Quest:Void Quest

The Harbinger, as drawn by Vedibere.

The Harbinger, as interpreted by /tg/.

Void Quest is a sci-fi Quest run by Vedibere !!O+eQDn0BBx8 where /tg/ takes on the role of Gedaechtnis T. Followill, EI Captain of the OIS Harbinger, a Harbinger-class Strike Cruiser, reactivating 64,119 years after a particularly brutal battle only to find that the Empire he served has mysteriously disappeared. Gedaechtnis, or Ged, is joined by the surviving members of his crew as they dive into an unknown galaxy where they might be the last humans left.

The threads can be found here.

After nearly two years of hiatus, Void Quest was concluded by the author. The final thread reveals the secrets behind all the NPCs, how the story would have played out, and possible ending scenarios.

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

The Universe of Void Quest

Humanity, Fuck Yeah!

Humanity advanced, expanded, and grew larger. There were few who could even pose a threat to human domination. The Ophidian Empire, as it came to be called, became the largest power in the galaxy: mostly by quashing all opposition. Humanity harnessed Artificial Intelligence, the power of Singularities, FTL-communications, and warp travel. The largest weapons became black holes. There was peace in the galaxy, more or less. Pax Humana.

The government of the Ophidian Empire was a kind of Holy Roman Empire of feudal states with a strong overgovernment that was charged with protecting the federated states from aliens and other threats. Humans developed a strong double standard. Non-humans and dissenters were considered degenerates. Sterilizing a planet was considered an acceptable tactic against such degenerates, not so much against humans.

The Ophidian Armada was the enforcer of humanity's manifest destiny, and the Harbinger was the first of the largest and best warships ever developed. The Harbinger was sent off to put down the Hundred Worlds Rebellion, circa OY-19381. The Houses, wary of the power represented by the Harbinger-class strike cruisers, set out to sabotage the Harbingers maiden voyage. In the end of the operation, the Harbinger needed to make a blind jump to escape a double supernova and was thus designated as MIA.

What happened next is not entirely clear. The Houses maneuvered to gain more power. The Gate system was completed and implemented, ending the Armada's dominance on long-distance shipping. By OY-19439, the outpost at Orrin is abandoned. A civil war happened between the three main powers in the Ophidian empire. An AI rebellion occurred. The Armada and its EIs declared themselves the true successors of the Ophidian empire, but were eventually defeated at FarCom. Humanity entered a period of decline. According to the logs from Orrin, the last logged battle status report occurs in OY-19454. By the end of the conflict, planets were sterilized more and more often.

In the intervening millenia, non-human races developed civilizations. They became scavengers of the technology of the ancients, using isolated Gate networks, planetary constructions, and space stations for their own purposes. The Galaxy is currently without a clear known and expansionist dominant power.

Concepts

Ophidian Empire

o·phid·i·an ( -f d - n). adj. Of, relating to, or resembling snakes. n. A member of the suborder Ophidia or Serpentes; a snake. Coined by the separatist human leader Zabak Raul during one of his famous propaganda speeches during the Empire's formation, saying that the new Empire of Humanity was "Like a snake, wrapping its coils around every free being." It stuck, and as the Empire was just forming it became the Ophidian Empire of Humanity.

The Human empire, and the only known Level 10 civilization. Ruled by the Imperial Council; effectively the Armada, the Houses, and the independents.

The political structure was a military government, tended to be some tension. Military officers held government ranks by default but the civvie representatives from the great houses often held higher ones.

The Empire was ruled by the Imperial Council, one vote from every representative. Rep positions were granted through rank in the military, controlled planets, and election of peerage. Actual system was very complex and great house aspirants often were raised from birth to become a council member.

Some worlds were independent of the great houses, and they all had their own military, usually one that was highly prestigious to be a part of so that they got a constant stream of bodies to throw against house invasions.

Every great house had a military force of its own, and prestige varied with how successful they were in the past thousand years or so.

The Empire military was a different story altogether though. Basically, it was for the best of the best of the best of the galaxy. It had so many applications coming in daily there was a whole government agency dedicated to processing them.

