I claim this planet for MEEEEEEEE!

Why does the person rescue you? Because he can? Because he likes high-risk, running under fire, race-for-your-life hobbies?

One of the main purposes of the ACIA is to rescue prisoners from the Apophis, and gain intel from them. (Spoiler)

Here is another spoiler. I wrote the rough draft, geek polished it and made it look pretty. This is the story from the HUMANS POINT OF VIEW! <- this is important.

After centuries of failure, humanity finally created technology that enabled him to explore the endless wonders of outer space. Planets were colonized, and united. Peace spread over the galaxy, as the Earth Union began. It was a Republic of peace like never seen before in history. Former enemies were now friends, and working together to bring civilization to many new worlds. However, mankind's thirst for knowledge was never satisfied. Slowly, brave men began exploring the unknown realms, hoping to find new life forms. They never did. The new life forms found them.

The first sighting occurred over 500 light-years from the fringe of Earth Union space. A small patrol of three scoutships discovered a strange alien vessel that appeared to be on a direct course to Earth. All attempts to hail the vessel failed. Suddenly, the vessel disabled the scoutships with an overwhelming electromagnetic pulse. All seemed to be lost for the scouts, but one faint distress call bled through to the nearest outpost, and help arrived. The alien ship was still there, and was still sending out the powerful pulses. A short battle ensued, and although several Earth Union ships were disabled, the alien ship was destroyed. Soon after, The Union Republic declared a state of emergency, and military buildup programs began. Warfleets were sent out to patrol the border, watchful for any alien attackers. They were not disappointed.

Only a few short month after the contact, a large alien warfleet was sighted, and was engaged. While the Earth Union fought bravely, it was destroyed utterly. War began. Soon, the alien menace showed its true strength. Unbelievably large fleets attacked and decimated all Union outposts in the course of two days. The remainder of the Union forces regrouped on Earth, and braced for attack, which soon came. Earth quickly fell, and all humans were prisoners. All except for the passengers and crew of the Renegade Sky. They escaped to the unknown, and found new lands. Soon, the Last Strain had colonized several planets, and was growing in numbers, while their brothers remained in captivity to the alien race which humanity called Apophis.

---------------------------------------------------

You were not on the Renegade Sky. When the Apophis attacked, you piloted an Earth Union Fighter in the defense. You led a charge on a large Apophis ship, and your wingmen were disabled. As you retreated to regroup, a large beam struck your ship, and you knew no more.

You wake up. You had that dream again. You can't seem to forget the day the Apophis captured you. Your cell is still dark, wrapped up in the shadows of artificial night. You roll over on your side and squint at the small point of light in the corner, the guard robot. It straitens up and looks at you quizzically, before resuming it's guard stance.

It wasn't like the Apophis were bad em-prisoners. Quite to the contrary, they seemed rather friendly, in a sad sort of way. For several weeks, you had been trying to learn their language, by watching the guards converse, and watching their body language for clues as to their meaning. You had learned enough to grab a passing guard and say, "Eckhi Niy sadr", or what you hoped meant "teach me." The guard had looked at you with a strange expression you hadn't been able to identify --admiration perhaps-- then walked away. the next day, you had been very surprised to find a couple of what looked like preschool language books with your morning meal. Using the pictures, you had been quite successful at learning their language, and could now go through an entire sentence without having to stop and look up words in the diary of words you wrote.

Then there was the that thing that happened about 4 days ago. it had been about 2 A.M. as far as you could tell from the shadows on the wall, and you hadn't been able to sleep. As you sat on your bed, you had heard a sound outside the door, and looked up to see a small Apophian child standing at your door, looking like a ghost in the dark. She bent down and set a small delicate flower outside the door, then ran. The flower had been the most amazing thing you had ever smelled.

Bang.

You looked up in surprise to see a faint light coming from the grate above your head, and quiet voices, human voices, telling someone to be quiet. there was a small thump, and the grate slid aside to reveal four people, one of which was holding out a hand to you and whispering, "We've come to rescue you." and another lowering a roll-up ladder. you quickly climb up the ladder with tears in your eyes, and hug the leading man. He lets you cling to him for a moment, then gently pushes you away.

"We can get emotional later, but now we still have to get you out of here. quickly, this way."

The man starts to crawl away, leaving you to follow in the company of the only female of the group, who is covered from head to toe in ammo, and holding a laser pistol. She flashes a quick grin at you, before following the lead man.

