The Ark

Aeons ago, it was proven. The speed of light is immutable. There are (at least to humanity's knowledge) no short cuts, no wormholes that can be flown through, no faster than light drives, nothing that could escape the universe's speed limit.

This didn't stop humanity from settling the galaxy though. Over ten million years, humanity has spread out from its birth star in Sol, slowly moving across the great galactic disk, and settling countless habitable stars.

Unfortunately, such a great sweep of civilization was not without its problems. Wars, migrations and cataclysms have taken their toll on Gaia's far flung children, and will take more of their toll in the future. Technology has risen and fallen, art has been gained and lost, and now, for one small group of humans there are many sacrifices to make.

Long ago, in a nameless star system there was a cataclysm, told about only by the whispering pulses of radio signals and communication lasers flickering between the stars. The Cataclysm, whatever it is, is expanding, and nothing that it meets survives unchanged.

OOC Introduction

This is a Space Opera Game, just at slower than light speed. It involves meeting strange posthumans (some of whom might as well be aliens) and perhaps strange aliens as well, exploring strange new worlds and civilizations and all the space opera goodness. The only difference is it's set over STL time and distances rather than the FTL ones you might be used too.

Talwin's World

The Colony of Talwin's world lies in the galactic south, far from long lost Sol. It is a somewhat primitive world, who's original colonists quarrelled and fought, throwing back their technology to dark age levels before they managed to emerge again. Now however, they have a problem. Since the first radio telescopes of this new age were built, the people of Talwin have heard distant cries, warnings and pleas. Something is wrong in the heavens, something that could spell the doom of Talwin's World and every memory of it.

Ten years ago, the telescopes of Talwin's World picked up the light of hundreds of drive flares along the line of the reports of the Cataclysm. Still two hundred light years away, and moving only at one percent of the speed of light, the objects, whatever they were, were travelling on a course that would bring them, inexorably, to Talwin's World. When they touched systems, radio transmissions peaked in panic, then died away all together.

It might be a millennia before the Cataclysm reached them, but the leaders of Talwin's World decided that they couldn't simply rest on their lorels. Ships should be dispatched immediately, carrying genetic samples, history and culture away from the Talwin system to perhaps recreate themselves elsewhere.

The Ark

The first wave of arks, for which you are the crew are relatively primitive beasts weighing ten-thousand tons, and driven by primitive, retro-engineered copies of the great hydrogen and anti-matter jets used by the colony ship which once bought settlers to Talwin's World. They are the biggest space going vessels ever constructed by Talwin's World up to that point. It is capable of accelerating to up to 18% of the speed of light and then decelerating to rest relative to its origin point.

Each will carry two sets of six crew in nanomachine moderated cryogenic suspension, along with gene samples, form ten thousand more. The Ark also carries huge amounts of equipment, both for the mission and for the colony. The entire Ark is directed by one of the most advanced AI systems ever built, Casandra.

Ark Equipment

The ark includes the following mission equipment.
1 Shuttle, capable of single stage to orbit on fusion thrusters, and capable of seating all six crew and fifty tons of payload
1 Combat shuttle, as above, but trades twenty tons of cargo for better manoeuvrability and speed, and twenty missile hard points
40 conventional missiles with multi-purpose warheads (Can be fired from the ship or mounted on the combat shuttle)
2 10 megaton nuclear warheads (can be mounted on any missile)
5 100 kiloton nuclear warheads (can be mounted on any missile)
50 probes
10 atmospheric UAV probes
Various specialist scientific equipment

The crew may suggest additional equipment, however there is limited cargo room.

Rules

This is an All Girls All the Time Game because women are better astronauts and take up less payload space than men do, and while these reasons are less strong in the case of the Ark, women make up the vast majority of the Talwin's World Astrocorp, and that's where you have been recruited from (and because the GM wants to run a game about girls in counterpressure suits and bubble helmets in revspace). For reasons of accessibility, Talwin's World its self is a fairly standard liberal democracy in the modern mold, with relatively normal democratic government systems. Transhumanism is not particularly advanced at this point in Talwin's history, so beyond limited genefixing you are basically normal humans. You are also relatively young and in prime physical condition, with no weird diseases or personality quirks which would render you unfit to be an astronaut.

Character Creation

You have 14 points to assign across 5 categories.

Strength

Grace

Wits

Knowledge

Charisma

Further, you should chose 3 skills for your character. These include specialist knowledge (Doctor or biologist) or things you're particularly good at (sneaking or piloting.)

Crew Equipment

The Crew is allowed most kinds of equipment on request, though there is a strict weight limit.

Equipment so far

x6 6.5mm caseless PDWs

x1 15mm anti-matterial rifles

x6 multipurpose flare/shotgun/grenade launchers

x4 10mm pistols

100 10mm rounds.

500 rounds of shotgun ammo

Flares

2000 6.5mm rounds (various types)

100 15mm rounds (various types)

x30 40mm throw or launch grenades

plastic explosive and detonators

3 counter pressure space suits each

2 reinforced Laptop computers

12 tablet computer/radios

4 geiger counters

x6 space suit diving adaption gear

x12 EVA packs/EVA overlay protection

Climbing Gear

12 night vision systems (Thermal/starlight)

2 large thermal sights

scientific equipment

machine shop

3D printer

Mission update

Time Index D +20 years, 127 Days, 6 hours
Master Caution
Fault Detected, Primary Reactor Fuel Tank 1. PRMT1 is Leaking (possibly due to micro meteor impact
Attempt automated seal
Failed
Reviving Primary Crew to deal with emergency