Dyson Sphere IC

[leafy_kille]

The year is 4673 it has been 4 years since the inhabitants of the Dyson Sphere where awoken from their 1000 year cold sleep and things have mostly returned to what could be called normality.
The New Dyson Military reformed only 6 months after the awakening but has yet to venture outside the sphere’s sensor range, Commander Tyne is addressing the crew of the NDM Hercules, a purpose built ship to be the first to explore what lies outside the range of the sensors on the Dyson Sphere.

“Greetings, for some of you this will be the first time you have seen me in person, for others you have already been working with me for a number of years, the purpose of this meeting is to allow you to meet the other members of the crew of the new NDM Hercules that is due to be launched next week and also to issue you with the equipment that you will be using aboard her to allow you some time to familiarise yourself with its use before we launch.”

“After we conclude this meeting today you will all report to the infirmary where you will all be fitted with a military grade PDS (personal defence system) this is an upgraded version of the standard civilian PDS and is much better suited to dealing with weapons fire should you encounter the Gorg or any other hostile forces on your mission. It also provides for protection in the vacuum of space as well as radiation shielding far beyond that of a civilian PDS and gravitational compensation should you find yourself in an environment with an inconveniently low or intolerably high gravity.”
“This will not make you invincible and it runs of your standard 100 point internal power unit, so be careful not to allow it to become depleted, especially in a hostile environment, the nurse will give you the specifics of the system and its operation when it is installed, though I am confident that you will adapt to its use easily as most of its functions are fully automated.”
“I am aware that a few of you have used one of these before so just bear with the formalities.”
“You will also be issued with a standard self loading, semi automatic side arm with recoil suppression and two, 20 shot clips, these are not to be reclaimed at a Synth point and must be carried on your person at all times.”

“after you have been fitted with your military PDS anyone who thinks they are qualified to wield a larger weapon is to report to me and anyone who thinks they can pilot a strike craft is to report to Dave, Dave come and introduce yourself to everyone.” The commander finally steps aside from the podium to allow Dave to step forwards.

Dave leisurely steps onto the podium and begins “hi I’m Dave and I’ll be piloting the Hercules I have been working with the commander for nearly 2 years now, if you have any questions regarding this fine ship I’m the one to ask as when I’m flying her I can feel every bolt, she has 4 class3 strike craft suitable for atmosphere entry and capable of comfortably housing 3 people for anything up to a week or two and up to 20 people at a squeeze, so anyone who thinks they can handle it please come and see me and ill show them to you, if your good I may even let you fly one with me for a trial flight outside the sphere.”

Dave then steps aside and the commander returns to the podium “Ok so are there any questions?”

[Enigma]

"Sir!" The engineer shot up.

"Commander Sara Taylor, engineer. Information about the Hercules' capabilities have been... restricted," she paused, a slight frown on her face the only sign of frustration at being blocked so completely. She continued, her voice slipping into its usual mono-tone, "Please tell us more about the ship and its capabilities."

Sara sat down as abruptly as she sat up, but perched on the edge of her seat, totally focused on the commander. Ready to record.

"Sir!" growled a smaller figure in back, gold fur gleaming in her tropical camo fatigues. "Marine Sergeant Teri Leonidas, Chimera Volunteer Company. We will have more to fight the Gorg with than a handful of strikes and a side arm, surely!" Teri slid into parade-rest rather than sit back down.

[leafy_kille]

"yes Teri I believe you will be wanting to report to me once your military PDS has been installed, I will be waiting for you in the armory where I'm sure we will be able to find a weapon you are trained with."
"As for you Sara, it is up to Dave how much he tels you about the Hercules, you may report to him after you have had your PDS installed." At this point Dave steps up to join the commander and says;
"that is indeed correct if you want to know more about her I'll be happy to give you a guided tour, paperwork is nothing compared to seeing the real thing, in fact I'd like it if everyone came to the hanger bay airlock in sector B7red, I have just granted you clearance to go there at 14:00 once I have dealt with our strike craft pilots, who I will meet in the rec room once you have had your PDS installed."
"any further questions?" the commander chimes in.

[RootZero]

Lieutenant Whitson lounged in her chair, staring at the pilot uninterestedly. She didn't really give a damn about the new ship, except what it represented; a chance to get out and see something new. She wanted to get hold of a real weapon as soon as possible, but evidently she needed her new PDS first. She wondered idly about acquiring a higher capacity power pack, but didn't bother to ask. That was well out of her price range, both in her own savings and in what the military would be willing to spend on her.

Her interest was sparked by the chimera at the back. She'd never worked with one before, but she supposed she'd get the chance to chat when they went to the armoury later. The rest of the announcements drifted past her. One ship was very much like another, after all.

