Futuristic Wild West Asteroid Rush (space) (sci-fi) (Interest Check)

[Saurosian]

Lee Anders shoved the joystick forward, and the crawler lurched, throwing him back into his seat. The vehicle's arachnoid arms cut into the rocky surface of the asteroid, making purchase where they found none, while he glanced between the surveyor's map he juggled in his arms and the old laser grid his trawler was providing from its orbital scanners. His samples had turned out negative so far, but he would climb to the bottom of every crater on this barren rock until he found the silver deposit which would finally free him from this solitary life.

***​

For two months, she had tracked the rusting trawler, from Ceres station to Vesta, then off into the belt, hopping from rock to rock as she honed in on his lead-heavy trailings. Now, as her quarry extended its wings to latch onto a rock no more than twenty meters wide, Kakahashi Azami finally leaned forward and pulled the slider control to the right, sending all of her previously masked systems to full power. She imagined that the trawler's pilot was reacting immediately and furiously, but it was too late; the claws on his ship were latched onto the rock, limiting his mobility. At last, Azami thought, You won't have to wonder if you've been found. As her stunners reached a sufficient charge, she pulled out the targeting computer, and watched as it latched onto the largest heat signature in the area.

No, she hissed. Her luck had run out, and now two months were as good as wasted. She put away the targeting computer and switched to her main scanners, which showed in full resolution the outline of a Terrasite corporate vessel. In all the belt, they find a way to be here? She ran through her options, and calculated that speed would be more of a factor here - she couldn't count on the corporates having anything less than perfect scanners. With a sharp pull at the joystick, she sent her accelerators into full gear, overriding all of the stealth and patience that had become her habit over the course of this hunt. Usually, she was one of the biggest, fiercest fish in the belt. But being a shark meant building up a hefty price on her head, and when the corporates were in the area, she had to remember that even sharks can be hunted, with a large enough boat.

***​

From lunar vacations and safaris in the last great natural preserve, to a stop at Van Rosen's Brewery on Ceres Centre, Gabriel Tulsi Bernard Descoteaux's standards of luxury and relaxation had diminished greatly since childhood. A wasted rebellious youth had been more consequential than his undeveloped teenage mind could have imagined, and now, sitting at a bar sipping cheap manufactured alcohol, he wanted nothing more than to get back to Earth, where he could feel fresh, clean air, without the taste of the recyclers in every breath.

"Tulsi!" Gabriel turned and watched Matthias enter the bar. "We been lookin' for you all o'er the station. You got your buzzer off?"

Gabriel felt for the box at his side. "Ah, no. Not on me. We go now?"

"Soon as you're ready. Whole crew's waiting for you; ship's all fuelled up."

"Nice of you to wait."

"All for one, one for all, am I right?"

Gabriel smiled. One small fortune - that was all he needed. And then, then, he could be rid of this life.


Prospectors. Bounty hunters. Explorers. Miners.
People just trying to work an honest day's work in a place where the division between night and day is the flickering lights in one's own ship.

If I've caught your eye, I imagine that you've been looking for the same thing as me: something with a different feel from most of the other science fiction offerings in the roleplaying community. This roleplay should be just that.

A low-tech space western set in the Asteroid belt in an only somewhat distant future where the Klondike gold rush is replaced by the heavy metal asteroid rush. The local 'watering holes' are found at the likes of Ceres Centre or Vesta Station, the only place where the independent fortune-seekers and scoundrels mix and mingle with the crews of the big corporations based out of Earth and Mars. Trawlers are hunks of steel only fit to fly because they're cheap, and good enough to get from one asteroid to the next's orbit; crawlers are the landing craft that make the trip down to the surface and get the goods back out.

The roleplay itself would be open ended: you make a character, and then you take control of your own plot. Do you have one old roleplaying friend who you haven't had a good roleplay with recently? Invite them to plot something with you, and act it out in this little world we've made. Make new friends in and out of character, and make enemies in character (but not out of character). I would hope that this roleplay would feel organic: that lots of little groups of roleplayers would inhabit this world with their little clusters of characters and their own interlocking plots, and that over time each of these clusters would intersect from time to time, forming a tapestry in which everything is connected, but nothing is forced together.

If you're interested, post something in the comments below or send me a PM.

