Starside

[bc56]

Starside
Do you want to explore strange, new worlds? Is the Force with you? Do you dream of seeing the galaxy on less than 30 Altairian dollars a day? Do you find yourself often quoting the 70 Maxims of Highly Effective Mercenaries? Come to Starside, the place for everything space!

What is Starside?
Starside is space. From orbiting the Nexus to galaxies far, far away, all of these places are in Starside.

Entering Starside
There are two spaceports in Skyside, and probably more than one in Inside too. Just hop in a shuttle and take off!

Spoiler: Locations

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If you want to add a location, PM me. This goes double for old Spaceside locations you want re-added.

Spoiler: Orbital Drydocks

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Around orbit of the Nexus are a set of drydocks where people may purchase starships or have them custom-built. Anyone can add a corporation here if they wish.

Spoiler: Existing Manufacturers

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If you want to add a manufacturer, PM me

Spoiler: ADU (Celticbear)

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HAVE YOU EVER WANTED AN EDGE AGAINST THOSE PESKY ALIEN WARSHIPS? WELL LOOK NO FIRTHER THAN THE ADU!

The ADU (Alien Defense Unit) is an earthly mercenary corporation which has protected earth from thousands of alien threats! Run by financial and engineering genius, Jonas Sinclair, the ADU has also become a massive force in the field of bioengineering. This field not only applies to genetic manipulation (Want clones, super strength, or other supernatural ability? Contact us as well!), but also applies to the field of aerodynamics. With the consented* aid of dragons and other mystical flying creatures that can be found in the Nexus, the ADU has started to create a new variant magic SUPER SHIP that has immense durability, firepower, and above all else: speed. If you want a fast, durable, reliable, and cheap** ship, contact the ADU today at STARSIDE.

*Definition of consent varies from dragon to dragon, consulting with dragons who have "consented" to be turned into spaceships is punishable by death via ADU Marine firing squad.

**Relative prices of ship vary to tastes and designs implemented. Questioning our value of cheap is punishable by immediate ending of negotiations of prices.

Spoiler: Aeternum Arcanonautics (bc56)

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This group of artificers and technomancers specializes in custom spaceships, all powered by magic. Their building processes are slow, but reliable.

Spoiler: Deacon Arms (bc56)

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This corporation makes warships of various types. Their ships are durable, quick, and businesslike, eschewing many aesthetic principles for functionality. They don't do custom ships. Some evidence suggests that their profits may go to fund a zealous religious conquest of a faraway corner of the galaxy, but that's just a rumor.

Spoiler: Hephaestus Scrapyards (bc56)

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The engineers of Hephaestus Scrapyards specialize in building custom spaceships on a budget. Your ship will work, it will just look like it's been cobbled together from 5+ other ships, and need frequent repair. It's cheap and quick, but not the safest option.

Spoiler: R.E.A.C.H Technologies

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They build exploration and colonisation ships, but their true specialization is made-to-order shipboard AI. They also mass produce unmanned probes, and are the premier supplier of scientific equipment.

Spoiler: White Dwarf Foundries (bc56)

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A shipyard specializing in custom luxury craft. Their products are prohibitively expensive, but of incredible quality, exactly as desired, and can hold up against the hardships of space for decades without repair.

Spoiler: Quietus Dyson Sphere (bc56)

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Autonomous probes have confirmed the presence of a dyson sphere surrounding a star not far from the Nexus. The structure has been designated "Quietus" for its suspicious lack of communication. It reads as having little electronic activity, but a large amount of life-forms, and it is incredibly ancient. Maybe someone should check it out. It could be interesting, and it's huge. It would take years to search the entire facility.

Spoiler: Salmagundi Station (Lost_Deep)

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Salmagundi is a large space station that looks like at least eight different space stations ran into each other and fused. Acting as a step between the main… mass of the Nexus and the great beyond, Salmagundi shares inside’s bizarre patchwork nature to some extent. Most things are available; a spacedock with repair and modification capabilities, cantinas (the Pulsar Pop is popular, and designed to maximize shady corners), stores where you can buy various wares of science fiction, a few places where you can stay for the night, and a lot of poorly-lit not-well-maintained corridors where the cameras don’t work well.

