OOC Foreword
Welcome to Voyages in Andromeda, a character RP set in a galaxy close to our own. In this RP you will have the option of playing as a lost human explorer, an alien prisoner or a mutinous crew member of the prison ship Defiance. Either way you are stuck on the ship, running from the law and struggling to survive. Maybe, in time, you'll get home or maybe, just maybe, make the Andromeda galaxy a better place.
Of course, no alien galaxy would be complete without lots of aliens! We have a few pre-made races in the OOC thread, but there is plenty of room in the galaxy for others.
Finally, this RP is open to latecomers. Part of the story of the Defiance is that there is a hold full of stasis pods so if you would like to join and you are a bit late to the party, we'll just write another pod activating and bring you aboard!
So if you like the sound of that and haven't created a character/characters yet, feel free to hop along to the OOC and get involved.
Introduction
When humans first sailed the oceans they seemed a vast and lonely place. To the civilisations that grew up in the fertile crescent there were of course, three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. When in 1492 a certain Mr Columbus thought to try to sail directly from Europe to Asia he found, much to his surprise, that there was a whole extra continent or two sitting in the way full of people whose way of seeing the world was radically different to his own. Over time though, the world became smaller, drawn together by instant communication and faster means of travel and now a trip that took Magellan and his crew three years, now only takes 48 hours.
Beyond the planet though, lay the vast emptiness of space. In In 2026, a multi-national mission to mars was launched from Earth on the spaceship, Destiny. The voyage was expected to last 300 days, though on day 104, abruptly and without any prior warning, the ship disappeared. As far as the Governments of Earth were concerned, the Destiny and all her crew were lost. Eventually, it was decided it must have been some kind of mechanical failure, though no sign of the vessel was recovered.
The crew of the Destiny though, had had their Columbus moment. While exactly what had happened was unclear, some would remember a collision, boarders in black armour... and then waking up behind bars on a ship full of strange life forms, some of which looked a lot like humans, but many of which were creatures straight out of fevered dreams or nightmares. Somehow, and without any immediate explanation, the crew of the Destiny had been transported to an entirely different galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, where they had been taken prisoner by an Alien faction known as 'Kiellar Command'.
Kiellar Command processed the newcomers, but lacked the interest to try to figure out exactly what had happened and instead sent them all the work out the rest of their lives as slaves in a Kiellar mining colony. That might have been the end of the story, but for the fractious crew of the prison ship Defiance (the English translation of the Kiellar name). While the prisoners of the Defiance were supposed to all be held in stasis pods until they arrive at their destination, the addition of the crew of the Destiny meant that there were too few pods to hold them all. Some have had to be housed in unused crew quarters. The Captain tried to split them up so there aren't too many of any given group to collude with one another and plan anything, but he didn't account for the actions of his own crew.
Kiellar Command was an authoritarian military regime, but there were those amongst its citizens and conquered people who yearned for a fairer form of Government. Not only was the Defiance carrying the crew of the Destiny, but also the rebel leader Omad of Vudril. Amongst the crew were a number of rebel sympathisers, and others with reasons to be disgruntled. Kiellar command had inadvertently created a perfect storm...
Chapter One: Its a Nice Day for a Mutiny
Bridge of the Defiance, Hyperspace near the Neutral Zone
Outside the front view panels of the ship, the strange greenish glow of the hyperspace tunnel slid by. It was mesmerizingly pretty, the kind of view you could stare at for hours as, beyond the tunnel, sector-by-sector the galaxy slid by. The hours of the day were relative on a spaceship, but the crew still kept to a schedule of rest and work to avoid throwing off their biological rhythms. Right now was 'late' and only one officer was left on the bridge – Thanica Vari, the pilot of the Defiance and, right now, the person Vrondich wanted to see.
She was a pretty little thing, tiny (by Kiellar standards, though about average height for her own species) with bright blue eyes and dark hair that she currently wore pulled back. The Dhasath looked similar to Kiellar, the same basic body structure, the same two eyes and similar skin tones, though they had strange, rounded-off ears. In Vrondich’s opinion, they had an exotic look, not entirely alien, but just alien enough to be interesting.
In the absence of Captain Chabhath the young pilot had opted to sit slouched in her chair, one boot braced on the edge of the navigation console. Vrondich didn’t understand exactly how to fly the ship, but he did know she didn’t have much to do while they were in hyperspace – just watch the consoles and make sure everything was still working. He pressed the button to close the door as he entered, taking a seat at the console next to her, “It really is quite lovely out there.” Vrondich remarked.
“Yes.”
Vrondich paused, his brows furrowing together, “Was that to my comment on the view or to the other question?”
“Yes.” she made a show of studying the consoles, but couldn’t stop her lip from twitching up into a smirk, “Yes to both.”
