Futuristic NCQuest: Take Two

It is the year 2617, and the planet Earth is on the road to recovery. Four hundred years earlier, Mankind committed its own mass suicide by bombarding itself with weapons of mass destruction. Remnants of mankind took refuge underground, in vast buried cities, 'Burrows', that were built just in time by Megacorporations. These same Megacorporations, now known as the 'Ruling Companies', absorbed the governments of old, and now control the world with an iron fist.

The surface, over the course of four centuries, now begins to slowly heal. Lush forests grow in deserted dunes, and urban sprawl is consumed by shrubbery and life. Concrete makes way for new lakes as the surface, vastly changed by the war, is in the process of being re-mapped by Corporate scouting parties.

Mankind has not changed, however. These Megacorporations face the same temptations as the nationalities they replaced centuries ago. Hunger for resources, strength, respect, and control fan the flames of new wars, as skirmishes turn to brawls, and brawls turn into vicious battles over territory, money, and prestige.

The greatest heroes and villains of these wars are the ones who pilot the greatest tools of these wars; the Neural Combatants. These semi-humanoid weapons, towering mechanical constructs, are each built expressly for the rare few with the special psychic traits required to pilot them. Coming from all walks of life, these Elites of the Elites, called anything from Pluggers, to Pilots, to MAVERICK's, are the shining faces and absurd farces of the parties they represent.

The Ruling Companies can agree on two things; the Inter-Corporate Dollar, and the maintenance of a special world-wide organization, MAVERICK, to monitor and manage these special individuals. Acting as a variety of institutions, MAVERICK locates, trains, monitors, assists, and provides work to these unique individuals. Pluggers are given a basic, starting frame to start their work, taught at special MAVERICK academies to hone their craft, and then given a choice when they officially graduate from trainee to rookie;

They can either stay unaffiliated, and work as a mercenary under MAVERICK itself, or they can leave and join one of the Corporations directly. Of course, much like any other choice, there's always the third option of going renegade, but that's a dangerous path for the reckless.

We follow the path of the first Inter-Corporate World War, the greatest war after the great destruction. Tensions boil as the Corporations finally stake all of the unclaimed zones, and the only path to more power is to take it from others. Fear and greed rule the day, and humanity begs for a third choice between total war and uneasy peace.

This story is enframed in the life of our "Hero", a fresh young recruit who has very recently graduated from a MAVERICK academy. The date dawns where he has to make a choice of who he serves; Nobody, somebody he'll never know, or, only himself.

Chapter Zero: Who Am I?​

05:59 HOURS
JANUARY 14th, 2617
MAVERICK PILOT HOUSING FACILITY #108
SOMEWHERE IN THE 'OLD ALASKA' AREA​

It was a cold and snowy day, and all was silent. Barely awake, a young man sat collapsed on the bed, lurching forwards, and awaiting the sound of the alarm. Seconds started to resemble hours as the clock on the wall ticked and ticked.

He was a MAVERICK, or a Pilot, or a Plugger. A very important individual, any way you could put it. He graduated from his training just a week before, and he was essentially waiting for his paperwork to get finished, and was granted a brief respite from everything.

He was living in a quiet building, somewhere cold and dark in what was once Alaska. Built into a mountain, the facility was near the tip and was essentially a highly secret, private condo of some sort. A couple of his class-mates were technically in the building, but it was built big enough that they never actually needed to see each-other if they didn't want to.

The living space was built fairly utilitarian, and was a ten minute jog's away from a small base, also MAVERICK related. The base was a fairly tiny airfield that supported little propeller planes, and was essentially the only way in or out.

It was a pretty nice place to live, really. Very quiet. Of course, our hero was about to get kicked out.

The clock chimed, and it was finally six in the morning.

A little electronic by his night-stand beeped as well, and its screen bid him Good Morning, Sir!. It was a little PDA, communicator thing that every pilot that went through a MAVERICK academy had. It was about time he changed its default name to his own.

What should he put in?


Option 1. Write it in.

(First come, first serve)
I think it's important for a quest to have its rules in the very first post. As such, I'll explain the rules and how this'll work here.

Quests are a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style RP, where everybody responding to the thread controls one character's journey, by voting on what they do after the OP posts. In this quest, we control the character described previously in this post, the one you guys will name.

