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>>4548147
<ships shown are not to scale, and mostly to support background story.>
The available ships to evolve are in the first post, and are very small shuttles with dedicated 1-5 man crews.

The Factions:

>The Chosen
Genetic servants of a greater biological god, now cast adrift. The crews of these ships are the diminutive Nomads, industrious scavengers known for ramshackle engineering, and the massive Highborn, masters of biological constructs and instinctual genetic manipulation. Each ship is unique, representing the relationship between the crew as they compete, harmonize, or become dysfunctional. As a ship grows in experience and age, so too does it grow in size. Eventually a bit of scrap and biological matter will be broken off to repeat the process.

Chosen ships are very good at being repaired, and healing. Main power and engines are a low tech, dangerous, yet functional antiamtter furnace that runs continuously via "combustion" of anything thrown in. If there is matter near by they have unlimited endurance, but insignificant storage space.

>The Ascended:
A race of serpentine tri armed creatures. Prior to inheriting alien technology, they rose to prominence as the dominant power of their world, now only exacerbated. They view themselves as supreme, and the only true sapient. The species now exists as enhanced form of itself through eugenic breeding and cybernetic enhancement.

Chosen ships a hybrid of mobile weapons platform and cathedral to their existence, focusing on living space, armor, and martial capability over cargo requirements.

>The Striven:
A race who left the Ascended early in their history. Struggle, austerity, and independence formed a cold, corporate and militaristic culture to which the Striven are willingly bound. Deliberately embracing technology that was incompatible with the other races ensured they would be unbound, and alone.

Striven ships use nuclear energy, both fusion and fission. Crews spend most of their time in cryogenic storage, and tend to cargo on long hauls through the emptiest of the void. While not heavily armed or armored, the first and last weapon of a Striven shuttle is a boosted nuclear WMD.

>The Enslaved:
A small, multi limbed race capable of thriving on inorganic minerals of any source. They abhor freedom, flying, oddity, and any form of falsehood intentional or otherwise. Their technology focuses on electromagnetics, and orbital mechanics, as a member of the Enslaved is free to fall, but never fly.

>The Free:
Shortly after the age of strife, technological proliferation lead primative nations to grow quickly. The free opted to reverse engineer commercial exports and crudly emulate that which was not fully understood. It mattered little, they took to the void of space as easily as the caverns and plains of Essari.

Free ships are robustly built, and technologically backwards at times, with a focus on military action. They identified propellers worked in the nebula.

1/2

>>4548164

>The Exalted

Exalted worship their living god queen, wife of all, the autumn lady. Though the pain of being separated from her is much, they endure, and hope to find a fragment of the lady within the nebula.

Exalted ships are very small, and focus on boarding actions where their powered armor and crystal bio-knights can make short work of the enemy. To that end they employ holographic panels that make identifying the ship at visual ranges a problem. Without a home fleet, the Exalted and Free must both work as mercenaries, hired labor or pirates.

both the Exalted and free owe a debt to a faction simply known in their language as "the Peripheral Terminus."
---------

Quest Start:

I will periodically throw in events or objectives to stir the pot, but free free to form your own sub factions, tell your own stories, or simply design ships because they are cool.

Right now ships cant grow massive, and new technology is not available beyond the crude ballistic, missile, and EM weapons of the respective factions, so scaling or adapting/ improving is a viable tactic if conflict emerges.
-----
Story Notes

Chosen: The harsh radiation of the system causes pain to the organic components of the shuttles. A need for greater storage capacity is required if exploring the edge is to be possible.

Ascended: Current shuttle design is insufficient for scouting of the other fleets.

Striven: Ability to escape enemies is hindered by insufficient engines.

Enslaved: Local hazards cause physical damage to our craft, and impede harvesting. Trade with the uneven...though undesirable, will bring additional resources and services.

Free: The other fleets have technology and numbers we don't. Outrange and evade, but be prepared to take a hit...alternatively we could find work towing salvage, derelicts and small rock debris for processing.

Exalted: Holographic technology would benefit static defense locations.

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>>4548147
If a propeller works in this place, then it must be filled with some sort of gas. And if there is gas, it can be harvested. Some shuttles have converted their radiator banks with intakes acting akin to the baleen of a whale. About half of the harvested gas goes to a large tank on the bottom of the ship - the rest ends up collecting on the intake's plating, and has to be scrubbed off daily by whoever loses the worst at poker night, or by whoever pisses off the captain the most, depending on the ship.
Because the ship is now heavier and is worse at radiating heat, it is an easier target for anyone trying to take advantage.

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>>4548167
With a major megacorporation, Bulkheed figuring out how to direct fusion reactor plasma through the rear thrusters, the Striven has gained a cost effective, high specific impulse main drive which should allow increased acceleration under all conditions

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>>4548147
There is no getting around it: The Enslaved, alone, is uneven. It is single, which is to say it's one, and that's odd. So from one are made two: Two Spheres, in a constant orbit with each other, each with an external computer dedicated to keeping the two-ship together. This does nothing to solve the problem of hazards around, but it doubles the capacity of the Enslaved both to gather and store resources.

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>>4548147
A different iteration on the Enslaved is the Constipation. Here, the number of graboids have been reduced to two, and the material of the shell has been made into a lighter crystal. Its back, however, is now heavily armoured with a thick feroid layer, making it more robust against [local hazards]

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>>4548147
For the Ascended, strength came in numbers. Strong, merciless numbers that ravaged world, filled their atmospheres with arsenic, and settled them until their resources where depleted.

However, there were neither number nor lootable planets in this Solar system. Asteroid mining was something primitive civilizations, not equipped to take on the big leagues did. Hence their fleets were poorly suited for said ludicrous labor.

A quick solution is confectioned; primitive unnmaned drones fitted with suctioning equipment, connected to the spaceship with crude hollow 'fishing lines' that would bring in materials aboard. Using their advanced weaponry, the Ascended would blast the rocky debris, and then absorb the minerals and ice released.

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>>4548147
The Exalted, warlike as ever, find that the quickest way to obtain resources and ensure their fleet's survival was to pillage and ransack. They streamline their ships, favouring speed and weaponry over cargo space. Landing shuttles are replaced with cannons, and the energy saved by downsizing redirected to their guns. They restrict their engine's resistors and heat exhausts, a risky move, that allows them to focus on attack over endurance.

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>>4548335
In a tragic oversight, the evenness enforcement computer was, in itself, uneven. To fix this glaring mistake, an additional pod was mounted on the other side of the ship - this one holding a retractable hook that can be used to grab onto the other ship.
When boarding a larger vessel, the ships separate and instead use their hooks to anchor themselves.

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>>4548292
with an uptick in pirate activity, the new Striven plasma drive is given a duel purpose: The ship is outfitted with a secondary exhaust for the plasma drive, redirecting its output unto the Striven's dick-gun.
The ship can now choose between fight or flight: If they choose to stay and fight, their engines work for their guns and so their speed is heaviyl decreased, but if they deem a battle unwinable, they simply keep all power on the engines.

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>>4548147
>>4548393
While looting's all well and good, it's not much use when you don't have anywhere to store the loot. That's where the "Big Hoot" comes in: a hybrid cargo ship and refueling bay, manned by a crew of seven and capable of servicing two ships at a time. There is even a minibar on board, so that pilots can share their tall tales over a glass of finest wine that the space raider lifestyle can offer. Unfortunately, such frivolities all come at a cost - slowed movement and high energy consumption being prime setbacks. Also, whoever designed the ship seriously fucked up on accessibility: most sections of the craft don't have any corridors between them so to get from the cockpit to the minibar for example you gotta traverse like three airlocks.
While the ship performs it's duties well enough, most Exalted still prefer to be serviced by foreign fleets - the outrageously high prices and thorough customs make them feel just that much more high-class.

>>4548502
I like big hoot.

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>>4548147
on the Chosen ship, one of the Highborn, Beblegletarios, has decided to get more involved in the running of the ship. He now grows as a large tumor on the front of the engine portion.

He's helping.

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>>4548147
During hard, difficult times, one must often choose to compromise, to make sacrifices for the greater good. The Chosen Highbornes would come to interpret this saying literally.

The haughty FGs, who have always held themselves in high regard —since they believe to be superior beings, chosen by their home planet's monstrous God-Beast— would sometimes cull their NG Cohabitants, turning them into fertilizers for their bio-constructs,

The fertilized ships would no longer depend on scavenged parts or hasty patchwork, replacing the NGs' engineering with meticulously designed biological mechanisms. This Highborne vessels have sturdier hulls and more reliable engines, but aren't very resistant to energy weapon attacks or shifts in atmospheric pressures.

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>>4548526
The tumorous growth proves to have the unexpected ability to digest any matter given to it, and turn into some sort feces with supersolid properties, which turn out to be the perfect fuel for their antimatter furnance engines. The Chosen invest more resources into perfecting their newly baptized Brapmobiles.

