TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[space_aces]

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD

Your journey only happened because of your benefactor, so it begets that it starts at your benefactor as well. SUPERBIA, which is as much of a location as it is an entity, is where everyone's search for Fortuna begins.

There's not much of a welcome party: shortly after their fateful encounter with SUPERBIA, in which they swore to join the quest to find Fortuna, the new Privateers will find themselves afflicted by a sudden change in perspective. See, teleportation is a tricky process, so from SUPERBIA's point of view, why not make the target destination none other than itself? One highly disconcerting moment later, and the Privateers find themselves inside the belly of the beast.

The vast mega-structure is shockingly lonely, void of anyone other than the Privateers. Those who look off the metal satellite and to The Network for intelligence (or take a skim at the Space Wikipedia article) will find out that the surrounding space is clear for lightyears; rumors have it that the place is cursed. It won't take long to understand why.

1

Overclocked

The innards of SUPERBIA are that of an impossibly scaled up computer, and the Privateers start right in the middle of it. You are the spider living in the dusty PS4. Literal rivers of coolant, transistors the size of mountains, landscapes made entirely of circuitry. The sky, bounded by a distant metal ceiling, is constantly alight with coursing electricity that cracks the sky with lightning storms. It can be assumed that the Privateers are the first living things to set foot here, because such a place is not ever meant to be traversed by delicate, organic, mortals that worry about things such as "temperature" or "voltage". SUPERBIA needs not lifeforms to continue its operations; why design for them? Traversal itself is difficult: unscalable walls and perilous drops are common to encounter. The only company the Privateers will find are oddly adorable maintenance robots, which sadly seem too occupied by their directives of maintaining the massive machine to offer any assistance (or even acknowledgement of their new guests).

It is immediately clear that the most urgent priority is to get the hell out of here. Before your adventure ends at the starting line.

2

Skeletons In The Closet

If one stays inside SUPERBIA, either by getting horribly lost or losing all common sense, one will notice a peculiar pattern emerge as one gets deeper into the bowels of the mega-structure. Passages shrink and become more level, and the incredible hostility and danger of the surroundings fade away, until one comes across areas which were definitely intended for humanoid organisms to use at one point.

The construction of these areas is cramped, unfurnished, and dreary; they are reminiscent of artificial environments meant to handle harsh external conditions like a submarine or bunker, but they are entirely livable. One can eventually find distinct rooms, but everything in them has crumbled to dust and their original purpose is nigh impossible to discern. Deeper investigation may reveal the few items that have stood the test of time. While it is more plausible for life to have existed here, that doesn't seem to be the case now. What happened here?

3

The Shipyard

In the opposite direction, when one finally reaches the outer edges of SUPERBIA, they will be rewarded with the place to pick up a spaceship and a stunningly beautiful view of outer space. The outside of SUPERBIA has no atmosphere to get between you and the stars, and they shine brightly, like a beacon calling one out into the first steps of adventure.

The shipyard is already filled with countless space ships of every size, form, and function, all autonomously constructed by SUPERBIA's factories over the countless years. What's the harm in taking one or twenty out for a spin? Even if one has no intentions of permanent ownership of the vehicle, it's not like SUPERBIA will miss it. For a Privateer with a more specific vision, however, there are kiosks around the yard which will allow one to design their very own space ship down to their exact specifications. When the process is done SUPERBIA's matter printers will have it out and space-ready right before your very eyes.

If a Privateer has a ship, vehicle, or large item that they intended to bring with them, they will also find them here, neatly parked in the Shipyard. Why didn't SUPERBIA extend this courtesy to the pilot's themselves? The answer is revealed as soon as the owner makes a closer inspection: the inner contents have been rearranged, like a whirlwind was unleashed inside and assorted loose items thrown around. Now aren't you glad your transportation was given special attention, and the same didn't happen to your innards?

