TFF Original Space Adventure RPG: Seraphim

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

December 18th, 2543

Otherspace was a twisted realm, a literal dark mirror of their own Universe. Beyond the protective shield lay an inverted phantom, a 'verse completely reversed from their own, infinitely dark and forboding.

The only light, save that of the Seraphim's fusion drives pushing the small but powerful starship through the dark mist of Othermatter, came from the shield. The shield maintained a carefully shaped bubble of their reality, without which the ship would simply cease to exist. The borders of the shield met Otherspace with a lightshow of incredible intensity, exotic particles forming and being extinguished in fractions of an instance, but so numerous the ship resembled a falling star as she raced through the alternate dimension.

Superstition still ruled what you saw in the turbulence. Many a Spacer claimed you could see the moment of your death if you stared into the lightshow long enough. Others just saw horrible visions of torment and death.

Constance Giiresbee didn't know what she saw in it. All she knew is that she couldn't look away when she saw the lightshow, her eyes locked firmly on the spectral interactions of light and dark, realspace and otherspace. She raised her tea cup to her lips, and drank deeply, eyes never leaving the phenomena.

She felt like she was counting down the hours until the vessel finally left the Other, finally allowed her to escape the lightshow's hypnotic dance. Otherspace travel was a brutal necessity, a gift that had allowed the Coalition to triumph and survive...

But she didn't have to like it.

The astrogation dome was deserted during this shift, and the transparent aluminum dome above offered a window into the universe. She could pretend she wasn't captain, that she wasn't responsible for every single crewmember's life onboard. That this was their first mission.

She couldn't afford to present weakness, nor could she be a horrible bitch. But in all honesty, she wasn't quite sure what kind of Captain to be yet. Theory was one thing, practice?

Practice was always going to be something else. Perhaps it was better she just accepted that...

Above, the Seraphim's shield glowed every color of the visible spectrum, flames dancing around the destroyer as she raced ahead, closing the distance with her destination, as her crew slowly began the alpha watch and shift.

There may have been no true day or night in space, but Constance felt the ship stir to life, and found herself looking for a sunrise. All she saw was the lightshow above.

"Close dome," she ordered. She finished her tea as Otherspace vanished, replaced with an inner and outer layer of hard, polyceramic armor casing. She rose from her seat, and stretched.

"Morning bell," she murmured, as she exited the chamber, shutting the hatch tightly behind her.

BEGIN TFF ORIGINAL SPACE ADVENTURE:

SERAPHIM: THE SPARK

 

[Aarik]

Ghagi:

"Morning bell." I Projected.

I blearily stumbled out of bed, I had been up most of the night going over everything repeatedly, I had been satisfied and gone to bed after the fifth check through, I had gotten about 5 hour's of sleep total.

Ehh, I've gone with less.

I absently hit the door OPEN button as I stretched the crick's out of my arms and legs. The sound of light cracks was dulled by the armor and the sound of the door sliding open.

Okay, Morning check then Breakfast, or Breakfast then Morning checks... I pulled I hit a button on my PERCOMD., a small simulated coin appeared on it, on one side it had a hand in a thumbs up gesture, on the other, a hand flipping the bird, I hit the button again, the coin spun about, until the hand flipping the bird was visible.

"Breakfast first." I 'muttered'.

Now what to get... Egg sandwich on buttered toast... no we don't have egg's... Unless you count that pondered shit... Bacon... No we have no meat...

I'm starting to remember why I hate breakfast on space ship's... I miss Cereal.

Eh I'll just have to settle for two pounds of Steamed Shrimp, with a side of Shrimp flavored instant Ramen noodles... Cup of Milk, We need that for the calcium so I know we have that... Maybe a Grill Cheese too... Wait do we have Cheese? I can't remember... I'll have to check...

-----
Sterben:

Hear Morning bell. Kill Enemy. No Enemy. Skipping Killing of Enemy. Wake up. Kill Enemy. No Enemy. Skipping Killing of Enemy. Begin Morning. Kill Enemy. No Enemy. Skipping Killing of Enemy. Arm self with Large amount of Side Arms. Seek Nutrition. Kill Enemy...

(His thought process is far more mechanical in the morning then normal, he's not really a morning person. You can tell because the Kill Enemy reflex start's settling down near the end.)

-----
Tawagoto:

"Hmmm, Interesting!" I Exclaimed.

I added a bit of Plutonium. the content's of the Vial began to glow... Before emitting a massive burst of light.

