Quote:M Fnord wrote:*Cackles wildly* Oh Dear GOD man! MORE!
“That’s the easy part,” Flavia replied easily. “If you’re willing to play along, Your Highness, I’ll need five hundred pounds cash, a week and a letter of introduction to your tailors.”
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[RFC] [Meta-riffic] The Untitled Multiverse Project
[RFC] [Meta-riffic] The Untitled Multiverse Project
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[RFC] [Meta-riffic] The Untitled Multiverse Project
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I'm ALIVE! BWAHAHAHA!!!
*ahem* So... My inspiration is a lot low for the moment, so I'm warning that the next part will quite probably be later. I don't want this to dry up before the end of this chapter, so I'll keep plugging away. For all that they were very much an adolescent civilisation, Dr. Oliver thought, they did have good tech. The gecko adhesive technology was a godsend for archaeology, allowing lights to be set up without damaging the structure and self-supporting platforms for pathways. He hoped that the trade delegation got their recommendation for that. Due to the rush, Opel didn’t get to enjoy the scenery; no, he was briskly moving down the corridors to the next shaft, attaching the cable traverser (helped by the display on the data glasses he’d been issued), dropping down to the next level, and disconnecting. Repeat twelve times. The little drone (a quadcopter he’d heard it called) sat on the floor, waiting for them like a large insect. At the Mobian’s approach, it came to life and raised itself to head level. “In position.” Captain Green said to the comm net. The controller up top replied. “Drop a tag Mizuhara.” The captain ordered. The lieutenant reached into a pouch, then reached out and slapped a 2 cm patch to the nearest wall. Control acknowledged. “Roger. We have a fix on the signal yet?” Professor Karif came on the line. “I thought fusion reactors were safe Captain?” Oliver asked to fill the silence. “Normally are.” The captain replied. “Any reasonably designed reactor is virtually impossible to overload by accident. Plasma hits the walls, loses all heat and the reaction dies. Maybe it’ll breach, but people are unlikely to be around it at that point. It’s when you have gravitics involved things get tricky. Make the energy densities higher and the units smaller, but also allows more violent plasma expansion. Tellurics make it worse.” He shrugged. “That’s where you really want to be careful with ancient reactors, the control systems are FAR more likely to malfunction thus making an ‘accidental’” Here he made air-quotes “overload possible. Forced overloads are by design hard to pull off. One in a million it’s a control system malfunction for an overload, and it’s only that high due to human error. No software’s entirely bug free. The other times its deliberate action, sabotage or booby trap.” Opel didn’t need to be an experienced archaeologist specialising in ‘advanced’ civilisations to follow that thought to its conclusion. He’d been on enough Belkan war dig sites to know about that. Control piped up. A blue wireframe diamond appeared in the display of Oliver’s data glasses. But… “Control, that’s down at least two floors.” The captain complained. Professor Karif said. “This will be fun.” Lieutenant Mizuhara said sarcastically. *** “Y’know Doc,” Colin said as they tried to find their way. “I’ve always been puzzled by that fact places like this are so empty. Surely there’d be some sort of hint of purpose, or that someone lived here.” “Magitech cuts down on the clutter. Plus it allows for teleportation, so we can clean up after ourselves.” Dr. Oliver replied. “It’s the simplest theory we have.” “So it’s a device of some sort they built, but couldn’t take apart so they left it moth-balled. Got it.” Colin summarised. “Still, there’s always why they upped and vanished.” “You’re talking about the Sublimed.” Eve said sceptically. “War’s fairly obvious, especially one that erases a people.” Colin put in. “Anyone with the capacity for transworld ops is gonna be too hard to hit with bio-chem weapons. That means getting the high ground and pounding the fuck out of them.” “We have barriers to contain combat.” Opel interjected. “It rotates target mages a few degrees out of phase with the world. Any damage done there doesn’t translate back to the world outside the barrier.” “Have to be a pretty big one to be of any use.” Colin mused after a minutes thought. “And I can’t see it being useful where you have lots of mages in the population if you want to keep casualties down.” “What are the Sublimed?” Opel asked as a signal interrupted. “Way down. Finally.” Colin muttered as the image appeared on their HUDs. “Stairs too. Time to hoof it. Tag the walls as we go.” Dr. Oliver found himself dragged along as the two couriers raced down the corridors to the stairway, only just getting a float spell active before the two of them took the stairs 4 at a time. “Checking map.” Eve said as the two armoured forms swept the bottom of the stairs. “Still ten meters high, but forty closer.” “Still fifty meters of rock one way, and we’re facing backwards.” Colin grumped. “Too bad all the drones were in use, a swarm would help with the mapping.” Opel manage to catch his breath, and called upstairs. ~ Oliver to Control. Has anyone done an analysis on the structure we’ve mapped? Common structural elements might help us get to the signal faster. ~ Professor Karif replied. The voice of Major