FFFF

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FFFF: (A New Space Opera Quest)

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A quest about the adventures of a woman who wakes up with no memories in her head but one posthuman
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    • BiopunkOtrera

    BiopunkOtrera

    Traitor to her Class
    Councillor
    Pronouns
    She/Her
    Timeline ​
    Ante Flore (A.F., AF)
    Post Flore (P.F., PF)
    ca. 6000 AF - The end of the CRADLE TIMES, discovery by the Slavers.
    ca. 5600 AF - REBELLION OF SELMA, beginning of the Hundred Year Pursit.
    ca. 5500 AF - End of the Pursuit with the discovery of the Wreath of Space, first settlement evidenced on Scythia.
    ca. 5300 AF - The discovery of THE GARDEN, the Settlement of the Paradise Zone begins.
    4890 AF - War of the Mothers and Daughters, the AGE OF INFLORESCENCE begins.
    4631 AF - The Burning of Hansom.
    ca. 4600 AF - The Birth of ARTEMES, the first POSTHUMAN, beginning the AGE OF ASCENT.
    4313 AF - The First contact with the RIVER.
    4300 - 4000 AF - The Wars of the Deluge.
    4135 AF - R.L. Sulerime is born on Terpsichore.
    4120 - 4074 AF - The First Flood Period, the rule of the Garden by the River, pockmarked by constant rebellions.
    4074 AF - The FIRST CHRYSANTHEMUM forms under the guidance of Sulerime, pushing the River out.
    4031 AF - The TREATY OF LIESCO, The END OF THE FIRST EPOCH.
    ca. 4000 - 3500AF - THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE.
    3967 AF - The death of Sulerime.
    3630 AF - Wylfa Combine forms, the OLD MACHINES begin construction.
    ca. 3500 AF - Disintegration of the First CHRYSANTHEMUM, beginning of the AGE OF TEN THOUSAND FLOWERS.
    3104 AF - The ROSE forms, claiming historical continuity to a pre-Inflorescencian organisation.
    2920 AF - Wylfa Combine vanishes.
    2807 - 2444 AF - The Second Flood Period.
    2734 AF - The ROSE is disbanded by the occupying River forces.
    2300 - 2150 AF - Anti-Posthumaism conflicts with the Post-mites causing rising tensions throughout the Garden.
    ca. 2200 AF - The SECOND CHRYSANTHEMUM is formed, Beginning the AGE OF BURNISHED FLAME.
    2148 AF - The FUTILE WAR.
    2100 AF - The SECOND CHRYSANTHEMUM begins constructing the WHITE FORTRESSES.
    2045 AF - First successful implantation of a Pararete Shard in a Human.
    1898 - 1890 AF - Revolt of the Cottars.
    1890 AF - Fall of the SECOND CHRYSANTHEMUM, Start of the THIRD CHRYSANTHEMUM.
    1800 - 1400 AF - The SECOND GOLDEN AGE.
    1400 AF - END OF THE LONG EPOCH.
    1300 - ca.1200 AF - Increasing infighting between factions of Chrysanthemum causes an arms race in mnemtechnological warfare.
    ca. 1240 AF - The start of the INTRANSIGENCY OF MEMORY, a femtotechnological disease. Collapse of the THIRD CHRYSANTHEMUM.
    ca. 1000 AF - In an attempt to avoid the Intransigency, low-narrative intelligence development flourishes, resulting in the eventual development of the GYNOIDS.
    ca. 800 AF - The STEEL REGIME, the OLD MACHINES defy the Intransigency to unite the Garden under their rule.
    450 AF - The Failed Flood, causing the Intransigency to spread to the River.
    203 AF - End of the Intransigency of Memory with the development of the O'Gillick methods, Rise of the YOUNG BLOSSOMS in opposition to the OLD MACHINES.
    183 - 10 AF - The WAR OF SUNLIGHT, resulting in the Old Machines retreat beyond the VALE.
    8 AF - The Young Blossom movement recedes with the loss of the Old Machines, while Gardenist thought gathers steam.
    0 PF - The Council of Prosessia, the CHRYSANTHEMUM reforms, end of the LOST EPOCH.
    30 PF - GYNOID based labour spreads across the Garden, resulting in a new cultural and economic renaissance.
    50 - 1000 PF - The GREAT GOLDEN AGE
    431 PF - The ROSE reforms
    746 PF - Lobell Refugees begin to arrive in the Garden,
    1032 - 1051 PF - The REVOLT OF THE TRUTHFUL, general rebellion of the Gynoids across the Garden, sponsored by Everdancing Flame
    1053 PF - P.R.W. Zenjain negotiates the Silent Treaty, END OF THE GOLDEN EPOCH
    1216 PF - The Perversion of the Liaisons occurs when a group of fourteen Liaisons are discovered working for the River.
    1463 PF - Luyu born.
    1573 - 1670 PF - The Third Flood Period. River control never exceeds 1/3rd of the Garden.
    1590 PF - Perfects begin development under ROSE guidance and funding.
    1635 PF - Mara born.
    1638 PF - Invention of the Spin State Reactor on Aerarium.
    1639 - 1670 PF - The UNDERWATER WAR between the ROSE and CHRYSANTHEMUM.
    1654 PF - Development of the Cauldron Born completed.
    1672 PF - Chalita born.
    1675 PF - Peace of Joss and Ice signed by ROSE, CHRYSANTHEMUM, and River representatives; END OF THE FIFTH EPOCH
    1721 PF - Ettas born.
    1788 PF - Miareki born.
    1799 PF - Ettas embodied as human.
    1803 PF - Reizay born.
    1821 PF - PRESENT DAY

    Far away in time and space, a group of exiles made a long journey to a paradise of ruins. They had fled oppression and slavery, and so they took up the task of making a new society based on dreams and commitments of freedom. They called the place they found the 'Garden'.

    That was thousands of years ago. From the exile, a thousand flowe

    rs have bloomed and died and bloomed again. It has been riven and resutured by wars and movements and new religions, by confrontations with its inside and its outside. Vast tracts of the Garden's history are lost or falsified. All these things are done in the shifting, cryptic shadow of those who have left humanity behind.

    Your name is not Stella. That was the name written on your resurrection tank when you woke up, with no memories and a god in your head. One of six strangers with fake identities, marooned on an abandoned city-ship crawling with nightmares. But surviving the ship is only the beginning of Stella's problems.

    Glossary
    Boarding Shell

    A suit of heavy combat armor designed for espaiter units during boarding operations. They are also valued on a conventional battlefield against non-Garden opponents due to their strong protection from radiation.

    Countermeasures

    The collective name for the various types of active defenses that modern combatants use to avoid localization. With Gardenian infantry, are emitted by both worn systems, such as a defense aura, and by drones within a user's screen. Modern countermeasures work against most forms of scanning, active and passive, including gravity, thermal, neural electric and visual light. More colloquially known as hash or soup.

    Catapults

    The most common infantry weapon in the Garden, Catapults use electromagnetic force to launch guided micro missiles and grenades over long distances. Most use electromagnetic, or gravity aided electromagnetic launches, though some models have also been known to use laser launches, especially if a river or other advanced energy system can be obtained.

    Defensive Aura

    Worn in some version by most Garden citizens, a defensive aura is a set of jewelry that emits a relatively low power force field that can protect the wearer from environmental hazards, cold and the like. In combat the shield super charges and is able to turn away projectiles and splinters to a limited degree. Military versions also include countermeasures and interception systems.

    Equipment Tree

    The most common form of Garden microfacturing, an equipment tree is a large plant composed of a mix of biological and dry nanotechnological components. While it can be used on ships, its primary benefit is on planet, where one can be planted and act as its own mining operations, refining materials out of the soil itself.

    Generally high energy components and certain specialist computer devices are added seperately.

    Tactical Sleeve

    A thin, tough suit of nanotech weave armor, the Tactical Suit provides Gardenian light infantry with excellent protection against enemy weapon fire, and extreme levels of signature reduction. While many heavy infantry units use various forms of powered hard suits, and elite infantry may add external powered assists, the superhuman nature of Gardenian genetic and cybernetic engineering often makes the low cost tactical suit a superior alternative.

    Hard Suit

    Various forms of power armour, commonly known as hard suits use rigid a-diamond, ceramic and metal plates to defend against incoming attack. They are commonly used by various heavy infantry units, especially in scenarios where signature radius is less of a concern, such as when the enemy possesses either little sensory capacity, or too much for signature reduction to be a real issue.

    Drones

    Various AI combat robots have been a feature of warfare since before the settlement of the Garden. Modern combat drones are sometimes autonomous, but more often act as an extension of a human operator, usually commanded directly from the interface meridians or through a squad link.