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>>4548167
Roughly six months had passed in the miniature nebula. Unexpectedly, outright war had not broken out, and a "purple water" method of survival had been adopted. Each faction had found its home, or at minimum a place of operations least contested. Many had also found specialization based within their own limits. The remaining capitol ships of each fleet became a sort of "city" to each faction, allowing force projection but requiring immense care less they become a target of predation.
---
>Fluff
The nebula was roughly one giant atmosphere, becoming thinner as it approaches the void. At its most dense, it has proper aerodynamic properties, forms of appreciable weather, and rumors of alien life forms stalking the gasses.

The Enslaved were found deepest in the nebula, nearest to the red dwarf, located in dense asteroid fields where abundant minerals nourished them, and their ability to resist radiation offered little impact on them.

Within the denser gas and micro mentor swarms, the Ascended and Free hunted their territory, refining gas and eking out a modest living.


In the sprawling nebula exterior the Chosen were safe from radiation, and free to grow while the Exalted plied their trade in the masking effects of the ionized dust and gasses.

In the void just outside the system, the Striven sat frozen, awaiting the next duty, sensors mapping vortices and openings in the nebula weather patterns, seeking a successful dive from one side to the other.
----

1/2 Adapting to requirements, the chosen elegantly adapt existing shuttle designs to meet the needs. While not really capable of long range hauling, the new cargo-stretches enable local resource transport between semi fixed "permi-habs"; small outposts.

3/4 The Ascended scout is a barely tolerable machine for it's crew of one, with weapons being reduced to salvos of unguided rockets, and expected luxuries not readily available. The Striven machine is crewed by one as well, reducing mass to the bare minimum, and enlarging the nuclear engines while stripping away radiation shielding where not absolutely needed. Vital messages are transported by the courriers of both factions, in their own way.

5 The Enslaved have brought to the fore their formidable EM weaponry, launching shards of supersonic crystal at interlopers and trespassers; a new sensor array enables close range stereoscopic targeting...which is quite even.

6 Exalted static stations begin to pop up around the nebula, though more spacious than the hoot, their ability to service 4 ships a time leaves them often dirty, and their bathrooms most foul.
----

Technology unlocked: Missiles/ rockets, Lasers/ radiation, Gauss/Rail (EM), small shipyards (bigger ships), Ship robotics.
---
I cannot thank the platers enough for their inventive and fun designs.

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>>4548570
Beblegletarios enjoys being needed and enjoys being utilized, so he grows in excitement. So much does he grow that he comes into competition with the previous growth, a former Highborn known as Looblooblergisnout. this results in the protective growths of the Chosen ship to recede as Beblegletarios cuts its nutrients upply off.

On the bright side, Beblegletarios i snow producing more BRAP material, eading the nomads to extend the engines.

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>>4548987
To further reduce weight, the Striven Scouts removed armor plating from the side of the vessel exposing the delicate internal machinery necessary to run it, and the main gun turret was replaced with a spine mount weapon removing the weight and the complex wiring of it but relying on the reaction control system for aiming.

These modifications allowed to replace the main thruster with a larger one significantly increasing maneuverability. The larger thruster was compensated with a larger fuel tank, and the transmission antennas were moved to the interior of the vessel, increasing their effectiveness while in combat.

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>>4548457
As this set up has been a bit hazardous, a second plasma core has been installed instead. Now, instead of choosing between fight and flight, the Striven can do both at once.

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>>4548554
In order to board other ships, a kinetic penetrator is equipped to the bottom of the ship. Once the penetrator is inserted fully into the target, the pustules on it's surface rupture, releasing both infantry and chemical weaponry.

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>>4548231
>>4548147
Unlike the other nations, The Free and The Exalted did not have a way to produce or even improve their own ships, having to rely on external help for most refurbishments and upgrades. The Free circumvented the issue with the new furnace module - a ship engine repurposed purifying metals out of the surrounding atmosphere. When lugged around by two other ships, it will slowly turn the gas collected by their filters into red hot liquid metal - and when alone, it... doesn't really do anything, but at least it's not slowing the others down with it's prodigious heft this way.

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>>4548370
The ascended take advantage of the new shipyards and push out a new ship type: The drone carrier. While this ship is without weapons, it has huge storage capacity and numerous drones to take apart asteroids and bring the spoils home.

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>>4549479
The Striven, grow wary of the other sapients stuck in the solar system. The surge in mercenary and pirate activity has become a problem for everyone, including them, and most importantly, their valuable cargo.

Their answer to this conundrum? Doubling down- No, tripling down on their ships' weaponry. The Type-25 model —colloquially known as the BFG— are bulky, slow, energetically inefficient, and most importantly, very very deadly.

These spacecrafts don't quite move a lot, and spend most of their time stationed around the Striven's fleet critical infrastructure.

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>>4548987
While the Ascended's lifestyle philosophy promoted austerity and actively seeking harsh situations, their design philosophy was more oriented towards ergonomics and comfort. Two characteristics that their scout crafts lacked.

Not willing to operate in such undignified conditions, the Ascended turn their attentions towards their “Ol' reliable”. Boreobots, cybernetic automatons shaped after their own anatomy, guided by a mixed system of electronic processors and biological matter. Why robots instead of just a ship AI? It's harder to hack into a lump of flesh than a computer.

The reconnaissance vessels are downsized, with most of the space occupied by their engine and other mechanisms. Taking advantage of the strange conditions of this star system —namely the prescence of gaseous pseudo-atmosphere— they redesign the crafts, shaping them into an aerodynamic shape, which comes in especially handy in the denser areas of the system.

The limited energy capacity of the spaceship, and their minuscule size, forces the Ascended to strip it of any energy weapons or projectile launchers. Luckily, the Tripods have quite the history with chemical weapons, usually not very useful in the void of space, except here. The scouts are fitted with rudimentary canisters, filled with a strong corrosive agent, released kamikaze style. This allows the ships to neutralize threats, or atleast hinder their advance until the cavalry arrives.

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>>4549370
Spread across the multiple civilization which spawned from Essari exists a most eccentric cult. Its members are natural born snake oil salesmen, masters of razzle dazzle and barter, and somehow proficient at computers and electronics.

One day, a cultist known as “Not'ah Fakename” approached Beblegletarios, and made an offer he couldn't resist. Cybernetic enhancers capable of curing hair loss, erectile dysfunction, broken hearts, rheumatism, among many other illnesses and ailments. Without a second thought, Beblegletarios bought the panacea from Not'ah Fakename.

So far, the only visible effect was slight constipation, which lasted a couple days.

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>>4549538
The Copulator ships are equipped with a pair of chemical producing sacks, which double as storages for the poisonous agent.

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>>4548370
The Ascended mining ships were enhanced with the development of the new shipyards.

The basic shape was retained, but heavily streamlined. Excessive power normally meant for weapons was redirected to the engines; thankfully no significant change in the design was required though they were now operating at their recommended limits. In addition one thermal cooling fin could be removed, and excess space devoted to mechanical engineering.

Large grappling jaws and a dual drone system would haul asteroids and allow the ships to return them for processing quickly.

Of a small benefit, the simplified design allowed engineers to increase the pilots quality of life, and create a massively reinforced superstructure. To assume the ship defenseless was a lesson quickly put to rest by rumors and stories of the small miners ripping other craft in half with brutal grapple and ramming attacks.

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>>4548502
the makeshift "Big Hoots" continued to grow as their owners profited. The larger static stations suffered one flaw that a big hoot did not. They were easy targets. Thus they were soon cut into segments and put to work. Big hoots can now service two more ships, and moonlight as a freighter or space brothel.

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>>4549772
Beblegletarios had consulted with his crew, they needed more space. It was a simple process to cut and extend the ship, done out in the fields and assisted by his own tentacles. The entire experience was a bit masturbatory, but ultimately worth it.

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>>4549422
Striven scouts were popular with the Exalted who moonlighted as pirates or salvagers. The light ships were cheap, fast, but had a very generous reactor compared to their own. With a crude graft to shunt that energy into their own engines the Exalted created a new breed of fragile, straight line ship with endurance limited by their life support supplies.

They began to patrol the system edges, away from the gas, still protected by holographic camouflage.

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>>4548987
Chosen dwellings continue to grow and adapt. Destroyed ships are dragged into proximity to the dwellings and cannibalized for material to expand. These semi static stations retain a crude thruster that is more of a vent for antimatter heat waste and plasma. Periodically though it can be used as an improvised weapon.

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>>4549800
Copulators continued to gradually replace more and more of their structure with flesh, and soon angry, pink, cancerous masses enveloped the radioactive antimatter furnaces.

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>>4549740
Aerodynamic "Nebula fighters" still had enough reaction control to direct themselves in the thinner gasses of the outer system. Their wings were of benefit for fuel storage and allocating space for canister missiles.

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>>4548987
The Free had been venturing deep into the nebula, and returning with battered ships and holds full of material they would only trade to the chosen or enslaved.