Whitedale, FOB commanding officer, entered the discussion. “Sir.” Colin said respectfully. “Good point. Try looking based on size. You only make things big if you need to.” “Or have an overblown ego.” Eve added snidely. “True. We’ll look for big corridors. Supplies, transport routes, construction sequencing given we’re in a mountain…” Major Whitedale acknowledged. *** Professor Karif looked on as the Mobian contingent brought heavier systems online to run analyses on the structure. As a full holographic map resolved in the air, Major Whitedale turned to Dr. Reynolds. “Can we get more drones down there to help with the mapping?” The major asked. “Can’t get enough stock to make a dent on the numbers needed.” Dr. Reynolds told him. “It’d also take fifteen minutes to them to fly down there, following the direct route. We only have general use survey drones, and most are scattered around the site.” “Professor?” The major turned to him. “I’ve heard about some sort of search spell?” “I’m afraid you’ve been spoiled by encounters with the Navy.” Ishmael said. “They tend towards the high power mages. Most of my people, Kaiser even myself, couldn’t cast a search sphere and move it more than a hundred meters in a straight line. In the tunnels those who could wouldn’t last more than ten minutes before the drain got to them. Sorry Major. I asked Commander Suzuki for assistance, but I doubt we’d get much before it was all over.” Alarms sounded as the holowindows gained a red border. “Lost signal from Mizuhara!” *** Opel Oliver froze as Captain Green’s gauntleted hand dropped on his shoulder. “” He asked the figure 10 meters ahead of them. There was no response as she continued down the corridor. “” He yelled, to no response. “Doctor, cover your ears.” Opel did, adding a dampening field for good measure as he saw the captain’s chest plate rise as the Mobian took a deep breath. “EVE!!!” The roar shook the tunnel, the captain having turned up the external speakers on his suit to full. At a line 7 meters ahead of them, dust didn’t fall. Dr. Oliver saw the tilt of the captain’s head as the senior officer thought, then the captain slipped his weapon onto his back, kneeled to pick up a loose stone, stood and side-stepped away from him, then THREW the rock. As the augmented strength of his armour powered the stone toward his errant colleague, Captain Green side-stepped back toward the TSAB Doctor. The rock crossed the invisible line of no dust fall and shot on to hit the back of the lieutenant with a soundless flash of purple energy. The lieutenant span round and dropped to a crouch. In a direct line where the captain had been, there was a crunch as part of the wall disintegrated. The captain held up his right hand and rather obviously made a series of hand gestures. After a few seconds, the lieutenant stood up and replaced her weapon on her back, then gestured back. He said to the comm net. ~ Relay four-seventy, theta sigma two two seven. ~ The doctor sent telepathically and via radio. ~ Double signal verified. ~ Control relayed back. “OK Doc.” Captain Green said. “Time to experiment.” The two of them walked up to the blocking field boundary. “” Captain Green said. “” He did so. “” Control responded. “Doc?” Green asked, pulling his hand back. ~~ The doctor repeated the captain’s action. ~~ ~~ “” Green mused. “” The major asked. “” He made some more hand gestures to the lieutenant, then started pulling off his back pack to get at his tools. With a mental ping, the lieutenant walked through the field and re-joined the comm net. “That was…unnerving.” Mizuhara said, looking around. “Jamming on the far side?” Green asked, carefully cracking the case on one of their tags with a screwdriver. “Nothing noticeable. The drone signal was fine except for a blip as we crossed the threshold.” Colin asked on a private channel, grabbing a pod-like device and putting it by the open tag. [i] Eve admitted. [i] Colin sighed, bringing his hands up to manipulate the AR controls. [i] Eve objected. Colin ordered. Opel watched as the captain typed in mid-air (to his perspective) and tiny manipulators came out of the front of the pod. In the enhanced vision of his loaned data glasses they looked a bit fuzzy. “Doctor?” The Lieutenant asked, dragging his attention away. “Can you try going through the field? We need to know of it blocks thought sending as well.” “Good point.” Dr. Oliver agreed, stepping through and trying. He got no response. ~ Control, field also blocks telepathy. ~ He sent after walk back through. ~ Roger that. ~ Control sent back. ~ Captain, I hope your relay works. ~ “” He replied, already fitting the end of some fibre to the internals of a second tag. Opel and Eve stood silently in the darkness, as Colin tested and reprogrammed the tags. “Right.” He said a few minutes later. “Let’s give this a try. Mizuhara, Doc. Take this end through,” He held up one of the tags. “And we’ll see if I need to fiddle some more. Careful, the lid isn’t solidly fastened at the mo and I’ve only got two meters of fibre here.” Eve took the tag in hand and stepped through the field with the doctor in tow. “” Colin noted. Eve replied. ~ Confirming relay here. ~ Dr. Oliver added. Came from the surface. “” Colin noted. “” Control replied as the others returned to Colin’s side of the field. Eve deadpanned.[/i][/i][/i]
Interesting.... A barrier that prohibits all forms of communication save hardlines. Makes me wonder why such a thing would exist in a complex like this? A checkpoint of some kind?
