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

[shangrilady]

Elle's almost certain she needs to talk someone else into letting her tag along; she could go solo, but that sounds boring and she's not much of a captain. What she's good at - piloting a mobile suit, maintenance, haggling - should all be pretty valuable too.

There are a few other mobile suits here, some nothing like she's ever seen; and other people here have no clue what a mobile suit even is.

"I dunno if I can make all the systems compatible. A missile launcher is pretty simple though..." It doesn't need much in the way of power, just targeting. "But I don't wanna break anything either. Hm."

[sleepfan]

"Yes, that is a problem. Are the parts not standardized on these?"

Linhardt gestures around to the row of people-shaped ships. The parts on the ships that SUPERBIA made seemed to be interchangeable. Do these ships use different parts?

"What is a missile?" He didn't read most of the weapons information because Linhardt doesn't want to fight. He looked at ways to flee, the armor options, and so forth, but reading about the weapons too much raises one of those stomach-churning no win dilemmas.

If he knows and returns to Fodlan and they lose because he doesn't make weapons like that, that would be his fault. But if does make them, he's responsible for their consequences and he doesn't want that either. So it was best to just...not read those parts.

"Could you make a very small ship and change it so that one of the hands could hold the entire thing? Or connect the information boxes together?"

By which he means network the computers together and control the ship and its one weapon from within the Gundam. Linhardt understands that the computers can 'talk' to each other, even if he doesn't know any of the details.

He's trying his best. This is a lot of new information.

[shangrilady]

"They oughta be, but I don't wanna do too much work only to find out that they don't fit together." Even with unlimited material resources - which is absolutely bananas - her patience is finite.

"Hey, you're making some astute observations for a guy who doesn't know what a missile is though." Smarty-pants. "It's a projectile with its own propulsion, and it explodes when it gets close to what you wanna blow up. It could have its own power source instead of using the mobile suit's reactor." That and machine guns. Beam weapons are a lot more power to put up with.

"That's an idea too." Outside the box thinking might just be an upside to not knowing anything about what's going on with this. She just needs to mess around with stuff!

[sleepfan]

Linhardt's nose wrinkles up in agreement; doing unnecessary work is terrible.

"I'm glad that they're helpful. I want to see what happens when you put new components on the giant golem-ship." He also has no idea what a Gundam or mech is, so Linhardt is just forced to smush words together to convey his meaning. Then again, is that really any different from 'space ship'?

Unfortunately, Ellie describes missiles well enough that Linhardt's mind, on its own, is already considering how he could build such a thing with magic. The main problem would be getting enough energy into the projectile without setting it off, but if there was a sigil based key - or maybe something Crest based - ? It might work... another problem is activating it from so far away: he's used to magic working in one's immediate area and exploding a missile while he's still in the area sounds like a bad idea.

"I know that things can move without a person in them." Like the golems or the robots he's seen moving around here, "So if you had the information boxes communicate, you could still control the weapons you want without risking damage to the giant-person golem's systems?"

"Or perhaps take the weapons with you and find someone who is better at space ship maintenance and have them help?"

Linhardt doesn't know that is one of her specialties, so 'find an expert' is a valid suggestion from him.

[shangrilady]

"Mine's called a mobile suit, and there are some others like it, but I'm not sure every single one uses that name." She saw some... dog guy? With a smaller thing? What even is up with the animal people? Not that she's gonna treat them poorly it's just wild.

Anyways, there's being good enough at machines to handle a lot of the maintenance, and then there's being An Expert, and Elle's not experienced enough for the latter, even if she's pretty resourceful. "As long as the targeting system can work... then I just need to hope I can power it without weird stuff happening. We did kinda manage to make that Zaku head work once..." A very loose definition of 'working' but still.

"I'm sure there are people who know lots of things I don't around here, so I'll just have to ask around. We mostly don't use mobile suits in really deep space, so if nothing else I might try to whip up a transport to help with range 'n stuff." She looks back at her helpful buddy. "I'm Elle, by the way."

[sleepfan]

"I understand. Because you 'wear' it? Yes?"

"What is the difference between deep space and shallow space?" To Linhardt, all space is equally inaccessible and inhospitable. Why is the mobile suit suitable for shallow space but not deep space? Should he be considering that difference in his own vehicle?

"Weird stuff in what way? How would your targeting system function? Do you target based on heat? Life energy?" He might be able to help with the targeting system: Linhardt is a military mage despite his displeasure over it, and it's relatively easy to target magic based on non-visual information.

Names. Yes. Most people consider those important, don't they? Linhardt holds out a hand, "I'm Linhardt."

