skeleton enhancements or replacing something like an entire limb. Cybernetic limbs or carbon-fiber skeleton reinforcements are an example of major augmentations. Major augmentations are open to the creation of stunts or a more generally applicable skill increases. Each major augmentation in turn requires a refresh point to be purchased and a higher level finance roll.


    Drones

    Drones are going to play some roll in the setting so an outline of how this will work is needed. Drones are mechanically an Extra that use some of the rules for lower end NPCs.

    Permission: Aspect reflecting technical competence or training.
    Cost: +2 acquisitions roll as a purchase & skills in Electronics.

    Details: A Baseline drone group is treated as a set of 4 average NPCs with 2 average (+1) skills, and one or two aspects and no stress boxes. For every shift of success on the acquisitions roll the player may either increase the size of the drone group by one or upgrade the drones one rank to a maximum of good.

    Drones cannot function independently and must stay reasonably close to their user. Players can only bring one group of drones with them at a time. The Electronic skill may be used to create advantages for the drones and those specifically for the drones may be made while also giving the drone an order. The player can not use any of their skills through the drone. Electronics may be used to repair damaged drones or recover lost drones. Recovery is based off the shifts used to take out the drone.

    Aspects: High Concept & Trouble + 3 Phrases (Optional)
    Skills: Great (+4)
    Refresh: 3
    Stress Tracks: Physical & Mental & Wealth
    Consequences: 2/4/6

    Code: 
    [b]Name:[/b] X
[b]Appearance:[/b] X
 
[b]Age:[/b] X
[b]Position:[/b] X
[b]Birthplace:[/b] X
 
[b]Aspects:[/b] X
 
[b]Refresh:[/b] X
[b]Fate Points:[/b] X
[b]Physical:[/b] X
[b]Mental:[/b] X
[b]Wealth:[/b] X
[b]Consequences:[/b] X
 
[b]Personality & Bio:[/b] X
 
[b]Skills:[/b] X
 
[b]Stunts:[/b] X

    Athletics
    Burglary
    Contacts
    Deceive
    Drive
    Engineering (Replaces Craft)
    Electronics (Replaces Craft)
    Empathy
    Fight
    Investigate
    Knowledge (Replaces Lore)
    Medicine
    Notice
    Physique
    Pilot (Split from Drive)
    Provoke
    Rapport
    Shoot
    Stealth
    Will


     
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    • I'm in like Flint. Ideally I'd like to take the Communications Officer or the Doctor, but for a game like this I'd be willing to play any role.
     
    I'd like to be the Apprentice Engineer guy. I have my... reasons.
     
    Well glad to see some interest and that I set the discord up correctly. I'll be trying to get some setting information up tomorrow or the day after. For now you can throw around character ideas, perhaps see what other people are doing. the FATE character creation system by default normally has you interact with another character in your first/keystone adventure - not required here but having your character know someone else helps bring crew dynamics I think.

    Sol d'Trauer said:
    @DB_Explorer : Are... Are you being literal, orrrrr... Can I, I dunno, play this?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Literal ... I was going to have them find a cat onboard the ship already
     
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    Oh, this looks interesting! Thinking of a former CorpSec guy as Communications Officer or maybe Engineer.
     
    I am very interested in this... lets see how far we can go! :D
     
    @DB_Explorer : I don't suppose you could be persuaded instead to make use of the glorious dachshund, maybe??? Because I know squat about feline behavior besides the usual stereotypes and unsolicited trivia by over-affectionate cat thralls.
     
    My body is stout, too thick and too short. My bones are too heavy, too dense. In a world of graceful elven spacers, I am a earther, with a body meant for the hard pull of G, not the weightlessness of space. I should have stayed home in my gravity well. Space was never meant for me. I know this.

    But... my heart rebels. Though I was never meant for space, though my very own body betrays me, my heart knows. It sings to me the song of the stars, and wonder of the vast expanse beyond.