 Quote:“What are the Sublimed?” Opel asked as a signal interrupted.An old race - at the end, they went to The Ridiculous. -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012  Quote:robkelk wrote:As I understand it, they evolved from inferior-quality citrus fruit.Quote:“What are the Sublimed?” Opel asked as a signal interrupted.An old race - at the end, they went to The Ridiculous. -- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. 
As a question, while we have some information on how everyone else's transport works, could we get a general overview of how Mobius does it? Because while it's nice to know how other people compare with each other, I have to admit I have no real understanding how the strengths and limitations of Mobius's stuff. Which makes it hard to write anything for them.
(As noticed when I was considering writing up a few gear ideas and then realized I didn't know how their stuff worked.) 
Okay, this is just a rough but take it as you will.
Mobius has three basic types of interdimensional transport: jumpers, porters and gates. Jumpers are roughly equivalent to G:IW conveyors or TSAB transports in that they're vehicle-mounted, you feed the coordinates into them and out you pop in another universe. Engines and power source can fit into anything about the size of a large panel van and upwards. Pretty much the gold standard. Porters are personal teleportation devices, designed for quick extraction from sticky situations & usually used for disaster-relief and just-after-the-last-second evacuations. They're way shorter range than jumpers & easily blocked by advanced civilizations (read: TSAB). Gates are... well, pretty much what it says on the tin: large fixed installations where you can drive a vehicle through from one universe to the other. Big, energy-expensive and require really good open relations with the other side to be of any use. That help any? Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Yep! Thank you very much.
And I'll try to get my write up of the 'Heavy Saucer' up sometime soon. (IE, with actual diplomatic contact with a nation that has heavy combat ships, someone decided Mobius should have their own. It'll be an interesting attempt to mix what they've gotten in a larger scale, even if not entirely successful...) On the technology side, unless someone asks not, the only setting I mean to reference that wasn't mentioned in post 42 will be old style X-Com, just to note down my source. Also on technology, my opinion is that the big reason why Thaumotech is never going to be standard any time soon is that its too hard to produce in sustained reliable large numbers. So while lots of people have some one off artifact or device or whatever (For certain amounts of 'lots of people') they either made themselves, got while universe hoping, or were gifted by a friend/patron, nothing is standardized because of the limited availability. Meanwhile, normal tech that can be understood, used, and most importantly produced by everyone might not be as 'good', but at least you have enough of it to make sure everyone has a copy. Edit : Though I guess depending on how the 'Babylon' thing goes they could import some stuff from TSAB, but I doubt they'd want to be dependent on that for anything they really need for the obvious reasons. ___
Note that all the sources in post 42 are just what I am using in my fic. You don't have to use them all if you don't want to.
