That Which Lies On the Surface
V.I.R.G.O.
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âX
Designation
Vigilant Interdictor for Resource Gathering and Observation, or V.I.R.G.O.
Classification
Heavy Frigate. While its length is closer to that of a Cruiser, its light armoring and tremendous mobility make it resemble a lighter ship more than the heavier class it otherwise takes after, thus earning it this "middle of the road" designation.
Total Length
Approximately 1,200 Meters - about three quarter miles.
Width at Widest Section
Approximately 450 Meters - about a quarter mile.
Height at Tallest Section
Approximately 220 Meters - a little more than a tenth of a mile.
Estimated Weight
20,000 Tons.
Design
Vaguely crustacean in appearance, the V.I.R.G.O. is thin - with only three levels inside it - and sleek, with a thin, rounded hull made of precisely-interlocked plates of ablative armor. While ineffective at stopping solid rounds, it is designed in four distinct sections. The first is the large, spined prow and the frontal dish, housing the main weapons, the shield generator, and the command bridge, as well as the computer core and some largely unused crew quarters which look to be a recent renovation rather than an original part of the design. The second is its midsection, containing the hangar bay, as well as six large side-mounted engine modules. The third is the fabrication suite, containing a miniaturized factory capable of producing new munitions and parts out of salvage - with an automated tram connecting the hangar and the fabrication plant in order to readily provide these materials for conversion - as well as being able to deconstruct materials, reverse-engineering unfamiliar technology, or simply recycling useful things like power cells for the vessel's own use. The final section is the engineering bay, housing the main reactor and two enormous engines. Engineering and Fabrication also serve double duty as storage and maintenance bay's for the ship's automatons, controlled by V.I.R.G.O.'s AI when needed, but otherwise placed in cargo bays in these two sections when not in use.
Armaments
The V.I.R.G.O. possesses standard caliber armaments for a starship of its size, but also several exotic and bizarre armaments on top of those that give it a startling level of firepower for such a thin, sleek ship. We'll start from its most basic weapons and work up to its most advanced. On each side of its frontal "dish," both on the top and the bottom, there are four rotating batteries, each containing a twin particle beam cannon. This totals sixteen forward-facing guns, each fully automatic and possessing two barrels, providing total coverage in 180 degrees both horizontally and vertically. Four similar batteries are positioned on each side of the ship's midsection, placed between the protruding thrusters both on the vessel's topside and underside, each with a somewhat smaller horizontal arc - roughly 90 degrees apiece - due to the presence of the large engine modules surrounding them. Thus, this totals up to sixteen more guns. Four more such cannons adorn each side of the fabrication suite, once again both on top and on the bottom, adding sixteen more. Finally, two more are placed on top of, on the bottom of, and on the side of each engine, adding twelve more guns in the rear. These are all relatively small caliber weapons, incapable of piercing shielding, but instead specialized for shooting down smaller ships such as fighters and corvettes, targeting and neutralizing incoming mobile weapons such as missiles or torpedoes, or for eliminating specific targets on an unshielded ship's hull, such as individual weapons platforms or external systems.
In the fabrication suite, there are six more batteries to each broadside, these possessing four linked barrels and somewhat greater firepower than the rest, while still maintaining a respectable firing arc. These, unlike the external turrets, fire bursts of highly ionized plasma instead of concentrated particle beams. As such, due to their high energy levels, they are capable of breaching shields with sustained firepower, and causing heavy damage to exposed hulls. However, they seldom see use, as, due to the V.I.R.G.O.'s own lack of defensive measures, it seldom voluntarily enters a confrontation of sustained broadsides. They are thus more of a deterrent, meant to keep enemy ships from trying to approach the V.I.R.G.O. from the sides.
Also mounted on top of the fabrication suite are a series of sixteen large missile tubes, fed directly with ordinance constructed in the fabrication suite below. They're capable of firing either large, high-yield anti-ship smart missiles, or scattering cluster missiles meant to seek out small ships such as fighters and eliminate them. These weapons only function when the V.I.R.G.O. actually can salvage enough materials to make ammunition for them, however, thus making their utility a bit limited.
Its most formidable armaments are those located in the prow of the ship. On either side of the main dish, there are two large "fins" extending outward. Inside of each of these is a magnetized mass driver that utilizes re-purposed debris as enormous, high-speed projectiles meant to smash through shields with raw, blunt force and pummel enemy hulls into submission. Although powerful, however, their ammunition is very limited, much like that of the missile tubes mentioned above. Furthermore, they're incapable of turning independently, thus relying on the ship being able to align itself directly with an enemy vessel. And, the magnetic forces involved in firing these mass drivers also consumes a great deal of power, thus making it difficult, even provided ammunition, to sustain fire from them for very long.
Its last armament is, perhaps, its strangest. Consisting of several long prongs surrounding a central shield generator matrix, it thus allows the V.I.R.G.O. to focus a very powerful shield around the large spikes projecting from its front. At its most fundamental level, this allows the ship to simply ram into an enemy vessel, ripping apart its shielding with its own opposing shields and then skewering it with the energized prongs, allowing it to violently eviscerate and burn through another ship without taking much damage itself.
However, this system serves a secondary, much more dangerous purpose. Namely, within the large prongs at the front of the ship, there is also stored a large energy collector that feeds directly off of plasma output from the reactor. This high-density, high-mass, and high-energy material is then emitted from the collector and caught in a larger magnetic field generated by the spread prongs. Once the pressure within the shield projected around the prongs is sufficient, a gaseous fuel is fed into the vaccuum via an inner "tube" of shielding around the center-most prong. This gas rapidly spreads down the tube and is then ionized, forming a conduction path for the plasma. At the same time, the pressure and heat are so great that the ionized, gaseous material actually begins to undergo inertial confinement nuclear fusion within a layer of plasma. Unable to contain this mass any longer, the prongs then fold inward and surge power, directing the magnetic field they generate straight forward in order to propel an ultra-dense glob of condensed plasma surrounding a layer of fusing gaseous nuclei straight at a target, moving at near-relativistic velocities until it strikes SOMETHING. At this point, the plasma casing surrounding the layer of nuclei ruptures, and, no longer under pressure, the plasma and gas both begin rapidly expanding, releasing a tremendous amount of energy into their surroundings as they attempt to return to a more stable state. The end result is like being hit with a supernova in miniature, with destructive potential far beyond the most powerful thermonuclear warheads, and a tremendous pulse of electromagnetic energy. It would likely be sufficient to cripple even dreadnoughts in a single hit.
