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arkshipadventures2025-08-14 12:46 pm
Inaugural Test Drive!
- Characters step out of a door they don't remember entering.
- Representatives of the gods greet them and inform them of their purpose here.
- Helpful representatives and literature answer any question they can.
- Food!
NICE TO MEET YOU
You step through a door.
Why? How? Where? The questions have no meaningful answer. Perhaps your last memory is walking through a door, but it certainly didn't lead here. More likely, you remember something else. Lying in bed. Talking to a loved one. Fighting for your life. No matter what it was... you step through a door.
On the other side is a room done in smooth walls and clean, bright white light, as if shadows and solid lines are antithetical. The size of a generous theater, it could hold hundreds of people comfortably, but at the moment it houses perhaps forty, all dressed in the same uniform of flowing white robes and smooth black-metal baldrics that practically hum with some sort of energy.
Not all of them are human. Perhaps half. The rest range from a human-like figure with limbs twice the length that they ought to be, to figures with fur or scales, all the way to a giant spider-like creature and a bird thrice the size of a normal person.
"Welcome, Marked," the figure in the front says, two arms spread wide to greet you and two folded reverently before them. And then the people spread out, each of them approaching to greet someone who emerged from the doors properly, and explain everything to them, with a patience and gentle understanding that shows they have both the training and experience to handle this unusual process. And, should it prove necessary, the personal shields necessary to repel attacks, and the neurodisrupters necessary to render an assailant immobile till they agree to listen politely, if nothing else.
You get a summary. There's more to learn, and if you wish, you can move to the tables and booths nearby, where more of these robed figures wait to pass over the pamphlets, books, and guides that can answer your questions. By now you also recognize that you stick out; the white robes deliberately distinguish your greeters from those who stepped out with you. That's on purpose. You'll need to talk with your fellows, after all.
Between the booths, on tables spread throughout the room, is food. Some you recognize, much you don't, but you know something here will taste good -- and you need it. You're hungry. Deeply hungry, less starving and more scraped empty. If you need someone to eat it to prove it isn't poisoned, one of the white-robed greeters will do so gladly. (Or get another one who can actually eat whatever it is you want. The large bird, for example, is actually an obligate carnivore, so don't make her eat corn and sesame seeds.)
This is your life now. Best prepare for it.
Captain
All Marked, prepare for emergency deployment.
Destination planet: 1322889281-4 (Vistage). Scope of deployment: planetwide.
Mission parameters: Combat, protect, supply.
A recent meteor impact introduced atmokaryotic aerophages into Vistage's biosphere. Atmosphere levels at 92%. Geometric growth predictions indicate total degassification of Vistage within 21 days at current pace. Total destruction of aerophagic threat and protection of 79% of current population will supply sufficient Divinity to resume full maintenance and protection of the biosphere. Failure is not an option. Good luck.
EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT
An entirely new set of Marked, and Divinity levels so low they're an emergency. Wonder if this is related.
The dropships practically vibrate at the end of their berths, and as you walk down the long piers that stretch over the open deployment bay beneath, the planet called Vistage dominates the view. At this height it looks like nothing more than thick white clouds, with glimpses of pink water and golden land peeking through the occasional gap. But you can't look too long; within moments, you settle into your seat on the dropship, and it disengages noiselessly from its gravitomooring to descend. In front of each seat is a respirator, a personal shield emitter, and a kinetic lance rifle, though you're not obligated to take anything you don't need.
(You are up against creatures literally eating the atmosphere, so please consider the respirator.)
The descent takes approximately fifteen minutes. Just long enough to stretch your nerves, as the dropship plunges into the (rapidly failing) atmosphere, through the clouds, and down to the ground below.
Class 0-1: Defend and Protect the People of Alopolig
A. The city closest to the meteor impact site, Alopolig, is home to approximately 900,000 Vistagi. This saurid people possesses a technology level approximately equal to 22nd-century Earth -- in other words, not so advanced that the gale-force winds roaring through the city can be ignored. The tall skyscrapers are to the last being scraped and sandblasted by debris scooped up by the shifting atmosphere, and already numerous ones on the furthest side of the city have collapsed. Worse, the Vistagi have no idea what the true source of their trouble is. To protect them, the Marked must get them underground.
