Mars [OOC and not signups right now]

[Demonsul]

We are underway.

- -

Some time in the future, not that long from now, one hundred men and women set out across space for the red world...

Well, I said I had something not quite as intensive as Godhood planned. It's this. Welcome to Mars.

In this game, you will play as many astronauts, cosmonauts and other spacemen and spacewomen from across the globe in the future. You have been recruited by your respective space agencies to go and set up a research base and permanent colony on Mars.

A little history and gameplay: It was only around 7 years ago that man first set foot on the red planet from your perspective. The journey will take nine months; as such, the first bit of the game will simply be traveling there, sorting out your characters and whatnot (not actually for nine months of course, just probably until signups are full and everyone has posted a few times and plans are agreed on). There will be planning and organization there, as you will land and establish a ground base using supplies that were sent over on unmanned missions over the last five years since this mission was planned.

The ship you will be traveling on is basically a bunch of modules formed into spinning toruses on something that looks like a really long version of the international space station with a massive great ion drive on the end. It was built in orbit of Earth and will be dismantled in orbit of Mars when you descend.

From thereon, you will play the roles of leaders and scientific or engineering experts running the colony, which will mostly be manned by your red-shirt underlings. All kinds of issues will be presented, technical, cultural, ethical, geological, clusterfuckial, which you will have to find solutions or compromises for. There will be problems with reactors, dust storms, rock slides, terraforming activists, anti-terraforming activists, national emissaries, separatists, corporations, tourists, natural disasters, social disasters, shocking news from Earth and incompetent underlings to name just a few of the troubles you will face. All the while living your lives on another planet, if you like.

Over time, the scope of the game will likely expand, and so will the timeframe. If this lasts long enough you may need to leave your original character behind to retirement and make a new one. Same if you kill your character for some reason - I don't discourage this, provided you aren't daft with how you go about it. You get a new character that way, too, and maybe get to run a different part of the base.

This is in collab/roleplaying for a reason. I don't want any idiocy or overt metagaming. It should go without saying that I don't want Sues or Godmodders either. I don't know how many people I'll be taking; probably not that many (definitely not a hundred, no matter what the title says, thats including your underlings), in order to keep this moving. Partway joins and abdications are entirely possible, as long as you run it by me in advance.

So yeah. Sign up, if that hasn't deterred you.

Name: (Yep. If you have trouble with this, leave now and never come back.)
Profession: (Why did you get picked to go to Mars? What will you manage once you get to the colony? Varying fields of research will likely be the main group present - this effectively starts as a research base after all.)
Appearance: (May also want to include nationality. A lot of nations collaborated on this cutting-edge mission, after all.)
Bio: (Some history and personality would be nice too. Bear in mind that they must be at least capable of at least passing a psych eval, even if they are bluffing. Space is not for blatant lunatics.)

I'm sure you have many questions, which I will freely answer.

- -

BUNCHA CHAPS

• Surowy - Pharmacy - Infrastructure and Architectural Engineering
• O'Malley - avidGamer - Medical and Cybernetics
• Erica Chang - Mr Eldritch - Astroengineering and Areology
• Rahkin Ez'Kiel - Mikas_Kalibun - Communications and Networking
• Isaac Griffiths - TimeothyHour - Psychology
• Professor Richard Lysander - Agent1022 - Theoretical Physics
• Olivia Undergrass - bobthepen - Sanitation Engineering
• Elizabeth 'Lancer' Stokes - Sputnik - Security
• Mel Landers - Pick Yer Poison - Waste Removal Technician

Buncha Marginally Less Important Chaps:

• Richard Wright - Biochemistry and Genetic Engineering
• Edward Black (not likely his birth name) - Corporate Emissary
• Arthur - Psychology Secretary and General Engineering
• Andrew Carr - Septics
• Sukarno - Repairs and Manual Engineering
• Markham - Communications Assistant
  Plus 85 undefined.

[Pharmacy]

Name: Surowy
Profession: Engineer
Appearance: Chinese American (naturalized), there is a noticable scar at one of side of his temples (which kind of reinforces the rumor of him being not quite right in his head)

He dresses in an armored suit designed for engineers all the time. Even when he eats his lunch or takes a coffee break. It shows his commitment (and possible lunacy). He even claims that he feels more comfortable in his safety uniform than his civilian clothes.

Bio: No one knows much about Surowy other than the fact that he definitely is a skilled and extraordinarily experienced Engineer, which may be the reason why he is on the trip to Mars. Rumors whisper afloat that he is a bit of a loopy nutjob although authorities confirmed that he did passed his psych evaluation (by how much, their lips are closed).