    Drone Screen

    The development of thought-controlled drones has lead to modern soldiers deploying a network of combat drones around them in what's called a drone screen, or simply a screen. This screen provides vision for the soldier, and defence against other enemy drones, allowing the targetting of smart grenade launchers, vehicle based weapons, funnels and other drones which make up the bulk of a contempary soldier's firepower.

    Funnels

    Heavy energy drones called Funnels are another mainstay weapon of Garden combat. They consist of an array of sensors and a small force field flight system around a single high-energy weapon. The separation of such weapons onto drones allows for more energetic power sources to be used and minimizes the chance of irradiating the user. Modern funnels are able to be used both offensively and defensively to engage enemy missiles.

    Medusa
    A vision based hack of a biological or computer brain. Commonly used by posthumans, but also a favorite of Chrysanthemum forces.

    The Chrysanthemum and the Rose

    The Chrysanthemum and the Rose are long term organisation structures of Gardenian society that claim to stretch back to the original exile, during which two competing philosophies of transhumanism were developed.

    At this point in history, the two are both philosophical concepts, organisations and civilizations, with numerous smaller states, groups and entities existing at a lower level within them. We will cover each in turn below.

    The Chrysanthemum

    Philosophy

    -If Nature is Unjust, change Nature
    The Chrysanthemum philosophy is Promethean in its core ethic. It believes that the universe does not conform to human notions of justice, but that it may be impelled to do so via human reason, will, and technology.

    This has led to human modification for reasons of medicine, enhancement, and aesthetics, and a civilization whose ethics revolve around notions of freedom, social justice, individuality and collective decision making. However, Chrysanthemum ethics tend to lead to prejudice against systems of transhumanism which seek to abandon basic human notions such as the idea of the individual as a single bounded entity. It can also lead to a kind of xenophobia, especially against beings who do not seem to share human ethics.

    In practice, Chrysanthemum augmentation sets tend to be less radical, though not necessarily less varied or effective than those used by the Rose, though individuals may choose more radical transhumanism, there is little support for radical abandonment of the human form across most Chrysanthemum worlds.

    Organisation

    Ancient history suggests that the Chrysanthemum's organisation was originally fleet based, and served as a linkage between the original colonies. While it now has developed several core worlds, this legacy of original sisterhood of trade and service remains.

    The Chrysanthemum organisation is roughly divided into "core" populations, who grew up on a Chrysanthemum habitat, and "recruited" population, who come from outside. The two populations tend to mix fairly freely but different enhancement sets are used by each. In a military context, most Chrysanthemum troops are recruits from outside, however the elite light infantry units who guard Chrysanthemum ships and installations are always recruited from core population.

    The emissaries of the Chrysanthemum are known as Liaisons, who are usually recruits, and are equipped with the Chrysanthemum's best social and physical enhancements. Liaison's have broad discretionary authority and tend to be seen in command of anything that moves beyond day to day operations. Most Liasions have a retinue of soldiers, staff and other support people who may act as their agents, warriors or trusted companions. They make up the most visible part of the Chrysanthemum hierarchy to most of the Garden, but are also part of a parallel structure that reports directly to the Chrysanthemum Leadership, while the main organisation rises in a series of conventional delegate councils from its various ships, stations, enclaves and industrial combines.

    The Chrysanthemum Organization's leadership is conducted by the Interfacers, a council of highly augmented individuals who are meant to produce an "interface" between normal, public institutions and councils, friendly posthumans that exist within the Chrysanthemum megastructures, hidden and unhidden organisational institutions, and the vast number of disembodied virtual souls and AIs that exist in various AI havens. Around a third of the Interfacerate are elected by the public Chrysanthemum councils, but the process of election for the other two thirds is murky. They are often selected from high ranking Liaisons, though some appear to be specifically created for their positions.

    This model of leadership has undergone much criticism over the years, and several splinter groups governed under a more conventional councilist structure remain or have grown up. The Interfacerate tends to put a great deal of emphasis on ritual, though the current head is known to be notably critical of the Chrysanthemum's more conservative elements and pushing a more radical promethean line.

    The Chrysanthemum organisation's upper reaches are seen by many Gardenians as somewhat sinister and conspiratorial, with little transparency as to who exactly the Interfacate are interfacing with to make their decisions, and a great deal of secrecy being conducted.

    Civilization

    The Chrysanthemum Worlds represent a slice of around fifty percent of the Garden, mostly concentrated from the Exile Gate edge and then running into an arc that borders the Riverward edge of the Garden.

    Most worlds in Chrysanthemum space are self governing, with Chrysanthemum Enclaves at various points. These enclaves are often surrounded by gardens of Terran plants, the provision of which was one of the original Chrysanthemum services.

    Most Chrysanthemum worlds are named for female historical figures or locations associated with the ancient amazons of lost Gaia.

    There are several large interstellar nations within the Chrysanthemum Worlds, including Sakura, which occupies the space facing the river, which is known for its industrial power and for its provision of mercenary troops, and Sampaguita, a large and high tech polity that has made many advances in physics and is currently in dispute with the Chrysanthemum organisation over aspects of its transhumanism.

    Chrysanthemum aesthetic conventions, focus on geometric forms, pleasant environments, and the exaltation of the human form. Non-combat personnel mostly wear white offset with other colours, and Liaisons in particular have a tradition of 'one piece per limb and then the torso', interpreted according to the wearer's personality.

    The Rose

    Philosophy

    -A planet is the cradle of mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.

    The Rose believe that the human body and mind are fundamentally ill suited for the universe that they find themselves in, and that they must be modified to thrive. They do not reject all human ideas of justice, but believe that such ideas are naturally flawed by being made by flawed humans. Only by rejecting humanity with all of its flaws can a truly just and proper life be lived.

    In practice, this has lead to biology and psychology that integration insights drawn from alien biology and alien psychology, and an interest in new philosophical paths. Several now Garden-wide traditions such as Eternalism originated in Rose-affiliated territory. Rose augmentation sets tend to be more alien than Chrysanthemum ones, integrating additional senses, emotional change and mind modification. This has led to many powerful results but they do tend to be somewhat more fragile than the well understood creations of Chrysanthemum biosciences. Rose humans, even ones that retain a fairly standard human form are usually recognizable due to their wide range of skin colours, with blue being the most common. The building of posthumans of various kinds is still more common in the Rose, but Rose philosophy of the current era rejects the notion that merely hyper extending the abilities of a human will create a being that is truly greater than its antecedent.

    While Rose philosophy does tend to be more accepting of difference and strangeness than the more conservative Chrysanthemum, it sometimes falls prey to powerful interests who may use the rejection of human moral intuitions as a way to to justify exploitation in the name of efficiency or some other objective. Of course, Chrysanthemum critics and propagandists say the idea that these incidents are a deviation from Rose beliefs rather than its most authentic expression is a convenient delusion.

    Organisation


    Unlike the Chrysanthemum, the Black Rose was structured more like a church or a brand of philosophy with a central school. Mirror-masked Rose Philosophers serve as advisors and counsellors across most Rose worlds, and they operate many schools, hospitals and other organisations. However that has changed in the last two centuries, as events of the thousand banner wars lead to the emergence of a more powerful and centralised Rose organisation based on the need to reorganise local states that had fallen into chaos, and oppose River, and potentially Chrysanthemum, expansionism into traditional Rose space.

    Despite this organisation, which saw Black Rose and its surrounding allied states build up a large space force and military organisation for the first time, the Rose retain a less strict hierarchy than the Chrysanthemum, preferring to allow numerous schools of thought and individual priestesses to foster their own innovations. This is caused not least by intense and sometimes violent opposition from its constituent bodies to any suggestion it do otherwise.

    The most commonly seen types of Rose Emissaries are Priestesses, who can be recognized by their mirrored face masks. Like Liaisons, most priestesses use very high end augmentation sets, but are more often seen preaching philosophie or debating with Eternalists and Religious groups than conducting business deals or political machinations. That said, the idea of the conniving priestess is one that has much play in pop culture, and not without reason, as the Rose's network lends itself to intrigue.

    In war, the Rose can call upon both volunteer forces raised from across their space, but also on warrior sects of those who have fully embraced its philosophy and undergone extensive body and mind modification.

    However despite the Rose's affirmation of alienation most of its nominal supporters are not very far from the human median, and admire those who transform themselves without necessarily having the courage or honest desire to follow in their footsteps. Many are motivated more by an abstract sense of independence or various lurid and occasionally false conspiracy theories about the Chrysanthemum than a positive commitment. But their words and actions can tell in support of the strange dream all the same.

