You are part of the crew of an exploration ship belonging to the Union of Federated Dimensions, one of the rivals of the United Nations: A.E.C. You have been scouting new universes for potential colony worlds: ones where there are no sapient lifeforms occupying the sol system, and you have found one that is a viable target, while it lacks an 'Earth' position planet, in it's place being an asteroid belt, instead Venus is a verdant jungle paradise with a large moon and seas similar to earth, and at least as far as you can tell no intelligent life. You, about 200 other crew members, 70% female, and a 'Standard Colony Module' have been set down on the edge of one of Venus's seas and left behind by the ship while it reports the news of the find. 12 other identical colony modules have been scattered at advantageous locations across the planet, who you are supposed to work with cataloging native lifeforms and developing the world: as well as serving as potential bolt holes in the event of invasion. The ship which brought you here: The FDS 'Africa' will be incommunicado for about 3 months: you have to survive on your own till then... --- This is a Mixed-Sexual/Normal RPG, (More 'normal' than 'sexual' which is why it is filed where it is, though sex is permitted it is not intended as the focus.) about survival on an alien world, with room for non human characters and members of every conceivable ethnicity and religion, though there is one small yet also major difference from our own world among most of the worlds of the Union: 13 is considered a LUCKY number because that was the number of Christ's final disciple: Saint Judas Iscariot. The game would be slower than most on this site: people would be expected to restrain themselves to one post per day, but that makes it perfect for those of us who want to participate in a forum game and still contribute to the main site too... Those wishing to join the game should respond to it's interest check thread in 'Game Advertisements' with their character ideas and at least skim this thread to catch up on the plot. --- Now on to the starting situation: The 'Africa' stayed in orbit around the planet dubbed 'Venusian' for 2 months while it's probes took samples and made sure the planet was habitable. The vegetation and animal species they found on the surface were suspiciously similar to earth, in fact in every case could be traced to a Terran species allowing for about 5 million years of independent evolution, which they THINK means that Venus was Terreformed by the people of the Earth before some kind of plague, disaster, or war killed them off and destroyed the earth leaving it another asteroid belt. They set down the standard 13 of the 20 colony modules the ship carried and then started retracing their steps across dimensions to report the new colony and be re-equipped for phase 2 of the process, which if nothing goes terribly wrong should take 2-4 'standard' months. That was a week ago. After exhaustive sampling of the local flora, fauna, and micotzia the 'Lieutenant-Mayor' of your module has deemed it safe to send people out without 'Encounter Suits', as long as they don't eat anything without running it through a Para-Dimensional-Threat-Assayer first: a portable automated lab the size of a microwave that checks things for prions, viruses, bacteria, spores, and other hazards: which each scouting team will carry one of like a backpack. The current PCs and 5 other people are gathering conference room A-113, in a few minutes to be briefed before becoming one of the first scouting parties to leave the ship outside an encounter suit, heading out on a 2 week surveying mission. --- And GO! (Start with descriptions of your characters, we will work from there.)
Ashley "Firefly" Allens is there, looking nervous about the people around her. She knows one or two of them, but not very well. She is four-foot, eight inches of a nervous genderless Tengu. Her shoulder length fiery red hair is the reason for her nickname, which is well known even to the people she doesn't know. She is fidgeting a little, bringing her right hand up to her ear, where she has multiple onyx studs all the way up the side of the ear. Her people traditionally get piercings in a lot of places, but she went light on the piercings and limited them to her ear. The back of her neck has an insertion port for a cable to be plugged in. This is just one of her cybernetic implants. This particular one lets her plug into computers and other technology for better control. The only technology she can control perfectly without a cable are her two bonded drones that are currently hovering a short distance above her. She hasn't engaged their hard-light shielding, or their weaponry, so they look like two floating orbs. She is currently wearing a black top with a red sports bra under it. She feels a little self-conscious about wearing a normal bra since she isn't technically female. Her B cups are supported and a little shown off thanks to the sports bra, but she tries to ignore them. She is also wearing lose black pants and black and red shoes.
