Alan shouts "Anyone with a mining rig ready to make a fortune (or lose one)? The magnetar's getting bright up there. (+read 19) Anyone looking to join is free to set their nav or atlantisport to the included coordinates. (t #30351 to join)"  (Public-shout)
Regan chortles, "Then it's worth a scream or too."
Patashu oh heys, it's time.
qmorph synthboy
>> You quietly morph to 'male Anthro Dragon Synth'.
t #30351
You feel a wrenching sensation...
A Peaceful Galaxy(#30351RLJ)
Silence... if one seeks words on the waves, or noise from the void, that's what's to be found. By and large, a serenity has set in on the cosmic surroundings here. A thick haze of metal-rich dust dominates this galaxy, dimly lit by faint red dwarf stars, punctuated by the occasional small but blazing blue dwarf, cooling stellar remnants, or the flickering jets of marauding black holes. There are no distant galaxies visible; gazing beyond the galaxy reveals only a horizon of cold black slowly drawing nearer. Occasionally there are hints of order: rogue dark shells that were once dyson spheres, abandoned relics of unfathomably advanced civilizations, though even these are gradually succumbing to time, over a trillion years of wear leaving them nearly unrecognizable despite their make. Seems this galaxy has already spawned its last civilization long ago; the remaining stars and worlds have long depleted their capacity to generate new life. Indeed, it's easy for peace to reign when none remain to break it.

Still, occasionally something goes bang, once every billion years or so. A neutron star, having recently devoured a red dwarf star, roars with radiant life... or perhaps vampiric undeath as it were, sweeping its incredibly powerful beams in a double-cone about a thousand times per second. It spins so fast, space itself twists as its surface passes at nearly the speed of light, light itself shearing apart on passing through its magnetic field. Energetic as it is, even more energy is stored in its not-quite-spherical surface waiting for a trigger to explode. Might be a good time to mention the rogue planet headed for it. A metal-heavy planet rather brown and boring, its mountains have worn down to barely noticeable slopes long ago. There are some regular patterns, perhaps of a civilization that left it hundreds of billions of years ago, though there's not much left to do with it except perhaps drop it into a cosmic blender...
Contents: Alan
You found one fuzzy creature!
Amy has teleported in.
Amy has arrived.
Maynard skulks in from somewhere-or-another.
Maynard has arrived.
[OOC] Alan greets! And shall give a few minutes for others to show up
Amy hasn't brought mining equipment, though it's questionable whether she'd need it ...  What she has brought is lots and lots of peculiar vacuum tubes and crystal apparatus, at least one rocket and a few things unidentifiable.  More than a bag or two, a small trailer's worth of junk, carried on her hover-sledge, stowed with whoever she can trade scam into bringing her and her stuff to this rare celestial event.
Patashu has a PI ship with him, naturally! It's a black draconic form with purple lines framining the trim of the hull, a crew of kobolds, and a modularized internal structure that unfolds into a mining and processing rig, suitable to be plopped down where there's resources and handle the whole end to end process.
Alan is quite literally wearing a bucket on his robot-head. He whaps it, clang. "I got a bucket!" He then takes it off. "And at this rate it looks like we'll all be helping Patashu." He looks to Patashu, "You got the discriminators, right?"
Patashu gives a thumbs up! "You got it. Sucks up molten mass and sifts it for what you're REALLY interested in, right?"
You rumble, "I usually mine cold, but I dig a challenge."
ws
Room: A Peaceful Galaxy
-Stat-Name----------------Sex---------Species---------------------------------
 IC   Maynard             male        raccoon
   Doing: That sentimental stuff doesn't suit you
 OOC  Amy[3m idle]        female      Lynx?
 EXC  Patashu             male        Anthro Dragon Synth
   Doing: Your mechanically excessive mayor dragon!
      >Alan               male        sharkbot                          |Myril
---[ Found 4 characters. ( 3 Awake / 1 Zombie ) ]-----------------------------
l alan
Robot sharks with frikkin' laser beams, just what this situation needed apparantly! Standing just shy of 1.9 meters tall, this is indeed that, an anthropomorphic shark robot in the classic metal-plated style with sharp titanium teeth, a driving tail, a back fin, and a head fin serving as a mounting point for a blue-violet beam laser. This robot seems to have a medium-weight build, agile and fit-looking without sacrificing power, primarily painted an anti-corrosion sonar-absorbant glossy dark-grey with a silvery-white belly color.

