Neon Dahlia (OOC and Signup)

[Danko]

​

The year is 2328 and the human race has spread itself out across the solar system. Climate change led to a rise in sea-level that left most of the countries of Earth beneath water. Originally cities dealt with this by building upwards and soon every major city on the planet towered into the clouds, however there wasn't enough room for everyone. All available funding was poured into space travel and terraforming technologies in the hopes that this would hold the key to housing the growing population. Mars was the first planet to be successfully terraformed and colonised. Mercury and then Venus followed a few years later. In the intervening years space stations were built by various planetary governments and corporations and became essentially floating cities with their own native populations. Mars became especially rich due to large deposits of minerals that allowed its economy to boom in its early years and it slowly began to rival Earth's economy. The populations of Mars and Earth began to view each other with suspicion, each considering itself to be the main power in the solar system.

Suspicion erupted into full scale war when Mars, angered by trade limitations placed on it by Earth, attacked an Earth convoy and seized its cargo. Both sides mobilised their armed forces and began buying militarised spacecraft that were still in their infancy at this time. Most of the fighting was done on or around the space stations between Earth and Mars. During the course of the war there were atrocities committed by both sides on the civilian populations of the space stations that lay between the two planets. Mars adopted a policy whereby every citizen of an occupied space station would have to either join their army or, if they were unable or unwilling, were put into work camps in the factories or mining operations on Mars itself. Many were worked to death or killed while in these camps while their homes were occupied by soldiers and destroyed during the fighting.

Eventually Earth defeated Mars and forced them to accept an unconditional surrender which forced them into disarmament and forced them to pay massive subsidies to Earth. This war went by a number of names after its end, the most common of which was "The Supremacy War" although the Earth government officially labelled it the "War of Martian Aggression". Mars was forced to use many of their resources to settle the people they had forcibly put into work camps on the new colonies on Venus. This peace only lasted a few years as Mars, who were chafing under the harsh sanctions put on their military and economy, began rebuilding its armed forces. War broke out again between Mars and Earth, this time Mars sent a pre-emptive strike against the fledgling colonies on Venus as they expected that they would join Earth. They fire-bombed several cities and bombarded military structures from space before Earth could mobilise its forces to prevent further damage to Venus' civilian population.
This attack by Mars had the opposite effect as Venus had initially intended to stay neutral in the conflict; however this spurred many of its inhabitants to volunteer to fight alongside Earth. The war lasted for 5 years and was brutal in its intensity. Many space stations and cities were destroyed but eventually Mars was defeated again. This time Earth adopted a more lenient approach, the demanded surrender but did not force Mars to pay subsidies and they aided in rebuilding efforts for their destroyed cities. Many of the people from Venus saw this as a betrayal by Earth as they were given very little help from outside sources to rebuild their own damaged cities. However, peace followed and there have been no further armed conflicts except those between private corporations that are usually small-scale and based around mining operations or other sources of wealth.

After the war, which is usually called the "Second Supremacy War" while the original war was referred to as the "First Supremacy war" although it is sometimes referred to as "The Betrayal" by the surviving fighters from Venus; the Solar System experienced an economic depression that led to most governments having to reduce spending in all areas. Mass unemployment and homelessness became common and cities became massively overpopulated. Crime is rampant and the various planetary governments are struggling to cope, most cities and planets are hiring bounty hunters and freelance detectives to deal with criminals. This is done by a process of posting "bounty lists" on cities' computer networks, these are then updated and changed by the cities' police force as and when bounties are handed in.
Private companies have begun to fund their own terraforming and colonial efforts on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. To facilitate this they have developed hyperspace gates that allow faster than light travel, they have also installed these between various colonised planets (Mars, Venus etc) to allow quick travel between them. These private colonisation enterprises are mostly based around mineral mines or sources of useful chemicals and the main settlers involved are workers at these locations.