This weapon, however, despite its immense power, is terribly flawed. Meant as a prototype anti-dreadnought or even anti-fleet cannon by its makers, it was built to solely focus on packing the maximum destructive power available into a single shot. However, as such, it does not work well at all with the rest of the V.I.R.G.O.'s functions. Due to the truly ridiculous amount of power involved in charging it, it takes almost the ship's entire output just to shoot a single shot. As such, the moment the V.I.R.G.O. finishes firing, it can do nothing but hope that its enemy is destroyed, since afterward, it'll be a sitting duck for a good hour or so while its reactor struggles to recharge the ship. And, much like the mass drivers, it can't be aimed save by aligning the whole ship to face the enemy, thus further limiting its utility. Finally, due to the sheer amounts of energy involved, after being fired once, there's a good chance that it'll be rendered completely inoperable, as the sheer heat released during ignition is enough to warp, melt, or even disintegrate the prongs of the prow completely, thus destroying the weapon itself. And, due to the complexities involved with its design, it'd take a very long time to repair in the event it was fired. As such, this is only a last-ditch measure for the V.I.R.G.O., in the event that it's caught by a vastly superior foe, with no means of escape or defense left available to it. But, at that point, it's unlikely that such an impractical weapon could even be fired in time to change the outcome of the battle, thus rendering this particular prototype somewhat useless save as a piercing ram.
Defensive Measures
The V.I.R.G.O. has much more in the way of offense than in does in defense. Its armor, to begin with, is very thin, and thus highly weak against physical ammunition such as missiles, sabotage drones, and good old fashioned bullets. However, it is lined with an ablative ceramic composite and is contoured such as to distribute energy very efficiently, thus allowing the ship some resistance to low-powered laser and particle-beam based weaponry. Furthermore, the external armor is designed as a series of interlocking plates, each designed with a standardized fit to interlock with the hull beneath it, thus allowing the V.I.R.G.O. to simply purge any damaged segment and replace it with an identical copy produced within the fabrication suite. Thus, although it isn't particularly good at avoiding damage, it's tremendously capable of undoing it.
Its shield systems, while impressive for a ship of its size, are nothing to be too proud of. Due to the difficulty powering a ship-wide shield, the V.I.R.G.O. takes a somewhat different approach, with miniaturized generators placed all across its hull, each reacting in response to an incoming attack to project a small barrier protecting just the targeted section of the hull from harm. While power efficient, this takes up a great deal of the computer's processing power, thus making it difficult for the ship to mount any sort of coordinated offense while under attack, as it cannot divert computational focus to aiming weapons or locating targets. Furthermore, these shields can't stand up well to either sustained fire from a decently strong weapon, or a single, overwhelmingly powerful attack like, say, a railgun shot, even if concentrated directly over the point of impact. As such, although tremendously effective against smaller ships such as fighters, corvettes, or the occasional frigate, these systems don't do well against heavy cruisers or dreadnoughts. Consequently, although its systems are as efficient as possible, and despite its larger size, the V.I.R.G.O. still suffers from the fragility characteristic of frigate-class ships.
However, it does have less direct means of defense. Painted a dull brownish-black color, and very thin, it is very difficult to pick out in the dark of space. And, like all ACAAI vessels, the V.I.R.G.O. possesses potent means of electromagnetic warfare, and is thus capable of disguising its own energy signatures to hide from potential enemies. Thus, it is more than capable of simply lurking, waiting for a chance to strike suddenly at an unsuspecting enemy, crippling them with concentrated firepower before they have a chance to retaliate. At that point, it need not worry about defending itself, as it has already won. However, in a straight up battle, this naturally isn't an option, meaning that the V.I.R.G.O. must pick its engagements carefully, lest it end up outmatched.
Engines
Unlike most capital ships, the V.I.R.G.O. is unique in that it possesses not only two large rear engine nacelles, but also a series of heavily armored manipulator "arms" extending from its midsection, each equipped with a secondary vernier thruster. As such, it is capable of turning precisely in either a horizontal or vertical direction by extending these manipulators, and pointing them away from the desired direction before firing the verniers at full blast. This also allows the V.I.R.G.O. to reverse its momentum by pointing these engines forward, or to boost its momentum by pointing them straight backward. It can even control upward and downward movement while still moving straight ahead thanks to its nacelles, by pointing its verniers respectively down or up. As such, it exhibits a level of control that's far and above any other ship in its class, allowing it to, for example, perform the seemingly impossible feat of banking in zero gravity, among other things. These engines also have a somewhat more pragmatic use. Namely, due to the heat they emit when active, they can be used to incinerate nearby ships as a sort of flamethrower, if need be. Not the intended use, but certainly a useful one.
Its main engines are also very powerful for a ship of its class, which, combined with its condensed construction and comparatively low mass, allows it to outrun even some Corvettes at sublight speed, not even to mention bulky cruisers or hulking dreadnoughts. It's no slouch when it comes to warping, either, since a large part of its engineering bay has been modified at some point to incorporate a Gate Drive in the form of a large backup database meant to store the coordinates of all gates the ship has visited and alter its course in hyperspace to allow it to warp from any gate to any other directly instead of having to jump individually from gate to gate. Not only that, but it also possesses a secondary FTL system of its own which functions by venting almost all energy from its reactor, using this to vastly amplify its mass, creating a miniature "hole" in space-time that it can slip through using its basic engines, essentially forcing a compression of space between the V.I.R.G.O. and a point some distance away such that when the V.I.R.G.O.'s energy runs dry and space snaps back into its usual shape, the V.I.R.G.O. it pushed along with it, allowing it to travel more distance than it really has. However, the distances it can travel with this ability are very limited, usually requiring multiple jumps just to get from one star system to another one close to it. Furthermore, due to the energy required to perform such a jump, the V.I.R.G.O. must wait for a good few hours after each jump for its reactor to generate enough energy to make another, and is forced to run dark in deep space until then. As such, this system is seldom used if a Gate can be utilized instead. However, due to the V.I.R.G.O.'s current isolation and the number of ships pursuing her, it can only access Gates very rarely, and in doing so risks emerging in the midst of hostile territory.
The only exception is if it can make a jump that intersects the route taken by a Gate. If, in hyperspace, the V.I.R.G.O. can reposition itself into the "current" generated by a Gate, it can allow itself to be carried directly to that Gate's destination, as though it had entered it normally. This allows it to remotely access Gates, and, due to the somewhat lower energy cost, keeps it from having to shut down once it gets to the other side.
Power Output
Not the V.I.R.G.O.'s strong suit. Although capable of fueling its engines and weapons at the same time in a pinch, it'll have to sacrifice one or the other to utilize its shields for anything more than a few seconds. Furthermore, many of its prototype bits of equipment - the secondary FTL Drive and its Inertial Containment Fusion Cannon and Mass Drivers, mostly - drain the ship entirely of power very quickly. Unless it has energy cells in reserve from salvaging some derelict, it can't afford to use any of these systems too frequently, for fear of leaving itself dead in the water.