If the laser wasn't distracting enough, his eyes are plainly cameras with mechanical iris apertures and glossy plastic coverings over them. His visibly hinged jaw looks rather powerful with its hydraulic drive though it primarily acts as a water intake, taking in cold water (or less effectively air) before sending it out of heat exchanger 'gills' below the ribs as active cooling. Considering the sonar-absorbing paint, the solid-state liquivolt power source, and a non-cavitating tail driven by quiet artificial muscle rather than the servos and hydraulics used elsewhere, that trail of heat might be the only way to track this robot as he speeds through the dark abyss!

His clothes are designed to minimize their effect on hydrodynamics as much as practical; while not particularly tight, they do look well tailored to him. He wears black pants and a matching long-sleeve button-up coat, often closed but otherwise showing a tan-colored shirt under it. When on land, he'll generally be seen wearing heavy boots able to handle the load of a metal-creature sprinting around.
Patashu looks Alan up and down. "I guess you're ready for spacefaring like this, huh?"
Amy says, "Patashu!  Can I hitch a ride!  As long as I get these rockets deployed before impact I'll be happy!  Probably.  if they work."
You rumble, "Sure, you got it!"
You rumble, "I figure with a once in a lifetime opportunity like this, it'll take all sorts of approaches to get something to work."
Mako shouts "A similar option is offered for those who cannot mine: certain Interested Parties request assistance in locating and speaking with otherworldly forces. Well, OTHER otherworldly forces. Have interest? Will Travel? mjoin me to find out!"  (Public-shout)
Alan nods to Patashu, "Plus, if we get blown up, well I won't be missing this body very much. Well, we'll be getting into the rad zone in a few minutes." He looks to Patashu, "I guess I'll be on the scoop?"
Patashu thumbs up! "Go for it, you're the man with the plan."
[OOC] Alan asides, was hoping to avoid conflicts with other plots, but eh
[OOC] Amy says, "really, really, really bad luck to pick a Saturday."
[OOC] Patashu says, "shrug! s'happened to me too, not sure if it can be avoided in general LOL"
Maynard has brought along a rickety rental ship that's *probably* likely to hang together. And a space suit. And provisions... you get the idea.
Patashu gives Maynard a thumbs up!
Kyizl shouts "And lastly, if you want something to listen to, or just a place to hangout and enjoy some warmph... I'm starting up my mini show in just a moment.  Type @stream to find out how to listen, and feel free to come by to S5 E3 where I'll be.  You don't even have to come, or listen ,or anything!  The choice is yours!  Either way, do something tonight!  Enjoy yourself! :)"  (Public-shout)
Amy decides she doesn't like the idea of 'red zone' and will pick a ride with Maynard instead of she can.  (Also to spread around the RP a little.)
Patashu grins. "Looks like the backup-body-havers have naturally self-separated."
Kyizl shouts "It's more of a 'warm' type of set... some acoustic guitars, lower energy... more to relax with, as if lazing in the sun perhaps.. or outdoors (but not the beach).... starting now...."  (Public-shout)
Maynard boards along with Amy. The ship has plenty of attachments for digging and drilling that've been... attached, shall we say. "Hey, I've only been cloned once, and that was *plenty*."
You rumble, "Sounds like a story for another time! *grin*"
Alan chuckles briefly, "Well, their rig, their choice, their fortune, or their problem, depending. Well, particles are lighting up. All warm?" The dark, cold planet falls faster and faster... there's even a bit of red dwarf still left around the neutron star. Looks like the planet's going to hit it flying in the opposite direction of the spin, and crooked. Mind the beams! They're likely to exceed your shielding limits by a factor of... eh, forget percent. Probably upwards of a factor of 1e9.
Patashu grins! "Yeah, nothing's gonna defend against liquid death. You've got the collission all modelled out in advance, right? Figure we'll just weave riiiight around of anything that'll liquefy us."
