Stern Algorithm

Arknights: 5S

Minimalist being useful: unprecedented.

Given that this was a short post, if y'all want to just go to the main gate, I can make another post to move things along and describe what you see there so you can have more to react to. But if you don't want to go to the main gate right now, that's fine too.

Arknights: 5S

Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Bazaar - Early afternoon

Baltasar looked from Ash Girl to Seven, his eyes widening when she casually mentioned bribery. "Th-the Lady Ameera keeps everything on the up-and-up," Baltasar stammered while he protested, not just a little offended at Seven's casual criticism of Sargonian ethics.

"Well," Minimalist chimed in, holding one of his drones to his face so the propellers could act as a fan to cool himself off, "Hisn-ul-Zahra's recent prosperity is thanks in no small part to Rhodes Island and Acahualla." Minimalist had returned to Acahualla on occasion as his people, the Durin of Zeruertza, lived there amongst the Archosauria since their evacuation from the underground city several years ago. He had been considered both a 'representative' for his folk and a liaison from Rhodes Island, so he had been roped into trade talks with Hisn-ul-Zahra. "Though Rhodes Island, on paper, only acts as an oripathy pharmacy and clinic, there are clauses in our agreement with the city that allow us to get involved with 'issues of security', especially where infected are concerned, so we could probably make a case with the main gate that we're looking for an infected child, and there may be other nations involved."

Arknights: 5S

@Nanolyte

Hi, I just wanted to check in and make sure everything is okay.

The Stars Cast Down Their Cold Gaze

Glossary of Terms:

• CETM - The Committee for Extraterrestrial Threat Management, created to combat the impending alien threat through the establishment of four projects.
• Project Olympian - The CETM project utilizing Hyperians.
• Project Titan - The CETM project utilizing space monsters.
• Project Colossus - The CETM project utilizing giant piloted robots.
• Project Myrmidon - The CETM project utilizing existing military, intended to support the other projects.
• Space Monsters - Alternately known as 'kaijuu', 'aliens', or simply 'monsters'. Refers to the gigantic extraterrestrial entities that have begun attacking Earth. Conventional force does little against them, and the repeated use of nuclear weapons is not a viable strategy.
• Hyperians - A species of seemingly benevolent space monsters. So far, two have been encountered, dubbed Hyper Man and Hyper Man X. The first Hyperian, Hyper Man, has defended Earth from space monsters, giving humanity time to prepare our own defenses. Hyper Man X arrived later to continue Hyper Man's mission.
• Tachyon Beacon - Meta-Tokyo's greatest defense. Our scientists have learned to harness time itself thanks to study of Hyperian technology. A grid of tachyon beacons are set up throughout the city. Each beacon covers a sphere ten kilometers in diameter. When active, everything in range is put into a tachyon bubble that lasts fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes the tachyon bubble collapses, and everything that happened within reverts to its original state fifteen minutes ago before the bubble was created. This allows CETM combatants, to fight without worry of damaging infrastructure or harming civilians, as all damage will be reverted when the fight ends. The only caveat being that the fight must be ended within fifteen minutes since the tachyon beacon cannot be reactivated for another hour and all damage that occurs after the bubble has collapsed will be permanent. Combatants must also not leave the area as only one beacon can be active at a time, and the whole grid needs an hour to recharge.
• The Central Dogma of Xenoarcheology - ██████████████████

Public Timeline of Major Events Concerning CETM:

• 2095 C.E. - An enormous alien vessel is discovered, hidden deep within the Mariana Trench. Research on it begins immediately as mankind attempts to reverse engineer the technology and decipher the language. The aliens to which the vessel belongs are named 'Hyperians' by the researchers. A preliminary study reveals that Hyperians seek out budding civilizations in order to protect them from 'ravenous' threats, and that this vessel and its 'inhabitant' were sent to Earth thousands of years ago to protect us.
• 2100 C.E. - At the turn of the century, a sealed chamber within the vessel is finally opened. Inside, the inhabitant, Hyper Man, is discovered, having locked himself in the chamber alongside a 'space monster', the Vega Alien, to prevent its escape. Surprised at the chamber door opening, Hyper Man is dealt a mortal blow by the monster, who proceeds to leave the vessel and head eastward, wreaking havoc on the surface. Weakened, Hyper Man explains that he requires the life force of a 'pure-hearted' human in order to reinvigorate himself and finally end the Vega Alien once and for all. One of the children of the research team, Shigeru Kawakami, volunteers and merges with Hyper Man. Hyper Man leaves the vessel and destroys the Vega Alien but not before it has devastated two United States' cities, Los Angeles and San Diego.
• 2101 C.E. - In the aftermath of the first extraterrestrial incident, CETM is founded. With the knowledge and guidance of Hyper Man, the Hyperian Vessel is relocated to Tokyo, Japan.
• 2115 C.E. - In the intervening years, space monsters begin to attack regularly. Hyper Man explains that, during its escape, the Vega Alien destroyed the 'Civilization Dampener', a device in the Hyperian vessel that hides the presence of young civilizations from monsters, and that the device can no longer be repaired. Fortunately, the invading monsters are aware of Hyper Man's presence and are drawn to him, allowing humanity to choose where Hyper Man is to engage these creatures. With this knowledge, Tokyo is transformed into the fortress of Meta-Tokyo, the site of extraterrestrial research, the headquarters of CETM, and the battleground for all subsequent fights with space monsters.
• 2116 C.E. - The second Hyperian, Hyper Man X, arrives on Earth to check on the status of Hyper Man's mission. The Hyperians have a secret meeting in the vessel and Hyper Man X agrees to swap places with Hyper Man, allowing Hyper Man to return to their 'home' to recuperate.
• 2120 C.E., Present Day - Hyper Man X has protected Earth since, but CETM is finally ready to unveil the fruits of their research.

The Stars Cast Down Their Cold Gaze

Important NPCs

CETM Command

Oleander, Margaret

Name: Secretary Oleander, Margaret
Position: Director of CETM
Gender: Female
Age: 67
Personality:

Professional, rational, cold. Secretary Oleander is calm, commanding, and sometimes intimidating. She is not afraid to take risks and is always weighing the pros and cons, always considering whether the expedient approach or the long-term plan is better. Some say she is too cutthroat, too willing to sacrifice the few for the many, but the way she sees it, she will do anything to ensure that mankind survives. Secretary Oleander was an unassuming, but efficient aide to the United States Defense Secretary. After the Defense Secretary's untimely death during the first extraterrestrial incident, Oleander assumed the position briefly before she was nominated for her current post. Oleander oversaw the founding of CETM and the Four Projects, showing enormous success during subsequent extraterrestrial incidents. Not one to sit on her laurels, and with the foresight to anticipate more dangerous incidents to come, Oleander plans to build on her success and innovate the Projects even further.

Ning, Nicole

Name: Ensign Ning, Nicole
Position: CETM Command Center Communications Officer
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Personality:

Kind, earnest, detail-oriented. Nicole doesn't speak very much, mainly due to shyness, but she likes to help others. She likes to bake, which she picked up from her father who runs a bakery, and loves stuffed animals shaped like desserts. Has horrible, horrible aim. Nicole was enamored with the concept of CETM, so she studied and worked hard until she was granted the option to transfer to CETM.

Project Olympian

Kawakami, Manaka

Name: Dr. Kawakami, Manaka
Position: Olympian Project Lead, Chair of the Department of Sociology
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Personality:

Empathic, cheerful, observant. Manaka is one of the few humans privy to the Hyperian social theory known as the central dogma of xenoarcheology, and though her primary interest is learning how Hyperian civilization developed as a way to forecast how human civilization might also develop, the space monsters also intrigue her.