Getting to Salmagundi is easier than it sounds; there’s a few spaceports in inside that have relatively inexpensive shuttle services, most notably the skyway. There’s a few other spaceports in skyside, and there’s talk of building a space elevator up to the station from the flying city. Finally, for everyone else, the riftline goes up to it… somehow. Probably wormholes.

Consider Salmagundi a miniature Inside, in space. You’re free to make locations here, long or short-term, and the construction varies wildly so most anyone can find a place.

Spoiler: Rules

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This thread is open, and combat can occur here. That said, no godmodding, etc. Many places discourage or ban fighting within, please respect that.
Due to its great size, Starside may be ideal for apocalypses and other disasters, invasions, and grey goo scenarios. Just be sure to get approval from the owners of any locations you target.
Similarly, do not attack other people's locations without permission. I know that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun," but that doesn't mean you have to wantonly shoot others with it.
Some people have problems with FTL travel and other sci-fi stuff being generally confusing and unscientific. Save that for the "Mad Science and Grumpy Technology" section please. In this thread, just assume it causes no problems.
Lastly, being part of the Nexus, magic is completely fine and functional within Starside. Some corporations within the drydocks specialize in magic-powered spaceships.

Spoiler: Current Events

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R.E.A.C.H. Technologies scouts discovered the dyson sphere now designated Quietus. Their drones went dark shortly after entering. The company is offering free transportation to the sphere, as well as a small bounty, for people willing to explore the sphere. Applications are being acceptedhandwaved in their office in the orbital drydocks.

[SleepyMoony]

R.E.A.C.H. Orbital Drydocks

A high pitched squeak accompanies an application being placed on the appropriate desk. The application is being handled by a long white-and-pink ribbon, and is filled in with a few inky paw prints. Peering over the desk reveals a Sylveon has approached it - a medium sized dog-like creature with long upright ears and a pink and cream coloured coat. It peers up with a look of satisfaction and eagerness, gently swaying it's ribbons.

[Reinholdt]

R.E.A.C.H. Orbital Drydocks

Drats! There's a line. Reinholdt knew he shouldn't have stopped for that nap. Early doesn't always mean first. Ah well, at least it's not a large one yet. The russian blue cat steps in behind the Sylveon, his own application in paw. A transparent fish bowl helmet covers the small feline's head, held in place by some invisible force.

[bc56]

R.E.A.C.H.
The robot clerk scans Sylveon's application. A speaker on its dome-shaped, chrome head (which is all you can see of it) plays. "Your application has been accepted. You will depart from Landing Pad 4 with Exploration Device 7118. If you need a space suit, there is a tailor aboard the station who can make any required modifications. Thank you for your application. NEXT!"

[Recaiden]

((I know my voice can be a bit difficult for people to follow. Is this better? Maybe I'll just step back for a bit.))

A larger feline joins the line after Reinholdt. One rather like a displacer beast, though more like a lioness than a panther: golden fur and tufted tail. Also a very long neck. She has the application held in her tentacles, and a fancy hair clip perched atop her head.

[SleepyMoony]

R.E.A.C.H. Orbital Drydocks

Sylveon gives a celebratory wave of it's ribbons, letting out a cheer that sound like a small squeaky toy. It turns around and walks out past Reinholdt and the displacer beast, giving them a cute but fang-y grin as it passes.

Some Time Later, at Landing Pad 4

Wearing a tailored space suit, Sylveon sits by the landing pad while it waits for the others to show up. The ribbons around it's neck extend through a sealed slot at it's throat, letting it roll it's helmet back and forth on the ground.

[bc56]

Landing Pad 4
A gunmetal grey spaceship is parked here. Blinking green lights dot its surface. The design of the ship is oddly blocky, as if the creators put more thought into function than aesthetic. It is about the right size to seat 10 people. Currently, the boarding ramp is up.

R.E.A.C.H. Drydocks
We can handwave the rest of the applications, the clerk will say exactly the same thing each time.