Imperial propaganda - shown on every world in the empire; Home, Colony, Protectorate, and Subject. It was specially designed by think-tanks of neuroscientists, sociologists, and psychologists, and xeno-specialists to be as influential as possible and spread the idea that humanity is the greatest and most powerful race ever, utterly unable to be defeated. The Imperial military was heavily emphasized and featured in many of them, building up the notion of an invincible juggernaut.

Musical Trends - Circa OY-19381, future-techno is the new pop, Shriek is popular in the underground scene, and all the elites listen to classical music in front of their friends while secretly buying techno.

The Armada - The branch of the Ophidian military that is responsible for interstellar combat and warships. The Harbinger belongs to the Armada. Nicknamed The Bloody Sword of the Empire.

Armada Intelligence - The elite super-secretive, paranoid, and high-tech research/infiltration branch of the Armada. They don't play around. When you're in Intel, you're in Intel for life. Mental indoctrination, advanced cybernetics, horrifying bioweapons: these guys have done them all. Whether they had an agenda separate from the Armada itself is unclear.

High Command - The organization controlling the Armada. Or something. (Unclear)

Navy - A sea force, as far as we know.

Tech and Other

Hundred-Worlds Rebellion - The Harbingers first and only official mission. A religious xeno rebellion, put down by the Harbinger. 3 planets were rendered sterile, 44 planets surrendered. The Harbinger was then ordered to investigate Iridus, and entered the system blind as to not betray its position. The rebellion sacrificed themselves to induce the system's twin suns to nova. The Harbinger performed a hasty jump away, and suffered severe damage as a result.

Elevated Intelligence (EI) - A human mind linked and transplanted into an Artificial Intelligence construct. Created in order to replace purely Artificial Intelligences (AIs) for high-security duties, such as the commander of a warship. Candidates for EI are thoroughly screened for loyalty, absence of family, etc. The elevation process itself involves a large number of highly trained scientists. No EIs have ever stepped down on a mission, though some have retired and gone on to be university, government, or intelligence computers. Very few. It’s extremely rare. The EI-subsumation process replaces the brain, spine, and major nerves with cyberware.

Artificial Intelligences (AI) - What it says on the tin. Tin-can brains. There has been one AI revolt prior to Harbingers dormancy, and at least one during it. The exact nature of these revolts are unknown, but the effect is that highly functioning AIs were feared in the days of the Ophidian Empire.

Singularity Reactor - A power generation source that harnesses a black hole. These come in different sizes and power outputs. The Harbinger has a large singularity reactor: at full output it would be possible to power an entire planet. While they are heavily shielded, it is indeed possible to collapse them. What happens is a truly catastrophic event of indiscriminate destruction.

Cryostasis - As traditional: deep-frozen individuals (humans, usually) for long-keeping. Reliable if done correctly. There is a recovery period of a month or two during which re-freezing is inadvisable.

Cybernetics - Cybernetics were highly advanced in the Ophidian Empire. The Armada pays for all augmentations. Mind-machine interfacing is actively used. Hardware mental blocks are completely possible.

Virtual Self - An avatar of a mind during a mind-machine interface. Without special training one keeps the mental image of themselves they had prior to being cyberized.

Genemods - Genetic modifications: popular and common, everything from food to pets to even children were genemodded for things like slower cell degeneration, better immunities, making them tougher... things like that. No creating things out of whole cloth though.

Ophdian traffic only - The system is under the direct control of the Ophidian Empire and only human ships are permitted in the system, due to a combined military, economic, and political stranglehold. Typical for alien races that tried to resist becoming subject states at first but later gave up.

Ophidian Navy - Mentioned by Captain Charles Devri of the OIS Glorious Destiny in a recorded message at Orrin. Perhaps ruled by a High Command and the Regent.

Cloning - Possible, but not in the Harbinger.

Hyperstate Reactor - A weak (relatively) reactor, barely capable of firing a medium energy canon. No containment signature, required vents and a cyclic recombiner.

Mater/antimatter Annihilation Reactor - A small-scale reactor type, more powerful than fusion/fission, but still very weak.

Marquis class - A fast attack destroyer-class warship. Created and deployed during Harbingers dormancy, in order to placate the Consuls worries about the Armada's political power. Presumably cheaper and weaker than the Harbinger-class.

