This Plot is Concluded

On April 16th YE 34 a Harvester Class Salvage Vessel, the LCS Mok'Ro, went missing somewhere beyond the Tange system. With the lack of communications and the general lack of exploration beyond Tange she was written off as lost for nearly five months. A brief.. garbled.. but still usable video communication changed all of this, the data attached to it however proved for more valuable. The communication was received by a deep space relay, in it was the captain of the vessel. A female Lmanel by the name of Mara 'Longwalk' Korro Lmanel, it was a plea for help and the location of her crew and her ship.. the feed however was cut moments after it began by an unknown force.

The isolated location, light years beyond the Matriarchy's borders, and the high cost for a conventional rescue led to the conclusion that a new method was necessary for this particular operation. The LSDF Akahar, a Raptor-Class Expeditionary Ship was selected to carry out what would now be essentially a low key special operations raid on what was best assumed a pirate base. One that could be responsible for most of the hostile activity below Tange. There assignment is simple, slip into the system covertly, land a small squad of heavily armed LSDF troops, and sweep the facility of all hostiles and rescue any survivors.

The LSDF Akahar and her crew were part of a specialized single ship assignment under the command of Mar'zhaz Keib 'The Howeler' New Tur'lista.

The LSDF Akahar was an open play by post (SP) ship interdependently operating in uncharted space. It was run by GM Luca. It had a 4 to 7 day posting requirement, although expect GM posting as frequently as it is needed. Roleplay occured in this forum

The plot was open to any players with at least three months worth of SARP experience who wished to participate.

The final mission of the LSDF Akahar was to determine the fate of the LCS Mok'Ro and her crew, and eliminate the party or parties responsible for the ship's disappearance. Her secondary mission was the plotting of any locations of interest in the mission area.

These characters are under the GM's control.

• Infantry, lots.
• Medical Personnel.
• Engineering Personnel.

The players for these characters have left the plot due to prolonged inactivity or by choice.

They sent the lowliest ship on the bottommost rung of the lowest ladder of the LSDF to go looking for a ghost ship. It surfaced suddenly as a concrete, verifiable distress signal appeared in XO Mar'zhaz Keib's lap one morning.

With this assignment given, he took on some new blood for his normally skeleton crewed ship, including the mysterious and downright nebulous Aiesu Kalopsia; the un-collared and formerly mistreated Helashio, Four-Six; a veteran Akahar Trooper, Bastion; the solitary ranger, Shrie'Keng; the fiery and catty Merril; a pilot named Vathr'dral and a Jiyuuian soldier, Shimakage.

Keib attempted to tell them what they were looking for as best as he could using the information he was given and trying to extrapolate it as best as he could with his limited facilities. The least he could do was be truthful. Perhaps this was a joke from the higher ups. A massive joke to go looking for a signal that was somewhere in Tange six months ago.

Aiesu and Keib struck a relationship when Keib was asked to do something to her ARIA body that had so much potential for exploitation - he had to go into her brain and physically remove the hard limits given to her by her handler, as well as install overrides that only he had access to.

The procedure took hours and the surgery left him wondering if his past was something that he could escape. Unfortunately, the answer was 'no' as he found out the extent of Four-Six's mistreatment, having to remove a stillborn child of hers that was killed by a gunshot wound. Once the ship arrived on Tange, the two previous events drove Keib over the edge. He was hallucinating and he wounded himself badly. He was forced to take ill and recover, unable to keep an eye on his ship.

The vessel found a distress signal from an abandoned vessel, that wasn't the vessel they were searching for. Thinking that it was a good 'warm up' exercise, Hakahn, the ship's CO sents a portion of the Akahar's team out to investigate.

The derelict vessel belonged to a group of Freespacers. The away team located a server and someintact bodies, and they attempted communicated with them after the Bridge sent them a Lorath to Binary cipher to facilitate communication.

While the away team was out, two things happened: Hakahn took advantage of and raped Aiesu, and the ship was attacked by pirates who'd sensed the Akahar's deep scanning - or they were drawn to the distress beacon too. Fortunately, Keib was woken up by the interruption and started trying to gather survivors. He found Four-Six, having recovered from what happened between them previously, and the two went out.