Technical details:

• There would be no enforcement of a post length limit. I'm a firm believer in short but effective posts, outside of the moments where a long post is really worth it.
• There would be no enforcement of mandatory daily/weekly activity. Join for a month and run a plot, disappear for a month or two, and come back whenever you feel like it. It's your life and you're probably busy. Just keep us in the loop!
• Character applications would require minimal detail, but feel free to do as much detail as you'd like, too. Ship applications would be separate and would require a bit more detail to hash out technical specifications. I imagine we might use some sort of point-buy system for ships.

See you soon.

 

[amended]

Oh, what luck! I recently came upon this gem and now having read this I feel like this would be right up my alley.

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

This kinda reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, which is one of my All Time Favorite shows. Love the music in that series. I'd be up for giving this a go.

 

[Moldie]

Sounds banger! Really interested in learning more about the state of the world though!

 

[Saurosian]

As you wish.

Spoiler: Elsewhere

Earth
Overpopulated and under-protected against the ravages of climate change, Earth is, for many, an inescapable misery - but it’s home. And for those on the upper side of the ever-increasing wealth disparity, it’s extremely pleasant, too. The less stable nations of Earth slowly split into smaller and smaller territories, who wage wars and form alliances with each other, while the remaining first-world countries of North America and Asia devote their efforts to keeping themselves intact by ameliorating the conditions of their citizens. In these larger countries, industry and progress is as alive as ever, as large corporations reach for the stars with the easy labour support of populations eager to be part of something great.

Luna
As the moon became a political entity in its own right, it adopted a name that allowed it to reclaim its individuality, as Luna, the first stop on the way to the stars. But Luna is not merely a port or a site of industry, nor is it a luxury resort for the richest of the rich; as an entirely self-sustaining state, it boasts all of the amenities that a society requires to excel. The tagline for this picturesque lifestyle? Luna: Life Done Right. Seen as the second chance for humanity, everything from the agriculture to the education is seen by Luna’s citizens as being their greatest success, because here nothing is restrained by the old limitations of tradition and establishment which once held back progress for the people on Earth. Yet Luna is no longer so fresh-faced as it once was, and all the old problems have arisen here anew. The government does its best to hide the burgeoning underground of organized crime, the blossoming plight of economic disparity, and the gradual pull of intergovernmental pressures, but the lunar paradise is past its honeymoon. Now, the reality of coexistence must take centre stage.

Mars
Mars is rough. Life on the red planet is no fairy tale, and there are no green men to help the little humans find their way. But Mars has everything the Moon lacks, hidden in cracks and buried under generations of work that its colonists know must be done. Some see Mars as humanity’s third chance, after Earth and the Moon. But for most, there is no time to think in such romantic terms. Under one government, unified by one cause, the people work hard to terraform their planet, but already much of the work is underway, and the groundwork has been well laid. Life here is possible, now, and not everyone is directly involved in the terraforming process; there are farmers, too, who feed the workers, and teachers who educate their children, and there are spaceports that fuel forays into the belt, which give them the materials they need to advance their planet’s transformation into a home. Made one by their communal hardship and by the loftiness of their goal, the Martian people are proud and diligent. Only the most idealistic and self-sacrificing would choose to join such a cause.

Spoiler: In The Belt

Ceres Centre
Ceres is a place of necessity, not of dreams. The foundation of the spaceport was a research base, quickly transformed into a mining facility, and since then, various corporations have tried to control it. Today, it is controlled by those whom luck has smiled upon enough for them to eke out a portion of the station for themselves, and the larger corporations don’t bother with trying to control it outright. Too much trouble to own, but too useful to abandon; that’s the allure that brings people back to this tiny rock. The modern Ceres Centre is a hub for trade, a morass of shops, refineries, and factories, and a burgeoning place of residence for its own little slice of the human race. Being ‘Ceresian’ still means something, because so few people have been born anywhere other than Earth, Luna, and Mars. On the station itself, there are ports for every type of ship in the belt, from the corporates to the criminals. It’s no vacation destination, and it’s certainly not a home you’d seek, but Ceres Centre is indispensable, and everyone knows that.