    In my heart, I was meant to fly.
     
    Colour me interested, though it has been a rather long time since I made a Fate character. If possible, I think I would like the position of Engineer?
     
    I'd be interested in playing. No real preferences for roles as of now, but I'll work on a few character ideas.
     
    Location Guide
  • Threadmarks
    • Introduction Sol Venus Earth & Moon Lagrange Orbitals Mars Astroid Belt Jovian System Saturnian System


    • This is a general guide to the locations throughout the solar system and their key aspects. These aspects provide guide to the general idea your characters would have about the location. Maybe people may not know the details of the intrigues of the Corporate states but they all know the asteroid belts asteroid Jupiter are their political playground.

      Along with the aspects each location has a short write up, again the focus is on brevity rather than an exhaustive break down of the orbital bodies features.

      • Money Makes the Worlds Go Round
      • Moving Asteroids Is Serious Business
      The gravitational thrall of the Sun stretches out 50 AU, over seven billion kilometers to the edge of the Kupier belt, but Humanities' reach is smaller reaching out as far as Saturn and its ice water rings. But inside this realm of over 13 billion square kilometers billions live, work and die. Despite the space available Sol, like earth of earlier centuries, bristles with weaponry ranging from a simple handgun to a spinal mounted railgun of a battleship. The latter given the important task of ensuring no one, accidentally or purposefully send one of the thousands of asteroids on a course to recreate the end of the dinosaurs.


      • Founded by Traders, terraformed for farmers
      • Birth place of modern gene therapy.
      Venus's originally settlement was not on its oven like surface, but in its orbit. By a quirk of orbital mechanics fuel could be saved by a stop over at Venus when the alignments between Earth and Mars were less then ideal. The stop over become more convenient as fuel depots sprung up to offer fuel and services to ships waiting for launch windows. Over time this traffic lead to the birth of Venus's orbit being a major trade up. The number of ships stopping by also opened a market in medical technology as ship crew looked for routine check ups and treatment for exposure to the harsh energies of space. Burgeoning trade and medical trade eventually lead to a tax base sufficient to attempt to terraform Venus. First with huge floating 'bubble cities' then massive amounts of imported hydrogen and a mass driver network to give it a 24 hour day Venus become more then livable - it became a second earth. This process only finished a generation ago, those children born under open skies on Venus are only know starting their own families.



    • Earth
      • Cradle of Humanity, and Capital
      • Seats Of Powers
      Moon
      • Fuel stop of the Inner Sphere
      Earth is still home to a massive majority of humanity and thus still serves as a cultural and economic center even if it must share political heft with the Jovian system. Countless factories planetside and in orbit make everything mankind knows how to make from fuel to battleships, some for export but much more for its own consumption. The economic importance of the Earth is only reinforced by the use of the Moon as a fuel stop for most traffic out of the inner sphere.


      • Each a world of it's own
      • The Hungry Maws of Industry
      The Earth-Sun Lagrange points are formed by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth cancelling each other out, creating points in space where stable orbits are easily achieved. It is here where, looking for a way to improve the effiency of their orbital factories around earth, industrialists created the first O'Neill Cylinders - linked pairs of massive cylinders which rotated to create gravity - allowing their zero g workers to simply compute home every day at the end of their shift. Those first colonies where soon joined by many more and each is its own Independent state housing millions that work and live without ever stepping foot on a real world.


      • Craters of life among an airless desert
      • By word for engineering excellence
      Originally colonized as the final leg of the Earth-Belt-Mars triangle trade providing a base of operations for technicians and bulk components for mining operations in the belt Mars has grown to a major center of engineering and industry and still serves as a major support hub for belt operations. It's engineering heritage can be seen in the city filled, and ceiling-less, craters that dot its landscape. The cities are the result of running into the fact that building up the air pressure on Mars, despite warming it up over the better part of a century, would take far longer. Altering the craters to be airtight aside from the top created finite space that proved quicker to fill and helped expand Mars tax base beyond its sprawling underground cities. The the air leaking over the top helped further Mars down the path to joining Earth and Mars was a simple bonus.