"I HAVE DONE IT! I HAVE CREATED PERPETUAL INFINITE ENERGY! I AM TRULY THE GREATEST MIND THE UNIVERSE WILL EVER KNOW!" I screamed and began laughing hysterically.

Hot Supermodel's in string Bikini's came from nowhere, I was now also on a stage.

Some faceless peon was handing me numerous medal's. There was an irritating ringing noise in the background. I ignored it.

"We gladly present every Genius award in existence to..." The ringing suddenly became louder-
_____

There was a loud ringing.

"Oh yes, Morning..." I muttered...

DAMN!

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

The Bridge of the USNS Seraphim, and in fact all Earth ships, seemed at odds with the rest of the vessel. Despite being a marvel of ergonomics, a 20th Century submariner would have been at home in the cramped confines, and Commander Graham E. Lambert, First Officer of the Seraphim, still felt an urge to crouch down when he moved around the compartment, particularly whenever he had to clamber through the hatch to the Communications Room. Graham yawned into his hand and rubbed his face as he gave the crew the once-over. Then he checked his watch and saw the time.

He'd been on his feet now for nearly 15 hours making sure everything was correct and proper for the first cruise, and the red lights of the night watch had started hurting his eyes about an hour before. The stubble on his chin rustled against his collar, and the jagged scar on his cheek, a reminder from a boarding action from the Neelaa War, throbbed in time with his heartbeat. But even though he was nearly exhausted, he couldn't allow any sloppiness in his personal behaviour; it would set a bad example, and reflect poorly on the Skipper.

"All right people, give me a full status report." he said, as he first looked left to the weapons operators in their slightly recessed alcove, then to his right to the Science and Sensors Departments. Finally, he looked straight ahead at Helm and Navigation, with the main Projection Screen indicating their positions in both Otherspace and their approximate corresponding position in Realspace.

 

[Rooster455]

Daniel groaned at the sound of the morning bell and instinctually rolled out of his bunk, lest he be tempted to not leave for a few more hours.

After taking a brief shower and suiting up he rechecked his assigned duty station for the morning and gave another groan. Just his luck. He gets to stand duty on the bridge.

He sighed and belted his sidearm to his thigh. That meant he would get to spend the next few hours standing in one spot, not moving, bored out of his skull.

'Oh well. Can win 'em all Danny.' He thought as he headed up to the bridge. The security officer he was relieving gave Danny both a thankful, and sympathetic, look before letting Danny take his post.

Settling in for a long time, his senses took in the bridge. The noise, the energy, the people, the sights.

He suppressed a yawn and let his eyes lazily roam.

 

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

Lieutenant Maya Ibuki checked her instruments quickly, before looking back at the commander.

"We're fifteen minutes away from transition to Real Space. It'll put us 0.9 AU away from Big Sky. A 10 gee fusion burn of one hundred seconds will insert us into orbit around it in 4 hours, 5 minutes," she reported. She smiled at the first officer, feeling excited.

While she had been "born" on Tau Ceti, she had been transferred to Earth almost immediately, and had naturally taken to it. The warm sun, large cities... So many wonderful and different things to see! Certainly, she had knowledge of all this from her programming, but actually seeing things gave her a deeper appreciation of them.

 

[Legacy|iB]

The ship's morning bell signaled...maybe thirty minutes ago? Despite that, Yuuka Murasaki moved very little and had no inclination to move more than strictly necessary. She minutely rolled on her side, hoping to roll up with some of her blanket and take up a more comfortable position...

She felt weightless for a moment. Then a sudden stop.

Ow...

At that point, Yuuka snapped back into reality. She wasn't in her quarters - she was lying on the floor of Medical Bay, fully dressed, next to the reclined chair she must have been sleeping in before. Somewhere within the hazy morning mess inside her head, Yuuka vaguely remembered what had happened the other night.

She stayed in the medical bay after the others left to catch up on some work and look over some personal documents. She must have ended up staying overnight and didn't bother returning to her quarters.

Lazily reaching a hand for her PERCOMD, she checked her recently closed files - some personal projects, a cached copy of some movie she downloaded two days ago, and a letter to her parents.

Odd. They were hardly the sort of things she would require staying overnight in the medical bay for. Was there something else she was doing...

Tilting her head, she noticed a pair of discarded plastic bottles - reaching for her glasses, she read the markings: MED34CH3CH2OH.