Vesta
Vesta lacks the industry and society of Ceres Centre, but there’s just as much money to be had in its casinos, and just as many sorrows to be drowned in its pubs and brothels. And some say it has something Ceres doesn’t: identity. Nevermind that no one really agrees on whether that identity belongs to the corporates who’ve set up bases on the far side of the rock, or to the central hub of activity that has dug its way outwards from the asteroid’s most massive crater and now its largest spaceport - or even to the various disconnected docks and establishments trying to make a name for themself, or trying not to fade into oblivion, across the rest of the asteroid’s surface. The truth is that a stay at Vesta is more a result of convenience than of choice; one never really knows where one will end up in the belt.

Hygiea and Pallas
Hygiea and Pallas exist because Ceres and Vesta paved the way. Some terrestrial forces maintain a heavily-defended research station on Hygiea, and Pallas has more refineries than any other rock save Ceres, but nothing else distinguishes these two rocks from being the product of a need for more spaceports and supply dispensaries. Their small size lets them serve well as a hiding place for people on the run, and as a base for the various small-time organizations large enough to stay away from Ceres Centre’s bigger fish.

Other Spaceports
Some see every rock as another land of opportunity, no matter how small or misshapen - but out in the abyss of space, without a large mass to anchor you, it’s only the best that can thrive by making a name for themselves. Whether that name comes from quality of service, from the patronage of someone worth noticing, or from the availability of certain frowned upon products and practices, is a matter of individual discretion. More than a few establishments have been shut down because the corporates decided they couldn’t look the other way while human trafficking or blood sport spread its roots.

Spoiler: Corporations

To the denizens of the belt, these are the real enemies, the hands of oppression that reach out even into this land of supposed freedom. Thankfully, the belt is large enough, and the source of these powers so far distant, that for the most part they’re only bogeymen and the dogs who ate our homework. But when the corporates show up in ships larger and more advanced than any independent prospector could ever even dream to afford, you scatter, because today might be one of those days where a ship decides no one will notice if they clean up a bit more of the belt’s parasitic infestation, and once that decision’s been made, there’s little hope of escape for a lone trawler or a wayward bounty hunter’s rig.
Three main groups of corporates tower over the rest, whose smaller size and lessened threat to the belt’s prosperity makes them slightly more acceptable as drinking partners, or as targets of a foolish captain’s decision to stand up to terran tyranny. These smaller groups often have much larger roles in the exploitation of the asteroids between Earth and Mars’ orbits, but there the profits are growing thinner as the resources begin to dry up, and more corporations will soon be forced out into the unclaimed and untapped potential of the far more massive asteroid belt.

Terrasite
Like its primary competitor, Bluemoon, Terrasite is an ostensibly earth-based company that operates primarily off of Luna. Terrasite operates with both corporate and governmental backing, but was once no more than a pioneer in asteroid mining. Now, it is the most wide-reaching corporate presence in the belt, though many of its ships are getting older and some have already been sold to independent prospectors (or have otherwise come into their possession). Terrasite is in many ways the most integrated of the companies, sometimes operating with belt-made equipment, but this is merely a necessity, and the grey and green of their uniforms or the paintjobs on their ships keeps them well and distinguished from the rusters of the belt.

MarsCorp
MarsCorp exemplifies the Martian spirit, as a full subsidiary of the unified Martian government and its purpose. What is collected by MarsCorp is not sold; it serves the Martian cause. As a pseudo-governmental organization, MarsCorp operates with a unique sense of authority, backed up by the militaristic nature of its ships and crew. The philosophy behind this attitude is that what is MarsCorp today may serve by necessity tomorrow as the Martian Fleet which defends the colony from terran and lunar forces. The result is that MarsCorp is viewed as a menace by the denizens of the belt, who have too often seen its ships take on the role of sheriff, hunting down pirates, shutting down crime syndicates, and establishing bases on far more than their fair share of asteroids.

Bluemoon
Bluemoon is a wholly corporate enterprise, owned and operated by a visionary and an entrepreneur. The Bluemoon fleet is small and its crews are light, but its mining operations are unrivalled in their efficiency, and a small size makes less room for bad apples in the bunch. Bluemoon’s arrival on the scene within the last year upset the balance which was supposed to be struck between the green and grey of Earth and the red and black of Mars, making them no friends; the tension between Terrasite and Bluemoon, both competing for the same markets and travelling along the same routes, is especially rich.