[shangrilady]

"...roughly, I guess. I mean, it's a little big to call it something you wear." And she's not from G Gundam so she doesn't know about that mobile trace stuff.

"Deep space... you need a lot of propellant, a lot more supplies. We mostly operate close to a ship, and compared to the rest of space we're never all that far from a colony if we can line up and point ourselves at one. In between planets is scary... there's so much empty space." And people travel as far as Jupiter on a regular basis too.

"Anyways, we mostly use visual and heat, but we've got radar and laser range finders and stuff too." They just have magical space particle pollution that interferes with a lot of stuff, oops. "Nice to meet you, Linhardt. I'm not the best at answering all these questions, but you seem legit curious."

[sleepfan]

"Is it? How big does something have to be until it's no longer wearable?" What if he wore stilts and trousers that were six feet long? That would still be 'wearing' them. (His mind is a bit odd, to say the least.)

"Ah, I understand: The mobile suits aren't made for long distance travel." He nods. Linhardt has to translate the concepts into systems he understands, like ships that can't carry enough food to feed their crew over long ocean journeys, but he can get there, "Hence the need to partner with somebody with a long-distance ship."

Yes?

"I don't know what radar or laser range finders are." Linhardt admits, "I find my targets via their life energy."

Which is actually easier in space. There's much less ambient 'noise' around.

"You're answering them fine. I don't know anything about space travel. I'm starting to believe that Fodlan is... drastically behind."

A nice way of saying that Linhardt is pretty sure his home planet is a backwards shithole. He doesn't like where he's from very much.

[shangrilady]

"Y'know, I don't know where the line stops." Probably somewhere when you aren't directly manipulating the limbs in any way?

"Right. I need a good ship, and we're working in deep space so getting back to a ship from further away is important too." Hence maybe adding extra propellant to the Mk-II or... something. "Anyways, if we're really all from different planets I'm sure there are tons that are way behind you too. Universe is infinite and all that."

That said: "Life energy though?"

[sleepfan]

"I don't either." It turns out the concept of 'wearing' is more complicated than he had thought.

"What advantage does the mobile suit offer to the big ship?" Because there has to be one or else the team up wouldn't work; To be an alliance, they each needed to have something to offer.

"You're right," He says, "I don't know where Fodlan falls on the total scale of possibilities. Still. My disappointment is continually growing."

"Yes?" Linhardt answers her question with a question. Does she not know? He holds up a hand and summons a bit of flame over his palm. Magic. How else would he target it? Visually? (Well, technically warp magic is targeted mathematically but somehow he doesn't think this is the time to talk about that.) "Life energy. Sensing where living things are. It's much easier out here."

[shangrilady]

"The mobile part, mostly. Where I'm from, mobile suits deploy from ships, and if a ship doesn't have mobile suits then yours could just get up close inside of its defenses and blow the whole thing up without any trouble." Like the war that started when she was. Like. Five. And one side had lots of mobile suits, and the other didn't.

...and she's putting that aside the moment he summons a fireball?! "...what. ...uh, okay, dude, you've got something we don't too, that's pretty cool right? Did you just - make that pop up out of nothing?"

[sleepfan]

"I understand." Large space battles. Linhardt would do his best to avoid those. Optimizing for speed still remained a possible option. Space is large. Simply leaving might be a viable tactic. Linhardt has no sense of honor: He will 100% run away.

"No magic at all?" Judging by her reaction, that's Linhardt's guess. He considers how best to word his answer, taking a moment to think before answering, "It's a heat spell. I heat up the air enough that it combusts, fundamentally. The energy to create the heat comes from within me. Much like running does." Which is to say it takes physical effort and energy.

[shangrilady]

"I mean - Newtypes can do some things that people couldn't until... recently I guess, but it's not even slightly like a fire ball!" Elle leans in closer, then back away a little. Is it dangerous to get too close? It looks hot. "Maybe someone could do it secretly but that seems pretty unlikely. I figure if I've been through a whole war without seeing magic it's probably not out there."

[sleepfan]

It is indeed a fireball and will singe Elle if she leans too close, but luckily this particular demonstration isn't large enough to hold enough heat to burn her severely. Linhardt keeps the magic steady as she examines it, an undertaking that requires more skill than one might expect, as he has to manage the amount of air he's 'allowing' into the fire to keep it from burning itself out or flaring any larger.

"What is a 'Newtype' and what can they do?" Perhaps there is some similarity to Crests?

Her mention of war makes Linhardt frown, a shadow of understanding sympathy darting across his face before he quashes his expression once again into careful neutrality, "I would agree with you: In my experience those who are deranged enough to initiate conflict are also unheeding of consequences and will use anything for their war efforts."