Celesta is leaning with her back against one of the walls as she’s looking at the other people in the room, her purple eyes briefly examining each one before moving away. She has not met any of them previously and has decided to leave the introductions for later. The 'space elf', as most people call her, has chosen to wear a comfortable black dress for one simple reason: this may be her last chance to wear one for quite some time. Plus she looks good in it. Underneath it she is wearing simple bra and panties, also black. The last part of Celesta’s outfit are her purple shoes, the same color as her skin. People not paying attention might think she’s bare-footed. Currently Celesta’s hair is back to its natural black color after a few less-than-successful experiments with changing its color to something more exotic. Her hair is straight and reaches to her shoulders. A few of the other people take quick looks at her, but all of them have the decency to not stare at her D cups hidden away by her dress. While normally she doesn’t mind when people ogle her now is really not the time. She hopes that the briefing will start soon, as she’s looking forward to being one of the first to explore around outside an encounter suit.
(And We Continue!) "Please, take your seats." 'Lieutenant-Mayor' Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout* declares as she enters the room, sits in the high backed command chair, and starts to bring up the parameters for the mission on the main screen at the other end of the room. Sarah is a woman predominantly of Amerind Phenotype, about 5'5", with long black hair worn in 'Princess Leia' braids, dark brown (nearly black) eyes, a beak of a nose, lovely kissable lips, strong white slightly conical teeth, and B-cup breasts which she does not dress to accentuate, preferring clothes and undergarments that conceal rather than reveal. She is dressed in a standard UFD Star Navy Lieutenant's 'shore side' uniform, dark blue except the sliver stripes at the ends of the sleeves and two silver pips at the collar, modified with the 'mayoral sash' of the appointment to the command of the colony. *(And if you quote that poem in her presence she will order you to stop, and if you continue WILL have you thrown in the brig for insubordination.) The other five people with whom you will be undertaking the mission also take their seats and you get the first chance to look over them in detail, all having arrived with only a few seconds to spare before the Mayor did. Two of them are dressed in 'Enlisted' Star Navy ground side uniforms: The red stripe on their shoulder indicating security track careers instead of science, engineering, or command. One is male, the other female, and both are human. The man's name patch reads 'Mac Guinness' and he has red hair, pale skin, and green eyes. The woman is a 20 something brunet with vaguely 'Germanic' features, and a very impressive rack, D-cups if they aren't F/DD, However she seems to be somewhat short, she has to put the seat up a bit to sit comfortably, and her body morphology looks subtly off. Her name patch reads 'Dortmund' and somehow you find her placidly calm face vaguely threatening: like the slack of the tide before a tidal wave. The next person is a strapping young man from the 'Ogre' stock of Universe Δ-49: a world where instead of Australopithecus wiping out the 'Robustus' branch of the hominid phenotype a fluke mutation among the latter group set them on a spiral of ever increasing degrees of both intelligence and physical prowess, along with decreasing amounts of hair, resulting in what are commonly called 'Ogres'* He stands about 7 feet tall, somewhat short for members of his race, and has brownish tan skin, gray eyes, and short brown hair. It's harder to tell with people of the divergent races but he seems to be about 20. He is dressed in bluejeans and a flannel shirt, and has just set down the group's Para-Dimensional-Threat-Assayer on the decking next to him. *(Their term for themselves being nigh unpronounceable without mechanical aid, due to their vastly increased vocal range and language which includes several sounds an average hominid throat cannot readily duplicate, such as the 'sliding-click' vowel and a number lower pitched sounds outside the average vocal range: those of them with musical and linguistic talent have become highly sought for the 'Basso Profundo' roles in opera.) After this is a woman from a race you are unfamiliar with: she looks mostly humanoid, except she possesses four arms and a long prehensile tail, as well as having a third eye in her forehead. Her skin is the color of chocolate but her hair is orange, and her teeth are bright red. Her eyes however are a normal color, bright Robbin's egg blue, and they appear to be able to focus either independently or with trinocular vision. She is dressed in a Sari like a woman from India, and not a cheap one either: it's design made up of gold threads woven through sky blue silk, and has a number of gold and sapphire bangles on her arms and sapphire earrings in her ears, all of which set off her eyes beautifully. The last member of the group is not even vaguely humanoid, looking like some kind of nightmare mixture of Scorpion, Eel, Centipede and Octopus, It's head like the body of a small octopus, attached to a neck like an eel which must be four feet long, atop a body like a scorpion including pincers except that instead of eight legs it has 42 stretching about 5 feet and ending in a tail with a pair of pincered dagger like protrusions: and that instead of having an exoskeleton it's whole body is covered with grayish flesh and it has hooves instead of the sharply pointed legs of centipedes and scorpions. You cannot even begin to guess at it's gender. "Why don't we all make introductions before we start on the briefing..." Mayor Sarah states.