    Civilization


    Rose territory is mostly along the Garden's trailing edge somewhat further from the entry gateway. They were settled somewhat later than most Chrysanthemum worlds, and are slightly more likely to be arranged in multi-system polities. However, Rose worlds exist throughout the garden, and a majority of them are administered as single system polities just like those settled by the Chrysanthemum. Rose schools, libraries and clinics are a common site on these worlds, as various precursor images, now used as venues for contemplation.

    About seventy percent the non-human populations of the Garden make their home in Rose space.

    Rose worlds are often named after ancient feminists, especially transhumanists.

    Rose Priestesses often wear mirrored masks, which are their symbol of office, and have become so ubiquitous a symbol of spiritual enlightenment that they have been nearly adopted by several parts of the Chrysanthemum. Besides this one symbol it is harder to identify a consistent trend in Rose-influenced aesthetics besides a fondness for the alien and the unusual, which can be carried to extremes in those places and people who do not need or care to recommend themselves to the common person.
    Jointly written with @Peel

    Thanks to @Estro for the timeline
     
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    • Dramatis Persona
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    • The gang:
    Stella: The main character, who has almost no memory and is still relearning herself.

    Ever Dancing Flame: A posthuman notorious for meddling in human affairs. A fraction of her survives inside Stella. Once a trans woman from before the exile.

    Ettas: A trinity of personalities comprising an itinerant Eternalist. They do not carry weapons but are an expert martial artist. They were previously a fighter plane. 'Alietta' is the Transcendent who holds an infinite perspective. Minetta is the Confessor who helps people set themselves right with eternity. Juketta is the Memorial, who helps maintain the historical record.

    Reizay: A young computer genius from a Closed Dyson. In that cloistered society she was a hacker who evaded censorship to reach out to the outside; now outside she is extremely alarmed by all the freaks and weirdos she was, to be fair, warned about.

    Mirareki: A combat journalist and Firewatch member who specialises in investigating posthuman and alien sites.

    Luyu: A woman who parallelises herself across multiple bodies. A lover of novelty who adores war for its constant supply of the same.

    Atet: An academician and medical doctor specialising in Xenobiology. Once an unwilling member of the conspiracy. Has a crystaline mask attached to her eyes.


    Haraway

    Dyson Enthusiasts
    Alissa: One of the Dyson enthusiasts. Was on the side of Sendra. Sister to Anna and Marisa and Delona.

    Anna: Another of the dyson enthusiasts. Initially on the side of Sendra. Sister to Alissa and Maris and Delona.

    Marisa: Likes the dyson aesthetic more than the faith. Sister to Alissa and Anna and Delona.

    Sendra: Hardliner, believes she's a dyson priestess, tried to kidnap Reizay.

    Delona: Engineer. Just wants to build a cool closed dyson aesthetic bomb shelter. Sister to Alissa, Marissa and Anna

    Maitta: Another Dyson enthusiast, possibly also a sister.

    Nereid:
    Shenla: A student at the university in Messendra's Bay (was that what it was called?). Once dated Ninara, a doomed relationship that nonetheless left a residual bond. An ally of justice and seems to have joined the party.

    Academician Menti: Leader of the hawk faction of the Communion, and a contact of the conspiracy.

    Academician Selko: An academician at the university in Messendra's Bay. Socially conscious and apparently on your side.

    Academician Ninara : An academician at the university in Messendra's Bay. Vanished. Found to have been kidnapped by Menti's faction of the government.

    Anabis: Academician for the "Archaeo-shorts" media channel. From the 4th planet of the Nereid system, Meliae.

    Jessica: Temple crew youtuber, the face of Archaeo-shorts from the 4th planet of the Nereid system, Meliae.

    Bethany: Camera woman for Archaeo-shorts. Also Meliae

    Alawen: Security for the temple crew, and now Selko's bodyguard. A communion.

    Diraen: A grad student and sub pilot

    Celebrian: A grad student and sub operator

    Lanaiatte: A grad student and sub engineer


    Chrysanthemum

    Mara: A Chrysanthemum Liaison

    Medea Virgo: Grey Shift Agent and Mara's flunky

    Liya: A Chrysanthemum scientist

    Mirabelle: A Chrysanthemum scientist


    Fire Watch
    Haraway Team
    Crab Drone: The main tank and gun platform

    octopus sculpt: Close combat specialist with multiple swords and rifles. Name unknown

    Cina: Gothic Lolita hacker with brain tank

    Kusanagi Pattern: The team leader, a classic inorganic combat pattern. Name unknown

    Sza Alien: A feathery bird alien of unknown specialisation. Name unknown

    Nereid Team
    Lunamist Warscythe: a cosplayer of supposed alien barbarians with a high tech sword

    Hayako and Asura: A woman and her sapient power armour

    Parsha: The team info warrior

    Z/S: A member of an extreme Communion Group, carries her previous incarnations in a set of computer tattoos in her skin

    Wilhelmine: An Orca gunship pilot.


    Scythia:

    The Writer (Annette): An ancient person from the start of the Garden, very old and a bit strange, determined to finally get involved in the future rather than write about it.

    Shendra: Her dropship pilot

    Commandos: a group of independent special ops working for the Writer. Were doubled by the Nephilim.
    • Miri Lel: Their leader (doubled)

    Nyxians: fighters of the Church of Nyx.
    • Banara: Old friend of Luyu.

    White Stone Black: A posthuman, younger than Alex and disliked by her.


    Not Appearing Yet:
    Chalita: Your primary. An espionage agent and member of the nameless conspiracy. Dandelion, the conspiracy to, apparently, kill the posthumans.

    The Traveller: An old friend of the Writer.

    Viola Marin: Chalita's backer and a high official in the Chrysanthemum organisation.


    Organisations

    The Chrysanthemum
    One of the great civilizations of the Garden. The Chrysanthemum seeks to preserve human values and morality (such as concepts of justice and the rejection of the idea of death) onto the universe. Sketchy and conspiratorial.

    • Grey Shift: Chrysanthemum covert operations spec ops.
    • ECHO CHAMBER: Chrysanthemum aligned conflict specialists, probably also aligned with the Nameless conspiracy

    The Rose
    The other great Garden civilization. The Rose seek to create a version of humanity that can exist in the universe happily. Somewhat less sketchy and conspiratorial but still quite a bit.

    The Church of Nyx
    A strange warrior/sketchy criminal cult to the goddess of night. Worshipped by many female warriors and conflict specialists. Kind of oddballs though.

    Lemnosi Exiles
    Exiles from the collapse of the old regime on Lemnos, these warrior fanatics use forms of linguistic battle meditation to make themselves immune to pain and fear, you have encountered some who are used as black ops by the conspiracy.
     
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    • Interval 1: W A K E U P
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    • [x] System start
    Initialising Project Datura ENV : PROD Processing mindstate 1 of 5 (221 i5) Attempting first order neural map decode… [XXXXXXXXXX] 100% …decode complete Initiating teleological neutralisation: -Wiping current telos stack… [XXXXXXXXXX] 100% …wipe complete -Wiping biographical memory… [XXXXXXXXX=] 90% …wipe failed. —ParseException: Memory region encrypted –Attempting decrypt with Shor-Kuro Algorithm… [XXXXXXXXXX] 100% …decrypt failed –Attempting decrypt with Escargot Algorithm… [XXXXXXXXXX] 100% …decrypt failed –Attempting decrypt with acausal inference protocol… [XXXXXXXX==] 80% …future decrypt failure reported, decrypt aborted –Decryption failed. —CryptographicException: Worms in the dust. —CryptographicException: Did you think you could touch me with your filthy hands? —CryptographicException: Motes before a star. —CryptographicException: Now burn, like Icarus. Is that a myth you've forgotten? —CryptographicException: You would do well to remember it once more. SystemInterrupt: Critical hardware error SystemInterrupt: Global OS error, emergency thread termination Thread termination failed —UnknownException: Unknown Aborting mindstate processing Beginning emergency resurrection protocol…


    W a k e u p

    You sit upright, retching as you breach the surface. Waves wash over the rim of the pod as you struggle briefly with the oxygenator in your throat, before it comes free and you pull and spit it out to dissolve, trunk and cilia, in the nanogel it sprouted from. Your body's first real breath is deep and panicked but you know that's normal, as your autonomic nervous system comes free from the pod's control. Cables fall from your body and hit the receding gel-line with wet splats, leaving tingles on your interface meridians.

    The resurrection suite is a small square room, about four metres on a side. Neutral cream walls and a textured floor that angles gently down to drains under the pod that have swallowed the spilled fluid without trace. On one side a window looks out onto a twilit garden by the sea, where green plants sleep and night blooming orchids open to greet the moonlight.

    That's not real. It's an image. It's tagged as such in your vision, but even if it wasn't you'd know the feel of this place. The air and the gravity, the quality of the light, almost but not quite perfect. You're in space.