Marked undertaking this duty receive portable force screen generators sufficient to temporarily block off a street, and stun batons. The Vistagi are not prepared for alien races to show up and begin directing traffic. (Yes, stunning and carrying all of them off is acceptable if you think it's the best course of action. Can you carry them faster than they could walk?)
B. Closest to the impact site, the air swarms with aerophages. Reproducing by fission at a rate visible to the naked eye, these creatures intake immense amounts of air.
Deployed Marked are instructed to thin their ranks by any means possible. The kinetic lance rifles shatter them with a single shot, but they have the advantage of numbers. Maybe you need to think of some better plan, if you want to make a meaningful difference.
Class 2-3: Interception
A. Aerophages that resemble purple dodecahedrons ("A-dodecs") act like scouts or trailblazers, forming the front line of the aerophagic advance. Destroying them appears to slow the spread of the aerophages, as they emit some sort of high-frequency distress call that warns others away from that area.
To protect both high-population areas and strategic gaps in mountain ranges that otherwise block the aerophages' spread, Marked receive personal antigrav flight belts in order to spread out and hunt down the A-dodecs. But be careful: the deployment report appears unaware that the A-dodecs can also emit electromagnetic energy at weaponized frequencies and amplitudes!
B. If the A-dodecs' warning call can be copied, a dropship can broadcast it on a broad-spectrum frequency, potentially keeping aerophages out of entire cities or regions. Though that won't ultimately stop them from draining the atmosphere, it will at least localize the lowest-pressure zones away from the Vistagi. Marked receive permission to adjust the dropship communications hardware and software for that purpose.
Watch out, though: the aerophages communicate more than just danger this way. A mistake might lead to them swarming, or draw hostility from the stronger variants who can fire back! Complicating matters, the Vistagi military is attempting to engage the aerophages with conventional weaponry, and seems likely to decide the Marked are part of the problem. They may need to be handled carefully...
Class 4-5: Contain and Cull
A. Four Radiant Aegis-class dropships deploy around the meteor crater in cardinal directions. Each of them can project a force barrier that, when combined, can completely seal off the meteor and the vast number of spawning aerophages in its vicinity. This is no simple operation, however: the four ships must activate their generators simultaneously. The electrokinetic resonance waves the ships use to project their screens are a siren song to the aerophages, and even the slightest delay will let enough escape to completely drain the atmosphere around the ships while thoroughly irradiating everything nearby.
On top of coordinating the deployment, the Marked also have to deal with the huge numbers of aggressive aerophages drawn by the wavelengths the ships' generators emit at standby, including ones the size of a small house with the electromagnetic power to match. Then, after activation, the Marked will have to fend off the ones outside the containment field, who will race eagerly towards the ships with much the same result.
B. The only hope of saving Vistage is slaughtering the aerophages down to the last. Even one left alive can start this whole calamity over again. Marked are instructed to use any methods at their disposal to locate and destroy aerophages.
Marked undertaking this take will soon find that their enemies come in many sizes and shapes. The ones best able to spread are the largest high-atmosphere "singularity tetrahedrons" that float like upside-down pyramids on the edge of the troposphere, gathering immense levels of electricity from atmospheric interactions that they can deploy like lightning. Numerous other sizes and shapes of aerophage also travel farthest from the swarm; Marked will need to meet this challenge with incredible speed and force to have any hope of success.
Class 6-7: Apocalypse Response
A. No sooner do the first dropships touch ground than the first unusual aerophages appear, as if in response. The longer the Marked fight back against the aerophages, the more variants appear, like an organism's immune system adapting to best fight back against a virus. All too soon, the aerophages send out variants that can breach force fields, ignore kinetic lance shots, focus enough energy to microwave a human in ten seconds, or worse.
The strongest Marked need to oppose these with whatever force and effect they can bring to bear. Even just a few of them are enough to endanger all the Marked as well as the Vistagi, and sufficient numbers will overwhelm even the full forces the Hyperion Star can bring to bear. But the longer the Marked fight, the more likely it is they'll see aerophages come for them that are specifically designed to counter them...
