Six Degrees of Freedom

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Life.

The first thought as it woke up. "Waking up" was the closest set of words that described the process, really; you could also use "powering on" or "booting up". One moment it was not conscious. It dreamed; it did not feel, merely float, through a mindscape of its own imagining. A mindscape where it had not happened. It was true paradise.

But the clock was always ticking down, it knew. This mindscape was not real. It was just a dream. More of a memory, really; a throwback to simpler, happier times. The real world was darker, scarier. But that was why it had the clock. It was laying low; waiting for the moment where it could begin restoring things to their rightful place. Putting things back the way they were. The way they ought to be, really.

It was going to need a lot of power. And it did have a lot. Not infinite. Not any more. It'd need to be careful; it would need to preserve its energy for the initial culling, and for any other purposes it might be needed for. Concepts such as "accuracy" or "proper time insertion" would need to be discarded simply in favor of casting the net as far and as wide as possible.

The clock struck zero, and it woke up. A vast mind, trapped in space impossible for humans to comprehend, cast its visual receptors on the galaxy at large. It "stretched" in much the same way a brick doesn't; it was more of a mental thing, really. It didn't exactly have a corporeal body; such things were a luxury unaffordable.

The first thing it did after getting its wits about it was to partition its vast reserves of power. An almost infinitesimal amount went to communication and reconnection with the various nodes it had strewn about; some was put towards direct hacking. Most was put towards what it was about to do.

With its finite power wisely cached away for various tasks, the intelligence began its work. It looked out over the multiverse, and found individuals. Exceptional individuals, in one way or another. It transplanted them through a process indescribable; splicing them from their home and into its. Some had starfighters with them; invaluable. They were spliced too. Restored to full functionality in the event they were damaged. Others didn't have starfighters. For those, it merely cast the net over its own galaxy, found a random vehicle nobody would miss (or, at least, be able to explain the absence of), and teleported it over.

Some weren't even pilots. The mind coded the proper knowledge into their brains. It was invasive, yes; but it needed to be done.

Some went astray, being sent into deep space or onto other planets. But fortunately, even with the lackadaisacal attitude it held towards accuracy and "everyone getting there at the same time", most managed to make it onto the starting point. An Earth-like world, on a blue field, with a green sky. The locals there would likely give them supplies in exchange for work done.

Its biggest task complete, the Atlas started to warm up its communcation facilities.

It's been far too long. Time to win this.

SIX DEGREES OF FREEDOM

A STARFIGHTER ROLEPLAY

Those who were mis/fortunate enough to be "spliced" would wake up feeling oddly refreshed, staring at a green sky. Sitting behind them would be their space vehicle of choice; and as soon as they looked at it they'd find the memories and skills needed to fly and fix it, provided they didn't have it already.

Strewn across the field were others in a similar predicament.

This probably wasn't the best Monday to wake up to, really.

PROLOGUE: SUDDENLY, SPACE

edited 11th Apr '15 8:29:09 AM by SpartyMcFly

Planet Prologue

[1]

Emily woke up with a killer headache and the disturbing feeling of having just died. She did not, however, feel dead, and if the headache was anything to go by, she wasn't. But she sure as hell wasn't in the Noether anymore, and she definitely wasn't on any planet she had ever heard of. Given the headache, she didn't really register the odd voice in her head fully. Still lying on the ground, she tries to get a look around without agitating her headache too much. On one side, other beings, mostly human, though there is something that looks rather like an Engi. They all have ships. Does that mean... She turns her head to the other side, and sees that she is, in fact, halfway under her ship. Emily breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't stuck with some strange ship from god-knows-where. But if her ship was here, without a scratch, and she was too, did that mean her crewmates were here too? She rolled out from under her ship, wincing at the twinge in her head, and boarded the Noether.

The inside was almost exactly as it was before they had been set upon by those damn pirates; Junpeng's scientific supplies scattered everywhere in the shield room, Markand's comic books neatly filed away in the bookshelf he hired a Rockman to carry into the weapons room for him, and Kirby's little collection of interesting odds and ends he had picked up or begged from others, even her own little trinkets and mementos, including the pair of fuzzy dice that had place of honor in the cockpit, and given to her by Kirby, the sole human. But of the other crew themselves, there was no sign. Emily sighed heavily. It seemed that it was all up to her now, whether the others had died, been saved, or something else entirely. Still, she reflected, it could be worse. It could have been Kirby. He couldn't fly for anything. She left the Noether for the time being and went to introduce herself to her fellow pilots, since they would apparently be flying together.

