Search      Members      Groups      Profile      Favorites      RSS      Register      Log in
Click Here First!

 
(currently a favorite of 0 users)
   Storygames Home -> Skiffiville - Science Fiction and Experimental SGs -> Sector 17
View previous topic :: View next topic  

Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:41 am    Post subject: Click Here First! Reply with quote

Hello and welcome.

Sector 17 is a story set in a world in which man has fled dry and infertile lands to instead live in sterile, machined underwater cities. To jump right in without further explanation, click here. If you want to learn a little more first, or would prefer to catch up more quickly with summaries, read on.

This storygame has a moody, almost serene setting at times, contrasting murky and lifeless sea travel with the faint and flickering light of clashing magnetic storms in the ruined skies above. The cities themselves are a patchwork of old and rundown once experimental machinery made by forgotten builders and more advanced cutting edge technology of near utopian quality and almost magical functionality.

Whether or not the catastrophic events that forced society into the depths was man made or by natural design has been lost to time. What is know is that the land is spoiled as well as infertile, and the air is unbreathable. The "cities" are more like atonomous colonies that are not governed by any one central authority or government, though neiboring colonies do mostly cooperate with each other and all share a similar political structure which can most acurately be compared with a corporate hierarchy.

Old and valuable artifacts recovered from the sea floor are the bread and butter of any major colony, and a Diving Operations dept. can be found in each one. Diving Operations itself (or D.O.), is consequently one of the most recognized authorities from port to port with the highest amount of organization and a set of protocols that are universally recognized from port to port. Thier authority in such matters supercedes local colony authority in most cases.

To see how this storygame came about, click here.

For anyone just getting started, I do recommend reading at least Chapter One in its entirety, because it does much to establish the general mood of the storygame. However, I do tend to spend a lot of time on little details and character development, and my chapters can get rather long. So for those who prefer the convenience it offers, chapter summaries are posted below.

For chapters 3-5 I tried moving discussion and polling out of the chapters and into its own thread. The reasons aren't important, but it turned out to be a mistake. For anyone interested in those conversations or the poll results for those chapters, click here.

Summary Quicklinks: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane


Last edited by Reiso on Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:06 am; edited 8 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:01 am    Post subject: Chapter 1 Reply with quote

Chapter 1...


... introduces us to William Kent and his small crew of two; Jerry and Sarah. Aside from being the owner and captain of their submersible vessel, Kent is a simple enough man, motivated by the want of material things and the wealth and power that comes with them. Jerry pulls double duty as both engineer and safety officer, and Sarah is statiscal analysis and general operations.

Jerry is loyal to Kent, but being that Kent can often be reckless, it is not uncommon for them to disagree, though it is often after a certain civil fashion. It is much more common for Jerry and Sarah to be the ones arguing, much to the irritation of their impatient captain, who can quickly have them both turn thier ire on him if he interferes. Sarah is the most conservative of them, preferring to make sure every step is well thought out and every possibility has been considered. She is a good friend of Kent's, and though she rarely shows it and would never admit it, she finds a kindred spirit in his occassional recklessness.

Depite the history of companianship the three of them share, tempers are unusually short between them all. They are on the last legs of their most recent dive, which has so far been unsuccessful, and they are running low on breathable air with a limited time window to resupply. After some disagreements about the next trip to the airfeed, they venture out slightly further than Jerry or Sarah are comfortable with, and despite this risk, have still found nothing.

Amidst arguments about the wisdom of that decision, they are startled when their sensors detect anomolous readings while passing over a grid section otherwise marked as Sector 17. Closer scrutiny reveals that hidden beneathe the otherwise barren and lifeless sands of the ancient sea floor is a rock that contains unidentifiable elements. Excited by this discovery and its apparent value to the scientific community, they celebrate their newfound implicit wealth and bring the rock aboard the sub for further study and analysis.

