The Fringe

The Fringe was a roleplaying plot created April 15, 2014 by Floodwaters.

The plot is currently on indefinite hiatus and is not accepting players until future notice.

This plot follows the exploits of the crew aboard the aging freighter Concordia Veil, scraping out a living on the frontier of known space by any means necessary. Life in the more lawless areas of space isn't always easy, however, and freedom comes with a cost…

• Current RP Thread #1
• Current RP Thread #2
• OOC Thread
• Theme Song
• ISS Concordia Veil

The plot is currently suspended, to be resumed at an unspecified date in the future.

April 2014 - 95 (A)

August 2014 - 100 (A)

The Concordia Veil plot is geared mostly towards more “ordinary” humanoid characters. It is not a military plot, and as such, will not exclusively focus on heavy combat and high damage output weaponry. As such, characters with excessive superhuman abilities (such as Nekovalkyrja or ID-SOLs) will not be accepted for the sake of balance with other more “normal” characters. While some exceptions may be made, certain modifications may be necessary to ensure that no one character is repeatedly eclipsed, as well as making it easier for the GM to provide fun, engaging challenges for all PCs.

Unless the majority of players wish to make the plot 18+ (and no one objects), posting content is expected to adhere to a “PG-13” rating. This means that most content including violence, language, drug/alcohol use, and sexuality is permissible, provided that they are not explicitly graphic.

If you have questions on whether or not something is acceptable, please contact the GM prior to posting.

While typos will understandably occur, players are to put forth their best effort to ensure that their posts are grammatically correct and contain no spelling errors.

This plot will be primarily SP, although JPs are certainly welcome when appropriate and when enough players schedules allow.

When posting to a thread, be sure to denote the post's location as a header, and don't forget to mention your character's name at least once, so it's clear who is speaking/acting. If the location is the same as the post immediately prior to yours, a location header is not necessary.

Be as descriptive and verbose as you can! Obviously, there's no need for novels in each post, but posts that consist of nothing more than one or two lines are frowned upon. What is your character doing, what do they see, what are they thinking? How do they perceive what's going on around them, as well as their fellow PCs and other NPCs present? Tell us everything!

Players are expected to post every two days at minimum. Players who go longer than this without posting will be sent a reminder to post immediately to keep the plot moving and avoid forcing the rest of the group to sit idle. If the player goes a day or more longer than this without posting, the offending player's character may be NPCed by the GM as necessary. If the character's player is absent for an excessive length of time without explanation, the character may be disposed of to open a vacancy for another interested player, according to SARP rules.

Exceptions can of course be made for real life events or technological problems, provided the player makes an effort to get in touch with the GM, and each situation will be handled according to the circumstances surrounding it.

This plot is currently inactive and is not accepting players at this time.

http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/prologue-m-eager-beginnings.15071/

In early YE 36, Sienna Shelton purchased the used hull that would become the Concordia Veil, her ticket to total freedom amongst the stars, on the Amatsu-Nova space station. While performing the repairs and refits necessary, she was reunited with Oreza Dakkar, a family friend from her late childhood, who volunteered to assist her. Soon afterwards she met Amelia Stroud, who she hired initially to help troubleshoot the ship's computer, and eventually offered a job as she ship's astrogator and commms officer.

Unbeknownst to the three adventurers, a Type 5 Freespacer was dormant aboard the ship, and the ruckus caused by Sienna's repairs caused it to awaken and investigate the disturbance.

http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-1-0-new-hires.15133/

The ship landed on the Black Moon, a seedy pirate haven within Yamataian space. The landing party, acting on purchased information, went to attend an arranged meeting with a contact who claimed to have work for them, but when a scuffle in the bar turned into a full-scale gunfight, the meeting never took place. However, the ship managed to bring two new crew members aboard, one of which (Vel Vect'Orian) claimed to have precise coordinates of a derelict mining ship in the local asteroid belt. The other was Stitchtech Pat 64-4406-2207, a Freespacer medic with… questionable… training. Left without any other immediate opportunities for work, the captain reluctantly accepted the offer and set out in search of the ship, in hopes that they would be the first to arrive and claim a lucrative haul of salvage.

Meanwhile, on the ship, Amelia discovers Crash Mckill, the Freespacer hiding aboard the ship, and the two form a tenuous alliance when the ship is boarded by hijackers posing as port authorities. Working together, they manage to kill one and incapacitate the other.

