Hephaestus Mining Station OOC Thread

Game Thread is here.

So, this should immediately grab somebody's attention (you know who you are). Want to continue where we left off? We can link to another thread for the racy bits when we need to. Or, I don't mind opening it up for a group. I can link to our first posts on y! or re-post them here. I think I can manage a group of 4-6 (including myself).

In short, this is a futuristic tale of the end of an era. Earth has colonized the solar system and the colonies are trying to become independent. There is a large faction that wishes to send ships to other stars and start colonizing the galaxy, but Mother Earth wishes to focus on the troubles facing them locally. So far, the war raging between factions has been a quiet one, but it won't stay that way for long!


Information on the station:

Hollowed out of an asteroid in Sol's outer asteroid belt, Hephaestus was designed with the latest in technology to crunch and process raw rock into the high-grade ore necessary to fuel Earth's expansion. There are new habitats and new ships to build to supply the new colonies being sent out into the galaxy. Hephaestus has dozens of levels filled with the best, top-of-the-line equipment and technology that money could buy.

There are three docking bays. The first and largest is a complex, composite area, for the mining crews and the rocks they bring in from the field. Maneuvering ten-ton rocks (or larger) with only a few kilos of a mining pod is thrilling, but dangerous work requiring lots of space. The second bay is for the supply shuttles and freighters. Their main task is to keep Hephaestus supplied with the foodstuffs and materials to keep the mining installation in working order, and to ferry back the processed minerals and ore to Archimedes Moon Base, the primary supply hub for the UN; but passengers are also able to book room on the freighters, both in and out-bound. Being isolated in a tiny corner of the system, Hephaestus has a high turn-over rate, especially amongst the mining crews.

Inside the station, there's an unspoken rule that mining pod crews (pilots and boomers) do not mix with mining support technicians or other support staff when off-duty (Jack is the one exception). There are three main areas for the mining crews. The first is the hospital, the second the recreation deck, and the third the lounge.

Hephaestus has a fully-staffed and maintained hospital that pays enough to lure some excellent specialists. There is an extensive greenhouse to grow a significant portion of the food required to feed the five thousand-odd residents. One whole level and half of another holds the sports and recreation area, with a park, and sports complexes for pretty much any sport anyone can think of, with and without gravity. Everything except water, that is. Water is still strictly rationed, having to be brought in and melted from ice or manufactured chemically. There are three main eating areas, the cafeteria and two smaller clubs or lounges, one of which is situated in the section of living quarters designated specifically for the mining crews.


Information on Mining Crews:

Mining crews come in twos: a pilot and an explosives/demolitions expert called a boomer. The pilot is responsible for flying the mining pod out to the field to the chosen rock and then towing said rock back to the station and into the processing queue, all the while keeping the pod and crew from being smashed to pieces by other random asteroids in the field. The boomer is responsible for deciding which rocks to go after (high-grade content versus risk and skill) and breaking that rock into smaller chunks when required. Often, that means an EVA out on the rock itself.

Boistrous, rowdy men and women, mining crews come in all shapes and sizes, with all manner of reasons for being there. The start-out costs are high, with the expenses of purchasing and supplying a mining pod, living charges, and insurance fees putting most into a hole they never climb out of. Get killed or irreparably injured while in the line of duty and the debt is forgiven, but damage to station or personnel through your own, individual foolishness carries equally heavy penalties. Few bother to actually read the fine print, seeing only the potential for making a lot of money fast. The job sounds deceptively easy and the station offers free transport to new miners; they just have to sit through the safety and legal briefings on Archimedes (and sign on the dotted line) first.

Most miners, once they complete their contract (i.e. pay off the initial debt), quit. Only a few are crazy enough or determined enough to stay on longer.

The mining crews spend the majority of their time out in the asteroid field in two-person teams, confined into a tiny but powerful craft with no one but each other for company for days, sometimes weeks, at a time. Well-functioning, stable teams are hard to come by, and profitable ones even more rare. It takes a special kind of person to be able to function well in such a high-risk, high-stress environment. Throw in the extreme isolation and all manner of things have been known to happen, the least of which being the ones who go out into the field and never come back.

