hexarchate_rpg | Move 2 (Chapter 1.2)

yhlee posting in

Time: 702 (high calendar)
Place: a rebellion outpost near a stable rift

[GM's note: Elesa's player had to drop, so we'll just say that Crow tells you she's been called away to another last-minute mission better suited to her talents and move on.]

[Also, for your ease of reference, Mission information, mostly from Move 1 so far.]

The interior of the Wasp is more spacious than it looks. Crow, when asked, informs you that this is a precursor to variable layout technology. For the curious (and those from earlier eras), she explains that variable layout is a hexarchate-era technology that allows affected areas to be bigger inside than out, and for the "rooms" to be rearranged almost at will, or connected with internal teleporters. The Wasp's version isn't advanced enough for room-shuffling, but it does mean that the moth will easily accommodate all of you.

The Wasp contains, at minimum:
- a cockpit for a pilot and copilot
- a gunnery room (weapons/defenses can also be automated)
- an office for the commander [that's you,

smokedetective]
- a small medical bay--the Wasp can suggest first aid treatments with an expert system, and there's room in "freezers" to put up to two people in a primitive form of stasis so they can be taken to a real hospital elsewhere if someone gets badly injured [this will only happen to your character with your permission, but could make for fun drama if you are so inclined]
- a combination galley and dining room
- a large common room suitable for entertaining (which begs the question of just what kind of entertaining pirates do), although its decor is rather lacking unless someone wants to play with the matter printer
- sufficient quarters for everyone to have a cabin of their own
- a capacious storage hold filled with strange liquors and other miscellaneous trade goods, as well as occasional miscellaneous supplies

You can address the Wasp's mothgrid from anywhere within it, or access it through slates that communicate with the computers.

Once you reach the rift, travel through it is as simple as pointing the Wasp at it and going through. Inside the rift, you won't be able to see anything but a shimmering blue haze, and it is highly, highly disrecommended that anything alive go extravehicular while in rift transit; there are robots (non-sentient) to take care of any repairs that might become necessary.

[Note to Alaric: if he's paying attention to this, he may notice that, interestingly, Mothra itself appears to be unharmed by the rift energies, thanks to some sort of innate resistance. Mothra may or may not have anything to say about this if he can figure out a way to communicate with it.]

[General notes and formatting: Since I'm going to have probably limited internet access over the next odd-week per this announcement, this is what I suggest:

Players should familiarize themselves with the Wasp and feel free to set out toward the rift in order to commence their mission with travel through the rift. I don't think one day = one move makes sense, especially during boring travel bits. Feel free to use different threads for different conversations that may take place during different times in the journey (one thread for day one, another for day two, etc.)--whether that means making further plans, or devising clever weapons using the matter printer, or getting to know each other, or looking up the briefing materials on heptarchate culture/tech in the target year 361, etc. Just to make thread navigation easier, I suggest that henceforth threads about major topics be titled to help people navigate. If there's a major topic change, or you need to flag an OOC query/discussion, change the comment title, e.g.

immolationfox: Weapons Inventory
Shuos Jedao happily goes through ALL the crates in the hold to check for any weapons, including knitting needles.

overlyloyalhawk: re: Weapons Inventory
Gized sighs and goes to ~~keep an eye on Jedao~~ help him count, since Jedao sucks at numbers.

immolationfox: [paging GM]
[Are there any small arms in here? Grenades? Also, whiskey?]

We don't need to be strict about this, but if we do this for major topics it'll probably help navigating threads.

Once I get back the week after Readercon, we'll see about moving the action forward on the other side of the rift!]

Threaded | Flat

From:

pengwern

As soon as he sees people gathering in the common room, Mikodez heads off in the opposite direction to cautiously plant bugs throughout the moth. Most look like pieces of tape or film, but some are slender flexible rods around 3mm in diameter that can move themselves into the wiring. If anyone asks, he’ll say that he’s looking for booze. If challenged further about how he’s headed in the wrong direction from the cargo hold, he will offer to accompany his interlocutor to the kitchen to see just what the matter printer can create when it comes to processed sugar.

He’s looking to strike up conversations, especially to anyone he failed to speak to in the hangar. Much more important to (suss out demographics) pet Ankat’s dog, given the difficulties of getting information off those bugs.

[For the honor of his Intro to Griddiving class, Mikodez should be capable of holding his own against other people on the ship for a little while, BUT personally I can just about turn on a computer, so I hope people will permit the elision of any hacking sequences. Mikodez will have some saved files of his own that are mostly innocuous, like boring literature anthologies, calligraphy manuals, and scores of those cooking videos for making desserts.]

From:

smokedetective

[OOC: I thought I'd make a thread for people to describe some basic set ups for their quarters, if they want to. Like, the kind of stuff that they bring in, and later anything they get from the matter printer. That way, if there's scenes set in someone's room we can keep track of what's there.

For stuff in the common areas, if anyone wants to put something there or change something, we can always title the message within this thread with the name of that room and then add on to it as people add stuff to the room.

Ofc I don't want to make anyone feel like they have to comment, but it seems like something that would be fun to do if people want to. It's just that, playing an Andan, this is something that I'm very interested in. xD]

Edited Date: 2017-07-09 12:15 am (UTC)

From:

mercuryhatter

Istradez has a slate in his hand and is paging through the stored information in the mothgrid, flagging historical and cultural information to convert to audio and listen to later. With the rest of his attention, he is keeping an eye on everyone else as they disperse. He hopes that the out-of-time Mikodez isn't the only one planting bugs (he doesn't see Mikodez doing so, but it seems safe to assume). It would be convenient if he could get close with someone who is keeping tabs on them all, and a child version of his brother was not the best option. Maybe their newly appointed commander, or Alaric, who had established himself as good with technology.