      • Endless Space and Endless Ideas
      • The meek shall inherit the verse. But not its mineral rights.
      The astroid belt fails at easy summary due to its simple breadth. In its nearly four centuries of settlement since first being tapped to fuel earths orbital foundries the astroid belt as seen a long and varied list of possible social set ups. From radial ideologies to multi-settlement blocs all have found fertile ground in the belt. Any given rock can provide a fabricator amble material to allow a prepared settler to eek out a living or provide enough ore to turn a profit.


      • Power From The Ether
      • Radiation Belts
      • Domain of the Corporate States
      Jupiter was the last area settled by man in a significant fashion, a product of the systems deep gravity well and intense radiation. But with other sixty moons it was perhaps inevitable to become a major center of activity. Even the radiation, a product of the gas giants immense magnetic field provided a boon - long conductive tendrils could provide orbitals and moon based settlements cheap nearly effortless power to power its industries. It's late settlement of a mere two centuries ago means that rather then national projects private corporate ventures funded the endeavor - now those corporations are the states. These corporations jostle for control of mining claims throughout the system and occasionally even stations - anything that improves their bottom line and hurts their rivals.

      • Gravity well second only to the sun
      • Under the Control of Union
      Jupiter is a gas giant almost large enough to have turned into a second sun when it formed at the birth of the planets, but within its rolling gas clouds are vast reserves of the Helium-3 and helium that power the fusion reactors of mankind. Several enterprising industrialists and banking groups funded orbital habitats around the gas giant with a simple plan. The habitats would collect power from the gas giants immense gravitational field to beam down to autonomous mining platforms in within Jupiters atmosphere. Immense nuclear power shuttles are boosted by mass drivers to economically escape the gravity well. These orbital habitats eventually joined into a common banking and economic guild - The Gas Miners Union, more commonly known simply as The Union.

      • Well Armed UN Research Outpost
      • Aliens under the Ice
      Europa is unique in that it is only the third planet known, along with Earth and Titan, to harbor life. Under the moons ice a liquid ocean houses a aquatic creatures focused around warm water vents powered by the gravitational warming caused by the moons orbit around Jupiter. As such the UN has an outpost and not inconsiderable security forces station around the moon and giving strict orders to stay away.

      • A radioactive moon of fire and power.
      The single most volcanically active place in the solar system Io is also immensely radioactive - a visitor in a normal space suit would get their maximum yearly exposure inside of five minutes. But even the radiation serves a useful purpose - Io provides a unique and cheap means to create economically useful isotopes of common materials. Factories also dot the moon a groups use Io's proximity to harvest enough power to fuel even the hungriest of operations, with 20 terrawatts possibly on hand and an entire moon as a heat sink they can afford it.

      • Ice Water World
      Often considers the poor mans Callisto radiation hazards make Ganymede more costly, and thus less valuable, to mine but it still provides a vast supply of water ice for export. Mining claims criss cross the moon and some change hands often though often the battles are hidden deep under the ice protected from the radiation of the system.

      • Outside the Radiation zone
      • Local Breadbasket
      Unlike the other major moons of Jupiter, Callisto lies outside the radiation belts. While this means Callisto lacks the easy power of its sister moons it gains the ability to do many other things - such as making farms. Solar collectors above concentrate the dim sunlight down to greenhouses below. The cheap food supplies make Callisto a favorite layover for independent traders and mercenaries alike.


