"Do ye feel rich, Goyim?" Edition
Previous Thread and Chargen: >>88689
IN THE TERRIFYING BLACKNESS OF THE VOID, YOU ARE THE LIGHT. Welcome to Ticonderoga Star Quest, an adventure set in a persistent and constantly-expanding universe in the far future. Players will be helping contribute to a nascent universe by guiding a specific character through the many perils that exist in the vastness of space.
Summary: You are Sen Xi, a spoiled rich Earthborn pretty-boy and the sole heir of the Iris Telecom Hypercorp. Sent out into the galaxy with only your trusty posthuman butler Isaac and as many mercs as your family-owned PMC could shove on your ship, you must finalize a potentially lucrative deal with the legendary Pirate Queens of Herod's Rock.
Currently your ship has just left port and is now traveling at sublight towards the nearest Vector, a point in space where FTL travel is deemed consistently safe to engage (the average safety rating is something like 88.4%, and given the sheer amount of traffic that goes through these corridors, those aren't bad odds).
You stare at the bulkhead door in sullen boredom. This being a paramilitary ship, there aren't any windows. You could have sworn Isaac said there would be windows. These last few hours have proven that Isaac is something of an asshole - you'd just never been reliant enough on him before to notice. An announcement comes over ship's comms that informs you that the Vector is within sight and the Gladius is queuing up for FTL drive activation.
Languidly, you key your access code into the Sysnet and bypass the Vector Gate Authority's woefully inadequate security to grant your ship priority status. Sure, it's exclusively reserved for active military craft, but you don't want this trip to take any longer than it has to. You've got a meeting with the Pirate Queens.
Now that that's taken care of, what's next?
Potential Options:
>Explore the Gladius
>Find a petty way to enact your revenge on Isaac
>Browse the Sysnet
>>95024
>Explore the Gladius
>>95024
>Browse the Sysnet
see if 4chan still exist
>Explore the Gladius
You poke your head out of your cabin. Your eyes naturally swivel to the left. Looks clear. You swivel to the right. Oops. Isaac's there, with that stupid grin on his face.
"Going somewhere, sir?" he asks with simulated deference. Damn, he's really good at that. You decide to look a little less stupid and pull the rest of yourself out of the hatchway.
"Why yes, I am. I fully intend to explore this ship so that I may become familiar with it in case of emergency." you reply in your most aggrieved innocent tone. Usually that works.
"Well, that's certainly a responsible course of action, young master. Now that we're in FTL, I certainly see no reason to prevent your wanderings. Where shall we visit first?" Isaac nods convivially even though he's technically just a ghost inside of a robot. (A ghost robot? Doesn't that sound a bit derivative?)
>Visit the Armory. "This is my lasrifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine."
>Main Engineering. See what makes the ship go fast.
>Sortie Bay. Meet the fighter jocks.
>Barracks. Meet your hired muscle.
>Cantina. Attempt to pick up chicks on the paramilitary ship full of badasses paid by your daddy. Or meet the cooks. We're cool, man.
>>95546
>>Visit the Armory. "This is my lasrifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine."
>>95546
>Main Engineering. See what makes the ship go fast.
>>95546
Armory.
>>95546
Barracks, time to see how real men spend their time.
>Acquire booty
I like muscley chicks, so let's see if we can't bang a merc.
"The Armory for starters. Since we're going into Free Colony territory I want to know what we've got in case things get sour. Not that they will, of course." you decide, brushing off the possibility of actual violence erupting with your youthful confidence in your own immortality.
A nagging voice in the back of your head says something about buying that backup exomorph body just in case. You ignore it. That voice is stupid. It almost didn't get you laid that one time. Sure, the girl did turn out to be a rival corp's assassin, but she was great in the sack. Amazing ass on that one. She'll be missed.
"As you say, sir. The Armory is on Deck 2, Section 12. If you'll follow me?" Isaac bows and turns to lead the way.
