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driftfleet_ooc2015-06-21 02:06 am
spaceshipit) wrote in driftfleet_ooc2015-06-21 02:06 am
June information part III
Many of the Fleet's passengers have been exploring and wondering about the mysteriously-dead ship for some time now. This update covers what characters have probably learned by now, and what they can do with it. Depending on character interest, the Fleet might have a lot to gain from this!
Feel free to continue using the old mingle for starting new threads and such, dated either before or after this new information starts to come out... Or start your own mingles! Whatever works best for you guys. Nothing in this post is time-sensitive, so backtag to your heart's content.
→ The Ship
The most important discovery for those looking at the inner workings of the ship is that you guys could possibly get this thing to run! Some repairs need to be made to the main power connections, a few important consoles, and some holes that have been put in important casing structures--but it is totally conceivable that a few engineers working together could get this thing operational before Marsiva gets out of range. At the very least, it could be tugged along by some tractor beams until it becomes fully functional--with some help from pilots and comms officers. Since it is a merchant vessel, there are many rooms characters could potentially use for whatever they wanted (like private project rooms, character shops, etc.)--assuming they can get it working and bring it with them.
In order for this to become a reality, it will require more than one character deciding to work on it. All we need to know OOCly is whether or not there are engineers in the fleet who would work on getting the ship running. Since the bug problem can be fixed (as described later on in this post), the fleet can adopt this ship into its ranks if enough people are interested. So, reply to the comment below titled "PROJECT FIXER-UPPER" if you have an engineer would ICly get involved. You're under no IC or OOC obligations after that, we just need a head-count to know whether the ship will fixed up or not.
→ Communications
With at least a few passengers digging around in the ship's communications systems and databanks, the Fleet finally gains access to some information!
First of all, this ship is named the Iskaulit--which, according to a localized translation program, is a term for some kind of female nobility. A rough English equivalent would be something like the "Duchess".
Captain's Log
Passengers now have access to whatever digital records haven't been corrupted by bug damage, including some of the ship logs. Most of the entries within the last few months seem surprisingly normal and quiet; there is no mention of any bugs, or any sort of attack. It's all normal documentation for this class of merchant ship, up until the final couple of weeks--where there's an odd complaint about some of the laborers seriously slacking off and vandalizing part of the ship, apparently far above whatever they consider normal. From there, the incidents continue to markedly rise.
And at the very end, the messages suddenly degrade. The very last few messages are barely intelligible, written mostly in a mix of simplified language and gibberish, mentioning a need to "leave" and "get". The timestamp of the last message coincides with a set of coordinates being input into the computer--after which, the ship was intentionally shut down and locked.
Coordinates
Right before the ship was put into emergency mode and scuttled, a set of coordinates were plugged into the main computer. This location lies beyond Marsiva's current range, but is coincidentally in the general path that she seems to be heading... The information was not sent to engines or the ship's main navigation system, but to some other device unique to this class of ship.
→ The Pods
If anyone decides to hop into a shuttle and shoot one of those rocketing pods out of its trajectory course (and hopefully catch it with a tractor beam or something), they will quickly discover the true nature of the bugs' force fields, and give a little more context to the mysterious coordinates set in the ship's computer.
The pods are, in fact, not pods at all. Each unit is actually three bugs that have banded tightly together. They combine the force-fields they generate into a single, compact and powerful repulsion field around themselves. With this shield "shell," they are able to naturally survive and travel out in the vacuum of space.
The device that fires them seems built specifically for this sort of space-travel. The three bugs cluster together, generate their fields, and then climb into the device--which then spools up and spins around them, playing off their generated energies until it functions as a sort of propulsion cannon and launches them into space. This is the device that the coordinates from the ship's log were sent to.
Whether or not anyone ever shoots down one of the pods, the launching room can also be discovered from the inside of the ship... but it is packed with bugs.
→ The Bugs
The number of bugs is finite! Over the course of the month, many passengers have been slowly clearing them out as they explore, room-by-room, into the ship. The population is definitely thickest around the launching room described above, which the bugs viciously defend.
From both live and dead samples, lab support officers have made several discoveries. Tests show that the biology of the bugs is fascinatingly unique. Their chemical and cellular makeup is vastly different from anything found on the likes of Earth, probably to support their space-traveling abilities. Another interesting feature of their biology is the fact that they have a large and complex neural system--which may be surprising, given their simple behavior. The most notable discovery during the course of the testing is not the bugs themselves, however...
