spindowners

Everything in the substation, in fact throughout most of the galaxy, is saturated with Femtronics. These saw their roots many millenia ago with archaic nanobots. Self-replicating, they are able to manipulate the very nuclei and quarks of atoms and plasma in order to complete their given tasks.

An individual Femtronic device is inert and useless on its own, or even in small clusters numbering the millions. It's only when they reach a critical mass in an environment that they are able to network together to do anything useful.

Squibins are small, speckled, suckered creatures with an appetite inversely proportional to their limited intelligence. With the appearance of a spiny squid, they slowly climb up walls and ceilings to hang from pipes and overhands, dropping on their unsuspecting victims.

It's unknown how they came to infest the substation. One popular theory is that they escaped from a cargo ship during the initial attacks. They are a delicacy to Krakens, who eat them live, so there is some credence to this hypothesis.

During their brief lifespans measured only in days, they eat several times their body weight before breeding and dying. The young squibins consume the flesh of their parents and fight each other to the death before the survivors head out in search of new prey.

The Kraken were the first extra-solar lifeforms discovered by humans. The two-foot creatures in their tiny wooden space pods were hideously alien to the early humans, whose first reaction was to hunt the easy targets of their seemingly primitive ships for sport.

However, the next thousand years were some of the most violent for the human species, for the Kraken were intelligent, formidable, and viciously vengeful. The first waves of ships encountered had been scouts, and their military technology was far superior to anything the humans could envision at the time.

Eventually, as diplomats on both sides soothed their respective militaries, an uneasy peace developed. As common goals were found, treaties were forged and economic trade between the two species ultimately prevailed.

Looking down, it is sometimes disconcerting to see the void, its gaping dark maw hungrily consuming the universe, billions of faint pinpoints of light defiant against its cold tyranny.

Regaining your balance, you reorient yourself to the terminal, arbitrarily facing spinward to the right. The steady hum of a hundred voices help to remind you that you are inside an atmosphere, frail as it may be in the substation's hull. You wonder whose idea it was to make the floor of the welcoming terminal transparent, and are thankful that's not the case throughout the rest of the ship.

Counterspinward, to the left, a massive bulkhead door barricades what used to be the gates to the ships. Even if there were an easy way to get there from here, after the explosion it's now open to the vacuum of space. It's rumored that there are enemy combatants who have taken position on the other side of the gates, taking potshots at drones and engineers who dare to venture there.

At first, as the game module is developed, we'll probably have just one character per username per player. Ultimately, I think I'd like to see the following:

Each "real person" player will be allowed one user account, period. No exceptions. Each user will be allowed three characters. However, each character must be in a different career track than the others.

Current career tracks
• Engineer - Involved with maintenance & operations of the substation
• Military - Involved with security & defense of the substation
• Political - Agents of diplomacy and government
• Civilian - Corporate employees and freelance operators
• Covert - Agents attempting to gather information, posing as another career track

Characters may eventually be of one of many races, but for now only human characters are allowed. There can be many variations within the career tracks and races, largely depending on skills gained and associations made within the game.

The substation comfortably holds millions of people. It is a slowly rotating circular structure, with several spokes connected to a hub in the center. The rotation gives a 1G gravity to people on the ring, while people in the hub are weightless.

The majority of people on the station are human, due to its relative proximity to the Terran system. However, the definition of "human" has been stretched over the millenia. Due to genetic and artifical manipulation, many people who consider themselves human would not even be recognized as such by the forerunners of the race, before humans left their home planet.

What makes humans common to each other, though not necessarily in all cases, is that they are bipedal, with four appendages wielding five digits apiece, and with a head attached precariously to a neck on top of their torso. On the face of the head are two "eyes" used for sight in a limited visual spectrum. The eyes are usually gelatinous orbs set into the skull, with flaps of skin offering a minimal protection. Below them are a nose and mouth, which are used primarly for breathing an oxygen-nitrogen mix, speaking, and eating.

Here are my thoughts for initial wealth and salaries. Wealth may be in the form of EC's, or equivalent equipment in value. Besides for use as trade for equipment, EC's are also used to charge and power items, to access certain computer functions, purchasing rights to live in a space, and even for the basic necessities for survival, such as food, water, and the right to breathe air (for those species who require it).

Initial Liquid Wealth
Welfare: 10 EC
Working Class: 500 EC
Middle Class: 1000 EC
Wealthy: 10000 EC

Available Salary
Welfare: 10 EC/day

When beginning, a character may opt to pull a salary. The amount of the salary depends on the character points spent. They also need to choose an initial agency and job description.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee the said agency will continue to employ that character, or even continue to exist. With the war, it's a question of day-to-day survival for both the people and their organizations.

Spending the character points makes a character employable in a certain status, assuming a position is available. Characters may have to spend game time seeking employment, assuming they wish to continue drawing a salary.

The standard electronic currency in the galaxy is the EC, which is offically designated as Empire Credit. It's also sometimes referred to as an Energy Credit. The currency has been accepted through the Empire for over ten thousand years, and redundant data networks spanning over parsecs have ensured that political upheavals and attempts at counterfeiting leave the standard untouched and secure.

However, for the denizens of Dryad-Fellows, the war has thrown that security into uncertainty. All the tranceivers in the substation's system have been destroyed or otherwise disabled, and without the crucial link to the galaxy's network, it's uncertain if the local economy will stay in sync with the rest of the galaxy for long.