Patashu doesn't SOUND like he's nervous, sounds more like he's having a fun time already!
Amy works frantically, switching on and airlock-dumping piece after piece of equipment out the airlock.  Some power on and deploy, some succumb to the harshness of the environment, one just explodes (and not in a good way), but the rocket takes flight and steadies itself, changing its orbit just slightly enough for a good parallax.
Maynard works on keeping the crate aloft for Amy's sake, relying on feel and instinct, wits and guile. ... Better hope they're in order.
[OOC] Amy says, "Perhaps fitting for the impact event:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vtUmO6kisw"
Alan says, "Modeled, yep! But there's some quantum uncertainty involved. Kinda hard to get a good scan of something that keeps vaporizing all your probes..." The planet lights up, heat signatures showing as it draws nearer. Finally, some action. Earthquakes detected. Then a dozen. Then ten thousand. The surface of the planet heaves, long-dormant volcanos erupting, then mountains becoming volcanos, then plains and oceans becoming volcanos. Seems the sea floor is breaking up, gases and soon rock being shot out on suborbital trajectories by immense tidal pressure. "Alright, first up is some old zircon if folks want it, we should have five minutes before impact. Mind the flying boulders!"
Patashu oooohs and peers out the viewport, admiring the planetary annihilation! "Definitely gonna have to record as much of it as I can." Kobolds are manning stations! One's checking scanner readouts, another is plotting a course through the various deadly debris, and another's piloting the helm, all of them working in careful co-ordination!
[OOC] Alan says, "Nice!"
( Was about to post up however- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEmDWt83XFY )
( The back end of the planet is alight with red and orange, boulders flying about. Normal ores, but quite metal rich. Might be a good idea to be behind the planet anyway, it's the only radiation shield you'll have going through the beams! You could ride afar in the shadow, safer but with only the lightest and poorest boulders going past... or do you try to go in to scoop the planetary core as it erupts? )
Patashu grins to Alan. "I'm feeling daring. Wanna try for that juicy liquid core?"
Amy shouts across the ship, "Maynard!  What stuff are you mining for?"
Alan grins briefly, "It's your ship. There won't be any dejavium in there yet, but if you want to go for it, I'll keep the scoop safe best I can."
You rumble, "Alright, let's go! We've only got time to make one safe pass, so we'll get a full scoop's worth of core. Ready?"
Maynard shouts back even while intensely staring at displays and readouts, in the Zen of dodging stray bits and keeping the crate steady, "Whatever looks cool enough!"
Patashu 's kobolds are already leaning in real close to stare at scanner outputs!
Amy says, "I'd be partial to some rare earths!  Also partial to staying alive.  Whatever's in reach may be the best we can hope for"
Alan calls out, if he has remote comms, "Don't forget, make sure you stay away from the edge of the shadow. Radiation bounces off rocks!" All while Patahsu's craft soars down through the stream of lava, magma... liquid planet? That was a continent, right? Might actually have to thrust forward as tidal forces pull the ship back!
( For Patashu, then Amy: )
>> Alan rolls 1d100, and gets 35
>> Alan rolls 1d50, and gets 46
[OOC] Alan says, "Wow |D"
[OOC] Patashu  uh ohs. Is that bad?
[OOC] Alan says, "Not necessarily! Spoofing-"
( Patashu's craft careens in, but mantle-slag is all over the place! Hopefully there's some good shields on his craft. The high-pressure jet of liquid spewing out is easily drawn in- it's just basic metals like iron and lead, and most of the actinides are already depleted. Still, this planet is incredibly metallic, and Alan's good at playing shutter. He'll get some rare earths in and all the base metals he could ask for if he doesn't mind gettnig power-washed with molten iron! As for Maynard, despite hanging back, fate seems to insist on bringing the chance to you. It's a motherlode of a stream of zircon, tantalite minerals, platinum, seems an entire deposit got bouncy-ball ejected clean out of the planet! Which might be a problem, since you now have an entire vein of treasure heading right for your craft at about 15 times the speed of sound! )
Patashu winces as the shields flare a brilliant blue, the hexagonal tesselated pattern bright as we fly by the ship, flickering with both heat and physical impacts. "Hey! That's a good stress test for the ship. Looks like we're alive... How's the haul, Alan? Figure we should scram before it gets more dangerous now."