Kent becomes impatient with the wait for further information; he feels driven to see the rock for himself, to reach out and touch it with his own hands. Jerry and Sarah protest this more because it is against D.O. protocol (unknown materials are to be thoroughly examined by D.O. and cleared before ship personel can go near it), than out of concern for Kent, but he ignores them. After touching the rock, he shakes off a strange sensation. Sarah and Jerry plead with him to return to the bridge, leaving Kent with the decision of listening to them and avoiding further risk, or indulging his curiosity and examining the rock further...
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:10 am    Post subject: Chapter 2 Reply with quote

Chapter 2...

...opens with Kent's decision to continue studying the rock. He takes down some data and attempts to use a laser to cut into the rock for a closer look at its interior composition. Jerry and Sarah give up their protests and watch with detached fascination over their monitors on the bridge. They casually argue, but both are lost in thought by the time they realize Kent has started convulsing.

Meanwhile, we shift perspective and meet Adrian Gorscht. He is a morbidly obese corporate mogul who appears to be quite wealthy and owns several companies and properties. His very well appointed skyside office suite has an unobstructed view of the magnetic storms and a highly advanced daylight simulator. He is staring at his fish when he is intruded on by another man named Rafi, a dark-skinned and well dressed individual who informs him that Emergency Services has brought in a dive team who has recovered a specimen from Sector 17. Gorscht recieves this news well and intsructs Rafi to obtain the sample as discretely as possible, then returns to watching his fish.

Kent wakes from a dream of running along a beach to find that he has been hospitalized. A nurse is telling him that someone from D.O. wants to talk him. He reluctantly agrees to see the man, who quickly reveals that he is not from the D.O., but represents a private investor interested in purchasing the rock. This man is Rafi, though this is meaningless information to Kent. His offer is for a substantially large amount of money, as well as clearing him and his crew of all charges of D.O. violations and shielding them from any other repercussions of that action. Rafi talks fast and his words are smooth as silk and unthreatening. Kent is left having to decide whether to take this increasingly good looking offer, turn it down, or some other stall tactic to give him more time. Rafi makes saying yes seem so easy; all Kent has to do is nod his head...
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:15 am    Post subject: Chapter 3 Reply with quote

Chapter 3...

...is quite heavy with characterization not easily summarized. Most simply put, we learn a few interesting things about our crew and how they view each other, and see the strain of detainment on Jerry and Sarah, as well as the physical toll the seizure caused by the strange rock specimen has had on Kent.

As for what actually happens within the chapter, Kent turns down Rafi's offer to discuss matters with his crew. They are detained by the D.O., so the talks are intense and rife with argument over Kent's poor choices, but even as they argue over why he hasn't just taken the offer and gotten them out, it becomes apparent that there is a greater picture that they aren't seeing, and if they take the offer they never will.

Kent puts forward a radical new idea: He thinks they should steal a sample of the rock specimen for their own study so that they can better understand who is so interested in it and why, and he wants Jerry to be the one to do it. This leaves things rather in Jerry's court as the prevelant decision now has become whether or not he will do it. They seem to decide against it at first, but after Kent mentions the strange sound he heard before passing out on his first encounter with the rock, Jerry becomes intrigued and asks Kent to stall for more time while he thinks about it. This would clearly be a violation of the laws he was assigned to Kent's crew in order to enforce, so will he go through with it? Can he? And if so, how...?
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:22 am    Post subject: Chapter 4 Reply with quote

Chapter 4...

...begins with Jerry going over the plan in his head. Some time has passed (two days), and behind the scenes he shared a call with Kent in which they decided to move forward and acquire a sample of the specimen. Using his engineering brilliance, Jerry has conceived of a way to potentially neutralize or at least reduce the harmful effects of the noise produced by the sample; all he needs for it to do is make the noise again so he can determine its opposite. Despite his locating the sample and hacking into the security systems to monitor it, it has been disappointingly silent.

Meanwhile, Kent rides a very fancy and well appointed elevator up to the private office suite of Adrian Gorscht for a one on one meeting, escorted by the man called Rafi. Once there, he finds himself distracted by a number of circumstances that he believes are meant to do just that. But things are worse than that, because his mind keeps rambling away to these uncharacteristic tangents, and finding humor in the most inappropriate of things, which makes it hard for him to focus on the task at hand; buying more time. Still, he finally meets with Gorscht and finds he can no longer delay negotiations, so he settles in to make them last as long as possible.

