Stardust-Story Mode: The Void Eagle

[Snorro Soliman]

Hello everyone. This thread will serve as a report of my part in the Stardust game organized by Fluks.
He invited several of us to play a game of Planetfall with the express purpose of telling an interesting story. I will try to make it interesting by posting bits of story and personal logs of my commander, Sebastian Valefor.I'll try to write in character, for my ,and hopefully your, enjoyment.

Due to the ongoing nature of the game, all post will be spoiler marked. If you qoute these either here or elsewhere, please use the spoiler tag as well, as we 4 will not read each others reports until after the game is concluded.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions or merciless criticism at my noobness at MP Planetfall.

 

[Snorro Soliman]

Spoiler: Prelude

Perspective.
It is a funny thing.
You see, or rather, know that your view of an object is based on your relative postion.
What then, if you have no relative position?
I once knew I was captain Sebastian Valefor. Commander of the Eagle of Avium, proud Vanguard XZ34, a Cruiser of the Star Union.
I don't know when, or if, that is still true.

My ship, the Eagle of Avium, was lost, trapped between L gates, in FTL transit. Somehow, we could not get out.
It was impossible but...We could not get out. Trapped in, or rather, not in, L Space.
For dreamless eternity, we remained there, or rather
....somewhere...no-where.
Words fail to describe it.
We learned to survive, to create technology which interacted with no-space. With the impossible, with the alternate emergences of ourselves.
But did we learn? Or did we already know?
Did we remember?

And then:
In a flash
A bright burning
We were out.
Back to reality, Gravity and all. Hurled at disastrous speed, our ship torn and bent.
Stardust clung to the ruined pinions of our vessel.
We were dying. We must land, and soon, I rememberd (knew).
We are dying, even the operation of our vessel a half-remembered truth.
On instinct, or perhaps, memories from a different reality, we made it.
Who are we, anyway?
No matter. I see.
A world ahead.
Eternity behind.
Perspective again. Grim and harsh, but my perspective at least. I will guide my people.
We will rise anew.

 

[Snorro Soliman]

Spoiler: Day 1

Cpt. Sebastian Valefor. Personal log
A basic perimeter, facilities and opsupport have been realised. My people did splendidly.
Our scanners aren't quite what they once where, with our scanweb mostly ruined by no-space telemetry.
We do have massive stores of energy...no space requires no momentum, so we saved it.
Still, we know a bit about our surroundings.

Not enough though.
I have activated and released 2 OWL units. One is to scout North
The other, West.
I have taken our military detachment south to Rising Hights, to liberate an agricultural station. We do need to eat, after all.

I ordered our excess energy to be used to immediatly construct a Biofarm. We need to stock up, so more of us can be woken from cryosleep, sooner.
A breed of mutant pig, wild hoppers and a giant, frenzied sow. As we faced down these horros, I can't help but wonder what happend to the Union.
How did our glorious empire degenerate?
Nevertheless, we cleared this facility, and will soon send crews here to man it.
Our scanners show multiple points of interested within close proximity. I decided to call another squad from cryosleep. Firepower equals security, for now.

 

[Snorro Soliman]

Spoiler: Day 2

Cpt. Sebastian Valefor, personal log
Rising Heights has been acquired. Teams of botanists, engineers and militiamen have reclaimed the sector without incident. As scanner and comms coverage from Avium is established, I am sure this outpost will serve my people's wneeds.
A unit of Troopers was succesfully awoken and will join my roaming expedition shortly. Many points of interest are still within striking reach, and hold valuable materials to speed our expansion.

Strangely, we have detected garbled chatter on our wide receiving comms. It seems that an organised force of some strength holds various points of interest in close proximity to Avium.
I worry.
We cannot make out much, as the comms are heavily encrypted or highly bizarre.
They speak of nonsens such as 'loot' and 'l33tness', or of planning 'raids on normies'.
They seem to lack a cohesive chain of command.
Only term is repeated over and over, in nearly all of their transmissions.
It seems to be their identifier, their tribal name.
It seems these strange people call themsels 'Spacers'.
Who are they? What do they want?
Are they a threat?