4

Hot Crewmates in Your Area

But how will a single Privateer man an entire space ship? No worries: when one steps into a ship, the strangely endearing maintenance robots will suddenly take acute interest. The robots will follow inside and immediately start assuming the duties of a spacefarer, eliminating the need for extra hands on deck.

Even still, there's just no eliminating the want for a human touch, though. Thankfully even that dilemma has a contingency plotted by SUPERBIA.

Communication devices are easily available on every space ship. They come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from huge stationary consoles to portable smartphone-like screens. But whenever a Privateer attempts to access the Network, a pop-up will appear, obscuring the whole screen.

Tell me a little about yourself. Are you a LEADER or a FOLLOWER? What is your best feature?
The device will be rendered unusable until one relents to the pop-up's demands and provides answers to its questions. What will these be used for? The mystery will be solved when a social media app mysteriously installs itself on the same device, with profiles preemptively made for every Privateer. Each Privateer's profile consists of their given answers, paired with embarrassingly candid photographs. SUPERBIA has eyes in many places it seems.

Comments

Avanti Kadam | Original Character | We made our own Gundam Timeline and ran a FATE campaign in it

[she_would]

-1: Overclocked-

Captain Avanti Kadam was getting too old for this shit.

That's what she thought as she puffed her way up a ramp that was part of her detour that was part of a larger detour that was part of a LARGER detour around a sheer cliff face she felt totally unprepared to climb.

She stopped at the top of the ramp to catch her breath, then looked around and saw that to continue this way she would have to navigate a field of sparking capacitors. The air smelled of ozone, and she was pretty sure that continuing on this path was a sure fire way to get electrocuted fatally.

"I see today is continuing with a general theme."

-3: The Shipyard-

FINALLY they made it to something that made sense.

Or rather, it didn't make sense, but it didn't make sense in a way she was prepared to accept. The massive shipyard was full of stranger and stranger looking ships, but her own ship, the one that had exploded (Almost with her on it. Her missing eye twinged.). The Osiris, a brick of an attack carrier that was decades out of date, but built tough enough to weather all but the most determined assaults.

She walked along the gantry holding the ship in place, then reached out with one hand to touch it and make sure it was real.

"How's that old saying go? 'Rule out the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' Or some such...But how can we rule out anything as impossible now?"

-4: Hot Crewmates In Your Area-

Tell us a little about yourself.
Captain Avanti Kadam. I've been in command of various ships for the last thirty years or so, and I dare say I feel more comfortable in space than I do down in the gravity well. I can't say I've ever been anywhere like this before, so if you feel like you're in familiar territory here, I may need to pick your brains at some point.

Are you a LEADER or a FOLLOWER?
I certainly feel more comfortable forging my own path than following someone else's, and hardly any of my command posts were destroyed so I must have been doing something right.

What is your best feature?
Could it be my ice cold calm under pressure? Or my roguish good looks? Perhaps my brilliant mind?

No, I think it's that I'm 188cm tall and can reach the top shelf without difficulty.

4: Hot Crewmates In Your Area

[somuchshipping]

213.36cm for me.

[she_would]

Curses. My one charm point immediately overshadowed.

[somuchshipping]

Can't win them all! If it helps, my endurance stat is a 3.

[she_would]

Is that low?

[somuchshipping]

Out of 10? Yeah.

3

[freearcadia]

"The Universe is a vast and strange place, I have long stopped believing things are impossible." A man calls out, approaching her from a long blue ship with the stern that is more fitting of a 16th century ship.

"Though I admit this is a scale I had never seen before,"

[she_would]

"I came within seconds of being incinerated when this ship's reactor ruptured and the entire thing was reduced to a rapidly expanding ball of plasma."

Kadam sized him up, along with his ship. She decided she liked the ship, but was having trouble getting a read on the man beyond that they had matching eye patches.

"...But then, the Osiris's presence here is hardly the strangest thing that has happened to me today."

[freearcadia]

His brow rose slightly, but from what he had gathered, that seem like something SUPERBIA was able to do. "I bet there's quite a few odd things here, a lot of unanswered questions."