The only known story were rumors from the bars and brothels, stories of great nebula beasts and the most precious cargo of all out here; meat.

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>>4549772
With Beblegetarios' expansion, Looblooblergisnout has been completely starved from his old living space.

Frustrated, he has some of his loyal nomads build him a new platform where he can breath easy, and shoot his gun as he wishes. This new gun has a swivel, so it can now be aimed, and so Loobloobergisnout develops an eye for aiming.

Angrily, he sits perched atop his new crow's nest, as Looblooblergisnout continues to grow, his constipation only increasing his size.

>>4550250
Ah fuck, that last sentence should have been: "As BEBLEGETARIOS continues to grow"!

This will cause confusion down the line, I am sure

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>>4548399
As the vessels are used more and more for boarding, and not only for mining, it becomes harder to keep a mutual orbit.

For this, the new, larger space ports have a solution. Introducing the Binding Sphere, a very large double-computer bank and cargo hold. It is used as the gravitational center for a number of smaller Enslaved vessles, with which it is in constant communication to coordinate their orbit. The vessels can always detatch from the binding sphere's orbit to complete a certain task and then come back into the comforting slavery of its gravitational pull.

(Note: this all sounds like these things are huge and use gravity like the moon does with the Earth. But in fact, they are ship sized, even though the binding sphere might be the largest ship in the solar system. They very deliberately and very carefully angle themselves to use the weak force of gravity even at their size)

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>>4550212
The habitats can now connect to each other using two docking ports on their top and bottom. It is not uncommon for them to form "ropes" of ten or more pods.

>>4550334
fucking neat. they need a water reservoir.

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>>4549594
Now that (apparently) there is game to hunt in the system, the Free need a place to butcher them.

Thus is born a new station module to the forge: The butchery saps just a bit of the excess magma from the forge to power a mostly automated large butchery with hundreds of tons in storage capacity.

Granted, work in the butchery gets lonely, but what can you do?

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>>4550481
Slightly over a year had passed in the nebula, and most of the population was coming to terms with the likelihood that they would never see their home system again.

The ruddy, omnipresent gloom of the nebula was reacting to the presence of the interlopers in this strange place. Most who came were transient visitors, or forlorn souls not long for this realm. Now though, they dug in, expanded, grew, and exploited. There was no real mind, not like any of the spaients would know it, but the events in their system were tied to their presence.
---

All of the races were propagating. Enslaved and Chosen simply bred, while the syndicate were actively unthawing stored population from cryo and increasingly relying on automation and hired labor. The Ascended began to roll out their first clones with integrated boreo home hub. Meanwhile the Exalted and Free had crew heavy with the next generation.

They would need proper habitats, or an analogue soon.
----

The nebula's weather had grown more aggressive, with lightning storms and high winds complimenting the usual array of ionized, radioactive, and corrosive gasses. Interestingly many crews reported a biological filth that had to be cleaned from their hulls. A sort microfauna was out there in the gasses now, unchecked they formed into barnacle like growths that slowly corroded their ships.

The job was presently accomplished manual labor, something the enslaved had much of, and were more than happy to trade with.
----

The Free's secret was out, and great nebula beasts were being spotted as far out as the system edge near Syndicate territory. Mostly passive, they would occasionally attack if one wandered too close. they seemed to use some sort of biologial technology to tunnel through space, similar to how the stranded of this system ended up here. Were they also stranded? Locals? Something else....it was a question that the few scientific minds did not have enough time to dwell on right now. Survival was paramount, and those creatures were food, fuel, water. precious water. There was never enough as of late.
---

The Exalted were unusually busy as of late, scavenging and building cobbled together ships. There was a rumor that they knew where the lady was, and the crusade would begin soon. Piracy dropped down as of late, their population working to barter for second hand ships and wrecks, proudly displaying banners of debt to be claimed.
---

The main factions drydocks were now in a state of completion, and would soon be able to roll out a new class of ship en masse.

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>>4550311
The enslaved begin building small drone-like vessels (not actually unmanned, it just has a very mangled stitcher living computer inside) equipped with electrodes and other electronic equipment. These are used to investigate the properties of the 'atmposhere', to shock biological debris and clean the outside of their ships.

>>4549422
By removing the pilot and the associated life support systems, the ship could become even cheaper - not to mention more agile: without an unreasonably large pressurized empty space in the middle, the midsection could be thinned down, adorned with joints, and covered in kineticrystal musculature; without radiation concerns, the armor could be stripped even further; and without g-forces to worry about, the engine could be utilized to maximum potential.

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>>4550540

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>>4548987
The Ascended, who had been steadily extracting resources from the solar system for a year already, realize it was about time for them to construct proper inhabitable infrastructure.

Their older scout design used as a base for a new 'construction' vessel, due to its high maneurability and 'simple' systems. Acting more like a crane than a ship, the Chudak MK I is reminiscent of the industrial mechas used in their colonies.

The ship's main characteristics are its many grappling/'fishing line' drone compartments, the lack of weapons or high energy drives, and four big multitool arms. The high pair is mostly used for welding, while the lower pair is more articulated, and acts as a swiss army knife.

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>>4549608
some much needed aesthetic improvements are made to the carrier.

>>4548147
is this a 6 players only game?

>>4550793
Nope, come on in. Anyone can modify any ship, either base level or another players, and tell a little story with it. The only constraints are the events dictating what can and can't be at the moment.

E.g.: No developing back hole guns.

But ballistics exist, robotics exist, harpoons exist, so if you make a ship that flings meteors, or a ship that has two engines, or a ship that is just a gas station; go for it.

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>>4548231
The Free have developed a small fleet of service based mobile outposts. Offering refueling, and a place to eat some of the nebulas best biscuts and gravy, they are a welcome sight for weary travelers. Each one has slowly adapted to the needs of it's local clientele with a unique spin on Grabrafian cuisine. Dont ask about the meat.
https://youtu.be/MSWeLV-QzO4?t=55
jingle

>>4550877
how about a death star?

>>4550917
well does it make sense economically and what use is there for it?

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>>4550513
The Striven developed a new series of armored freighters to supply logistics and commerce for their military and economy. It featured an armored and modular middle cargo section. The ionic-gravitrion engines were mounted on the sides of the ship and featured rotation providing great manuevability in space and docking scenarios. Along the top and bottom powerful guns kept foes at bay and point defense turrets sliced through enemy pirate fighters and missles. The turrets were also reinforced so that freighters could be stacked on each other greatly helping in storage and docking.

>>4550877
how many ships/resdesigns can i submit for a given period of quest time?

>>4550793
>>4551060
the game isint competitive, your actions and ships tell their own individual stories within the larger story, and if players start to interact, all the better.

E.g. The Exalted tend to loot other factions ships for bits, paint them purple, and work them into their own craft. They are corsairs of a sort. But no one has really created much response to that beyond the Ascended, which makes sense as they already had the big guns so it was fun for someone.

Ships...as many as you want, as fast as you want.

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>>4550513
The Striven convert some of the armored freighters into repair and logistics carriers. It held both ports for fighters and light craft and medium craft/components.

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>>4548987
With the threat of Exalted pirates attacking Striven scouts the Striven High Command commissioned a fighter. Like the freighters, it had ionic-gravitron thrusters on a swivel mount providing unparalled maneuverability. It featured a middle kinetic cannon in the middle nose as well as laser and railgun blaster cannons. It also carried missles.

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>>4550513
The Striven Economic Council commisioned a new ship to exploit the new resources that the nebula beasts provided. The ship used a simple lance of tungsdiamondium with a rocket motor to penetrate the vital organs of the beasts. The ship had an arm for processing the beast and an arm that would suction up all the parts into storage. It also possessed some defensive turrets but would ideally operate with escorts. The ship was dubbed the "Lancer".

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>>4550513
By outfitting mass-produced freighter containers with life support systems and habitation modules suitable for employees and line managers, the Striven created a habitat that is easy and cheap to produce to house the ever-growing awakened population

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>>4550481
With the refineries now putting out usable metal, new ships could be produced - even if most components outside the hull and the engine had to be externally sourced.
The first of these new ships is the Snibbety Class fighter - named so for the gruesome claw it is usually equipped with and used primarily for gutting nebula beasts.
A variant model of the ship exists that eschews the claw for aerodynamic purposes. Additionally, Snibetty Class fighters can be equipped post-construction with either a set of boosters or a plasma cannon, salvaged from >>4550548. Although the cannon needs reactor power to function, firing requires a type of energy cell that the Free simply cannot produce, so the cannon is limited by it's internal ammo supply. Thankfully, once the shots run out, the cannon can quickly be purged to remove it's weight from the ship and return to maximum agility.