Technology:

Space travel is relatively common place, many people own personal spacecraft. There are many different makes and models of spacecraft that vary in quality, size and function. The most common type of spacecraft to be seen are medium to large sized cargo vessels used for shipping almost everything imaginable that could be of any use to a settlement, both legal and illegal. Many of these cargo ships have been converted for various purposes, such as transport ships for passengers. Smaller personal craft are often present around space stations and planets; these are typically about the size of a World War 2 era fighter plane. These smaller craft have no auto-pilot features that the larger crafts have, they must be manually flown at all times. Most pre-war craft do not have weapons on them, except for some early military prototypes, older models often had weapons added to them during the war and the practice is still common. Models built after the start of the war are almost entirely armed in some way, usually with heavy-calibre machine guns or flak-cannons though some ships use self-propelled missiles or EMP weapons that can wipe out electrical circuits in ships. Larger ships have built in impact dampener shields that, while not entirely eliminating the damage done by weapons and other impacts, reduce significantly the damage done to the hull of the ship.

Laser weapon technologies are in their infancy and have been used on some experimental military spacecraft. Militaries are the owners and developers of the most advanced spacecraft in, Earth especially has an impressive armada, having kept all of its top ships from during the war and selling or decommissioning the rest, however it is only able to operate in the immediate vicinity of Earth otherwise it would easily outstretch itself. Supply chains have been significantly reduced since the end of the Second Supremacy War.

Personal weaponry has not changed much in terms of small arms, guns are still bullet based and come in all shapes and sizes. Ballistic vests and other bullet protection have changed some; bulletproof vests are much less bulky with the discovery and development of new alloys using metals from colonised planets. There are ammunition types that can pierce these types of protection of course but for average bullets they remain effective.

Robotics technology has come a long way and there are androids and robots of all kinds present in the solar system. Some are basic utility models that are very machine like, typically referred to as "bots", while some others are designed to look like humans typically called "droids" or "andys", the earlier models are noticeably non-human but over time it's become harder and harder to tell the androids from humans. These androids are used mainly as servants and assistants of various kinds. Occasionally the artificial intelligence in these machines will malfunction and they are known to develop levels of sentience and attempt to escape and they can sometimes be found working in criminal syndicates as hit men or thugs as well as some who have escaped their masters and attempt to live their lives out in peace. Normal civilians do not tolerate rogue androids and escaped androids are hunted and either decommissioned or have their memories erased and rewritten then given back to their owners. A bi-product of the advances in robotics technology is the development of functional robotic limbs and organs that can replace missing limbs in humans; it is not rare to see people with replacement legs, arms and sometimes other organs such as eyes.

CS

Name:

Gender:

Age:

Occupation:

Skills

Physical Description (or picture):

Brief History:

Equipment: (Their usual gear, what they would always carry with them)

Rules

Just the usual rules basically; no godmoding or abusing or anything else of that nature.

I'd like people to post at least once a week to keep the game flowing, I understand real life can take up time but I don't think once a week is too much to ask, more would be preferable.

Try to post around 3-4 paragraphs per post and do move the story along, I like it better when we're all contributing and furthering the plot rather than me dictating what is happening and everyone else just reacting to it.

If anyone wants to pitch any ideas for story arcs etc then speak up, I'm always happy to take suggestions. It'll fall back to me to make the final decision on it however, just to keep a bit of order in place.

First Story Arc

This is the basic outline for the first story arc that we will be following at the start of the roleplay:

One of the characters is being hunted by a dangerous and secretive Chinese criminal syndicate led by a totally insane and tyrannical man. They're hunting them down as they have stolen (or have been given) the last remnants of an ancient Chinese alchemy manuscript that details the process of becoming immortal. Of course immortality via this method is not possible but the man is insane and is going to great lengths and great expense to track this person down. This character hides away on a ship in order to escape the men that are chasing him, this ship is captained by my character and crewed by the other characters. The story then follows these characters on their various adventures. Just a note, the men who are chasing the person with the manuscript are extremely dangerous and skilled fighters, with dulled pain receptors and some with augmented limbs, fighting them one on one in combat would be suicide, I'm thinking along the lines of the Agents in the original Matrix films, they would be fairly few in number but very deadly and the best course of action is to evade them and attempt to escape. I think it would add an interesting antagonist and a real sense of menace if they're not just your average horde of nameless henchmen that are being mowed down at every turn. I had also thought that maybe the man who leads the syndicate has tried to achieve immortality via technological means as well and has replaced much of his body with machinery but the remaining human cells are still degrading with age so he has resorted to trying more mystical measures to achieve this.One of the characters is being hunted by a dangerous and secretive Chinese criminal syndicate led by a totally insane and tyrannical man. They're hunting them down as they have stolen (or have been given) the last remnants of an ancient Chinese alchemy manuscript that details the process of becoming immortal. Of course immortality via this method is not possible but the man is insane and is going to great lengths and great expense to track this person down. This character hides away on a ship in order to escape the men that are chasing him, this ship is owned by my character and another of the characters. The story then follows these characters on their various adventures. Just a note, the men who are chasing the person with the manuscript are extremely dangerous and skilled fighters, with dulled pain receptors and some with augmented limbs, fighting them one on one in combat would be suicide, I'm thinking along the lines of the Agents in the original Matrix films, they would be fairly few in number but very deadly and the best course of action is to evade them and attempt to escape. I think it would add an interesting antagonist and a real sense of menace if they're not just your average horde of nameless henchmen that are being mowed down at every turn. I had also thought that maybe the man who leads the syndicate has tried to achieve immortality via technological means as well and has replaced much of his body with machinery but the remaining human cells are still degrading with age so he has resorted to trying more mystical measures to achieve this.

Well that's about it, please post your character sheets below. This game will have 4 people (including myself) max so I will let everyone post their characters and I'll choose the ones I feel best suit the world/setting/story.

 

[Danko]

Name: Richard "Rick" Dravot

Gender: Male

Age: 28

Occupation: Bounty hunter/private detective.

Skills: Martial arts, small firearms, piloting small craft, investigation, leadership.

Physical Description:

6' tall and of athletic build. Rick has his prisoner number "637270" tattooed on the inside of his left forearm from his time in the Martian work camps, this is often hidden underneath his shirt however.

Brief History: Rick was born on a space station located between Mars and Earth, his mother and father were both antiques dealers and had a dealership in the trade district of the space station. At a young age Rick became infatuated by antiques and felt sure that he would follow his parents into the world of artefacts from the past. His upbringing gave him a predisposition towards old and broken down things and he took great delight in taking something that had been forgotten and discarded as obsolete and bringing it back to its full potential.


When the war broke out between Mars and Earth his home was occupied by the Martian army quickly, their defences were useless against a powerful military. The occupation was brutal, his father and his older brother were forced into the Martian military while Rick, his mother and his younger brother were all transported to Mars and put to work in a titanium mine. By the war's end Rick was all that was left of his family that he knew of, this left a deep impression on him and he vowed that he would never be a victim again, no matter the cost.


Rick went with many other survivors of the camps to Venus and took part in the early settlement of that planet; he found peace in his new life and became a farmer. When the Second Supremacy War broke out, Rick witnessed his home being fire-bombed and then bombarded from orbit. He barely escaped the initial attacked and spent the following days helping the relief efforts until aid from Earth arrived. Furious at this unprovoked attack he volunteered along with many Venusian settlers to fight against Mars. Venusian volunteer brigades were set up as part of the Earth military and Rick was trained as a fighter/light bomber pilot. He fought throughout the war and saw many conflicts, by the end of the war he was a squadron leader and was fighting on Mars when they surrendered. Rick was disgusted that after the war Earth decided to aid in the rebuilding of Mars instead of Venus, he saw this as a betrayal and never forgave the Earth government for this act. After the war Rick couldn't face returning to Venus, he could no longer find peace there. He began working as a bounty hunter, then a private detective. He kept on the move and worked cases or bounties wherever he found himself. The memories of the past stayed with him and he was unable to let go of all the betrayals he had been victim to in his life.