      • The ragged edge of settled space
      • Never underestimate the value of water
      The farthest edges of human settled space was also one of the earlier settlements of man. Saturn's ice rings provided amble ice, ammonia and other volatile gasses the burgeoning orbitals closer to the sun needed to sustain life. But this far from the sun few people settle for good - most do the dark and dangerous work of blowing ice boulders to shippable chunks only briefly before they can move back to sunnier pastures. Those that stay keep their reasons to themselves.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Organizations and Tech Guide
  • Threadmarks
    • Introduction UNSO Venusian Federation Martian League Union Pirates Gene Therapy Augments Gravity Tech Robots & AI Engines


    • This guide will cover key organizations and some keystone technology or technological categories of the setting. As before this guide is more to give you, the player, a guidepost for your own characters and additions to the game while also ensuring everyone is working from the same page.

      The first entries are five of the major organizations of the Solar system the next five entries are for technology of the setting.


      • Held back by bureaucratic deadlock
      • The unblinking eye of space
      The UNSO, or United Nations Space Organizations is likely the more important agency of the UN for anyone not living on Earth. Founded originally to coordinate international policy for private use of space it soon gained responsibility coordinating the tracking near earth asteroids. As astroid mining became a real industry a new role formed as various governments created the ancestors of modern space navies to guard against maliciously redirected asteroids. The UNSO was tasked to coordinate flight plans and traffic laws to ensure a lawful mining operation wasn't blasted by the one country that failed to get word. It continues this day with this task, sending warning on possible impactors to both Inner Sphere and Outer Sphere entities. Some would say with the industrial and technological power of Earth the UNSO could establish an easy hegemony over Sol - if the constituent members of the UN could ever agree on anything beyond not repeating the dinosaurs.

      • Inward Looking
      • Discord between Orbit and Surface
      The Venusian Federation started as joint commission to manage the settlement and eventual terraforming of Venus. This task meant the commission had influence over matters beyond the planning of mega-scale engineering such as taxes and land sales. But now with Venus a thriving green world the federation is looking inward as it strives to match Earth for economic and cultural significance. This inward focus has started to cause issues as the mercantile interests in orbit continue to press for a more active foreign policy in places like the astroid belt where they compete against Martian influence.

      • Natural Interest in the Belt
      • Weak Central Government
      Mars is dotted with vibrant cosmopolitan cities not dissimilar to those on earth despite how the older districts lie under the Martian soil where earlier colonists were protected from cosmic radiation. But the isolation of these cities hampers the formation of a government with much power planet side. Beyond the Martian surface, with the exclusion of the Freeport on Deimos, the League has more power as it furthers Mars' historical interest in encouraging operations in the belt

      • Merchant House Intrigues
      • Kingmakers of Jove
      The Jovian Gas Miners Union, know to most as 'The Union', was formed from an alliance of around a dozen industrialists and Mining Concerns that had created stations above Jupiter to support mining the gas giants helium three and ammonia. With a monopoly over such vital gasses, ample energy from the giants own magnetic field and large populations the group quickly become the preeminent power of the Jovian system. This balance is furthered by the banking branches of the ruling houses, which provide capital and backing from the mining firms of Ganymede to Fuel Refiners on Ceres. It is these investments, and their return, that dictate much of the houses political clout. Much like a corporations stock rising and falling with their profit reports so to does a merchant houses, so sabotaging an investment is the easiest way to bring a rival down to size.

      • Never shy to shed a little blood
      • Never far from a port
      Piracy in space is harder then one normally expects from movies and novels. The earliest piracy had more in common with hackers and other cyber-crime as automated cargo pods would get redirected to new 'owners'. While switching to piloted ships for most cargo eliminated that approach it could not remove the temptation to make profit by simply stealing someone elses. With the advent of fusion drives pirates moved closer to ports - where they would ambush, board and crate off with the cargo before local security could respond. Modern drives mean pirate ship with a higher possible acceleration can now catch up with slower transports. Such an encounter normal starts with the pirates shooting out the transports engine - with the transport unable to slow down it has little choice but to let the pirates dock and taking their cargo in exchange for slowing them down. Of course this gets more interesting when both sides are armed like most modern transports...