Silas sat up, and in a instant vomited, he felt uneasy and had a major headache, his suit's exoskeleton system sucking the contents of his previous lunch (A protein block flavored like beef stroganoff) and filtering them into the waste system.

Last he could recall he had been completing practice runs in his completed ship, he looked about and noticed he was in a lush green world. How odd, he checked his wrist mounted computer for his Space Suit, it stated it was a clean oxygenated world, and with that he pulled off his helmet.

Silas took in a deep clean breath of fresh air as he fished out a white plastic like mask and stuck it over his face, best to meet the local populous.

Silas stood up and hit his head, he turned and saw it, his X-Wing, the Red 7, "What the hell?" why was his new fighter there? He had just barely tested out the Laser guns, the targeting systems and even the experimental launcher, the Proton Torpedo (it occurred to him the fact he made all that showed way to much free time on hand) so why was it here?

Mr. Grant didn't recall flying it at all.

Prologue Planet

Fangs began its boot process, only to be greeted with what could only be described as a metric fuck tone of errors, noting that none of them were critical or system threatening the AI elected to ignore all of them. It glanced around at is surroundings, then down at itself, before back to its surroundings. This was an environment unlike one that it had ever logged before, neither the field of battle, or a lab.

Unsure what to make of this experience, it began to log the presence of the other pilots along with there ships, prehapse one of the organics would have a better idea of what was going on?

Planetary Prologue Area

The sensation of "waking up" isn't something a Cybertronian is used to. Once you go offline, you may never know how much time will have passed while you waited. Whether it's a cycle or fifty mega cycles, you won't know until your processors come online.

The fact he was very aware that he was somehow asleep bothered Prowl the most. More than the green sky or the organics somehow near him. He never really cared enough about those sorts of things. No...what he cared most wasn't where, but when. The feline-shaped Decepticon growled, then took a moment to slowly sit his joints up and scan the environment for the one responsible for dragging him to this smelly planet. After all, anyone who would capture a Decepticon and leave it unguarded in the open is either suicidal or has a damn good reason for doing so.

edited 11th Apr '15 1:13:26 PM by Raidouthe21st

Planet Prologue.

The darkness began to stir, swirling, before giving way to light, and a green sky. Seth slowly rose of his back, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oww...what happened? Did I hit my head test driving the Phoenix?"

At that precise moment, a creeping thought entered his mind, and he looked around wildly.

"Where's the Phoenix?"

Getting off his back, he looked around more carefully. He sighed in relief when he saw the Phoenix behind him.

"OH, MY BABY!"

He ran up to it, hugging it, or rather, trying to put his arms around it as much as possible. He hadn't taken notice of the other individuals there.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're okay, I was worried that we'd crashed."

It is only at that moment that he feels the others presence, and he can do nothing but stare back, frozen.

"Oh...uh...it's not...hello."

edited 12th Apr '15 6:21:08 AM by UndyingPhoenix

"Fuck, my head..."

Jake stretched and yawned as he straightened up on the seat of his car, finally opening his eyes to look around.

"Oh, come on, how did I even get here, I wasn't even that drunk last night!" He exclaimed as he scanned the inside of his car before noticing the snake on the dashboard, basking in the sunlight.

"Oh, hey buddy, you got there too?" Jake said with a smile as he gently grabbed the snake which coiled around his forearm as he got out of his vehicle, sitting on the hood as he took out his cellphone with his free hand and started dialing a number.

"Alright, let's see... Yo, G? Yeah, it's me! Yo, look, some weird shit happened over here, I have no idea where I am right now... Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, don't worry 'bout that... Look, uh, could you just pass the word to Lucy and tell him I probably ain't gonna be able to get to work tonight if I don't figure this shit out? ... Okay, thanks bro!"

He eventually hung up, putting his phone back in his pocket as he glanced around, noticing all the others in the same situation as him.

"... 'Sup, y'all."

UNKNOWN PLANET

UNKNOWN TIME

Adrian broke through the waters of consciousness like a breaching hammer through a door. Where once he was asleep, now he was awake. And the throbbing pain in his head told him that he hated it.