Regards to the 'Heavy Saucer', there are probably lots in the UNSAD defence fleet. I implied in my initial fic post that the REALLY heavy stuff is just coming out of the yards (a.k.a the Excelsior). The idea I had at the time was something like a blockier SR2 Normandy, due to BT, Halo, and whatever tech incorporated into the design (a left over from the Fenspace version). Feel free to completely ignore all of the above. One thing about Mobian travel tech is that it allows for 'displacement', a bit of controlled sideslip so you don't have to go from point XYZ in world A to point ZXY in world B, unlike the G:IW conveyor. Thus Colin used his Porter to jump worlds in a specific path he knew. He also tried very hard to keep knowledge of his Porter (being non-standard, like the rest of his personal gear at the time) secret from the Bureau.
Orbital Unlimited Evader Class Heavy Saucer
The CSV1 was Orbital Unlimited's first, and most infamous, attempt to design a heavy combat ship. It was an innovative vessel, attempting to combine several technologies that were as yet imperfectly understood by the designers, and the resulting issues are the direct cause of the far more conservative approach taken to the CSV3 Intruder. It had a shift size of four (Commander, Pilot/Navigator, Electronics Officer, Tactical Officer), carried three shifts, and was supposed to also carry a medical officer and a ship's engineer, as well as a four person security/away team. There was also room for up to six mission specific personnel, depending on what the ship was currently assigned to do.The two main problematic issues were the Elerium Gravity Drive and Plasma Phase Impactor Cannon Turrets. The Elerium Drive was a late addition to the ship in an attempt to replicate the Normandy's full gravitational stealth drive system but proved to have problematic interference issues with the Dark Energy Core that resulted in random and anomalous gravitational conditions. (Notably, on the ships first test drive the artificial gravity flipped its vertical orientation for a full 30 seconds when both systems both hit full power for the first time.) It is as a direct result of this failure that most modern ships that wish to use that method of stealth just use a full up Tantalus system. Meanwhile, the Plasma Phase Impactor Cannons were a cludge from more then six different technology bases, including poorly understood guesswork on how TSAB Telluric technology. The amazing thing about the Plasma Phase Impactor Cannons weren't their issues, they were that the system worked at all. Even so, any given ship was almost guaranteed to have at least one, and more commonly two, turrets offline due to maintenance failures at any given time. Despite that, while they were working the cannons were actually on the cutting edge of effectiveness. However, this was not considered worth the more then likely chance that the cannons would not be working when needed. Out of the original production run of twelve, only six were completed before the contract was cancelled due to the ship's issues. Out of the produced six ships, one was destroyed in line of duty, four were broken down for scrap, and one is retained as a training vessel. (For both naval crew and maintenance personnel, depending upon what is currently malfunctioning.)Orbital Unlimited CSV1 Evader Heavy Saucer – Block I Mk. I.Length – 45.7 m/150 feet.Width – 32.7 m/105 feet.Depth – 10.0 m/33 feet.Power plants – General Electric C-5 Antimatter spiked Hydrogen Fusion Reactor, Boeing Mk III Thermal Reclamation System, solar absorbent surface (See Defenses)Drive systems – Orbital Unlimited Mk IV Dark Energy FTL core, Avenger Class Elerium Gravity Drive, Poseidon Type VIII Contr-Grav lifter, 3 x Turia Antimatter spiked Hyper-Impulse Engines, Mobius Group Type XII Transworld Displacement SystemWeapons – 16 x Lasertronix 2 MJ Pulse Point defence domes, 2 x Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal Class V AcMag Multi Role launcher (forward facing), Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal Class V AcMag Multi Role launcher (aft facing), 8 x Double Plasma Phase Impactor Cannon Turrets. Spinal Light Mass Effect Gauss Cannon.Defences – Cerberus Systems Mk XXV Kinetic Barrier system, Systems Alliance/Boeing Type IV Thermal Sink system, BT Class II ablative armour, Alien Alloy Hull, Megadyne Type XVIII bioplastic radar absorbent/chameleon surface, Sarif Industries optical camouflage system, Mobius Labs Class VI Electronic Warfare Suite.Computer – Orbit Systems Mk II Quantum Processing Macroframe.Crew – 3 min, 18 standard. (Extra Compartments for up to 6 more individuals)Cargo – 150 tonnes. Range – 12 MonthsEscape – 5 x 5 person re-entry pods with Mobius Group Type IX Transworld Displacer Pack
THE FOLLOWING IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Untitled Multiverse Project is now available on SpaceBattles. Things are likely going to be a bit different between that version and the one in this thread (assuming it takes off), but feel free to comment, kibbitz or port material in either direction as you see fit. That is all, England prevails. Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!" |
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