Spoiler: Ship Terminology

You either belong to a ship or the ship belongs to you, else you’re the property, fully owned, of the belt itself. Some ships are brought from shipyards on Luna or Mars, others are bought second-hand from the corporates; the rich, or the savvy, can afford to build their own, and the rest are the products of the shipyards of the big four asteroids, and can only be as trusted as anything that comes out of those rocks.

Trawlers
The ships of mining crews and prospectors, varying in size from a pilot-only model that both flies and lands to the larger corporate ships carrying crews of up to twenty or twenty five. Trawlers come in various sizes and vintages, and have widely varying designs. The basic components are a cockpit, an engine, and some space to store raw ore; more advanced trawlers may have on-ship rudimentary refineries to maximize the quality of its haul, living space for a crew, storage room for various implements, and possibly a space for carrying a lander vehicle of some sort.
Other ships used for the transport of goods or people within the belt are often modified trawlers, or are at least similar enough in appearance that they are called by the same name. ‘Trawler’ has come to be the catch-all term for general-use ships.

Landers
Any vehicle which can land on an asteroid’s surface, but often more specifically a smaller vehicle which detaches from a larger one for this purpose.

Crawlers
One of the two primary groups of landing vehicles, crawlers do not often live up to their name in the most literal sense. Some crawlers are the imagined four or six armed mechs which scour a rock’s surface, but others have the more traditional wheels. The unifying feature of crawlers is their versatility and their ability to be transported easily to and from a planet’s surface - sometimes by the crawler itself, and other times by an extra vehicle designed to carry it up and down.

Buggies
Wheeled vehicles designed for transport on an object’s surface. Often used to move between small colonies/establishments and their associated spaceports, or used to travel on the surface of larger asteroids like Ceres or Vesta.

Haulers
The largest ships flown by the human race, designed to carry ore and refined resources back to Mars, Earth, and Luna. They also offer transport to people seeking to move in and out of the belt at quicker speeds than any of the smaller ships would allow, and provide most of the supplies and resources that can’t be manufactured on one of the big-four asteroids. The schedule of the haulers’ arrivals and departures provides a season-like rhythm to the belt and its economy, as they bring an influx of people, products, and wealth as they buy up the stockpiles of resources that had accumulated since the previous hauler’s departure. A hauler falling off schedule is like a drought or a missed paycheck, throwing everything into disarray. While some of the haulers are operated by the corporates, they all haul what they can, and no one much cares who they’re selling their ore and metal to, so long as they get their pay.

Runners
Agile, one or two pilot ships designed for surveying or direct travel between spaceports with minimal cargo. Many runners are modified or designed entirely independently to give the ships the extra bite and bark that they might require for their jobs.

Hunters
Runners designed or modified to maximize their combat effectiveness.

Spoiler: Technology

Weaponry
There’s still nothing more dangerous than a projectile from a gun, but in space, that danger’s often too unpredictable, when hull breaches have to be considered. A more common weapon is the stunner, whose projectiles aren’t designed to pierce so much as they’re designed to give a shock that overloads the body’s systems and knocks most targets unconscious; the odd victim with a bad heart or just bad luck doesn’t wake up at all. However, armour can be worn to protect against hand-held stunners, and not everyone can make a perfect headshot. This has reopened a niche for knives, daggers, and hand-to-hand combat. In the end, knives and stunners are the weapons of choice on ships and in space ports that are too close to the surface, while pistols keep their role of murder alive more than ever in any of the better-designed space ports and on the surface of asteroids, if anyone ever has the misfortune to meet out there on the rocks.
For ship versus ship combat, projectile weapons such as rail guns are rare, but when they exist they exist to be lethal. Stunners are far more common, and are difficult for smaller ships to defend against, while posing no threat to the more advanced and far larger corporate vessels. Guided missiles, colloquially known as mosquitoes, have their own computers that can lead a hunt for targets based on heat or pre-identification by a shipboard computer.

Scanning and Cloaking
Various levels of scanning exist, differentiated primarily by what degree of cloaking they can overcome. Cloaking is very rudimentary, and consists of two stages: shutting down all of a ship’s systems to minimize its energy signatures, and activating a program which masks the ship from radar or lidar detection by producing light and radio waves which simulate a negative result. Much of the lower-end scanning would be fooled by radar/lidar masking, but the most advanced scanning technology would be able to detect even the most advanced radar/lidar masking. There are various stages of each technology currently in use, so most pilots can never be sure if they’re hidden in any given situation, or if they’re scanners are really telling them what’s out there.

