THE AMAZING BASE.

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Welcome home, nerds.
WHEN? Outside time and space, in the aether between dimensions.
ANYTHING ELSE? There is also a fish. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

MYSTERY FISH;

question the mystery fish

DEPARTING GALLIPOLI

The order comes the day after the Marie Antoinette sets sail:

PACK UP AND GET READY TO MOVE OUT. WE'VE DONE ALL WE CAN HERE.

DEPLOYMENT: BASE.

WE NEED TO RESTOCK. BE PREPARED FOR MORE TRANSFERS ON ARRIVAL.

STAY SAFE. TIME-STEP EXPECTED TO BEGIN WITHIN THE HOUR.

FOR THOSE OF YOU NEW TO COST: FIND A SECLUDED SPOT AND TRY NOT TO EAT ANYTHING BEFORE THE JUMP.

The Time-Step

The transfer begins like a vibrating heat on the collar bone, just a hum of sensation.

But the vibration spreads. Veteran COST soldiers often refer to this phenomenon as "the buzz". The feeling builds, not unlike standing near a great engine or the wind-rattled branches of a massive tree. There is a long moment of motion sickness and you can't be sure if the world is shaking you from the inside out or the outside in. It may be better to close your eyes against the growing nausea, as the world blurs out of focus.

A star shines in the distance. You may hear the faint rustling of leaves. Some swear they hear voices in this moment, indistinct words echoing off nothingness. Others say they feel a touch of the divine, that the eyes of the eternal look down upon you. Ancient bones rattle just out of earshot, cold and brittle and nothing more than the suggestion of sound. Or maybe it's only an illusion, brought on by the powerful technology grafted into your skin.

One thing is for sure: One moment you are here and the next you are not.

The shift takes you from whatever solitude you could find aboard the Marie Antoinette to the temperature-regulated hallway of what looks like a very poorly put together space station. Droids rush up and down the long hallway, fixing broken bits of machinery or just chattering with each other. A few crows sit on high ledges, looking down and watching. Someone mutters something about a centaur around the corner.

And you might just notice, provided you were in Gallipoli long enough to acquire stowaways, that the parasites lurking on your skin are mercifully gone.

For new arrivals who didn't experience Gallipoli: You, too, will appear in this long hallway, filled with droids and crows and humans (still filthy and clad in ANZAC uniforms, carrying battered equipment from the first World War). And you'll be wearing the minimal COST-issued athletic underwear and holding whatever one item you were allowed to bring. Surprise!

READ THE BASE INFOPAGE.

home away from home

Those who have been to BASE before may find a strangeness to it all: BASE seems...still. The windows show a verdant world instead of the usual aether (though with the typical paranoia), and the halls are bereft of all but a few crows. A man stands at the end of the long hallway you arrived in, waiting for you to get your bearings before he speaks.

Except, you know, he's not a man. He's a centaur.

"It's been barely a week since you left, by my reckoning. But for you, I'm sure, it's been much longer. Still, much has changed. You may have noticed we are...becalmed. This is due, it seems, to an error in our ways. We kept something that does not belong to us, several wild creatures that are meant to be free. They seem to have psychically called out to their home, and their home responded; we are now somewhat stranded.

"But let me explain—the Aether is the nexus between worlds and times, but it is not a dead thing. Creatures live in it. We have crashed onto the back of one such creature, a mighty beast, as large as a small country and entirely undiscovered. We have found why the creature has intercepted us: we have accidentally taken captive some of its children. Shapers, the wild creatures I mentioned, it seems they form a symbiotic bond with the creature, and live happily within its stomach."

He frowns, considering this.

"Shapers, I should mention, are creatures that briefly infested our fair BASE. The issue was dealt with, though we kept some for experimentation. The coelacanth took issue with this, it seems. It can speak, of course; we are stranded very near its head, and if you wish to ask it a question, I implore you to do so. The creature is older than creation—older than me—and only speaks once to any creature it encounters. It's said its wisdom brings kings to their knees."

His eyes crinkle in humor.

"My name is Chiron and I am the caretaker of this place, for those of you whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting. More importantly, I am a trainer and a teacher of some experience; if you wish training or schooling of any sort, do summon me. I will be happy to assist."

He's easy to contact, often found in the library, the training area, his capsule, or elsewhere in the station, attempting to fix what he understands and arguing with crows.

"We intended to spend this time exploring, for this is a rare opportunity to discover more of an entirely uncharted world. I hasten you to see if anything on the coelacanth can be of use, but be careful. Take only what you need, not what you may want. I intend to learn my lessons well; these creatures are not pets. Takes food, water, and any materials of use to us for our survival and perseverance, but no more. We task you with this: explore the coelacanth, and see what of it can be understood. Bring us back samples, but do try to interrupt the natural habitat as little as possible. We are guests here."

He bows and the action shows a slight limp in one of his back legs.

"I would join you, but I am far too old for such activities. Still, do pepper me with any questions you should encounter. I am always available on the network, or in person, within this hulking mass we call home."

And then he leaves you to find your capsules and rest.