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The Zervox are microorganisms that populate the inner region of the solar system in great clouds, attaching to anything they can and slowly digesting it. Once they have attached to prey, be it a space monster or a ship, they begin to excrete acid to corrode its prey and use the resulting sludge for self-propagation. This will result in the Zervox entering its second stage of life. In its dormant stage, many Zervox petrify and fuse together, forming a protective barnicle, which creates a noxious atmosphere within itself, causing a huge multiplication of seeking Zervox at its base, which speeds up the corrosive effect of the Zervox infestation manyfold.

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>>4551250
The missiles are replaced with chaff launchers that interfere with the Exalted's holographic coating, making them much easier to hit.

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>>4550513
The Striven Economic Council releases a new corvette designed to clean the biological filth off spacecraft. It features standard swivel engines as well as a front and rear fixed engine nozzle. Microfiber ropes and small cleaning lasers scrub the the surface of ships to clean them. It also features a quad turret for rudimentary self defense.

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>>4552107
Although the microfiber ropes could work in zero gravity by use of a stiffening mechanism, the Economic Council found it cost prohibitive. They expanded the powerplant and armored the extension and outfitted a wide sweeping cleaning laser instead.

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>>4550915
The Free enjoyed the great profits of their mobile depots. They enjoyed them enough that soon they became targeted by captains who would seek to attack the lumbering craft and reap a quick bounty.

The attacks didn't last too long, soon captains who would dismiss the Free as capable of fielding only ships made of lumps of iron with crude projectiles realized how horrifically well that concept scaled.

Deep in the nebula, captains that moonlighted as pirates would often get a laugh at the impotent retaliation of a Free ship. The moment their station was obliterated quickly revealed the lone berserker to be a scout spotter.
---

The other venture in which the mercenaries expended effort was a hitherto experimental technology from the Essari homefront. They were somehow first to successfully deploy shield technology which was jealously guarded. What was immediately obvious was the vicious power and size requirements. The bulk of the ship was dedicated to shield generation, and even at that it was only directed forward in a wide array.

Negotiations with nearly all factions was fruitless, what the Free priced their technology at was no less than their own Shipyard.

Without access to the technology, the other factions swiftly found themselves hiring the mercenaries to lend aid to their fleets against the growing predators in the nebula.

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>>4552270
>>4552270
>>4552270

Story Event:

The major powers of the nebula had managed to cobble together shipyards. These megalithic structures stand alone unique individuals; representing the industrial might of their faction.

>Enslaved
The Enslaved have deployed "Serenity", a massive sphere of bulk crystalline metals. Based near the system's red dwarf, it endures significant heating on one side, and corrosion on the other. The Enslaved don't appear to care. What occurs within is unknown other than periodically the sphere will split and release a new ship or fleet.

>Striven
Located on the edge of the system, in the void proper, most simply know it as Gantry 01. Resembling somewhat of a lovechild between an industrial city and gigantic 3d printer, the notion is not entirely unfounded. Population are brought into and out of cryogenic suspension as needed, with the location heavily guarded.

>Ascended
The Supremacy is the largest and most potent of the shipyards, allowing for open space or closed door construction with a vast array of macro robotic arms. The nebula's corrosive properties slowly wear at it, and the crew diligently works against that. It also serves as the religious headquarters of the Ascended.

>Chosen
Located orbiting around a gas giant with low background radiation the "nest" is something that could be called a shipyard, with a degree of generosity. It meets the needs of the strange population of the Chosen. It is host to a permanent population who have a penchant for engineering. Seeing a ship return for retrofits is like seeing a child return home, grown, matured. To see a wreck in its place hauled back for processing brings grief and loss.
---

As it is said in the story, these stations are unique. Any player may evolve any number of stations each day, but must check to see what the latest version is and go off that. In the instance of simultaneous developments, they will be merged in a later post by the GM.

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>>4552294
The Striven double the available construction space of the shipyard. They know they must build bigger an stronger ships in order to maintain their independence.

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>>4552539
>>4552294
The Striven then add a second construction arm.

>>4552294
The Striven High Command commissions a drone fighter. The drone is about 40% the size of the standard space superiority fighter. It packs an articulated ball ion-gravitron thruster for amazing manueverability and a dual laser blaster cannon. The enemies of the Striven would find themselves eviscerated from all sides by innumerable drones.

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>>4552690

>>4552294
Striven High Command also issued a missle drone. It could carry either a loadout of space to space and chaff missles or a single anti large ship torpedo bomb.

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>>4552710

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>>4550208
To deal with the abundant striven drones such as >>4552692, >>4552711 and >>4550548, the Exalted replace the standard plasma cannon on their salvaged ships with a snub-nosed variant. Instead of producing one powerful, precise plasma round, the gun fires a "cloud" of plasma in a wide conus. Although the plasma is much more spread-out, it's still enough to heavily damage the lightly-armored drones at shorter ranges, and can get rid of an entire squadron of the things with just one shot aimed vaguely in their general direction.
The one downside is that the new weapon produces A LOT of heat - requiring lengthy pauses for cooling down between shots.

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>>4550513
>>4548147
The enslaved, due to their incredibly radical religion, were not permitted to fly. They were, however, per the exact word of the good book, allowed to be carried away by an aerial beast - a clause that has carried over since the most ancient of times, when a stitcher being stolen by various flying predators and/or biological research probes was common enough to be legally permitted.
Now, this loophole was capitalized on - after all, nothing said a stitcher couldn't INTENTIONALLY be carried away, and "carrying" could be taken in the context of carrying, say, a skin parasite - and skin parasites they would be.

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>>4556448

The enslaved were made up of a diminutive race of six limbed creatures, bipedal, but alien beyond imagination. They called themselves stitchers, for they made intricate items from extruded crystal and mineral threads.

Long had they stayed deep in the nebula, hidden away, orbiting the slowly dying red dwarf of the nebula. Their greatest distraction were the beasts of the nebula, and they seemed to increase in frequency as portal research continued.

Not willing to sacrifice precious resources towards complex energy weapons the Enslaved rolled out their first "Grappler". A massive craft made to deliver unto the nebula beasts SUCH A PINCH,

Noteworthy are two tracking burs roughly double the size of the smaller "Spider" shuttles. The enlarged tracking sensor can locate the position of the sensor burs, even if the brave crew within them dies from portal jump shock. quite gruesome.

Lastly, the Enslaved are now capable of using a strange "Ectomass". The exact properties are not well understood, but this does not concern them. At the moment it is used to "rip the souls" from lesser nebula beasts, and pirates.

yes...quite a time here in the nebula.
______
-Enslaved have unlocked Ectomass, a sort of temporarily existing plasma like mass that can interfere with other living organisms, as well as allow for crude manipulation of matter. Requires large banks of "Computers" to operate.

-Enslaved can now roll out larger vessels.

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>>4556490
The Chosen had entered into the third year of Nebula occupation, now capable of creating analogues of the Essari system ship classes. Loose and modular templates, no two were identical, and once biological modification took root, coupled with endless modifications by the nomad crews; they were irrevocably unique, and ever growing.
----

Chosen can now build outsized ships. Pictured are templates for ease of making evos and a general idea of what is out there.

smaller faster ships running exotic antimatter furnaces, usually gunships and messengers.

Monolithic large ships for command and control, carrier duty, and otherwise

Modular large ships as transports, mobile colonies, and platforms for outsized solutions.

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>>4551157
>>4552692
>>4552783
>>4550588

The Exalted came into the third year, numerous but without any large ships of their own. Rumors of the lady continued, and that lone carried their spirits. That and piracy, with the occasional bout of salvaging.

Syndicate technology was cheap and near disposable. Drone avionics were repurposed to their own craft, lending a much needed upgrade to maneuverability through the dangerous nebula.

Whaling ships were easily repurposed from shattered hulks into ad-hoc troop injectors. Cryst-knights would climb into penetrator needles for a rapid insertion into target ships.

Lastly, the Ascended had begun to fall into the category of prey, with their last generation tethered ships proving to be useful. Once stripped of energy hungry technology, the little drones could be hotwired with syndicate equipment to make ad-hoc seeker missiles. Meanwhile the rest of the pocket carrier was useful for short range interdiction fighters.

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>>4551865
Snibetty class fighters turned out to be most robust and adaptable within the nebula. The Free avoided the logistics and engineering costs to develop a torpedo boat by simply twin linking two fighters in a temporary configuration, and loading them up with three torpedos. the Conjoined craft could temporarily divert power from one side to the other, overcharging the engines and enabling a virtual thrust vectoring. The result was a ship that was unexpectedly agile for its mass, but put significant strain on it's pilots.

The unexpected boost in manufacturing <and salvage> capability ensures that nearly all fighters are deployed with detachable engine and cannon extensions.

Pitched battles between the Free and Exalted factions has been observed by many captains, it would seem that they have found an important item.

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Baptised by the stranded sapients as Xenosunderal —after a taxonomical family that inhabitated the oceans of their homeplanet— this Nebulabeast is fundamental for the trophic webs of the Solar System.