Speed
Some ships are fast and some are slow; so it has always been and so it will always be. Typically, there are two ways of measuring speed: max speed and max acceleration. Smaller ships are typically capable of a greater acceleration, giving them more agility and more maneuverability in and around larger objects. However, only larger ships are capable of withstanding and safely maintaining higher speeds, giving them a far greater ability to travel long distances. The largest ships may carry a smaller ship within them, to deploy when in the range of a smaller planet, either for defence or exploration.

Spacesuits
The preferred apparel of the space-daring traveller is much more compact and acrobatic than it was in the early decades of spaceflight. A slimmer fabric now offers better protection than what those foolish pioneers once wore, while a compact contraption on the back offers jet-powered mobility and stores hours of air. Some spacesuits have higher-tech implements worked into their machinery, such as robotic tools and weaponry.

Robotics
Dog has been replaced as man's best friend by robots, whose utility far surpasses those old fleshy animals. However, robots cannot exist without man; AI has never advanced beyond the levels of the early 21st century, and robots, as expensive as they are, have no creativity, no sense of beauty, and no morality, beyond that of their operators. In computation and precision they far surpass any mortal hand or eye, but in humanity there is still only the human race.

Cybernetics
The public opposition to 'androids' comes as a point of principle and pride in their own God-given forms, but then again, the opposition comes predominantly from those who can't afford it, or who can't stand the pain of the operation and the potential risk of a lifelong ailment if it goes wrong. Most cybernetics are simple things - mechanical hands to replace weak and easily burnt fleshy ones, or to install new and useful tools in their place. Others replace the senses - a cybernetic eye might double as a targeting computer, and a cybernetic ear might give the necessary edge for survival in the shadier corridors of Ceres Centre, where every corner might hide a thug waiting to make his next score. The key to cybernetics is that they are tied into the nervous system and rely on the brain - but with such an intrinsic connection, their potential to accidentally cause pain or some unintended side effect is dangerously real.

Genetic Modification
Unlike cybernetics, genetic modification is not chosen by its recipients; parents choose to have their children genetically modified prior to birth, which is the only time when genetic modification can be effective. This lack of consent on the part of the modified has made genetic modification taboo and unconscionable within the confines of civilization, leading to it being rendered illegal in most states of Earth and Luna, while on Mars it is strictly controlled and limited to mandatory minor modifications to make the children of Mars more suited to life on the red planet. Ultimately, the best place to go for the black market of genetic modification is various little outposts in the belt, but finding them can be difficult, since their very existence is seen as a threat to the authorities of Mars, Earth, and Luna. As a result, most genetic modification is subtle and non-aesthetic, such as small improvements to the senses, reaction time, strength, durability, and mental acuity.

Spoiler: Employment

Everyone does something.

Prospector
The first men on any given rock, prospectors lead the charge into the unknown, uncovering mineral deposits, mapping asteroids and their surfaces, and selling their knowledge, their guidance, and their services at steep prices. There are few jobs as widely respected by the people of the belt as that of a prospector.

Miner
Where first the prospector travelled, the miner follows, hunting down claims they've bought or traded for and collecting the minerals from the planet, hopefully before anyone else can beat them to it. Miners usually work in crews, and these crews often include not only the technicians, engineers, and pilots necessary for the operation, but also enforcers and security personnel to fend off pirates, predators, and other mining crews trailing them to their spot.

Pilot/Flyer
Various ships run other odd jobs between the belt, transporting people and supplies to and from the various spaceports and stations that are in demand. These ships need pilots, engineers, and common crewmen, too. Most are independently owned.

Enforcer
There's space for the tough and combat-minded everywhere, from serving as station security at Ceres Centre to accompanying supply runs across the belt. It's a rough but common line of work, and the best get paid handsomely.

Manual Labourer
In shipyards, refineries, and factories across the belt, there are many jobs for the poor and the unfortunate who find themselves stuck in the belt. A labourer might hope to earn themselves enough over the course of a year to buy themselves transport off of their own station, but getting to Mars or Luna is likely to remain their pipedream for quite some time.