“What swayed your opinion?” Vrondich asked. His 'other question' had been a very carefully worded inquiry as to whether the Pilot would be inclined towards joining him in plotting a new course for the Neutral Zone with their cargo of convicted criminals. Thanica wasn’t stupid, she had understood it as a thinly veiled attempt to get her to mutiny and had responded with a ‘no’, then a pout and a ‘if you do go through with it, remember it’s just me and the captain who can fly this rust old can’… which Vrondich had decided was more of a ‘maybe’.
“You didn’t mention there were Dhasath prisoners onboard.” She replied, “I saw that one they moved up to imprison on the top deck. From a planet called ‘Ert’ or something?” Vrondich nodded along, though she had got that all wrong. The prisoner was from some other unclassified race, though he could see the similarities in physical appearance, “There are so few of us now.” Thanica continued, “Is this Ert place somewhere where we can live safely? I have so many questions that need answers. It changes everything.”
Vrondich understood… sort of. While he could never truly comprehend the horror of being a Dhasath, a once proud race driven to the precipice if extinction, but he could appreciate her desire to safeguard the future of her people and her desire to live a life where she didn’t always need to keep one eye open for trappers and poachers. The Kiellar Command uniform protected her a little, but only so much when she was worth so much money… “We’ll need the prisoners with us.” he added, darting a furtive glance in the direction of the door despite the fact that he would have heard it open, “We don’t have enough crew I can trust. I can open the cell doors from engineering. There is one problem though, I’m going to need to open them all at once and some of the prisoners could be ahh… problematic.”
That drew a laugh from Thanica who stood up, crossing her fingers behind her head as she took a couple of paces across the room, “Problematic!” she repeated, pacing back to Vrondich, “I’ll be lucky if the Ragon doesn’t drag me back to its cell for a late night snack!”
“And one of those guys has wiped out a whole Kiellar colony.” Vrondich countered, “Just tell the Ragon what you told me, you’re the only one who can fly the ship.” He paused, “Someone needs to brief them, get them ready to do what they need to do and that should be you." he got a raised eyebrow in response, "You’re not Kiellar, they’re more likely to trust you.”
For a moment Vrondich thought she might refuse, decide the whole thing was a bit too dangerous. The silence seemed to stretch forever, but eventually she sighed and nodded, “Fine… but if we get out of this you will owe me a bottle of Raz'lak.” He nodded, getting a finger-prod in the chest, “And not a cheap one either. One of the ones you have stashed behind the power couplings.”
It was Vrondich’s turn to sigh. Did she have any idea how much those cost? Probably, which was why she was demanding one, “Fine.” He replied.
Top Floor Corridor, some time later…
There was a different guard out this shift, a new one who hadn’t had that post before. Female, and from Captain Carter’s point of view, the same species as his own… a young woman, probably in her late twenties, with dark hair and blue eyes. She stood out like a sore thumb amongst the alien crew, though she wore the same grey jumpsuits that most of the Navy types wore, though this time complemented with a blaster at her hip. Sshalah, however, would know better… The scent of the two species was quite distinct.
“Thanica? What are you doing here?” the guard she was relieving asked, sounding more than a little surprised to see her.
She shrugged, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms, “Lost a bet to Romaerr. You can and join him in the mess hall if you like… drinking away my down time.”
She rolled her eyes, not looking at all like a gracious loser. It earned a chuckle from the guard, “Enjoy yourself.”
The ‘cell block’ were supposed to be crew sleeping quarters. The ship though was working on a skeleton crew and there weren’t enough stasis pods to hold the prisoners… so they had been locked into the crew rooms, which were a lot larger and with better bedding than the prisoners were probably expecting. Only two modifications had been made to change the rooms to cells. The first was the buttons to open the doors had changed to card access. The second was the windows in the doors, which had had the glass replaced with welded bars. An enterprising prisoner could probably remove the bars and squeeze out… but not without running the risk of getting riddled with blaster shots by the guard on duty while they were trying to work their way out. It probably wasn't worth it.
She waited for a couple of minutes, until she was absolutely certain nobody was about before sidling over to one of the cells, “Yp'Trak Nird'Hoe… that is quite a mouthful. Accused of a whole lot of stuff that basically boils down to murdering a lot of people. You interested in getting out and not spending the rest of your life in a mining colony?”
There was no response, though anybody else who was watching from their cell would see Thanica take a step away, looking confused an alarmed, “Whoa… that is spooky. I have no idea what a war god is, but I’ll take that as a strong ‘yes’. Can I trust you to hold back on killing anyone on the crew? At least until we're able to go our own separate ways… and preferably a little after that.”
She cocked her head to one side, though again there was no obvious answer, “Okay, that will do. Listen, later today this door is going to open. I need you to head down the hallway to the bridge.” She pointed in the direction of it, “There’s an armoury just before you get to it; go there and you take whatever weapons you can find and shoot everyone on the crew who isn’t wearing a black armband… except for essential ones like engineers and the doctor. If the bridge door is unlocked, that’s bad, I’m probably dead and there isn’t another pilot. If it’s locked, knock three times and I’ll open. People will want to retake it and we need to make sure they don’t.”