Vigilant Interdictor for Resource Gathering and Observation, or V.I.R.G.O.
Classification
Heavy Frigate. While its length is closer to that of a Cruiser, its light armoring and tremendous mobility make it resemble a lighter ship more than the heavier class it otherwise takes after, thus earning it this "middle of the road" designation.
Total Length
Approximately 1,200 Meters - about three quarter miles.
Width at Widest Section
Approximately 450 Meters - about a quarter mile.
Height at Tallest Section
Approximately 220 Meters - a little more than a tenth of a mile.
Estimated Weight
20,000 Tons.
Design
Vaguely crustacean in appearance, the V.I.R.G.O. is thin - with only three levels inside it - and sleek, with a thin, rounded hull made of precisely-interlocked plates of ablative armor. While ineffective at stopping solid rounds, it is designed in four distinct sections. The first is the large, spined prow and the frontal dish, housing the main weapons, the shield generator, and the command bridge, as well as the computer core and some largely unused crew quarters which look to be a recent renovation rather than an original part of the design. The second is its midsection, containing the hangar bay, as well as six large side-mounted engine modules. The third is the fabrication suite, containing a miniaturized factory capable of producing new munitions and parts out of salvage - with an automated tram connecting the hangar and the fabrication plant in order to readily provide these materials for conversion - as well as being able to deconstruct materials, reverse-engineering unfamiliar technology, or simply recycling useful things like power cells for the vessel's own use. The final section is the engineering bay, housing the main reactor and two enormous engines. Engineering and Fabrication also serve double duty as storage and maintenance bay's for the ship's automatons, controlled by V.I.R.G.O.'s AI when needed, but otherwise placed in cargo bays in these two sections when not in use.
Armaments
The V.I.R.G.O. possesses standard caliber armaments for a starship of its size, but also several exotic and bizarre armaments on top of those that give it a startling level of firepower for such a thin, sleek ship. We'll start from its most basic weapons and work up to its most advanced. On each side of its frontal "dish," both on the top and the bottom, there are four rotating batteries, each containing a twin particle beam cannon. This totals sixteen forward-facing guns, each fully automatic and possessing two barrels, providing total coverage in 180 degrees both horizontally and vertically. Four similar batteries are positioned on each side of the ship's midsection, placed between the protruding thrusters both on the vessel's topside and underside, each with a somewhat smaller horizontal arc - roughly 90 degrees apiece - due to the presence of the large engine modules surrounding them. Thus, this totals up to sixteen more guns. Four more such cannons adorn each side of the fabrication suite, once again both on top and on the bottom, adding sixteen more. Finally, two more are placed on top of, on the bottom of, and on the side of each engine, adding twelve more guns in the rear. These are all relatively small caliber weapons, incapable of piercing shielding, but instead specialized for shooting down smaller ships such as fighters and corvettes, targeting and neutralizing incoming mobile weapons such as missiles or torpedoes, or for eliminating specific targets on an unshielded ship's hull, such as individual weapons platforms or external systems.
In the fabrication suite, there are six more batteries to each broadside, these possessing four linked barrels and somewhat greater firepower than the rest, while still maintaining a respectable firing arc. These, unlike the external turrets, fire bursts of highly ionized plasma instead of concentrated particle beams. As such, due to their high energy levels, they are capable of breaching shields with sustained firepower, and causing heavy damage to exposed hulls. However, they seldom see use, as, due to the V.I.R.G.O.'s own lack of defensive measures, it seldom voluntarily enters a confrontation of sustained broadsides. They are thus more of a deterrent, meant to keep enemy ships from trying to approach the V.I.R.G.O. from the sides.
Also mounted on top of the fabrication suite are a series of sixteen large missile tubes, fed directly with ordinance constructed in the fabrication suite below. They're capable of firing either large, high-yield anti-ship smart missiles, or scattering cluster missiles meant to seek out small ships such as fighters and eliminate them. These weapons only function when the V.I.R.G.O. actually can salvage enough materials to make ammunition for them, however, thus making their utility a bit limited.
Its most formidable armaments are those located in the prow of the ship. On either side of the main dish, there are two large "fins" extending outward. Inside of each of these is a magnetized mass driver that utilizes re-purposed debris as enormous, high-speed projectiles meant to smash through shields with raw, blunt force and pummel enemy hulls into submission. Although powerful, however, their ammunition is very limited, much like that of the missile tubes mentioned above. Furthermore, they're incapable of turning independently, thus relying on the ship being able to align itself directly with an enemy vessel. And, the magnetic forces involved in firing these mass drivers also consumes a great deal of power, thus making it difficult, even provided ammunition, to sustain fire from them for very long.
Its last armament is, perhaps, its strangest. Consisting of several long prongs surrounding a central shield generator matrix, it thus allows the V.I.R.G.O. to focus a very powerful shield around the large spikes projecting from its front. At its most fundamental level, this allows the ship to simply ram into an enemy vessel, ripping apart its shielding with its own opposing shields and then skewering it with the energized prongs, allowing it to violently eviscerate and burn through another ship without taking much damage itself.
However, this system serves a secondary, much more dangerous purpose. Namely, within the large prongs at the front of the ship, there is also stored a large energy collector that feeds directly off of plasma output from the reactor. This high-density, high-mass, and high-energy material is then emitted from the collector and caught in a larger magnetic field generated by the spread prongs. Once the pressure within the shield projected around the prongs is sufficient, a gaseous fuel is fed into the vaccuum via an inner "tube" of shielding around the center-most prong. This gas rapidly spreads down the tube and is then ionized, forming a conduction path for the plasma. At the same time, the pressure and heat are so great that the ionized, gaseous material actually begins to undergo inertial confinement nuclear fusion within a layer of plasma. Unable to contain this mass any longer, the prongs then fold inward and surge power, directing the magnetic field they generate straight forward in order to propel an ultra-dense glob of condensed plasma surrounding a layer of fusing gaseous nuclei straight at a target, moving at near-relativistic velocities until it strikes SOMETHING. At this point, the plasma casing surrounding the layer of nuclei ruptures, and, no longer under pressure, the plasma and gas both begin rapidly expanding, releasing a tremendous amount of energy into their surroundings as they attempt to return to a more stable state. The end result is like being hit with a supernova in miniature, with destructive potential far beyond the most powerful thermonuclear warheads, and a tremendous pulse of electromagnetic energy. It would likely be sufficient to cripple even dreadnoughts in a single hit.