Looking around the room, no one seemed particularly in a hurry to introduce themselves. Ashley didn't want to go first. That would be scary and embarrassing.... But on the other hand, that would allow her to get it over with. Then she could just stay quiet the rest of the time and hopefully be ignored. Ashley took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before standing. Given how short she was, it probably would have been better for her to just stand on her chair. Once she was standing up, she fidgeted and shuffled her feet a bit. "I-I'm Ashley.... Ashley Allens. Tengu Cyborg.... Cyber warfare and technological specialist." She glanced around with a blush as she fingered her pierced ear nervously. "I-its a pleasure to work with all of you." Her voice sounded like music on a gentle breeze and to anyone looking, she would appear completely female. Her actual genderless state wouldn't be apparent. After her introduction was finished, she sat back down, her face a deep crimson. She had noticed the red haired man and the Ogre earlier. They were both fairly attractive, though she wasn't sure she could be in a relationship with the Ogre. He was just so.... big... She couldn't even touch to top of his head if she jumped! Even with standing on top the chair!
After the Tengu girl… Ashley… finishes talking no one else rises to make an introduction. Celesta hesitates for a second. Might as well get this over with. She decides as she rises from her chair. "Hello, everyone. My name is Celesta. I am…" She hesitates for a moment. "I am not going to torture you by forcing you to pronounce the actual name of my race, so let’s say I am a 'space elf'. Anyway, I have some minor skills in telepathy and telekinesis. I look forward to working with you." Finished with her introduction Celesta sits back down in her chair and waits for the other people to introduce themselves.
(I am so sorry it has taken so long to do this post, but things have been very hectic at home and I got a sudden flash of inspiration for a new story, and just HAD to get it all writen out and sbmitted before my brain would let me work on this game at all: I hope I will not have such problems often.) As the first two members speak the others chorus 'welcome' and 'good to meet you' or words to that effect. The inhuman member of the team was the next to speak: though it did not 'speak' precisely, instead using a text to speech device held in one claw with the tentacles on it's head. "Hello: my name as well as racial identifier would be 'unpronounceable' to you hominids, you lack the proper organs, however you may call me Xichizak, or if that is too hard for you simply 'Zak', and may refer to my species as 'Kidawin', plural 'Kidawaii', we are new members of the Union of Federated Dimensions, better known among our people as simply The Federation, and like the previous speaker I have some talent with telepathy, as well as a range and depth of sensory input that puts me a cut above most hominids in terms of spacial awareness and ability to spot traps and dangers well before we would blunder into them. I also am a botanist, though that probably won't help much due to how divergent the ecology of my home dimension is." He 'says' almost 'stream of consciousness' before making one final statement. "Finally I am a 'Male' of my species, though we actually have 3 genders, all of which are required for reproduction." and puts the device back in his pocket. The Mayor pipes up at this point with another note about the 'alien' member of the team. "One final thing to remember about Miter Xichizak, he is also accompanying your group as a representative of the 'Non-Hominid' bloc of The Union, we believe this planet to have no native sapient creatures but in case we are wrong we have to be sure that they will not react with hostility to either hominid or non-hominid beings before they can be admitted as probationary members of The Union, therefore if he is seriously injured or otherwise incapacitated you need to turn back to the colony module." "It's actually 'Mister' Madam Mayor, 'Miter' without the 's' is reserved for married males of my species." Mister Xichizak comments via his smartphone like device. "Dang-it, that always gets me confused!" Mayor Stout mutters. "Just Remember, 'Miss'-ter, like a young woman, unmarried, 'My'-ter, possessive on the part of the bride and bride-groom, married." He explains. Again there is a chorus of 'nice to meet you' and 'a pleasure to make your acquaintance' before the next person speaks: "Hello, my name ist Ensign Brunhilde Eva Dortmund, und I ist from der recently liberated planet of 'La Terre' in A-215, formerly uv de Trans-Univerzal Third Reich, before de Union uv Federated Dimensions freed ar vorld form de Nazi opressorz. Do'h I speak de Dutche-Sprache und look like der German voman I vas born in and 'concentration camp' und only survived by grace of Gott