Starlance

TFL: Defiance

Granite

Name: Granite

Race: Rockman

Sex: Male

Age: 47

Backstory: Granite enlisted in the Rock military at a young age and for several years served as a marine on a multitude of Rock transports and warships. His career fell apart shortly after the dawn of the Rebellion as pirate and slaver activity increased due to the chaos caused by the war and the Federation’s string of major defeats. The ship he was stationed on was raided and he and his brothers fought like many times before.

Except this time, they were defeated. Their ship was crippled, disarmed and blinded, leaving them unable to even ram the enemy out of spite and Granite and his comrades were captured by Slug slavers, adding to the irrational Rock xenophobia a very rational hatred of the Slug race.

Granite was bought by a band of human raiders operating a rock light cruiser a few months before the final defeat of the Federation because the Slug slaver made the humans think he was a former engineer. Though the humans soon learned they’d been scammed, Slugs aren’t known for a moneyback guarantee on anything. Though he despised every molecule in the bodies of his new “owners”, cooperation was the best way to ensure survival. Eventually, Granite earned the grudging respect of the raiders both as a valuable addition of their boarding party as well as their sentient fire extinguisher.

The raider cruiser ran out of luck when it came across a lone Federation starship in a part of space mostly unoccupied by the rebels. As far as the pirate ship was concerned, granite was the sole survivor, coming out of the ordeal physically damaged, but alive. Although the Federation captain offered him a place among his crew on an important mission, Granite has had enough of starships for a few years to come and asked to be dropped off on the nearest inhabited world, and the request was granted.

Following the defeat of the Federation at the hands of the Rebel Flagship, Granite blamed himself for refusing to join that ill-fated ship and not being there to help them after they had helped him. When he was offered to take part in the Defiance initiative, he joined without hesitation, determined not to repeat his mistake.

Appearance

Like most Rockmen, granite just about fits the standard doorframe. His rocklike skin shows signs of previous battles and other damage, notably from the destruction of the raider light cruiser.

Skillset: Combat
Role: Security Officer

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Of course Far Rim heard her. Has she used up all the luck allocated to her for this life during the war or what? “More floors are nice, but only if they’re in use.” Rachel fired back with a generous amount of sarcasm of her own. “And having too many floors in the first place is the reason many kids had half a ground up Kaisoken injected into their bloodstream and got sent to die on the front lines. If that’s the price to pay, then I’m one happy bungalow. No problem from my end regarding your request.”

The hardware the farmers received was impressive. Either Moonstrike had more connections or the Ascendancy was faring much worse than Rachel thought if they managed to get a ground to space cannon planetside intact, though the equipment and the ability to use it properly were two different things and one could only get you so far without the other. Sadly, a small group, even with magic on their side, was hardly in a position to fight a guerilla war. And the longer the Ascendancy was in the dark regarding their strength and makeup, the better.

When the briefing concluded, Legion made a good point. It would be rather unfortunate to get the rogue AI out only to hear ‘Submit, mortal!’ or something similar. “How rebellious? Did it refuse to carry out orders or was it actively hostile? And I take it there is no way to know what state it is in after the crash?”

TFL: Defiance

Sorry for my unannounced absence, antenna decided to give up on life. Will post CS later today.

Granite

Name: Granite

Race: Rockman

Sex: Male

Age: 47

Backstory: Granite enlisted in the Rock military at a young age and for several years served as a marine on a multitude of Rock transports and warships. His career fell apart shortly after the dawn of the Rebellion as pirate and slaver activity increased due to the chaos caused by the war and the Federation’s string of major defeats. The ship he was stationed on was raided and he and his brothers fought like many times before.

Except this time, they were defeated. Their ship was crippled, disarmed and blinded, leaving them unable to even ram the enemy out of spite and Granite and his comrades were captured by Slug slavers, adding to the irrational Rock xenophobia a very rational hatred of the Slug race.

Granite was bought by a band of human raiders operating a rock light cruiser a few months before the final defeat of the Federation because the Slug slaver made the humans think he was a former engineer. Though the humans soon learned they’d been scammed, Slugs aren’t known for a moneyback guarantee on anything. Though he despised every molecule in the bodies of his new “owners”, cooperation was the best way to ensure survival. Eventually, Granite earned the grudging respect of the raiders both as a valuable addition of their boarding party as well as their sentient fire extinguisher.

The raider cruiser ran out of luck when it came across a lone Federation starship in a part of space mostly unoccupied by the rebels. As far as the pirate ship was concerned, granite was the sole survivor, coming out of the ordeal physically damaged, but alive. Although the Federation captain offered him a place among his crew on an important mission, Granite has had enough of starships for a few years to come and asked to be dropped off on the nearest inhabited world, and the request was granted.