Like what the hell happened to the crew here. The Pirate takes his time examining the ship with a curious eye.

[she_would]

"No arguments there."

The Osiris is covered with dings and scratches from many battles, and definitely doesn't have any US flags or NASA logos on it, but one does what one can when playing original characters. It definitely doesn't look exploded.

She held out a hand towards him. "Avanti Kadam."

[freearcadia]

He took her hand in a firm shake. "Harlock - Captain of the Arcadia." He gives a glance toward the ship in question. "My arrival here isn't quite as harrowing as yours,"

Overclocked

[betelgeuseblast]

The theme continues, as the ramp behind Kadam erupts in a swathe of blood-scented fire and explodes. A massive creature crawls from the resulting hole.

"MORE of these sparky things? I'm gettin sick of this, worst deadly maze since the floor forty death maze."

Which had honestly gone by quite swiftly and non-tediously. It was mostly the death part that was bad.

[she_would]

Avanti froze, mentally reassessing the situation. Not only was she lost in some kind of endless nightmare maze of circuitry, but now it was revealed to be inhabited by monsters.

This monster seemed to be able to talk, though, so while she surreptitiously put her hand on the pistol at her hip, she decided to give diplomacy a shot, first.

“How many floors are there?”

[betelgeuseblast]

"And now I gotta do MATH?! Gimme a break, lady!"

Shit now he's gotta chill out and lower his smoking crossbow arm to think about it for a second. Deescalation... successful??

[she_would]

"I apologize for asking you to count."

Okay so this wasn't some kind of monster. It was an idiot.

"I'd like to get a better idea of where I am, you see. Make sure I'm not wandering off into a hell of oversized archaic computer parts never to be seen again."

[betelgeuseblast]

"Bad news, I'm lost as balls here. Usin my go-to maze strategy. Saves a lot of time. You go in a straight line 'til you hit a wall."

He hefts his arm up again. A sinister blood-red bolt starts forming up on the crossbow bit. Even an idiot can come up with a foolproof strategy.

4

[thefifthchild]

[The voice that sounds on the other end of the communicator is clearly belonging to someone in the midst of puberty. So like, pretty young.]

Height isn't a feature. Being short or tall has it's advantages and disadvantages, and I've been trained to take down opponents three times my size. It's absolutely nothing to brag about.

[Someone's bitter about being small.]

[she_would]

[Oh no this is adorable. She immediately wants to ruffle this unseen boy's hair or pinch his cheeks.

It sounds like trying that might leave her with a broken arm, but none-the-less...]

Who said anything about fighting? I just don't want to have to keep a step stool in the galley.

[thefifthchild]

I have a grappling hook. I don't need a step stool.

[she_would]

You must be quite the sight, grappling your way to the fridge.

[thefifthchild]

How utterly colossal is your fridge if someone would need to climb to reach the top??

[The fridge in Wayne Manor is definitely bigger but Alfred normally does the cooking so Damian's been in there like... once.]

4

[astrogator]

As someone who has spent her working life being told she's short for a spacer, as if it were original, I'm envious.

About those command posts, though. How many is 'hardly any'?

[she_would]

It's hell on your knees when you switch from microG to actual gravity.

My crew got captured by pirates on my first command, but I was able to escape with most of them and make our way home. Then a few years ago someone crashed a mobile suit into my ship, which unfortunately left me disabled in the middle of a larger battle.

[astrogator]

I didn't think of that. Guess there's always a trade-off.

[Ari had expected to think disparagingly of a captain who managed to lose her ship, but instead, she's actually somewhat impressed. People don't generally escape from pirates out in her sector. Then again, pirates don't take prisoners out in her sector. You win or you die.]

I'm sorry for those misfortunes, but I also agree - you were certainly doing something right. Doesn't sound like you were at fault in either case. I hope the insurance paid out.

[she_would]

It didn't, but in their defense it's hard to call an insurance agent when you're pretending to be dead.

That was a strange day.