→ The Spores
With the bugs thoroughly investigated, it becomes apparent that some of the microscopic lifeforms inhabiting their bodies are not just the usual sort of parasites and other trace organisms typically found on living creatures. There is a fungus infesting the nervous tissue of the bugs that is very much active and aggressive toward its hosts. Spores from the fungus are also in the air, and can be found on any sort of air filter that has been brought aboard the floundering ship, if checked. Fortunately for everyone, it is also quickly apparent that the fungus is not capable of infecting any of the creatures in the Fleet, as it can only grow in the bugs' unique tissues.
→ The Solution!
So, yes. The Fleet is dealing with a sophisticated alien fungus that's driving this colony of bugs to do everything weird that they're doing. While the basic insect-infecting fungi of Earth drive ants to climb upward or seek out others of their kind to infect, this fungus tells alien bugs to reprogram their ship and launch themselves into space, among other things. While the Drift Fleet and all of its passengers are safe from it, the bugs have completely fallen to its effects.
This ship originally belonged to the bugs--back when they were members of a functioning, sentient society. Left alone, the fungus will eventually destroy this pocket of the bugs' population. Lab support officers can create something to "cure" them, but the damage to their neural systems is already so thorough that the bugs would not survive once the fungus is gone.
While their fate has already been sealed, their ship can be repaired and used for something better than the site of a tragedy (kept--or at the very least, the logs and data can be removed and stored, in case the Fleet ever comes across more of their kind somewhere out in space. The tale of what happened to them, and maybe some of their last messages, can be passed on to whatever might be considered their next of kin.
So, what happens to the ship, the remainder of the bugs, and the data held on the ship is all up to you and your characters. As always, please use this post to ask questions of the mods, discuss with each other, plan threads, come up with ideas, whatever!
However the rest of this event goes, this is still a good opportunity to get to know your fleet-mates, especially characters that share the same augments/skillsets. The only thing us mods need to know is whether people are working on the ship to get it running--so reply to the "FIXER-UPPER" comment below if you want to add to the count of interested engineers!
Regardless of the outcome, Marsiva will finally pull them out of range of this system at the end of the month, and continue quietly on her way.
Feel free to continue using the old mingle for starting new threads and such, dated either before or after this new information starts to come out... Or start your own mingles! Whatever works best for you guys. Nothing in this post is time-sensitive, so backtag to your heart's content.
→ The Ship
The most important discovery for those looking at the inner workings of the ship is that you guys could possibly get this thing to run! Some repairs need to be made to the main power connections, a few important consoles, and some holes that have been put in important casing structures--but it is totally conceivable that a few engineers working together could get this thing operational before Marsiva gets out of range. At the very least, it could be tugged along by some tractor beams until it becomes fully functional--with some help from pilots and comms officers. Since it is a merchant vessel, there are many rooms characters could potentially use for whatever they wanted (like private project rooms, character shops, etc.)--assuming they can get it working and bring it with them.
In order for this to become a reality, it will require more than one character deciding to work on it. All we need to know OOCly is whether or not there are engineers in the fleet who would work on getting the ship running. Since the bug problem can be fixed (as described later on in this post), the fleet can adopt this ship into its ranks if enough people are interested. So, reply to the comment below titled "PROJECT FIXER-UPPER" if you have an engineer would ICly get involved. You're under no IC or OOC obligations after that, we just need a head-count to know whether the ship will fixed up or not.
→ Communications
With at least a few passengers digging around in the ship's communications systems and databanks, the Fleet finally gains access to some information!
First of all, this ship is named the Iskaulit--which, according to a localized translation program, is a term for some kind of female nobility. A rough English equivalent would be something like the "Duchess".
Captain's Log
Passengers now have access to whatever digital records haven't been corrupted by bug damage, including some of the ship logs. Most of the entries within the last few months seem surprisingly normal and quiet; there is no mention of any bugs, or any sort of attack. It's all normal documentation for this class of merchant ship, up until the final couple of weeks--where there's an odd complaint about some of the laborers seriously slacking off and vandalizing part of the ship, apparently far above whatever they consider normal. From there, the incidents continue to markedly rise.
And at the very end, the messages suddenly degrade. The very last few messages are barely intelligible, written mostly in a mix of simplified language and gibberish, mentioning a need to "leave" and "get". The timestamp of the last message coincides with a set of coordinates being input into the computer--after which, the ship was intentionally shut down and locked.
Coordinates
Right before the ship was put into emergency mode and scuttled, a set of coordinates were plugged into the main computer. This location lies beyond Marsiva's current range, but is coincidentally in the general path that she seems to be heading... The information was not sent to engines or the ship's main navigation system, but to some other device unique to this class of ship.