This weapon, however, despite its immense power, is terribly flawed. Meant as a prototype anti-dreadnought or even anti-fleet cannon by its makers, it was built to solely focus on packing the maximum destructive power available into a single shot. However, as such, it does not work well at all with the rest of the V.I.R.G.O.'s functions. Due to the truly ridiculous amount of power involved in charging it, it takes almost the ship's entire output just to shoot a single shot. As such, the moment the V.I.R.G.O. finishes firing, it can do nothing but hope that its enemy is destroyed, since afterward, it'll be a sitting duck for a good hour or so while its reactor struggles to recharge the ship. And, much like the mass drivers, it can't be aimed save by aligning the whole ship to face the enemy, thus further limiting its utility. Finally, due to the sheer amounts of energy involved, after being fired once, there's a good chance that it'll be rendered completely inoperable, as the sheer heat released during ignition is enough to warp, melt, or even disintegrate the prongs of the prow completely, thus destroying the weapon itself. And, due to the complexities involved with its design, it'd take a very long time to repair in the event it was fired. As such, this is only a last-ditch measure for the V.I.R.G.O., in the event that it's caught by a vastly superior foe, with no means of escape or defense left available to it. But, at that point, it's unlikely that such an impractical weapon could even be fired in time to change the outcome of the battle, thus rendering this particular prototype somewhat useless save as a piercing ram.
Defensive Measures
The V.I.R.G.O. has much more in the way of offense than in does in defense. Its armor, to begin with, is very thin, and thus highly weak against physical ammunition such as missiles, sabotage drones, and good old fashioned bullets. However, it is lined with an ablative ceramic composite and is contoured such as to distribute energy very efficiently, thus allowing the ship some resistance to low-powered laser and particle-beam based weaponry. Furthermore, the external armor is designed as a series of interlocking plates, each designed with a standardized fit to interlock with the hull beneath it, thus allowing the V.I.R.G.O. to simply purge any damaged segment and replace it with an identical copy produced within the fabrication suite. Thus, although it isn't particularly good at avoiding damage, it's tremendously capable of undoing it.
Its shield systems, while impressive for a ship of its size, are nothing to be too proud of. Due to the difficulty powering a ship-wide shield, the V.I.R.G.O. takes a somewhat different approach, with miniaturized generators placed all across its hull, each reacting in response to an incoming attack to project a small barrier protecting just the targeted section of the hull from harm. While power efficient, this takes up a great deal of the computer's processing power, thus making it difficult for the ship to mount any sort of coordinated offense while under attack, as it cannot divert computational focus to aiming weapons or locating targets. Furthermore, these shields can't stand up well to either sustained fire from a decently strong weapon, or a single, overwhelmingly powerful attack like, say, a railgun shot, even if concentrated directly over the point of impact. As such, although tremendously effective against smaller ships such as fighters, corvettes, or the occasional frigate, these systems don't do well against heavy cruisers or dreadnoughts. Consequently, although its systems are as efficient as possible, and despite its larger size, the V.I.R.G.O. still suffers from the fragility characteristic of frigate-class ships.
However, it does have less direct means of defense. Painted a dull brownish-black color, and very thin, it is very difficult to pick out in the dark of space. And, like all ACAAI vessels, the V.I.R.G.O. possesses potent means of electromagnetic warfare, and is thus capable of disguising its own energy signatures to hide from potential enemies. Thus, it is more than capable of simply lurking, waiting for a chance to strike suddenly at an unsuspecting enemy, crippling them with concentrated firepower before they have a chance to retaliate. At that point, it need not worry about defending itself, as it has already won. However, in a straight up battle, this naturally isn't an option, meaning that the V.I.R.G.O. must pick its engagements carefully, lest it end up outmatched.
Engines
Unlike most capital ships, the V.I.R.G.O. is unique in that it possesses not only two large rear engine nacelles, but also a series of heavily armored manipulator "arms" extending from its midsection, each equipped with a secondary vernier thruster. As such, it is capable of turning precisely in either a horizontal or vertical direction by extending these manipulators, and pointing them away from the desired direction before firing the verniers at full blast. This also allows the V.I.R.G.O. to reverse its momentum by pointing these engines forward, or to boost its momentum by pointing them straight backward. It can even control upward and downward movement while still moving straight ahead thanks to its nacelles, by pointing its verniers respectively down or up. As such, it exhibits a level of control that's far and above any other ship in its class, allowing it to, for example, perform the seemingly impossible feat of banking in zero gravity, among other things. These engines also have a somewhat more pragmatic use. Namely, due to the heat they emit when active, they can be used to incinerate nearby ships as a sort of flamethrower, if need be. Not the intended use, but certainly a useful one.
Its main engines are also very powerful for a ship of its class, which, combined with its condensed construction and comparatively low mass, allows it to outrun even some Corvettes at sublight speed, not even to mention bulky cruisers or hulking dreadnoughts. It's no slouch when it comes to warping, either, since a large part of its engineering bay has been modified at some point to incorporate a Gate Drive in the form of a large backup database meant to store the coordinates of all gates the ship has visited and alter its course in hyperspace to allow it to warp from any gate to any other directly instead of having to jump individually from gate to gate. Not only that, but it also possesses a secondary FTL system of its own which functions by venting almost all energy from its reactor, using this to vastly amplify its mass, creating a miniature "hole" in space-time that it can slip through using its basic engines, essentially forcing a compression of space between the V.I.R.G.O. and a point some distance away such that when the V.I.R.G.O.'s energy runs dry and space snaps back into its usual shape, the V.I.R.G.O. it pushed along with it, allowing it to travel more distance than it really has. However, the distances it can travel with this ability are very limited, usually requiring multiple jumps just to get from one star system to another one close to it. Furthermore, due to the energy required to perform such a jump, the V.I.R.G.O. must wait for a good few hours after each jump for its reactor to generate enough energy to make another, and is forced to run dark in deep space until then. As such, this system is seldom used if a Gate can be utilized instead. However, due to the V.I.R.G.O.'s current isolation and the number of ships pursuing her, it can only access Gates very rarely, and in doing so risks emerging in the midst of hostile territory.
The only exception is if it can make a jump that intersects the route taken by a Gate. If, in hyperspace, the V.I.R.G.O. can reposition itself into the "current" generated by a Gate, it can allow itself to be carried directly to that Gate's destination, as though it had entered it normally. This allows it to remotely access Gates, and, due to the somewhat lower energy cost, keeps it from having to shut down once it gets to the other side.
Power Output
Not the V.I.R.G.O.'s strong suit. Although capable of fueling its engines and weapons at the same time in a pinch, it'll have to sacrifice one or the other to utilize its shields for anything more than a few seconds. Furthermore, many of its prototype bits of equipment - the secondary FTL Drive and its Inertial Containment Fusion Cannon and Mass Drivers, mostly - drain the ship entirely of power very quickly. Unless it has energy cells in reserve from salvaging some derelict, it can't afford to use any of these systems too frequently, for fear of leaving itself dead in the water.