Covered by a thick fatty layer to protect it from the freezing cold of space, and equipped with 'cosmic gills' that allow it to breathe even in the thinner layers of the pseudoatmosphere, the Xenosunderal filter feeds on free-floating organic detritus. It also uses its long tendril tounges to scoop out the insides of the Zervox barnacles (>>4551884).

It's easy prey for the larger Nebulabeasts, and now the newly arrived 'fishing boats', which hunt them mostly to turn into bait, as its meat isn't very tasty or nourishing, or to extract the water in them.

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>>4556684
Free roaming members of the taxonomy guild have identified several major strands of nebula beasts and their behaviors.

most of the beasts will grapple with one another, but not often unto death. Their source of nourishment was originally thought to be in the upper layers of the gas giants and brown dwarfs within the system, but now that is contested. The creatures can generate portals to...elsewhere. Not within the system, no, perhaps not even within this reality.

Most are content to ignore sub-shuttle class ships, to with our researchers express infinite gratitude. That being said, the portal technology used by all factions in one way or another will send them into a territorial rage. The portals seem to not only be transport, but a challenge of dominance.

The Free and Exalted factions are yet to have portal capable ships, and often tag along or wait for an exit to open along known routes for both piracy and beast hunting.
---

*Portal technology is available to all factions except the exalted and free who must scavenge modules.

A portal pinch device creates a pocket dimension between point A and point B. This "pathway" is a 1:1 overlay of the normal world, meaning 1 mile traveled in the portal is 1 mile away in the normal world along the same path. The advantages are uncontested travel, avoiding navigational hazards, and tactical superiority in combat.

The disadvantages include matter degradation. The pocket dimension erodes all matter uniformly in a "Salt and pepper" pattern, interlaced throughout everything, not a surface erosion. Thus travel into the pockets is not practical for routine tasks, but those of great urgency, or opportunity. Obviously it can wreak havoc on crews, equipment, and ships.

Lastly, the Enslaved have a technique to violate the 1:1 portal behavior, creating shorter runs that result in greater distances traveled in the real world. The downside is that these modified portals are more unstable, exhibit greater corrosive behavior (equivalent damage will be taken as if normal distance was traveled, but the duration of travel is shortened), and require absurd amounts of energy.

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>>4556746
are striven getting anything?

The Striven manufacture a gunboat class ship mounted with turrets.

>>4556777
I mostly intervene when a faction isint getting much attention. Striven are doing pretty great, but my posts really do apply to everyone.

Its been interesting seeing the divergence in design philosophy from post one to now.

Later on I'll probably do a few striven/ Ascended ships and some lore because while player driven, you are correct, not much attention from me. shamefur.

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>>4556777
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae2N5310MXE <endless space - space station 13 OST>


In the third year of the nebula, the Striven found their vast compliment of shuttle derived, and light weight ships to be increasingly insufficient for both trade and security efforts.

>>4556777
To deal with the threat of swarm fighters the MK0 was hastily rolled out. It more then proved itself in it's first engagements against pirates and small nebula beast swarms. Initially a convoy escort, ease of construction allowed them to be allocated towards sector patrol duty. In this capacity they saw the first round of attrition, and the MK0s gradually faded into second string duty.

From the same production line as the MK0 came the MK1 series. Modular, easy to upgrade, instead of requiring the additive printing areas of they yards, these were assembled as a components kit. The MKI gunships became ubiquitous, and an unexpectedly measured response from the Syndicate, who were notorious for responding to any attack with WMDs.

To correct this came the MK2. Launching salhetite boosted hydrogen weapons, the MK2 served as a command carrier and mobile board room.

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>>4550481
self supported super butchery vessels have been spotted in use by the Free faction. Moreover, it was noted that during a business dispute between the Free and a Chosen client convoy, the Super Butchery was horrifically effective as an impromptu weapon against the fleshy lead ship of the line.

Some Free members have turned to piracy, and it would seem meat is on the menu.

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>>4556630
>>4551865

The Exalted are never ones to turn down salvage. While the Snibbety class is a superb all around machine, the Exalted pilots pride themselves on being the best.

When the Snibbety began getting taken as victory salvage, they were quickly modified to the preference of the Exalted pilots, with acknowledgement given to prior observations of the Free pilots and their techniques.

The result is the Grand snabbity, a sort of backwards love letter to the machine, complete with real shearing action!

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>>4550218
>>4550250
Beblegetarios growth and perhaps hunger were unchecked. Hunger for not only experience, motion, consumption, but also physical contact.

Violently ramming a lesser ship resulted in a slaughter of 2/3rds of each vessels crew as they were now paint and interior sound deadening. This was fine, because the ship had also increased in overall mass by approximately 2/3rds as well.

The nomads of each crew quickly integrated into a new clan unit after a record low 13 murders, and one mutiny.
--
Looblooblergisnout's own nomads were very loyal, and very interested in the odd cybernetics that adorned their lord's body. By doing some very...suspect work, they were able to route control of the new antimatter furnace to their lord. The downside was the periodic behavior oddities induced by the foreign equipment....which was spreading.

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broke: zooming around in a spaceship
woke: zooming around on a high-power plasma gun you ripped off of a spaceship and attached an air tank to

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>>4557307
Beblegetarios and Looblooblergisnout's new neighbor, Kevin, gets hungry, and starts draining nutrients directly from Beblegetarios's flesh.

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>>4557339
Though Kevin himself has proven to be quite dominant among the Highborn, his Nomads were strongly outnumbered and their integration had not been to their advantage. They were religated to the noxious-gas-filled areas of the engines.

However, aided by their patron Highborn, they quickly expanded that part of the ship to include a small living quarters, and doubled down on the engine itself.

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>>4557371
Looblooblergisnout's gun proved to be the biggest stick on the ship, and there was no fear of using it.

Kevin was shot twice that day, and maybe Beblegetarios caught a little of that flack as well.

In the middle of their confrontation, pirates attacked the ship with a Chosen hab and well placed iron nail.

Meanwhile the grabrafs are the middle of a territory war within the ship, but that is not here or there.

Situation norminal.

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>>4557563

A final shot resulted in the superstructure of the craft ripping in half, and the former front end getting impaled on a structural exhaust stack.

It was only due to the mutual efforts of the nomad crew that the ship is in one somewhat coherent piece. The highborn are insane, and the crew are terrified.

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>>4551865
>>4557224
Smelting nebula beast armor into hull-worthy metal takes way too long, and wastes pretty much all the non-metal - so why not cut out the middleman and just make ships from bone?
The Heavy Snibbety is ironically cheaper and faster to produce and maintain, not to mention much tougher, than it's lightweight counterpart. While it's more maneuverable than the original thanks to reusing the armor's natural, horn-like vernier thrusters, it's linear speed leaves much to be desired.

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>>4557609
A vertical ship is kinda difficult to steer, so the upper deck crew build a new set of steering thrusters on the end of a long girder, complete with their own cockpit and fuel tank, certainly not at all because they couldn't find any wires or pipes long enough to reach the thrusters from the main body of the ship.
The lower deck crew, not to be outdone, makes their own girder, capable of swinging around and longer than the upper one.

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While most races skirmished around the nebula, expnaded their fleets, and hunted the native creatures, The Ascended had been busy with their pet project. Three years of resource extraction, manufacturing construction vessels, chemical refining, and endless toiling had paid off.

The space fortification dubbed Nebula I might seem big when compared to the spacecrafts the stranded sapients had been left with, but it pales in comparision to the citadels built by the Tripods in their native star sectors.

Constantly surrounded by a swarm of Borebot piloted 'Utility Vessels', Nebula I was to be the new home of these castaways. For that reason, it is fitted with all the infrastructure a healthy tripod colony might need (or atleast that available to them in such a precarious condition.) Hydroponic farms, chemical refineries, Boreal replication mainframes, weapon manufacturing, you name it. However, even if procuring metals or other materials was not that much of a gargantuan task, obtaining the proper reactants for the cold fusion reactor that gave life to the station was an important concern.

The tripods weren't oblivious to the eventual energetic crisis they were aproaching, and had been doing their best to secure the reactants, mainly by trading with the Striven, and scouting around possible sources in this solar system.

>>4558239
Beblegetarios felt in grave danger. Kevin was sapping his nutrients, which was bad on the face of it, but wouldn't kill him. What it would result n though, he feared, was that at somepoint the ship would run out of fuel as Kevin eagerly ate up all the brap-juice faster than Beblegetarios coud produce it.

So he decided to flee forward. He used his last biomass to climb up the newly errect railing and there, grew a massive mouth which he would use to bite big chunks from voidbeasts, converting them to biomass to fuel the war at th eback of the ship.

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>>4558520

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>>4556630
Intense research and dissection of Striven weaponry has led to the creation of the Blammity - basically two Snibbety backsides glued together with one of them repurposed for recharging a plasma cannon. The Free have a long way to go - their experimental plasma weapons are clunky, overheating and inaccurate things, an expensive and inefficient bootleg. Still, they see much use - both as weapons and as products to be sold to those who themselves cannot make such weapons.