Equipment: Rick usually wears an alloy mesh bulletproof vest under a collared shirt with a tie, he often wears a long overcoat on top of this. On certain jobs he will wear his BF-225 "Bullfrog" jumping gear which attaches to his legs and spine and allows him to jump great distances, this combined with magnetic gripping gauntlets allow him to reach places that otherwise would be inaccessible to him. He always carries his snub-nose revolver in a shoulder holster and also has a tactical shotgun which can be loaded with explosive or incendiary rounds for when there is likely going to be a firefight. Rick's own personal craft is an older HRNT-99 (Heiden Rockets Niemann Tracer Model-99) "Hornet" personal fighter/light bomber, painted red with an experimental Niemann Rocket propulsion system with a machine gun and small rocket launcher; he has converted the small bomb bay into a cargo hold.

 

[Penultimate Pi]

Name: Leonard Albert
Gender: Male
Age: 26

Occupation: Bounty Hunter
Skills: Computer Programming/Hacking, Small Firearms, Kickboxing, Infiltration

Physical Description:

Brief History:
Leonard was the son to a computer engineer and programmer, along with his caring wife. Leo and his family ended up taking a living upon a space station close to Earth, where Leo was happy to learn his father's occupation. Thanks to his father's experience and the ever-advancing technology of computation, Leo was able to learn fast, if not always well.

His life saw a gruesome turn when the First Supremacy War erupted in full force. Despite attempts to remain out of the influence of conflict, the Martian aggressors still saw fit to brutally attack their station. Though Leo and his father managed to evacuate the battle, the two of them saw their mother and wife brutally killed in the crossfire.

It all went downhill from there. Leo's father entered a drunken depression back on Earth, unable to work properly. He ended up joining a ring of black-market techies, where both he (and his son, rather to his dismay) adapted to the principles of defeating programming rather than building it. The action in the ring continues to escalate, until they were brought down and Leonard's father was inadvertently left a government prisoner.

About that time, the Second Supremacy War initiated. Leonard's family was offered a deal: serve in the war, and they would be granted amnesty for past actions, provided they survive, of course. With little other choice, the two of them enlisted, and soon saw themselves in infantry combat. To Leo, this war was decidedly worse, given how his father was shot down so uneventfully, and his own right arm was crippled in a station collapse.

Since then, Leo has still lived a hard life. Though his darker skills are under all technicalities 'legal' for what he does, he still finds no joy in it. He takes no true sides, and would rather remain allies as long as he needs to, much preferring to stick to his own guns (however dangerous that may be).

Equipment:

• Two pistols, 15 shots, equipped with tritium- and laser-sights. Carried in holsters sewn under his duster. May also use suppressors, for stealthy approaches.
• His bionic right arm, which can be outfitted to hold up to 4 different tools within the forearm.
• Alloy-plate bulletproof vest, over a shirt and under his father's vintage duster.
• Removable strength-boosting gear for his arms and legs.
• A variety of different tools for aid in hacking and other computer-based infiltration, including an emergency handheld EMP device.

 

[BantlingBee]

Name: Laurel Cagney


Gender: Female


Age: 25


Occupation: Pilot/Engineer


Skills: Piloting ships of all sizes, mechanical and computer engineering, welding, knowledgeable about esoteric laws and their loopholes, first aid


Physical Description:

Brief History:


The child of a mechanic and a waitress, Laurel was born and raised in a small agricultural community on Mercury. She was the youngest of five children, and essentially left to her own devices growing up. However, this most frequently included tagging along with her father to his mechanic shop. Although Mercury is often considered to be the boondocks of the solar system, her father's shop was usually pretty busy, and Laurel learned quickly how to repair pretty much anything that came in.


