  
WELCOME TO THE TEST DRIVE and thank you for your interest! Though the game hasn't started yet, we've put together a mini-mission with a few different goals for your characters to pursue. In the interest of flexibility and allowing players to experiment with the game mechanics, we invite you to pick your own broodmates, experiment with abilities and specializations, talk to each other and maybe make up some pre-established cr, and generally play around however you like. This test drive will not be game canon, so take this chance to go nuts!
For the full experience, we strongly encourage players to write up a short blurb about what their fellow characters might know about them either through shared time on the Station or through the Nest mental link. Handy links can be found at the bottom of this entry if you have any questions or want to place a reserve.
HELINOS TOZ
...is the smallest galactic empire located in the second disk of the Silver Halo Galaxy. For thousands of years, the neighboring CONFEDERATE OF BAL and INIVIAL COR(P) have eaten away at Helinos Toz's territory and now have reduced the once-great empire to a single moon ruled by the Last Empress. Though she is a child who owns little in the way of property on the galactic stage, the Last Empress still holds a precious seat in the shrinking Galactic House of Chairs. From this seat she and her allies have managed to keep a stranglehold on the throats of Bal and Inivial’s expansion efforts into the fourth and fifth disks of the Halo. She has accomplished this task by viciously excising loopholes in galactic regulation. Paradoxical though it may sound, the outer rings view the Last Empress as one of the few remaining heroes for the common man against the absorption of either the Bal or Inivial, a symbol of the dangers the two great empires present and a name and a heritage that even today commands respect. While Bal and Inivial may have radically different galactic goals and famously spend their time hounding one another in the house of chairs, they can agree on one thing: the Last Empress and her tiny moon kingdom are a thorn in their side. In an effort to pluck it, Bal and Inivial have joined forces to do away with the Empress and her moon forever.
While a direct attack on the ground empire moon would be an undeniable act of war, and would result in heavy sanctions which would only serve to set their goals back further, there are ways to destabilize the moon without actually putting boots on the ground. Inivial has decided to sacrifice one of their own assets to achieve this: the planet which the moon orbits. Helinos Prime is a cold, dead rock, without it's own atmosphere, as well as the site of a significant Inivial mining operation. It's this very operation that Invivial intends to utilize. By mining directly to the planet’s core, they will harvest a massive amount of heavy elements, cutting heavily into the planet's mass and degrading it's orbit in space-- making it a risk to surrounding inhabited worlds. Galactic regulation demands such a threat be absolutely absolved- by total destruction. Further, it states that these dangers must be dealt with in no more than eight hours, regardless of any other sanctions or treaties. The act itself is quite sterile: a beam weapon located in the first ring which is capable of destroying most planets in a single shot as long as alignment is correct. And once the planet goes, so too does the empire moon.
But even getting rid of the empire’s last land holdings wouldn’t do away with the Empress herself, which is why the Confederate of Bal’s massive armada has opted to choose today for a sprawling training exercise in their space above the empire moon. As is their right under the Secrets and Sanctions treaty, they have refused the operation of any other space traffic in that sector until their exercise has been completed. The paperwork is filed, notarized, and finalized. Under the guise of the Bal and Inivial’s mutual animosity, the two super powers mean to trap the Last Empress with the very rules and regulations she’s spent her young life manipulating to keep them both muzzled.
In summary: the Last Empress and what remains of her small royal envoy are stuck quite literally between a dissolving rock and the hard place of the Confederate of Bal’s guns with no diplomatic wiggle room. Should the empire of Helinos Toz fall, the majority of the house of chairs will turn in favor of expansion and it won’t be long before the Halo’s outer rings become the stage for a vicious war between Bal and Inivial. Those citizens of the outer rings will find their lives drastically changed as those two powers dash to make opportune land (and space) grabs. If the Last Empress can be saved, she might be able to successfully reveal this act of aggression for what it is, and use it as a way to rally the rest of the house of chairs, around her and the interests of the outer rings she stands for, against Bal and Inivial.
YOUR MISSION is to help the Last Empress escape the empire moon before it can be vaporized by Inivial, and to slide her and as many of her retinue as possible through the lines of Bal’s armada undetected.