Another poignant invention are the new articulated mounts of the Double Snibbety, initially used just as a way to more accurately aim it's torpedoes, but soon becoming a pair of grisly claws, most useful in combat against nebula beasts and unarmed ships alike.

>>4558637
>>4557689
>>4558637
The Snibbety continued to evolve as engineers reacted to emergent situations and requirements.

The Snib Defender is running at the bleeding edge of it's reactor's capabilities, all to fuel three energy hungry plasma casters. Turning flaws to favor, the triple weapons allow for inaccurate spread to become accuracy through volume at short to mid ranges. As a more expensive loadout, the Defender is often an escort fighter. It's inability to run engine extensions also lends to that role as well.

Building off the lessons of the Defender, the Striker uses the mechanical linkages developed for new articulated mounts. Instead of supporting additional weapons, they act as shock absorbers for Quad reactor configuration set up in compound. Newer technology has done away with the need for coupled reactors to have external connections, though older ship can still be spotted with such characteristics. Simply put, it is the extreme envelope of what any pilot would want to handle The additional power fed into the primary reactors from the auxiliary routinely burns out sacrificial engine extensions...and pilots. Meanwhile the fighters put into this configuration experience massive structural fatigue, and are sent deeper into the nebula for "beast hunting" duties and conversion.

Speaking of, the Big Snib combines a plasma weapon and outsized wrecking claw. Big Snibs often accompany mutilators and other beast hunters.

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>>4559210

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The Striven decide that having a simple expendable drone outfitted with an advanced ball engine didn't make sense and was unneccessary. They replaced the ball engine with a simple thruster and quad side impulse thrusters. The side thrusters helped the drones to dodge some of the plasma clouds the pirates came up with. Overall the new setup was cheaper and helped drones stay operational. This upgrade was also applied to missle models.

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>>4559366
The Striven High Command also commissioned a new kind of drone. This drone dubbed "umbrella drone" would fly towards plasma flak shots and deploy a armored screen to absorb as much of the plasma flak as possible. If it survived, it could then fly back to safe harbor and be refitted with new armor

The theft of Striven whaling ships by the pirates presented the threat of tungsdiamondium lances being used against Striven ships. High Command laboratories invented a new type of drone that would hurry to wounded ships and patch any punctures with a unique sealing goo gun.

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>>4559375

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Simply patching the hole that a lance made was not enough. Striven engineers attached industrial cutting lasers and energy blasters to a drone whose job was to cut the lance away from a punctured ship before the boarding troops could assault the ship.

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The troops on board a lance would have to be dealt with before or during the cutting of the lance. The Striven remodeled a troop transport combat shuttle to carry anti boarding space troopers who would engage the would be borders. It had reinforced doors, quad rotating thrusters, a ball thruster, and side covering fire blasters.

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>>4548147
The forging of ships and equipment of the Free is handled by a trio of highly specialized vessels: the claw, the hammer, and the anvil, together beating sheets of freshly cooled metal into desired shape.

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>>4559409
>>4559384
>>4559376
>>4559370
The swarm of unsupervised drones continued to prove vulnerable to piracy, though effective, they presented easily salvageable prizes. The concept of low cost high volume ships was further explored in Warder class. It was another rapidly produced ship, made from existing components.

The Warder itself was an exercise in non lethal capture. Featuring modified ball turrets that could be loaded up with EM, Net, and low velocity flack rounds, the ships main compliment was an overcharged binary glue cannon. Lastly it carried an outsized troop of marines for boarding action. A repurposed laser cutter was now fed directly from the reactor to create expedient entry points.

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>>4548147
The Exclusion Pod is a fully robotic Ascended unit, designed to autonomously provide high security to atmosphere-rich areas. You might ask "but how does a single drone defend a strategic waypoint all by itself?" Well, that's where the Exclusion Pod's built-in chemical refinery comes in: by converting surrounding gases into a fog that is harmless to Ascended ship hulls but exceedingly corrosive to everything else, the Pod solves the problems of point defense, propellant production, and camouflage in one fell swoop. The camouflage works against allied units too though - you just can't see shit in the fog, no matter what you're made of.
In case the toxic smog just doesn't cut it as is, the drone is also equipped with two diffuse microwave cannons on it's back section - while the fog's density makes lasers of all kinds inefficient weapons, they're still handy for heating up sections of the gas - which greatly accelerates the rate at which it dissolves metal.

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>>4548147
The enslaved have rolled out a new series of ships: the "bullet eater" is named so for it's ability to simply ignore all enemy fire by coating itself in portals. This also quite handily makes it a nightmarishly efficient rammer, as any ship touching it's surface will suffer the same fate as projectiles - lost forever in a pocket dimension.

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>>4558524
With the constant...turnover...of nomad crew, the remaining members formed a gestalt clan. With their newfound unity, they set to work recovering all scrap metal, building new scaffolding, and pruning extraneous biological matter where possible.

A semblance of order is had, and the crew works in concert with the various elements of their ship to form...something resembling harmony.

The cybernetic element within the ship, this, Bor-e-oh...has been quiet, ever-lurking at the edges of awareness, independently improving or at least adapting the ship from within. Everything is fine. Surely.

>>4564460
Event: A found Queen.
----
The Exalted and Free had found "the eternal queen, the august lady." or so they had hoped. In reality, it was just a fragment of her mortal shell. Something great, no doubt, but not godlike.

Regardless, this treasure was precious and worth fighting over, and so it was. The battles were grueling, and the reality was out in the nebula there were simply not the lives to spend on war, at least not like a war any had known before...and so war between the two became ritualized, focused on capturing, ransoming, and even trade. Lives were still lost, but the lack of technological capability limited use of drones and automated machines to champion their cause.
-----

A roll determines the outcome:
1: The queen was slain in the fighting, destroyed. The factions would tear themselves apart and leave only one standing, requiring a second roll. (explosive boom in nebulawide piracy)
2-4: The Exalted maintain full control of the queen and experience a significant growth in all aspects of their ship building. Plus they are happy. (gain a shipyard)
5-7: The Free capture the queen and her knowledge brings hitherto unseen capability to their faction. (advanced missiles and micro manufacturing)
8: The queen ended major conflict between the Exalted and Free, though an echo of her greatness, such was the wisdom to bring unity and brougth about the rise of a new and more powerful faction. (Exalted and Free launch a new super shipyard and capital class of ships.)

Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d8)

>>4564543
double 1s baby here we go

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>>4564460
To fund the repair efforts, the nomads have opened a restauraunt in the frontal cockpit, selling the tastiest barely-edible slop this side of the nebula!

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>>4550311
Once, they were simple homicidal houseplants, taken along for the ride by stitchers that liked to engage in a bit of recreational self-flagellation. Now, they're something more -homicidal houseplants... IN SPACE!

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>>4557329
The chivalric code of the exalted means that you gotta get close to get an honorable victory.

Due to the matriarchal nature of the Exalted jahonian religion, female space infantry are more likely to be templars using swords in the honor of Her august lady.

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>>4557329
>>4552783
>>4550548
As more and more striven drones were recovered, a curious property of their kineticrystal coating was discovered - with proper coaxing, the discolodite that composes a crystknight's armor could be made to interface directly with the material. Thus, by using the kineticrystal as a sort of "adapter", man could be connected near-directly to machine.
Obviously, the proper way to use this technology is for doing away with frivolties such as "cockpits", "g-force dampening" and "life support" by just fusing the pilot with his craft - or more accurately his engine and his gun, as nearly all other systems are gutted out to minimize mass.
The batshit insane grabrafs who dare to operate these man-machine abominations are toked up on all sorts of drugs - not because they need them to survive the melding process, no, but because they're adrenalin addicts and are into turning their bloodstream into a chemistry set.

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>>4552092
The Striven commission a new heavier, more powerful fighter. The cockpit was heavily armored and featured a life supporting escape pod. The engine was upgraded to a central ball engine and side swiveling thrusters, The blasters were upgraded to superior and larger models and missile pods were added.

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The Striven modify a shipyard model into a dedicated droneyard containing 2 specialized mass manufactories for drones of various models.

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>>4549479
Trying to contend with the increasingly sophisticated craft deployed by rival companies, Bulkheed modernizes their own fighters. Rather than waste time and profits on painstaking research and development of new technologies, they simply up the ante on their existing machinery: the miniature fusion reactor is replaced by a full-sized one, initially designed for heavy cruisers, and five more plasma cannons are attached in order to create a rapid-fire plasma gatling. Because of the sheer heft of the gatling, the ship's own engine is woefully underpowered for it's mass, and the whole cannon assembly must be turned around to act as an extra thruster for the ship to get anywhere. Do note that "needs time to get going" doesn't mean "goes slowly" - the plasma gatling can propel the fighter at breakneck speeds rivaling those of it's competitor, the >>4565942.
Additionally, a retractable shield allows the machine to tank incoming hits while in flight mode.