B. Describing the air around the meteor that brought the aerophages here as being absolutely full of the creatures is a mistake. There is no air around the meteor, not any more. Just aerophages, countless numbers of them, constantly spawning and splitting and producing new complicated shapes and sizes to join the more usual members.
Destroy them. Destroy every last one. However you can.
Class X: Terminate Master Control
In the heart of the meteor, in the center of the aerophage swarm, an artificial intelligence hums to itself as it puts the final adjustment onto a new aerophage breed, then transmits the fission-mutation pattern into the swarm at large.
The answer to all the speculation, revealed: the aerophages are indeed a weapon, though who or what initially developed the AI cores that deploy them on the planets they crash into is unknown. Nor does it really matter. So long as this machine exists, it will continue to deploy aerophages, modify them, and perfect them, until the last drops of atmospheric gas drain away and leave the planet as barren and lifeless as a sun-scorched core of rock and iron.
Its weapons: the aerophages, which it can modify and control effortlessly. A near-limitless number stand between the Marked and the Master Control, all of which the latter can and will shape to defend itself and destroy those who dare challenge it. The Class X Marked are the only ones who can hope to resolve this situation, once and for all.
- Characters receive a brief from the Captain, indicating emergency deployment.
- They enter the dropships and descend to the planet.
- Aerophages, creatures that consume atmospheric gas, must be stopped.
- Each Class has its goal. Good luck.
Biological, despite appearances. Consumes atmospheric gas. Replicates via fission. Unknown origin.
Speculated to be a developed weapon.
- En calls for assistance with the Chaos Field.
- Representatives of the gods await the Marked at the Chaos Field.
- They explain Chaos Control as best they can.
- Chaos Control!
AN EVENTFUL HORIZON
A grass field, peaceful and serene. Oddly silent, perhaps; no wind blows, no insects chirp or buzz, and the large black dome in front of you really seems like it should be making some sort of noise. But it doesn't.
In fact, the more you look it, the more it seems... not there. That black dome is not a presence, but an absence -- of light, of sound, of life, of space and time. It's not a very comfortable feeling.
"That is the Chaos Field," says the white-robed representative, the same one that greeted you when you first stepped out of stasis into the Arkship proper. "It is an unfortunate byproduct of the ship's power source. I assure you, however, that the Aberration cannot affect you or the Chaos Field itself, and you are in no danger from it. Rather, this is an area where the mind rules over matter, and your will is your greatest protection."
Having so said, they step back, but do not leave. Though they cannot participate, they hope their presence will be of some reassurance. All that remains, then, is for you to cross the threshold. Will you impose your will upon it, or is your strength not at the peak it needs to summit?
Success
Around you, the blackness coalesces into... whatever you wanted it to. A memory of home, perhaps. A foe for you to fight, the better to work out your frustrations. A different shape for you to inhabit, like a dream of flying.
Failure
The image that coalesces around you is one from your memories. Perhaps a frozen moment, perhaps a scene that plays out in front of you, unstoppable and impossible to hide from anyone who might join you in the field, intentionally or otherwise.
Your fear, laid bare. Fire, perhaps? Heights? A monster you could not slay? A loss you endured, or know you shall endure?
The Grim Reaper itself steps from the shadows, its scythe already swinging to cut you low and add you to its toll for the day. The Chaos Field is not always about embarrassing secrets and psychological torment. Sometimes it's just as subtle as a brick to the face.
Or...
The Chaos Field is complicated, its possibilities limitless. What will you face? What will you create?
You're having one of those days, aren't you?
I would say I understand, but let's not pretend you and I work in the same ways. Heh. Baryons.
Instead, welcome to the collective unconscious. Here you may reach out to anyone else. Or everyone else.
Answer them this: Who are you? What is your name? What is your species? What is your world? And what is your quest? (I understand that last one is considered quite funny. Witness my humor and quake with laughter.)
- It's the network prompt option.