That thing on Korlo - Foreshadowed by Anon in thread 2 as UltraMegaSpaceDeathVirus, and colloquially deemed "Space AIDS." The former is more accurate, as the virus stays alive for millenia and causes death within 30 minutes of contact by means of hemorrhaging from all orifices, including eyes.

The Galactic Core - The rough equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. More stars there than the rest of the galaxy combined, they say. Rumors of races so powerful they fly through space without ships, wreathed in pure energy, laughing flames dancing from their eyes as they pull ships to their doom in the supermassive black hole that resides in the center.

Horrific stories of vessels flying through and getting caught in in Hawking radiation emanating from the core singularity, changing everyone on board. They walk and talk like normal people, you can't tell the difference, but sometimes they will all just stop and turn, staring at you, not saying a word. It's said that no matter what type of ship they were before they all go rogue, taking on passengers and then flying them through the eddies and currents only they can see... creating more of them.

The Charn - The most advanced and largest alien empire encountered to date by humanity. A propaganda-vilified extraterrestrial race that was wiped out completely for resisting to submit in any way.

Intergalactic Travel - There have been a lot of projects over there years but ultimately there was just no way to get there fast enough at the time of your accident.

Gateway System

Can we, as an EI of vast power, whip up some sort of crude video that clearly indicates our ship moving through the portal peacefully? - Anonymous

A system of point-to point jump networks. A source of great confusion to Void Questers. Power for the jumps provided by the gate, no need for a jump drive or any power to be provided by the ship. Links to a set number of other gates within 5000 LY. Can only transmit to and from online gates. Strictly point to point and uses less energy because of that. Also it acts on other objects that pass through it rather than itself, like a normal drive would. If both the departure and receiver gates are not online, the link can't be established in the first place. The Harbinger is capable of using these gates, and it has been recommended to do so in order to not strain the reactor.

There are main "Highways" consisting of primary nodes spaced apart at 5000 LY. Primary nodes only connect to other primary nodes and secondary nodes. All the nodes stemming from a primary node that aren't other primary nodes are considered part of that primary node's "node network" since they can only be accessed through the primary node. These extend from Sol to the outer rim of the galaxy. There are connections between the "spokes" on this wheel at places too, but to travel long distances you will need to use these. There is no way to tell which gates are functioning without attempting to connect to it: "dial it in and see if it opens." The more heavily trafficked the system the more gates they had there for exactly this reason. Sol is logged as having over three thousand of them.

Secondary nodes connect only to other primary nodes and tertiary nodes. Tertiary nodes connect only to secondary nodes, other tertiary nodes, and terminal nodes. Terminal nodes only have one connection, to the tertiary node which they are linked to. All gates in a particular system can link to any other gates that system is linked to.

The gateway system. White with blue links: Primary node. Red: Secondary. Green: Tertiary. Yellow: Terminal.

There are two ways to activate a gate:

One, you beam your authorized commands to it (via use of access codes) and let it do all the calculations and send you on your way. This requires the security codes.

Two, you have all the programming and protocols needed for the gate calculations on your own vessel and just have it open where you damn well tell it to. This requires all the data needed for gatejump calcs and the protocols needed to operate the machinery.

It is impossible to set the gate to only accept commands with our security codes, it takes the physical presence of workmen to take it off the grid.

The Gate system crisscrosses the entire galaxy. We have copies of the gate control protocols from Orrin's gate, to be able to activate or deactivate the gate remotely.

Civilization Types

Level 1: Proto-society with agriculture and small cities and low sustainable population. Ex. Mesopotamia.

Level 2: Established society with established agriculture or equivalent and large territorial control and beginnings of industry. Ex. Rome, France, Great Britain.

Level 3: Industrial and technological society with ability to exploit natural resources and technological ability. Ex. USA, USSR.

Level 4: United planetary body with high technological ability and spacefaring ability up to system level. Ex. World Union.

Level 5: Inter-system spacefaring capability and colonies, may or may not be unified. Ex. System's Union, Palaxan Brotherhood.

Level 6: Unified multi-system civilization with developed worlds and spacefaring capabilities up to light speed. Ex. Torvax Assembly, Ophidian Union.