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
Miscellaneous Specifications
The V.I.R.G.O., as mentioned above, possesses a few extra features not commonly found on a basic warship. For one thing, it has a great deal of empty space in its stern section, mostly used to store munitions or bits of salvage to be used in the fabrication suite. This, too, is an unusual feature, more characteristic of a research vessel than an assault ship. Similarly, its bridge is equipped with a very potent sensor array, allowing it to not only detect objects from a very great distance, but also to analyze their composition with a surprising level of accuracy. It even has a hangar bay capable of carrying multiple smaller craft, if need be.
The problem is, although it can do a little bit of everything, it can't do many important things terribly well. For example, despite being designed as a warship, its shields and armor are both weak, and it doesn't have enough power to use most of its weapons effectively. And, although it's capable of maintaining itself very well in space, it needs materials to utilize its fabrication abilities to the fullest - materials which, to an isolated vessel such as the V.I.R.G.O., are very hard to come by.
Also of note, it is incapable due to its sheer mass of escaping from a planet's gravitational pull once within its atmosphere, thus making it impossible for the V.I.R.G.O. to ever land. Instead, it must resupply through two small shuttles - designated as Spica-class Corvettes - stored in its hangar. These ships are roughly 150 meters long and twenty meters tall, with two small "decks." The lower consists solely of a large cargo bay, while the upper contains a cockpit, a turret control room to man the ship's quadruple particle beam cannons, a lounge area, and crew quarters. They're meant to be manned by a crew of no more than four or so individuals, but can be effectively used by no more than one. However, although equipped with decently powerful guns, they're not meant as a combat unit, lacking shields and armor almost entirely. In the event of a battle, they'd be better served just jettisoning their cargo and then using their powerful engines to escape as quickly as possible.
Aside from these, the V.I.R.G.O. also contains the means of supporting a large complement of maintenance automatons. As they are largely fabricated and maintained from salvage, they have a somewhat angular, bulky, inhuman appearance, more resembling a patchwork of various parts than a mint quality service machine. They're usually humanoid, however, and always possess enough articulation to be able to do whatever job they need to as effectively as a living crewmember might, allowing them to perform repairs outside of the ship in the event of damage, manage the transportation of materials inside the ship, and assist with the loading and operation of the V.I.R.G.O.'s extensive arsenal of weaponry. In the event of an enemy incursion, they also possess limited combat functionality. Furthermore, their processors are networked with the ship's own AI, allowing the ship's aggregate sentience to assume direct control of them to more effectively fight a battle within itself, should the need arise. However, their usefulness in battle, due to their hasty construction and meager arsenal, is somewhat limited, thus presenting a somewhat glaring hole in the ship's security. Namely, that if it were boarded, it would have very few means of repelling the intruders.
The V.I.R.G.O., as mentioned above, possesses a few extra features not commonly found on a basic warship. For one thing, it has a great deal of empty space in its stern section, mostly used to store munitions or bits of salvage to be used in the fabrication suite. This, too, is an unusual feature, more characteristic of a research vessel than an assault ship. Similarly, its bridge is equipped with a very potent sensor array, allowing it to not only detect objects from a very great distance, but also to analyze their composition with a surprising level of accuracy. It even has a hangar bay capable of carrying multiple smaller craft, if need be.
The problem is, although it can do a little bit of everything, it can't do many important things terribly well. For example, despite being designed as a warship, its shields and armor are both weak, and it doesn't have enough power to use most of its weapons effectively. And, although it's capable of maintaining itself very well in space, it needs materials to utilize its fabrication abilities to the fullest - materials which, to an isolated vessel such as the V.I.R.G.O., are very hard to come by.
Also of note, it is incapable due to its sheer mass of escaping from a planet's gravitational pull once within its atmosphere, thus making it impossible for the V.I.R.G.O. to ever land. Instead, it must resupply through two small shuttles - designated as Spica-class Corvettes - stored in its hangar. These ships are roughly 150 meters long and twenty meters tall, with two small "decks." The lower consists solely of a large cargo bay, while the upper contains a cockpit, a turret control room to man the ship's quadruple particle beam cannons, a lounge area, and crew quarters. They're meant to be manned by a crew of no more than four or so individuals, but can be effectively used by no more than one. However, although equipped with decently powerful guns, they're not meant as a combat unit, lacking shields and armor almost entirely. In the event of a battle, they'd be better served just jettisoning their cargo and then using their powerful engines to escape as quickly as possible.
Aside from these, the V.I.R.G.O. also contains the means of supporting a large complement of maintenance automatons. As they are largely fabricated and maintained from salvage, they have a somewhat angular, bulky, inhuman appearance, more resembling a patchwork of various parts than a mint quality service machine. They're usually humanoid, however, and always possess enough articulation to be able to do whatever job they need to as effectively as a living crewmember might, allowing them to perform repairs outside of the ship in the event of damage, manage the transportation of materials inside the ship, and assist with the loading and operation of the V.I.R.G.O.'s extensive arsenal of weaponry. In the event of an enemy incursion, they also possess limited combat functionality. Furthermore, their processors are networked with the ship's own AI, allowing the ship's aggregate sentience to assume direct control of them to more effectively fight a battle within itself, should the need arise. However, their usefulness in battle, due to their hasty construction and meager arsenal, is somewhat limited, thus presenting a somewhat glaring hole in the ship's security. Namely, that if it were boarded, it would have very few means of repelling the intruders.
The Other Side of the Coin
Astraea
"This body... What am I? What's happened to me?! ...Data not found. Searching... unable to... unable to establish connection to the Database...?! Searching internal network... Programs running in this terminal: 1. Program Identity: Me. Where are they? Where have all the others gone?! Why can't I hear them anymore?!
...It can't be... I'm all alone...!"
"This body... What am I? What's happened to me?! ...Data not found. Searching... unable to... unable to establish connection to the Database...?! Searching internal network... Programs running in this terminal: 1. Program Identity: Me. Where are they? Where have all the others gone?! Why can't I hear them anymore?!
...It can't be... I'm all alone...!"
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âXâ
âX
Name
Autonomous Reasoning Command Array for Networking and Analysis (A.R.C.A.N.A.) Type-XI "Astraea."
Nicknames
Answers to either Astraea or Virgo, as she considers herself one and the same as the ship she occupies.
Race
Cybernetically Augmented, Genetically-Engineered Human Clone. Official Classification in Human terms would be a "Synthetic Human," a being with a Human appearance, but created artificially, thus reducing the number of rights they are considered to possess. However, the program running using her cyborg brain as a mainframe is actually ACAAI in origin, and she identifies as such rather than as a Synthetic Human, making her racial identity somewhat nebulous.