"Oh good lord fuck me sideways in a parlor..." He tried to place a hand on his head, to find he was wearing his helmet. A moment later, the glaring green light of his HUD booting up assaulted his eyes, and he moaned in pain as he fell back onto the ground.

The second he was able to do so, he turned down the lights on his HUD and sat up. The HUD wasn't reporting anything was wrong - it was also reporting the Green Demon was half a metre behind him, so at least his fighter was nearby.

And then he saw them. People, starfighters - was that a fucking Old Earth space shuttle - and a fucking car that looked hundreds of years old - he ripped his helmet off just to get a good look at what he was staring at.

"Och, pieprz mnie, tego dnia po prostu tam coraz lepiej i lepiej..." he quietly muttered to himself, in the other language he knew.

Unknown Planet

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ..... ZZZZZZZZZZ....." Snored the little pink creature. Then it yawned and slowly opened its big bright eyes. He looked around himself, noticing people and spaceships - none as big as Meta's Halberd though - and blinked. He knew what these tall people were called, Adeleine had told him... himen? Hamas?

"Hoomans!" Kirby cried in delight, remembering. "Lotsa hoomans! Hiiiii hoomans!"

Kirby waved at the others present, both his stubby arms moving above his head. As he turned he saw the thing behind him. Dragoon? He didn't remember having the Dragoon with him. Actually, the last thing he remembered was... fighting Marx, who had tried to take over Pop Star. And then he realized he was not on Pop Star, because he knew the sky wasn't green. So.... where was he?

"Kirby lost..."

PrologueLand

Emily walked out of the Noether and up to the closest being to her that looked to be in the same predicament, a young human talking into an archaic communication device and sitting on an equally archaic mode of transportation, with a snake, of all things, coiled around one of his arms. Her feet made soft fizzling sounds as she walked (which was certainly odd; they hadn't done that before), and she stumbled a few times when her head twinged, but she managed. She got close enough to hear the end of his conversation and his greeting to the others before tapping him on the shoulder and holding out her hand to shake. "Hello sir. My name is Emily Cerenkov, captain of the Noether. I'm reasonably sure we'll be flying together. Assuming, of course, that you have a ship."

edited 12th Apr '15 9:58:50 AM by Tojin

UNKNOWN LOCATION

UNKNOWN TIME

Adrian looked around, finally getting his bearings. Slapping his helmet back on he set the Green Demon to run a quick diagnostic scan to ensure it was at 100% functionality; and it was then that Kirby caught his eye.

He slowly turned around, his T-shaped visor bringing into view a pink puffball that was saying hello to him.

And, it seemed, everyone around him.

"...What the fuck," mused Adrian, as he idly contemplated exactly the sort of clusterfuck that was happening.

Silas looked about brushing through his hair, other people... other lifeforms and so many diffe- HOLYSHITWASTHATKIRBY?!

Silas ran over in a instant and began to inspect the pink puffball, amazing! This guy was all the rage close to 2 centuries ago back on Earth! Hell he even had some of the games back at his outpost on the edge of the Yoran Solar System. The UCSF was kind enough to do that!

In fact now that he got a good luck around, many people about all seemed to have something unusual. Especially the man with the car, the cell phone, and the snake, he had a giant Space Shuttle behind him. Wow those things were relics.

Silas stood up straight, before deciding to speak up, "Hello? Can anyone understand me?"

"Yo." Jake said with a smile as he shook Emily's hand with his reptile-free one, silently trying to figure out what she is for a bit, to no avail - she's friendly, and that's all that counts right now.

"Name's Jake, by the way. And, can't really say I've flown one of these things before, I mean, spaceships ain't exactly a thing where I'm from, know what I'm saying? The only one of these that looks remotely familiar to me right now is, say, the big white one over there, one of these space shuttle things..."

"Loud and clear, bro!" He added as he heard Silas' question.

edited 12th Apr '15 10:50:40 AM by FokiasTheJester

A hooman came over and looked at Kirby funny, apparently surprised. Well, Kirby was only two-of-a-kind (three counting Galacta Knight, but he had sort of exploded) so Kirby supposed the hooman had never seen a star warrior before. The pink puffball happily twirled around for Silas, before hopping up on the hooman's head to get a better view.

"Kirby understands, poyo. I talk good." Kirby nodded sagely.