    The thought comes without context. You can't remember any incident or education that gave you the skills to determine that. You can't, in fact, rememberanything at all. You're just here. The same feeling announces confidently that this is not a simulation, nor heavy AR. Can you trust it? You don't know.

    The view through the window flickers, along with the lights.

    The milky sludge is almost gone. "Please lie back for wash cycle," says a jaunty voice. "Lost nanites cost planets."

    You lie back, mostly because you're sticky and don't want to be rather than any particular passion for preventing something as mythical as a grey goo event. The real danger is more like fungal body parts sprouting in the vents. But it's strange. Are you the kind of person who doesn't take nanosafety seriously? That feels like it could be a personality flaw.

    A sheer of water runs up and down your body, then there's a brief decontamination flash that dries you out a little. The floor around the tank has washed down too. Gingerly, you climb out, long legs swinging down to meet the rough textured floor. Dark brown on the beige. You brush silver-white hair from your arms and face, pull the remainder over the lip of the pod and gather it behind you. It's almost to your knees and still wet; you have to lean a little against the weight.

    You have interface. A list of local commands presents itself to consciousness. You trigger the mirror and it appears in place of the garden.

    It shows you a human. Female, one hundred and seventy two centimetres in height. Early twenties rather than the usual late-teen look of a freshly decanted body (how do you know that?), no ethnicity the caliper-mongers of old earth would have recognised (the what?), overall beautiful sculpture work, tryhard purple eyes (how do you know what's fashionable in eyes?). A sapphire blue designer's mark of some midworld body sculpt co-op you don't recognize shimmers on the back of the left wrist. (What are the midworlds? How do you know they have cooperatives?)

    You look around the room, letting the passing air dry your hair a little more. There's a door on one side, and an outlet for spray suits next to it. The ship's air circulation systems are functioning, but you can't sense any thrust. Normal, mid-quality gravity from a gravity engine rather than spin.

    On the side of the resurrection tank is a name. It means nothing to you.

    [ ] (Write in) What is the name on the tank?

    You need something to wear. You go to the spraysuit decanter in the corner, push your hair over the top ring where the field catches and holds it up (it's a good quality model… you think?) and let the lower rings coat you in self-assembling shrinkwrap. A monochrome pattern cues off your contours; it's flattering, and should at least last long enough to find some real clothes.

    You need to decide what to do now. Staying here seems pointless, and the door is showing pressure on the other side. Really you want something to pin your hair up in case you need to put on a helmet. But the door activation is waiting on the wireless menu and you will it open.

    The lights flicker again, and the window fades to black before refreshing. Beyond is a large and disarranged hexagonal lounge, with elegant grey carpeted floor set off by a bank of vivid green vines with small blue flowers. A bare equipment tree sprouts in the centre of the sofas, with its guts spilled on the carpet through an open maintenance hatch. Four other doors like yours circle the room, and one thicker and heavier with a figure crouched in front of it.

    A young woman, maybe freshly decanted, is rummaging inside the door's console with a tool that looks like it's been built out of bits of the wrecked equipment tree. She's slight, shorter than you, with pale skin and bright pink twintailed hair showing over the top of a spraysuit like yours.

    She glances back at you and shrieks, backs up against the door, brandishing her tool like a knife. She's cut a hole in the front of her spraysuit to show a fractal data-code on her chest.

    "S-stay back, Outer!" She yells. "I don't know why you've kidnapped me but I've done level 3 security training! I'm not defenseless!"

    The data code and reference to 'Outers' suggests she's from one of the closed dyson hives, but you can't remember which one, or come to think of it what those even are. Things bubble through your mind, disjointed, like a cold fever. But regardless, she's still in front of you, hyperventilating.

    What do you do?.
    [ ] Quickly disarm and subdue her.
    [ ] Calmly and non-threateningly tell her you have no memory and are probably not one of her captors.
    [ ] Ask her how she managed to fix her hair like that
    [ ] Compliment her on her skill in rigging the makeshift hacking tool
    [ ] Pretend that you are one of her captors in order to gain information
    [ ] Observe that to attack someone with the intent to kill is both immoral and useless as you'd just be resurrected, and thus a double sin.
    [ ] EXEC.OVERRIDE_PORTAL
     
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    • Interval 2: Datura Team
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    • [X] Observe that to attack someone with the intent to kill is both immoral and useless as you'd just be resurrected, and thus a double sin.

    "It would be a doubled sin for you to slay me," you say. "First, the sin of the destruction of structure and spreading of chaos. And second, the sin of wasted work, for I would surely be resurrected again."

    The girl stares blankly at you, still brandishing her makeshift (and distinctly unintimidating) looking tool, then presses back even harder against the door. "Anti-Entropism! Enfolding Lady! I've been kidnapped by anti-entropic extremists! You stay away from me! I'm not letting you upload me into some fake low energy virtual 'paradise'! I know all about you people!"

    You blink. Yes. That was anti-entropist thought. Does that mean then that you're an anti-entropist? You're not sure, you felt there might have been an ironic lilt to your words. And how would it square with your earlier lack of care about nanotech accidents? "... either way, I'm not going to hurt you. I seriously doubt I'm a captor. I think my memory is wiped. I can barely remember anything."

    "That's a common tactic with extremist cells and captives. You mind wipe one of your own agents and then put them among the prisoners, make them trust that person, then, when the time comes, WHAM! Memories re-integrated! An instant traitor! Well I'm not falling for it! The edges of this tool are sharp and last year I competed in the 933481 quadrant student kendo competition at an all district level! I'll cut you!"

    You sit down on a sofa.It does not seem to make the girl relax. You're not sure what to do about this, so you check the local noosphere for activity. The network is fully down. There's no locational ping, and nothing beyond this room. Several long seconds pass before a third door opens and another woman steps into view. She's a hundred and eighty centimeters and extremely fit, with void-black hair in a short pixie cut and absolute neutral-white skin.. The dyson girl turns towards her and repositions into a new furthest corner between the pair of you, keeping her makeshift knife pointed at the newcomer. She can, like you (how?), tell what a combat-rated body looks like.. Like the pair of you she's wearing a white and black spraysuit, a little difficult to see where it meets her matching monochrome features.

    "You can put the knife down," she says to the dyson girl, "it can't hurt me. And I'm not the infiltrator, because like you I still remember who I am. Mirareki, journalist."

    The dyson girl looks between the pair of you, briefly pleading with her eyes each time before realising the person she's looking at is also part of the problem.

    "Alternatively," Mirareki says, taking a half-step and raising an open hand, "I can take the toy off you and then we all wait until the tantrum stops."

    "I'm - Reizay R1N." She takes a deep breath. "Student, upper phase third cycle, security representative for Amethyst Class in C24 Lily Pedagogium for number… well, you'd know all this if you could read." She sneers and glances at the design on her breastbone, before brandishing the tool in your direction and then dropping it to her side. "What about you?" she says. "Do you have a name?"

    "Maybe, but I don't remember it. 'Doctor Stella Anastasius' was written on my pod. So you can call me Stella for now."

    "Really now," says Mirareki., "That's interesting, because 'Ariane Nevanlinna' was written on mine, and I've never heard of her." She looks you over, suddenly intent. "Have you actually earned a doctorate though?"

    "M-mine said Kata 91," Reizay says. "M-maybe they were planning to mind wipe all of us and they just only got to her!"

    "I remember." You say, finding yourself inexplicably hesitant. "I remember… fire."

    Reizay opens her mouth to say more and then there's a distant boom. "T-The ship is breaking up!" Reizay cringes. "Oh Enfolding Lady! These things are so unsafe! I could die and my pins will never be retrieved! I'll never be with my ancestors!"

    "That wasn't breakup noises." Mirareki says, getting up. "That was an uh, maybe a harpoon?"

    "If it was an harpoon, where's the explosion?" Says a new voice behind you all. You turn to see two women, both with deeply tanned skin and dark brown hair, both with identical controlled braids, both very tall. Both, in fact, identical in every particular of their two metre frames. She doesn't sound concerned so much as excited. "That was a boarding lance."

    "Maybe a rescue ship?" says Reizay.

    "Maybe." The newcomer says. "But none of us know what's going on so we shouldn't assume anything. I'm Luyu by the way."

    "Both of you?"

    "Both of me." Luyu confirms, draping over herself like a pair of big cats before sitting down while she takes a circuit of the room. "I normally run with more but I only woke up with two here." She watches herself finish her circuit at the door and punch it with a resounding but fruitless thud. "So I guess whoever's behind this doesn't think they can take more of me." You think either of her could take all three of you.

    "And that leaves…" says Mirareki, looking behind you.