PROMPTS
ONE • DEBRIEF: NOT AS SEXY AS IT SOUNDS
You've been given your mission file (see above) and outfitted with the appropriate gear to see it through. Today that means thermal suits designed to withstand face melting temperatures and a small cadre of ships that seem awfully familiar... if you're not mistaken they're the same ships currently in formation above Helinos Toz. You can ask Prince where he got them or Cathaway for some flying advice, but you probably won't get answers that makes any sense. Hopefully some of you know how to fly. Hug your friends, say your prayers, and wave Station 72 goodbye because it's time to...
TWO • HITTING ROCK BOTTOM
...sabotage a giant plasma drill! Down on Helinos Prime, Inivial's massive mining operation is a veritable labyrinth of tunnels and substations. Luckily you've been provided with schematics (if you feel like using them), and with some trial and error you should be able to navigate your way to key points in the mining operation. It won't be possible to completely stop the machine from coring the planet, but you just need to buy a little time. Suggested targets are the drill's targeting interface, its coolant systems, and its auxiliary stabilizer vents. How do you do that? Time to use your imagination. On the plus side, no one's around to stop you. Inivial already evacuated their on-site personnel which, come to think of it, might be a bad sign.
THREE • HURRY UP AND WAIT
With Inivial's drill momentarily on pause, it's time to rescue an Empress. Does she even know you're coming for her? Well, she'll find out eventually. There's room for six extra people on the ships provided, meaning you have exactly enough room to smuggle her and her closest advisers off of the empire moon. You've got six hours before you can (and really SHOULD) leave. Right now it looks like there's time to kill. Get to know the locals, the moon's bustling trade port, or its local population of cute dragonbirds. You have a collapsing planet below you and a veritable wasps nest of ships above you. Enjoy it while it lasts-- or bypass it all and wait for your window of opportunity with the Empress and her envoy.
FOUR • INTO THE WILD BLACK YONDER
The stealth ships can travel invisibly while in atmosphere, but there's no tricking the sensors of the Bal's ships. Luckily you fit right in-- almost. Pretending to be Bal ships might make the most sense, but what if someone notices you're out of drill formation? Even worse, what if someone detects you leaving the empire moon? No Bal ship is supposed to be down there. You could always try finding another ship to take into space, something with a little bit of stealth or maybe a harmless trading vessel. Then again, no one's supposed to be coming off the moon and into this space at all. Think fast, talk faster, or hope your pilot is really good.
FIVE • WILDCARD
Honestly? This is your show. Go surfing on some subterranean lava flows while stalling Inivial's mining efforts, try to take all the Empress's gold leaf dining room chairs with you when you evacuate the empire moon, or maybe you're done with this whole mission alltogether and want to try hijacking a ship from the Bal's armada and flying it out into space until this whole thing blows over. There's a whole galaxy out there; what else could be waiting for you?
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emptynesters2016-02-03 09:43 pm
Mackenzie Jones | Original
((RHO TYPE, Mack's ability is the super boring telekinesis. She can't lift anything heavier than her though, so that's... about 150 lbs on a good day, but she mostly focuses on detailed, precise displays of power (she could technically pull your eyeballs off your head but she hasn't tried). She gets oddly well with her symbiote, although that might be because she's already something of a composite being back in her world. Mack is heavily individualistic though, and has shown no interest to expand on her powers. People peeking into her mind by chance or mistake might find "a layer of silliness" that's basically her thinking about anything and everything. And butts. The lower one goes though, the darker the thoughts turn, and the most likely she'll kick your ass for it (maybe, probably). Don't go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong! She's a liar and a con artist, a thief and capable of babbling her way out of anything, although most of the times it goes impressively wrong, so she's obviously also an escape artist. Good thing she's a good person, right?))
[ II ] The root of (corporate) evil.
[ The lack of people truly makes Mack wonder if she got the right...planet? Probably? She has a long history of ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but all she can tell this is where shit's going down. The fact she's not getting shot at for trespassing is both good and bad at the same time. Eventually she does find the core, and the drill, and wow, she's totally in the right place, although you might also call it the wrong one if you consider it's going to implode soon.