INGREDIENTS OF TEST DRIVE PROMPTS
BB | FGO
That said, at this time, she will be stuck in a tiny mini version of herself like so. Until she hits a point in the story where she effectively will not fuck with the Gods or does BB things the BB way. The last prompt she is a normal-sized girl, lol. For any questions, dm me here! ]
₊˚⊹👋 NICE TO MEET YOU
[ The menace to all known universes stands there staring up at her new - master(s)? Summoners? ]
Wait, wait, hold the fuck up - how did you get your hands on the servant summoning system? Just because we showed up one time, in some other universe, doesn't mean suddenly we start sprouting out of Grail Wars all over the place. [ Her little feet stomp against the floor, and her hand slaps the teachers' pointer within her tiny little hands onto the ground suddenly. It breaks in half - for comedic effect. ] These things have rules to them, rules I like to break - and you can't just go breaking them before I GET TO BREAK THEM!
[ There were several truths here that BB immediately understood when stepping out of the door she had just walked into. One factor in this, was that she was uncontracted as a servant, meaning that her connection to the Master of Chaldea had now been severed. So either they had died - likely considering how impossible it was for the Master of Chaldea to live through the hellish nonsense of what their fate was up against - or, she was summoned as a new servant. Impossible - but not improbable....
Alongside the multitude of truths she comes to understand, is, she is up against something bigger than herself - which is saying something because BB is big. As a multidimensional being who exists by simply punching walls and throwing tantrums with the power of love - anything any stronger than her was a CLASS X level threat to her universe, to her master, to her humans.
Bigger than a Sin of Humanity, this was - ]
Don't just look at me like that with your ugly beady eyes! I WANT ANSWERS!! [ BB sounds like a small chipmunk as she squeaks angrily above her. The show of anger is just a ploy just like everything else about her. Either way she is looking to pay mind to anyone who looks out of the ordinary. Taking note of every single person who looks at her, and who doesn't. It's clear that those who don't are the greater powers who orchestrated this madness, and those who aren't - well... None of her damn powers seem to work, so she's struggling to understand what that all means.
With her welcome committee now moving away from her. Seeing as they know how she is, know she will get the information needed her own way, know she's being a brat and want nothing to do with the headache that is her existence - who invited her here again? They leave to handle other matters. ] Stop walking away from me!!!
[ BB tries to follow after them, but every step she makes a small little tiny noises follows after and one step from her is more than a skip from a mouse. ]
₊˚⊹🍖 NICE TO 🍖 YOU... Food.
[ BB looks like a bug munching on a big piece of meat, ] Oh, donnnm't wormry, eets not poisoned... [ She says, with a bit of attitude. Nibbling on a chicken as if she were no more than a tick along it's skin, ] I woummd know... Cauwse, then..... [ She swallows after she was done eating. ] I'd die!
₊˚⊹🧚♀️ ENGAGE: CLASS X
[ A little tiny fairy(?) flies over to you!! ]
Hey! [ She is looking at you, person perhaps not where they should be or should be. ] Listen!
[ You have a feeling if you don't say something back, she's going to keep saying it to you.... ]
₊˚⊹🌚 AN EVENTFUL HORIZON: Failure
[ Somehow you get dragged into a place that is completely black, dark, nothingness incarnate. Without realizing it possibly, BB suddenly bumps into you. She isn't a tiny fairy right now, but her normal self. A young looking girl who is panicked and trying to catch her breath while wanting to grab hold of you - desperate to not let go. ]
OH THANK FUCK! A PERSON??? IT'S BEEN LIKE 100 THOUSAND YEARS!!
₊˚⊹💬 Network
yeah you suck that wasn't funny "( – ⌓ – )
anyway im here to stalk all your posts and gather all your tea, so go ahead give spill your stupid details puny little humans ♥︎
and aliens
i guess
Class X
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
DFDFSDF god good response
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[Just saying, it's doing a damn good job of mass-producing weapons of mass destruction. Really, no notes.]
You'll have to join my party if you want that kind of protection, though.
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[ A little twirl and she's back at being cutesy, as cutesy she can be. ]
Add me in as support, I may not be a loop Servant, but BB sure can offer support! [ So she says as beams and light shows continue to blow up all around them - ] Ne, ne, if you're a book what happens if I read your pages?
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[Well, this friendship is off to a magnificent start, isn't it]
Just FYI, I don't normally do the guest party member thing! This is a one-off. You want help in the future, you've got to sign up formally!