in Himmel since der camp vas liberated right at der beginning of der 3rd vorld var. I hate der Nazis harder dan anyvun else here und have made it der Lebenswerk to see dem destroyed utterly. Dis vas vy I ended up on der colony mission: dy think I ist der 'loose cannon' und vant me ver I causes nien trouble... I has der expertise mit der vepons und der fighting, also vit der scouting und setting der ambush, so I make sure alles come back safe." The German looking ensign explains in her broken 'Standard'. (AKA English.) Continuing with the forms thus far there is a susurrus of welcoming noises and then the next individual speaks: namely the woman who looks like a Hindu goddess. "You all may be familiar with people who look like me but let me assure you I am not actually a deity." The woman with the blood red teeth states in a classically 'Indian' accent. "My race was genetically engineered by an incredibly advanced civilization to be slave actors and actresses for films about the mythology of India, and contrary to what you have said Mister Xichizak not all of us could not pronounce your real name." She states and her skin changes colors in rapid sequence and patterns, everything from sky blue to blood red, dark green, and pure white then back to chestnut brown, at which the xenos member of the team whistles slightly. "I am here because I am a consummate diplomat and linguist, as well as having some skill as a survivalist which was how I and my siblings escaped the people who had created us and held us prisoner till I was 15, and I am working for the government of The Federation as the representative of the 'Constitutional-Maharaja-dom' of New India in universe B-217: who offered me and my brothers and sisters citizenship and lifetime protection as representatives of the gods as soon as they heard we had petitioned the federation for asylum. My species are genetically engineered to both have leadership ability and require someone above us giving orders in order to feel safe and secure, so we gladly accepted this role as Brahman like intercessors with the Hindu pantheon, answering to the government but leading the faithful, from which when I reached adulthood at 50 I was called away by the Federation's leadership to work for the diplomatic corps, and so I find myself here, as diplomat on an uncharted planet that may not even have sapient life. My name, given to me by my makers, is 'Kali' but you can call me 'Amal of the Many Colors' or simply Amal, which means 'Hope': for I am ever hopeful for myself, my nation, my faith, my race, and my people." She finishes, sitting back down at the foot of the table. Next to speak is the 'Ogre'... "Let me first stat that it is an honor to be included on this sensitive mission with such a diversity of talented people." He begins. "My name is 'Gordon James Buy-well' and I am at least in part here to carry heavy objects," he declares patting the PDTA, "But also because I have a diverse range of training and technical skills that could be an asset to the mission. I can serve as mechanic, technician, xeno-botanist, engineer, worker, hunter, trap master, and several other specializations: but my main skill is as a field medic. I have degrees in medicine from three dimensions and have studied the biology of each of your races in depth over the past two weeks, if anything goes wrong medically I am probably qualified to deal with it." "How can you study our biology 'in depth' in only two weeks?" The last person, the human who's name tag reads 'Mac Guinness' asks, with a touch of an 'Irish' accent, but even if you knew Ireland well you couldn't place where from. "That is fairly easy: I am an eidetic, I never truly forget a fact once learned or an image once seen, this has it's disadvantages, I watch people re-write history into tales, then legends, then myths around me, but I can learn facts, figures, and other data with incredible rapidity." Gordon explains. "Well, I guess that brings things to me then." 'Mac Guinness' starts in after the chorus of 'welcome's. "My name's 'Security Officer Patrick Daniel Thomas Mac Guinness' but call me 'Dan' and don't call me 'Paddy' or 'Tommy'." He declares. "Like our other human team member I am an expert in weaponry and fighting, but also surveying, engineering, and survival, all skills we have doubled up in the team because they are so crucial. I'm from the universe of A-28, the 'center' of the Federation, in specific a long range trading ship called the 'An Nua Éire' or 'New Ireland'. My native tongue is Irish Gaelic but I speak English just fine as you can see. Not much more to say about me other than that I'm single, have no children, I don't take kindly to 'Paddy' jokes as I hope you all would have guessed, and that I think it's about time we got the full briefing started." He Finishes. "Are there any further questions for your team before we start?" The Mayor asks.