Which brings her to the question of what to do now? Mack wanders around, checking bleeping boards and status reports on screens, but she's not entirely sure of how to proceed. Too much enthusiasm might make the whole thing explode, too little might activate some defense mechanism and trap her in there. Suddenly Mack wishes she had taken the time to, you know, waited for her team or something.
Eventually she finds some heat controls and starts cancelling it, noticing how the performance reports drop steadily, but they don't stop. She's just buying time here, which sucks. It's never fun when a world dies, even if it's a sorry piece of frozen rock.
A moment later she's hurling one of the chairs there into a screen. ]
Okay, that looks more like an effort.
[ III ] Catnaps at the end of the world
[ Downtime is downtime, no matter what's going down, even if it is an entire planet, a royal line and the lives of a bunch of poor aliens. Mack is fairly certain they're poor in every sense of the word, too. But what can you do when you have to wait? Usually Mack would be drinking her way into oblivion for the next few hours, but considering she needs to be sharp to probably fly them all out of there in one piece, she can't touch booze. Alien booze! What a loss, man.
So instead she can be found on a nearby rooftop, smoking some of the cigarettes she has on her person. Considering Mack always has a lot of them she might even feel inclined to share, if you ask nicely. And if you actually do find her; it's relatively easy to spot her if one considers the trail of smoke rising from the roof and the scent of the smokes she's working through.
And then convince her to share, of course. ]
[ IV ] By the seat of your pants
[ Summarizing:
Getting the
EmpressPrincess on the ship? : CheckUsing the cloaking device to exit quietly? : Check
Avoiding instant notice by playing it cool with other Bal ships? : Check
Going away without all hell breaking loose? : Yeah, about that... ]
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. Please buckle up, try not to vomit and enjoy the view as we try to not explode in a million tiny pieces of ship and good intentions.
[ Mack speaks in her usual goodnatured tone, but anyone that takes a closer look might notice she's pretty tense, actually. Which makes sense, considering all the explosions going on around them. Her hands fly on the controls, and the ship flies accordingly, evading and gaining speed with a level of skill that's difficult to reconcile with the chick that looks like the vapes on the daily in the pilot's seat.
The fact she's no longer being a smartass should be enough of an indication of how much of her attention just staying alive is demanding of her. Mack's innate skills make her the best behind anything that can be conducted, but that doesn't mean she's instantly comfortable doing so. That takes time, which they don't have right then. ]
Somebody please tell me we have weapons here, and that someone's using them.
[ Driving and shooting? Not today. ]
Also someone give me a back massage, or plot a escape course. Wherever your skills lie, no pressure. My back is killing me though.
[ V ] Wildcard
[ Wanna do something else? Just do it! ]
IV. makes this up as I go along???
On the weapons!
[ Gets her ass to one of the panels, slamming through codes to activate the guns, waiting for them to charge with a breathless. cmon, cmon, we don't have all fucking day here. Not when the displays come up that they're not alone at all. This isn't her best area, but she'd learned because it looked fun, and someone needed to, for just this situation. Make do, right? ] Ah, shit, I think they've got a lock on us.
[ Her fingers move quick, the robotic finger whirring with the use as she tries to get one back, work out who exactly is firing at them. Hard, with so much whirring by in space. ] You might wanna pull an invasive maneuver like -- fucking now. [ Said physically, and blared loud over the hive lines, as she tried to get the shot line up to pay them back for it. ]
good, good
[ Again with the conversational tone. She doesn't wait for an answer though, and next thing everyone knows she's spinning like a crazy spinny thing, passing right between two Bal ships trying to cut her off, which soon after explode as they're hit by what looked like a big space torpedo. ]
Oh yeah, they've got a lock. Do try and stop them from doing that again, would you?
also god, evasive not invasive, my apologies
Working on it. [ Once she's a little less worried about it pitching under her, she goes back to going through motions and drawing up the gun controls. In time, at least, when another warning alarm goes off warning them, she pulls the guns around and - steady, steady, steady --
bam! ] Suck on that, you corporate bastards! [ Then there's a call back: ] We're clear at six o'clock.
lmao I assumed as much
Not to say it wasn't a great shot, but be ready to clear the rest of the clock in a moment. This time you should see them coming though.