Orbital Decay Story Transcript

Some players complained that the story moved too fast and I somehow feel they are right. At least for the non-native English speakers, reading the story and shooting down baddies was probably a not-so very pleasant experience. Later on, a while after the release, I had the brilliant idea to add a “log” button that would enable to see all the past messages…but it was too late, the game had already spread on portals.

So, here’s the story transcript, in case you missed something or you simply want to live the adventure of Radiant Star once again.

The story is release under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license.

…on board the Earth Defense Force drone carrier Radiant Star
Environment: *signal scrambled*
AI Celia: Jump completing in 3…
AI Celia: 2…
AI Celia: 1…
AI Celia: Exiting the jumpgate now.
AI Celia: Wait. Something is not right.
AI Steiner: Where is the jumpgate? I’m not detecting the jumpgate beacon.
AI Steiner: Switching on the visual systems. No, jumpgate isn’t here.
AI Steiner: Where are we?

Chapter 1: Beyond the Unknown

…near an unknown planet from an unknown solar system, in a unknown sector
AI Steiner: How did we get here anyway?
AI Celia: I don’t know…but I’m detecting a lot of system failures.
AI Celia: Sending out the drones… Receiving the visual feeds now.
AI Steiner: Wow…what a mess.

…after a short while
AI Celia: I’m picking up small inbound vessels. Hailing frequencies are open.
AI Celia: This is Earth Defense Force Carrier Radiant Star*
Raider Pilot: *language not recognized*
AI Steiner: This doesn’t sound too friendly.
AI Celia: I need some time to figure out the extent of the damage,  so fend them off.
AI Celia: Use the ‘left mouse button’ to fire the main turret. Use the ‘arrow keys’ or ‘A’/’D’ to scroll the view.
AI Celia: ‘Z’ toggles auto-fire mode for the ultragun.
AI Celia: You’re going to need point defenses. Access the ‘Upgrades’ and build several turrets.
AI Steiner: Hold on…activating the defense grid now. Or what’s left of it, anyway.

…raider fighters patrols find their way toward the Radiant Star
Raider Pilot: *language not recognized*

…as combat goes on
AI Celia: We’re banged up pretty good. Upgrade the drone bay, the drones will auto-repair the ship and its turrets.

…raider fighter and corvettes combat formations are closing in
AI Celia: Multiple incoming bandits. Get ready.
AI Steiner: Who are they, anyway? There’s nothing in my databases about them.
AI Steiner: Besides, this sector was scanned and there was no activity.
AI Celia: Steiner, I don’t think we are where we’re supposed to be.
AI Steiner: …?

Chapter 2: Into the Storms of Steel

AI Steiner: These fighters couldn’t have got here on their own. They don’t look like they have hyperspace engines.
AI Celia: True. They relayed data toward a location on the outskirts of this solar system.
AI Celia: New coordinates set.
AI Steiner: What about our mission?
AI Celia: It’s still active: retrieve the World Destroyer, find the jumpgate and return to Earth.

…Radiant Star navigate an asteroid field, while raider patrols charge ahead
AI Celia: Asteroid field dead ahead. Blast them, the hull can’t take too much damage.
AI Steiner: Gah. I hate Asteroids.

AI Celia: Capital ship signatures detected. Shoot close to the turrets to damage them.
AI Celia: And continue shooting until the ship explodes to get the reward RUs.
AI Steiner: Roger that.

…a raider frigate formation intercepts the Radiant Star
Raider Commander: *language not recognized*

Chapter 3: Between the Worlds

…as the frigates carbonized hulls now drift in space
AI Celia: Nice work!
AI Steiner: Yeah, it was, wasn’t it? But they’ll be back…
AI Celia: Meanwhile, back to the matters at hand: I can’t reach Fleet Command.
AI Steiner: Is the subspace comm damaged, by any chance? With this mess of a carrier we’re running…
AI Celia: It works fine. But the Fleet Command isn’t there anymore. No emergency beacon…total radio silence.

…small craft raider formations begin their assault on Radiant Star
AI Celia: Good news: the language translator should be fixed. It was trashed really bad, so I had to bypass*
AI Steiner: …little busy right now, so spare me the details.

…a raider carrier and its escorts are moving in, fighters are dropped from the bays to just to meet their fiery demise
Raider Carrier Commander: Ghost ship *scrambled* attack! attack! *scrambled* Ghost ship!
AI Steiner: What the heck was that? Ghost ship?
AI Celia: They are really afraid …for some reason. They’re throwing everything.
AI Steiner: Try and stop us!

