RDF-Tontongo, Deep Space, Ares Super-Cluster...
"I've got something..."
The announcement from the duty officer at the sensor console was exactly what Captain Y'livia had been waiting for and she sat forward in her command chair, expecting the results to be momentarily pushed to the enormous display that stretched from wall to wall and floor to ceiling ahead of the two forward duty stations. Two minutes ago something had set off an alarm in the early-warning array that stretched across and protected the Republic's core worlds from a surprise attack and Tontongo, as the closest idle ship, had been dispatched to investigate. Based on the data supplied by the array, they'd emerged nearly on top of the contact at a distance she'd ordered as 'just a bit shy of respectful'; That is to say within easy sensor range and just at the edge of the starship's optimal engagement range.
But there hadn't been anything - or at least there hadn't been a ship. Something had arrived in this random patch of space via some form of faster-than-light travel but it had taken a couple seconds worth of sensor returns to confirm that it wasn't a ship and was instead something else. That 'something else' appeared on the screen and she leaned further forward to try and make it out against the darkness while the Lieutenant at his station looked up at his own screen - a mirror of the larger - and tried to dial in the image.
"Debris, Ma'am. Working on finding a match now;" The first she could see, though without even looking over her shoulder to check the status of the computer's search against its exhaustive databases she could tell it would be difficult if not impossible to determine the origin from here. What little remained intact, or presumably so, resembled nothing she'd ever seen. Thick threads of orange and brown wound around each other and fused together or splintered apart at each end to form what might have been a mesh or a net-like arrangement. If it had once been one piece, one item or vessel, this was now scattered into dozens of tumbling pieces with most being the size of her own body or less, according to a scale in the lower corner of the screen.
"What's that?"
Deep in the debris field something had caught her eye and she touched the controls on her armrest, dragging a marque around the area of interest so that it expanded to fill the entire screen. Between arm-thick strands of ocher and umber there was a glimpse of glossy magenta, a hidden object just catching the light from some distant star or nebula or even from the Tontongo itself. It might have been round but slow movement of the surrounding clutter revealed it as a medium-long oval, again perhaps slightly longer than she was tall. Something about it in particular drew the eye and she sat back to consider it, one hand supporting her chin.
"There are more - three, by my count..."
"Right - Helm, take us closer. Call it fifty thousand klicks. Engineering, prepare a shuttle for launch. Redshirts only," she referenced the autonomous cybernetic humanoids that now composed the large majority of her ship's 'crew'. "Orders are to examine and determine if that debris is safe to bring aboard, particularly those purple capsules. Lieutenant," Y'livia turned to the sensor officer, "Coordinate with engineering with anything else you find. Anything dangerous or worrisome, pass it to me immediately..."
Welcome to the latest iteration of 'In Case of Emergency...'! As the title states, this thread is open to all role-players of any technology & ability level with an eye towards giving each participant their own story within the framework of the larger story line that will unfold during my replies to the individual posts. To help accomplish this, there are several rules that ALL participating players must follow:
I: Each player may discover between one and four of the individual capsules mentioned in the introductory story above and a reasonable amount of debris to accompany these or or one to four capsules and no debris or debris only and no capsules - the capsules will largely center around character interaction while the debris will be of a more technical and problem-solving interest. The where, when, and who of their discovery is up to the individual player; As example, capsules can be discovered in deep space, on the surface of a barren moon, or deep underwater and by a military organization, backyard astronomers, or a child playing in their backyard - the exact details of this discovery are up to you and should be the focus of your first post. The same is true of the accompanying debris and - hint - how* exactly either arrived at their current location will be pivotal to participating in the larger story line.
II: Every player's story is separate and players - aside from you and me - do NOT have to interact if they do not want to. My intention is that each player will discover the larger story for themselves and act and react individually. If you want to interact with another player, please ask them directly and respect the normal conventions of inter-player interactions when doing so.
III: I alone will determine who or what occupies the capsules and what constitutes the debris and I will write their non-trivial interactions. Some flexibility - largely depending on my perception of your writing ability - is possible but the first point is non-negotiable.
IV: I will respond to the oldest unanswered post first. This is to be both fair and to motivate me to get to your post as soon as possible. Some posts will be long, others will be short, but I will reply with something!
V: Questions? Drop by the NSFT Discord Server and I'll be happy to supply answers!
*To get a good sense of 'How', please read the introductory story completely. Your particular 'How' does not have to match this, but all of the capsules start their journey by arriving in the same manner though not in the same place or even in the same time.