This quest will only use this one thread (at least for now), and this thread will be both for the quest itself and discussions related to it. Each post made by myself in this thread will be divided into the 'In character' content (the actual story so far) when applicable, then comments, such as this section of this post.

In between the story section and the commentary section will be a vote section. That section will describe your options and the type of vote it will be. In this case, the first one to vote on this issue will be the winner.

When we use a numbers-based vote, a maximum waiting period will be detailed, and/or a 'land-slide' number. If at least that many people vote for the same thing before the time is up, whatever they voted for will automatically be picked.

Feel free to discuss your displeasure at these rules in this thread, or, preferably, at me personally on my profile page.

Peace out, MAVERICKs.​

06:00 HOURS
JANUARY 14th, 2617
MAVERICK PILOT HOUSING FACILITY #108
SOMEWHERE IN THE 'OLD ALASKA' AREA​

Jack put in his name, and smiled when the PDA returned "Good Morning, Mister Jack Andela!". For some reason, he wanted to put in a couple other names that came to his mind, but he didn't know why. They sounded pretty cool though, so he noted them down as possible aliases he could use.

The clock continued to tick, tick, tick, and Jack stood up from his bed, looking at his small 'apartment'. Certainly bigger then anything else he would call an 'apartment', but it wasn't massive. His door was locked, and he was all alone in the room, aside from the aforementioned sounds of fine-tuned clocks and his electronic assistant.

His living space had his bedroom, which he was in now, obviously, a bathroom, and the door to a commons zone. For some reason, there was just one kitchen in the whole complex. Probably to force some social interaction so nobody goes insane. There were about twenty people in the building, but he only really knew three others.

There was himself, obviously, and the person who spent the most time with him (Jack still wasn't sure if he appreciated it or not), Robin Attward. The best way to describe him was a 'perceptive blunt instrument'. He knew what was up, but he wasn't actually smart, and the only solutions he could think up were the in-your-face kind. No subtlety. If he was into a girl, he'd just walk up to them then and there with a "Hey, gorgeous, wanna go somewhere private?". If he hated somebody, he'd stomp into their face and promise to "Kick your fuckin' ass if you gave me one other good reason!"

You guys 'met' when you were forced to co-operate during a team-work training exercise. Your NC was (and is) still the stock model with no attachments, but he already started to tinker with his and it was essentially the same, but with half-again the armor and one hell of an axe. It went pretty well, and he decided he liked you or something and wouldn't get out of your hair.

Right after him was Aloysha. That's the only part of his name he actually told you, and you didn't feel the need to ask the other part yet. He was a little short and small, but out of your entire class he had the highest scores across the board by far. You're not sure of his history at all, but something about him suggests he's high up on the totem pole, maybe a Corporate Official's son or something.

He's easily the most impressive of your class-mates right out of the gate when he starts fighting. His NC's the standard model, just like yours, but he can make it move like something out of a movie set. It's related to his 'Synchronicity score', or how well his connector implants mesh with the systems of his NC. You remember his is close to 90%, which is almost unheard of for a rookie. Yours is only 55%. You'll hold your own, but you don't think anybody out of your class could give him a fair fight.

Aloysha hasn't really talked to you much, but he seemed to keep an eye on you during tests. You're just short of feeling honored that he takes interest in you. You must be doing something right, or something terribly wrong.

The third and final one that you were on speaking terms with was a 'Kohaku Nishimara'. You think of that name a bit differently, because you have a hunch that isn't actually her name. She looks like a Kohaku Nishimara, but she can never say it immediately, has a trend towards hesitating. As good of a reason to presume a fake name as any. You haven't brought it up, but something in her eyes tells you that she knows it's obvious it isn't her real name.

Either way, she seems to be a consistently nervous type. Hard for her to calm down. Considering she seems to be two steps away from a panic attack half the time, she's pretty good in nervous situations. You don't think she ever actually lost her cool, but she's come pretty close. Maybe she just hates crowds?

Walking on auto-pilot to the shower, you start to think of them as you wash yourself.

"How do you think of Robin?"
1. "We'd make a great team."
2. "My kind of guy."
3. "I don't particularly care for him."
4. "One hell of an attitude."
5. "Good riddance."

