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

[astrogator]

There's some sort of translation going on, isn't there? Don't ask me how. Maybe a lot of people have the same word for their planet as they do for the dirt on the ground. Earth.

I hear you. My people fought a war against our first homeworld about a century back. They kept taxing the space colonies, trying to regulate us and steal the products of our labor. It didn't end well for them. Maybe I'd be Anti-Earth, too.

[shangrilady]

Could be. Some details sound similar but if we're all human then humans are really common and my head's just about to explode from that all on its own!

YES you get it though that's the idea. Only the AEUG wasn't really militarized until this special branch of the Federation military called the Titans started cracking down. Like, killing protestors on purpose stuff.

[astrogator]

I don't think everyone here is exactly human, but most are humanoid, at the least. Maybe we are really common, and that says something about the way life evolves - or it says that SUPERBIA thought the human form was the best for this mission, and all the really alien lifeforms are missing out on this. Could be either, right?

That makes perfect sense to me. Everyone wants peace, but if someone's attacking and killing your people, you can't just let that go. It's wrong to initiate aggression, but not to return it.

I'm Lieutenant Tayrey, with the Tradelines. Peace and prosperity to you!

[shangrilady]

Could be a lot of things. I wasn't even sure this was gonna be legit when that thing popped up and now I have to ponder too many big questions.

The AEUG ended up just getting gobbled up by corporations anyways. part of why we bailed.

But hey now I can just find Fortuna and freak out over having too much power :P

Nice to meet you Tayrey.

[astrogator]

Me neither, but I figured that since nobody was asking for any money, if it was a scam I wasn't going to be worse off anyway.

Our companies were integral to winning the Breakaway War. Maybe you could give the corporations a chance?

You too, although I hate to disappoint you by telling you I'm going to be the one to find Fortuna.

[shangrilady]

They're already too tight with the guys that started this whole thing. They voted to disband the Titans and now they're acting like it wasn't their fault in the first place. It's progress but it just sets us back to square one which wasn't exactly good.

I'll spare you a sliver of limitless power if you offer me the same ;)

[astrogator]

Hold there - the Titans were killing protestors, you said. Why wouldn't you want them disbanded? It's impossible to change the past, but you can make the future better.

I suppose I'm opinionated because I was born on a Company-owned world. It wasn't a bad place.

Now that sure sounds like fair contract, but I've got to do my due diligence. What would you do with the power if you had it?

[shangrilady]

It's complicated. They only ever existed because of these guys who've been running the show all along, and it's good that they're gone, but the root cause was a war that happened like ten years ago and the stuff that led to that is still a problem.

I dunno politics isn't my thing but I just have a hard time trusting people with power.

Which is why I think I need to fix things. Without hurting a bunch of people.

[astrogator]

That's fair. I think people should only have power in order to protect the freedom of others. Once it goes beyond that, it's a slow slide into tyranny.

So I'm up for your Fortuna deal, provided that the steps you take to fix things don't infringe on other people's freedoms.

[shangrilady]

That's the last thing I'd wanna do. I want everyone to be able to live their lives. Me and my friends all dropped out of school early not because we wanted to but because we had to. Not that I liked school but I just think people should be able to live their lives. I dunno how I'll do that.

[astrogator]

In that case, we have fair contract!

For my own curiosity, how early is early? I never went to school myself, so I don't know what's normal in other places.

[shangrilady]

I'm 15 and haven't been to school at all in over a year and not much since I was 12. they normally want us to go until we're 16 at the earliest and actually finishing would be 18.

[astrogator]

Ah. Your planetary orbit might differ from standard years in my sector, so exact comparisons might be difficult, but it's not right that you weren't allowed what others are.

I studied at home until I was thirteen, by Cardalek reckoning, and then I became a spacer apprentice on a starship.

Is there anything you want to learn about that you haven't been able to?

[shangrilady]

I lived in one of the poorest space colonies so I would've starved going to school. Now, leaving school to do an apprenticeship would be different cuz at least that's still an education. My and my friends just dropped out to sell scrap.

I think I'm doing alright with what I learned at least and I ended up stumbling into a war and I learned more there. Like how to cook for a bunch of a people lol.

[astrogator]

Couldn't you have sold scrap part-time, and continued studying as well?

That's a good skill to have, though. I've never cooked anything in my life, and I can tell you that out on starships where I'm from, the ship's cook is appreciated very much!

[shangrilady]

School wasn't free by that point anyways so it's not like I was gonna be getting anywhere.

I'm not a great cook but I can be a jack of all trades.

[astrogator]

No, I don't suppose anyone would teach for free. They have to make a living too.

You sound like a very resourceful person. I'm sure you'll do fine, even without much in the way of formal education.

[shangrilady]

Stuff like that does get publicly funded in places

I'm good at space though. So I'll do fine.

[astrogator]

There are charitable appeals for the public to cover the school fees for deserving candidates, do you mean?

[Ari, raised on a libertarian-minded Company world, can't imagine what else could be meant.]

Do you enjoy it? Being in space?