STATE OF THE GAME: AUGUST 2015

[unplug]

▶ THE ZION DEFENCE GRID

▼ STATE OF THE CREWS

In the wake of the catastrophe of Olympus, the ZDG is once again suffering shortage and set backs, with patrolling missions sent to civilian outposts spreading the fleet thin, although there have been no other machine strikes since.

Various ships were grounded in the aftermath for extensive repairs, most notable being the Nidhoggr, the extent of the damage putting it on the market for private interest. Tony Stark has since capitalised on this opportunity and word has it is looking for a civilian crew to outfit it for research purposes. (An OOC organisational comment here will go up for the interested.) The Phoenix is also currently grounded for reparation and eventual reassignment.

▼ AWAY ON BUSINESS

The Atalanta were last reported to be attending to some kind of retrieval and interrogation mission, targeting an important AI presence. Information will be disseminated upon mission completion and wrap up.

▶ ITEM DROP

Systemwide's first Item Drop is now live, and will remain open until midnight September 1. This is an opportunity for characters to receive an item through mysterious means taken directly from their home world, or the chance to enter a lottery for something more unusual.

Characters will receive their items on September 7.

▶ FRACTIOUS NATURE

With the appearance of the Architect last month delivering his own cryptic warning, questions about nature of the enemy simmer amongst those who care to speculate about such things. Many do not, but some do. If the agenda of the Machines is more mysterious than once assumed, what else is there to be discovered about what they want? And what of the Machines could possibly be older than the Oracle, or the Architect himself?

But maybe you shouldn't be listening to even very handsome artificial intelligences anyway.

▶ HOUSEKEEPING

▼ ACTIVITY CHECK

We have adjusted our activity requirements, beginning this round (August 24-31) and continuing. This means we will require lighter activity check proofs that we hope will encourage posting especially. We will continue to monitor these kinds of processes to ensure they match our game environment and pace.

The current activity check is now open, so remember to submit your proofs before midnight August 31!

▼ ENABLE ME MEME

We have posted an informal Enable Me Meme that you are welcome to share and of course, post to! You can find it on the admin Plurk for replurking purposes as well.

▶ KEY DATES

Activity Check: August 24-31
Test Drive: September 15 (Current Post)
Reserves: Currently Open
Applications: Currently Open

Comments

NEW SHIP: THE HOGG RISES

[servomotor]

Per the network, Tony Stark bought the derelict ZDG warship The Nidhoggr. He is looking for crew. Thus far, based strictly on that network, the following positions have been tentatively filled:

CAPTAIN: Undecided
FIRST MATE: Undecided (may default/go to Bill Cage)
OPERATOR / OPERATIVE: Undecided (possibly Skye)
OPERATOR: Undecided (may default to Tony Stark)

OPERATIVE / PILOT: Undecided (may fault/go to Johanna Mason)
OPERATIVE / ENGINEER: Driver and Katniss Everdeen
OPERATIVE: Xas

I'm flexible on the amount of recruitment and training that needs to be RPed, and open to feedback on this point! My goal is to have us on our first fairly low-key mission in October 2015 at the latest (but this can be later depending on what we need to do OOCly), mid-September at the earliest.

For the actual mission itself, my vague plan so far is:

The 'wine merchantry mission' described in the network is what's officially on the books, and then 'under the table' but with tacit ZDG permission

We're scoping out one of the following canons: Jurassic World, How To Train Your Dragon, Narnia, or the recent Planet of the Apes movies, engaging in the Machine Espionage option. Our IC objective (possibly to-be-approved) will be to spy on animal-looking, presumably lower-functioning beings and determine if they're AIs or humans.

But I'm also open to suggestions!

Please feel free to comment here if you'd like to sign up and need a special in, or with whatever else. If there's a matter you'd rather not broach publically, you can also PM me in player capacity at pyg with remarks or concerns.

[anthophobia]

I'm totally down for this. I'll be on vacation from the 6th through the 11th, and totally unreachable for that week, but it sounds like this mission would happen after that anyway.

<3

[nightride]

ahaha. Oh dear. At this point, making this guy an operative may produce regrets - Tony can ask Mr. Cage about that if he wants (and/or the crew of the Scramasax). Buddy here is also way more likely to say yes to recruitment if he's allowed to... you know. Drive. sometimes.

Go team pigboat. /deadpan raising of fists

[hacker]

YES OPERATOR/OPERATIVE IS SKYE.

[imitant]

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[onyourfeet]

/risky business slide

cage can leadership or otherwise operative, for sure. FO is good so he is more transient and you can do things the zdg might not like without it being weird.

[axeyou]

I guess yes to pilot if you're seriously offering