      • We can fix you, not improve you
      • The medical is affordable, the cosmetic negotiable
      Advances in gene therapy and medical technology was a natural response to the increasing number of people in space and thus exposed to cosmic radiation along with a list of other issues from long term zero g exposure. While cocktails of chemicals and gene therapy can prevent muscle loss in zero g, or degradation of bone mass it meets its current limits when it tries to go beyond human. Gene therapy and modification can ensure someones body works exactly as it should but going beyond what nature engineered is more difficult. That is not to say people, like miltaries, have tried making soldiers with better reflexes or night vision. These projects achieved limited success but were hampered by unexpected side effects or the that most governments were not willing to train soldiers from childhood.

      On the other hand cosmetic changes are more feasible, though they can vary wildly in cost depending on their nature. Although the costs and frivolity of such mods mean they are rare being genetic they can carry onto future generations meaning some more popular mods of the past have become more common place in general.

      • Limited by the mesh of flesh and metal
      • A pathway to indentured service
      Cybernetics, or Augmentations are the preferred method of replacing limbs or moving beyond human norms. Ranging from prosthetic limbs that mimic their organic siblings to cybernetic eyes with IR and night vision and skeletal enhancements. The only real limits are cost and the inability to do more then interface with the human brain. Well that and the fact that as strong as your cybernetic arm may be, its limited by your very human shoulder. Even so many would be mercenaries or corporate guns put in for extensive 'improvements' only to be saddled with a bill that leaves them working for their employers far longer then they ever planned.

      • Scales Poorly
      • The defining technology of this age
      Gravity manipulation on the smallest of scales dates back almost two centuries when it was first used practically to improve fusion containment resulting in modern fusion drives and Jovian settlement rush. A century later the technology had developed enough to be scalable up to the size of a ship or small habitat allowing ships to maintain gravity during their 'drifting' phase of travel. Though the power consumption of the system precludes use when the main engines are on anyway. In the easiest to understand of explanations, one must picture space as a rubber sheet. A normal body, like the earth or sun, creates a depression in the sheet. Artificial gravity creates a sheer faced cliff which preludes the idea of something accidentally orbiting a ship with its grav system on. It also precludes fine manipulations on a large scale.

      • Who needs crews when we have robots?
      • Clever but not very smart
      AI and Robot advancement went hand in hand as improvements in AI allowed robots to be easier to use. Modern ships host not only a small army of robots of various sizes for repair and cargo handling but an AI to help manage navigation, self defense and cargo loading with self learning programs to learn from corrections of its human crew. Most smarter AI's are expert systems which can be remarkably efficient and capable in a very narrow task - the job of most ships crew is to problem solve when the AI fails and to intervene when something leaves mission parameters. True human like sapience has yet to be achieved in an AI.

      • Fueled by Helium-3
      • Star in a bottle
      Modern fusion drives gain their immense power from harnessing small scale gravity technology to improve confinement of the plasma allowing for higher temperatures, and thus better thrust, without melting the engine housing. Hydrogen propellant is directed by the star like fusion plasma and mixes with the high velocity products of the reactions. While this increases propellant needed it increases thrust enough to provide a noticeable reduction in travel times. Most ships do curving, or hyberbolic, trajectories that consist of burning for a duration to come to speed and then coasting before spinning around and slowing down as they approach their detonation. Many ships, and clever pilots, still use aerobraking of destination planets or gravity slingshots to save fuel by reducing or increasing speeds as appropriate.
     