I was shocked again today.
RPR units, active? These where a myth even before we got trapped.
And yet, two active units and an automated Imperial Vechile defended a stockpile of high value materials.
We took them out, ofcourse.
But RPR's, active and roaming?
What the hell happened?
Where is the Union?

As our databanks are slowly brought back online, I order my specialists to focus on improving our immediate security by developing Frontier Facilities.
Second, my military engineers are ordered to start a production line for Nanites. Survivability and combat support are paramount. This world hazardous.
To gain more knowledge of my surroundings,I have ordered a third Owl unit to be deployed. It will attempt to cross body of water to our south-east.
Let's see what this world holds.

 

[Snorro Soliman]

Spoiler: Day 3

Rising Heights is operational. My staff recommends focusing the sector on food production entirely, because of the prezence of the biodome.
I concur.

An new expedtition then, to another point of interest. A quarry, overrun with mutant beetles of gargantuan size.
A plan of attack has been drawn up. We hope to find untapped stores or raw materials.
In time, this location could be operated again, providing a significant boost to production
First ofcourse, the critters must be dealt with.

The mission was a succes. With the beetles purged, we acquired raw materials aplenty.
Our Owl was completed ahead of schedule because of it. Still, such horrendous creatures, all crushing mandible and dripping poision.
I wonder....

Exciting news! The new Owl has spotted a settlement called 'Roverton'. It seems to be operated by Vanguard forces. If possible, I will try to coax them into joining us. Perhaps they know more about what happend.

Both my scout Owls found stores of Energy, which will serve us well. It allows us to boost our project in Rising Heights, completing it at once.
I have instructed our colonists to focus on producing energy for now, as it allows for flexibility in my operations.
Also...a mysterious structure looms in the distance. A pyramid of sorts. Northwest of Avium. Our archives have trouble naming it, eventually simply calling it after a city which should have stood there: Sacrarium.
Instead, it alone seems to have been spared ruin, as the aformentioned town is naught but ruins around it.
What could it hold? I have never seen the like (I think) and yet...

 

[Snorro Soliman]

IRL Message: I have recently gone through several life altering events: A cool new job and my marriage(It was amazing!!!). Therefore, I have been remiss in posting here. I will adress this, as I have kept records of all turns played. I will add 'period pieces' covering several turns with screens attached and will resume posting after these updates.

 

[Snorro Soliman]

What follows will be a series of case files. Rather than discussing the tedium of day-to-day choices, The Avium Historical Office has condensed files regarding key decisions, events and strategic matters.
The first file here discussed is our first contact with a Major Power. The Ingott clan.

Spoiler: Ingott clan->first dealings

Cpt. Sebastian Valefor Personal Log and memoires (agglom.)
The Ingott Banking clan, a subset of the peoples we would come to know as the Dvar, made themselves known to us shortly after the discovery of the ancient temple city of Sacrarium. An industrious and acquisitive people, we were wary at first.
Quickly the well known General Deposit Offer posted elsewhere was made and we entered into diplomatic relations. A long period of peace and formal non-agression followed.

Offers of profit



We quickly noted that cooperation was always accompanied by warnings to respect their sovereign territory and right to do business.
We agreed on this in principle. After all, in the Vanguard too we respect the idea of property, liberty and commerce.
I decided to pursue peace and neighborly relations.
We quickly settled on a premise of non-aggression and equal exchange.I hoped to spare the people of Avium, lost in a new world, the horror of war. Even though we Vanguard are ever ready, we do not seek combat or conflict for its own sake. Plus, I was pre-occupied with exploring this world and making sense of what happened to the Union during our absence.

We would have many more dealings with the Ingotts in the future, primarily regarding the integration of the, then unknown, city of Kasimonov. A seperate file will be dedicated to this subject.
Log ends.

Archivists'note.
Cpt. Valefor indeed seems to have found a kindred spirit in the indomitable Gerd Reuel Ingotts, a leader who, much like him, respected civil discourse, trade and peace. In the early days of colonization, the Ingotts and Free People of Avium would often exchange intelligence, resolve disputes about borders and work together to explore the world and meet native threats. Included are two examples below, which exemplify the cordiality of these early relations. images taken from Diplomatic Corps Archives, Ingott File.
1. Discussing how to get Spacers of a Cosmite node.

2. Discussing troop movements along their respective borders, making sure to keep each other appraised.