"Any further questions?" Tyne asked. She stayed silent. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner she could get her PDS and new weapons. And maybe a proper job brief. She still wasn't entirely clear what she was doing here, except... where else would she go? A number of officers had made it clear since the awakening that her patchy record was still well known, and Tyne's leadership was widely regarded as the only thing keeping her in line. Maybe it was, she thought, allowing herself a faint smile.

[Enigma]

Teri frowned, but nodded before she sat down. Clearly the Commander was of the "first names" type - just as long as you didn't forget their first names were "Sir".

Had everyone forgotten being asleep for a thousand years? That was a thousand years the Gorg had to develop new weapons and new tactics! For all anyone knew, the Gorg might actually be inside the sphere - it had a surface area of 550 million Earths! And that amount of territory took a long time to check, even with satellites scanning inside and out.

She knew she'd volunteered to be on this crew so as to be one of the first to take a peek at what was out there. And that meant the first to venture away from the shell, where anything could be waiting to take a bite out of their flanks. It wasn't too reassuring to know that right now, in some forgotten corner of the sphere a lab had her custom dna on file, ready to regrow a new body for her if she didn't make it back. For all she knew, it'd happen already. There could be a whole army of Teris crewing a swarm of Hercules class ships, each going out to be bait on the line while Humanity watched from the safety of the sphere.

Maybe that's why she only saw a handful of people here at this briefing? Or were they only doing this in small batches?


Sara waited. As soon as the new pds upgrade was installed, she'd finally get a look at the new ship.

[leafy_kille]

Commander Tyne waits for a few moments longer than strictly necessary before concluding that there where no further questions and directing everyone to the medical facility.

The procedure is surprisingly quick and painless taking only a few minutes and leaving only a slight itching in various locations where the graviton emitters had been installed, it was explained that since the graviton technology in this suit was very new that its use wasn’t automatic since it required quite a substantial amount of power but that it could be activated by simple thought interface much the same as most machinery, or it could be activated vocally for those that prefer not to think to machines. The emergency intervention side of it was however still automatic, so if you find yourself in an environment with gravity that would kill you the graviton emitters would be activated automatically but only sufficiently to stop the gravity from causing you any serious harm. It is also explained to you that this graviton technology can also have combat applications, such as stabilizing weapons, recoil suppression and even simple running and jumping enhancement.

As the procedure is completed and your body is released from the surgical restraining field the nurse hands you a small pamphlet containing various bits of information about your newly upgraded PDA and the expected energy costs of its most commonly used features.

Spoiler: PDA energy costs 

this is a military grade PDS and as such it does not cater for comfort by default, it is practical and if allowing you to get banged about a bit will save some energy then that’s what will happen, though no serious or debilitating injuries will result unless the PDS runs out of energy. It is a smart system and if you are running dangerously low on energy or it knows that it will not get any more for an extended period of time it will permit more harm to come to you in the interests of preserving your life above your health.

Deflecting a shot from a regular solid munitions hand held fire arm: ~ 5 energy/bullet (for a normal 0.22 caliber munition, higher caliber weapons fire will require substantially more energy dependant on the mass and velocity of the projectile)

Providing for movement, air, vacuum protection, temperature, radiation and other hazards of normal space: ~1 energy/minute

Gravity alterations to allow for running up to 5X faster and jumping up to 10X further than normal (with practice): ~10 energy/minute and ~5 energy/jump

Augmented lifting capacity recoil suppression etc. required in lifting and accurately firing a vehicle weapon such as the main cannon from a tank: ~1 energy/10 seconds while carrying/aiming and ~10 energy/shot (note this can be reduced to ~5 energy/shot if you are wiling to be thrown backwards substantially with each shot)

Gravity normalization: ~1 energy/hour for each 0.1G of alteration required (note gravity of between 0.5G and 1.5G is usually ok for normal activity)

Preventing damage from a hand grenade or explosive ordinance at point blank range: ~20-40 energy

Radiation shielding from excessive sunlight or other radiation sources: dependant on intensity but not normally more than 1 energy/hour

Purification of atmosphere to allow for breathing, assuming atmosphere is mostly nitrogen oxygen: ~1 energy/hour

Creation of breathable air for planets with no/negligible oxygen or nitrogen in their atmosphere: ~10 energy/hour

Protection from laser weapons is dependant on the energy used in the shot and is ~ 2X the energy used to fire the shot for a direct hit or ~1 energy for all glancing blows that can be refracted to avoid serious injury

For all explosions, weapons fire or other incidents that can’t be prevented from causing the incapacitation of the user the life of the user will be preserved if possible leaving enough energy to sustain life in the current environment for 1 hour. If it is not possible to do this all energy will be used to preserve the brain case completely depleting all energy.