Kawakami, Shinobu

Hyper Man X

Name: Kawakami, Shinobu
Position: Hyper Man X's human host
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Personality:

Shinobu is a gentle soul burdened with the responsibility of protecting humanity. Haunted by dark secrets of the universe, Shinobu tries his best to live up to expectations. Shinobu keeps others at arm's length out of fear of divulging confidential knowledge.

Project Titan

Park, Raymond

Name: Dr. Park, Raymond
Position: Titan Project Lead, Chair of the Department of Biology
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Personality:

Laidback, easygoing, genius. Raymond is surprisingly young for a man in his position. To many, he may appear lazy, but most of his greatest ideas come to him when he is relaxing, making him more of a 'creative' and 'inspired' scientist than others who tend to 'brute force' their way to scientific progress. Unfortunately, Raymond's proclivity towards less-than-ethical scientific practices has gotten him censured in the past, but his intellect earned him a place at CETM.

Ryeong, Mu Myeong

Vega Titan

Name: Ryeong, Mu Myeong
Position: First Titan
Gender: Female
Age: 12
Personality:

Mysterious, clingy, agitated. Mu Myeong has known only CETM for her whole life and views its members like an unstable family. She finds it difficult to gauge social distance, wanting emotionally to be part of something greater, while being forced to maintain professional distance due to what she is and her role.

Project Colossus

McCulloch, Helen

Name: Dr. McCulloch, Helen
Position: Colossus Project Lead, Chair of the Department of Physics
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Personality:

Sullen, callous, alienating. Helen is a workaholic who expects the same commitment from her peers and underlings. A purist, she is skeptical of employing Hyperians and monsters for protection, and worries about what horrors that space monster-based research may bring, and therefore feels that her position as a naysayer within CETM is crucial to keep things from getting out of hand.

Project Myrmidon

Tsukamoto, Yuu

Name: Major General Tsukamoto, Yuu
Position: Project Myrmidon Lead, Major General of the Japan Self-Defense Force
Gender: Female
Age: 31
Personality:

Strict, disciplined, scrutinizing. Meta-Tokyo is protected by a branch of the JSDF under Yuu's command. It is not only her duty to ensure that the city defenses aid the CETM Projects in their tasks, but also to subdue them should they ever turn on the humans. She does not know if her small army is up to such a task.

Tokyo University Faculty

Yunus, Selim

Name: Dr. Yunus, Selim
Position: Chair of the Department of Engineering
Gender: Male
Age: 74
Personality:

Jovial, curious, philosophical. Selim is an accommodating man who collaborates closely with Meta-Tokyo's defensive infrastructure. The existence of extraterrestrial life challenges his beliefs, but that has only led him to be more welcoming of aliens than many of his peers, as he wishes to ask them about their beliefs in an attempt to find some common, higher, metaphysical truth.

Nihei, Iori

Name: Dr. Nihei, Iori
Position: Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Chemistry Liaison to CETM
Gender: Nonbinary
Age: 27
Personality:

Calm, practical, level-headed. The actual chair of the chemistry department refused to work with CETM, and offloaded his responsibilities onto one of his postdocs, Iori, who has done an excellent job so far despite being under tremendous inter-departmental pressure. Iori recognizes the dangers that empowering space monsters can pose, and cautiously weighs the benefits against the risks, while being cognizant of what safety precautions may or may not be in place. They recognize that CETM plays fast and loose when it comes to risky experiments, but understands that such loosening of standards is for confronting the looming crisis.

Sekigahara, Manabu

Name: Dr. Sekigahara, Manabu
Position: Chair of the Department of Psychology
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Personality:

Reluctant, non-committal, overwhelmed. Manabu has been tasked with psychologically profiling and providing emotional support to the CETM combatants, a seemingly monumental and absurd task, which he will tackle as part of his job, but his belief of his odds of success can be plainly seen on his face. Given that some space monsters have displayed the ability to control minds, he worries that he will be the first to be manipulated.

