Oni_

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

@vietmyke On the topic of NPC's since Kapp appears to be one: how do you want us going about it if we get assigned with one? Write as both characters? Just our own and let you handle NPC perspectives? Just wondering before I write up a post.

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

The day that Elizabeth was freed from the Academy to begin her service onboard The Galatia she could hardly contain herself, to say she was giddy would be a trivialisation of how she felt. Maybe it was that she was finally about to start the full realisation of her lifelong dream of piloting, perhaps it was because all of her hard work had paid off. Or, at the very least her realisation that all her hard work was killing her had paid off. She'd have been skipping around all day if she hadn't been trying her best to keep up a "professional and stern" look, something which she felt she was doing somewhat well even if that wasn't how everyone saw it.

The shuttle ride up was probably the peak of her excitement, when she saw The Galatia, she let out a small squeak, not unlike the call of a squirrel or another small rodent. It wasn't that she was amazed by the size of it, after all, she came from a space station, and those things were huge, not to mention the times that ships like the Galatia had flown through Alpha Centurai during her time there. While the scope didn't make Elizabeth's jaw drop, the sheer technology of the Galatia did; the whole thing made the Eden Research Station seem like it was built in the stone age - and in comparison to this is probably was. Where her home had wall panels missing and rusting over as engineering failed to keep up with replacing them, the Galatia was fitted with ones which were seemingly brand new and shiny.

The next hour was a blur and very nearly overwhelmed Elizabeth, noises came from every direction trying it's best to drown out the officer in charge of them. The group began to split, leaving Elizabeth with only the other pilots and before she could gain a solid grasp onto who the other rookies were the gathering got pulled into an initiation tour. The officer marched them around, pointing out key details of the ship, mess halls, officers quarters, briefing room, and of course the main hanger they had just come from. It almost felt to Elizabeth that she had barely had the time to breathe before she was shown her quarters and told to "sort her shit out".

---

It turns out that "sorting her shit out" didn't take all that long, Elizabeth has very few belongings. A few pairs of clothes, and some sentimental ornaments, a picture of her family that her mother had thrust upon her in tears before she left for the Academy. She put them out and instantly got onto her will. It was a strange experience to be writing a document about her death - especially considering her young age. It wasn't the most complex or sophisticated will in the world though - in the case of her death everything was going to her immediate family. But she wouldn't die, she was sure of it. She reckoned that by the time anything dangerous could happen to her there would be peace. How long can a war go on for right?

An announcement rang out; everyone needed to be in briefing rooms in -0030. Elizabeth reckoned she knew the way; she could leave it five minutes and at -0027 she was at the briefing room. It wasn't as simply a trip as she had hoped it would be, she got somewhat lost in the Galatia's labyrinthian halls, with some sections under gravity, while others were completely void of it. Still, Elizabeth had managed to drag herself there early enough. She opened the door and was unable to identify anyone she'd toured the ship with immediately and decided that it would be best if she sat just behind the front row of seats. Elizabeth made her way over slowly enough so that she didn't seem to eager, but fast enough that she didn't appear incompetent in zero-g. When she'd sat herself down, she waited eagerly, glancing at the other officers around. She really couldn't wait until her first assignment.

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

@Naril is right about "weight" being produced from the ships thrust (which for 1G I calculated to be about 4.9GigaNewtons) although it's a bit different from the force of weight on a planet since it's down to inertia rather than us actually acceleration down towards the planet. The only place I've seen this played about with in fiction was Stephen Baxters "Proxima" but that was also only at the start.

This does lead to an interesting question of what would happen to ships during the transition into a jump? I mean, assuming we've made the jump to Vega from Earth and not somewhere else, that's 25 light years in 4 and a half hours? 14.6 Tetrameters per second anyone? That's a crushing force of 7.31 ZettaNewtons being applied to our poor pilots going in and out of hyperspace (assuming the acceleration into it takes a second, but still.) which is something like 1.8 million nukes of force.

I think worrying about gravity is the least of our worries, go with whatever floats your boat @vietmyke Newtonian physics doesn't account or allow for FTL travel anyway.

Which bring me to what I showed up for, I'll try to get a post up tonight. Funnily enough, I have a mechanics paper to finish off first.

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

Elizabeth Reeds

Name:
Elizabeth Reeds
Age:
21
Gender:
Female
Origin:
Eden Research Station/Alpha Centurai

Craft Specialization:
T-22 Dirk Interceptor
Callsign/Codename:
Holes / Newbie
Kills:
0 Confirmed Kills

Psychological Analysis:

Ensign Reeds is as fresh from the academy as pilots come, admittedly she started a little late but that only added do her eagerness to succeed - not necessarily a good thing in her case, however, for a reason which we'll cover later. Psychologically she's all there, no marbles missing and completely capable of an independent and rational thought process; an important note is that while rationality and independence are not mutually exclusive in Reeds' actions, she does often lean towards one of the two so-called "options."