Surowy (definitely not his real name) is enthusiastic about this whole research/colonization mission. He hopes to use all his skills and experience to make this mission a much more enjoyable and awesome place!

[avidGamer]

Name: O'Malley
Profession: Medical-Cybernetics (specializes in cybernetic prostheses)
Appearence: Irish in origin, but with an american accent due to his studies in the country. Spiky, Orange hair. One blue eye, one green one. Wears a blindingly white labcoat with tons of pockets, stuffed with medical tools and electronics. Wears a special pair of computerized glasses that can help him analyze the severity of a wound.

Bio: As a child, O'Malley witnessed a group of crippled war veterans parading through his town. The sorrow he felt for their missing limbs led him to look into cybernetic prostheses. His studies led him to america, where he became one of the best Cybernetic Medical Personel on Earth. He returned to his home country for a few years and helped the wounded by fitting them with prostheses.

O'Malley was hired on to the mars colonization project due to his skill in replacing lost limbs. A colonization effort such as this would surely have such injuries, and a missing arm or leg could mean the difference between success and failure. He passed the psych exam with only one mark against him. He admitted that he may replace a limb unnecessarily, because robot are cooler than flesh.

[Mr. Eldritch]

Nice! I'll be kind of tied up for the next few weeks until school ends, but I get Fridays free and the weekends won't be too full either.

Name: Erica Chang
Profession: Astroengineer and areologist. (Areology, obviously, is Martian geology.) She was picked partially because of her experience with life-support systems, and partially because she
Appearance: A tallish, tired-looking woman in her late twenties. Always wears safety goggles. Always. She is of Japanese ancestry.
Bio: She was, from her beginning, an avid enthusiast of space. From when the Pioneer III probe started its long journey to the Gleise 581 system when she was seven, she's always had a blazing desire to reach the stars and the other planets of the Sol System. She was one of the first group of researchers who crewed the Tycho lunar habitat, and so has considerable experience working in lower-gravity and vacuum environments far from Earth. Mars was always her passion, however, and so she spent a considerable portion of her time studying Mars so that she would be the obvious candidate for such a trip. When the opportunity rolled around, she was.

[Sputnik]

This is a really cool idea.

I'm free on weekdays, but not guaranteed on weekends.

If I could draw, I would give you a portrait of my character, but alas, I am not as skilled as I wish I was.

Name: Elizabeth "Lancer" Stokes

Profession: Private Security Contractor. She was chosen because of her excellent service record in both the Marines and in the various security companies she worked for afterward. She was also selected for her experience in protecting her employer's high-value assets from any number of outside threats.

Appearance: A short, slender American woman in her late twenties. She has green eyes and long pale-blond hair, which she tends to wear in a fishtail braid. She has a synthetic left calf and foot, memoirs of her last tour of duty as a Marine. She also has several scars scattered across her body, all souvenirs from her career. The most prominent of these include a large burn scar on the side of her neck and several long scratches on her forearms. She always keeps a sidearm on her person at all times.

Biography: Elizabeth grew up in one of the many, nameless, congested ghettos around America. Raised by a hopelessly alcoholic but well-meaning father, she constantly strove to rise above the miserable conditions she saw all around her. She was a promising student in school, but many were surprised and dismayed when she stated her intentions to join the Marine Corps, none more so than her father. To her father's eternal dismay, she joined the United States Marine Corps in a period where the world was embroiled in dozens of small-scale wars, all over the globe.

In the Corps, she was well-known for her laser-like focus and determination in the field. It came to the point when most of her friends started calling her by her callsign "Lancer". She served several tours of duty, the last of which was suddenly cut short when she was nearly killed in a firefight in Hungary, resulting in the loss of most of her left leg.

Despite her loss, she was determined to continue working as a soldier, even after her honorable discharge. After getting a costly cybernetic replacement, Elizabeth then spent half a decade protecting high-value targets in some of the most volatile locations across the globe. She worked for several private military corporations in turn, each of them known for unscrupulous dealings and ruthlessness. She was then hired by one of the world's wealthiest corporations as a security officer for the extremely important, and costly, Mars colony venture.

She passed the psych evaluation, but was noted for being rather antisocial, as well as being a bit detached from other people, not to mention her short temper.

---

If a private security gal isn't what's needed, I'll be all too happy to change her job to something else, my good sirrah.

[Demonsul]

If a private security gal isn't what's needed, I'll be all too happy to change her job to something else, my good sirrah.