As an afterthought, he also flags any information on the matter printer, hoping that he can find a user manual or something in there before he needs to create anything necessary for a cover identity at their destination. He remembers Crow mentioning that the results might turn out interesting, whatever that means.

[While Istradez would obviously find the moth technology totally normal, I personally am Team Free Mothra and hope someone becomes friends with her ^_^]

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha's agenda is:

1. Set up firewall.
2. Test matter printer.
3. Moth simulator.
4. Work out.

On 1, she sets the grid to request information about space weather, top fifty music, top fifty vids, and minimalist Andan art projects automatically, and to delay all other requests made to the broader net. She writes a memo to Ashari explaining this security precaution and asking for other categories to block. She also writes a quick program to interrupt every fifty of the teenager's grid requests with baby animal vids (mostly pangolins) whether he wanted them or not.

On two, she tries to print a matched set of 27 shot glasses (that seems like a lucky number) in rainbow colors. What goes wrong?

From:

smokedetective

Ashari has a couple of things they want to do (after they do something vaguely resembling wrangling Mikodez).

Get more information:
- See what other information about their crew is available to them as the team leader.
- Read and memorize the briefing information.
- Skim the moth operation manuals.
- Read up on Andan minimalism from the years 693-704, to make sure they have everything in order.

Talk to the Team:
- Send out a memo asking to set up a schedule for watches in the cockpit, so in case something goes wrong, there's a physical presence there.
- Send a memo to Kaliyan and Ankat, asking them to assess the gunnery.
- Set up a team meeting so that everyone can get their cover stories straight.
- Send everyone a message saying that their office is always open if anybody needs to talk.

[Any notes on Ashari get from their research and the briefing information?]

Edited Date: 2017-07-09 06:25 am (UTC)

From:

after_almsivi

Kaliyan decides she better get herself acquainted with the ship first and foremost.

Surprising exactly no one, she starts with the gunnery room. (She reasons that her predictability will make her easy to find if she's needed). She wants to familiarize herself with the moth's weapons, to get a good sense of their firepower. Based on what she gathered from the briefing, she fully expects her conclusion to be “Don't get into any space battle, you will die”, but still she wants to be conscientious.

She also looks for a vacant room to turn into a gym on the way, because working out is how Kaliyan spells taking a break.

[Kaliyan is slowly turning into a meathead. I blame the abundance of nerds aboard this ship.]

From:

lleullawgyffes

After unpacking the few things he brought with him, Virmad's agenda has two items on it. First, he wants to ask the mothgrid for specific information about the High Calendar in the period they're traveling to — he's got a general idea of the trajectory of the Calendar's development, but if he needs to pose as a Rahal from hundreds of years ago (and he has the not entirely pleasant suspicion that he will), he needs to make absolutely sure he's got all the remembrances and their attendant rituals straight (on top of not accidentally referencing anything from the future).

He'll have plenty of time to review whatever information the Wasp can provide over the course of their trip, so he's not going to settle down to study it right away (although he'll skim through it quickly to reassure himself that none of his memory of this period from his Historical Doctrine seminar was blatantly wrong).

His second priority is to try to find Sulen and talk to them alone. He needs to find out what another Rahal — or, presumably, ex-Rahal — is doing here; that is, he needs to find out how worried he should be about their presence on the moth. He wanders idly (putting on his generic "purposeful Rahal" mask) through the corridors in search of Sulen, although he's not in any particular hurry, and if anyone else stops him en route he's willing to chat.

From:

talifabian

Since Kaliyan seems to have begun to assess the space-based options for the inevitable full frontal assault, Ankat begins to examine the resources he will have access to when off-moth.

He's specifically trying to determine the following:

- If anyone besides him possesses a personal sidearm of any sort
- If there are any small arms in the Kel surplus we have, especially concealable ones
- Which members of the crew have received sufficient training that they're more likely to hit the enemy than the friendlies, if trusted with a sidearm
- If the cargo-hold has sufficient space to set up a temporary firing range

From what Ankat has determined of the crew, he has little confidence in anyone other than Kaliyan when things go sideways (and he's known moth Kel to get behind on maintaining their certifications for small arms). Nonetheless, he'll go around the ship, asking persons to describe any combat training/experience they possess. [If the answer is no, no particular need to reply, unless you think the RP will be fun]

Lastly, he'll request introductory marksmanship training materials from the grid to familiarize himself with how one brings up to speed a bunch of ~~nerds who decided for SOME reason to join a dangerous and volatile rebellion~~ valued members of the crew .

From:

talifabian

[I thought showing some of the sparring practice might be fun for RP's sake, so I'm making this thread for it (since the other one was already starting to get crowded). Feel free to RP this with whoever, even if in-universe Ankat is creating the groups]

Ankat is awake bright and early the next few mornings as the moth gets under way, alternating between time spent in the common areas showing trainees how to clean, care for, load, and generally maintain a handgun, time spent at the firing range showing them how to shoot them, and time spent at the gym teaching armed and unarmed close-quarters fighting.

It's fortunate that Medical is well stocked, he thinks on the first morning of training, watching as his crew mates lunge at each other.

Edited Date: 2017-07-13 04:17 am (UTC)