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

Re: 2

[funnylittleclown]

"Utilitarian. Meant for practicality rather than comfort."

Yes, he quite agreed with that as he could say from first hand experience that this was the most uncomfortable cot he had ever lain on. Even the TARDIS had ergonomic beds!

"You've a science lab? How nice! Now all we need to do is to find something to analyze."

He clambered to his feet, none too gracefully as that had been a rough lie-down, and set about poking at buttons. More of them did nothing but blink the that one, the final button on the left that was glowing yellow, opened a small compartment near the bed.

"Ah, thought there would be one of these! Even miners need some place to store a change of clothes. Mm, it appears to be empty though. Are you having any luck?"

Re: 2

[freearcadia]

"My friend wanted to make sure The Arcadia had everything in case of any situation, it's been proven to be quite useful in the past." He answers offhandedly - taking a moment to see where that 'click' came from - ah footlockers.

"It looked like something was scratched here, probably by someone bored out of their minds - it's really faint though, and I fear putting too much pressure here would turn the table into dust." Harlock calls back as he peers closer. "I'm not sure if it's a doodle or a Logogram of some kind."

[funnylittleclown]

The footlocker was abandoned in favor of floating across the room to get a look at this symbol. It was difficult to make out. There was a find layer of rust dust over the whole drawing and while blowing that away might well have made the image easier to see it may also end up damaging it.

"If only we had the means to take a photograph of that and blow it up on scanner. It's very interesting though, very interesting. It looks a bit like a daisy from this side."

But more like actual words from the other side of the table.

[freearcadia]

Harlock fumbles for his comms. "Well, I couldn't radio my crew, but perhaps some of its other functions are still intact." He held the palm-sized device in his hand, positioning it, trying to get a good, clear shot of it.

"...Hold on, it looks more like a word from here."

[funnylittleclown]

"Excellent. Now... nobody sneeze."

He cautioned with only a small measure of cheekiness. He didn't expect anyone to!

"What does it look like?"

In the lens of the device it did indeed begin to look like a word... or maybe still a symbol. There was a very distinct looking '8' and the word 'food' appeared some where further down the scrawling's as well.

[freearcadia]

There's a slight roll of his eye, but corner of his lip tugged slightly - so slightly one might think they just imagined it.

"It's nothing I've seen before - not Mazon script, or anything that originated on Earth. Do you have any idea of what this is?"

A few more soft clicks. "There, got a few shots."

[funnylittleclown]

Careful or the Doctor might just come away with the impression there is a wry sense of humor in there.

"The eight could be an ouroboros instead of a number but food... That's strange. Maybe we will discover more in the lab."

A higher visual resolution and who knows. Maybe they could discover the connection between the eight and the food... or whatever those symbols were actually.
Leaving the table behind for a while the Doctor made his way over to what was clearly a rather large doorway. The door itself was jammed slightly and at an awkward angle which would make it difficult to open but one could slide through the narrow gap if they had a mind to.

"I wonder what happened here. Was some one trying to get in or out?"

Really he ought to be making his way back to the hanger to analyze their find but... which way was that anyway?

[freearcadia]

"Perhaps a false friend," he suggested as he puts the device away in his holster. He follows the man, running a gloved hand along the edge. "Almost looks like it was slammed against something - probably in quite a hurry to jam like this."

With that, he moves sideways, carefully squeezing through, glad that he was a relatively slender man. "Oh, are you familiar with lab equipment? I can operate most of the things myself, but an extra pair of hands would make things easier."

[funnylittleclown]

A slightly less slender man, the Doctor briefly found himself wedged between the two doors but after a good exhale he was quickly freed.

"I've dabbled with some."

He had more than dabbled. There was even a small lab of sorts onboard his TARDIS but those found on other ships were bound to be superior as he tinkered more than he dove deeply into the scientific on most occasions.

"I wonder, did any of your crew come with you or was it only yourself?"

as most of his crew members are technically appable, not making assumptions

[freearcadia]

"Good, it's just me for the time being." And the ship itself, but that's a long story.

"I can operate it by myself," perhaps not the most optimal set up, but workable. He immediately headed towards what looks like a terminal. "Well, this might prove interesting - let's see if it still has power."

Good point!

[funnylittleclown]

"I wonder how many of us have the same story. My friends were also left behind."

Though in his case it was likely the Time Lords might have had a hand in that.

If there were any other thoughts to be had on that they were soon set aside as the terminal was discovered. That did look interesting! The Doctor hovered closer, annoyingly just over the other man's shoulder, this being the best place to see which buttons and dials he pressed or turned. There was power. This was easy enough to see by the flashing lights but for some reason the nearby screen never lit up. Disconnected wire. It dangled uselessly from the screen, connected to nothing. This was an easy enough fix. The Doctor picked up the wire and quickly saw it fastened back into place with a little help from a sonic screwdriver.

"You should have better luck with it now. Try it again?"

Re: Good point!

[freearcadia]

He sighs slightly as the man hovers, but didn't snap or retort as this was actually interesting, and could prove informative. Harlock frowns slightly as he carefully moves the various dials and tap.

"Ah..." He murmurs low when the Doctor found the problem and quickly fixed it. "Do you always carry a soldering kit?" The man asked with an amused, and oddly nostalgic tone of voice as he moves his fingers across the keyboard again, the results are better, as the machine seem to be booting up.

[funnylittleclown]

"Its a sonic screwdriver."

This said as he made certain the device was slipped into the right pocket... which as he was highly disorganized was always a different one. He would have to hunt to find it again!

"You never know when you might need to... wait a minute. Look at the screen! All that strange writing. It looks a great deal like that we found back on the table."

[freearcadia]

"A sonic-" His question was cut short by the man's exclamation. "It does, and looks like actually entering the system isn't secured." He takes the comms device out, adjusting before snapping a few more shots of text for further reference.

"However in that case..." Harlock clicks on a few keys, a prompt appears to enter something. "That means the files and programs are locked down, and depending on how serious they are about security, brute forcing it may not end well."

[funnylittleclown]

"There is no need to secure it if its all written in this language. It's almost like a cipher."

And entirely unreadable... for now. Maybe after a few quiet hours and a good cup of cocoa and they would be able to work it all out.

"Maybe SUPERBIA itself will appear to stop us. What are you doing now, trying to download the entire system?"