As he guides you through the bowels of the ship, you get bored again. You're pretty sure he's talking about something, but you've kind of zoned out. Finally you reach the Armory. An armed sentry stands watch. Unusual, but not unheard of on a private ship. Tycho must keep strict discipline. You silently approve of his leadership. "Sir," the sentry salutes you and deliberately ignores Isaac. You decide to continue ignoring Isaac as well, since it's the fashionable thing to be doing around here.
"I'd like to take a look inside, operator. I want to see what my father's money is buying us," you tell the sentry, who nods slowly. "Access to the Armory is restricted outside of an active combat zone, sir. I'll have to call it in to the Captain first." the sentry replies slowly, unsure of who they should fear more. You silently grit your teeth in frustration. What's the point in owning these people if you can't see what you're buying? You've half a mind to tell your father about these ridiculously pointless protocols.
"Very well. Let him know I need access." you reply as smoothly as possible, given the circumstances. A few moments pass while the sentry has a conversation, presumably with the Captain. He's turned off his helmet speaker so you can't pick up on it. A subtle attempt at splicing your own commlink into the tacnet fails due to insufficient encryption. Shit. And you thought you were tech-savvy.
"Permission granted, sir. Cap says it's okay, s'long as you don't go shooting a hole in the hull while we're in FTL." the sentry finally announces before opening the door, and you control your eager glee.
What awaits you is a soldier of fortune's wet dream. Heavy carbine laser rifles, tactical smart-round assault rifles, coherent energy-beam sidearms, nervepulse stun grenades, microfusion warheads, and a half-dozen full-environment exo-armor warsuits. Your fingers itch with the desire to touch everything and anything.
AWAITING DECISION:
>>96030
We must decide on a weapon to use in case things go sour. I say we go for a handgun, everyone knows a prepared adventurer carry one.
>>96030
I say something practical and almost archaic. Kinetic weapons firearms to look more dignified. Older is better, right?
Next we go to the cantina/gym and become huge.
>>96030
Check out the sidearms.
Something small, packs a punch, and can be used by a rich ponce without breaking his arm.
You naturally move your way through the rifles and explosives sections until you reach the sidearms. Your eyes linger upon a locked weapons safe. "What's this?" you ask Isaac, your eyes already gleaming with avarice. You don't know what's inside this box, but you want it.
You want it with a need so powerful you don't know how you could ever live without the whatever-it-is in this safe.
"That's your father's personal safe, young master. I'm told he keeps his personal firearms aboard the Gladius because your mother doesn't like weapons in your home." Isaac announces calmly, eyeing your lustful hands gliding themselves over the matte-black surface with an unusually judgment-free stare. "Would you like me to open it?"
>>96894
"Hell yeah!"
>>96894
Doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoit
I must say I'm enjoying the almost ADD level of excitability our character has been displaying so far.
>>96975
"As you wish, sir. Please stand back." Isaac acquiesces with synthesized respect, reaching down to the bio-lock installed flush against the door panel. You edge back a few feet, but only enough to give him space - you want to see if there's a combination or something, in case your father's hidden other caches like these within Iris Telecom ships and buildings.
You're incredibly underwhelmed to discover that the combination was in fact your birthday. Dad sure is a sentimental old sod. And incredibly bad at passwords. You should totally abuse this fact before you let him know his stuff's been looted.
"Here we are, sir. Your father's...hmm." Isaac pauses as he brings forth your precious loot. A look of concern appears on his face. Apparently he wasn't expecting to find this here. That just makes you want it more.
You grab it from his hands before he has a chance to reconcile this existential logic bomb, examining it yourself with fervent desire. You've never seen a gun like this - even in your VR shooter sims. It's got weird, non-euclidian angles. You're fairly certain it's got a trigger mechanism...somewhere. You poke what appears to be a barrel. Isaac nearly jumps out of his machine-skin in fright.