[Reinholdt]

R.E.A.C.H. Orbital Drydocks

Reinholdt looks around, almost certain he heard something. From the feline-esque creature behind him? Nah. Nah? Hmm...

A celebratory squeak returns his attention forward. He gives the Sylveon a nod and returns the smile as it passes before stepping up. Alright, he doesn't know how high their standards are here, but here's his time to shine. He hops up to the desk and sets his application down. "Hey there!" Reinholdt starts, slightly fogging up his fishbowl. "I am none other than Reinholdt, Treasure Hunt-hey!" The cat moves out of the way as the application is suddenly scanned and approved with the same generic response as the Sylveon received. He opens his mouth to say something else, but closes it with a dejected hmph. Hopping back down he heads out with an overcompensating strut.

Landing Pad 4

Shortly thereafter, he also arrives here. Reinholdt likewise took them up on the offer of a tailored suit, though he insisted on keeping the moderately enchanted fishbowl. He settles in to wait, frequently distracted by Sylveon's rolling helmet, the numerous blinking lights, and his own excitement at being a cat in spaaaaace.

[Celticbear]

Just Outside (Okay, not that outside, you know what I mean!) The Orbital Drydocks

A ship coming from a seemingly random direction approaches, the ship itself looks like this:

Spoiler: Ship

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The ship attempts to hail the space station, saying the message: This is Jonas Sinclair of the Alien Defense Unit seeking to gain passage into the docks. Permission to board?

[bc56]

Outside the Drydocks
The space traffic control AI responds to the hail. "Permission granted. You may land on pad 23."

[Recaiden]

The non-displaced beast applies perfunctorily and gets approved with no trouble or disappointment. Excellent. Got that all squared away, and can move on to the important things.

[Landing Pad 4]

By the time she arrives here, the creature is decked out in belts and bandoleers of useful space tools, bundles of gold chain, and a single rainbow earring. The tailored space-suit has been forgone. She cranes her neck this way and that, examining the landing pad with empty blue eyes.
"You're truly the Reindholdt? I've heard a lot about you."

[bc56]

Landing Pad 4
As the group waits and discusses, two R.E.A.C.H. engineers enter, a human and a humanoid reptile. They each are wearing grey space suits with the company logo on the chest, are carrying their helmets under their arms. Behind them hovers a trolley with assorted engineering equipment on it. A voice emanates from the ship. "Welcome everyone. There will be time for pleasantries and introductions on our 5-hour flight. Please come aboard." The boarding hatch of the ship opens, and the two R.E.A.C.H. employees board.

[SleepyMoony]

Landing Pad Four

Sylveon tilts its head at the mention of five hours. Five hours? Wasn't space travel supposed to be fast? Oh well, at least the company seemed interesting. It picks up its helmet and carries it at it's side in its ribbons, and hops up into the ship. After a moment of looking around, it settles into one of the seats and looks over at it's new companions. Did that weird pyroar say it heard about the weird meowth? Curious! Maybe Sylveon was in the presence of a space celebrity!

[Reinholdt]

Landing Pad 4

"Huh?" Reinholdt blinks, drawn away from his imagined tactics to destroy the blinking green light he was focused upon. "Ah yes, I'm Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire, the one and only!" The kitty gives an elaborate flourish.

No more elaboration is forthcoming however as they're encouraged to board. Rein takes his seat promptly. If he knew the trip would be five hours he would have brought some drinks for everyone to share. Then again, drinking in space might be unwise. There could be messy results on the landing and take off.

He turns attention back to the other two quadrapeds. "Where were we? Ah yes. It's a pleasure to meet you both. I hope you haven't heard too much, otherwise I won't get to wow you. What are your names?" Rein asks them, the tip of his tail swishing slowly from side to side.

[bc56]

Landing Pad 4 -> In Transit
Once everyone is seated, the boarding hatch closes. With a lurch, the ship takes off. Soon, stars are streaking past the windows of the craft as it starts its journey.

[Recaiden]

((Five hours is fast. It's just that space is moderately big.))

The largest quadruped gets aboard, hardly noticing the dull R.E.A.C.H. crew. One and only? Aren't there supposed to be a bunch of him? Clones and evil twins and so on? She wonders. Well, it's probably just a saying.

