Topic: Tales of the First Colonists

This was moved from one of the STSC forums. Even though it's purpose is to generate content into that specific campaign world, don't hesitate to participate even if you're not playing in it.

Concept and Rules (OOC)

Hi. I was just reading about forum RP, and that made me think about combining the STSC campaign with some of that.

The idea here is to generate some new lore about the history of the Tower by using the usual method familiar from forum RP. What we'll be writing here is, basically, legends told by the current colonists about the First Colonists. After all, most recordings from that time were lost in the database crash and the last remaining First Colonists are either not very forthcoming (Felman), not big on storytelling (Sebastian), or see the past through the golden goggles of legend themself (The Council of Elders). Thus, the colonists rely muchly on oral tradition when it comes to the lives and deeds of the First Colonists.

That gives us some artistic freedom when we go about writing these stories. Even though we should try to keep them feasible enough to be potentially true, we don't have to worry too much about conflicting with the "official lore" in my head. As far as these stories are concerned, there's no GM. Everyone's free to describe scenery or new characters.

As an extra option, if you don't like where someone is taking the story, you can say something along the lines of "that's not how it went" - after all, this is people telling the stories. Your idea can, of course, be contested as well.

For those concerned about knowing only what their characters know, these stories are part of the basic lore known by anyone who's interested to listen to rumors and stories.

I hope you'll give this experiment a chance.

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

Siyanda

Siyanda was one of the tenth patch of the First Colonists. Her radiant brown eyes matched with her rough dark skin, both radiating strength and determination. Her skill as a mechanical engineer was unmatched even by The Legendary Six, and when it came to redirecting power conduits, she was a step away from a sorceress.

So, this one day, only a regular day it looked from the outside, she was realigning a series of supercoils down in The Lower Cluster, when...

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

... suddenly the ceiling near her gave way and a small container of biomatter fell down the hole immediatly followed by a green worksuit which, on closer inspection, turned out to be Johnathan, a young producer from the 14th patch with curly, black hair and white skin.

Johnathan was a bit disoriented by the fall which resulted in him rolling over and falling off the container. It was either his luck or just pure chance that he fell down at the place where Siyanda's SMK lay a minute ago, before she took it up to do some adjustments.

Johnathan sat up and looked at Siyanda with surprised, green eyes, "Oh.. hey! I'm sorry that I just bumped into you like ..." he started to say, but...

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

... Siyanda silenced him with a wave.

"Stop apologizing, please", she said. "You apologize far too much. Mostly for good reason, though, I give you that. But still, it gets tiresome."

They were in one of the minor stops of the tube lift. Siyanda finished up the supercoils, and they entered the capsule together. Inside, there was a column of buttons. The labels included: "Top Level", "Biospace", "The Canyon", "TAU Master Core", a stop with no label, and "The Speedgrowth Chambers".

"Where are you heading with that?" Siyanda asked.

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Me? I was on my way to BS-L3-03 with Tobby... " Johnathan looked around, "I wonder where that TAU-damned piece of junk disappeared after the floor collapsed..." Johnathan sighed and looked at Siyanda again. "Hmm... I guess I'll have to find another chimbot to help me pull this to the machines" he said patting the container.

"So, it'll be BS for me. I also heard there were some problems with some machines on L3, power spikes and outages, quite a shame, I really need some DMRs, but I wouldn't use those machines until someone competent fixed it, you know how expensive is it to build one of those..."

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

There was a quiet hum as the capsule zoomed upwards...

The Biospace, located above the Canyon was part of the terraforming machinery. A complex system of massive tanks, pipes, pools, and chambers was used to grow, boil, mix and distill the various life-forms to be sent out to the outside world. While TAU went about its masterplan, humans scurried about the plentiful supply of biomatter, taxing it here and there for their own purposes. Levels after levels of platforms, connected by bridges and elevators had been built in the spaces between the tanks and pipelines, equipped with labs and factories and various gardens all dealing with life in one way or another.

The air was warm and humid as Siyanda and Johnathan stepped out at the Tubelift Central at the mid-level of Biospace. The floors and walls around were covered by growths of various fungi, algae, even small weeds. The tanks and pools leaked at various places, releasing spores and nutricients to the air, allowing for growth. The life was mostly harmless to the machinery here, though, so instead of trying to keep it all tidy, the colonists used it as soil to grow magnificent gardens of trees and flowers and meadows.

They needed to take two elevators down to get to level 3. It was a long, narrow platform between two tanks of bubbling, green algae. Siyanda helped Johnathan carry along the biomatter container as they made their way towards the other end, between smiling scientists and gardeners.

But they never reached their destination.

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Oi! Where do you think you're taking that?"

Jenka stood, hands on hips, blocking the platform. Her blue eyes flashed annoyance as she regarding the biomatter container held between Johnathan and Siyanda.

"Don't you ever check your messages Johnathan? I must have left 18 for you already! That biomatter has been reallocated to an emergency production run on L2. If you'd bothered checking your 'link, you'd know that all available resources have been redirected there until the run is complete." Jenka ran her right hand through her short white hair. "I've no idea what's going on up there, but they were expecting you ages ago."

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Who?" snapped Siyanda. "Is it the Lambda 41 again? You can tell them that calling their production runs 'emergency' will not make them any less ridiculous. I'm sure Johnathan knows exactly what to do with his own biomatter, don't you, Johnathan?"

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

Jenka regarded Siyanda coldly. "I only know what I'm told.  It's my job to make sure resources are redirected, and that's what I'm doing. I'm sure you can inform Lambda 41 of your views without my assistance." She turned to Johnathan. "So what's it to be?"

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Uh..." that was all Johnathan could say as he watched the women argue about his container, "I was just trying to sort out those messages when the floor gave way under this container you want me to haul around so badly. I'm sor..." Johnathan looked at Siyanda, "I mean, I have no idea where Tobby disappeared, but if I can't get another junkmonkey to haul this, it won't go anywhere, neither to L3 nor to L2." Johnathan crossed his arms over his chest at this point and leaned against the container, "But if you want an 'emergency delivery', I can just toss it over the edge it will arrive on L2 in no time." Johnathan sighed, "What are they producing so urgently by the way?"

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Well, I could contact Fishface for you", said Siyanda. "He's running Lely's Nexus today, and if I ask nicely I'm sure he'll be willing to redirect one of the Chimbots to help you. However..." Siyanda glanced at Jenka. "He doesn't want to waste their time, though, so it better not be going to L2", Siyanda stated matter-of-factly. "Lely didn't work for years to gain control over TAU to make it a servant for delusional fools like the Lambda 41."

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

"Oh, I didn't mean that you should get me one." answered Johnathan then he turned to Jenka, "It was more directed to you, as it's your job to redirect the resources. You can also help me drag it all the way down there, if you really want it to go there..." Johnathan looks at Siyanda, "I wouldn't want to keep you from your duties, even though I don't think the two of us can drag this beauty without any help."

Re: Tales of the First Colonists

Jenka scowled. She glanced around her, but everyone seemed to be suddenly busy with their own tasks. "Rottin' hell," she exclaimed as she shoved her PDA into an overstuffed pocket in her pants. "Do I have to do everything myself?"

She flexed her shoulders and grasped the handholds on the container. "Lucky for you, I haven't got time to stand and argue with you today." As she bent her knees, she continued to rant. "And I meant what I said - I have no idea what Lamda 41 are up to. There isn't a process scheduled on TAU that I could see." She frowned and paused, halfway through lifting. "Actually...that's unusual..."