Yes, you may have picked up that Reeds is what we call a risk-taker, which is why we assigned her to a T-22 Dirk during her flight training. A decision which we quite quickly came to regret. It turns out that you can take too much risk in those things. In the case of Reeds she ran into a cloud of micro-debris, and instead of bringing her bird to a halt she tried to turn that thing through 180 degrees something which she clearly didn't have the skill to do. By some luck, she didn't hit anything vital and managed to bring herself back in, albeit, full of holes. Her classmates did quick work of giving her a new nickname for that one.

As you might expect from a candidate as new to the field as Reeds, she still holds that irritating sunny disposition that some people manage to keep this far in life. As much as she loves shooting down aliens, she somehow still likes to think that everything will work out just fine - we're confident that this will sort itself out in due course as it always does. Expect her to be highly impressionable and vulnerable during the earlier duration of her career.

Military Record:

Reeds, Elizabeth. Born on the research station orbiting Eden in the Alpha Centauri system, originally commissioned to study the double star phenomena of the star Rigil Kentarus, however, in later years it was repurposed to measure radiation levels from Proxima Centauri instead. Her parents were both domestic workers - a cook and an on station gardener to be precise. While she always showed an interest in flying it was never in the military that she wanted to do it. More so in the typical fly out and pick up some rock samples, or if she was lucky the odd import delivery.

You might think that if you were a pilot that one might want to do something slightly more exciting than picking up rock samples from irradiated asteroids, and you would most likely be right. The reason Elizabeth had set her expectation in life so low was due to the stations schooling system. You see, living on a station requires enough people to fill all of the roles, and it's very rare that people want to leave planetside to live in what you can only describe as close conditions. So finding people to come to a station is hard enough as it is, the last thing anyone wants is people shooting off to explore the stars or some other rubbish.

After trying her best to spend her life flying those ships, she only lasted a year in the station's integrated flight school she had given up with it. The flying was what she had always dreamt of, but it was boring to her, nothing ever changed. She thought that perhaps flying wasn't for her, ended up working in the domestic sector for a few months, staring at the people who kept going.

Elizabeth had almost entirely resigned herself to the dull daily toil of station life when a recruiter made his rounds to Eden, stopping off at the station. Clearly, he had never had much success around there before; he didn't give any thrilling pitch. More of an "if you want to join come and see me," deal. Elizabeth wasn't particularly interested in the military. Dying was nothing she wanted to be part of, but on the other hand, the military always needed pilots. Also, military piloting could never be as dreadful as what Eden offered.

The decision was one which Elizabeth had to mull over for a few days, leave everything she knew for something she might very well hate, but would be stuck with for the foreseeable future. She was almost convinced that it was a bad idea before the stations waste disposal broke down. For a week. For most on the station, it was bad. For Janitor understudy Elizabeth it was hell. Rubbish piled up in the halls as maintenance gave the constant excuse of "it's the next thing on our list we swear!". She signed up after the sixth time they said that the same day the recruiter was supposed to leave.

Training in the academy was hell for Elizabeth, she wasn't as good as a pilot as she thought she would be. She was rash and naive, things she thought were clever were in reality suicidal. What she lacked in talent she tried her damned hardest to make up for in effort. The first year of her training pegged her as the hardest working in her cohort, but also the least damned successful. The theory went over her head, and her piloting was, to quote her instructor "stiff, almost like you're reading from the damned manual as you go,". It hit her hard, she started working twice as hard, and while she started to climb in capability, she started to lose herself. It was too much, and she wasn't making enough progress.

Then one day she really fucked up. She was flying a test flight, first time in a Dirk Interceptor. Some asshole flying in that area of space had blown an asteroid up, or some shit like that. Micro debris was everywhere. Any sane pilot would have stopped,
but being overworked had made Sera sluggish and ignorant. By the time she noticed the cloud. The only thing she could think of when she saw it was to make use of the Dirks inertial dampeners, switch them off, swing her round and fire full thrust. Perhaps it was a lack of skill that meant she failed, maybe it was a lack of time. It was luck that got her out in one piece, however. One, Swiss cheese like piece.

That ballsy maneuver lead to two things, a new nickname from Elizabeth's peers. "Holes," a fitting name, if a bit tongue in cheek. Also a realization that she may be able to get through the academy on quick thinking rather than completely following the manual. She got more sleep out of that, and lower grades in the theory side of things. Her piloting made leaps and bounds, not to the top of the class of anything, but it was enough for her to graduate from the academy eventually. Assigned to the 144th Direwolves as a fucking newbie no less. But that didn't make her any less determined to prove her own worth.