After a rather brutal interrogation, Sienna leaves the surviving hijacker on the Black Moon barely clinging to life with a dire warning never to cross them again.

http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-2-0-salvage.15492/

Following the coordinates given to them by Vel Vect'Orian, the crew fly to the Halna asteroid field in search of the derelict. However, after a series of confrontations between Vel and the crew, the Freespacer Crash Mckill still hidden in the ship's computer discovers the Iromakuanhe trying to hack in, and reports it anonymously.

Already fed up with Vel's behavior and considering him a danger to her ship, as well as seizing the opportunity to diminish the number of people she would have to divide any potential booty amongst, Sienna has Oreza sabotage Vel's EVA suit and throw him into space once the away team exits the ship.

The remaining away team consisting of Oreza, Six Four, and Sienna EVA across open space to the derelict and searches the wreck, a Hikari-Class Mining Ship, which was blown completely in half, most of it floating in a cloud of debris. Amelia and Crash decide against the captain's orders to fly through the debris field and land on the wreck itself, further angering the captain. The captain severely admonishes the astrogator for her disobedience and warns her not to move until further notice.

The crew at first discover few clues as to what caused the disaster, but they do come across two apparent survivors: dylan_bjarkmar, trapped in a medbay, and Shrie "Pinpoint" Zar'koe Fyunnen, trapped in a still-mostly-intact shuttle pinned in the launch bay.

Amelia, who had again disobeyed the captain's orders to help search for the survivors, manages to free Shrie's shuttle and help pilot her out of the wreck, while Oreza and Six Four work on a plan to get Dylan out of the still pressurized medbay. While in the cargo bay, Amelia happens upon an undetonated Aether torpedo, obviously out of place on a mining ship, and puzzles over its presence. Sienna, worked up into an irrational fury, stalks back to the ship and discovers Crash, as well as the fact that the astrogator was gone. The captain confines Crash (now in a temporary android body) to Amelia's quarters and hails Amelia's shuttle, revealing that she knows about the stowaway Freespacer as well as threatens to destroy the shuttle if she tries to flee.

Amelia asks Crash to override the ship's systems, paralyzing the Veil until further notice and rendering Sienna powerless. Oreza defuses the increasingly volatile powder keg and manages to talk the unstable captain down, but Six Four, when returning to the ship to procure another suit for Dylan, pumps her full of a knockout dose of Qualen, leaving the operation in Oreza's hands.

A slaver ship arrives and demands the crew's surrender. When the crew realizes the new arrivals' intent, they open fire on the approaching boarding shuttle and take off as they broadcast an SOS, leaving Six Four and Dylan to fend for themselves temporarily. An intense chase ensues, resulting in one of the Veil's turrets being destroyed. The slaver ship gives up the chase after a time, aware of the window of time they had to capture their quarry before the Yamataian response fleet would arrive, and jumps away.

The response fleet jumps in moments later, bluntly refuses any reward to the crew for their haphazard rescue, and commences its recovery of the warhead. The crew returns to the Black Moon empty-handed and demoralized.

http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-2-1a-licking-their-wounds.16130/ http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-2-1b-moonside-picnic.16161/ http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-2-2-prospects.16181/

Tensions between the captain and the crew threaten to tear the fledgling operation apart as Sienna slowly comes out of her drug-induced stupor, and Oreza does his best to maintain order as he organizes repairs and refits for the damaged ship.

Amelia and Crash venture out into the colony's marketplaces, purchasing new equipment for the astrogator and a new spider-bot body for the Freespacer with their dwindling funds, and despite the unpleasant situation back on the ship, the two of them actually begin to develop a rapport with one another as they enjoy some impromptu diversionary activities. Meanwhile, as Sienna's mind clears, she falls into something of a depression as the things that Oreza and Crash said to her begin to resonate, but not until after having another confrontation with her first mate regarding the details of servicing the Veil.

The captain starts to suffer the effects of withdrawal from the massive dose of Qualen she was injected with, while searching the Black Moon's networks for any potential leads on work to make up for their previous failure. During her search, she stumbles across a distress message from a mysterious source, and after a few exchanged messages, agrees to rescue the sender from a world on the edge of Abwehran space. She also works, begrudgingly, with Crash to work out a trade run to Khorsovarolor as a hedge on the way, in the event that the rescue mission goes awry as well.