"Y-young master, please...I beg you to abandon that. If your father knew that you had even looked at such a thing, let alone touched it..." Isaac's tone is pleading now. Oh, this day is rapidly getting better. Whatever makes Isaac scared is generally a recipe for fun times ahead. Except for those times where it wasn't, but your memory gets a little fuzzy about those times. Space drugs are awesome like that.
"Tell me what it is, and maybe I'll consider putting it back," you say, cradling your new favorite thing in the universe closer to you. Isaac makes a pleading gesture with you once more, but your heart is immune to his robotic charm.
"It's...alien. I can't say any more than that." Isaac finally grumbles. You're kind of disappointed. Alien? So what? It doesn't seem like it would fit in Ch'tauk claws. The Chimerae are legally cousins of humanity, so Isaac's designation would be wrong to refer to them in such a way. The Xygurh? Still not quite right - you've seen Xygurh tech. Aesthetically they're still in the rococo age. Nothing this sleek would come from a Xygurh gunsmith.
That leaves...the bottom drops out of your universe for a moment.
"This is...from OUTSIDE human space? Like, another race that can travel at FTL? We found one? Who the hell are they? Why haven't we heard about this?! This is huge!" you begin to babble, but Isaac strikes you brusquely, which shuts you up.
"Yes, there exists a race outside our borders that has achieved faster-than-light. They are not our friends. They do not want to be our friends. What you have is a kind of bribe in exchange for information your father gave to an advanced scouting party about human defense networks." Isaac stares at you intently. You no longer feel safe.
>>97678
Explore the ship
>>97678
Wait it sounds like daddy did something illegal, what would happen if someone else were to find this?
>>97678
Hunh. We probably should have learned about this in some other way.
Let's move on andtry to forget that we are not alone and they do not like us
>>97678
You pocket the xenos firearm and hope the thing doesn't give off any kind of exotic radiation that would be detected. Your mind is frantically attempting to bury the trauma of learning that there are boogiemen in the vastness of space that do not like humans. Not gonna be able to live that one down for a while. Not without lots of meaningless sex and space drugs.
Man, do you miss space drugs right now.
"Isaac. I do not feel safe any more. How many people know about this gun?" you speak softly and slowly, mostly so that the sentry outside doesn't overhear you. Isaac takes a moment to think.
"Right now? You. Myself. Your father. A Free Colony pirate who acted as liaison. Nobody else. It needs to stay that way, Sen Xi. Do you understand me? If you do not, you need to tell me right now before this becomes a problem." Isaac counts off on one hand the co-conspirators in this rapidly-devolving situation. Then, of course, those excellent genetic enhancements to your intellect kick in and you realize its all falling in place.
The free colony pirate. The mission assigned to you, the only son. The posthuman collaborator. The fueled-and-ready Gladius.
"Oh fuck me. This was all planned, wasn't it. My father prepped the Gladius, knowing I'd want to go with a lot of muscle behind me, hid the gun here, and then when I reached Herod's Rock, the pirate would take ownership of the evidence, presumably without my ever being the wiser."
Isaac nods slowly. "That's a reasonable conclusion. But we should remain calm. The plan is still proceeding smoothly. You just have to keep acting like your usual idiotic self. Nobody needs to know until we're back home."
Possible Options:
>Tell Tycho. He needs to know that this is rapidly becoming a situation beyond his pay grade.
>Kill Isaac. His loyalty to you - and more importantly, your safety in his company - is in question now. Surrounded by all of these weapons, you could claim it was a misfire. Nobody would question it.
>Stay quiet. The less fuss we make, the better. Dad's got a plan, and we need to stick to it, or else things are gonna get nasty real quick.
>Write in
>>98309
>Stay quiet.
Our dad is our dad, he wouldn't do anything that will get you killed.....would he?
>>98554
Seconded
AND ON THAT BOMBSHELL, THAT'S OUR SHOW
I'm calling the quest for tonight gentlemen, but I will have your decision written and ready for posting tomorrow, between 1400 and 1900 EDT.
My apologies for the cliffhanger.
>>98618
No problem, night.
>>98618
You there OP?