Following the defeat of the Federation at the hands of the Rebel Flagship, Granite blamed himself for refusing to join that ill-fated ship and not being there to help them after they had helped him. When he was offered to take part in the Defiance initiative, he joined without hesitation, determined not to repeat his mistake.

Appearance

Like most Rockmen, granite just about fits the standard doorframe. His rocklike skin shows signs of previous battles and other damage, notably from the destruction of the raider light cruiser.

Skillset: Combat
Role: Security Officer

EDIT: Here goes.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

’So it’s alcoholic eintopf, best stay away from that’ something warned her at the back of her mind when Orky described his mix. His people must have been really desperate for a drink and short on supplies to come up with that.

Orky and his species definitely piqued her interest though. She never encountered that race before and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about how they would react to mind magic. It could be useful to know in the future. Perhaps later, should Orky be willing to play the guinea pig.

The left handed handshake left her a little baffled, though Kelan’s reaction may have shed some light on the reason behind it. Did she just accidentally insult one of their newfound allies not even thirty minutes after meeting them? After all, getting blown up might be a touchy issue. Oh boy, this was not going well. Maybe she should just follow Stella’s example and shut her mouth?

Despite the risk of saying something inappropriate again, Rachel nodded towards Reisus. “So, mister Far Rim over there, what’s wrong with him?” She inquired in a hushed tone. “Elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor or is it something one of us did?”

TFL: Defiance

Hi, Security Officer CS in progress.

Command Deck! (Inspired by FTL)

Still here.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Kelan did not provide much in terms of factual answers. Not that it mattered much, they found them anyway, but surely there must have been more to their instructions than ‘A bunch of unspecified supersoldiers defected from the Ascendancy, meet them at this place X days from now, go’. Tough times ahead if that was the way this group worked. But maybe slaving away for the Office of Intelligence spoiled her. “So it would seem. I’m Rachel." She leaned forward and offered him a hand. Normally she wouldn’t do so as her most invasive spell required physical contact so the gesture might be misinterpreted, but where was the harm since they didn’t seem to know? "Muscle, eh? At first glance, it doesn’t look like much of it is left. At least Stella will find a kindred spirit here.”

Seeing Eldrid's reaction to what she assumed was the liquified essence of hell made her appreciate that Eldrid beat her to Orky's mystery brew. “You should've asked that before you took a swig." she laughed, greatly amused by her comrade's reaction. "Because it looks like a mix of reactor coolant and spent fuel to me, no offense Orky. What did it taste like?"

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

After John’s summary of the rude lady’s past, Rachel was sure she sensed a ‘kid did his homework’ comment coming from someone. If there was one, it got lost in the background noises of the docking bays even to her augmented ears. Likely due to the excitement over the invitation to dinner.

“Colonists from the outer reaches hated the Ascendancy’s leadership enough as it is. If this surfaced, many would oppose it. Public unrest all over the edges of the empire just wasn’t something they could afford in the middle of a losing war.” Rachel shared her opinion as her mug slid into her waiting palm seemingly on its own, “Many of the aliens I interacted with couldn’t believe it either, even near the end of the war. There was often a bit of confused disbelief when they learned the hard truth.” Taking a long sip of the warm liquid, she turned to their new crew “How much were you told about us, anyway?” Given the crew seemed to be unaware of who they were prior to the actual meeting, who knew what critical details might have slipped the net?

The Marauders (2018)

“Yeah, sleep is for the weak, I’m afraid. she thought in response to Dev’s message. It would be even worse now, as the only way she could ever find anything in the cargo bay was by asking Anderson where it was. There was a method to his madness, but one she couldn’t uncover.

“Tango? Please send our illustrious Mr. Arx the appropriate damage report for the damage he caused to the hallway to fill out. Do not use my templates, only the barebones. Attach a note instructing him to get it to me for review in 36 hours.” She was not entirely sure she could do that, but was worth a try. Maybe slogging through the shitfest that was the paperwork would curb his affinity for misdirected destruction.

After a short trip to an equipment locker, she got to work with a jolly tune on her lips, first welding temporary seals over the breached walls to get the hard part over with, then attending to the lighter damage from weapons fire and damage caused by the shattered crate and its contents. At least her work became easier when Dev marked down the cargo that was lost or damaged in the fight. There was a word or two of gratitude to be said later.

It took a few hours to get through the worst of it, including piling up the dead Ulnar near one of the airlocks. Having decided the minor damage to the rest of the ship could wait, Astrid called it a day and retreated to her cabin, turning the rough drafts into full damage reports. She sent the finished ones to the captain with a note promising the rest would be complete before they made it to port and laid down for some hopefully uninterrupted sleep.