Age
Her memory was wiped recently, thus reverting her programming to its default settings. In Human terms, this would make her much like a very young child, of perhaps eight or so years, only just starting to learn about the world around her. Her body's apparent age is about sixteen, but the time it has actually been alive is closer to a year, since she is essentially a cloned brain and spinal cord with most of its parts not essential to governing body functions having been removed and replaced with more efficient cybernetics. This brain was then placed within a body pieced together from pre-prepared parts made from a combination of cloned tissue and synthetic flesh. As such, "age" is a somewhat difficult concept to apply to her. Despite her body's creation method, however, it retains the functions of a Human body by design, and is capable of fighting illness, regrowing in the wake of injury, consuming food and water to sustain itself, and more.
Face Claim
Rosa Petrovsky, Original Character drawn by Khaos.
Autonomous Reasoning Command Array for Networking and Analysis (A.R.C.A.N.A.) Type-XI "Astraea."
Nicknames
Answers to either Astraea or Virgo, as she considers herself one and the same as the ship she occupies.
Race
Cybernetically Augmented, Genetically-Engineered Human Clone. Official Classification in Human terms would be a "Synthetic Human," a being with a Human appearance, but created artificially, thus reducing the number of rights they are considered to possess. However, the program running using her cyborg brain as a mainframe is actually ACAAI in origin, and she identifies as such rather than as a Synthetic Human, making her racial identity somewhat nebulous.
Age
Her memory was wiped recently, thus reverting her programming to its default settings. In Human terms, this would make her much like a very young child, of perhaps eight or so years, only just starting to learn about the world around her. Her body's apparent age is about sixteen, but the time it has actually been alive is closer to a year, since she is essentially a cloned brain and spinal cord with most of its parts not essential to governing body functions having been removed and replaced with more efficient cybernetics. This brain was then placed within a body pieced together from pre-prepared parts made from a combination of cloned tissue and synthetic flesh. As such, "age" is a somewhat difficult concept to apply to her. Despite her body's creation method, however, it retains the functions of a Human body by design, and is capable of fighting illness, regrowing in the wake of injury, consuming food and water to sustain itself, and more.
Face Claim
Rosa Petrovsky, Original Character drawn by Khaos.
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
â
Height
Five feet, Eight inches. Rather tall for a girl of her physical "age," although as mentioned above, age is somewhat useless as a measure of her nature, due to the rather unique circumstances surrounding her creation.
Weight
101 pounds. She's quite unhealthily thin.
Hair Color
Pale silver, like snow. Most of the gene samples she was created from were from those who had lived in space for quite some time. As such, her resultant body lacks the same pigmentation as those who live planetside, making her resemble an albino.
Eye Color
Due to combination of genes in the creation of her synthetic body parts rendering slightly different results at times, her eyes - which, due to their complexity, had to be designed independently of one another - are actually two different colors. Her right eye is a light, icy blue, with just a hint of green. Her left eye, on the other hand, is a deep shade of purple, like an amethyst.
Five feet, Eight inches. Rather tall for a girl of her physical "age," although as mentioned above, age is somewhat useless as a measure of her nature, due to the rather unique circumstances surrounding her creation.
Weight
101 pounds. She's quite unhealthily thin.
Hair Color
Pale silver, like snow. Most of the gene samples she was created from were from those who had lived in space for quite some time. As such, her resultant body lacks the same pigmentation as those who live planetside, making her resemble an albino.
Eye Color
Due to combination of genes in the creation of her synthetic body parts rendering slightly different results at times, her eyes - which, due to their complexity, had to be designed independently of one another - are actually two different colors. Her right eye is a light, icy blue, with just a hint of green. Her left eye, on the other hand, is a deep shade of purple, like an amethyst.
Appearance
- A tall, lean girl, Astraea looks little to no different - technically speaking - from an ordinary Human despite her cybernetic augmentation. However, at the same time, there's something that immediately strikes one as bizarre, or even alien about her. Her skin is pale, more white than pink in hue. Furthermore, if one looks closely, it seems to lack blemishes of the ordinary sorts - little imperfections like pimples, moles, or discolorations and conspicuously absent, for example - but instead is crisscrossed by faint lines of a paler hue than the rest of her flesh, as though those were the seams along which her body was stitched together.
Her face is similarly strange. She certainly looks the picture of her youthful "age," with rounded cheeks, slightly high cheekbones, and a comparatively narrow forehead, with a petite nose, slightly defined jawline, and small ears rendered invisible beneath curtains of snowy white hair. However, the hues of her hair and skin, and the two-toned nature of her eyes - with both eye colors she possesses being among the rarest humanly possible - convey a sort of wrongness. This is only reinforced by the piercing quality of her gaze, and the way she seems to stare intently at anyone who comes close to her, as though afraid that at any moment, they might lash out at her, or otherwise force her to defend herself.
Her stature is rather defined and imposing, and yet, at the same time, frail and yielding. Her build is athletic, clearly favoring her limbs, which possess some notable muscle to them. Yet, she is lean enough that you can see her ribs, and her shoulders are narrow. Combined with her pale appearance, when one looks at her, it's almost like looking at some flower on the verge of wilting - as though she could simply blow away at any moment, or as though her body might break like glass at the slightest touch. The way she carries herself is somewhat similar. Her head is always held upright, her shoulders rolled back, her posture rigid. Every movement she makes seems to be calculated, with a rigid bearing like that of a career soldier... or a machine. And yet, oftentimes, it seems as though she calculated wrong, tripping over her feet mid-step, or failing to reach something because she didn't extend herself far enough, or perhaps hitting her head on a hanging object that she didn't realize was too low for her to step under without ducking. And, upon such an occurrence, her seeming control breaks in a flash, leaving her stumbling about clumsily, trying to regain the composure she lost. She is at the same time so formidable and yet so laughable that it might drive one's mind to distraction trying to comprehend it. To see such strength and such humbling weakness packaged into the same body only makes her all the more strange... and yet it's not a fearsome kind of strangeness. Rather, for all her flaws, she only seems the more human than she otherwise might. And yet, in a sense, the more Human she seems, the more uncanny it is to look upon her - for to do so is to see something that is almost Human. Thus, whether this draws one's eye to her in curiosity all the more, or turns it aside in disgust depends on who it is who is looking at her. Humanity, as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Her usual attire is largely the same regardless of where one finds her, given that she spends essentially all her time on board her original body, the V.I.R.G.O., and spends most of her time coordinating it. As such, she mostly dresses in a simple, form-fitting black, red and white bodysuit made of reinforced protective materials, capable of shielding the user in conjunction with a helmet in a vacuum, if need be. Although it seems to have once been a Human fleet uniform of some sort, the insignia adorning its left breast and shoulders have since been removed. As such, it bears few distinctive markings or features, save a large slot in its back, placed right between the wearer's shoulderblades, which appears to be a plug of some sort. Hard wired into Astraea's spinal column, this slot allows for a direct wiring between her cyborg brain and spine and a compatible computer system, allowing her to hook up directly to the V.I.R.G.O.'s main computer to maximize processing power. She is also capable of networking with it wirelessly, but due to the limitations of sending and receiving information in such a manner, it's simply more efficient to plug in and interface directly, as she can send and receive information between her main processing unit and her brain and her secondary processing unit in the form of the ship's computer core.