The guard robot, alone in now empty room, stared at the grate through which you exited, and chattered in alarm.

Quote

The guard robot, alone in a now empty room

😄

@yamfries, on Sep 16 2007, 11:26 AM, said in I claim this planet for MEEEEEEEE!:

I intensely dislike the word "Destiny"
and has anyone thought of a way of starting their plugs other than the tried and tested "You are a fresh graduate from the pilots academy, bleah, bleablea, bleablea...?
I don't know. thats just my own humble opinion.

Edit: I am referring to otters title screen.

In Delphi, you are a decorated military officer of the Nova Defense Coalition, recently the victim of some horrible accident that cost you your ship and almost all its crew. After being held in artificial metabolic suspension (it's like stasis, but you will eventually die if not taken out; your body is just metabolizing at a drastically reduced rate) for the space of about two weeks, and undergoing several intensive medical operations on your brain, the military doctors have decided to remove certain portions of your brain and replacing them with synthetic tissue, unfortunately blocking access to a large number of your memory engrams, including any knowledge of your "accident". Whether this is purely coincidental or the work of conspirators, remains to be seen. Either way, to command an NDC starship takes huge amounts of technical skill, as almost everything is governed by "command codes" (much the same as sales terminals at retail outlets, which use complicated command lines, etc. to avoid customers accessing them), and as a result of your memory loss, you will not be granted command of the larger starships, requiring that you prove yourself again capable of commanding such mighty beasts, over the course of time. There; a player start that isn't "the meager ship captain setting off to find his destiny". Try instead, "a powerful, influential military commander forced to rebuild his life after a tragic accident". Thus, you start in a small military cargo ship, which don't use any command coded systems (no worry of enemy hacking, really), and eventually get to fly the big bad battleships again. I just noticed that in Nova's storyline, it seemed to have way too much of, "well, you've been working for us for a whole week... sure, here's access to all of our largest, galaxy-devouring, planet-pounding warships."

Also, in Delphi you get to colonize/dominate planets, but through a different method. Instead of landing on the planet, you use a mission specific weapon, either "colony pods" or "drop pods" (science/military storylines, respectively) which are the only "planet-killer" weapons in the game. The planet's "alive" state is actually a dead world (in the science story), or an enemy stronghold (military story), while the "dead" state is the newly changed world, whether now a fledgling colony or a captured installation.

The pod system is a joy to use, because each one does a very low yield of "damage", meaning that you'll be launching them in loads of maybe 20 at a time. They (*should) home to the planet like normal missiles, suggesting internal flight systems controlled by the occupants, which really adds to the realism, not to mention the fact that they can be fired on by point defense systems, including any PD weapons held by a planet (this takes some serious tweaking to get right, but it can be done).

*this element is still buggy as missiles don't normally like to home toward planets, but like the PD planet weapons, it can be done. Still in the works though, and might be scrapped in favor of direct fire pods, as I'm currently using.

Spiffy.

@zapp, on Sep 24 2007, 03:52 AM, said in I claim this planet for MEEEEEEEE!:

Quote

The guard robot, alone in a now empty room

😄

I fixed that, and a few other problems... Maybe Yoda will post my fixed version...

@geek, on Sep 23 2007, 09:28 PM, said in I claim this planet for MEEEEEEEE!:

😄

Maybe Yoda will post my fixed version...

Tada! With a few modifications. I added the bit about the battle of saturn.

After centuries of failure, humanity finally created technology that enabled him to explore the endless wonders of outer space. Planets were colonized, and united. Peace spread over the galaxy, as the Earth Union began. It was a Republic of peace like never seen before in history. Enemies were now friends, and working together to bring civilization to many new worlds. However, mankind's thirst for knowledge was never satisfied. Slowly, brave men began exploring the unknown realms, hoping to find new life forms. They never did. The new life forms found them.

The first sighting occurred over 500 light-years from the fringe of Earth Union space. A small patrol of three scoutships discovered a strange alien vessel that appeared to be on a direct course to Earth. All attempts to hail the vessel failed. Suddenly, the vessel disabled the scoutships with an overwhelming electromagnetic pulse. All seemed to be lost for the scouts, but one faint distress call bled through to the nearest outpost, and help arrived. The alien ship was still there, and was still sending out the powerful pulses. A short battle ensued, and although several Earth Union ships were disabled, the alien ship was destroyed. Soon after, The Union Republic declared a state of emergency, and military buildup programs began. Warfleets were sent out to patrol the border, watchful for any alien attackers. They were not disappointed.