All PDS can be customized for personal preferences and automated functions, please consult your computer technician for such alterations.
Upgrades can also be made in many areas to increase efficiency in certain tasks or to add additional features, consult your commanding officer for these as most are restricted to highly skilled and experienced military operatives.

almost as soon as you leave the medical facility you get a message on your communicator, that was apparently fitted when you got your PDS installed, from commander Tyne “will all crew trained in heavy fire arms or non standard weapons please report to the armory immediately” followed by another from Dave “will all crew wishing to try out the strike craft please report to the rec room, if you need directions just ask one of the military guards around the base they will be able to provide you with directions.”

[RootZero]

Whitson stretched as she left the facility, then jumped on the spot a little, barely leaving the ground but engaging the PDS to refamiliarise herself with the feel of augmenting her capabilities. The interface between self and machine was very smooth, and she realised for the first time that they were really at the cutting edge here. New ship, new gravitech... new weapons?

As if on cue, the communicator cut into her thoughts.

<Will all crew trained in heavy fire arms or non standard weapons please report to the armory immediately.>

<Deep space, yes!> she thought, then hoped it hadn't been transmitted back. That would just be embarrassing, surely she ought to know how to use a communicator by now.

<Will all crew wishing to try out the strike craft please report to the rec room, if you need directions just ask one of the military guards around the base they will be able to provide you with directions.>

No, boring... she'd played gunner before, but just swinging the things around on drills wasn't her idea of fun. She almost asked directions, but there were only really two directions people were going in, and she could guess at the basic layout of a ship, so how hard could it be to find the armoury?

[Enigma]

Teri gave herself a shake as soon as the door slid shut behind her. Having someone poking about her insides like that made her shiver. Then her communicator gave her a start.

<Will all crew trained in heavy fire arms or non standard weapons please report to the armory immediately.>

Casting her eye about, she sighed and asked, "Eve? How do I get to the Armory from here?"

=============================

Sara paused as she left Medical to mentally scan the cost figures into her memory, then neatly folded the pamphlet and put it in her pocket.

In her head, a wireframe of the local area floated inside her head, showing her current location and the location of the rec room. Without a backward glance, she headed off towards Dave.

[leafy_kille]

#at the rec room#
when Sara enters the rec room Dave is casually siting on one of the chairs looking out the window but he looks round when you come in.
"I was hoping for a larger turnout but your results on the sims are by far the best, so I'm glad you came, your report also said not to get between you and your maintenance, ill be glad to have an engineer on my ship that is capable of getting repairs done no mater what gets in the way."
"we had best wait a little while to see if anyone else turns up, tho there was only one other that scored highly enough to actually be able to fly one of these, they are not small for strike craft, in fact there have been recon ships smaller than these in the past."
"here have a look out the window here," Dave indicates to the window he was looking out of when you first entered "you can see nearly all of the NDM Hercules, ill show you around her after you have had a go in one of the strike craft."

#The NDM Hercules #

#at the armory#
The commander isn't immediately obvious when you arrive at the armory, and the main door into the armory is a huge locked steel bulkhead, the entry room has several seats, and it looks like you are expected to sit and wait for the commander.
Once everyone is seated there is the sound of heavy footsteps from the other side of the door and a large lifting robot operated by the commander opens the huge steel door from the other side "Ok then lets see what you can operate with your nice new grav suits" the commander says jovially, broadcast a bit too loudly from the lifting robot as it beckons you to follow him as he turns and clanks back into the armory proper

The armory as it seems is actually just a small part of this area, the weapons are all behind a large shield generator and there is a huge firring range with targets ranging from tanks, buildings and fighter craft down to human shaped dummies and small paper targets, and some interesting looking apparatus that seems to be some sort of combat training device for hand to hand fighting.
"so what are you trained with?" the commander asks stopping the lifter just outside the shielded.

(note: it is ok to be trained in any form of weaponry, but don't expect to get one if your trained in something like missile launchers!)

[Enigma]

Sara eyed the starship hanging there. It looked bigger than she'd thought it would be. The crew seemed a lot smaller than she expected as well.

"When can I examine the tech manuals?" she asked, turning back to Dave.

===================================

"Uh, M41 Pulse rifles and M56 Smart guns, sir!" Teri replied to the Commander. She was proud that she was just tall enough to use the smart guns. "M83 SADARs when we could get them!"

The armory was massive! She wondered how much she'd be able to carry away from here, then eyed the exoskeleton the Commander was using and wondering if there was another?