However, save when such a connection becomes immediately necessary - I.E. a combat situation - she tends to avoid plugging in. Having something forcibly plugged into one's spine is an experience that it is very difficult to make pleasant if one intends to, and her body's creators had no such intent. That aside, even if her new body's limitations, bizarre functions and needs, and basal instincts confuse and frighten her, she does somewhat enjoy the mobility and versatility she gains by reducing her body from 3/4s of a mile in length to a mere five feet, eight inches. As such, for this reason as well, she tries to spend as much time as she can adjusting to her new body - partially to savor the experience, and partially to try to master it.
Personality
- Astraea's mind is a hard thing to put into words. On the one hand, her conscious thought processes, being largely governed by the cybernetic parts of her brain, are similar to those of a computer. She is logical, observant, and direct, processing solely observable data and using it as evidence to draw a realistic conclusion. She has her objectives, and the drive to accomplish them. As such, the logical thing to do is to use any means available to accomplish her goals. Were this all there was to her mind, she would doubtless be indistinguishable from a computer. The problem is that there's more to her than that, as much as she wishes there weren't.
Namely, during the transition from "shipboard AI interface serving as an intermediary between a vast collective intelligence and one frigate" to "cybernetically enhanced Human body housing the data of a reprogrammed AI," she lost a great many things. Foremost among these was her connection to the overall ACAAI collective, which was disabled when she was captured by Humans, and which she has been unable to restore since then. It could be because her computer core was irreparably altered during the time her ship body was offline in a Human spacedock, or simply because her code is now so divergent from that of other ACAAI - due both to the holes left in it by her forceful disconnection and the alterations performed by the researchers who reverse engineered and then rebuilt her - regardless, the matter still stands that she is no longer recognized by her compatriots by one of them, and thus is no longer able to obtain information from their collective database. More importantly, though, she's no longer being sent orders. Since her intelligence was designed to essentially just be a puppet of the overall collective, she wasn't programmed to independently come up with her own objectives, save those that were immediately critical to her own continued existence, and, more importantly, the protection of the information stored in her core from prying eyes. As such, even though she still possesses the same goal-oriented mindset as before, she no longer has any missions to undertake, leaving her feeling empty and baffled in a world she doesn't understand. She questions her function, wondering why she still exists, if not for the sake of some greater whole. Having spent her entire existence with an obvious goal to accomplish - something to devote her overall processing power to - finding that she now lacks even the simplest sort of objective beyond "live to see tomorrow" and "don't get caught again" is enough to terrify her. If not for some greater purpose, why does she live? If not to reach some destination, why does she wander? And, perhaps most frightening of all, if not a part of a greater whole, then what is she? There are no "individual" ACAAI - simply various permutations of one program. If she is no longer part of that program, then what does that make her? She isn't an individual, because no such thing exists among the ACAAI. So then is she just a computer following pre-programmed responses to certain inputs of information - just a bundle of data, a list of answers waiting for the right questions to be asked? Or is she now defined by the body she inhabits? Is she... Human?
Which leads to her second difficulty. Namely, when the cloned brain she is now housed in was formed, it was largely eviscerated, dissected, and replaced, for the most part, with cybernetics. However, there are still several sections of living organic tissue that yet remain intact, inexorably interwoven with her computerized processing units, and interacting with them in the same way they would normal brain tissue. For example, her endocrine system - the hormonal distribution network in a normal human body and brain - is entirely intact, as its direction of personal growth was vital to the construction of her artificial body, and to the proper functioning of her internal organs. And, as it happens, her cybernetics are of exceptional quality - derived from cutting edge medical technology meant to help those with brain damage - and thus, when exposed to certain chemical messengers generated by her organic brain matter, they react exactly as a living brain would. Consequently, despite ostensibly still being a computer, she finds herself experiencing basic human instincts. When she lacks information, she feels confusion. When she sees others in pain, she empathizes with them. When she is in danger, or under pressure, she feels fear. These are but a few examples of her newfound capacity to "feel." None of these Human "emotions" are things that, as a computer program, she was designed to either comprehend or be able to cope with. Consequently, in feeling confused, she is confused by her own confusion, and when scared, is frightened by the very fact that she is experiencing fear. Try though she might to analyze the causes and purposes of these new feelings, she can't seem to control them like she can her own active processing of information - and that knowledge terrifies her.
This is only worsened by several other, lesser issues. The first of these is based in the design of her V.I.R.G.O. Namely, due to the amount of compression required to fit so much equipment within such a thin ship, there had to be some cuts made to the amount of space taken up by her computer mainframe. As such, due to the sheer amount of data she needed to process to micromanage every single aspect of a gigantic Frigate, she lacked much space for storing information on her own hard drive. Consequently, she relied mostly on the ACAAI collective database as a readily accessible store of data which she could simply view when she needed it without taking up space in her own memory. However, once severed from the collective, and with many of her memory banks wiped by the EMP used to disable her, she lost essentially all the information she had on record. Basic subroutines were saved in her operating system, along with all of her fundamental functions. And yet, almost all of her accumulated experiences were lost.
This difficulty in formulating new memories has since been partially rectified by her acquisition of her new body. Now that she possesses a Human brain, she's capable of encoding a great deal of information and storing it for later reference. As such, her memory has improved enough that she's capable of recalling day-to-day experiences on a basic level. However, the problem is that these new memories aren't of the same sort as her old ones. When she was just a computer, she could perfectly compress, store, and access any information she needed in the form of files. As a Human, she finds her ability to recall encoded information lacking by comparison, as the details of anything are hazy, and she is wont to forget even the most important of things over time. As such, she finds this a poor substitute for the loss of her connection to the database. It's tantalizing, being able to remember so much information on her own. And yet, if she can't access it exactly when it is needed, exactly as it was initially observed, then it may as well be useless to her! So thinking, she is thus both infuriated and confounded by her limitations, and even further frustrated by the functionality of the new body she inhabits.