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    Character Sheet - Nathan Feng (Daraken)
  • Informational
    • Name: Nathan Feng
    Age: 36
    Rank: Communications Officer
    Birthplace: New Olympia, Mars

    Aspects
    High Concept: Ex-CorpSec Tech Sergeant
    Trouble: Executive with a Grudge (Myrmidon Conflict Solutions)
    Free to See the World
    Stubborn as a Mule
    Cooking Fanatic

    Refresh: 3
    Fate Points: 2/3
    Physical: [ ]1​ [ ]2​ [ ]3​
    Mental: [ ]1​ [ ]2​ [ ]3​
    Wealth: [ ]1​ [ ]2​

    Consequences
    Severe (6): [ ]
    Moderate (4): [ ]
    Minor (2): [ ]

    At first glance, Nathan seems to fit the usual loner type that's seen all too often everywhere. Taciturn, gloomy, the whole nine yards. But given half the chance and the whole facade easily falls away. Having to spend the last few years on the move, the former sergeant is all too eager to open up to a friendly face. In the presence of friends, his stoic and overly professional persona drops into something much more relaxed and informal. While kind and generous to those in his in-group, Nathan couldn't care less about outsiders.

    Born to your typical wage slave family on Mars, Nathan was an easy hire for the Myrmidon Conflict Solutions recruiter. Not looking forward to the life of corporate drudgery that his parents were already going through, and lured by promises of adventure, the young man found himself happily signing his life away. And while most of the promises of that damned recruiter turned out to be half truths or outright lies, things went out decently for him. After a few tours of duty, Nathan was picked up from the rest of the chaff and transferred to the more professional side of the MCS. His aptitude for electronics was trained and fostered, with his new specialization giving the recently promoted sergeant quite the nice pay raise. It wasn't the glorious work that the recruiter promised, but he didn't care. Getting to travel from locale to locale while using his skills and making better than average pay fit Nathan just fine. Though of course this wasn't to last.

    A critical mission had in the words of his more coarse buddies, "gone completely tits up." The team was well trained, their equipment exactly to standards and fitted for the job. Even their CO, the spoiled child of a MCS CEO had been a competent if elitist jerk. But that just wasn't enough when it came to shitty intel, shitty timing and worse of all, just plain old shitty luck. And in the end, sometimes you just end up with a decimated team, an utterly failed objective and a whole lot of blame going around. Most of which landed on Nathan. Never mind that weather conditions had wiped out half his sensor drones, or that the enemy forces had access to a modern EW suite that was definitely not mentioned in the briefing. No, Tech Sergeant Nathan Feng had clearly failed in his duties and displayed incompetence unbefitting of a Myrmidon trooper.

    So while Lieutenant Calderone simply got a black mark on their record, Nathan found himself levied with a wide array of fees and unceremoniously cashiered out. That he did not take this well would be saying the least. A drunken bender later, and the former Myrmidon trooper found himself waking up on a tramp freighter heading into the Belt of all places. What started off as sullen work to "pay for his voyage", eventually turned to something more genuine and with it an invitation to join the crew. Learning the basics of being a spacer aboard the Honeybee, Nathan grew to enjoy his work, seeing the various cultures of the Belter settlements and getting a chance to use those skills he had been so proud of.

    The Martian native eventually found himself adrift once more when the Honeybee ran afoul of a Myrmidon security team pulling customs duty, the debacle ending up with the old cargo ship seized. Work was plentiful though, and for a man with his skills, Nathan soon found himself sailing the stars once more. Until half the crew of his ship ended up arrested in a bar room brawl gone wrong. Once again by Myrmidon troops handling local security. When the ship after that got dinged by Myrmidon anti-ship emplacements for "flying in restricted airspace", that's when Nathan started getting suspicious. Luckily, a few old contacts back in the MCS proved to be sympathetic enough to provide an answer.

    It turned out his old CO, now Assistant Vice-Director of Operations Calderone, had been nursing quite the grudge all these years. Scion of a rich corporate family, the now executive had never forgiven Nathan for the single black mark on their otherwise spotless record, still blaming the ex-sergeant for that failed mission. Profit of course was still the corporate officer's highest concern, but apparently Calderone wasn't above pulling a few strings and calling in favors just to ruin Nathan's day. Not the best news to hear, but hell, it could have been worse.