After finding Aiesu, Shimakage and the ship's doctor Vithr; the five broke into the armoury that the Pirates were trying to get into, and tried to arm themselves, but Aiesu has a different idea, and all she needed was the trust of the others - meanwhile, the Away team returned, and they're cleaning out the ship bit by bit, hoping to get to the XO before the doors to the armoury gave in.

Aiesu's trust was validated when she took control of one of the armours in the room using a crisis library of drivers, and possessing a Tenshi no Yoru powered armour to destroy one of the Demon power armours that was going to kill them. The Away Team were also able to kill a Demon Armour and its pilot when it had its back turned to them. Merril in particular took too much glee in killing it.

With the most immediate threat to Keib gone, the only question that hung thick in the air was where Hakahn was in all of this. He got that answer when he discovered that Hakahn had ran away to the Pirate Ship via a tetherway between the ships and stole a shuttle to escape the fighting. Veronica came back to the Pirate Ship and released her ward, Rae'lynn, and together they overpowered the captain of the ship. Back on the Akahar, crew were given carte blanche to raid the pirate's ship via the tetherway for loot, and data as to why this could've happened. The Pirate's ship was then detonated once everything valuable and useful was off it.

Rae'lynn was reinstated as a Soldier rather than a Trooper in a short ceremony after Keib took inventory of what was going on. Veronica was given a short pardon for her previous acts as a pirate and offered to stay aboard the Akahar for her apprehending of her previous captain. Though, that timely treachery had left a question in Keib's mind: Why? Convenience? The Mok'ro? Something bigger?

The Akahar had survived the bout, but it'd taken damage. It needed a resupply, repair and some spare personnel from the Matriarchy to continue the mission effectively. Shortly before Matriarchy help arrived though, Keib and Aiesu arranged for another delivery, and another repair by the Lazarus Consortium to retrofit the Akahar with experimental, strange and powerful technology.

Keib had some time to burn, so he decided to interrogate the pirate captain of the ship that attacked the Akahar earlier. In the interrogation process, he ended up killing the captain. It's currently unknown whether or not he got the information he needed, but his confidence and conviction were clear as the Matriarchy ship came to resupply the Akahar. Some insults were traded between the resupplying ship's Matriarch and Keib about some prior history they had together - namely Keib being the one to salvage all of the ships she piloted. During the exchange, new personnel were delivered to the Akahar, Kam'kebek "Tilt" Casek Fyunnen and Pilot I'Llus "Camo" Trell Llmanel.

Shortly after the Matriarchy had finished its resupply and some basic repairs (they weren't willing to give any more to the crew of a heretic!) - an alien looking, experimental Lazarus Vessel had entered. They were the Lazarus supply drop, piloted by another Aiesu. The Aiesu by Keib's side was on alert though, advising him and others on the ship to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity.

After a few sleepless days with the new technology on board and Aiesu playing double-duty as a backup ARIA core to crunch numbers twice as fast, Keib had finally found it: The Mok'Ro. He pulled up a plan of a Harvester ship, and overlaid the floorplan with what scanners had sensed and taken pictures of. He could only predict the interior layout and didn't know what could be different. A quantum-memetic event was taking place within it - anything could happen inside that accursed ship.

The crew was notified after a suitable tactical analysis was made and Keib was ready to deliver what little he knew to comfort them. They could potentially be going inside a deathtrap. His directives were simple:

1. Find the ARIA Core or Black Box.
2. Neutralise any threats.
3. Find, Identify and Recover any crew bodies. (Do not bring them aboard due to quarantine concerns, leave them stowed safely on the Mok'ro for to towing)
4. Prepare the Mok'ro for external towing.

He was lying through his teeth on how sure he was of his predictions. He could've been completely wrong - but he didn't want to startle the crew. After the briefing was dismissed, Aiesu scolded Keib's boldfaced lying before revealing the ugliest truth to him about what transpired between her and Hakahn before the pirate attack. He was also given an ultimatum to chew on while the Away Team launched towards the husk of the Mok'ro. Did he really love his crew, or did the job have to be done?