Level 7: Multi-system civilization with FTL capability. Ex. Early Ophidian Empire, Gondia, PaTarn Slae.

Level 8: Advanced multi-system civilization with FTL capability and power projection, up to harnessing advanced spatial drives. Ex. Ophidian Empire of Humanity, Charn (extinct).

Level 9: Advanced multi-system civilization with jumpdrive capability and singularity drives. Ex, Ophidian Empire of Humanity, Hundred Worlds Alliance.

Level 10: The Ophidian Empire of Humanity. (No known comparables).

Plot Summary

Awakening

The year is OY-83,500. The Harbinger awakens 64,119 years, 37 days, 8 hours after its last jump from a system undergoing two stellar novas. Most systems are in poor repair, but critical crew have been preserved in cryostasis. The emergency beacon had been active for 3,211 years, and there has been no response.

After an initial assessment and some distribution of resources, it becomes clear that the Harbinger can be sealed back up, but repairing all critical breaches beyond 60% integrity will require a shipyard. Repairs proceed apace, and five of the crew are defrosted. No more crew are recovered due to concerns about food and water supplies.

The crew is in acceptable condition, although 2nd Lt. Dray Parson expresses heavy concern about being irrevocably in the future. Lt. Ivanova has suffered a gash on her forearm, and attempts to tough through it, but we later notice she is running an infection and a fever. Her wound is treated by Dr. Burr, but only after we order Lt. Ivanova to visit him. Repairs continue, and Lt. Dai gives a rundown of ship capabilities: utterly dismal, but it should be possible to make one or two jumps.

After an inventory of provisions confirms six months of rations, we decide to defrost, at Lt. Dai's request, the four remaining lead engineers, two of the mechanical engineers and one of the electrical engineers. Thanks to their aid, repairs accelerate, and on the 16th day we place ourselves on interstellar maps: 7400 lightyears from our last known location. According to our records, only one uninhabited territorial world, one outpost, and three subject worlds are within the 5000 ly the Harbinger can manage to jump.

On the 26th day, all critical repairs finish, and warp-jumping is once again possible. The possible destinations are Sorias, Orrin, Kuril, Palalion IV, Kraxus. Considering the records horribly out-of-date, Orrin, the outpost world, is selected as the destination, and the jump proceeds.

Orrin

Upon jumping into Orrin, the Harbinger receives an automated transmission: "Attention all Ophidian Navy ships, this is Captain Charles Devri of the OIS Glorious Destiny, Marquis-class fast attack destroyer. Employ Jump travel to and from this system only, the gate has been sealed and colony vacated by order of High Command. Praise be the Regent, may we die in his name." It is unclear who these people are, but the gate is, apparently, the large ring satellite orbiting Orrin: large enough for a cruiser or bulk freighter to pass through. The automated defense platforms accept our IFF codes and read green; the base on the surface of Orrin is overgrown, and no intelligent life or transmissions are detected. No response is received from any Ophidian stations in the system.

After scanning the system, the defense platforms are deemed to be horrifyingly weak, but have nonetheless managed to leave a field of debris around the system. Among the debris are 8 monitoring probes. We send a shuttle to investigate the probes, probe our ability to dock with the gate, and to land on the planet. Despite the gate station being completely gutted and sealed up, the seals are overridden on our authority. While exploring the station, we find a single console uplink jack, and plug a drone in remotely. The drone is almost immediately fried by a counter-intrusion protocol.

The other shuttle lands on the planet, and the drones gain entry to the ground base, only to find it powered down, empty, and ravaged by time. Access to the reactor core and command bridge is restricted. Lt. Ivanova dodges the question of knowing the access codes. The probes get disassembled, and the engineers find that they are clearly descended from Ophidian technology.

Parson and Dai are sent off to investigate the gate, samples from Orrin are brought up for Dr. Burr to test, and the debris field is evaluated to contain wreckage from 20,000 to 100 years old. We wake up Lt. Rinn, weapons officer, and, while he is in recovery for two days due to low-end cybernetics, he is generally accepting of his situation.