CAPSULE ASSIGNMENTS

Once you've found your room and settled in—perhaps taken a shower, collected clothes, and eaten—a droid will approach you with camping equipment and give you a brief explanation of how to access and use the database. It's time to get your gear and go.

Of course, you can decline. You can stay and tend to the fort, maybe try and clean up this patchwork jumble of metal and machinery. But seeing the sights on the back of a giant fish flying through non-space? Who can say no to that?


the undiscovered country.

BASE's airlocks open into a lush valley, vibrant with color and rustling with life that has thrived on the coelacanth's back for millennia. It's a striking shift from the rot and gunfire of Gallipoli, unmarked by shrapnel, bombshells, and never-fresh air.

No, the air here is clean in a way that can leave you breathless, untouched by pollutants and stirred into a gentle breeze. It's a marked departure for anyone used to a more modern Earth or rough equivalent; letting the air sit on your tongue leaves a crisp, unsullied taste behind. And the whole forest feels alive, in a way that reminds you of how small you really are.

A white crow perches in a tree near BASE's exit, too high up to properly engage but a stark contrast to the bright leaves around her. She merely watches recruits come and go with a shrewd eye, feathers fluffed against the light chill. There are other crows scattered throughout the wilderness, some easier to find than others as they flit through the trees, sit on camping equipment, or hitch rides on the hoverbikes.

Besides those brief flashes of black feathers, however, you're left unsupervised.

Try not to fuck up anything too badly.

EXPLORE:INFOPAGE|DATABASE
talk to a fish | destruction report

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

Comments

C

[dipolar]

Slices through hanging branches with the edge of his dagger, clearing a little path for them as they go. It's something he's used to. This kind of terrain is familiar, nostalgic, if a little cooler than he's used to. There's far more company to get used to as well, especially when one comrade wants to fight everything that moves (and everything that doesn't, don't get him started on the bog) and the other wants to die.

M mutters to the robot that's been tailing them for half an hour and Hei checks back on their feuding.

"... If it wants to expire, we should let it." Trying not to soul-bond to the sad, useless thing isn't going well.

[thingpuncher]

Midnighter laughs, a rough scrape in his throat. "It doesn't want anything. The central computer isn't complex enough for any kind of sentience. I just programmed it to say shit because it can barely do anything else. Mistake, response 14."

The computer chirrups helpfully, and then lets out a metallic-sounding, "fuck. You."

"Response 4."

"I. Deserve death."

[dipolar]

Hei lowers the knife and his eyes drop to the failure of a toaster. It cycles through its programmed jargon and he finds himself nodding at it a little, then again when he looks away.

"I see. How many did you program it to have?" Drops into a crouch with a clack from the flat of his dagger against the crown of its metal body. "Response one."

Don't let him go through as many numbers as he can or it'll last an hour.

[thingpuncher]

"I'm a. Stupid. Fucking. Robot," Mistake drones, and Midnighter rolls his eyes. The thing's responses go up to fifteen and range from profanity to self-insult to suicidal idealization (on the robot's part).

"I haven't decided why they gave it to me. Might be some test. Probably gonna kick it off a cliff, though."

[dipolar]

"Couldn't you repurpose something like this? It could help in the kitchens..." How, Hei?

Reaches to slap a hand against the side of its bright, metal body, before tilting it forcibly onto its side. Like cow-tipping. Holds it there for a moment, before raising his hand and pushing off of his thigh to stand.

Quiet robot bullying.

"Maybe someone's mocking you. Still, it's not doing any harm."

[thingpuncher]

The robot whirs, beeps, and slowly rights itself. Midnighter tells it to repeat response twelve, to which it replies, "you're. An asshole."

Midnighter looks over his shoulder at Hei. "It's mocking me. That's not harm? I'm hurt, Hei. There I thought you were such an emotional and caring guy." It's obvious sarcasm; Midnighter has promised himself not to praise Hei anymore.

[dipolar]

"You'll get over it," an actually playful response, for once, if you can call it something like that; teasing is really as close as he gets.

A smirk at the robot, apparently amused at its suffering, before turning away to hack at more branches. He wants to check out one of these damn caves and whatever things lurk inside of it. He'll have more data submissions than anyone, that's the goal (a goal he'll fail).

"How do you think the back of this fish can have caves? Perhaps they're like cavities and bore in bit by bit." Welcome to Hei's pondering time.

[thingpuncher]

"Maybe," Midnighter says, considering. He reaches down, pats the ground, and his hands come up dirty. "Or it could be a layer of space mud and space rock on the fish's back. Unless the mud is fish sweat? Can fish sweat?" Welcome to Midnighter's pondering time.

[dipolar]

"Space mud..." he sounds fascinated by that opinion, staring plainly into the middle distance.

...

"Have you asked the coelacanth a question yet? Maybe you should ask it that." Clearly he doesn't know either, but if he had to chance a guess he'd say: fuck no, they live underwater, use common sense. "The response I received was very vague, but it can't dodge that 'yes' or 'no' question. ... Can it?"

Wonders if it'd tell them that sweating is in the mind. He'd probably believe it. Hei wanders on, briefly checking his map.

"This way."