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Striven High Command issues a new destroyer module. Although the Striven had friendly trade relations with the Ascended the threat of their new fog technology demanded a counter. The Striven took plasma flak technology from the Exalt pirate enemies and combined it with ion gravitron tech to create a device that would shoot out balls of plasma storms that would dissipate the fog. This was mounted on the front of the destroyer and became known as the waylighter.

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>>4567521
>>4566062
>>4565973
>>4565482
>>4565469
>>4565082
>>4565383

The Ascended respond to all current developments with singular machines of overwhelming firepower. Each Command Ship is a modular system of supremacy. Two carrier modules provide follow up on missile salvos. A long range particle beam compliments an energized fore ram. Sure, there are concerns about exposed power lines and overt structural flaws, but those are the ravings of the poor. The poors. Disgusting.

For more brutish concerns, money and resources solve those woes. The Free have no qualms about making jumps through the "portals", and will employ massive "Grappler" ships for surprise attacks.
___
None have yet to get intel on the Exalted or Free shipyards rumored to exist.

Rumors of an Enslaved Civil war have been going on for several weeks, with limited information regarding simple fleet names and strategies; felsic, mafic and ultramafic. Felsic utilizes traditional enslaved technology and ships and seeks to undo mafic. Mafic uses nebula beasts to skirt their religious rules in order to move around faster and seeks to erase the shame of the Ultramafic extremists. The Ultramafic view the conversion of inorganic to organic bioships as a divine gift, and heavily utilize ectoplasmic technology. They view the Felsic as obsolete, and a burden to the advancement of the Enslaved into a more perfect and unthinking people. Only two can stand, three is uneven, and for all enslaved, oddity is the work of the dark elf.

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The Ocul Testuudes, the Nebula Phenotype #32, the Common Orbshell, "that round thingy in the window", the Sky Gnome, or even the REEE'EREE'REER'EE. All different names for one, extremely ubiquitous being - a rotund, rock-skinned creature, studded with constantly regrowing, horn-like thruster nodes and possessing of no distinctive features aside from a tail and a humongous eye.
Autopsy of dead specimens(mostly by overly curious Free butchers) reveals the creature to be devoid of most organs, save for a capillary system running blood and air throughout the body and a surprisingly well-developed portal organ, used to dispose of any large objects the animal detects by portalling them... somewhere. Nobody quite knows where. The organ also seems to be responsible for supplying the creature with nutrients and removing waste.
Although it was originally thought to be a paradoxical outlier in it's ability to create portals while lacking any sort of nervous system, later and more in-depth studies have revealed that each thruster on it's surface has a small node of an unknown, heavy material inside it, which is constantly exchanging electrical impulses with other nodes, the eye, and the muscles in the tail. Examination of the thrusters left over on the armor of >>4557689 reveals that they still send and receive signals, albeit in a highly erratic manner.
Although these lifeforms are quite abundant, nobody knows where they come from or how their lifecycle progresses - no specimen has been found to possess gametes or engage in any sort of reproductive activity, and while their sizes have ranged quite greatly, no specimen has ever grown in size, as would be expected of a sub-adult creature. Thus, the constant supply of these creatures was an unsolved enigma...

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Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4569568
...Up until now, as after a particularly rowdy alteraction with the Striven border guard, a squad of low-ranking pirates have found what the Exalted would later refer to as the Gnomemayer: a massive lifeform that had been hiding inside an asteroid, disturbed from it's cozy abode when a Striven ship accidentally blew it open.
A master of portalwork that not even the Enslaved's finest could rival, the Gnomemayer creates portals with properties vastly divergent from anything seen before. The good news: these portals can successfully defy geometry AND things inside aren't subject to the usual decay. The bad news: just because something doesn't decay doesn't mean it stays the same. Slow-moving, rounded or irregularly-shaped objects(such as asteroids, debris, and Enslaved and Chosen ships or space stations) tend to quickly dissolve into dozens of Sky Gnoms; Ships with more defined profiles however suffer a much stranger fate - they come out fine and functional, but... wrong. Metal and ceramic turned to skin and carapace, reactors turned into stomaches and lungs... And cockpits, along with everyone inside, became heads and brains. Even the capabilities of the ships are roughly kept, although often distorted or weakened. For example, the converted Exalted fighters could change the coloration of their skin to some of the shades available to the real fighter's holographic armor.

To date, only one Gnomemayer has been found. The roll will determine whose custody it has landed in:
1-Ascended
2-Enslaved
3-Exalted
4-Free
5-Striven
6-Chosen

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Striven High Command commissions a strike bomber. It was designed to launch a lance tactical nuclear torpedo in a swift bombing strike. It featured powerful engines, ball turrets for defense, swiveling engine wings, and a retractable armor shield to protect the payload.

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>>4568877
The Free faction's shipyard was finally spotted in the upper atmosphere of one of the nebula's brown dwarf stars.

Lacking external assembly capability, its upper deck serves as a giant anvil for a shoal of construction ships, and its interior is more akin to a foundry and machine shop. Regardless, the vessel boasts three things the other stations lack; True mobility, a shield, and the ability to generate it's own portal.

Dense pitting and corrosion throughout the structure indicate it has completed several dozen jumps since it's commissioning.

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>>4569948
The Exalted have flourished since the reunion with their queen fragment. With the entities' great mind came knowledge of experimental technology from the essari system, capabilities not readily available in the nebula.

With her guidance the knights salvaged, pirated, and bartered service for skill and material to construct their shipyard. The novoholo. Hard light projectors and particle manipulators are bleeding edge technology, already complimenting the existing holographic projectors. With this the Exalted are able to carefully peel apart and augment existing craft, or create their own.

The shipyard is testament to their professions, and their dedication. A place of industry, it is also a home to the general population and storage center for raw materials, a place to celebrate, and a place to mourn.

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>>4569614
>>4557224
>>4552270
NUMBER 9 or cloud 9 is a giant fucking ship the biggest yet with liberal use of YEETING a spacehulk of wrecks and using portal stuff to turn into a clashing abomination then grafting ship parts onto it like a giant fucking cyborg thing.
this mobile city of flesh and metal consumes the cosmic gas producing metal, fuel and milk to be consumed and made into cheese. its the first FREE CITY

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>>4565082
Kevin has become a better roommate, now content to convert mass into antimatter, and sporting a stylish cooling fin. Arguably, and they do argue, Beblegetarios and Looblooblergisnout both find kevin to be a bit of a poof, despite their own perpetual copulation. Beblegetario's series of digestive tumors aid in processing all the great things in the nebula there are to eat, though he is partial to the flesh of other highborn, as an odd side effect one tumor has popped up right on his nose, glowing an unsightly red, it has been beneficial for lighting the way along the freight lines; though other highborn will not allow the craft to play in their games.

Looblooblergisnout is...at peace, and oddly comfortable with the Ascended, often talking at great length to their many virtues and perfections, and how they need to run more discounts for the Ascended clients, and perhaps obtain the latest bore-os firmware. The numerous sensor studs about the flesh of the ship are just a massive benefit despite the nightmarish screams of the nomads within.

Speaking of the crew, the three highborn have done nothing to reinforce the ship, endlessly growing more blobby flesh and no bone. Desperation has lead to them securing a bit of construction gantry from a failed space station to the ship as a crude brace. So far, so good. There are rumors that they may have to kill one of the highborn. Fear. panic, and cannabalism set in.

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>>4569614
>>4568877
The Gnomemayer, if it fell into the hands of someone who actually understands what they're dealing with, could potentially accelerate the advancement of portal-related fields of science by decades - no, by centuries! The Ultramafic could not let this golden opportunity go to waste. A new series of ships was quickly constructed, designed for capture of large celestial objects, such as the Gnomemayer. Taking more cues from old House Sandstone vehicles than from traditional spacecraft, it is decidedly more purposeful and aerodynamic in shape.
Capture is performed by means of a movable probe on a cable tying up the target, and self-defense during capture is provided by high-speed evasion and by four retractable, laser-equipped arms. Both the ship itself and it's probe make use of an experimental new mode of propulsion - the so called "ecto-thruster", which uses ectoplasm emitted by specialized "zombie blocks" as propellant. Thanks to this new thruster type, the craft does not have to concern itself with fuel consumption, and can thus freely maneuver and dodge with an exorbitant amount of thrust - though it does run a risk of overtaxing it's zombies and "blowing it's load" if it thrusts too fast and too hard.

Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>4572102
Rolling for the Ultramafic stealing the Gnomemayer; the Free need to make an evo and counterroll against them

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Rolled 8 (1d8)

>>4572137
The Ultramafic would encounter a swarm of new Free designed fighters.

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>>4552294
>>4556508
the Chosen's orbital dock was a failure. Strong willed highborn viewed budding and gradual growth of ships to be a natural extension of birth. To construct was abhorrent, so the dock simply sat, its few variants churned out slowly by the local nomad population. More often they simply repaired those ships that were too damaged to self sustain, when they weren't cannibalized on the spot by their peers.