The Wars hit Mercury in a slightly different way than the other planets. While Mercury was not directly involved in the conflict, they felt the economics impact of war just as strongly as many of the other planets. With an increased emphasis on military technology, Mercury was unable to compete with Mars and Earth and suffered a depression of almost catastrophic proportions. Many Mercurians turned to piracy. It is still a common stereotype that much of Mercury's residents are cold-blooded and uncivilized opportunists though the piracy has largely subsided since the Second Supremacy War. However, it is noteworthy that Laurel's mother would often disappear for weeks at a time and come back with an abundance of food and other provisions during the wars.


Since her family was of no considerable means, she worked in her father's shop as a teenager and for several years after completing secondary school. But her father soon reached an age where he was ready to retire, and Laurel took up work as an engineer and pilot for a cargo company. The hours were long, but Laurel got to experience life outside of her tiny community for the first time.


After her contract with the company expired, Laurel decided that she was wasting her time working as a cargo pilot when what she really wanted was to travel the galaxy. With the money she had saved up, she was able to buy a mid-sized decommissioned cargo vessel. She and her father fixed it up over the next few months and were able to get the Harlequin up and running before too long. Most of her funds went to getting her ship working, however, so Laurel has been known to take odd jobs in order to help pay the bills.

Equipment:


Laurel always carries a small pistol for protection, harnessed at her upper leg. Although it is functional, she has never had to use it. She is a relatively skilled shot, but would rather avoid a confrontation than use her weapons. Laurel pilots The Harlequin, a mid-sized converted cargo vessel that comfortably stores three smaller vessels including her own personal ship—Cahokia. Cahokia is a strange patch worked vessel with the body of an older lightweight spaceship and the engine of something much newer. It is temperamental, and Laurel is perhaps the only one who knows how to operate it. It is an unusual shade of aqua with black accents. On The Harlequin, Laurel also has various amenities and supplies for first aid and any repairs that might arise.

 

[GoodEveningClarice]

Hi there, I'm certainly interested in joining but before I start on a character, how are all of our characters going to be related to one another? Or what's the plot element that's going to bring them all together? If there isn't something specific that's totally fine too, it will just determine what kind of character I make so they don't end up on a lonely rock for the entire roleplay x D Also, seeing as bounty hunting seems to be a large element in this roleplay, making a character who actually has a bounty on their head might be the way I go. This all sort of reminds me of a mix between Mass Effect and Cowboy Beebop, which is awesome!

 

[Danko]

Thanks for your interest. I should really have included the first arc plot idea I had in my initial post that I had included in the interest check, I'll put that there now. Basically, three of the characters will be the crew of a ship and will know each other to some extent and then one of the characters will come into the group as part of the first story arc as they will have an artifact that a shadowy Chinese criminal syndicate will be chasing after.

 

[Danko]

Just to make everyone aware, I'll be looking to get this Rp started by tomorrow night so if you haven't submitted a character sheet and you intend to now is your last chance.

 

[Sairen]

Name: Ciel Viola Amsel


Gender: Female


Age: 25


Occupation: Mercenary/bounty hunter


Skills: Stealth, martial arts, large knowledge of fire arms, and has large medical knowledge.


Physical Description:

Ciel is only 5' 4" and weighs 126 lbs.


Brief History: Ciel came from a quiet family that lived on Earth. Her mother was a doctor and her father had left before she was even born. With three older brothers and two older sisters life was a little hectic, but nonetheless things were fine. Her oldest brothers joined the army before the war had even started, learning all that they needed to know. With rumors of tension between the two major planets growing, Ciel's brothers were deeply worried. War brought numerous possibilities and so they decided to teach their sisters everything that they knew. They could only teach the hand to hand combat since they were too young for a gun, but knives were ok. Ciel understood well and though it was fun learning all of this. The first Supremacy came and her brother's left to fight. They told her to keep practicing and hone in the skills they taught her. While the war was fought in the sky's above Ciel took initiative and asked her mother about medical things. Her mother taught her the basics from first aid to suturing. For now at a young age it was good enough, more than what most people knew how to do. The First Supremacy was soon over and all three of her brother's came home safely with minor injuries.