They are certainly aware that they are unlikely to encounter alien zombie pirates on Mars, so it's unlikely they'd send anyone for fighting. There's gonna be all sorts of convoluted treaties regarding the Moon, Mars and other solar bodies, so the tricky issues who you are protecting the base from and who it technically belongs to anyway has deprived you of any other targets. So yeah, another job would be ideal.

Just putting this out here - the only combat in this game will either be of your own RP making (People get crazy in space. Which is why there was a psych eval in the first place.) or if you really screw up the politics.

Everyone else looks good.

[Mikas_Kaibun]

I really like the scope that you have decided for this. Times that I am active are about as variable as the weather so yeah.

I decided to make the profile as a communique investigated profile from an underling to his boss. If you need more info then I am happy to utilize the edit button.

Welcome to the %%% mainframe!!
Name: CEO4502
Pw: ******
Opening Folder; Personnel
Searching [RE: COMM]...
Running PROFILE, EZEK
******_
Name: Rahkin Ez'Kiel

Profession: Communications and Networking Specialist.

Rahkin has consistently demonstrated an innate understanding with all forms of artificial communication. We have hired him despite what little we know about him due to in part the pressing need of the Internet to expand. I'm not sure about you sir but I like being able to check up on my projects when I need to rather than when they are able.

Appearance: Lean build as if starved, gray eyes, shaggy unkempt brown hair, worn glasses.

Have you ever heard of those stories from a kid where the really brilliant people lock themselves in a dark room until they're done with whatever project given them? I imagine they look a lot like this guy. As far as I can tell that's what he looks like on a good day. I'm pretty sure that with some work and copious amounts of hair gel we can get him to look rather presentable for any formal occasions that arise.

Biography: Eight years ago the name "Ez'Kiel" began appearing around the web. Five years ago a graduating university student going by the pseudonym "Rahkin" adapted wireless functions to brainwave patterns revolutionizing prosthetic surgery and interfacing technology. Two years ago the Sunday Network Crash is cleared up by an unidentified individual rumored to be "RE".

I don't know what to say here sir. We hardly know anything about him. I have every intelligence associate digging but the results have been rather anemic. All I have to work with are rumors and suspicions. Despite this the talent that he demonstrates is more than enough to solidify his reputation.

He had only one major issue on the Psych Evaluation Test; he doesn't communicate in quite the same way. Well no, that isn't quite right. He doesn't start communicating the same way. The best way to describe it would be that he only begins communicating after someone queries him and he accepts. The closest analogy I could draw was the SYN-SYN/ACK-ACK system in TCP/IP.

END FILE

[Demonsul]

Looks good - interesting.

Just bear in mind I'm not going for laser guns and fusion power just yet on a tech scale. Some...*looks up* mind-interfaced prosthetic limbs would be acceptable, but mental downloads and believable virtual realities are a no right now.

Note the timescale, though. That prohibition may not be the case throughout the entire game. Stuff may happen, and it may not always be easy to just accept into your colony and eventual society.

EDIT: What do you guys think would be a good number for this game? I'm thinking around eight to start off with, give or take an overflow or slowdown of signups. We'll see.

[TimeothyHour]

Name: Isaac Griffiths

Profession: Lead Psychologist, in charge of keeping every crew member sane and stable, and to be able to enjoy their time on the colony.

Appearance: Hailing from Britain, Isaac has sandy blond hair with hazel eyes. He always looks and sounds as if he's analyzing something. He always makes sure he has a big smile face and wears fairly casual clothes in order not to appear threatening.

Bio: Isaac had always had a thing for how people thought. This inevitably led him to the profession of psychology, one he excelled in. He published numerous theories on the brain, including the revolutionary "The effects of prosthetic limbs on human thought and psychology," gaining him the fame he would use to be put on the Mars Mission. He's not very open about himself and his thoughts, and prefers others to speak to him than he speak to them. His psych eval was extremely, considering he knew exactly what to say and how to say it to get a 100%, meaning it honestly says nothing about his mental status.

But seriously, how insane could a psychologist be?

[Demonsul]

Seems like a perfectly reasonable character.

Also I can see prosthetics are going to be important. They've been referenced thrice now. Four times if you count the limb on the servicewoman.

[Sputnik]

okay, I'll edit it to... hrm, I'm not sure, actually.

I really like the whole marine background, but I'll just go think about what she should be.

[Demonsul]

Nothing wrong with the background, its just they wouldn't send a soldier when they could send someone who would be useful. They are only sending a hundred people after all.