    Since then, Nathan has been steadily bouncing from ship to ship, never staying too long with one crew, lest another Myrmidon "accident" occur. Ending up further and further from Mars, the electronics specialist eventually arrived at Jupiter, ready for a new posting. And a ship like the Celeritas, with a new captain and crew? That sounded like just the perfect fit for him. Now how long would things last this time...?

    Skills
    Great (+4): Notice
    Good (+3): Electronics, Shoot
    Fair (+2): Athletics, Knowledge, Will
    Average (+1): Deceive, Fight, Physique, Stealth

    Stunts
    Danger Sense: You have an almost preternatural capacity for detecting danger. Your Notice skill works unimpeded by conditions like total concealment, darkness, or other sensory impairments in situations where someone or something intends to harm you.

    Hell of a Shot: Once per conflict, stack an additional free invoke on an advantage you've created to represent the time you take to aim or line up a shot.

    Hollywood Hacking: You're quite skilled when it comes to computers and other related topics. Gain a +2 bonus to any attempt to overcome obstacles with Electronics when computers are involved.

    Myrmidon Conflict Solutions
    "MCS", "Myrmidon", "Ants"

    A PMC hypercorp headquartered on Ares Station orbiting Mars, Myrmidon Conflict Solutions (MCS) has its tentacles all across the Sol System. Handling everything from security patrols to anti-piracy operations to general policing deployments, the MCS prides itself on its neutrality and efficiency. Their reputation for professionalism has made them quite popular for private security and mercenary work, the logo of MCS seen anywhere conflict needs to be resolved.

    Or such as their PR department would like to claim. The truth is as always, a more mixed bag. While there exists elite forces of MCS, there are never enough to cover all the various commitments and hotspots of the vast PMC, and ignoring a business opportunity would be unthinkable. As such, Myrmidon recruits widely to fill up its ranks, taking in everyone from clueless teenagers to military washouts to kill happy psychotics. Harsh discipline is used to keep such a varied force in line, with ironclad contracts and a reward/punishment pay system heavily leveraged against the average trooper. Rumors abound of even chemical and cybernetic inducements to keep the truly unruly in line.

    A typical MCS deployment will see a large masses of overly-aggressive disposable troops, backed up by teams of scattered professionally trained soldiers and with the elite only sent in when sheer numbers prove unable to solve the problem. Not the most elegant solution perhaps, but one that has certainly proved to be cost efficient. And in the end, isn't that all that matters?

    Jack Booted Thugs
    We Have Reinforcements
    Money is the Bottom Line
     
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  • Informational
    • Maybe I should of done a entry for power suits? Then again the hard science aspect for the entire game prevents mecha ala gundam or mechwarrior.

    That prototype suit from the halo anime, less so.
     
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    Current Tally of people showing interest, the role they are looking at. This is not repeat NOT a final selection roster.

    @Kensai – Communications/Doctor
    @tankdrop24 – Loadmaster
    @Tada Taro – Apprentice Engineer
    @Sol d'Trauer – No Preference
    @Daraken – Communications
    @HatsuZ – Pilot
    @Jemnite – Pilot(?)
    @Jeboboid – Engineer
    @Druby – No Preference

    So, nine people so far, an I'm looking for a roster of maybe six. We have no one really looking at being the group medic and engineering seems popular. As stated before for time of submission will not effect if you get selected or not. Furthermore, I do intend to have a waiting list in case people have to bow out.
     
    @DB_Explorer : Well not "no preference," I was literally asking if a similarly-scaled animal could be substituted for the cat. They're not the only things that both hunt rats and navigate small spaces.
     
    I mean, I'm sorta compelled to do this because I was in the original game, but I have no idea what I'd actually want to do, maybe a rehash of the "really really old soldier" idea. Probably as security or the "muscle."
     
    Sushi said:
    I mean, I'm sorta compelled to do this because I was in the original game, but I have no idea what I'd actually want to do, maybe a rehash of the "really really old soldier" idea. Probably as security or the "muscle."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    There was an original game? Did anything 'interesting' happen in it, if you catch my drift?
     
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