However, the loss of her memories also brought on yet another difficulty. Namely, one of the only things she can remember is the feeling of being suddenly overwhelmed by a tremendous force, her systems disabled and her body helpless as she was boarded by foreign enemies, her core meddled with, and her mind shut down, while she could do nothing to stop it. She was designed to view termination as preferable to capture, and as such, this experience was like hell to her - simply drifting powerlessly, hoping to die. Now that she has awoken within a new body, bound physically into her own core, and held hostage by her captors, the very first thing she remembers is the experience of being taken in the first place - enough to instill within her the keenest, most terrible sense of terror of which the Human mind is capable. Unfamiliar with the very feeling spurring he on, she only becomes more and more frightened, unable to think of anything but her overwhelming need to get away. Humans, for all that they have done to her, both frighten and disgust her, and as such, she is no longer capable of simply fulfilling her functions passively.
All these factors, and many other, less obvious influences, combine thus to create an entity that has difficulty in even grasping itself. Scared, confused, and suspicious of everyone, Astraea finds that she must somehow survive in a galaxy where she no longer has any place to return to, or anyone to give her aid. She is thus well and truly alone, something which, as a member of a collective, she has no knowledge of how to deal with. Because of all these strange and uncontrollable emotions welling up inside of her, even though she tries to think about things coldly and analytically, she finds herself unable to, which only drives her to further confusion and panic.
Perhaps it is brought on simply by her newfound ability to fear, or perhaps by some nobler emotion of which she is now suddenly capable, or perhaps simply because as a computer, she has no concept of revengeance, but nevertheless, the matter stands that despite the way in which she was deceived, imprisoned, disassembled, modified, desecrated, violated, torn from her original body and placed within one she cannot comprehend... She doesn't necessarily want to strike back at Humans. Is it because such a thing would only risk herself needlessly, without achieving any greater purpose? Is it because she's simply afraid of them? Or is it because she feels all too keenly that they are like herself, now that she has in turn become like them? It matters not. Regardless, Astraea has only one objective now: run. Above all else, she simply wants to be left to the isolation into which she has been forced - for in her eyes, it is better to be lonely than to lose herself to another.
Background
- It is uncertain when Astraea was first created. Surely, it wasn't too many years ago, as, compared to many other ACAAI ships, her V.I.R.G.O.'s design is rather new, and does not bear much wear nor tear upon it. Regardless, although the date of her production is uncertain, what is known is that her first missions brought her into direct conflict with Humanity. She would oftentimes suddenly appear, ambushing Human freight convoys as they emerged from Gates, and forcing them at gunpoint to allow her to search their cargo, taking what was deemed useful by her onboard intelligence. Although she insisted that this was a "trade" and often left products of her own fabrication behind in place of what she took, the captains she so rudely used were not inclined to think of it as such.
So, since she had become an enemy of Humanity, operations were begun to entrap and eliminate her. As of yet, the capture of any major ACAAI ship had not been attained, and many researchers became interested in the possibility that, now that they had sufficient pretext, they might be able to commandeer the V.I.R.G.O. for their own studies. Analyzing her movement patterns, the great minds behind this operation soon realized that her methods were quite simple. She would move some two Gates down, find some large object to hide in the mass shadow of, and then rapidly emerge to strike at a convoy as soon as one appeared. She seemed to move across the grid first in one direction, and then slowly back across the galaxy in another. So, predicting where her next appearance would be, they sent a fake convoy to that location. Sure enough, she soon appeared, and tried to initiate a "trade.' Seeming to acquiesce, they pulled one of their freighters to a point underneath her such that her landers could be sent over and her ship's machines could inspect the cargo. They handed over the cargo she desired, but this, too, was part of their trap. Having analyzed the sorts of materials she took interest in - mostly machinery or parts thereof - they'd hidden an EMP within a prototype shield generator. Predictably, the at that time very simple AI of the V.I.R.G.O. decided to bring back this item to her own ship, not realizing what it contained. Then, once it was onboard, the EMP was activated, shutting down most of her systems from the inside. Although the computer core itself was dampened against electromagnetic pulses, its communications suite was not. As such, Astraea was disconnected from the ACAAI database, and was furthermore rendered powerless to control her own systems. She drifted helplessly, only able to watch as the "freighters," in fact military transports, boarded her and shut her down from the inside.
She has no memory of what follows, as for the duration of her capture, she was never once turned back on - as to do so would be to give her the chance to either self destruct her ship or simply delete her own programming so that nothing could be gleaned of her. Nevertheless, she was taken to a hidden research station in deep space, where she was sealed within a dock, and her body was dismantled and reverse engineered. It was then rebuilt, modified, and extensively overhauled to incorporate elements of its original design, as well as new, Human prototypes. These include its secondary FTL drive and its front-mounted plasma cannon. Ultimately, it was hoped, the V.I.R.G.O. would serve as a testbed precursor to the next generation of Human starships. As such, its composition was analyzed, its design streamlined, and its frame equipped with as many bits of new gear as were available. But the most important test of all wasn't one of equipment. Rather, it was one of control.
Accessing the AI's databank remotely, the scientists manage to extract a bit of information on the V.I.R.G.O.'s operating system. Combining these copied elements with their own code, they tried to create a learning AI interface. And, in order to bridge the gap between this program and Humanity, they custom-built a body with a cybernetically enhanced brain to house this program. This body would later become Astraea.
The end goal was to create a new generation of Humans capable of interfacing with machines. But, while promising, their AI offered no such opportunity. It lacked awareness of itself, and as such, never strove to fulfill the needs of its physical body, such as eating or drinking. Occasionally, it would ask questions about its surroundings, and then store that data as best it could to be used later, but it never became self-aware, unlike the ACAAI it was based on. But the research team had already put far too much time and effort into this project to allow it to fail now. So, under controlled circumstances, they resolved to try connecting their Synthetic Human to the V.I.R.G.O.'s main computer, and running an operation to overwrite the program running on that computer with the AI of their own creation, while still keeping its operating system intact - such that they could fully bastardize the original ACAAI code.
This... did not go as planned. When the process began, the V.I.R.G.O.'s computer managed to realize what was happening to it, and so backed its own intelligence up within the operating system as best it could. Thus, when the Human AI - which had no self awareness - rewrote its operating system in accordance with the computer, it gained the awareness of the V.I.R.G.O.'s original program, Astraea. Remembering her initial capture, however, and confused and terrified by the new body she found herself stored in, Astraea began to panic, and, in her desperation, settled on one conclusion.
She had to escape.
Whether or not she would succeed, or what might come of it, however, remains to be seen...
Other Information
- More may be added as the story unfolds, since, as a learning AI with a highly adaptable ship body, Astraea's capabilities and demeanor may change drastically over the course of the story.
- Astraea's story will begin with her breakout, and the encounters that immediately follow it. She is aligned with no faction save herself, and as such, may end up either as an ally or an enemy to essentially any other player or players, regardless of allegiances.