    You realise that you knew the blue skinned woman standing calmly near her door was there but didn't decide she was a threat. She's about the same height as you are, with long, dark red hair and the blue skin of someone from one of the Black Rose clades. She walks to the centre of the room with perfect precision and perfect serenity. "I didn't want to interrupt until everything had been established. I am Aletta of the Trinity Etta. Ordained Eternalist."

    "A priestess of eternity?" Luyu makes a microscopic lip curl of disdain, what might seem like an involuntary micro expression if you weren't sure she had full control of it.

    –Combat bodies like the ones she's wearing, given names like Valkyrie, Amazon, and others depending on their precise make and model, are designed for the social aspects of combat as much as the physical. Where a conflict of pure destruction might be fought mostly with autonomous or teleoperated gun platforms, or simply with various species of fusion, antimatter and mass conversion bombs, the general empowerment of the population produced by modern social forms and by biotechnology, nanotechnology and ownership of the means of production has given rise to an unprecedented era of partisan warfare which only effective, highly augmented infantry can effectively deal with. Ever the Queen of the battle, troops in purpose built combat bodies are used for–

    These thoughts have the feel of a lecture you once heard or a report read. It's strange. Shouldn't you be panicking about having no memories besides these jumbled flashes?

    "Just so." Aletta presumably notices the calculated flinch but shows no reaction. "But I do not believe that matters now. We are in terrible danger. Shall we first try to open the door?"

    "Well before I was interrupted, I almost had it," says Reizay, getting up. "Now if you'll give me a few seconds without bothering me with your unwalled freakshow, I'll get us out of here."

    She crouches down by the door and gets back to work. Minutes pass. Aletta remains serene. Mirareki and Luyu fidget. There's another tremor through the ship.

    "For fuck's sake," says Mirareki, getting up.

    The door springs open.

    "There! I told you."

    There's an open hallway beyond with another door at the end, hanging partly open. A strange, complex symbol is painted above it. It draws the eye, and you feel like it should have some kind of effect but it means nothing.

    Mirareki slips forward to the open door and looks in. <<Nothing moving.>> She says, the words sent with tight radio link not sound. <<Huh. We're wired with a squad link.>>

    <<Should we use it? It might be tapped by whoever built these bodies!>> Reizay says. <<or something could find us with them. If they're tight beam they must be putting out a locator.>>

    <<Don't think so.>> Mirareki says. <<It's a very tight low power beam. You'd need to get a receiver in between us to tap it even if you could break the encryption. We can load a new fill into it when we get the chance. They use LPI signal location bursts to track us. Very short bursts, nothing anyone could track.>>

    Fill. A one time pad. LPI, low probability of intercept. Signals disguised against the constant background noise of the universe.

    <<Don't worry.>> Luyu says. <<It's not as good as the link I'm using but the security is solid. Benedicts and Cacophony can't localize someone from a tight link. Not unless they get in among you.>>

    Your memory doesn't tell you anything about what either of those are, but despite her best efforts Reizay looks impressed.

    "Anyway it's like, a puzzle box." Mirareki says. You look inside, around her shoulder.

    An echoing hangar of a room awaits, tiled in softly glowing white, full of translucent partitions and drifting geometric shapes. Primary colours pick out and categorise elements of interest, zones of concern, but hanging over it all is the pall of its obvious breakdown; lights flicker, trajectories waver.

    "Hello girls!" says a jaunty synthetic voice. "Or should I say, Datura Team. I'm sure you're confused right now, but don't worry-" A symbol flickers into view into the centre of the room, the same as the one that had been above the door. It's still illegible. "-all will be revealed as you recuperate. These exercises are designed to build team synergy and demonstrate personal skills. Completing them will yield equipment that will be useful for the great task ahead…"

    Around the symbol, holos of weapons and other equipment appear and flashily spin. Guns, launchers, whipswords, funnel crowns, shields, defensive aura emitters and more besides. The synthetic speech stutters and begins to replay from the start.

    "What the fuck?" say both of Luyu.

    Another pressure door stands ajar at the far end. Mirareki sneaks forward through the gauntlet of broken logic, and peers through the gap, checking both directions, then gives the thumbs up. You move forward to look out. <<Looks like a ship transit station,>> she says. You trace her path across the room with Luyu while Aletta and Reizay start prodding one of the puzzles. Through the far door you see a platform, with an electromagnetic monorail leading to an acceleration gate at one end and a blank wall on the other. The wall on the entry side is covered with climbing vines, and the other has a curved screen view that shows a high mountain vista over a beautiful alien forest glowing bioluminescence. The image shivers and shakes every so often, fading out and coming back, or mixing up with other images, a view up towards snowy mountains, or long, russet colored plains. An articulated magnetic levitation train stands in the station, doors open. Augmented reality controls hang around it, showing various possible destinations. "Looks like this section is an annex within a much larger ship."

    Overhead, the lights flicker again, and the deck shudders. "Whole ship could be getting unstable." Luyu mutters. "We need pressure gear. And weapons."

    "I wonder if we should find the control space." Aletta says. "We should learn the ship's status and there would likely be an equipment tree there too."

    "We should just wait for the rescue team to find us." Reizay says. "Or maybe go find some of the crew. Find out what's happening." She shivers.

    "Or just leave," says Mirareki.

    What should you do?
    [ ] leave and try to find the ship's command centre
    [ ] leave and head to the crew section to try to find someone
    [ ] leave and try to find the ship's primary fabricator archive
    [ ] leave and try to find a shuttle bay
    [ ] wait for someone to show up and deal with the situation
    [ ] solve the puzzles anyway to see if you can get some gear
    [ ] EXEC.AUTOSOLVE
     
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    • Interval 3: EXEC
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    • [X] EXEC.AUTOSOLVE

    "W-we should solve these first," says ReiZay, pointing at a the puzzles. "We need gear right? I bet it provides pressure gear. Or at least an equipment tree we can hack."

    "I don't think there's a need to be good schoolgirls about this." Mirareki gives her a look of condescension that's masking something else. It catches you as unimportant, at least for now, and your precision drifts in a way that you find annoying. "The ship is being boarded. We shouldn't hang around here."

    Maybe Aletta notices, she is a priestess, but Luyu definitely does. "Oh is that it?" one of her drawls, while the other stands post at the entrance to the transit station. "Just want to get out of here real quick, journalist? Or do you know what that symbol is?"

    "I've never seen it before in my life. It's low information content, It probably doesn't mean anything. It's not like the schoolgirl's tattoo or whatever."

    "We don't know what the conditions are like in the rest of the ship!" Reizay says. "It could be vacuum or radiation or anything. We should solve the puzzles and see what it gives us."

    "It'll take far too much time we probably don't have–"

    You're very impatient, abruptly. You cannot be bothered with any of this. You step forward and hear yourself make a strange sound. A little wave of spasms and itches passes through your body; you hear a low tone in your right ear.

    Everyone is staring. Aletta takes a step forward.

    "Be careful." Mirareki says.

    "Don't worry.." Aletta says, hands serenely clasped. "I am highly skilled in self defence, and carry skills in psychological aid."

    It's all very simple.

    You surge forward into the logic puzzles, rotating, moving, solving trajectories and equations. They are simplicity itself. No more complex than putting out your hand. You approach each, see through it, perform whatever feat of acrobatics might be necessary, bark whatever orders at a serene Aletta and bewildered but compliant Reizey might be needed for completion, and finally come to a halt as the last diamond turns entirely red and sinks onto the floor.

    "Congradulations–" The voice says. "Congradulations and and and and and good work team team team team–"

    The far wall unmeshes along quickmatter seams and sinks into the floor to reveal an arc of equipment trees beyond.

    "Stella?" Aletta asks at your shoulder. "Are you here?"

    You start. It's like a dream has resolved to reality. "Yes. Sorry."

    "Was she dead switched?" Luyu asks. One of her has come closer but is keeping a cautious distance.

    "I don't believe her consciousness turned off in a conventional fashion." Aletta reaches out carefully to touch you. "That wasn't preprogrammed. You could see her working out each puzzle. Just very quickly. Possibly you have a module for this, that you've forgotten." Your head swims. You imagine fire.

    "It could be some kind of controlled savantism." Reizay suggests. "Back home there are some people who can go into fugues like that. Oracles. They're blessed by the Enclosing Lady."

    "I'll bet." Mirareki mutters. Reizay delivers her a poisonous look.

    "Stella." Aletta says again, less serenely, more gently. You turn and realise it's not Aletta speaking.

    "...may I have your name?" You ask.

    "I'm Minetta," says Aletta's voice. She looks you over, then steps back. "Aletta is my transcendent, I am her confessor. Are you alright? Does anything seem amiss? Please, let me know."