Mars didn't seem like the type to back down. Tensions were still high even after the war and her brothers continued training their younger sisters over the years. Then the horrible news that Mars had made an attack on Venus, a planet that held refugee's. Her brothers were asked back into service and her mother was asked to be stationed on Venus. Earth had a surplus of doctors they could send and her mother agreed to the terms. It as a hard slap of reality for Ciel and her sisters. To see cities flatten down to rubble and dying people on the streets. Any and every help was desired and so they helped while their mother worked. May it be search in rescue or feeding the homeless.

Five years later the war was over with Mars, and the damaged was done. Two of her brothers died and one of her sisters in an collapsed building. With Earth cutting the spending it meant a smaller paycheck for her mother while many were fired. The pay wasn't even enough to live off of and they needed money. On Mercury piracy was an issue for many of the cargo vessels. Companies didn't want to pay for useless guards so the hired anyone with grade A skills to protect their cargo. Ciel and her brother took as many of those jobs as possible. Though being a Merc wasn't easy, considering that many high paying jobs were assassinations. They avoided those and so took bounties to help keep food on the table.


Equipment: Two pistols at the waist outfitted with shock ammo. On her thigh sits her favorite full length knife. This 5 inch knife has partial serration on the blades edge and has a serrated spine. Ciel also has a bullet proof vest that fits discretely under her shirt, Strength boosting gloves and boots. He gloves are also outfitted to help with climbing the sides of buildings and exoskeleton in her boots are removable in case of repairs. Lastly Ciel keeps some form of a medical kit with her at all times.

 

[Danko]

Great work everyone, I'm happy to accept all these characters. I intended to set the IC up last night but the site was down by the time I tried to do it so I'll do that later today.

One last point is that one of the characters is going to have to be the one who the Chinese criminal syndicate are hunting for our first story arc. I think it would make sense if it was either Penultimate's character or Lucifers'. Do either of you have a preference as to who it is?

 

[Danko]

IC and first post are up!

 

[Sairen]

@Penultimate Pi Would you like to be the thief for the Chinese Syndicate chases after?

 

[Penultimate Pi]

I guess it would make most sense for it to be me. In that case, I would imagine the remnants of the manuscript to be some sort of data file I stole. And since I don't have my own ship, I would stow away aboard someone else's ship.

 

[Sairen]

That's plausible enough for me :)
I'll post something later tonight. Have a lot on my plate today.

 

[Danko]

That's fine, at least we have that worked out.

Penultimate, I'll send you a PM with some specifics about the Chinese criminal syndicate that I came up with. Feel free to tweak things to your liking should you wish.

 

[Danko]

Great posts so far everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing this story play out.

 

[BantlingBee]

Me too! ^_^

Alright folks, if I don't get something up tonight...I will for sure tomorrow. I'm working 50 hours a week between three jobs at the moment, so I'm a little sleepy and want to make sure that that doesn't impact my writing too much.

 

[BantlingBee]

Alright, I'm working on my post right now. Sorry for the delay, I've been sick on top of overworked. It'll be up in a few hours or so.

 

[Danko]

No worries, I look forward to seeing everyone's posts.

 

[Danko]

I've ended up being pretty busy tonight so I'll get my next post (which will get the story flowing a bit more hopefully) written up and posted tomorrow.

 

[BantlingBee]

Oooh two new posts! I know it's my turn next, and I'll try to get to it ASAP. Be forewarned though that I have about 10 straight days of work. That's not to suggest that I'll wait 10 days to post something, but it might take a few days depending on my level of fatigue.