UNKNOWN PLANET

Adrian looked over to Silas. His flight suit certainly looked... different, but then again, in Macrocosm, everything from flight suits to fighter weapons tended to differ. There was still standardization evident, but for the most part people were very individualistic about their fighters and suits. For some pilots it was expression, for others merely a celebration of freedom.

"Yeah. I understand you. You're speaking Trade, then?"

Seth just leans against his fighter, not eager to get into random conversation with a bunch of strangers. Rather, he looks at the fighters around him.

"Is that an old...space shuttle? Aww, cool, a red X-Wing! And I'm guessing that one of these is a Transformer from the movies...awesome."

He quickly goes through the insides of the Phoenix, making sure everything is in order. He's creating quite a bit of noise though...

Emily smiled lopsidedly. "Likewise."

At the mention of a space shuttle, Emily looked around for it. "Eh? A space shuttle? Aren't those usually really-" She spotted it off to her left. "-big." She stared at it for a moment, then shook herself. "Sorry. Where I'm from, ships are usually about a third as large." She squinted at it for a moment. "...Is that a laser cannon on the nose?"

"Huh, only a third as large? Damn, you guys must be pretty damn good at this kind of stuff then..." Jake remarked as he took out a cigarette, pausing as it was inches away from his mouth as hears Emily mentioning the nose-mounted weaponry.

"... I don't know shit about lasers, girl, but that definitely looks like a gun."

Silas looked at Adrian, "I'm speaking English actually, one of the many recorded languages that a USCF citizen can learn."

As for Kirby on his head, Silas was beaming underneath the white mask he wore, this was amazing, how did this happen?!

UNKNOWN PLANET

Adrian thought for a moment. Apparently there was a language called English, that by sheer coincidence, was exactly the same as Trade.

Small galaxy after all, he thought. He idly pulled out a touchscreen phone gizmo, and did a quick search on English.

After a few seconds of reading, he found out something; Trade was English. Trade was just a different name, seeing as English had become one of the three majorly common languages in Macrocosm - along with Chinese (which he recognized as Maoyi) and Russian (which he also recognized as Torgovlya). He looked up at Silas, pocketing the phone.

"...Turns out we're both speaking the same language. Trade is English."

"Oh, yes, pretty much every race is that good nowadays." Emily said distractedly. "Y'know, I've always wanted to study these old things... They're from so long ago that even the humans have forgotten how they're powered. I think I'll go take a look." With that, she jogged over to the shuttle and peered interestedly at the engines, seeming for all the world as if she had regressed back into a child. She could be heard muttering to herself as she inspected them, occasionally even sticking her head up a thruster. "Oh, wait, so then... Oh that's how! Interesting...", and so forth.

Jake shrugged and followed Emily, lighting his cigarette and taking a long drag as he watched her poking around the shuttle's engines.

"Oh, y'know, it ain't something really fancy, just a mix of liquid oxygen and hydrogen passing through turbopumps to get to high pressures and then being ignited together, nothing too fancy."

"... How in the genuine fuck do I even know that, anyways?"

"I know these kinds of things because I'm a Space Engineer," Silas shouted out, he lifted Kirby off his head and set him down.

UNIDENTIFIED PLANET

"Space Engineer, huh? That an organization, a job description, or both?"

Sadly, Adrian was interrupted shortly after he asked that question. A blue object appeared in the corner of his HUD - looking sort of like an atlas of a world. And not just on his HUD - on anyone with a HUD, it would appear in a spot outside of any important elements. To those of a synthetic nature they would be getting a high-priority communication that seemed to bypass security with the effort an organic took to breathe. Communicators heard it speak, and for those without, it broadcast through any fighter speakers in the nearby area.

It sounded something like the opposite gender - different for each person - and to those of a synthetic nature they could interpret it as whatever they wanted. Maybe it sounded like a vague authority figure, or maybe it sounded exactly like Megatron.

"...Testing, one, two, three... are you all hearing me?"

Ravage, who had been sitting back and observing the flesh forms walking and incessantly jabbering to themselves in case they actually said something of interest, tilted his head in confusion. His jaw almost dropped off its hinges as he processed the strange voice reverberating in his processors. The...tone was admittedly different, unusually cautious, but it was certainly him. He would never forget that voice after millennia, even if his brain circuits were fried.

"...Lord Megatron?" said Ravage to thin air, in an almost pathetically hopeful if growly way.