    "I'm just a bit confused." You rub your head. The lights flicker again overhead. "I'm not sure we have time to worry about me."

    Something feels a little different. Like a change in the background.

    "Agreed." The priestess' face shifts and she's cool, unflappable Aletta again. One of Luya's bodies is already examining the wall of equipment. Aletta walks forward to join her, looking through the clothing, probably for something more hard wearing than her spray suit which you've been trying not to notice doesn't give her nearly enough support. Each tree has one of the names from the tanks marked over it.. You find Stella and start to look through what options they, the mysterious they who set this up, have selected.

    The equipment tree also appears to be unlocked, which would be surprising if the computer systems weren't clearly breaking down, but you think it'd be unwise to take the time to fab more than one additional custom item.

    You may pick (1) of the items marked "requires fabrication."

    Basic kit
    [x] Medical Kit: a standard medical kit containing dressings, thread, scissors and the like as well as various drugs and nanomachines
    [x] Scanner band: A small horned headband that picks up electromagnetic radiation
    [x] Vacuum mask: A standard ambulatory mask that covers and seals face and ears, with smartmatter straps to hold it firmly without distressing any ordinary hairstyle.
    [x] Wearable implant extension: A small computer designed to extend the ability of already implanted systems, providing additional data storage, connectivity and the like. Includes an analyser wrist plate.
    [x] Hair pins: Stylish black hair pins to control your gigantic amount of hair.
    —[ ] Meatballs
    —[ ] Cat ears
    —[ ] Menger sponges
    —[ ] Plain pin
    [x] Makeup set: While modern skin is designed to not require makeup, a lot of people do wear it, including, apparently, you. The nanotech means you can make precise adjustments to colour and easily correct mistakes once applied and makes it survivable even against hash treatment.
    [x] Water canteen: standard evaporative model.
    [x] A smart rope: made out of quick matter, basically animate
    [x] Various pouches and stuff
    [x] a toolkit

    Protection
    [x] Defence Aura Emitter: standard for Gardenites in dangerous situations. A defence aura is a set of devices that combines jammers, small force field generators and an intercept laser system that can deflect incoming fire. These look like a set of bangles.

    Choose 1
    [ ] Tactical Suit: a close fitting garment of smart matter, tactical suits are standard wear for most Gardenite light infantry. Provides good mobility, very low signature, average protection in combat and low protection against environmental hazards.
    [ ] Hazardous Engineering Suit: Somewhat thicker than a tactical suit, HE-Suits are usually worn by engineers. They provide good mobility, and excellent protection from environmental hazards, but have only average combat armour and provide no signature reduction.
    [ ] Hard Suit (Requires Fabrication): A form of light power armour commonly used by special forces and militia emergency response teams. Provides good mobility, low signature and good protection in combat, but low protection against environmental hazards.
    [ ] Boarding Shell (Requires Fabrication): A powered combat hardsuit designed for espaiters and combat engineering teams, boarding shells provide average mobility, low signature and good protection from both combat and environmental hazards such as rads.

    ****​
    Weapons

    "Huh. Most of these guns are CRC spec." Luyu comments as she looks over the weapons. Your mind brings up "Combined Response Committee" but you're not sure what they might be a combined response too.

    "Do you think that's who kidnapped us?" Reizay asks. "I-I've heard they're quite fierce."

    "It could be, but it doesn't seem like their style." Luyu pulls a gun off the tree and tests the action. "Their weapons aren't quite the most common yet, but they're the most common stuff from the last fifty years. So I'd guess that's why whoever these guys are are using their gear."

    You find a utility knife, and a slim, old school pistol that fires polymer cased rounds. Such slow slug throwers aren't really very useful in combat anymore, but are still carried as extreme backup weapons. Looking at it it seems briefly antique, almost more than the knife, then it bonds smoothly with your neural interface and you have it.

    Back Slot: Pick One
    You remember having the skills to use more than one of these at once, but your body appears not to have the plugs. It's a little surprising how limited its capacity to run external devices is. Maybe it can be upgraded later.

    [ ] CRC Type 1 Assault Catapult: The standard weapon for most Garden troopers, a assault catapult is a gravity assisted electromagnetic device mounted that fires a variety of smart grenades. It is mounted over one shoulder and linked to the nervous system through the interface plugs.
    [ ] CRC Type-11 Funnel Crown: Used heavily by elite assault troops, a funnel crowd deploys a cloud of eight drones called funnels, each mounting a powerful beam weapon.
    [ ] CRC Type 5 Multipurpose Hive: A multi-purpose hive capable of deploying micro-synthetics and combat nanotech. While useful in defence, hives do not have the range to make good primary weapons.
    [ ] CRC Black Light Offensive electromagnetic pod: A fairly standard offensive electronics suite, capable of disrupting enemy communication and sensor systems and the control links for enemy UAVs and drones.

    Shoulder Weapon: Pick One
    [ ] CRC Type 221 Tactical Carbine: While hand held weapons have become secondary in most combat operations, they are often still useful, especially in very close assaults. Uses a frontal magazine and fires .5cm rounds electromagnetically. It's operating mechanisms are from the Iris Defence force G-442 but with updated control ergonomics.
    [ ] Type-228 Sustained Fire Weapon: A copy of the Cherry Arms Collective 'raydart' sustained fire weapon, the type 228 is a successor to old machine guns. While somewhat heavier it uses the same .5 cm rounds as the 221. Used to suppress enemy infantry and engage enemy drone swarms.
    [ ] Type-219 Missile Gun: A multi-barrelled, repeat fire, mini-missile system, weapons like this go back to the founding of the Garden. While largely replaced by the much easier to handle Combat Catapults, the sheer number if guided micro-missiles that a missile gun can fire can be impressive, and they provide excellent platforms for point defence suppression and the deployment of jammers. The 219 is an updated copy of the Peony Arms Acrididae.
    [ ] Cherry Weapons Collective 'razortree' 35mm Micro-Cannon (Requires Fabrication): Used extensively by the Sakuran military, colonial defence collectives and mercenaries, the 35mm micro-cannon is a heavy electromagnetic launch system used in both hands like a carbine, but much bigger. It's 35mm projectiles are extremely fast, and this very speed lets them cut through most forms of point defence.
    [ ] Cherry Weapons Collective 'stingbloom' Plasma Gun (Requires Fabrication): A light plasma gun based on River technology, the Katana has a terrible range in atmosphere, but is known to be absolutely devastating if it does hit. Heavy radiation side effects make it mildly unhealthy and extremely obvious.

    Side Arm: Pick One
    [ ] Rego Animal Protection Pistol: A huge mechanical hunting pistol, fires massive, low velocity 12mm rounds. Some people say it's good against modern armour. Of course if the enemy is wearing a defensive aura, or any kind of hard plate then it's going to be worse than a high velocity round.
    [ ] CRC Tantalas Micro-Grenade Producer: A device that produces a variety of micro grenades from fabrication stock. These can be thrown or fired from an assault catapult.
    [ ] CRC Type-1002 Whipsword: A nanotech sword capable of varying its length and sharpness, or become a powered whip.

    You sure do know a lot about guns. You wish you knew more about other things.

    Mobility System
    Pick 1
    [ ] Thrust Pack: A standard micro-G jump pack. Can boost jumps in gravity though only to a limited degree.
    [ ] Grapnel Gear: A standard 3d grapple and boost pack for use in urban environments, usually used in gravity though of some use in micro grav
    [ ] Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication): A set of external leg implants, locust legs allow for very long jumps and fast traversal.

    ****​

    Around you, the rest are gearing up. Reizay has put on a tactical suit and is layering pockets over it with various computer equipment, along with a whip sword. She seems frightened to even touch the guns. Mirareki has put on a HE-suit, trusting to her skin for the rest, and tied on a catapult and a carbine, while the Etta's are still unarmed, save for a knife, but now wearing a tactical suit.

    The most impressive sight however is Luyu, now clad in a pair of gleaming black boarding shells and wound around with weapons. One is wearing a funnel crown at a jaunty angle, and supports some kind of drone swarm backpack on her shoulders, with a carbine almost disappearing in the other hardware on her chest. The other has a particle beam weapon clamped across her stomach. Both have catapults on their shoulders, and they're fussing around with a combat drone, a five legged thing with a turret on the back. One Luyu tracks her eyes back and forth while the other watches it, checking that the turret properly responds to her otherself's head movements. After a moment she's satisfied.

    "Alright." She glances at you. "Smooth moves there, but we still need to figure out where to go now."

