Game Stories

[Suicide Junkie]

Cross-Linking some threads for you:

Beyond the Horizon (by Dracus)
A New Age (by Atrocities)

[mac5732]

SJ, tks for finding it, these stories are excellent reading and I know everyone will enjoy them as much as I do. tks again .....

just some ideas mac

[Suicide Junkie]

<Photo-album style Flashback sequence>
-A shadowy figure on vidscreens across the tri-system, warning the populace of war.

-Grainy images of a large arrowhead-shaped ship emerging from a wormhole on news channels.

-Busy workers rushing to pour armor molds around a bunker and missile pit.

-Orange streamers flowing behind two great destroyers as they leave orbit of the homeworld.

-A warppoint opens, the electronically distorted voice of a Phantom Captain rumbling through space.

-The intruding ship turning and fleeing back through the warppoint, the destroyers in pursuit.

-Two dark ships sailing insystem, crossing the orbit of a planet.

-Two flashes of light from the dark side of the planet as the dark destroyers sail silently past.

-A battle: Two torpedoes silently slide towards the trailing destroyer.

-A fireball smearing itself around an invisible barrier, a half-second before another erupted on the surface of the ship.

-Turrets swivelling, and a rain of green teardrops flowing from the destroyers to splash against the shield of the enemy ship.

-Torpedoes slipping in, two fireballs erupting on the wings of the damaged destroyer, and the battered hulk tumbling away, sparkling drops of fiery liquid metal spewing into space.

-The remaining destroyer closing in, small puffs of plasma beginning to appear on the Arrowhead's hull.

-Through the silent storm, two more sleek metal tubes. The destroyer shuddering from a direct hit through the shields, but continuing to fire.

-Hull breaches glowing a dull orange polka dot pattern across the hull of the enemy vessel; it is beginning to lose attitude control, but holds together.

-Running out of time, the destroyer's drives glow on overload, as it makes one Last burst of speed towards the enemy.

-Firing at it dives, the destroyer has rolled over.

-The destroyer's port wingtip vanishing in a flash of light.

-The enemy vessel spinning itself into a glowing mass of shrapnel, while the starboard half of the destroyer drifts away, spinning.

-Darkness

-In the light from burning equipment, an old officer returns to consciousness, pinned against a wall, while another struggles to stand from the ceiling in order to reach down to the navigation console. Bodies surround them, pasted against the bulkheads by centrifugal force.
...
</flashback>

The old officer stands at a podium, with the younger officer from the ship to his right, and two others behind him. They are being viewed on an enourmous screen by a thousand soldiers.

"Fortunately, we were drifting towards the wormhole at that point, and it only took a month for the repair ship to reach us. After sealing the smaller hull breaches and restoring atmosphere to most of the remains of the ship, the repair crews proceeded to check for survivors on our sister ship. We were about to pass through the wormhole when they arrived, but remained long enough to hear what happened next: the rescue ship found one of the survivors firing shots into space...
... the instant the repair ship tried to dock, they were jumped by a pair of Arrowheads...
... he was trying to warn them, not be rescued..."

The old officer steps back, shaken by the memory, and motions the younger officer to continue for him.

"The destroyer escorting the repair ship was burning badly after the initial volley of torpedoes... they only got off a handful of shots before they were incinerated. The repair ship was about to ram one of the Arrowheads when we lost contact...
Me and Admiral Dey were far enough ahead to escape back to the shipyards at Avior. As reported by the local news, only one Arrowhead followed us through the wormhole before being turned back by the planetary defenses on Scutum IX."

Admiral Dey steps forward again, and the young officer returns to his assigned position.

"Our forces were decimated in the Last attack, but we have learned much since then. Great warships have been constructed, and soldiers have been trained. You are them. The best of the best, the elite Soldiers of the Phantom. You naturally fear nothing, but make no mistake; the road to victory is long and treacherous.

I present to you your guides on that journey: Myself, commanding the Amberjack"
"Captain Holt, commanding the Heron"

Captain Holt steps forward again and nods before returning.

"Captain Ainsworth, commanding the Pomeroy"
"And finally, Commander Myers, commanding my old ship, the rebuilt Baku, which will serve as our repair tender."

The two other officers take a step towards the camera in turn.