We decide to hack the core of the gate, and Lt. Parson suggests checking the date. The Harbinger takes up place outside the projected singularity collapse radius, and we connect to the core in order to gain access to it. What follows is a trip down memory lane: Ged's battle on the OIS Hydra, and the time we first decided to be a ship captain -- even if it meant become an EI. The solution involved accessing the OIS Twin Suns's core, and finding the miniature OIS Harbinger there.

First Contact

Now I've lost it. I know I can lol. You can't just "gently bump" someone with a ship your size.

Threads 6-7

Waran Base

Threads 8-11

Essar’Sha

Threads 12-17

Korlo

Threads 18-21

Maestro's World

Threads 22-28

Characters

Crew

3/4 of the enlisted had family.

Min Wright - Mechanical (?) Engineer. A tall, lanky man with light brown skin and black hair, he graduated sixth in his class from the Armada Engineering Academy. A disciple of Chief Dai, he was selected for the engineering staff due to his excellent command of drones and intimate familiarity with the advanced systems used. He was doing some work on the alien probes that had FTL transmission capabilities.

Chun-Fan Dai - Chief Engineer and provisionally ranked 2nd Lt. Civilian. Responsible for all engineering and maintenance aboard the ship. Thin, short wiry black hair. Heavily augmented, nearly complete cyberization. Neural interface jack. Apparent age unknown, actual age 552. Chief designer of the Harbinger and hailed as one of the greatest engineers ever, insisted that he be allowed to oversee the maiden voyage. Was almost entirely responsible for rapidly reworking the jump system to enable the second random jump away from the novas. Cryo-sleep was rather less kind to his augmetics than flesh and blood, but it has apparently been corrected. Little flesh left, requires custom respirator for low-oxygen environments. No family. Prefers the world of machines and cybernetics to the real world.

Dray Parson - Intelligence Officer and ranked 2nd Lt. Ultimately responsible for both sensors and communications but only oversees sensors directly. 5’ 10”. Caucasian, apparant age 24, actual age 34. First independent assignment since graduating from the academy; has shown during his tenure that he is both wishing to prove himself but also tightly controlled and generally unwilling to let it compromise his caution. Was able to determine the presence of a three warship ambush at Relias Prime through extreme ECM jamming and distracting waves of kamikaze civilian craft. Also responsible for suggesting a direct jump to Iridus. Adverse reaction to the cryo-freeze, became sick shortly after thaw. Still looking a bit green. Father, Mother, two older siblings. Fiancee.

Robert Tynes - Steward and 2nd Lt. In charge of ship supplies, funds, and materials. African, close cropped hair and round-faced. Augmented, artificial spine due to childhood accident. Apparent age 25, actual age 73. Known for his meticulous accounting and savant-like prediction of required supplies for any given mission, he came highly recommended. No injuries, immediately asked for a manifest of known supplies upon drying off and a list of ship damage. Mother and sister, both estranged. Wife, children.

Mardigan “Guns” Rinn - No matter who, the Empire’ll give ‘em what they deserve. Weapons Officer, Third Lieutenant; Responsible for maintaining an accurate evaluation of the ship’s combat readiness, assessing enemy tactics and armament, and offering combat advice to the captain if requested. Male. Muscular, white hair, slightly scarred face. Internal augmentation. Apparent age 58, actual age 437. Illegally enlisted as an apprentice spacer at age 15, saw action the same year. Logged in excess of 140 campaigns aboard 29 different ships of varying classes. Highly decorated. Applied and was accepted to the Armada Officer Academy at age 319. Graduated and was assigned as WO by dint of service length and breadth. Served as WO aboard six vessels before application of transfer to the Harbinger. Four siblings, assorted great, great-great, and great-great-great grandchildren.

Dr. Christof Burr - I’m a doctor not a botanist. Physician. Caucasian male, apparent age 53, actual age 312. Grey hair in a crown around his balding head, trimmed gray beard with streaks of brown, slightly overweight. No augmentation. Practical. Suggested cannibalizing crew when short on resources. Children, assorted great, great-great, and great-great-great grandchildren. Wife and children dead and gone. I joined the Armada for one more adventure a hundred years ago, and it hasn’t disappointed. I just see this all as the last, biggest step on the journey. Wherever it takes me.