Alan says, "Mostly meteor mash, but if you end up needing hull patches, you've got plenty of basics to make some with! How's the other crew?"
Maynard doesn't have time to do much except try to maneuver laterally to the edge of the explosion, minimizing the amount incoming to the scoop, etc., and thus the hull damage...
Patashu checks in on them, assuming they've got comms open. "Looks like they're hanging in there. Seems it's just mayhem all around!"
Amy is still dancing between her instruments even as they begin sliding across the deck.  Things seem to be coming to a head!  One flickers out, but there's still enough resolution to continue the recording...
Maynard radios back to Patashu, "Still in one piece... don't think I'm gonna get my deposit back though..."
Patashu winces. "Do your best to stay intact, alright?"
Amy says, "If we can live past the planetary impact I might be able to put up a shield."
Maynard laughs, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna let Amy get unlinked! How're you doing with that McGuffinum or whatever it's called?"
You rumble, "Not ready to extract yet. Waiting on Alan's say-so."
Alan chuckles, "Sounds about right! No raccoon pancakes? Good!" Maynard may end up passing up much of the treasure, but likely manages to scoop up a good helping of rare earths if he dares! At least the damages are already paid for in that case... The planet transgresses the beams, with you in the shadow. It's brilliant, the entire planet seeming to turn into a disk of black surrounded by a shining ghostly cherenkov blue, streaks of decaying particles zipping by at light-speed. Despite having an -entire planet- shielding you, radiation levels tick up sharply, stopping just short of hazard limits. Then the planet begins to turn foggy, the fringe luminescing as the front half of the planet begins to evaporate... once the sky is no longer filled with light, you see a vaguely ball-shaped bundle of gas, dust, and metal-heavy amalgam. Now thouroughly activated through particle collisions. The planet is quickly sheared apart into a spread owing to the fact that it's moving the -wrong way- around the magnetar, the bending of space forcing two opposing disks to form. Brilliant flashes of relativistic collisions sparkle all about the star... and there's a starquake. Then another. Then ten. Then ten thousand. Each one releases more boom than an entire battlefleet's worth of ordinance.
Alan says, "We're about to see syntheis. The gamma ray spread will be unpredictable, get away from the beams as far as you can!"
Patashu whistles. What a pretty sight... Hell, this would make for an excellent tourist trap if it were repeatable. Uhh, better not get any ideas so soon. Kobolds are scrambling in a panic to turn the ship around and get it to safety! "Alright, we just have to hang on through this part, right?" Wincing at the beautiful yet deadly view!
Amy is switching red gems in and out of her recorders almost as fast as she can, more than one shattering under the onslaught of information.  She switches between hyperventilating and forgetting to breathe at all.  "Maynard!  How much are these power couplings back here rated for?"
Maynard has to trust his senses and instincts, keeping his hands firmly on the controls, obeying the slightest urge for an adjustment without question... and it just might work... if you can believe that. (or at least if Amy can believe that, since Patashu and Alan are probably too far away to have any effect). He has to trust that the little hits won't matter and the big hits will miss, like executing a complicated ballroom dance with thousands of partners at once. And he has to trust that Amy knows what she's doing...
( For Patashu (bonus 30 for straight shot) and Amy/Maynard: )
>> Alan rolls 1d70, and gets 47
>> Alan rolls 1d100, and gets 75
>> Alan rolls 1d100, and gets 80
Alan nods to Patashu, "Yep, hold on tight and take pictures if you've ever want a GRB as your wallpaper!"
Maynard calls over to Amy, "Hell if I know! The rental place didn't say! Just if it starts turning red-hot then back off, all right?"
Patashu grins. Hell yeah!
Amy throws caution to the wind and tosses the best metathracogram she recorded tonight into the playback unit.  Her satellites are all gone, all vaporized now, nothing left to record.  Maynard's readings go strange briefly - a strong power draw and a flickering drop in the intensifying radiation.  Amy hunts back and forth through the signal for the focus point...  The radiation is bending, diffracting.  It stabilizes out at 50% intensity drop.