There are millions of rocks, ranging from practically planet-sized to the kind that sizzle like dust in a pod's shielding, but finding (and getting to) the right kind of rocks takes skill, ingenuity, and a good memory. Mining crews are border-line paranoid about their section of the field. Making money often means hiding the best asteroids from other crews, so someone else can't swoop in off a run and steal the best ores. Good rocks mean good money, possibly bonuses, which are essential if one wants to get out of debt before one gets turned into space dust.

Those miners who just can't take flying the field any more but still have debt to pay off usually opt to finish their contracts by switching to support staff or taking the expense of being trained to work in the refiner.


NPCs:

J.T. Calloway: general of Hephaestus' mining fleet, he manages and oversees all mining operations. His office overlooks the vast cargo bay, with mining pods and refinery crews zipping around at all hours of the day. He's an older man in his early fifties, an ex-military officer who trusts in his regulations and manages with quiet, military efficency. He's a likeable enough fellow ... outside his office and with a few drinks in him.

Jack: a mining tech (works on the rocks brought in by the crews), Jack's been on Hephaestus since its creation. He's of incredibly mixed ancestry, with dark skin, hair, and eyes, he's well-loved by everyone. He invented the cards that are the preferred past-time of the station's mining pod crews. Jack likes big-breasted blondes (something in which the station is rather lacking). He also is a black-market expert. Anyone who wants anything, from fresh fruit to computer chips to tickets to the next null-gravity battle, goes to Jack.

(possibly more to come)


Other Info that's good to know:

We're using metric units here. Characters can be from any liveable planet/planetoid in the solar system. The Moon and Mars are in the process of being terra-formed; colonists live in large habitation domes. The year is 2187. Your char can speak any current Earth language; however, English is the dominant language that everyone must know. The fun part is that I love the cursing in Firefly (if you don't know what that is, a pox on you! lol), and most are like that, a pidgin or hodge-podge of languages as colonies needed to communicate with each other.

Money is standardized in credits.

There is both Local Time and Standard Time. For example, Hephaestus goes by Standard Time, which is Earth hours (24 hours in a day, 365 days a year, etc). Mars goes by Mars Local Time, but must be translated to Standard Time when dealing with the net, other colonies, etc.

For example, 1 day on Mars lasts 24 hrs, 39 minutes, so 1 year on Mars = 1.8 years on Earth, which makes someone who is 23 years old on Earth (ST) is 12.75 years old on Mars (MT).


My Character (Teo):

Name: Teo Diluca
Age: 30
Planet/Colony of Origin: Mars Colony
Height/Weight: 1.75 meters/70 kgs
Sex Preference: Top
Job Title: Mining Pod Pilot
Ship's Name (if applicable): the Icarus

Physical Description: Being on the small side, with pure lean, wiry muscle, Teo doesn't consider himself particularly striking to look at, of the opinion that he looks old for his age. He blames this on all the stress he's under. He has the same ego and 'don't mess with me' confidence all the veterans have. He keeps his thick, brown hair short in a military-esque cut and crows feet crinkle the corners of his dark-brown eyes. It's his smile he relies upon, that he uses to such devastating effect, tipping one side or another of his mouth into a lopsided, roguish grin.

Secrets: Teo is a double-double agent who works for the Rebels as a spy for the UN, who have sent him to spy on the mining station, which is believed to be supporting the Rebels.

Reputation: Trouble rarely ever sticks to Teo. Oh, he keeps his nose clean enough, unless he's out in his pod, and then he becomes the dare-devil, hot-shot pilot that has made more techs piss their pants than everybody else combined. Teo's very first partner, a veteran boomer, returned from their first run together in hysterics and refused, point-blank, to ever fly with Teo again. He holds the record for the shortest-ever partnership (3 days) and the record for the most conquests (nobody knows the real number, but the scuttlebutt says that Teo's slept with just about everyone).


So, ready to play?

Considering it is an OOC Thread, this is the best place to have it.

That aside, this seems to be quite an interesting and well thought out RP. I like it. ^^ I may have to think up a character and join, if you don't mind too much.

*grins* Dark-hon, I thought you'd never ask. ^.^ I'd love to pick up where we left off, should I post up the stuff we have already? *needs to find Liam's bio...* >.>;;

I figgured it'd be moved. No biggie.

Yep! Post your chars here and we can hash out details.