Gedaechtnis T. Followill - Captain, EI. The player character. No family. Heart is cybernetic from a wound in battle. First man killed was in a ground conflict against rebels. Apparent age ???, actual age 200s-300s. The Harbinger featured prominently in lots of propaganda as the epitome of Humanity's power. There were entire propaganda campaigns centered around how you were tearing shit up out in the Hundred Worlds territory. Built in the Grand Shipyard in Sol itself.

Kateryna Ivanova - Lieutenant. Caucasian, female, sharp features, black shoulder length hair. 5’ 10?”. Small neural jack behind her left ear. Apparent age 27, actual age 151, highly decorated and one of the best in the service, she specifically requested to serve aboard the Harbinger. No family. Large amounts of her file are unavailable, due to her former (and likely still-current) Armada Intelligence stint. While she was initially described as having "light augmentation" that has since been proven completely false. Not only is her augmentation comparable to Ged's human interface, she has cybernetic implants that force her silence concerning knowledge that an Intel officer would know. She appears to be free to speculate, however, and has expressed interest in leaving that part of her behind. She has requested Ged not divulge her mental limitations to the rest of the crew. She has access to specialized infiltration gear that is far beyond standard issue. Designated Quest Waifu.

Original Crew List

Mechanical Engineers: 2 (of originally 4)

Mechanic: 3 (9)

Electrical Engineer: 2 (4)

Electrical specialist: 3 (9)

Cook: 0 (2)

Janitor/minor repairs: 0 (3)

Cargomaster: 1 (2)

Communications officer: 1 (2)

Sensor officers: 2 (3)

Physician’s assistant: 1 (2) Kara

Sr. Comm officer: 1 (1)

Ensign: 2 (2)

Science officer: 1 (1) (Got folded into Ensign?)

Chief Engineer: 1 (1) Chun-Fan Dai

Steward: 1 (1) Robert Tynes

Weapons officer: 1 (1) Mardigan “Guns” Rinn

Physician: 1 (1) Dr. Christof Burr

Captain: 1 (1) The player character.

Lieutenant: 1 (1) Kateryna Ivanova

Dray Parson, Intelligence Officer (where the hell does he fit on the above list??)

In terms of rank: Captain > Lt. > 2nd Lt. > 3rd Lt. > Ensign > Midshipman > Enlisted crew

Non-crew

Charles Devri - Captain of the OIS Glorious Destiny, Marquis-class fast attack destroyer. Member of the Ophidian Navy, in service of the Regent circa OY-19439. Knowledge obtained from automated broadcast around Orrin.

Eliphim Ketro - The designer of the Gate system. Lt. Dai's rival, mortal enemy. Assumed to be a sneaky and manipulative bastard.

Lieutenant Vie - Lieutenant of the OIS Hydra.

Zabak Raul - Separatist human leader during formation of Ophidian Empire. Credited with the coining of the term term "Ophidian."

Aurora Shael - Armada EI, and close friend of Ged's. Captain of the OIS Hydra, Armada Flag Cruiser. Participated in battle at Xabos Tae. She was the first captain you served under after Ged's graduation from the academy and a sort of role model. The Hydra was the flagship of the Armada's fleet for a long time and she was one of the most decorated officers, so it was only natural. She took a liking to Ged for some reason and taught him quite a bit about strategy, tactics, politics, and life in general.

She was eventually promoted to Admiral and then High Admiral, becoming one of the few EIs to leave their ships. Leading member of the Imperial council and one of our staunchest supporters, while we think we would have gotten command of the Harbinger based on your merits and skills (both political and warfare-related) alone, her vocal support championing our candidacy certainly didn't hurt.

There were rumors that Ged and Aurora had a brief relationship at one time, but nothing was ever proven.

Locations

Earth - Homeworld of humanity. Has 4 giant battlestations orbiting it. Considered an impregnable fortress.

Iridus - Homeworld of the Hundred Worlds Rebellion. Likely completely destroyed at the conclusion of the rebellion.

Sorias - Territorial world, claimed by Phllias Mining Conglomerate. Nitrogen-Sulfur atmosphere, Significant deposits of Gallium, Nickel, Tungsten, Platinum, and various silicates. Nonintelligent, nondangerous bioforms present. One of the possible choices for the first jump after awakening.