Next, she strode across to the other side of the hall where a certain Captain Carter was imprisoned who, owing to his somewhat fractious nature and tendency to get lippy, had ended up with a gag and further body restraints, “Yeah… that’s not going to work.” She glanced up and down the corridor furtively, then swiped her card in front of a door controller and stepped into the cell, “I’m not going to do anything to hurt you.” She promised, reaching for one of the restraints on his wrist, “I’m going to loosen these so you can slip them off when the doors open, but not now or someone else will figure out what I've done. When the doors open, head straight to the bridge as well, okay?”
“You know…” she said as she loosened one strap, then the other, “I’m really looking forward to hearing about Ert. Is it safe? How many of us are there on the planet? What kind of a name is ‘Carter’? But sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself, first we need to take control of the ship.”
She stepped back, then gave Carter a salute of a sort, fist to heart, “For the League.” She said quietly, then slipped out of his cell, giving him a quick backwards glance and bright smile.
Next along was the avian creature, “Guess you’ve possibly caught wind of what I’m doing.” She said quietly as she approached the door of his cell. His records indicated he was one of the most dangerous on the ship, with a deep abiding hatred for alien life… like her. The Jokari and the Dhasath had suffered similarly though and maybe there was an outside chance he’d identify with her a bit, maybe even listen to her, “So are you interested in getting out of here and not getting worked to death in a Kiellar mining colony? We’re making a break for freedom, but there are Kiellar working with us and I wanted to be sure that's not going to be a problem? We're all in the same boat for now.'
“Perhaps you are right. After all, the Kiellar have no particular offence against the Jokarun, unlike someone else here.”, the Jokari said with a seed of contempt. The avian flapped his wings and moved closer to the metal bars of his cell. “Her kind were the ones that slaughtered my people like livestock when the Jokarun Republic fell to the Ragon Empire. She is probably surprised to see that my kind yet lives.” The purple eyes of Kaleso glimmered a little brighter as he looked again at Thanica. “However, consider my services to be at your disposal. Kaleso Stralbane at your service.”
“Thanica Vari at yours.” She bobbed her head politely, “I am Dhasath and I do understand what you feel. Though at the moment an angry Ragon will probably be quite helpful for both of us when we try to take this place. When the door opens, can you go the other way?” She waved her hand down the corridor in the opposite direction to the bridge, “You’ll find stairs, go straight down two flights and you’ll get to the main armoury. There will be a Kiel named Vrondich who should have secured it. If he hasn’t, try to yourself. Take anyone else you can with you. Once you are armed, Vrondich will try to take engineering. If we control both armouries, engineering and the bridge, we have the ship.”
So far this had all been surprisingly easy she reflected as she left the Jokari’s cell, but there was one more she needed to speak to. Thanica turned to the door, but couldn’t see the creature within, somewhere in the darkness beyond the bars. She gulped, finding her throat a little dry. She knew it was huge, probably dissatisfied with the lacklustre Kiellar field rations and just aching to sink its teeth into something fresher. She didn’t approach the bars to this one’s cell. She held well back, just in case it could fit its tail out and wrap it around her throat.
Thanica cleared her throat, despite her nerves actually managing to sound confident, “Remember, when this all goes down, if you're thinking of how well I'd go with a bit of throsie sauce and a nice bottle of Raz'lak... remember I'm the only one who can fly the ship.”
“Noted.” The Ragon rumbled from somewhere within. It didn’t sound like it was trying to assure her, or threaten her… just that it was noted. That was, in many respects, worse than if the monster had said, ‘Once I’m out of here you’re the main course’… at least then she’d have known what to expect and could have dealt with it accordingly.
“Fine. Super.” She muttered to herself as she wandered back to her post, “That isn’t terrifying at all.”
The corridor was used as a thoroughfare for access to the bridge and there was a certain amount of risk in openly discussing what the Dhasath pilot had just proposed. She stayed at her post this time, occasionally wandering down the corridor, looking every bit like the guard doing their duty, but didn’t attempt to engage with anyone again. After an hour or so, a more familiar guard appeared, a Kiellar in full combat armour, presumably the 'Romaerr' she had mentioned earlier, “Took your sweet time.” Thanica remarked.
“You lost the bet Dhasath.” He responded, somewhat unpleasantly, “Surprised you’re still here and not in the Ragon’s belly. It’s what you people do best.”
“I think you’ll find I am a Dhasath of many talents.” She replied, with a slightly unpleasant smile. The comment got a derisive snort. Clearly, he did not think too much of Thanica Vari and it looked like the feeling was mutual. She probably didn’t feel too bad a few hours later, after she had long since departed, when all the red lights by the doors that indicated they were card locked turned green to indicate that anyone could go in or out...