→ The Pods
If anyone decides to hop into a shuttle and shoot one of those rocketing pods out of its trajectory course (and hopefully catch it with a tractor beam or something), they will quickly discover the true nature of the bugs' force fields, and give a little more context to the mysterious coordinates set in the ship's computer.
The pods are, in fact, not pods at all. Each unit is actually three bugs that have banded tightly together. They combine the force-fields they generate into a single, compact and powerful repulsion field around themselves. With this shield "shell," they are able to naturally survive and travel out in the vacuum of space.
The device that fires them seems built specifically for this sort of space-travel. The three bugs cluster together, generate their fields, and then climb into the device--which then spools up and spins around them, playing off their generated energies until it functions as a sort of propulsion cannon and launches them into space. This is the device that the coordinates from the ship's log were sent to.
Whether or not anyone ever shoots down one of the pods, the launching room can also be discovered from the inside of the ship... but it is packed with bugs.
→ The Bugs
The number of bugs is finite! Over the course of the month, many passengers have been slowly clearing them out as they explore, room-by-room, into the ship. The population is definitely thickest around the launching room described above, which the bugs viciously defend.
From both live and dead samples, lab support officers have made several discoveries. Tests show that the biology of the bugs is fascinatingly unique. Their chemical and cellular makeup is vastly different from anything found on the likes of Earth, probably to support their space-traveling abilities. Another interesting feature of their biology is the fact that they have a large and complex neural system--which may be surprising, given their simple behavior. The most notable discovery during the course of the testing is not the bugs themselves, however...
→ The Spores
With the bugs thoroughly investigated, it becomes apparent that some of the microscopic lifeforms inhabiting their bodies are not just the usual sort of parasites and other trace organisms typically found on living creatures. There is a fungus infesting the nervous tissue of the bugs that is very much active and aggressive toward its hosts. Spores from the fungus are also in the air, and can be found on any sort of air filter that has been brought aboard the floundering ship, if checked. Fortunately for everyone, it is also quickly apparent that the fungus is not capable of infecting any of the creatures in the Fleet, as it can only grow in the bugs' unique tissues.
→ The Solution!
So, yes. The Fleet is dealing with a sophisticated alien fungus that's driving this colony of bugs to do everything weird that they're doing. While the basic insect-infecting fungi of Earth drive ants to climb upward or seek out others of their kind to infect, this fungus tells alien bugs to reprogram their ship and launch themselves into space, among other things. While the Drift Fleet and all of its passengers are safe from it, the bugs have completely fallen to its effects.
This ship originally belonged to the bugs--back when they were members of a functioning, sentient society. Left alone, the fungus will eventually destroy this pocket of the bugs' population. Lab support officers can create something to "cure" them, but the damage to their neural systems is already so thorough that the bugs would not survive once the fungus is gone.
While their fate has already been sealed, their ship can be repaired and used for something better than the site of a tragedy (kept--or at the very least, the logs and data can be removed and stored, in case the Fleet ever comes across more of their kind somewhere out in space. The tale of what happened to them, and maybe some of their last messages, can be passed on to whatever might be considered their next of kin.
So, what happens to the ship, the remainder of the bugs, and the data held on the ship is all up to you and your characters. As always, please use this post to ask questions of the mods, discuss with each other, plan threads, come up with ideas, whatever!
However the rest of this event goes, this is still a good opportunity to get to know your fleet-mates, especially characters that share the same augments/skillsets. The only thing us mods need to know is whether people are working on the ship to get it running--so reply to the "FIXER-UPPER" comment below if you want to add to the count of interested engineers!
Regardless of the outcome, Marsiva will finally pull them out of range of this system at the end of the month, and continue quietly on her way.
QUESTIONS
Re: QUESTIONS
does this ship have a kitchen and how good is it
no subject
...But, like the stations that the bugs have raided, and many features of the ship itself, the bugs have ripped it to shreds in the process of stripping the place of any organic material.
So, now there is only sadness.
no subject
last response what late responseSOBBING. What a tragedy ;___; Thanks for answering though!
PROJECT FIXER-UPPER
We would like to know how many engineers might be working to get the ship up and running, in order to see if it ultimately gets added to the fleet or is left behind.
This isn't considered a complete list of everyone who might be involved; we just want to get a very basic head count.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Re: PROJECT FIXER-UPPER
no subject
no subject
Afterward, if the Fleet is able to tow the bugs' ship with them and get it operational, I have the idea that Jennifer would propose coverting some of the rooms into clinics/patient recovery rooms and the like, just in case. That way the ships that have medbays don't get overwhelmed in case of an emergency, and members of ships that don't have medbays have a place to go. Just a thought!