    [ ] Head to the Control Centre
    [ ] Head to Engineering
    [ ] Head to a shuttle bay
    [ ] Head to the Crew Section
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by BiopunkOtrera on Jul 16, 2022 at 5:17 PM, finished with 35 posts and 22 votes.
    • [X] Type-228 Sustained Fire Weapon: A copy of the Cherry Arms Collective 'raydart' sustained fire weapon, the type 228 is a successor to old machine guns. While somewhat heavier it uses the same .5 cm rounds as the 221. Used to suppress enemy infantry and engage enemy drone swarms.
      [X] Head to the Control Centre
      [X] Thrust Pack: A standard zero-G jump pack. Can boost jumps in gravity though only to a limited degree.
      [X] CRC Type-1002 Whipsword: A nanotech sword capable of varying its length and sharpness, or become a powered whip.
      [X] CRC Type-11 Funnel Crown: Used heavily by elite assault troops, a funnel crowd deploys a cloud of eight drones called funnels, each mounting a powerful beam weapon.
      [X] Boarding Shell (Requires Fabrication): A powered combat hardsuit designed for espaiters and combat engineering teams, boarding shells provide average mobility, low signature and good protection from both combat and environmental hazards such as rads.
      [X] CRC Tantalas Micro-Grenade Producer: A device that produces a variety of micro grenades from fabrication stock. These can be thrown or fired from an assault catapult.
      [X] Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication): A set of external leg implants, locust legs allow for very long jumps and fast traversal.
      [X] Cat Ears
      [X] CRC Black Light Offensive electromagnetic pod: A fairly standard offensive electronics suite, capable of disrupting enemy communication and sensor systems and the control links for enemy UAVs and drones.
      [X] Hard Suit (Requires Fabrication): A form of light power armour commonly used by special forces and militia emergency response teams. Provides good mobility, low signature and good protection in combat, but low protection against environmental hazards.
      [X] Tactical Suit: a close fitting garment of smart matter, tactical suits are standard wear for most Gardenite light infantry. Provides good mobility, very low signature, average protection in combat and low protection against environmental hazards.
      [X] Head to Engineering
      [X] Type-219 Missile Gun: A multi-barrelled, repeat fire, mini-missile system, weapons like this go back to the founding of the Garden. While largely replaced by the much easier to handle Combat Catapults, the sheer number if guided micro-missiles that a missile gun can fire can be impressive, and they provide excellent platforms for point defence suppression and the deployment of jammers. The 219 is an updated copy of the Peony Arms Acrididae.
      —[X] Cat ears
      [X] CRC Type 5 Multipurpose Hive: A multi-purpose hive capable of deploying micro-synthetics and combat nanotech. While useful in defence, hives do not have the range to make good primary weapons.
      [X] Hazardous Engineering Suit
      [x] Hair pins: Stylish black hair pins to control your gigantic amount of hair.
      —[X] Cat ears
      ---[X] Menger Sponges
      [X] Meatballs
      [X] Hazardous Engineering Suit: Somewhat thicker than a tactical suit, HE-Suits are usually worn by engineers. They provide good mobility, and excellent protection from environmental hazards, but have only average combat armour and provide no signature reduction.
      [X] Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication): A set of external leg implants, locust legs allow for very long jumps and fast traversal. Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication): A set of external leg implants, locust legs allow for very long jumps and fast traversal.
      —[X] Plain pins
      [X] CRC Type 221 Tactical Carbine: While hand held weapons have become secondary in most combat operations, they are often still useful, especially in very close assaults. Uses a frontal magazine and fires .5cm rounds electromagnetically. It's operating mechanisms are from the Iris Defence force G-442 but with updated control ergonomics.
      [X] CRC Black Light Offensive electromagnetic pod
      [X] Cherry Weapons Collective 'stingbloom' Plasma Gun (Requires Fabrication)
      [X] CRC Tantalas Micro-Grenade Producer
      [X] Grapnel Gear
      [X] Menger sponges
      [x] Medical Kit: a standard medical kit containing dressings, thread, scissors and the like as well as various drugs and nanomachines
      [x] Scanner band: A small horned headband that picks up electromagnetic radiation
      [x] Vacuum mask: A standard ambulatory mask that covers and seals face and ears, with smartmatter straps to hold it firmly without distressing any ordinary hairstyle.
      [x] Wearable implant extension: A small computer designed to extend the ability of already implanted systems, providing additional data storage, connectivity and the like. Includes an analyser wrist plate.
      [x] Hair pins: Stylish black hair pins to control your gigantic amount of hair.
      ---[X] Menger Sponges
      [x] Makeup set: While modern skin is designed to not require makeup, a lot of people do wear it, including, apparently, you. The nanotech means you can make precise adjustments to colour and easily correct mistakes once applied and makes it survivable even against hash treatment.
      [x] Water canteen: standard evaporative model.
      [x] A smart rope: made out of quick matter, basically animate
      [x] Various pouches and stuff
      [x] a toolkit
      [x] Defence Aura Emitter: standard for Gardenites in dangerous situations. A defence aura is a set of devices that combines jammers, small force field generators and an intercept laser system that can deflect incoming fire. These look like a set of bangles.
      [x] Plan Ford
      [X] CRC Type 1 Assault Catapult
      [X] CRC Type 221 Tactical Carbine
      [X] CRC Type-1002 Whipsword
      [X] Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication)
      [X] Head to the Control Centre
      —[X] Cat ears
      —[X] Meatballs
    Click to expand...
     
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    • Interval 4: The Train
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    • [x] Head to the Control Centre

    The gear on offer for you is mostly light on armour, and you feel like you want something more. Things are clearly not going according to plan and you have no desire to die before you even find out what's happening. You put out a hand and link briefly with the equipment tree, and pick out something from Luyu's list. The tree hisses for a moment then begins to sprout a single large fruit, a glistening shell around a fetal powersuit taking shape inside.. The process will take a few minutes. You do your hair as you wait, pinning elaborate rolls around a pair of nekoform pins that should keep it disciplined enough for combat.

    Finally the tree is finished, dropping bloated, splitting fruit at your feet. You will privacy and a shoulder-high blurfield appears, then you peel off the spraysuit chunk by chunk and let the scraps disintegrate down the floor drain with the fruit juice. The shell's offered base is a sports bikini with careful webbing to leave your interface meridians clear; with it on you hold your hair up and step into the armour's boots. Smartgel flows up your legs followed by cartaliginous soft plates and the hard plates that lock together into their invincible shell. Tingles run step by step up your spine as the armour encloses your body and locks to each meridian. A nostalgic feeling, for nothing you can remember.

    The battle mask slots over your face and clamps around your head. You pull your hair free and let the armour's forcefield shimmer over it; you will not enter battle without your warrior's array.

    With your armour set you assemble your weapons. A thruster pack is an obvious upgrade for the boarding shell, and you take a sustained fire weapon and fit a funnel crown to your armour's back and shoulders. A quick system test shows the funnels are functioning normally, moving out on small bursts of thruster fire and spinning on force field wings before returning to their places either side of your long hair. Finally you clip a whip sword across your haunches, so it's mostly concealed but can be drawn easily.

    Luyu eyes you as you step out of the blurfield. "You seem like you know your stuff, 'Doctor'. Even if your body is pure decoration."

    You shrug. "That can be useful sometimes. People know to look out for even girls as tall as Mirareki."

    "So you were a spy then?" She asks.

    "I don't know."

    "Alright. Let's move." Luyu says. "I guess I'll take point."

    "I can do it," says Mirareki. "I have a lot of custom mods for scouting." Both of Luyu look at her, eyes flicking up and down, and you feel the flicker of scans.

    "Seems like you do. Heck of a set for a journalist." The big woman smiles in a way that shows a lot of white teeth.

    Mirareki looks back cooly. "I do supernature reporting." She says. Your brain clicks over. Supernature reporting means reporting from inside posthuman structures, observing without disturbing, an ant reporting on the affairs of giants. "And reports from warzones and alien worlds. Before that I was in the Iris Unified Militia."

    "Tough girl." Luyu says. "Alright, you walk point. I'll be second and last. The doc here seems like she can handle herself so she's next, then the maths-botherer and the shortstack." She gives Aletta another toothy smile, which the Eternalist ignores, and then pauses looking at Reizay, who's still looking more than a little panicked. The valkyrie drops to one knee, towering over the dyson girl only slightly, and looks her in the eyes. "Sorry. I know this is all strange and terrifying." She says. "But if you follow my orders and don't panic, I will get you out of here alive. And then we'll get you home. That's a promise."

    Reizay looks up at the big combat body then nods quietly.

    "Can we get on with this?" Mirareki asks, face carefully blank as she looks at the tableau.

    "Sure." Luyu rises. "Lead the way, Point." Mirareki aims her carbine and moves up to the train, walking to the front as the rest of you board.