"How do you think of Aloysha?"
1. "Back-to-back, we'd take on anything."
2. "I could learn a thing or two from him."
3. "Barely on my mind."
4. "I wonder how far that stick up his ass goes?"
5. "That fancy footwork won't save him."

"How do you think of Kohaku?"
1. "She'd probably do fine in a close-knit team."
2. "Shame to see somebody freaking out every time."
3. "Not much to review."
4. "I wouldn't trust her with my back."
5. "I give her a week."
6. "pretty cute..."
(1-2 day vote)
Hello again. Sorry about the wait, I hope the result is to your satisfaction.

The vote today is a multi-faceted vote. Please format your vote by detailing how you think we should think of each person at the start. The results may or may not influence how they think of us during the early stages of the Quest. You should discuss and consider the character's possible personalities if you wish to influence them through this method.

You can consider these characters to be possible starting team-mates, as heavily implied. For fairness, you will have the opportunity to interact with them in the next few posts. More information on these characters, and the setting, can be requested IC. Please append your request(s) to your post.

Yes, it's possible to get all three of them to like you off the bat.​

2, 2, 1
Chapter Zero: Who am I?​

06:10 HOURS
JANUARY 14th, 2617
MAVERICK PILOT HOUSING FACILITY #108
SOMEWHERE IN THE 'OLD ALASKA' AREA
​

Thinking about the people you've met, you've come to like the lot of them, at least a little. Robin's your kind of man, and you could definitely learn a thing or two from Aloysha, even if he's a hard nut to crack into. You reserve most of your attention on 'Kohaku' though. She seems like somebody you should work with in this job. Not like either of you aren't gonna need help now and again.

You step out of the shower, and dry yourself off before putting some new clothes on. Just some casual stuff, modified a little bit to not interfere with your pilot's implants. You look at your own body, and feel at the back of your neck and spine. The interface ports, little 'plugs', hold a lot of power in this line of work. They're your badge of office, and they'll mark you forever.

You've still got an hour or two. Maybe you should hang out with your acquaintances-

...Your doorbell rang.


1. Answer the call. "Yeah, who is it?"
2. Pretend you aren't home right now.
3. Tell them the door's unlocked. (it isn't)

Addendums:
Look up something in the MAVERICK servers
(First come, first serve.)

Howdy again. A bit short, but important. Now you'll have access to 'addendums' you can add. These come 'free of charge' (usually) and may have various effects. Looking up something in the MAVERICK servers takes no or minimum 'time' and may help you understand situations you may come across a bit more. I said this previously, but y'know, whatever.

Oh, an addendum of my own; Even though it says 'first come, first serve', feel free to vote and discuss even after the first one. All votes are taken into account. Just because 1 was locked in doesn't mean a couple votes for 2 won't influence it a little bit.​

Chapter Zero: Who am I?​

06:25 HOURS
JANUARY 14th, 2617
MAVERICK PILOT HOUSING FACILITY #108
SOMEWHERE IN THE 'OLD ALASKA' AREA​

Asking, "Who is it?", you walk over to the door, and look through the peep-hole. You see a shorter, thinner man with brown hair, blue eyes, and clothed in a fine button-up jacket covering his pilot fatigues. He has a fairly angular face and looks well-groomed. Aloysha. He nods at the peep-hole, and you let him in.

Unfazed, you continue your morning routine by searching up the news on your PDA. Aloysha walks in, and looks at the walls while closing and locking the door behind him. He stands by the door-frame and conveys that he's going to wait and let you finish reading your article before doing whatever he wanted to do.

You shrug, and continue reading the MAVERICK report you just randomly chose.

On December 28th, a representative from Denver-Vegas (A major company that controls a significant portion of the Americas), Samuel Ray, cited the increased Volkov (A ruling company with a similar situation in Russia) presence near the western shores of North America as a violation of DV territorial rights, saying that 'The presence of Arsenal Ships off our coast is completely uncalled for, no matter the reason. They're a type of ship entirely dedicated to shelling strategic targets using their stores of cruise missiles; the only thing they're good for is a complete war.' In response, a Volkov Admiral, Sergei Markov, argued that the 'Ever-increasing capabilities of various international terrorist groups, such as various pirate clans in the Pacific, calls for the projection of more power even if it violates the rights of other Companies. For the protection of both of our assets, heavy military vessels must be in place to ensure that groups like the Pacific Reavers can not gain a foothold, anywhere, to harass either of us.'