[Agent1022]

I don't think we've had a theoretical physicist yet...

Name: Professor Richard Lysander

Profession: Theoretical Physicist, with a PhD in said Theoretical Physics from MIT. Also holds other degrees in Engineering Science, Aperture Science (don’t ask) and Temporal Science. Was placed on this mission by the United States Military after being an outsourced research associate for several years.

Appearance: Lysander is a slim young man in his thirties whose appearance shows signs of his Russian ancestry, though for three generations his family has been United States born and bred. His face is best described as ‘sharp’, though its sharpness is a dull blade compared to the sharpness of his mind. Behind his sky-blue eyes something can be seen of a brain constantly turning over problems methodically and efficiently. His attire is not often casual, similar to his own personality.

Bio: Lysander spent many years after joining the military being outsourced to research companies funded with military grants. As is the nature of these companies, Lysander often found himself directing inhumane, unethical and torturous experiments on test subjects. His coping mechanism essentially was to dispose of his own sense of ethics, and indeed any emotion whatsoever. Rumor has it that Lysander eventually was sent on this mission because of his troubling tendency to disregard other human beings completely both in and out of the name of research. If one believes hearsay he designed an earlier draft of the ship which employed an experimental and potentially deadly superluminal drive - but he promptly pulled his design from the table when he found out he was to be sent on the ship itself.
Lysander’s work on temporaspatial claudication theory places him in high standing in the academic world, another reason for his being chosen for this mission. His status as well as his reputation ensures that he has his own project space and resources to draw on. Not that anyone would dare to try and use anything of his. His current projects and planned projects when Mars arrives are unknown.

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[ignore this]Lysander’s work on temporaspatial claudication theory led to the development of the time-locked stasis field, an integral part in preserving resources on the trip.[/ignore this]

[Demonsul]

I'm not sure about those time fields. They're screaming either forcefields or temporal manipulation at me, which is something very future-y I want to avoid at the moment for the former, and avert completely for the latter. Converting brain signals into motive commands is fine, we almost have tech like that already; messing with the space time continuum right now is not.

Is that acceptable? Why am I asking? They were just going to be taking spacefood and hydroponics anyway. Begone, time tech, and do something useful like biophysics for the potential terraforming.

Anyway, aside from the time fields, the rest seems okay. Although what appears to be generic homicidal doctor, it will certainly pose a conundrum for the psychologist to keep him in check.

[Agent1022]

Wellllll...I did think they were a bit tetchy, but to be honest I just intended them to be glorified storage boxes. Should probably have mentioned that he also discovered that people don't survive being put in stasis. Experimentally. And he's not so much homicidal as simply cold.

[Demonsul]

The thing is, they're temporal. I don't want to go down that line since it would result in future research which could lead to utter chaos and a complete subversion of the entire point of colonizing Mars. Considering research will be a thing in this game.

So I'm mainly denying the temporal stuff. Besides, glorified boxes or not, stasis is not something that would be achievable with tech just yet, even if your guy has all the theoretical work done or something. It would either require a lot of power or some other science stuff I can't think of right now.

This is like the ultimate nitpicking I know, but it hardly seems the most important facet of your guys character, so hopefully you can live without it.

[avidGamer]

Just an idea, but could (s)he possibly switch to cryonics? No time freezing, but real freezing instead?

[Agent1022]

All righty. Away with the temporaspatial claudications! To be honest I've got an unhealthy predeliction for technobabble anyway, I should cut back XP

[Demonsul]

That'd be entirely possible.

EDIT: Nevermind, I guess. Good stuff.

[Agent1022]

Nah, cryonics would defeat the whole point of nine months of travel. Think of those nine months as a formative period, womb time if you will, where the seeds of plot are sown and planted.

[avidGamer]

Yeah, but I'm talking about cryonics for the other 92 (if we're going with 8 players) civilians/crew. In order to preserve resources, most of them would probably be put in a cryonic sleep for the trip, until the ship reaches mars. Then their woken up when everythings prepared. The normal 8(?) crew are kept up to keep the ship running.

[Agent1022]

*cough*Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri*cough*

[avidGamer]

*cough*Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri*cough*

*cough*Space Odyssey: 2001*cough*

[Agent1022]

*cough*Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri*cough*

*cough*Space Odyssey: 2001*cough*

*cough*Silversun*cough*

[Mr. Eldritch]

*cough*Almosteverygoodpieceoffictioneverwritteninv olvingsettlingmars*cough*
*cough*Thatsnotabadthing*cough*