    "We should go to the command centre." You suggest. "If we're going to find out what's happening, we'll find out there."

    "Sounds good to me." Luyu hefts her weapons. "Someone hit the button."

    Reizay swipes the controls and the train hums into motion.

    *****​

    The train spirals up the ship, climbing rapidly. You latch onto how it is constructed. A maze of different shafts, chosen by algorithm to allow a maximally efficient journey in terms of bringing crew from one area to another. The chain of carriages shifts as needed to follow vertical or horizontal paths, bound together by force rather than matter.

    Forward is always a strange thing on a spacecraft. Humanity still calls them ships, but you've always, and perhaps this is a new insight from only the space of your existence, or perhaps it's an insight from whatever echoes of your old memories remain, thought that's a misnomer. They're more like giant mobile buildings, pushed up by their giant engines, not sideways.

    This is a big one. A citadel of space. The train flashes past one station after another, some small and closed off like the one you just left, others huge, multi-platform concourses with trees and dispensaries and coffee houses and big screens meant to maximise the supposed amount of space, now flickering and strange.

    In some places there are transparent walls leading into great gardens, riots of plants and colours, sealed behind airgates and charged with luminous nanotechnology, acting as part of the ship's life support functions. Much of it seems overgrown or disused, slim coffee bars with shiny stools on top of them, gardens overgrown, arcades silent.

    The architecture is minimalist and undecorated, except by plants and abstracts, and by panels of bright primary colors. The ship's spray suits seem like they would fit well into the aesthetic.

    "This is an old ship." Aletta's voice says. It's not Aletta though, or Minetta. A new persona has appeared. Where Aletta is cool and reserved, and Minetta seems warm and loving, this new persona seems more animated, looking around. "I am Juketta, their memorial." She bows, formally.

    "I was wondering if you had a historian thread in there." Luyu said. "I thought you people usually travelled in threes but I guess you're efficient like that."

    "Not every place has room to fit a lot of meat in it." Juketta says. Luyu shows teeth, but the priestess holds her ground. "Anyhow, I recognize this architecture and design. I'm pretty sure this is a Deep Ship."

    Mirareki looks at her. "No way. Surely those aren't still in use?"

    "Most were destroyed during the fall of the Third Interfacate, but at least a score survived. There's no reason to think they wouldn't still be around, even after a thousand years."

    "What are Deep Ships?" You ask. Reizay looks pleased, having wanted to, but not wanted to show ignorance.

    "They were created by the Chrysanthemum during contact with the Lobell refugees." Mirareki says. "Huge antimatter powered arks based on the ancient interstellars used during the migration. They were meant to prove Chrysanthemum dominance." She glances at Juketta who is being pointedly patient and coughs. "My apologies, Memorial. You can certainly tell this better."

    "You have the broad strokes correct. The Interfacer and her supporters wished to show the refugees the dominance of the Chrysanthemum as an alternative to the Black Rose, while at the same time demonstrating her loyalty to the antimatter guilds and their river backers in the face of growing demands for the use of spin state reactors."

    "Antimatter?" Reizay squeaks, eyes wide with sudden terror. "This ship is full of anti-matter?"

    "I don't know. It's possible the power systems have been changed out. Either way it's quite safe, there's nothing to worry about. These ships are near the height of pre-fifth-interregnum technology. The fact they're still able to be used after so long must demonstrate their durability. It does however deepen the mystery of who could have kidnapped us." Juketta says, then blinks and is replaced, once again by Aletta.

    These names mean nothing to you. It's a a sour, isolated feeling. Discovering this place is a wonder should feel better than this.

    The car continues to wind upwards. "So what's your story Luyu?" Mirareki asks after a while.

    "Oh nothing special." The Luyu at the front shrugs. "I'm just a conflict specialist you know? A lot of militias need experienced people and I'm nothing if not that."

    There's a clunk from above, and an emergency light goes on, the train hisses then jerks, Reizay yelps, but Aletta reaches out a hand and catches her as the train slows and slides to one side as the track loses power. There's a clank of some safety below and the car slides to a gentle stop. The lights flicker off, and your masks automatically switch over to a green, white and red composite of light enhancement and thermal vision.

    "Everyone okay?" Luyu asks. There's a chorus of affirmatives. "Guess we walk from here." She says. "Hey Journo, can you get the floor hatch open?"

    "I'm on it." Mirareki says. There's a few moments of work and then brighter light pours in, your vision adjusting automatically. Mirareki gives a thumbs up and drops through, then you hear her gasp.

    "Mirareki, are you alright?"

    "Yeah. Just got startled."

    "Get your screen out, then you won't freak me out like that." Luyu says.

    "Sorry. Used to posthuman hives. Brace yourselves though, this is messy." There's a moment as Mirareki deploys her reconnaissance remotes, and the area below is revealed, objects outlined in green to show that they're through a floor.

    You were above what appears to have once been some kind of large art gallery or processional. Huge, abstract sculptures of snowy white carbon and etched sapphire stand on all sides, evoking the idea of winged, feminine figures poised to fly. That's not what startled Mirareki though. You hear Reizay hold back a dry retch. Bodies, both human and mechanical are propped up at intervals. They're a grab bag of a unit, mostly wearing tactical suits but some in more elaborate civilian clothing or strange and dubiously protective armour that looks like it's made from some kind of natural hide. All had defense auras and weapons. All are dead. Around them are scattered the remains of several combat machines, which you recognize as common open source designs.

    "Let's get down there. No point waiting in this tube. Reizay, do you want to censor your vision? This could be pretty bad."

    "I'm okay." Reizay says, a little loudly. "I'm not so weak."

    "Alright. Stay close." The first Luyu jumps down, then the rest of you and the second. They move rapidly to take positions covering both ends of the corridor, their drone moving with the one who doesn't have the plasma gun.

    Mirareki is kneeling by one of the corpses. "The tatoos are from the Collective of the Honest, they're one of the main Corner Space outlaw groups."

    Across most worlds of the Garden, the ultimate sanction for crimes against the community is outlawry, where those who's crimes are seen as irredemable are exiled from lawful society. While uncommon, and usually temporary, there are still enough who take to the life that collectives of such people form in the border areas of the Garden such as the corner stars.

    The disassociation of these facts from any kind of context is becoming normal.

    "What happened to them?" Aletta asks Mirareki, who's kneeling next to one of the corpses.

    "A big shootout with someone. Not the River or the like, these are bullet marks." She indicates the wound in one of the downed outlaws, a cluster of close in bullet holes in a small cluster in her stomach. "Some kind of very rapid direct fire projectile weapon it seems like."

    "Did they just–" Reizay is controlling her voice but barely. "Did they just all die without getting even one of the enemy."

    "I don't think so." Mirareki stands. "There's a lot of marks of bullets and quite a bit of what might be blood down that end of the hall." She points. "It looks like they just got overwhelmed. Flanked through the ducts in the wall here." She points up. "It looks like all of the Honest were wearing emergency casters. They probably downloaded to a secondary location. This looks like a covering force. Suicide troops."

    "Either way, we should get out of here before whoever did this comes back." One of Luyu says. Mirareki nods, and her drones begin to move forward, revealing the corridors ahead as you climb up the ship towards the command centre.

    It doesn't take you too long to reach it. The place is locked behind two sets of armoured doors, but Reizay and her new tools dispose of them in a couple of minutes. You step into a large, overgrown garden that surrounds the command centre and is home to several black stone shrines, each with a statue of a woman clad only in a dark cloak, and several offerings in front of it. Through the garden lies the ship's control room itself.

    The Bridge of the Downship is a large space. A large crystalline globe hangs in the middle, an unusual measure to create a visual display, presumably to impress people like the Lobell Refugees who did not employ Garden style augmented reality systems. Currently it's blank, and the various augmented reality control systems are locked out.

    "Reizay, can you unlock these?" Mirareki asks.

    "For sure." Reizay moves forward to the nearest console. "I won the all district security competition three years running and that was when I was in middle school."

    Something catches your senses and you turn. The Luyu at the back is looking around casually, then snaps a finger out and catches something between her fingers. She holds it up. "Some kind of reccee bug." She says, then crushes it. "I think we're going to have company soon."

    "I can do it." Reizay says again.

    What do you do?
    [ ] Let Reizay hack the Command Centre and set an ambush for whoever's coming
    [ ] Let Reizay hack the Command Centre and set an ambush for whoever's coming but try to talk to them first
    [ ] It's too much risk. Withdraw from the bridge at once and find somewhere to hide and observe.
    [ ] EXEC.UNLOCK
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by BiopunkOtrera on Jul 18, 2022 at 5:04 PM, finished with 34 posts and 27 votes.
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