Orrin - Ophidian outpost; sponsored by Ingress Devri, Devrian Patriarchate. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere. Atmosphere heavily oxygenated, open flames hazardous. Deposits of most terran metals. Humans present. One of the possible choices for the first jump after awakening, and the one selected. Twelve automated weapons are located in the system. A jump gate orbits Orrin. All respond green to our IFF codes. The system contains five planets, one gas giant orbiting midways out, four rocky inner planets. Three superhot and orbiting close, Orrin orbiting in the habitable zone between the gas giant and the star. Two moons around it, none around the inners, twelve around the giant. Most of the plants seem both indigenous and toxic to humans, or at least the samples collected were. Likely not terraformed. Base was abandoned OY-19439. It was intended to be staffed by several thousand soldiers with advanced weaponry. As for defenses that are still around, there's a light shield system, automated turrets, and a half dozen medium energy cannons mounted for surface-to-space firing. A small force of manned atmospheric fighters, hovertanks, and combat rovers is also listed, though the fighters are listed as not present.

Kuril - Subject world; Ophidian traffic only. Home to the Avarai, late 4rd degree civilization. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere. Significant deposits of Iron, Nickel, Tungsten, various silicates. Intelligent, subject bioforms present, humans present. Subjugated OY 19227. One of the possible choices for the first jump after awakening.

Palalion IV - Subject world; Sealed. Home to the Palaxi, early 5rd degree civilization. Sulfur-rich atmosphere. Small deposits of most terran elements. No bioforms present. Subjugated OY 19229. Warning: Hazardous molten terrascape; planetary bombardment circa 19229. One of the possible choices for the first jump after awakening.

Kraxus - Subject world; Sealed. Colony of the Palaxi, early 5th degree civilization. Sulfur-rich atmosphere. Large deposits of most terran elements. Intelligent, subject bioforms present. Population <100,000. Subjugated OY 19229. One of the possible choices for the first jump after awakening.

Moreva - Subject world; 1300 LY from Orrin. Destination of transmissions from one of the probes orbiting Orrin.

Xabos Tae - A planet where House Laran and House Parson definitively lost a battle against the Empire. The OIS Hydra took part in this battle, with Ged serving on that ship. Additional ships were the Terrant, Ophelia, Twin Suns.

Larant - An sterilized imperial world that formerly possessed capital-class shipyards. Binary star system, former home to 3 billion humans. Subject to thousands of years of salvage operations by a number of alien races.

Raxos - A system passed through en route to Larant. Hostile xenos. Two hab-stations, two warstations. Small lasers, railguns, missle or interceptor tubes. Home of Methane-breathing quadrupeds, colloquially termed "assbreathers."

Ship Information

Current Stats

Crew: 24/51 (+Captain)

You are an octahedron with one point elongated. 800 meter beam 2700 meter length 576,000,000 m^3 volume, and that's a rough estimate since the beam length is actually the hypotenuse and the volume of a pyramid needs base area.

Systems and Capabilities

Singularity Reactor - Integrity: 45%. Output: 25%.

Planetary Landing - Absolutely not. The Harbinger was constructed in the shipyards of Sol, like any other large ship, and was never intended to land planetside. Crashing into a planet, however...

Drones - Hovering drones are about half the size of a person. You have mini-drones to go into small spaces, about a foot tall. You also have human-sized drones that walk, both bipedal and quadrapedal, as well as a few heavy quad-drones twice to three times as tall as a man for heavy lifting.

Units: 5439/6000

Autonomous: 223/300

Disabling the Harbinger - As a warship expected to be in battle and the key to said warship, you have a large number of redundant systems and were made as hard to disable as possible. No, it's not realistically possible, though in theory yes like 10 people working together at the same time could if you didn't interfere. This was one of the BIG reasons cited by the anti-AI faction for having EIs on warships... What if an AI goes crazy and tries to kill all humans? The crew couldn't destroy it. Therefore the obvious solution was to put EIs in them instead. The opposing faction tried to point out that an EI could go just as rebel, but hey... human xenophobia eh? What are you gonna do?