From these cursed vessels came an amalgamation. Large enough and with enough power that it sported a shield and portal drive, the outcome sky-land meet, operated as a bulk freighter for hire. unlike most chosen vessles, the highborn symbiosis of this particular craft favored the engine reactor section, feeding off of radiation and heat in an exotic process to fuel biological growth.

Lacking weapons, the "outcome" was often accompanied by an attack corvette under the alias of BBYDA.

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>>4570936
Unbeknown to Beblegletarios, Not'ah Fakename
is having a nice mean on his diner. He has scammed many since his arrival to the nebula, and does not remember that he's currently standing on a previous victim.

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>>4565482
>>4567521
>>4566062
>>4569866
>>4557252


The ongoing saga between the Exalted and a particular company from the Risen continues into the beginning of the fourth year. Exalted pirate splinters are more than happy to liberate Risen ships that venture into the nebula, far from the rim. The machinery brought forward was originally used as mining equipment, modified into mechanized grapplers, but eventually the space jocks discovered these machines and appropriated (Stole the stolen equipment) for their own ends.

Sporting overcharged plasma drives, passive signal and electromagic scrambling is simply a side effect of the dangerous limits to which these insane individuals push their Grappler ships.
---

The armored hull of the nuclear torpedo boat was a departure for any risen design. Normally focused on economy and stand off engagement; the new "Guarantee" class of cargo vessel is equipped with two (very crude) plasma lances that feed directly from the main engines, allowing for either fight or flight.
---
Lastly the exalted Grand snabbity class is being slowly phased out as new salvage becomes available. Legacy fighters are undergoing conversion into "red beaks". These craft are capable of the fastest travel in the nebula, but at great cost to their pirate pilots...pirots.

>>4573668
Micro event:

Not'ah Fakename needed resources. Eventually the other Chosen would figure out that he might have...scammed them. Badly. So far his self replicating technology was nothing but an electronic cancer of self replicating e-waste. For the moment it was quite "in vogue" for a chosen to have cutting edge cybernetics, even if they were unsure what they did.

Meeting with the crew and proposing his own idea as everyone's, which of course they fell for, Not'ah explained that they would need to find work with the other factions, and try to gain some new technology less they be mistaken for "the poor" or even worse "unfashionably obsolete."

Understandably so, everyone would develop consensus on who to work with.

The Crew, Beblegletarios, Looblooblergisnout, and Kevin would decide. Not'ah also weighed in, as he did own a diner that brought in business.
---
roll 5d6.
1>Chosen: possibly a new ship frame, certainly more Nomads or Biotech.
2>Exalted: Lots of stolen goodies.
3>Ascended: A dank new main weapon.
4>Striven: Cargo space and a sleek cooperate lines.
5>Enslaved: REEEEEEE. also REEEE. (will require additional rolls)
6>Free: Extra heavy armor cladding, and a possible trip through a portal.

Rolled 6, 4, 2, 1, 1 = 14 (5d6)

>>4574204

>>4574233
Crew: Free
Beblegletarios: Striven
Looblooblergisnout: Exalted
Kevin: Chosen
Not'ah: Chosen
---------
The Nomad crew members did the first round of business with the "Free". The mercenary faction was more than happy to put the smaller craft to work as an explorer of inner-nebula phenomena. Thick plates and sick gains were their rewards, and the in ship gym was appreciated.

Beblegletarios was mostly devoted to the art of consumption, and while pragmatic, for most it was uninteresting. What was interesting was the ability "he" had to swallow and regurgitate whole large amounts of cargo. For work the new stomach section gained was useful for storage, but after that great for eating new and exotic items.

Looblooblergisnout simply wanted to go fast, see everything, and shoot his gun with little concern given for much else; the contract with the Exalted pirates was a match made in heaven. He had nothing to steal, and they loved the ship could tank damage while they raided the Striven they had just worked for.

Kevin...kevin...it turned out Kevin was a racist and would only work with other Chosen. Not'ah saw benefit in their disseminated community and would buy into it so they would buy into his technology. It was no longer uncommon for Chosen ships to sport odd antennas or other equipment poking out of fleshy tumors.

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Trading with Highbornes usually involved payments of bioconstructs tailor-made for whatever the Cult needed at the moment, and more often than not, shipments of freshly made 'Elevated' Nomad Grabrafs, with plenty of Braffmatter in 'em and with symbiotes that sprawled all the way into their hosts' central nervous system. The perfect subjects for a good old fashioned Ozasari node lobotomization, they had already managed to subjugate a behemoth into obidience, so
turning a nomad into a obedient little drone with a computer OS overiding their consciousness was a piece of cake.

An OS that was very interested in blurring the line that separated flesh and machine. While the intial cyber augments sold to the Highbornes were glorified pieces of scrap, Not'ah's pet project was a true marvel of engineering. The Chosen's fleet would quickly incorporate efficient designs that violated every principle of Bio-Ethics, built by a new generation of Bord Drones.

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>>4574413
for all there have been...some changes.

The Nomads have declared independence and are using electro shocks and radiation fields to keep away the highborn entities. On the other tentacle, the ship is rather capable.

End of event choice:

>visit the drydock, obtain a new structure
>Take the Free portal.
>Do nothing.

>>4576336
Take the portal. The Free have been ancestral enemies of the Nomads, it's payback time.

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>>4576336
>>4576884
The arguably insane crew of the ship, 3 highborn, and a bunch of lobotomized Nomads found much to agree with when Not'ah made a very compelling argument that they would be 100% fine going through an evolutionary portal via the Free's "Great recreator."

The argument mostly involved untold glory and no madness at all. Not'ah also had to take a small shuttle and ensure the Free would not do anything amiss, and personally oversaw the operation.
---

The creature that ejected from the portal as a screaming monstrosity, as much as anything could scream in the quazi-atmosphere of the nebula. A biological laser emitted from a pale, blue, and unseeing eye, raking an observation ship in two. Meanwhile the lower "wing" appendage turned out to be a sort of hand, grabbing the wreckage while the overt maw simply consumed.

In a day long battle, Striven whaling ships harpooned and subdued the "ship", intent on augmenting it with cybernetics and seeing it off to battle against Striven security forces who were really putting a damper on some of their less sanctioned activates.

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>>4548147
To contend with the more mobile ships of the Mafic and the Ultramafic, the Felsic develops the "Stranders". Launched from one asteroid to another, they link the two together with their strands, which can then be freely and quickly traversed by conventional units such as rail pods and tanks.

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Rolled 7 (1d8)

>>4572819
Humbled by their loss, the Ultramafic decide to employ a more reserved strategy: instead of relying purely on their mobility and attempting a blitzkrieg, they will advance to the target in a slower, methodical formation, with a front line of ships soaking up incoming fire(as well as unlucky enemies) with their portals, while the original line of fighters sniping at the enemy from behind the shields. Once the formation is in range of the target, the grapplers will bind it for transportation, while the defenders form a wall of portals around the whole group.

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>>4580552
The Mafic had long disagreed with the Ultramafic, not for their use of portals, or even for their ectoplasm tech. No. They knew the ultramafic violated the tenant of flight.

Some, those small brained fools, would argue the Mafic too broke this most sacred rule. They were wrong. Their ships flew. Yes. They did not. They simply rode within them, the machine piloted by a non stitcher. a "ReeVos Zoi" All Zoi were those who were not the Enslaved, the stitchers. They were disgustingly free, but also none could expect them to be beholden to the laws and understandings of the Enslaved. no. They could work, and could do things an enslaved could simply not do. This was no different than being carried away by a beast.

An Enslaved and ReeVos Zoi could form a mutual understanding of what an Ensalved crew would NOT do. Which is that they would NOT fly from A to B, along such a given mission profile. They would NOT communicate, or interact with the ship's crew or sensors. They would NOT observe space from the ship.

In turn, the crew was paid a fair, perhaps better than fair wage. The Zoi would always innovate, and gradually improve the movers for better survivability or other such activities of which did not concern the Mafic.

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>>4565469
With the quick advancement of enemy weaponry, it was discovered that having a shield vastly decreased the risk of being vaporized by an incoming plasma cloud.

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Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>4577631
>>4580552
The beast was extensivly studied, its organic workings compared to what was documented about it's prior structure.

Components were sold off to the highest bidder and replaced with slab sided Free engineering, the mind gradually lobotomized, instinct repurposed to fire control and navigation systems. In all, the organism became a very tolerant test bed for many new technologies not yet ready for dissemination into the fleet. Its uncanny ability to somehow repair inorganic structures allowed for longer periods of testing.

Ultimately, the Enslaved returned, intent on capturing the great recreator, the bioforge, and all that was on hand was "Test Ship 01"

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Those Mafic stitchers who have not managed to find willing non-stitcher pilots resort to making nebula beasts tow their ships.