Well, judging from that, it looks like Volkov and Denver-Vegas are about to go at it any day now.

Curious, you look to see if there's any other situations that could go to hell at any moment.

...Frankly, there's quite a few of them...

Paragon and Kriegwerks, two European Ruling Companies, are also fighting over border rights, but more specifically the rights to investigate some old-world facilities that have recently been dug up. That's not too serious, but it's still just brushfire material.

Redstar, Akemi, and Jae-Yoon, three corporations in the old Japan and Korea areas, are about two steps away from exploding into an all-out war. Chemical accidents that are a bit too perfect to be accidents appear to be the primary cause, and all three groups are essentially pointing at the others as secretly plotting against them.

Well, that's a pretty good summary of the current state of affairs. In short, everything's going to go to shit by the end of the year... Makes it a pretty bad time for most people, but for Pilots and MAVERICKS, it's a pretty good time to be alive. By the time you're out in the field doing contract work, there'll be plenty of it to go around.

Considering it enough, and not wanting to waste any more of Aloysha's time, you look up from your PDA, put it in your pocket, and ask him what's up. Before he says anything, he produces a small, metal tube that he then pops the cap off of, revealing a tiny gadget. Aloysha then begins to speak in his refined, sharp, if arrogant, or perhaps commanding, accent.

"Sorry about the suddenness, but I've recently discovered the walls have ears.", he tells you, while throwing you the gizmo. Catching it, you gawk at the pencil-sized thing and he explains what it is. "It's a jamming device. Custom job, takes generic small-appliance batteries. Thought you'd appreciate the graduation gift; plus, the thought of somebody blackmailing you didn't sit right with me."

Looking back up at him, he looks at the walls again before continuing. "I'm on business too, have a proposition."

Before letting him, you had the urge to ask, "Where the hell do you even get this stuff?"

He puts his hand through his air and simply states "Hah, I just know people who know people. Not that big of a deal. Anyway..."

He walks closer towards you, then goes on to his proposition, looking you in the eye. "I just thought you should know; I plan on going rogue and off the grid shortly after we 'graduate', about the time you should get to work if you choose to stay with MAVERICK as a mercenary. It actually concerns that. I'd recommend you do so; I could use an inside man for some tasks I need done. All I'd need you to do would be to acquire some info when I ask you to, I can promise the pay would be good." He continues his gaze into your eyes, inquisitively, gauging your reaction.

You're taken aback by the weight of what he's saying, and saying it so plainly too. You're barely sure why he's trusting you with the fact that he's basically planning a conspiracy to commit treason. He can tell he hit you with a brick, and waits a moment to let you think.

He breathes out, and looks down. "You seemed trustworthy enough for something like that is all. You don't have to say yes, I just need somebody to do the jobs when they come and you're the only one I can trust for that. If you aren't interested, I won't hold it against you.". He then looks at you in the eyes once more. "Of course.. you can guess what'd happen if you snitched or double-crossed me with this in mind."

He shrugs. "Well, you'll have about two weeks to think on it anyway. We'll have to do some gruntwork for MAVERICK to help pay off our debts either way, so I hope we can run some missions together before we'll have to part ways."

Seemingly finishing the conversation for you, he just bows, says "Thank you for your time.", then leaves, locking the door for you behind him.

...What a load to digest...

How do you even respond to this?...

Voting
1. "A bit suspicious, but it sounds fair."
2. "Well, he put his faith in me, that has to mean something..."
3. "The pay better be good."
4. "If he can do that, there's plenty of things I'd like done myself."
5. "Can I even trust somebody like that?"
6. "I can't, this is too dishonest for me."
7. "Shit, I should tell somebody!"

Addendums: (1 action)
Look up something in the MAVERICK servers. (1 action)
Toggle Jammer (ON: 100%) (0 actions)

(1-2 day voting)

CommentaryAlright folks, first story-related big choice. You really should discuss the possible ramifications of this. It's not like I like to see theories or wild mass guessing or anything Either way, a new addendum too; since you have a jamming device, you can choose to activate or deactivate it whenever you want. It only has so much battery though; remember to turn it off when you aren't using it! And, since we have multiple addendums, I saw fit to introduce an amount of actions you can do. It isn't related to the primary voting at all, and is merely a gauge determining how many addendums you can do at once. For now, you can do both, but in the future, you'll have to pick and choose.