"No, not too much. My name is 'Yone'. I make treasures."

[SleepyMoony]

Travelling

"My name's Sylveon and I've never heard of you!" cheers Sylveon, though if you don't speak Pokemon than it just sounds like it's making a lot of high-pitched squeaking and mewing. It stands up, walks around in a circle on it's seat, then plops back down in a more comfortable position. It looks out the window, watching the stars streak past with wide, awe-filled eyes. What a beautiful sight! "What kind of treasures do you make?" Sylveon asks Yone.

[bc56]

In Transit
An intercom crackles before starting. "This is your starship speaking. We are en route to Quietus. We are currently travelling at 2.19 kilocees. The flight will take approximately 5 hours, barring delay. There will be a briefing in three hours. Until then, there are refreshments in the forward storage locker. Please relax and enjoy the flight."

For anyone interested in the math, 2.19 kilocees is 2190 times the speed of light (which would be very fast for a vessel of this size.) The destination is around 50 light-years away, which is relatively nearby in space.

[Reinholdt]

In Transit

Reinholdt tilts his head to one side. "What dialect is that?" The cat has spoken in mews before, but not in Pokemon. Theoretically he can understand Sylveon, but to him it's like trying to parse words from someone speaking in a thick unfamiliar accent. You know they're saying words you understand, it's just hard to tell which words sometimes.

He did catch on to Sylveon though. That stood out. "Hello Sylveon. And Yone. So what do you mean by make treasures?" Surely in all the time the cat spent acquiring treasure he realized someone actually made those things, right?

Like how someone made the refreshments. They didn't just appear out of thin air. Well maybe they literally did, but someone went to engineering school for a very long time to make it happen.

[Recaiden]

Yone tilts her head to the other side, looking at the Sylveon.
"You can understand that?" she asks skeptically.
It's funny, the Sylveon is clearly talking to her, and seemed to understand Reinholdt, but they can't answer in kind?

"I'm a wonderworker, an artificer or enchanter. Mostly a smith; I do dabble in other construction. I make unique objects designed to hold magical energy." She isn't planning to demonstrate any on the trip. Only if they're needed during the mission.

[Savoc]

why the pokemon though

[SleepyMoony]

In Transit

Hm, looks like Sylveon's new companions were having trouble understanding it. Not unexpected, of course. Non-pokemon tended not to be able to understand it until they'd developed a bond with each other. Somewhat troublesome for the task at hand, but also had potential for some Antics at some point. So Sylveon was fine with that.


"Unovan," Sylveon replies to Reinholdt. It reaches out with a ribbon to the storage locker (just how long is that thing?) and started fishing around in hopes of finding a Lemonade or a Fresh Water. "Ask Yone if she brought any magic items with her!"

[Mee]

In Transit
An intercom crackles before starting. "This is your starship speaking. We are en route to Quietus. We are currently travelling at 2.19 kilocees. The flight will take approximately 5 hours, barring delay. There will be a briefing in three hours. Until then, there are refreshments in the forward storage locker. Please relax and enjoy the flight."

For anyone interested in the math, 2.19 kilocees is 2190 times the speed of light (which would be very fast for a vessel of this size.) The destination is around 50 light-years away, which is relatively nearby in space.

In Transit

Barring delay, you say?!

Well. Not so much a delaaaaay, as just an oddity.
In one of the quiet rooms back near the engines -- probably more a maintenance closet than a real room or anything --, someone presumably in charge of keeping the engines up and running probably notices something odd.
Looks like a fairly large coil of . . . rope? But it's a space ship, not an old time-y ship!
The room is really dark, but further inspection through the camera definitely shows that it's faaaar too large to just be rope. It's about a good foot, foot and a half wide, and in quiiite large a coil.
It's dark though, so it'd be a guess as to the color of the 'rope'. But it does look almost metallic-y.

How did that even get there. Huh.
A myyyysterrryyyyy.