In a page-pose to you, Nova squeaks
page nova+: hugs!
You cannot send a summons to more than one player at a time.
Perhaps you forget to put the = in the the page.
page nova=: hugs!
You page-pose, "Patashu hugs!" to Nova.
( The star quite literally explodes with power as it assumes a slightly more spherical shape, the beams erupting as a double-cone doppler-shift-rainbow of strange and exotic particles, the magnetic field below pumped full of particles twisting through split light and distorted spacetime near the surface of the star. A brilliant flash of gamma rays shines out, the sort that in earlier times would have an astronomer in a distant galaxy analyzing every bit of the data! Or render a planet in the same galaxy uninhabitable if it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Patashu? Right close to it? There's a noticeable burst of radiation to the shield and some antimatter zipping off the fields, but having gotten well away from the focus of the star's fury, while some systems may need to be reset, there's no major damage beyond some stun-time. Amy manages to get some quality data despite her gadgets during the eruption. A solid and clear picture of a natural quantum dynamo outshining the galaxy that contains it, with gravity waves revealing some very rare clues as to the true internal structure of these not-quite-black-holes. Some day, someone might figure out a few tips on quantum electronics from this! Not to mention all of the exotic matter created in the beam, characteristic trails of decaying particles demonstrating some of the most fleetingly available extremes of relativistic particle synthesis! ... Unfortuntely, now all of those cameras are likely fried. Likely some of the hardware on the craft too, as such a clear picture came through a clear corridor for a blast of relativistic particle radiation, flashes of antimatter annihilation briefly raking over the craft's hull. )
In a page-pose to you, Nova now has bat and fox ears apparently
page nova=: grins, ruffles
You page-pose, "Patashu grins, ruffles" to Nova.
Alan looks over. "Got a signature. We'll need to scoop the disk, stay between the cones and we should get plenty of dejavium!"
:'s kobolds join Patashu in admiring the beauty of the brilliant, blazing moment! Some of them are briefly disoriented when the systems glitch out and reset, but they're soon back on top of things. Patashu gives Alan a thumbs up! "Excellent, excellent! Scoop's ready and we're in position, and our ship's holding together. All good to go?"
Patashu's kobolds join Patashu in admiring the beauty of the brilliant, blazing moment! Some of them are briefly disoriented when the systems glitch out and reset, but they're soon back on top of things. Patashu gives Alan a thumbs up! "Excellent, excellent! Scoop's ready and we're in position, and our ship's holding together. All good to go?"
( There's also clouds of lingering antimatter and exotic particles drifting about, for any willing to skirt flows of mass moving fast enough to have a red/blueshift spread. )
Amy will be happy to record this event.  By telescope.  From a few light-weeks distance.
Alan says, "I'm good! I advise coming in edge-first spinwise, thrusters full on to avoid colliding with the disk."
You rumble, "Makes sense... Alright, full speed ahead, kobolds!"
Maynard catches Amy's efforts in the corner of his eye. "That one of the 'holographic' 'memories' you're working with there?"
Alan says, "Looked like a bit of a flash on the other end, Maynard and them alright? Anyone who wants to try scooping the beam could probably get a good helping of scoopable antimatter. Wonder if there are any strangelets up there?"
You rumble, "Stranglets... Are those the 'turn everything into more of themselves' variety?"
Amy says, "Yes!  A picture of the surface as it glitched!  Is it working?  I set it to diffract gamma wavelengths"
Alan chuckles briefly, "More tongue in cheek. Any in there that could do that would've decayed already! Though still, I'll bet there's some fun forms of matter in there." Though navigating so close to the star is likely -very- taxing on Patashu's craft, there's a lot of dejavium plasma being condensed, along with fresh R-process created goodies, rare actinides and the like. It's basically a supernova plume condensed into a (relatively) easily harvestable disk!