Shrie attempts to smooth things over amongst the crew by taking the initiative to prepare a meal for them, bringing them together around the mess table, where Sienna takes her first step in trying to be a leader, rather than a dictator.

The ship makes a trading run to Khorsovarolor for a small profit, running moon dust and cave spider silk to the rebuilding world for processing into construction materials. In transit, tensions between the captain and crew diminish to a simmer, but the rift is far from healed.

Sienna and Crash become increasingly at odds due to the latter's whimsical, “prankster” nature, and Amelia tries to help the Freespacer adapt to his role, all the while trying to be patient with the captain as she makes a visible effort to be a leader rather than a dictator. However, Sienna finds it increasingly difficult to undo the damage done to her reputation as the ship's captain, and feels increasingly isolated from her crew.

The captain's condition worsens as she tries to keep her Qualen withdrawal symptoms hidden from the crew, but Six Four discovers them when she happens upon the captain vomiting in the lavatory. The medic does not appear concerned, advising the captain that the symptoms will pass while justifying her action of medicating Sienna as necessary at the time. Seemingly, Sienna accepts the explanation, but in secret works out a scheme to secretly acquire small doses of Qualen from the medic's laboratory for her personal use, with the rationale of needing to expedite her recovery as quickly as possible so as to be in top shape for their next job…

http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-3-0-strangers-in-a-strange-land.16189/ http://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/chapter-3-1-junk.16341/

Responding to a distress call on one of the moons in the Neue Jaspis system, a star system inhabited by a rogue AI and its automotons, the Veil touched down in a twilight jungle to rescue a marooned Gartagen. Aside from the atmosphere having too low of an oxygen level to comfortably breathe, the moon's gravity was almost double standard, and the crew discovered that the Gartagen (who called himself Bithut Palmatar Tam) had several dozen crates of belongings he wished to take with him as well. Furthermore, the crates were located in the middle of an expansive grove of trees, with no clearing large enough and nearby enough to land the ship close enough to efficiently load the equipment.

After some deliberation, the away team consisting of Amelia and Oreza decided to use some of the explosives that Tam had to clear away a sizable portion of the trees so that the ship could land right next to the crates, facilitating loading. The plan was executed as expected, the ship was moved, and loading began; however, the explosions and commotion attracted the attention of a swarm of resource collection drones in the vicinity, all of which evidently now saw the Jinsoku and its cargo as a prime target to be stripped for materials.

A pitched battle with thousands of drones quickly ensued, the crew barely managing to get the last of the crates aboard before they were overrun. Many of the crew were separated from one another in the chaos, desperately trying to get everything and everyone back on the ship all the while fighting off the seemingly endless waves of relentless spider-drones intent on dismantling everything in sight.

Oreza's knee was broken when a damaged drone fell onto it, and Shrie was lacerated multiple times across the chest, but the crew finally managed to lift off with a fair number of drones still clinging fast to the outer hull. Using a combination of the ship's turrets and a series of daring, high-G and high-atmospheric-drag maneuvers, the drones were neutralized as they rocketed out of the moon's atmosphere, leaving Crash McKill overheated and burnt out from the extreme effort he exerted to save the ship.

The ship made for Dawn Station for repairs, refitting, and some much-needed down time for its crew.

However, to her crew's bewilderment, after leaving vague (and terse) instructions, the Veil's captain vanished into the city and did not return. When several days passed without so much as a hint as to their captain's whereabouts or wishes, many of the crew members simply tired of waiting and left of their own accord to pursue other interests, many of them undoubtedly at least somewhat glad to be rid of her. Some of her more duty-minded employees attempted to track her down, but strangely, not a trace of her could be found. Few people on the busy Dawn Station remembered her, and those that did could only give vague accounts that led to nothing but dead ends. Sienna had, for all intents and purposes, vanished.

Eventually her remaining crew gave up the search and moved on with their lives, perhaps deducing that in all likelihood their former captain did not want to be found. The Concordia Veil was ultimately impounded and sent to a scrap yard, where it sat idle and forgotten, awaiting its fate.

Floodwaters intends to revive this plot at some point in the future if there is enough interest, and when a time comes that her PC Sienna Shelton is free.