[bc56]

In Transit
The ship pipes up. "Excuse me. Cadet Friin and any passengers with knowledge of robotics or starship maintenance please inspect the engineering crawlspace? There's something out of place in there which I at first thought was a sensor ghost, but am now certain it exists." The reptilian R.E.A.C.H. crewman gets up from his seat and heads to the back of the room, pulling up a hatch in the floor and descending into the engineering section.

There is no replicator aboard this ship. It's not large enough to go this fast and still have the power to run one. The storage locker is refrigerated. Yes, Sylveon is able to find a lemonade within.

The ship's not big enough to have a dedicated engineering crew. It's about the size of 3 city buses, mostly made up of the engines and drive system. The ship's AI maintains the ship with a small fleet of repair bots. The crawlspace allows passengers to enter engineering, presumably to shut down a defunct AI, since it's the only area without cameras.

[Reinholdt]

In Transit

"Surrrreeee..." Reinholdt says uncertainly. Understand is a strong word. For instance, he doesn't understand where Sylveon keeps all that ribbon. Granted, it is a nice ribbon. "They want to know if you brought any... magical luck with you?" The cat asks the vasoril on the pokemon's behalf.

Ohhh! A crisis! Thank goodness. This ship was almost certainly going to devolve into a five hour nightmare ride filled with desperate survival, corporate betrayal, and secret agendas. Rein felt tingly just thinking about it. "Well I don't know much about robotics and even less about starship maintenance, but I fit quite well into crawlspaces. Do you two want to go check this out?"

[bc56]

In Transit
Reinholdt can definitely go down in the crawlspace, no one will stop him.

In the meantime, the REACH roboticist will methodically search each part of the engineering section, starting with the engine itself, and ending in the storages. When he sees the "rope" he'll inspect it to see what it is.

[Mee]

In Transit

"Surrrreeee..." Reinholdt says uncertainly. Understand is a strong word. For instance, he doesn't understand where Sylveon keeps all that ribbon. Granted, it is a nice ribbon. "They want to know if you brought any... magical luck with you?" The cat asks the vasoril on the pokemon's behalf.

Ohhh! A crisis! Thank goodness. This ship was almost certainly going to devolve into a five hour nightmare ride filled with desperate survival, corporate betrayal, and secret agendas. Rein felt tingly just thinking about it. "Well I don't know much about robotics and even less about starship maintenance, but I fit quite well into crawlspaces. Do you two want to go check this out?"

In Transit
Reinholdt can definitely go down in the crawlspace, no one will stop him.

In the meantime, the REACH roboticist will methodically search each part of the engineering section, starting with the engine itself, and ending in the storages. When he sees the "rope" he'll inspect it to see what it is.

In Transit

Well, once the lights are switched on, it becomes very obvious that the large pile of rope appears to be . . . some kind of snake?
Very, very colorful, and at first glance is probably around 20, 25 feet in length, and proportionally wide. Though it's very much curled up on itself, so all that is visible are just coils upon coils layered on top of each other.
It also appears to be very much asleep, inside the warmest room that it could find.

[bc56]

In Transit
Cadet Friin pulls out his commlink and calls his colleague, cadet Hansen, the xenobiologist. The room isn big enough for both of them and the snake, so Friin will wait just outside while Hansen examines the snake.

Cadet Hansen is only a newbie, and can't successfully recognize every alien species. Moreover if the snake is magical, he can't recognize it at all.

[Recaiden]

"I'm not great at fitting into crawlspaces,-" Yone replies. That means she'll help check it out.

"Magical luck? No. We don't do luck. We do 'do good you never need good luck'. If it means magic in general, plenty." Waving a tentacle, she conjures another glass of lemonade. Creating something from thin air is a popular and harmless trick.
That done, she heads back towards engineering.

((And someone knows what kind of thing I am. Most people wouldn't remember, or bother to learn. ))

[bc56]

In Transit
When Yone (along with anyone else who wants to) goes down into the engineering section, she'll find that it is a tight space dominated by humming machinery. The two REACH crewmen are looking into a storage compartment, at a huge, multicolored snake. They are discussing, in hushed tones, so as to not alarm any passengers, how such a creature could have snuck into the ship.