Only a few short month after the contact, a large alien warfleet was sighted, and was engaged. While the Earth Union fought bravely, it was destroyed utterly. War began. Soon, the alien menace showed its true strength. Unbelievably large fleets attacked and decimated all Union outposts in the course of two days. The remainder of the Union forces regrouped on Earth, and braced for attack, which soon came. The alien fleet was met at saturn by the ragged remains of the Earth unions fleet. There was no contest, the Earth Union fleet was destroyed completely. Earth quickly fell, and all humans were prisoners, but the brave self sacrifice of the Earth union fleet allowed time for a ship, a single Ark, to escape. The Renegade Sky, The last free ship of humanity. Her passengers and crew escaped to the unknown, and found new lands. Soon, the Refugees who named themselves the Last Strain, had colonized several planets, and grew in numbers, while their brothers remained in captivity to the alien race which humanity called Apophis.

---------------------------------------------------

You were not on the Renegade Sky. When the Apophis attacked, you piloted an Earth Union Fighter in the defense. You led a charge on a large Apophis ship, and your wingmen were disabled. As you retreated to regroup, a large beam struck your ship, and you knew no more.

You wake up. You had that dream again. You can't seem to forget the day the Apophis captured you. Your cell is still dark, wrapped up in the shadows of artificial night. You roll over on your side and squint at the small point of light in the corner, the guard robot. It straitens up and looks at you quizzically, before resuming it's guard stance.

It wasn't like the Apophis were bad em-prisoners. Quite to the contrary, they seemed rather friendly, in a sad sort of way. For several weeks, you had been trying to learn their language, by watching the guards converse, and watching their body language for clues as to their meaning. You had learned enough to grab a passing guard and say, "Eckhi Niy sadr", or what you hoped meant "teach me." The guard had looked at you with a strange expression you hadn't been able to identify --admiration perhaps-- then walked away. The next day, you had been very surprised to find a couple of what looked like preschool language books with your morning meal. Using the pictures, you had been quite successful at learning their language, and could now go through an entire sentence without having to stop and look up words in the diary of words you wrote.

Then there was the that thing that happened about 4 days ago. it had been about 2 A.M. as far as you could tell from the shadows on the wall, and you hadn't been able to sleep. As you sat on your bed, you had heard a sound outside the door, and looked up to see a small Apophian child standing at your door, looking like a ghost in the dark. She bent down and set a small delicate flower outside the door, then ran. The flower had been the most amazing thing you had ever smelled.

Bang.

You looked up in surprise to see a faint light coming from the grate above your head, and quiet voices --human voices-- telling someone to be quiet. there was a small thump, and the grate slid aside to reveal four people, one of which was holding out a hand to you and whispering, "We've come to rescue you." and another lowering a roll-up ladder. you quickly climb up the ladder with tears in your eyes, and hug the leading man. He lets you cling to him for a moment, then gently pushes you away.

"We can get emotional later, but now we still have to get you out of here. Quickly, this way."

The man starts to crawl away, leaving you to follow in the company of the only female of the group, who is covered from head to toe in ammo, and holding a laser pistol. She flashes a quick grin at you, before following the lead man.

The guard robot, alone in a now empty room, stared at the grate through which you exited, and chattered in alarm.

Only a few short month after the contact, a large alien warfleet was sighted, and was engaged. While the Earth Union fought bravely, it was destroyed utterly. War began. Soon, the alien menace showed its true strength. Unbelievably large fleets attacked and decimated all Union outposts in the course of two days. The remainder of the Union forces regrouped on Earth, and braced for attack, which soon came. The alien fleet was met at S aturn by the ragged remains of the Earth U nion's fleet. There was no contest. The Earth Union fleet was destroyed completely. Earth quickly fell, and all humans were prisoners, but the brave self-sacrifice of the Earth union fleet allowed time for a ship, a single Ark, to escape. The Renegade Sky, The last free ship of humanity. Her passengers and crew escaped to the unknown, and found new lands. Soon, the refugees named themselves the Last Strain, colonized several planets, and grew in numbers, while their brothers remained in captivity to the alien race which humanity called Apophis.

🙂