Ashley had a question for they mayor. She raised her hand shyly and when called upon, stumbled through it. "U-um... How closely will we be um.... Living together? We'll have some privacy for bathing and such right?" Being the only "Genderless" of the group made Ashley even more self conscious about her body than normal. She had almost wished she had been brave enough to just choose a gender when she had reached 18 instead of letting it happen naturally when a mate was found. She shot a shy look at both the Irishman and the Ogre hoping that they wouldn't simply confuse her for female like everyone else did. It would be awkward if they tried making a move without knowing the full details of her body.
"You each will have your own tent for sleeping and the group will carry a collapsible shower unit you can use serially for bathing but you will be living in close proximity to one another for the next several weeks. If any of you think that will be too much of a problem you should probably say so now." The mayor replied.
I might be the least qualified person here. Celesta thinks as she listens to the introductions of the other members of the team. She considers asking about their living arrangements, but Ashley beats her to it. The answer given by the Mayor is pretty much what Celesta expected. The 'space elf' considers asking a few questions but decides to wait until the mayor has finished the briefing, as there was a good chance that most, if not all, of her questions would get answered at least partially.
Ashley had no other questions and she wasn't going to back out of the assignment. She was a little worried, but as long as she had some personal space, she should be ok.
"I will try to cover everything, but this briefing will by necessity be just that 'brief': more complete information and procedures will be uploaded to your Smartphones and Tablets for review during the first few days of the mission." Mayor Stout declares calling up the mission parameters on the far wall from her chair and directing everyone's eyes to them. "You will be embarking on a surveying and recognizance mission into the jungles surrounding the small bay where our Colony Module has set down: we have a rough topographical and chemical survey from orbit but need more accurate data before we can start with advanced district planing, which your team and two others are supposed to provide. Your team will be surveying the north-west quadrant of the area in depth out to a distance of roughly 20 miles which with the tools we will provide you should take 4 weeks or so. In specific you are looking for patches of deep soil suitable for farming, deposits of metal ores, flux stone, and fossil fules which can help with industrial development, native plants that are edible to standard hominid bio-chemical structures, and native animal species that can be domesticated or which are dangerous to our colonization efforts. Lastly, but most important: you are to attempt to make peaceful contact with any native Sapient species you encounter, and bring them into The Union of Federated Dimensions: as we all know once a planet is claimed by The Union we have made it a policy to never relinquish that ground, and as any native sapient race must be pre-agricultural and most likely pre-tool-use if they do exist they require our protection and guidance. Use utmost caution with attempting to hunt for food: especially with larger species, as you can see from Mister Xichizak the natives could look like anything, just because it is not a hominid does not mean it is not a Sapient, and it would be very bad if our first introduction to the people of this world were to be murder and intelivoreism." The Mayor Explains, before moving to the next set of notes and schematics on the screen. "You all will be issued standardized rucksacks with some basic equipment: Mess kit, 7 'explorers' or 'service issue' uniforms depending on if you are a civilian contractor or enlisted individual, 20 pairs of socks individually packaged in water proof wrappers and two pairs of waterproof boots, except -Miter-, I mean Mister Xichizak of course, satellite up-link 'Mechanized Personal Assistant', large bar of all purpose soap, a sliver of which which can wash body, clothes, hair, dishes, and anything else you need to clean, a large water filtering canteen, 7 days packaged rations, survival knife, fire starting device, 'radio scream' flare gun with 3 flares which are only to be used in an emergency dire enough that the team requires extraction, your tent, a portion of the shower unit, and standard issue blaster with two spare power packs. You all have been chosen in part because you are strong enough to carry this equipment, which is lighter than it sounds, everything being made from the lightest materials possible that will still do the job effectively." Mayor Stout declares, and again moves on. "You are each to report your findings and the day/night's events via your 'mechanized personal assistants' before bedding down for the night, upon waking in the morning, and at around mid day, do not assume the others are doing it for you, each of you will have unique observations that will be invaluable to our colony effort and if anyone does not make their report we will first query the others if you are OK and if you are and did not report a demerit will be placed in your file. Reports deliberately omitting important facts will also earn demerits: including any you might feel are personally embarrassing or 'private': we cannot have any secrets putting the broader colony mission at risk, though you need not go into graphic detail if that is not fully relevant, you will be asked to elaborate on anything we feel requires further information when you make your next check in." The Lieutenant-Mayor explains, then goes on to one final section of the briefing: "Lastly you are to head directly back to the colony module in the event of any of the following conditions: any member of the team is seriously injured, dies, or goes missing for more than 24 hours, you have made successful contact with a native sapient race and convinced them to join The Union, you find a deposit of native ore for uranium or other radio active element, or have exhausted more than half of your supplies. Now, are there any questions?" Sarah asks.