Yuuka remembered. She was just finishing up when she noticed somebody left a quick-access medical cabinet unlocked. Inside was a variety of drugs, tools, medical kits...and two bottles of alcohol, reserved for 'medicinal' purposes.

So that was why she stayed in the medical bay.

For a moment, Yuuka thought about getting up, but to no avail. She was tired, a bit hungover...and the medical bay floor was oddly comfortable...

The doors then opened. In came a whole bunch of loud and noisy footsteps and people talking.

"Oh, for the love of...Yuuka, we were wondering where you were," a very agitated Colin McNaughton said. "What did we tell you about sleeping in med bay, again?"

"Oh, maybe she was staying behind doing some work...what's that smell?" Nicole van der Walt sniffed the air.

The French-Canadian, Jacques, picked up one of the discarded bottles and handed it nervously to Colin.

A brief conversation of varying volumes broke out between the medics. Nicole tried to rationalize why Yuuka was in the med bay, Jacques tried to stay out of it, the other guy Graham did...nothing at all, and Colin did his usual rules, regulations, and decency bit. Yuuka only got part of it before she weakly raised a hand, silencing them.

"...can all of you, please keep it down?" Yuuka said, softly. "I am, after all, hungover, and in close proximity to a scalpel..."

She then weakly got to her feet, straightening out her skirt and lab coat.

"You know the regulations, Yuuka," Colin started. "That was for strictly medicinal use only-"

"Yes, and I am clearly sober enough to get all that..." Yuuka replied, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

Her breath smelled horrendous. The others covered their faces. In addition to not showering the night before, the alcohol in her breath made it even worse.

"...okay, so I'm going to go take a shower now," Yuuka said, walking to a cabinet and downing some hangover pills. "I'll be back in a few minutes, so until then, can you kindly clean and set up the med bay?"

 

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

Constance entered the bridge, thankful for the automated doors for this particular hatchway. Her keen eyes quickly scanned the section, and she smiled as the daytime lights came on with the dousing of the red. She always did like to make a dramatic entrance.

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

"Captain on the Bridge!" Graham barked, snapping to attention, and saluting crisply. "Good Morning, Captain. Did you sleep well?" he asked, blinking away his fatigue for a few moments to take in her countenance.

 

[Rooster455]

Danny snapped to attention at the call, eyes straight but still watching the Captain out of the corner of his eye. He had never had a nonhuman Captain before, so she was a cause for curiousity for him. He listened intently as the Commander greeted her.

 

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

"As well as can be expected, Commander," Constance replied politely, snapping the salute smartly back, before she took her seat. "How soon until transition to normal space?"

"Seven minute, thirty-two seconds Captain!" Maya brightly reported.

"Very well," Constance replied. She hit the intercom. "All hands, secure for transition to normal space in seven minutes." She cut it off and turned to Lambert. "Graham, secure the ship for realspace." She then turned to the helmsman.

"Mister Stubbs, how does the trip look to Big Sky?" She asked.

 

[shibosho]

The ship's morning bell rang, breaking ADD-1337 aka Adel out of his trance.
"Gaboo? Oh morning. Dang we've been here for the last five hours," commented the little droid.

Last night Adel had gotten the droids to join him in a little movie marathon. It was an astounding success with some minor setbacks

"D-does that mean w-we can s-top watching this m-movie?!" A larger droid known to all as BrandR, who was currently cowering behind the couch. There were very little that could scare this combat android, but there were plenty of things that could easily inflict mental scars on a sentient mind.

Okay, so the setbacks weren't so minor.

*I WANT MY MUMMY* The message was comprehended within nanoseconds of transmission. Adel looked around and saw that Blip was hiding under a blanket. Adel sighed and turned off his holoprojector.

"Blip, I've turned off the movie and it's time to get back on duty"

*R-Really?* Adel figuratively raised an eyebrow, 'how the heck can you stutter during a neural transmission?'

"Yes, really," The little robot upon hearing those words slowly took the blanket off his head and looked around.

*YAY! The horror movie is gone!*

"...Horror movie?" Adel was confused, they didn't watch a horror movie. They were for next week's marathon.

*Who know! The one with the woman screaming and those men...THEY DID TERRIBLE THINGS! REALLY SCARY HORRIBLE THINGS WITH THOSE TOYS!*

"....Oh, that wasn't a horror movie"

*What?*

"Blip, you're too young to understand,"

"Oh god, the mental images.....THEY WON'T GO AWAY!" Exclaimed BrandR.

"JUST DELETED THEM FROM YOUR DATABASE THEN!" Adel was beginning to get annoyed with his fellow robots.

