Runesmith: A Science Fantasy Action Quest

"Copy Sera?"

You ignore the voicecaster crackling at your belt and stare out at the stars, smoke curling gently around you from the lit incense at your feet.

You aren't supposed to be here, and you know it.

But you don't have to worry, because no one else ever will.

The massive starborne city, Sunsail Princess, hums. Its runes shine under their bands of gold, making the edges of the metal where it meets the Senwood hull glow with an electric blue light as they do their work. Its engines purr, idly carrying the ship through the void at the outer reaches of Aetheria's atmosphere, slowly pushing you into higher orbit.

You feel the point of transition approaching, the current tugging at the vessel as it noses into its area of impetus, and you spare one last glance at the planet below. The Imperial capital in all its splendor shining like a jewel against the darkness of the planetary night. As you rise a little further, you catch the sun's rays coming over the horizon, making you squint before the glass tints itself to protect your vision.

"Sera?" Your fingers itch with the urge to just turn the caster off but you can't, not unless you want to get in trouble. Well... More trouble anyways...

You just want to stand here, and watch existence blur as the ship sets forth into the stars, but you can't.

You have a job to do.

"Sera I swear to-!" You feel your lips tug upwards and see your teeth reflected in the darkened glass as you hold down the button, cutting her off and prompting a squeal of feedback from the voicecaster that you just know was worse on her end than yours.

You release the button, lift the communicator to your lips and click again before she can recover from the surprise. "I'm here Shan. 'Something wrong?"

"Took you long enough! Where are you?!"

You sigh and kneel to pick up the incense bowl, delicately turning the stick over in your fingers to plunge the glowing tip into the sand, smothering its flame. No sense wasting it after all. "...On my way to Senge now." You slurred the acronym CEng into a single word -mostly out of habit- as you splayed your fingers against a wall panel and then pulled them together, the motion dragging the access overlays into view as the reactive material verified your fingerprints to open the hatch.

"Forget that, head to storage three instead." You raised an eyebrow as you stooped to enter the hatchway. You didn't know if it was product of your birth or just a happenstance of your genes but you were just a little bit taller than Aetherians could usually boast, tall enough that these passageways and their access paths simply weren't quite designed to accommodate you. "We've got some funny readings from a few of the aft plates. Make sure they're safe before we hit the current's edge."

"Got it." A quick rap on a loose panel inside the tunnel loosened it, and slim fingers pried it away, opening the little space behind it. Quietly you stashed the incense bow before closing it behind you and setting off at a trot. "Have a list ready for me when I get there. Sera out."

-+-+-+-

"Where have you been anyways?"

You contemplated ignoring the question as you ducked through a hatch into one of the vertical shafts that connected the many levels of the ship's underbelly and decided against it. "Sera I swe-"

"Don't you have other little worker bees to coordinate Shan?" You stepped off the ledge, letting yourself begin to fall through the distorted space, the floor numbers passing by you in a near blur. You didn't need to read them, just wait for the right moment...

You stuck your hand out and immediately your fall slowed. 43... 42... 41... 40! You reached out further and grabbed the little handle that presented itself beneath the number, swinging down and into another passageway as normal gravity reasserted itself around you. "Everyone else is already doing their jobs 'Sunsail'." You grit your teeth at the mocking reminder of your last name. "Just because you're 'Firstborn' doesn't mean you get to slack off."

"No." You agree as the passage gives way to a catwalk over Storage three, the third of five massive holds that carry almost everything the Princess citizens and visitors need to live for the next few months in the void. "I get to slack off because I'm the best rune engineer you have and I can do all the work in half the time it would take anyone else." You hang a left at an intersection, boots clanging as you hurry. To say you could do stuff in half the time it took others was no empty boast, but at the same time entering a current between systems was no easy task.

A few glitchy runeplates might be nothing of consequence. Or they might be the flaws that would let the ship shake itself apart under the stress of entry, and for all your flippancy and your general dislike for Shan, this place was still your home, your birthplace.

Serastania Sunsail, firstborn of the Void.

The first Aetherian conceived, carried, and brought into the universe in the darkness between the stars themselves. The first to bear the citizenship of a vessel rather than a planet and city.

Sure enough, a slate with the plate locations and a harness loaded with inscription gear were waiting for you at the engineering station. Shan on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. Must have been called away for some other job. You checked the slate as you shrugged the harness on over your coveralls. Two minor plates were displaying anomalous energy flows and one of the connected major plates had gone dark.

You clicked the voicecaster once more. "Got the list Shan. I'll handle them." She didn't answer, and you set off again at a steady job, heading back towards the vertical shaft you'd just come from. Probably busy making someone else' life miserable for a while. Good.

You moved to fix...

[] The glitchy minor plates first. They should be easier and faster.
[] The darkened major plate first. That's the more important one after all.

[X] The glitchy minor plates first. They should be easier and faster.

You stepped into the lift again and kicked off as you entered it, feeling it pull you downwards and then swing upwards suddenly as you crossed into the rising half of the shaft. You kept one hand out, keeping your steady rise to a manageable pace as you counted the decks again, angling yourself upwards a little as you approached '50' so that when you pulled yourself out of the rising current you swung down evenly rather than wrenching your arms on accident.

Then you set off at a quick jog, making for the first of the two malfunctioning minor plates.

The minor plates were internal runic matrices that directed the flow of power through the Princess. There were thousands of them across the vessel, and while malfunctions were rare, they occasionally did occur. Damage or dust could mar the symbols that governed a runeplate's function, causing minor issues or even shutting them down entirely if the system became overwhelmed.

The system as a whole was complex enough that a few dozen plates going down or glitching out in a day wouldn't actually cut power to any systems. Or at least it shouldn't... Especially not to something like a main plate. The main plates were the sections of runes inscribed on the inside of the golden bands that ran the length and breadth of the ship. The shielding, sealing, and structural integrity they provided through their medium was absolutely crucial to keeping the city starborne and functional.

They should have dozens of backup systems to keep them from losing power, if not hundreds for some of the larger matrices.

While the two minor plates you'd been directed to were directly connected to the darkened major plate. Their glitches shouldn't have been enough to put it out of commission...

You snapped out of your thoughts as you arrived at the correct corridor and pulled the access overlay for an adjacent systems panel into view, verifying yourself to it.

The systems panel opened, and displayed the malfunctioning plate.

You went still.

There was no trace of dust buildup or smudging on the plate in front of you, but at the same time it was very clear what had gone wrong.

A single rune had been simply gouged from the metal. Three furrows in the soft gold distorting the shape and meaning of the governing symbol almost beyond legibility.

Sabotage...

You grabbed for your voicecaster. "Shan copy." You almost forgot to release the talk button as you slammed the access panel closed. You needed to get to the major rune now. No... You needed to get them to alter course and move away from the current entirely. Something was wrong here. "Shan!"

Dead silence answered you. Furiously you tabbed the signal frequency. "Security this is Engineering, Copy?"

Silence again.

"Is anyone there?!"

You cursed, slamming the access back into place. You'd need a replacement to fix this kind of damage and without any way to communicate there was no way you could have one delivered fast enough. Besides... Right now there were more important things to worry about. Not just the single major plate being unpowered, but the sudden silence on all frequencies, the damage you'd just seen...

You turned and ran for...

[] Storage three engineering station. That's where you gather in the event of an emergency and this probably qualifies as an emergency!
[] The Major Runeplate. Those things are too big to be offlined by a few scratches like this was. Maybe you can still fix it!
[] The Common Areas. You need to make them abort current entry, and with the voicecaster down the only way to get a message to the bridge is by runner.