Back down in D.O., Jerry is out of time. He has a narrow window of time to take advantage of an infrequent security lapse, and it is fast approaching without a single drop of noise made by the specimen. After some last minute changes to his system hack so that the counter frequency will be immediately played upon detection, he makes his way to where the specimen is stored.

Everything goes according to plan. Sort of. The only thing is, when he gets to the part where he's cutting away a small sample, his counter frequency is much less effective at neutralizing the disorienting effects of the sound produced by the specimen than anticipated, and Jerry finds himself fighting off dizziness nausea and other physical discomforts as well as the effect it has on his mind. Oh, and there was a distant explosion somewhere in all of that, and alarms started going off. But he gets his sample and starts to crawl out of there.

Gorscht on the other hand, is having a much less exciting time. He is stuck listening to Kent prattle on with various obvious stall tactics, and would have been otherwise exasperated by them. However, what Kent doesn't realize is that he too wants to buy time, so he was more than content to let Kent argue away the hours as he pleased. Then of course, the call he had been waiting for came in, and the information he receives means he no longer needs to deal with Kent at all, a fact Kent is flabbergasted by. Gorscht dismisses the entire negotiation and tries to send Kent on his merry way.

Sarah has bigger problems--well, more serious ones anyway. For example she was much closer to the bomb that went off while Jerry was away doing whatever he was doing, and she was damned lucky not to have been caught in the blast herself. She was caught by the sound wave however and is dealing with a room full of powdered debris and quite possibly a form of mild shock while another detainee of the D.O. is screaming for help next to her because half his body is all but gone.

Overwhelmed by the sudden and violent carnage, she runs away heedless of the direction she is going until she is stopped by armed men wearing uniforms she does not recognize. They usher her into a nearby room for interrogation, and one of them seems determined for something more nefarious, when he is distracted by Jerry attempting to enter the room through another door. The second of the strangers takes advantage of the distraction to knock out the first one, and tells Sarah and Jerry that he is not really with the invading force and is on their side.

We are left to wonder if they can trust him or not, and exactly how Kent plans to handle the sudden retraction of Gorscht's offer...
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:30 am    Post subject: Chapter 5 Reply with quote

Chapter 5...

...sees Jerry and Sarah grilling the new stranger about his intentions. He reveals his name to be Keaton, and that more or less he had heard that Gorscht was making a move to get the specimen, and decided to spring them. They have more questions, but they reach an agreement with Keaton to follow him out and save the questions for later, which is good, because now that things were getting ugly, he was leaving with or without them.

Tensions are high and tempers are short, but they start making their way out. Keaton makes use of some very impressive tech that allows them to walk through walls in order to make as straight a line as possible right to Kent's sub, the Barrow. They do manage to learn one other thing about Keaton; whoever he is, he has the knowledge and ability to determine their compass points instead of the more common station section based method of navigation. The magnetic storms make this usually impossible.

Kent is having some problems of his own. Unsure of his new position with the offer rescinded, and questioning his judgement ever since coming into contact with the specimen, he feels angry about the whole mess and reacts with hostility to Gorscht's sudden reversal. This does little but earn him a gun pointed in his face, which of course changes things entirely. Desperate not to walk away without something to show for it, he tells Gorscht that whatever it would cost them to dispose of his body, he would take less in order to walk away and keep his mouth shut about the implicit illegality of the offer Gorscht had made him. Amused by this, and apparently impressed by the bravado, he accepts the offer.

Meanwhile, Jerry is making some questionable choices of his own. First of all, he is walking around with the specimen sample in his bare hands (the maniac--thanks Crunchy!), just holding it out as if unsure what it is, has no moral dilemma about stealing someone else's coat to have a pocket to put it in, generally shrugs of the very real danger they are in, and seems to be finding all of these things very funny. He is not bothered by these things like Kent was, but is only dimly aware that he should be, which he also finds amusing.