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

Fixed up the whole 114th 144th fiasco. Would you think I could get that right at the very least eh?

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

Finished up my app, let me know about anything that needs tweaking.

Elizabeth Reeds

Name:
Elizabeth Reeds
Age:
21
Gender:
Female
Origin:
Eden Research Station/Alpha Centurai

Craft Specialization:
T-22 Dirk Interceptor
Callsign/Codename:
Holes / Newbie
Kills:
0 Confirmed Kills

Psychological Analysis:

Ensign Reeds is as fresh from the academy as pilots come, admittedly she started a little late but that only added do her eagerness to succeed - not necessarily a good thing in her case, however, for a reason which we'll cover later. Psychologically she's all there, no marbles missing and completely capable of an independent and rational thought process; an important note is that while rationality and independence are not mutually exclusive in Reeds' actions, she does often lean towards one of the two so-called "options."

Yes, you may have picked up that Reeds is what we call a risk-taker, which is why we assigned her to a T-22 Dirk during her flight training. A decision which we quite quickly came to regret. It turns out that you can take too much risk in those things. In the case of Reeds she ran into a cloud of micro-debris, and instead of bringing her bird to a halt she tried to turn that thing through 180 degrees something which she clearly didn't have the skill to do. By some luck, she didn't hit anything vital and managed to bring herself back in, albeit, full of holes. Her classmates did quick work of giving her a new nickname for that one.

As you might expect from a candidate as new to the field as Reeds, she still holds that irritating sunny disposition that some people manage to keep this far in life. As much as she loves shooting down aliens, she somehow still likes to think that everything will work out just fine - we're confident that this will sort itself out in due course as it always does. Expect her to be highly impressionable and vulnerable during the earlier duration of her career.

Military Record:

Reeds, Elizabeth. Born on the research station orbiting Eden in the Alpha Centauri system, originally commissioned to study the double star phenomena of the star Rigil Kentarus, however, in later years it was repurposed to measure radiation levels from Proxima Centauri instead. Her parents were both domestic workers - a cook and an on station gardener to be precise. While she always showed an interest in flying it was never in the military that she wanted to do it. More so in the typical fly out and pick up some rock samples, or if she was lucky the odd import delivery.

You might think that if you were a pilot that one might want to do something slightly more exciting than picking up rock samples from irradiated asteroids, and you would most likely be right. The reason Elizabeth had set her expectation in life so low was due to the stations schooling system. You see, living on a station requires enough people to fill all of the roles, and it's very rare that people want to leave planetside to live in what you can only describe as close conditions. So finding people to come to a station is hard enough as it is, the last thing anyone wants is people shooting off to explore the stars or some other rubbish.

After trying her best to spend her life flying those ships, she only lasted a year in the station's integrated flight school she had given up with it. The flying was what she had always dreamt of, but it was boring to her, nothing ever changed. She thought that perhaps flying wasn't for her, ended up working in the domestic sector for a few months, staring at the people who kept going.

Elizabeth had almost entirely resigned herself to the dull daily toil of station life when a recruiter made his rounds to Eden, stopping off at the station. Clearly, he had never had much success around there before; he didn't give any thrilling pitch. More of an "if you want to join come and see me," deal. Elizabeth wasn't particularly interested in the military. Dying was nothing she wanted to be part of, but on the other hand, the military always needed pilots. Also, military piloting could never be as dreadful as what Eden offered.

The decision was one which Elizabeth had to mull over for a few days, leave everything she knew for something she might very well hate, but would be stuck with for the foreseeable future. She was almost convinced that it was a bad idea before the stations waste disposal broke down. For a week. For most on the station, it was bad. For Janitor understudy Elizabeth it was hell. Rubbish piled up in the halls as maintenance gave the constant excuse of "it's the next thing on our list we swear!". She signed up after the sixth time they said that the same day the recruiter was supposed to leave.

Training in the academy was hell for Elizabeth, she wasn't as good as a pilot as she thought she would be. She was rash and naive, things she thought were clever were in reality suicidal. What she lacked in talent she tried her damned hardest to make up for in effort. The first year of her training pegged her as the hardest working in her cohort, but also the least damned successful. The theory went over her head, and her piloting was, to quote her instructor "stiff, almost like you're reading from the damned manual as you go,". It hit her hard, she started working twice as hard, and while she started to climb in capability, she started to lose herself. It was too much, and she wasn't making enough progress.