"The fleet departs in one hour. Send any personal Messages now, radio silence will be in effect as soon as we leave orbit."

[ 03 February 2002: Message edited by: suicide_junkie ]

[spacefan]

Author's Note:
This is based on a game set up according to the Topic Game Story: GalacticCorp. Its somewhat of a cross between Ferengi and current multinational corporations. A corporate perspective on space exploitation. Finite Resources are enabled for this game. Large Spiral Arm galaxy.

GalacticCorp

CEO Edward Mason straightened his tie, watching a large assembly from his balcony three floors above the conference meeting room. His secretary told him that 3000 senior executives were expected from all branches of GalacticCorp(gc), and they had flown in to meet him at Corporate Headquarters. Of course, no one called it that, it was called the "Imperial Palace". People laughed at that name, but they always agreed with it.

On the floor below, a flustered director was trying to create order, placing various executives according to a seating chart, in preparation for the broadcast, which would be sent around the world to all GC employees.

Clearing his throat, Mason motioned to the director, and began his speech.

"Good Morning. I am speaking to you today to discuss the recent merger which has created the largest corporation in history, GalacticCorp. We have spent months, even years, ensuring the transition would go smoothly, and now that it is here, I would like to share my plans for the coming years.

But first, I would like to thank the many managers and shareholders who have flown across the world to come here..."

A lot of people were listening to this speech, but among those who were not, Andrew Bates was the most interesting. He operated a one-man federal government, which had no power. All he did was give approval to corporate mergers, and he had no power to say no, anyway. He remembered a time when the government had power. He sighed and looked up at the sky. "Thats where they will go next," he said to himself.

"...Now, our immediate plan is to franchise and commence mining and relocation to other worlds in our system. We plan to put our ship construction to the test. If we can bring workers to the moons and planets of this system quickly, then we can easily double our output of minerals, organics and radioactives. Any period of growth causes stress of course, but we will compensate you, so just hang in there. We also plan to launch satellites to mine any valuable asteroids we find..."

In a later meeting of the board of directors of GalacticCorp, the CEO spoke rather differently, of profits and risk factors. The directors approved his plan for harnessing the resources of their system, and concluded the plan of asteroid mining may not be suitably profitable, but asked him to organize a test case.

[Suicide Junkie]

Addendum to Author's note below:
The thread referenced below, can be found here: Game Story: GalacticCorp.

[spacefan]

GalacticCorp

Office of the CEO: 2402.7

<begin log>
Obotron is now fully franchised, as we struggle to keep our warehousing sufficient to store our production. Our research into Storage Engineering, better known as Cargo technology, is progressing, and they expect an increase in cargo capacity at our warehouses within half a year.

Our scouts have found a nearby system, which we have begun colonizing, and also found two more lucrative systems, as well as several systems with no planets but plenty of Asteroids. Our test cases with Satellites indicate that we would need almost 40 times larger satellites to put remote mining components on them. That should be our next research priority after the warehousing reorginization. Our scouts should be heading back to resupply soon, as they have travelled a long ways, through about 5 systems.
<pause log>

Mason heard his secretary through the intercom say, "Sir, we have urgent reports from our ship Scout #1. They report a brief contact with unknown foreign agents. I have a dispatch, it has been sent through to your mailbox."

"Thanks," he said, and turned to his computer, to open the report, which was screened to prevent anyone from hacking into the CEO's computer.

The dispatch read:
****
Amon'krie Continuum
Lord Amon'Kurath

Agents of one known only as Lord Amon'Kurath, were spotted while we were in transit to return for refuelling. We learned virtually nothing about them, only that they are clearly very alien, look like snakes or some sort of monster, and were in general quite elusive. They vanished as soon as we noticed them. We await your instructions at Obotron 8, if we can reach that target before we run low on fuel. If we do not reach Obotron, we will await refuelling on Lundra 4.
****

Mason contemplated the message. He had repeated to many that aliens were just a silly myth people felt some reason to believe in. Also, he knew Lundra 4 did not have a resupply depot yet. He shrugged, contemplating how little they knew about the "Amon-krie"

[disabled]

I love this story! keep up the good work!

[ June 14, 2003, 18:22: Message edited by: General Talashar ]