*SEE! IT WAS A HORROR MOVIE!*

"IT WAS A DAMN PORNO!"

*.......What?*

"Oh god, oh god, oh god....ah much better," Being able to delete parts of your memory banks is just one of the many perks of being a sophisticated sentient machine.

".....Let's never speak of this again," Ordered Adel.

"Speak of what?"

"Exactly," At that moment the door to the corridor opened up and a large blue robot popped his head through the door.

"Hey guys, your movie marathon done already?" Asked Eastwood.

"Do not speak of it!" Cried both Adel and BrandR at the same time.

".....Okay. It's time for work people. Time to hustle!"

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

"Aye Captain!" Graham said, activing the comms. "Engineering, this is the Bridge. Be advised, we shall be reverting to Realspace in seven minutes. Please secure for the transition." He informed them. Then he flipped the channels to call Adel. "Attention, we are securing for transition. Please sweep the ship to ensure that all personnel are correctly strapped in."

 

[shibosho]

*Attention, we are securing for transition. Please sweep the ship to ensure that all personnel are correctly strapped in.*

"Ooh, we're going out of Otherspace soon," Adel commented.

"So we're going to be at Big Sky soon?" Asked Eastwood.

"Yeah...Better get to work then" Adel said before zooming off to perform his duty. Activating his speakers, scanners and up-link to the ship's security cameras, Adel began his work.

"To all personnel on board, we shall be reverting to Realspace in seven minutes. Please secure for the transition. I repeat, We shall be reverting to Realspace in seven minutes. Please secure for transition." The message sounded out from Adel as he looked through the security cameras and his scanners, checking to see if everyone on board were strapped in properly.

 

[Aarik]

Ghagi:

I absently walked into the Cargo Hold, holding a large bowl of what looked like noodle's with peeled shrimp in them, with my helmet open, holding what seemed to be a Grilled cheese sandwich in my mouth, it was half eaten.

After the Door closed behind me I grabbed the Sandwich and took a bite. Powdered Cheese suck's. But then that powder stuff usually does, whatever, it's food.

Okay now I just need to check everything... Best start with the mission integral stuff first, I should have about... I check the P.C.D. (Only I refer to them that way. I try to come up with shorter references to pretty much anything I can.), 4 hour's, to go over everything.

First up is the Otherspace Transceivers that we're 'delivering'.

But first, I better strap my self in, according to The Captain, we're about to 'hit' the Real World.

The Universe better not spill my Ramen or I'll kick it's ass.

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

Stubbs turned in his seat. "Just got the latest astrometric signals from the Big Sky relay, Captain. The Navigation Lanes are clear. It should be a smooth transition to Realspace." he reported, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice, with only partial success. Anyone could see that he was loving all this, his first cruise out of the Academy.

Graham slipped into his hotseat at the back of the Bridge, and strapped in. He hated Transitions, particularly when they entered Otherspace from Realspace. The lightshow always made him queasy.

 

[Rooster455]

Danny buckled himself tightly into the seat, gald to not have to be in his feet for this. He had never done this before, having never been stationed aboard any vessel that was moving. He could feel the nervous energy in his gut as he tried to make sure everything on him was in place for the deceleration. The timer on the HUD of his Security issue goggles ticked steadily downwards.

He took a deep breath. Two minutes, ten seconds.

 

[Legacy|iB]

A quick shower and a new set of clothes later, and Yuuka was ready.

Almost.

Her head still ached just a bit, and she was still in the process of tying her hair as she entered the medical bay.

"How are we doing?" she asked, somewhat rhetorically. She knew exactly how everything was in the medical bay.

"All supplies have been accounted for!" Nicole shouted, enthusiastically. "Quick-access cabinets have been locked and...!"

Please stop yelling...please stop yelling...please stop yelling...

"Everything's stowed and strapped down, and I've got our seats and gear ready for the transition" the other guy reported.

"Thank you..." Yuuka suddenly couldn't remember his name. "...Grahams, I believe?"

"...my name is Mitchell, Doctor Murasaki" he answered.

"Right, carry on Mitchell."

The medical staff took to their seats, buckled up, and waited.

"...never gets old..." Colin muttered.

 

[zerohour]

"Engineering to Bridge, roger that." Zeros responded, before opening up the comm link to the rest of the engineers. "You guys here that? Just a few short hours more and we can take a break." the Chief Engineer smirked at the rowdy cheers sent in reply. They could all use a break.