Do tell if everything is cool so far.​

4, "What's happening in MAVERICK?", Jammer Off

Chapter Zero: Who am I?​

06:30 HOURS
JANUARY 14th, 2617
MAVERICK PILOT HOUSING FACILITY #108
SOMEWHERE IN THE 'OLD ALASKA' AREA
​

Mulling over your options, you decide that it'd be a decent deal, since you have plenty of things you need yourself... An eye for an eye. You aren't completely into it though, and decide to keep your ultimate decision in the air for now. Even then, it's quite strange he's keen on going renegade right out the gate... Real suspicious. You pull out your PDA once more, and start to look up some recent happenings in MAVERICK itself, curious for answers. Carefully now, though, since it seems not all is well...

Looking around the 'public' database, you can only find maintenance issues and the occasional high-visibility incident that they couldn't cover up. It seems a terrorist attack of some sort occurred in the Brazil region, specifically at a MAVERICK affiliated staging area near old São Paulo, about twelve days ago. Two NC's in storage, 'Geronimo' and 'Lancelot', were damaged in the attack.

Alarmingly, the strike was spear-headed by an unknown rogue NC, currently unidentified. It appeared to use advanced stealth technology to initiate a hit-and-run attack, and couldn't be intercepted. In other words, it's still at large and it has a very respectable bounty of 1,800,000 Inter-Corporate Dollars on its head. The unit has been called 'Terrorist Suspect #003' in the MAVERICK database, and more info is publicly available.

This is the first head-on engagement made by a rogue, un-registered NC in nearly twenty years. It's unknown what group it belongs to, nor its current whereabouts. Paragon, Denver-Vegas, and various other high-tech firms are currently investigating their own personnel for possible involvement in the attack.

Well, that's a pretty bad happening, but how could it be related? It's doubtful Aloysha's an out-and-out terrorist... You have a feeling you'd find more satisfactory information if you had a higher security level. And the only way to do that is to wait, for now.

...Taking that suspect down would be one hell of an entry in your 'résumé', especially so early in your career... Could it expedite the process?

Regardless, you still have two hours left to burn before the events begin. If your information is correct, which it is, you'll meet your 'Handler', essentially your agent at MAVERICK, who'll help you finish everything, then start you on your journey. If you decide to stay with MAVERICK, she'll act as.. well, your 'Handler'. A secretary, really. That's how it's supposed to work, as you're told.

What can you even do until then?

You've still got two associates unaccounted for... And a hungry stomach too. You should probably head out into the greater building and make something.

Or steal something!

Voting
1. You'll see what's left in there; people're probably gorging themselves while you dawdle.
2. Just need your daily caffeine intake...
3. There's probably a box of cereal. Best to keep it simple.
4. Aloysha likes making lots of his soup, right? An eye for an eye.
5. Doesn't Robin usually make some steak and toast or something by now? You could probably grab some.
6. Kohaku always leaves some noodles with fish around for anybody too lazy. Quite nice of her, really, and you feel lazy.

Addendums: (1/1 action)
Look up something in the MAVERICK servers, public clearance. (1 action)
Toggle Jammer (OFF: 100%) (0 actions)

(1-2 day voting)

Commentary
Alright, a couple more choices like this and we'll get to the real meat of the story.

To let you know, you can also ask for information OOC, but anything Jack wouldn't know personally, I might not give you the full answer to. Oh, you can also ask for the 'status' of some people if you'd like, y'know, how the various characters generally feel about you. There'll be a whole cast before you know it, so I think it'd be fair to let you know frankly how you're doing with anyone.

To give you guys some time to think about it, NC's have their own names, that they share with their pilot as a code-name. The man who pilots Lancelot, for example, is called Lancelot on the field of battle, and is sometimes referred to as such outside as well. When you meet your Handler, you're gonna have to sign some paperwork and put down your NC's official name. You've got some time to think on it, though, and I'll allow a longer then normal voting period if requested.​