The three of them arrive at the sub. With great difficulty, Keaton manages to convince Jerry that it is a good idea to put the rock sample in a metal container and put it away somewhere away from him for his own safety. He also convinces him to take what is essentially a sedative to help counter the ill effects the specimen had on his psyche. After the medicine works a little, Jerry seems to come to his senses, and they receive a communication from Kent.

Kent and Keaton are introduced, and a brief conversation between them reveals that there is a secret dock that Keaton and his people know about that he is willing to risk exposure of for all of them to reunite. Kent is left with decision of imposing this risk on Keaton as well as risking attack on the Barrow, splitting up and trying to meet at another colony, or trying some other route to escape the immediate threat of pursuit, and rendezvous...
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Reiso
Respected Citizen



Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Topics: 17
Posts: 917
Location: Western North America

Items
Legends
3556 Fables
Strata-gems

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:37 am    Post subject: Chapter 6 Reply with quote

Chapter 6...

...starts with a break from the characters in which the existence of a wall with a lever is revealed. This wall is a remnant symbol left over from the creation process of the storygame. It is described rather plainly, but it is also suggested that it has different forms and seems to exist in a shared time and space that somehow manages to be uniquely it's own. It is also pointed out that the positions of the lever on the wall were once a fixed thing, but that now things have changed; that the nature of things are in flux.

When we return to our characters, we find them arriving at the decision to move on to another colony and meet there later, leaving Kent with the problem of how he is going to get there. He spends no small amount of time wandering the market district and brooding over his losses and how he's messed up yet another good thing, and after he is satisfied with the self recriminations, he finds that his feet have taken him to a tram that leads to the business district where he knows he can find his ex-wife, Darcy. He concludes his subconscious has already figured out she can help him, and resolves to come to terms with that, no matter how much unpleasantness it promises.

Time passes and Kent finds himself in her office. Darcy is less than happy to see him, but we learn a fair number of things about their past: we learn they lost a child during pregnancy; we learn Darcy didn't like how close Kent was with Sarah, though she never blamed Sarah for that; we learn that Jerry would have been the godfather of their unborn child; we learn Kent has a history of abusing their relationship; and most importantly we learn about the existence of deep underground tunnels with railway systems that connect the colonies and that Darcy has access to them.

Against her better judgement, she agrees to help Kent, but not for his sake. She helps him because of the danger that Jerry and Sarah are in. We are left with the impression that they still love each other, but are unable to live with each other anymore.

Back on the Barrow, the three escapees make their way towards Jamison port. They seem to have escaped any serious pursuit, and have some time to discuss things. Jerry decides it's time for more answers from Keaton, and presses him to come clean about his full intentions.

Keaton reluctantly reveals some increasingly shocking information. First and foremost, the substance the sample is made from has the distinction of being able to stabilize a new fusion process that will provide the colonies with less expensive and more abundant energy. This is what makes it so valuable politically. Not so hard to believe in and of itself, but that is only why people like Gorscht are interested in it.

More difficult to comprehend is what Keaton reveals next; he and his people are from the surface, and with the cunning use of technology, they have reclaimed some of it for rough habitation. The absolute hardest piece of intelligence Keaton had to offer was the last thing he revealed: the existence of doorways on the surface that lead to other times and places. Their interest in the sample stems from the discovery that it is very useful in keeping these doorways open long enough in one location to send people back and forth through them. Their eventual goal is to prevent whatever catastrophe made the world so inhospitable. The only problem with that is that it manages to ignore that none of them are likely to exist in a world changed so radically. Understandably, Jerry and Sarah have issues with that, and are unsure how to feel about the whole thing or whether they even believe it.

Despite this new information, the biggest choice we are now left with is exactly how Darcy manages to justify Kent's use of the railway system to her company expense account...
_________________


Sector 17 -- Rebuilding... ... ...

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter
And because it is my heart."  -- Stephen Crane
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic   printer-friendly view    Storygames Home -> Sector 17 All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group. Forum design by mtechnik, customized by City of IF
All site content © City of IF or the respective storygame authors.   Terms of use
Home   Book   Storygames   FAQ   Greek myth   About   Policies