This being the Seraphim's maiden voyage, the engineering division was busy "getting to know" their new partner. This consisted of 18 hour shifts broken up by six short hours of rest for the first week or so of dedicated use. Every ship had it quirks and oddities, and it was their job to figure them out before they caused a catastrophe.

They had already found a myriad of differences from the ideal version, ranging from a micron difference in shielding thickness for one of the reactors, to a programming error that periodically disrupted climate control, resulting in mild temperature fluxes. Sure, nothing of any major importance, but for every thousand insignificant changes, there was one that resulted in the ship exploding.

Downing his fifth cup of hyper-caffeinated coffee, Zeros sighed, they had done everything they could think of, manually checking every aspect of the ship and running hundreds of simulations for every conceivable scenario. In theory, they knew everything that could possibly happen, and had contingencies prepared for all of them, but plans never survive contact with the enemy, with the enemy in this particular case being the universe itself. There were bound to be a lot of strange things out there, it would be surprising if they didn't encounter a curve ball or two.

Despite these depressing thoughts, Zeros grinned. What was life without a little excitement? Whether they lived or died each day was what made this job interesting.

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

Lambert nodded. "All Departments report that compartments are secured for Transition, Captain." he said, as he pulled his goggles out of of his jacket and slid them over his eyes. They helped him with the motion sickness problem, oddly enough.

 

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

"Retract the shutters. Mr. Stubbs, bring us out," Constance ordered, her tail waving almost happily. The forward armored shutters over the viewport lifted, and the lightshow of Otherspace flared violently in front of them, over the bow of the ship and racing over the shield bubble.

"Three... Two... One, mark," Constance ordered. The Otherspace field collapsed in a brilliant, almost sickening color display, and with a final burst of exotic energy the Seraphim was among the stars again. To the outside observer, the vessel would have appeared out of a blast of lights and energy almost like a cosmic version of a fireworks display.

"Transition to normal space complete... Navigation confirms our position, set transit point. Just where we wanted to be, Captain!" Maya said happily.

Constance smiled back, enjoying her subordinate's enthusiasm. She hit the intercom.

"Good work everyone, we've returned to normal space. Return to standard duty." She cut it off. "Mr. Stubbs, take us to Big Sky."

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

"Aye, Captain!" Stubbs said, blinking the last of the flash away. "What a lightshow..." he said to himself in awe as he operated his controls, and set the course. The Seraphim shivered as the fusion drives blazed; a standard 100 second burn with the gravdrive on automatic to compensate for inertia.

 

[Aarik]

Ahh the wonder of lids. Huh, the Noodle's are pretty good... but then I made them.

"Okay, everyone I just need everything to get a thorough once over, Standard Procedure, Make sure all container's are straight and have no breaches or puncture's." I 'said' to the small group of Cargo-men that were in the room with me, best get everything settled quick, maybe I could have enough time to watch a movie or something...

"I'll check the Otherspace Transceiver's. Someone get one of the Mechanics on standby in case anything is damaged. Also grab my cup of milk out of the kitchen, it's red, spicy Old Bay is spicy"

 

[Rooster455]

Danny blinked a few times, suprised at how sudden, how awesome, the light show was. But now it was already over so he punched the release button on the harness and stood.

Back to standing watch, literally.

'If I had known I would have been standing watch like this all the time I would've joined those jarhead Espatiers,' he thought with a sigh. But he straightened up, checked his weapon and took a ready stance near the hatch of the bridge.

 

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

It was at this point the communications jockey in back blinked at something he'd picked up, and ran it through the computer again. His eyes widened as he spotted a series of distinctive frequency shift patterns.

"Oh shit..." He hit the com, penetrating through the sound suppression field around the hatch to the comms room.

"Captain, I'm getting Neelaa signals! Bearing 360, Z angle 278! Signal degradation puts it at eight point six light minutes out SIR!"

Constance's tail went ramrod straight, and her eyes widened. A second passed, then two, then three.

Neelaa? Here? No, no, not here, not...!

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

Seeing the look in Constance's eyes, Graham nodded. "Aye Captain. All hands, Battle Stations! Repeat, all hands to Battle Stations! This is not a drill!" He was a model of calm professionalism as he covered for her moment of fear.

"Lieutenant Ibuki, pinpoint the source of those signals, try to determine what we're facing. Lieutenant Dretz, bring all weapons online, and co-ordinate with Lt. Ibuki to give us a firing solution." he said.