Wulff, I'll grab our stuff from y! and WDC and post 'em in the game thread once I get it up. You and I can post for a little bit since we're familiar with the story and chars and insert Autruna's char when she's ready (and anyone else who comes along).

Name: Liam Aver

Age: 29

Planet/Colony of Origin: Earth-USA-Illinois-Chicago

Height/Weight: 5' 3"

Sex Preference: Either/or

Job Title: Boomer/Explosions expert

Ship's Name (if applicable): Had been the Gambit but that's shrapnel now

Physical Description: Not particularly tall, slightly shorter than Teo anyways, and he has the thin build of a junkyard dog, too high a metabolism and not enough to eat, but strong enough for his purposes. He has scraggly black hair and light blue eyes, like that of a Earthian sky on a clear day.

Secrets: He is not a double-double agent, just your average ordinary boomer with a love affair with fire and things that go 'boom' in the night. However, he has a darker sort of secret, he was the cause of his previous partner's death. He's the rowdy sort, and has a distinct appreciation for loud noises, he and Brady were on a tunnel gig in one of the larger floating asteroids near the Pond. He and Brady had gotten in an argument and they were fighting rather noisily (more Liam than Brady) in the extremely unstable rock and it began collapsing . Liam made it out, but Brady never had a chance. The Gambit was mushed to hell and Brady was crushed. Liam, fortunately, had a contact radio, one he could rig a little to maximize the signal, so he could 'phone home'. Shortly after that, he had a very bad nervous breakdown and was out of commission for several months following.

Reputation: Lauded as one of the best boomers in the history of booming, but only really in his mind, he has a eye for explosives and loves to dismantle and rebuild bombs in his spare time. He's a whiz at 'building a better explosion' and can take two average charges, pull them apart and remake them into several smaller explosions, or he can make them into one large charge or any variety thereof. He is adept at climbing, clinging, wiring, exploding and essentially, 'booming' any size ore rock with two or less explosions, earning him the nickname of 'two-boom' Liam.

I see you made him taller.

I'm going to move the rp along and get them back to the station. Feel free to give Liam's POV or start fresh. Your choice.

Not my best, but I wanted to end that trip and get on to the next. Let's give the boys 48 hours in dock, and send them out again. Now's a good time to jump in if anybody's got a char to introduce!

Finally finished my character profile XD Here he is, tell me if I should make any changes:

Name: Fede Zonderling
Age: 24
Planet/Colony of Origin: Moon Colony
Height/Weight: 1.83 meters/81.6 kg
Sex Preference: Huwhat?
Job Title: Medical Tech
Ship's Name (if applicable): N/A

Physical Description: Fede likes to stand out, so he is most always seen with a smile on his face. His face has a soft, boyish charm. Fede is a fairly tall man, standing at about 6' and has a medium build. He has light brown hair that is cut short at the back and gets slightly longer as it approaches his face. His eyes are a darker shade of brown.

Secrets: Secrets? Huh? Fede is much too honest to keep any great secrets from anyone. Nor does he really have anything spectacular to hide. There are only very few questions that he would initially be hesitant to answer, but get to know him well enough (or get him drunk enough) and one could get anything out of him.

Reputation: Fede really is the new guy. In the few months that he has been on the Hephaestus he's only really figured out where he sleeps. Even then he gets lost on his way. When they need him somewhere, the rest of the medical staff has taken to giving him detailed "turn right here and left there" instructions. He does; however, know his way around the human body. He forever has a smile of some sort, be it contented and calm or humorous, as he laughs at himself for being lost again. He's not the type to panic in a stressful situation, which is the reason he still has his job.

Very nice! Feel free to post any time! I need to poke Wolff some more ...

Ah, yay! I'll post soon as I can.

Umm... I have been a tad neglectful haven't I? Forgive me. I've been given the runaround for awhile I should be able to pick up pretty quick. I had a post started... but my computer had a tech fart and froze up so my post disappeared. *huffs* So I best start work on that. >.>

So we don't forget again.

Teo: 1.75 meters = 5 ft 9 in (approx)

Liam: 5 ft 3 in = 1.6 meters (approx)

I'm thinking that, since we seem to be stuck (I know I am, anyway, XP), that we can just move on, and leave the rest of the current encounter to the imagination ...

What do you think, Wulff?