Interstellar Sensors - Requires extreme amounts of energy, specifically, 60% power drain at least for minimal readings. Maybe 80% for full sweep. Interstellar sensors would do things like give you system layout, composition of stellar and planetary bodies, any large power sources or stations, transmissions and signals within the system, ect. all in real time. 9% effectiveness.

Local Sensors - 77% effectiveness.

Interstellar Communications - For all intents and purposes, our comms are instant anywhere within the galaxy. Civvie comms had various levels of speed, clarity, and transmission rate. The transmissions are directed tightbeam. They only go where they are sent. That means if you move you won't get return messages until you transmit again or designate where you are going to be exactly.

Jumpdrive - Teleportation, more or less. Should be 30-35% for the jump, 3-4% more if you want to keep everything running while doing it. 1-2% more on that if you get all 6000 repair bots up and have them running. 4-5k ly range.

In general, jumping via jumpdrive is undetectable until the ship actually pops up next to you. Jumpdrive is unique in this way.

Other methods of FTL, such as all alien methods and your own engine-FTL are detectable with interstellar sensors. The only way to detect an incoming jump is to already be focusing sensors (either local or interstellar) on the ship and watching it power up for the jump. Even then, it can't be stopped, unlike the other FTL methods which can be interdicted.

Main Engines - Capable of FTL at maximum output, just not fast enough to get between starsystems in a reasonable length of time. Speed: 60%. Efficiency: 50%.

Shields - 4 shield layers. Only fitted hull shield is still active and running at 50% integrity, with 25% dissipation.

Specialized Warfare Components - Jump Interdiction System, etc.

EWAR Suite - Intrusion defenses are bleeding edge next generation stuff, best available. Your intrusion packages are extremely good, top of the line. Only the most advanced automated counter-intrusion suites or other AIs/EIs would generally be able to stop you. Note: There are EIs in intelligence that are specially designed and picked from base personas to be intrusion specialists. These are highly dangerous even to you.

ECM - Apparently very effective, at max output would be enough to make Geordi LaForge see it.

Planet Sterilization - It takes time to do so, but it is within our capabilities and has been done. Would take weeks to complete in a damaged state.

Brig - Five very secure cells.

Medicines - Antidepressants, combat stress stuff, etc. Military issue psych indoctros: get rid of the crew’s emotions for a few weeks but long term use is heavily inadvisable.

Smaller Craft

Contained in eight launch bays. The space-to-space interceptors are in the worst condition, whereas the space/atmo hybrids, while smaller in number overall, have a higher ratio of operating vessels. Likely because they were made to withstand punishing reentries in addition to the high-g’s of their brethren. Likewise, both the drone and piloted shuttles are both in a relatively good state.

Both types of combat drones have active targeting scanners, a light railgun, missile launchers, and two rapid firing light energy cannons. Also a light shield projector. They operate on a plasma drive. Fuel is a non-issue, they get recharged/refueled from the singularity reactor every time they dock.

You can control them across perhaps one light day without interference. Within a solar system with moderate interference. Combat ECM reduces range to around five light minutes.

Heavy shuttles capable of carrying hovertanks.

Drone Interceptors - (Space-to-Space, no atmo capability)

Drone Fighters - (Atmospheric capable, less effective than interceptors in space)

Drone Shuttles - (can transport things, light weaponry)

Piloted Shuttles - (can transport things, midrange weaponry, must have a human pilot)

Hovertanks - 9 commandeered from Orrin's base. Apparently they are shielded? They are tanks, what else do you want. Require a human pilot.

Weaponry

Heavy Energy Cannons - 3/32 Turrets. 4/64 guns. Any one of these is at least 5 times stronger than a medium.

Medium Energy Cannons - 11/64 Turrets. 23/192 guns.

Missile complements - Fully Operational after minor repairs.

Point Defense Lasers - Point Defense Lasers: 44% coverage online. Simple and generally easy to repair.

Missile Launchers - 9/10 Batteries. 809/1000 Tubes.

Rail Cannons - 6/8 (2 cannibalized). Railguns are moderately terrible against shields, fire slower, and the projectiles travel slower. Against completely unshielded things they're highly effective and pretty efficient. And they still do damage to shields, especially unshaped shields or certain other exotic types.