Entrepreneur
Small establishments selling food, custom parts, weapons, goods, and services pop up everywhere in the belt under private ownership. And under that private ownership they often dwindle and die, too.

Specialist
Sometimes a specific problem needs a specific solution, and a contractor is the only one who can step up to the job. Experts in programming, ion engines, cybernetics, gene modification, credential forgery, information collection, and every other imaginable odd job have their own little niches in the belt, and it's just a matter of finding them. There's probably a specialist for that, too.

Medic
Getting injured is no surprise in the belt's harsh lifestyle, creating a demand for medics which would never be met by respectable and properly trained and unionized individuals. Outside of the doctors servicing the corporate crews, every medic in the belt must have some reason for being there, some hidden injustice or twisted quirk of their mind, or maybe just a passing knowledge of the trade which would get them killed within the confines of civilization, but out here, it's only the odd one or two of their patients that will end up dead. Medics might be employed as part of a ship's crew, or they might have set up shop on some common station where they'll be easy to reach. Some medics aren't even humans, but rather robots programmed to perform a specific set of procedures. Not as versatile, but often less volatile.

Entertainer
The quality of a production in the belt will never be as fine as it is when it comes from the holodecks of Luna or the studios of Earth, but the belt's entertainers capture the heart of the belt in a way that no one else ever will, and it is from this advantage that they procure their success. Some produce work that is streamed across the belt, and others travel to perform in person at the pubs and backrooms of various spaceports. Songwriters, dancers, playwrights, and actors each call on the unique voice of the belt to give a smile or a laugh to their people.

Corporate
The corporates stick together, with a strong sense of camaraderie between those who wear the same uniforms, and a sometimes tense rivalry between green, red, and blue. There are various jobs on any corporate ship - comms, pilots, engineers, security, and officers to oversee it all.

Pirate
No different from the seafarers of olde, pirates plague the belt in numbers which are multiplying now as many former mining crews despair over the growing presence of the corporations. Stealing from the poor is easier, but infinitely more shameful; pirates are not often ones to flaunt their identities.

Bounty Hunter
There are crime syndicates in the belt, and there are powerful people, and between the two of them, they have many enemies and debtors who would like to disappear. Bounty hunters are the ones who ensure that they can't, chasing down marks. This is a line of work that requires a certain proclivity to the hunt in those who adopt it as their lifestyle, but anyone is free to collect on a bounty if they find themselves in a position to do so.

Spoiler: Other

Religion
The old institutions of religion have mostly fallen away into smaller roles, leaving the public consciousness to be split and diversified amidst various sects and creeds which rely more on individual faith than on any unified institutionalization of teachings or rituals. People seek out what little comfort suits them in a world where there are no heavens above them, only the terrifying emptiness of space.

Any questions? I'll look to post the OOC thread and the IC thread before the end of the week.

 

[Saurosian]

Futuristic - On the Frontier - OOC Thread

We're good to go.

 

[Graystone713]

I'mma be honest, I've been watching this quietly, and I'm hoping to join. If it's not too late, I'll gladly pull together someone to lead our criminal element. A bandit leader, pirate captain, and hopefully someone not too OP or crazy.

 

[Saurosian]

I don't imagine it will ever be too late for people to join! Welcome to the group.

 

[VasiliasMellow]

Howdy, do you still have space because I am interested!

 

[Saurosian]

Howdy, do you still have space because I am interested!

Welcome to the group!

 

[Saurosian]

On the Frontier

The roleplay has begun, but it's still not too late for anyone to join. If you had previously expressed interest but you no longer have time or this turned out not to be what you were looking for, feel free to let me know, as I appreciate having that degree of completeness in any interaction and your feedback will keep me satisfied.

 

[738]

hi is this rp still open to join?

 

[FTR]

This looks neat!
D. Rex

 

[Saurosian]

hi is this rp still open to join?

This looks neat!
D. Rex

Awesome, nice to see you two! There's lots of room left for you, so you can head over to our OOC thread (linked in a comment above) and add your characters there. As soon as you've been accepted, you can jump in on the roleplay itself.

 

[Skaleesh1873]

If this is open, I'd certainly be interested. The idea of being the owner of a grocery store on Pallas appeals to me in a very weird way