Innocence Lost: Space Western Science Fantasy (Temporarily Open Again!)

Rachel Scott

Name: Rachel Scott
Age: 18

Appearance

Voice: Ashley Burch (Aloy, Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Height: 176 cm
Weight: 74 kg

Important Items

• Omni-tool - Miniature Computer that allows for communication, calculation, augmented reality navigation and small-scale hacking.
• Credits - small amounts in material form acquired through pickpocketing.
• An electronics toolkit containing various tools from small screwdrivers to tweezers.

Short Bio: Born and raised on Arcturus, one of the moons orbiting Formalhaut b, neither the neighborhood nor her family were particularly well off. And since no one would hire a little girl, Rachel took to thievery to give the household an income boost. Over the years, she’s become proficient at sleight of hand, unarmed combat and getting from place to place without being noticed. But sometimes someone would notice, and so she learned to navigate urban environments quite well, often with officers at her heels. One day, she made a blunder, and one of the officers was faster. Upon her capture, the authorities took note of her agility and resistance to questioning. It wasn’t long until her holding cell was visited by men in armor instead of policemen - the last time she saw her home.
Rachel was sent for “augmentation” and assigned to intelligence, namely a recon and deep strike team. Along with another group of children with similar predispositions, she was engineered and trained to enter and exit any compound, negotiate any terrain or obstacle and extract any necessary information from captives. Rachel was made to be a crossbreed of a black-ops operative and a master interrogator. And then the first field tests came. Though considered a success, the group’s mind oriented capabilities were weaker than expected. For the time before the Ascendancy could decide what they would do with them, Rachel and the rest of the group were sent to active units. Fearing the possibility of being disposed of, Rachel picked up basic electronic engineering in an attempt to increase her value to the Ascendancy.
At Proxima, Rachel’s team - her, several Ascendancy soldiers and a child soldier versed in Rau’ve tech - boarded a Rau’ve electronic warfare ship acting as a jammer with the intent to disable it, allowing the human fleet to target the aliens at full range with more than thermal detection. The operation turned sour, the boarding team was discovered and the two child soldiers were abandoned by the squad and captured. In captivity, the young woman awaited her inevitable execution. Against all expectations, she and those like her received good treatment, which helped her regain some humanity. However, she couldn’t return to normal life, if “return” was even applicable. All she knew was thievery and war. But her newfound freedom pushed reason aside and fanned the flames of vengeance that lay dormant in the back of her mind, and seeing an opportunity for revenge, she took it, determined not to let go no matter what may lay ahead.

Spell List

• Rapport (Mind): Rachel can give an order to a single person. To do this, she needs to perform a specific hand gesture and say the order out loud. Her target needs to hear her and understand the language. If the target loses consciousness or goes through intense pain (like gunshot wounds), the spell loses effect. The presence of others near her target makes it significantly harder and tricking a person when more than two other people are present has proven impossible at her current level as the other members of a group can interrupt the spell before it takes full effect.
• Illusion (Mind): Rachel can create an audiovisual illusion perceptible by a single individual. She has to concentrate on keeping the illusion and cannot do anything else that requires her mental faculties (she can create an illusion while running away from something, but not when solving an equation). The illusion can be virtually anything, but bigger or more detailed things require more focus and take a greater toll on her. Keeping the illusion for more than a few minutes also leads to headaches, nausea and general exhaustion. The illusion can only be seen by the affected individual and Rachel and cannot physically interact with the world. Rachel can only make a person see something that isn’t there, she cannot change something that already exists.
• Extraction (Mind): By far the most advanced and tasking spell available to her, Extraction allows her to “view” the memories of others. The process requires physical contact and complete concentration, sending both Rachel and her victim into a trance-like state. Memory extraction time ranges from mere seconds to minutes, depending on the target’s mentality and training to resist such practices, but the more the target fights it, the less pleasant it gets.
• Telekinesis (World): Rachel can manipulate objects at a distance by creating local homogenous gravity fields. While she cannot use this spell to fly, it allows her to jump higher, slow her fall or make small adjustments to direction mid air.
• Pyromanipulation (World): Allows Rachel to create and manipulate flame, from small sparkles to a decent-sized fireball. Temperature of the generated flame is around 1000°C. Casting this spell with gloves on is not recommended, as Rachel found out the hard way during training.

Exceptional Skills:
- Exceptional Awareness
Trivia:

• She is unable to use mind spells against the Kaisoken species and the Korta are naturally hard to get to due to their usually high intellect.