Then one day she really fucked up. She was flying a test flight, first time in a Dirk Interceptor. Some asshole flying in that area of space had blown an asteroid up, or some shit like that. Micro debris was everywhere. Any sane pilot would have stopped,
but being overworked had made Sera sluggish and ignorant. By the time she noticed the cloud. The only thing she could think of when she saw it was to make use of the Dirks inertial dampeners, switch them off, swing her round and fire full thrust. Perhaps it was a lack of skill that meant she failed, maybe it was a lack of time. It was luck that got her out in one piece, however. One, Swiss cheese like piece.

That ballsy maneuver lead to two things, a new nickname from Elizabeth's peers. "Holes," a fitting name, if a bit tongue in cheek. Also a realization that she may be able to get through the academy on quick thinking rather than completely following the manual. She got more sleep out of that, and lower grades in the theory side of things. Her piloting made leaps and bounds, not to the top of the class of anything, but it was enough for her to graduate from the academy eventually. Assigned to the 144th Direwolves as a fucking newbie no less. But that didn't make her any less determined to prove her own worth.

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven (Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

Just made note of you closing off interest, I posted in the Interest check but haven't here yet; so I thought I'd best make myself known while I finish an app up!

Stellar Fleet: The War in Heaven ( Wing Commander/Freespace inspired Space Opera)

Interested as fuck, been too long since I've been in a good old fashioned Space Opera.

Muskets & Magic - Dark Fantasy RP

Also still here, but since I'm the most recent post so I'm a little removed from the equation right now.

Muskets & Magic - Dark Fantasy RP

Ceridwen Phrys

---

As much as Ceridwen had assumed the Seargent to most likely be one of the more strict military men - in fact, she has assured herself he would be, due to the unfavourable nature of most of his soldiers. But surprisingly, when the Inquisitor spoke up and assumedly out of line he didn't seem to care particularly - in fact, he seemed somewhat amused.

The elf was the most fascinating of the group so far with her overconfidence almost matching Ceridwens own - although Roland's reputation preceded him even out here which already seemed to be causing him some conflict without any effort on his part.

As they walked through the ruined city, everything seemed quiet, save for the occasional fire of a rifle cracking in the distance. It made Ceridwen nervous, she knew little of New World Horrors, but in her line of work a quiet place was always filled with the most dangers - usually bandits staging a trap although she was unsure of the Shamblers ability to come up with such a plan. Nonetheless, Ceridwen kept one hand on a pepperbox at all times.

Quite a few of the squad seemed uneasy too, a few held their rifles, and the Inquisitor kept her claymore drawn at all times. Ceridwen was unsure of how effective that thing would be out here. The creatures of this continent were meant to be superbly resistant to the traditional methods - bullets and swords. The only reason that Ceridwen had chosen her weapons over an Ethergun was her ability to coat them in magic - the real weakness of the locals so to speak.

Ceridwen didn't even hear the corporal at the rear try to issue a warning, she was too focused on surveying the area ahead, and then a shambler attacked. It was surprisingly the Inquisitor who spotted it rather than Ceridwen or one of the trackers at the front of the party. Ceridwen was quick to react, pulling out a pepperbox and aiming it readily, but not before the shambler had already impaled itself on the Inquisitors sword. Seemingly dead she had cast it to the ground, and immediately the creature began to move once more. It was doing well until it the power of the gods struck it. Powerful stuff that divine magic.

As the inquisitor moved to finish whatever she had to do to assumedly cleanse the evil from the monster another appeared out of the alleyway. It was making headway towards the inquisitor. "Watch yourself, Inquisitor!" Ceridwen yelled at she fired towards the beast. The powder of her pepperbox sparked and let a bullet loose, approximately half way between where Ceri stood and her target it ignited in a powerful flame. Poor thing didn't stand a chance of keeping on its current course. By the time it connected the fire had evolved from a simple coating to what seemed to be an infernal spear.

The shambler was knocked aside by the shot causing it to slide a couple of meters before it came to rest. Unfortunately for Ceridwen, the fire that was intended to consume the shambler was extinguished by this ordeal. She ran to its side, placed her freshly turned pepperbox against its skull and let another shot loose. She needed to use her magic to cause the explosion that propelled the bullet so it wouldn't be as powerful as before but it didn't need to be. The flame laden bullet pierced the helpless creatures head ending its misery. She threw her head back as she finished the deed, "Those damned things put up quite the fight, don't suppose anymore are likely to show themselves anytime soon?" she asked, short of breath. Nothing seemed to be emerging from the buildings, but Ceridwen was keeping a close eye on them as she went about reloading her pepperbox proper. As fun as using magic in place of the flint and gunpowder was, it was less powerful and she liked ending things on the first shot where possible.