( More than that actually. Since everything going in was already heavy, odds are Patashu's going to have all the fissionables he'd want if he keeps on it. Of course, fissionables are still available plenty of other places; there are still more exotic things out there for one willing to chase them. )
Patashu eyes the instruments as meters start building and warnings start flashing, sweating. "Let's not spend any longer than we need to and take a mulligan on getting any dejavuium at all. Looks like we're good to start scooping..."
You rumble, "Any ballpark figure on how MUCH we need, Alan? Or is any amount we get enough?"
Alan says, "I haven't actually sorted out what the minimum needed amount is, so as much as we can manage! You're the captain, so it's up to you when to back off. Of course, the longer we're here, the more actinides you'll get too."
Maynard says, "Well, I think it's working, Amy... kinda distracted at the moment..."
You rumble, "Alright. Well, we're not able to rattle into pieces and we can pull back if we're in danger, so let's keep going for now..."
Amy keeps tuning it.  The shield keeps her plenty busy too.  They both got what they came for, she thinks, now to survive long enough to enjoy it..
( Maynard could try skimming the beams or the disk! Or keep back and just watch it all... The magnetar's going to swallow that disk up pretty quickly, flares of exotic particles puffing up through the beams as it does so, definitely worth pointing a telescope at if getting up close isn't appealing. )
[OOC] Alan says, "Did anyone else have goals left?"
[OOC] Patashu says, "No other goals than the obvious!"
Maynard is ready to flee in a panic, yay! Unless Amy wants to attack something else. =)
Amy is all for survival.  Time to get out of dodge before their dosimeters go black.
( Time for one final roll on the objective )
>> Alan rolls 1d100, and gets 86
( Patashu's craft doesn't -exactly- manage to follow the primary channel where everything got synthesized, but it grazes close and passes through quite a number of times, yielding quite a few good sized crates of high grade dejavium, as well as... well, probably the only example of natural plutonium ore likely to be seen, and a fair bit of it at that! Beyond that, Amy manages to get one last recording of the star finishing its meal, a few good pictures of wisps of oddly assembled quarks spiralling up through the jets. Finally however, as the two craft regroup, the disk begins to thin, leaving trace gases as the star stabilizes, the ejected particles now trailing out in a rather beautiful hourglass shaped nebula expanding at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, casting an amber-to-blue glow through the sky. )
Patashu checks the readings coming out of the scoop, with a whoop! "Success! We should probably scram, now - don't wanna jinx it!" Kobolds stargaze in a happy tailswaying line.
Alan grins wide for a moment, "That was fun! Everything's locked down tight, I'll handle processing back on the island. Think the other two need a tow or is their drive still good?"
You rumble, "We'll rendezvous on the way back, just in case."
Amy's shield would make the ship look a trifle odd to sensors, oddly dense and flickering as they pass through fresnel zones.
Maynard hangs back and enjoys the show. Both the show of the star going nebula, and Amy's show with her playback device. "All right, I think that about wraps it up. Let's go home."
Patashu peers out the viewport and grins. "Looks like they're still chugging along! Excellent!"
Patashu radios, "Enjoy the outing, you two? That was phenomenal!"
Maynard radios back, laughing, "By Alan's standards it's a walk in the park! What'll be interesting is finding out what ends up being done with that dejavium stuff."
You rumble, "Likewise! I'll be expecting a cut, so I'm curiosu to experiment with it myself..."
Amy says, "Been a long time since I worked at such a pitch.  Thrilling and I'm also glad we're not dead, and plain exhausted.  Thanks for letting us know about this"
Alan nods, "Happy to have you along! Among other things, bringing with fellow spindizzians with keeps hostile time travellers away. If all goes well, I'll be using the dejavium to build a novikov device." He then looks to Patashu. "Granted, I sort of thought all the other stuff we picked up -was- your cut. How much of the dejavium were you hoping for?"
Amy says, "I'll be using the recording of this destruction as a shaping tool...  What's a novikov?"
Patashu hrmms. "Well, I don't want to be greedy. You don't need ALL of it, right? How's 10% for me sound?
Alan says, "Novikov principle basically says 'any timeline that has a paradox, never happens, regardless what that means'. I plan on exploiting the heck out of that to the ends of zero-probabilitying whole branches of timelines!"