Omniac

Name: Omniac
Position: Chair of the Department of Computer Science, Meta-Tokyo Information Network's SSS-Class Artificial Intelligence Administrator
Gender: Non-gender, Male
Age: 50
Personality:

Utilitarian, pedantic, restricted. Development of the city-wide supercomputer known as Omniac began long before the arrival of Hyper Man, but has been commandeered by CETM to run the city of Meta-Tokyo. Over time, it has developed a human-like sentience, and has been given a physical, mechanical but human-like body with which to interface with humans. When the previous chair of the CS department retired, Omniac was appointed to the position. Though he does not do his own research, his high-level administrative capabilities have secured him the position term after term. Though Omniac has massive control over the city, he worries what will happen to him if he makes a mistake or oversteps his authority

The Stars Cast Down Their Cold Gaze

Feel free to post your character. I don't have a CS template, so put anything you think is relevant. Feel free to design a rudimentary colossus for your character to pilot.

Arknights: 5S

No worries. And Aoife is correct, Rhodes Island has a strong partnership with the city.

Arknights: 5S

@Lemons

Great post, though slight correction: Jericho did not come with. He stayed at the office and forced Minimalist to go with you all instead. The party is currently Ash Girl, Seven, Minimalist and Baltasar.

Being around any number of Victorians now was enough to make her skin start to itch, and certainly enough to stay well and truly silent. Ideally, to never see or interact with them at all.

Ash Girl

I have some bad news...

Arknights: 5S

@Nanolyte

If Seven uses her 'sight' on someone like Ptilopsis, would she see something different from a normal human, given that Ptilopsis' consciousness is partially (if not completely) computerized by an originium device?

Arknights: 5S

Baltasar, reassured by both Ash Girl and Seven's recommendations, nodded, and asked one of the orphans to lead them to the bazaar to point out the tent's location.

Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Bazaar - Early afternoon

At the market, there was definitely a spot, now vacated, between two other stalls: a dried fruits merchant and a textiles merchant. The space was narrow and kept open due to it being a utility access point, meaning that setting up a stall in this in-between spot was illegal, even with a vendor's permit. Baltasar went up to the fruit merchant, a portly middle-aged, male perro, and asked, "Was there a tent in this spot earlier today?"

"Oh, you poor boy, you missed it! At first, I didn't like them setting up shop so close, but they paid me for the trouble, so I let them carry on with whatever they were doing. As it turns out, they were just giving away dinars, which ended up bringing a lot of foot traffic once the word spread, so it actually helped my business!" The man explained jovially, clearly overjoyed at the profits he had made that morning.

"What kind of people were they? Do you know where they went?" Baltasar pushed on.

"Oh, I don't know, foreigners...? They packed up pretty quickly all of a sudden. I didn't stick my nose into it. It seems like a terrible business model, if you ask me," The fruit merchant replied, then shouted across to the neighboring textile merchant, "Hey, Samer! You know where that tent went? You know where they're from?" The perro turned back to Baltasar and whispered, "Samer's a lot nosier than I am."

It was the hottest time of the day, so it was understandable that business would be slow. During such times, merchants usually took a break. Those that stayed at their stalls tended to shoot the breeze like this. "Don't know where they went." Samer the textile merchant replied, "You know they're not supposed to open a stall here, right? Gets in the way of emergency services. I tried to tell them, but they just kept trying to pay me to get me to shut up, the nerve!"

"Did you take the money?"

"Of course I did! As for where they're from, they wouldn't tell me that either. But I can tell you they spoke better Victorian than anyone here, so my guess would be they're Victorians."

The perro turned back to Baltasar, "Well, either way, if they're from out-of-town, they couldn't get into the city without going through customs. Or out of the city, for that matter."

Baltasar weighed his options, "I could go to the city watch and file a missing child case, but those usually take a while, so I've heard. I'm just really worried and for some reason, I don't want to waste any time. I really want to go to the main gate and see if there are any groups of Victorians trying to leave, but there's always a line and they're not going to let me just walk up to the front and hold up the port. They're also not going to just tell me what foreign groups are moving in and out of the city if it's not my business."