Celesta listens carefully to the mayor's explanation. It's pretty much what she expected, but something feels off. It takes her a few moments to figure out what. "Wait, correct me if I am wrong, Madam, but didn't you say that our mission should take around 4 weeks? That's 28 days, yet we are given rations for just a week? That's clearly not enough. Are we going to get extra rations delivered to us, or are we supposed to obtain food on our own?" She pauses, hesitating for a moment before asking another question. "Also, you mentioned demerits if we don't do a good enough job. Do we get any special rewards if we do a very good job?"
A couple of the others made noises of also being interested in the answers to those questions and the Mayor tapped a few keys bringing up other notes. "Ah, yes, those two points point were omitted weren't they?" She says, and launches into the explanation. "First one first: the answer is 'yes' and 'yes'. We are prepared to make one airdrop of fresh supplies with the colony helicopter, but if you have not found edible native starch, vitamin, fat, and protein sources by two weeks in you will be required to return to base. However that is considered unlikely, as both this area your team were chosen for a high bio-compatibility index." "Now as for the rewards of undertaking the mission: besides the adventure and excitement which are draws for many who chose the colonial lifestyle, you also each have the right to stake a 'claim' to any one instance of the listed assets you are looking for which you located and reported during your exploration upon your safe return, as the scouting team you get first pick of all the things you have found upon your return so it behooves you to be as thorough as possible so you don't end up 'kicking yourself', to use a colloquialism, over a missed opportunity. In the event of two or more of you trying to stake a claim to the same find made jointly you will be asked to either work out among yourselves who gets it or one of you will be chosen as the 'winner' at random and in both cases the others allowed to chose again. In the unlikely event of anyone having a demerit those with them will be asked to wait in staking their claims till anyone with fewer demerits on the team has already done so." "Any other questions?" Mayor Stout asks shutting down the screen.
"Thank you for the explanation. I have no further questions at the moment." Celesta says and waits to see if any of the other people present will ask anything.
"I have one." Gordon asks. "If we find native sapients what does that do to our 'Staking a Claim': I thought worlds with Sapients could not have claims asserted to any lands that had been colonized by the native race?" The Ogre queries. "That is normally true, however in such an event you will instead be paid a 'finders fee' for all resource clusters you locate and mark and be offered permanent positions with the diplomatic teams assigned to work with the natives: life time employment and cash instead of property rights." Mayor Stout declares, and there are some dark looks but no one else raises any further questions just now.
Ashley hadn't really chosen this lifestyle for the adventure aspect or the money, though money was always nice to have... Because of her abilities with technology and the way she was able to use Drones such as the two now floating above her, she had actually been a bit of an outcast in her old home. The people were nice, but she didn't have many friends. It didn't help that she was so shy either. She had joined up hoping to make a fresh start and prove to both herself and others that she was worth something. Her hope after that was to settle down and raise a nice family. For her, the second option that involved a lifetime job and pay were better. If it didn't happen here, then maybe on another planet. She glanced around the room, trying to judge if any of them would be suitable partners. A few seemed to have merit, while others simply worried her. Amal could be an interesting lover, no matter what gender Ashley ended up with. Patrick and Gordon were suitable males she guessed. Then there was Celesta... Ashley wasn't quite sure about her, but she seemed... nice. Maybe there would be some nice Sapient on the planet that she could go for if the colony group didn't work out? She snapped herself out of her daydreams and waited to see what else the Mayor had to say.