[But he'd already agreed... and can revoke said agreement at any time, so the Overlord extends Guest Party Member status to her. Congratulations, BB: you are now under the authority and protection of the strongest mana power in the cosmos, only one benefit of which is that no one can change her status and affiliation with some cheap hacking or mind-control trick!]
no subject
Hmm, yes, that makes sense; otherwise, the universe would probably explode. [ Or something, she says within the confluxes of binary code. She stands there now in her tiny self, ready to become strong??? All Powerful?? All Mighty??
With the status affiliation, BB looks over at him with a most grievous look and with the tone of an annoyed girl, clearly upset - ]
I hate that all you did was give me a small percent of my abilities back, because of the rules I'm bound under with this stupid place, and then - AND THEN!!! You get to give me back basically my original ability? [ BB would stomp her feet, but she is in the air, so she just stomps her feet in the air. ] This is stupid.
[ She is ungrateful, I am sorry. ]
WHATEVER!! Stupid BOOK! Now I can go talk to the stupid AI and tell them to cut it out.
no subject
[Demons neither offer nor expect gratitude, so fortunately, angry yelling is the communication style he not only understands best but expects. Besides, she's one to talk! He's a freaking book! At least she has LIMBS!]
And great plan, but how are you getting through...
[He glances meaningfully at the MASSIVE RIDICULOUS ONSLAUGHT, barely being held at bay by his minions.]
no subject
[ She sighs, begrudgingly. ]
Alright, what if like - this is my hear me out okay? Anyway, what if I took us to numberspace? Or brought numberspace here - and then like, uh, we can try a million times to kill this thing and if we die we can just keep resetting until we get it right.
Or, I can run backwards compatible programs to reset the stupid aerophage's at their base capacity - doing so might grab its attention though, but it would make killing them much easier.
no subject
Uh, you DO realize we're in the science fantasy tactics-style genre, right? It's like you took a hard left at cyberpunk.
no subject
Fine, fine, numberspace is actually a dungeon dimension where anything I say goes, THAT BETTER? Or what, is that too much for even a book to follow?
no subject
[Seriously, everyone can punch, right??]
no subject
[ Angry and upset, she just turns around and starts lugging her comically childish looking death scythe around. Flinging it around and deftly cutting through the bioweapons that seem to have amassed their attention towards her. ]
FINE BECAUSE KILLING THINGS CLEARLY IS GETTING US SOMEWHERE!!!
no subject
[Now color him confused, because who are they suddenly appealing to, and why does he have to be associated with them?]
[But Zetta shakes it off quickly.] It's called level-grinding! This is a great place for it if we can do it fast enough to keep from being overwhelmed!
An Eventful Horizon
[ Finding herself in a place as creepy as this was surprising enough, but Hibiki was not prepared to suddenly get bumped into... and can you really blame her? It's so dark and quiet here that even the sound of a pin dropping would be at least a little startling.
That said, if BB wants to grab hold and latch on, Hibiki's a bit too stunned to even think of stopping her. ]
H-Huh!? Wha!? Who are you!? You've been here how long!?
[ ????????? ]
no subject
100 THOUSAND YEARS!!! QUICK, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!
no subject
[ Oh my god, she's fully latched on. There's a girl fully latched onto her. Well, at least Hibiki has more than enough upper body strength to not fall over. Still... too close...! ]
I-I dunno how to get out! D-Didn't we all just get in here!?
[ Something about how they have to go inside to do something about it... ]
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no subject
[ Man, if Hibiki didn't have any clue about what's happening before, she has even less now. For one thing, this totally isn't what Hibiki would expect someone to act like after one-hundred-thousand years, but... ]
O-Okay, okay...! I-I'm not a hero, but I'll help! I'll help! [ Man, is this how Chris feels whenever Hibiki glomps her? Is this karma? ] J-Just calm down!
no subject
no subject
[ Case and point, the way she's still clinging on... though the floating makes it a little easier to deal with. ]
Hey, I'm totally human! And um... should I be? They said this place is like, all about your imagination, so it'd be easy to leave as long as you don't freak out, right?