Members of the Away Team

• Mars 'Bastion' - Team Leader
• Al'ris 'Helion' - Riflewoman
• Gough 'Hawkeye' - Recon
• Yar'mak 'Wild Dog' - Heavy Assault
• Veronica - Purpose Unknown, possibly Brawler
• Merril 'Soft Touch' - Medic
• Kam'kebek 'Tilt' - Tech Sentry
• Vathr'dral - Shuttle Pilot

While he chewed on that, the Away Team touched down on the Mok'ro without incident in a hole on the second deck, save for a tense and creepy atmosphere in the zero-gravity vacuum. From there, they started heading towards the Aft engineering bay on that deck, looking for clues or evidence. They discovered a most horrifying revelation - a Lorath person embedded inside the wall, one with it. Merril's medical scanner freaked out, unable to determine the person's status - only that they were alive.

Keib was watching this transpire on everyone's armour-mounted, helmetboard cameras and microphones. Shocked, he sent scan data and photographs to Aiesu. The two then arranged to meet and Aiesu told Keib what they were dealing with. The Mok'ro was infected by a being called a Sourcian, an enigmatic race whose details were known and documented only to the highest of the LSDF and the Lazarus Consortium. There was a change to the mission schema:

1. Find the ARIA Core or Black Box.
2. Neutralise any threats.
3. Do not interact with infected beings or dead bodies at all.
4. Sever the FTL Drives from the Mok'Ro
5. Once back on Akahar, Away Team will need to be Quarantined
6. Await Lazarus pickup and decontamination

Keib sent the orders to the away team, who made tracks from the Engineering bay and into the main body of the Mok'ro's cargo hold to get to the ARIA Core and FTL engines. Inside, it was apparent that the Mok'ro wasn't just a scrap ship - it was a living thing of some sort, still learning to grasp its surroundings. The sheer strangeness of it begun to weigh on the Medic, Merr'il Ghere, who started exhibiting stressed behaviour, not helped by Veronica's gibes.

On the way to the ARIA Core, they passed through the Captain's quarters that overlooked the cargo hold. Inside, it was in surprisingly good condition. In addition, there was a lone survivor in there with them. The Captain of the Mok'ro Mara 'Longwalk' Korro Lmanel, having survived with what they believe was divine intervention. In reality, it may have just been a hibernation pattern of their Llmanel body and an EVA suit with long-term survivability functions.

They found the ARIA Core and the Engines, and to fulfil the mission requirements, Kam'kebek started jettisonning the fuel for the engines, disabling them quickly. The ARIA core was a slightly harder task to fulfil, as it appeared to have morphed into a brain with an eye. It lashed out at Gough, and then all hell broke loose as the shapes of former personnel on board the Mok'ro charged. The first fuel canister was jettisonned, but the second one required a bit of a shove. Korro begun spouting nonsense, and slandering her previous crew.

Mars, instead of pushing it out, pulled it inside and nearly considered using it as a bludgeon against an incoming foe. Kam'kebek nearly died of a heart attack and thanked his lucky stars that the fuel canister, containing volatile Antimatter did not explode. Merril went over the edge, panicking and lashing out at Mars for being so reckless. The others disarmed her, held her down and contained her while she continued tr. The canister was thrown out of a hole in the hull by Al'ris on the way back to the shuttlecraft with the Mok'ro's captain in tow.

Something was stirring inside of Merril as she sat tense in the shuttle, breath haggard, heart rate fluctuating, a subtle subversion beginning to take place…

A Scout Ship by the name of the LSDF Kas'vi hailed the Akahar and said that it had some transfers for the ship, and it heard about the discovery of the Mok'ro. However, word on the Kas'vi was scorn, rumour and mocking. Sure, they found a long-lost, presumed destroyed ghost ship, but the rumours that their CO abandoned them, the XO took an Acting Captain position, and that their bridge staff were deviants filled the air.

That is, until Kerrik Vedii Lmanel told the lot of those eggshell wearing, nest staying, cushy soldiers to pipe down and give those willing to head to the Akahar some credit for putting a reputation on the line to do their best. The following soldiers boarded a shuttlecraft to the Akahar to do their best no matter what scrutiny or slander weighed on them: Ji'xa "Bright" Seurik Lmanel, Assault Recon Tay'rryn 'Glacier' Rhos'vol Fyunnen and Ny'za "Pitch" Hasti Lmanel, Aran'ya "Widow" Lycosa Lmanel.

And lastly, the Inquisitor-Chaplain Chaplain Ha'reiel "Himsā" Ti'rien Fyunnen was the last to board…

(TBD)

The Akahar plot concluded on July 28th 2015.