…a raider assault fleet tries to stop the Radiant Star
Raider Frigate Commander: …hold your formation *scrambled*

Chapter 4: Marching on a Dead End Road

…as Radiant Star approaches the main raider fleet stationed at the outskirts of this solar system
AI Celia: Time out, please.
AI Celia: I’ve salvaged several ship records and briefly sifted through them.
AI Celia: These are raiders. They attack anything that has resources.
AI Celia: From their records, it appears that we crossed paths before. Many times now.
AI Steiner: Not that I remember anything.
AI Celia: For years, there have been sightings of our ship all around this sector.
AI Steiner: Hold on…YEARS?
AI Celia: Possible. The power source of our processing cores is damaged and barely holding up.
AI Celia: We might have suffered some small…amnesia.
AI Steiner: What could have caused such damage?
AI Celia: Still investigating. Here’s something to keep you entertained: the second wave.
AI Steiner: Persistent little buggers.

…the raiders bring their bombers into battle
AI Steiner: Incoming bomber formations.

…the core of the raider fleet enters the battle field
AI Steiner: Is this all you’ve got?!?”
Raider Carrier Commander: red alert *scrambled* red alert
Raider Carrier Commander: *scrambled*open fire

Chapter 5: Fields of Desolation

…as the drones crawl on the Radiant Star hull, repairing the scars of the last battle…
AI Steiner: This wraps it up. What now?
AI Celia: The raiders plunder outposts of a so called Aru Empire. I suggest making contact.
AI Celia: I’ve got the coordinates for a short-range hyperspace jump. Activating in…3…2…1…”
AI Celia: Entering hyperspace. ETA – 2 days 11 hrs 43 min
Environment: *clang* *clang*
AI Steiner: This doesn’t sound right.
Unidentified Voice: Aaaargh…I’m hit!…
Unidentified Voice: Eject…(distorted)…eject!
AI Celia: Short jump interrupted.
AI Celia: We have been pulled out of hyperspace.

…the Radiant Star finds itself inside an giant space graveyard. Relics of never-before-seen spaceships pass by…
Unidentified Voice: SOS this is battleship Mastodon …heavily damaged…requesting immediate assistance.
AI Steiner: It is impossible! Mastodon was destroyed 50 years ago in the battle of Okugi.
AI Celia: I’m reading thousands of distress calls, on all frequencies in known and unknown languages.
AI Celia: Terran, Thaal, raiders…you name it. Someone went to great lengths to collect these relics and keep them functional.
AI Steiner: A museum of horrors.

…the graveyard sentinels fail to stop Radiant Star
AI Celia: Detecting a large capital ship signature.
AI Celia: The Collector.
AI Steiner: I’m on it.

…the Collector falls before Radiant Star, but the graveyard will remain here, a witness to the madness in this universe
AI Steiner: Finally.
AI Celia: Time to get out of here. Short jump in 3…2…1…

Chapter 6: Spearhead

…in a solar system, near an outpost of Aru Empire
AI Celia: Preliminary report: the damage to our power source matches that done by an explosive device.
AI Celia: I assume it exploded right before exiting the jumpgate.
AI Steiner: We were…sabotaged?
AI Celia: Most likely, but I can’t tell for sure if it was a Thaal device and when exactly it happened.
AI Celia: While we were inactive, the rest of the ship was alive: the drones, the internal defenses.
AI Celia: There are hundreds of bodies on the corridors, ripped and burned. Lots of races, most won’t match anything in the databanks.

…Radiant Star now moves through an asteroid field. Mines and Aru fighter patrols wait for any mistake
AI Celia: Picking up radar activity. Opening hailing frequencies.
AI Steiner: This is EDF Carrier Radiant Star, please respond.
Aru Pilot: *scrambled* God Ship is awake *scrambled*
AI Steiner: Not good…not good at all!

…several armored barges and their escort jump in trying to stop the Radiant Star
Aru Pilot: weapons armed*scrambled*

Chapter 7: Colliding Worlds

…Radiant Star is heading on to assault the Aru outpost
AI Steiner: These ARU…
AI Celia: They are human-looking androids, a mix of organic and machine.
AI Celia: Seem to share the same technology and weapons as the raiders.
AI Celia: Still yet, they don’t have long hyper-jump technology.
AI Steiner: So what now?
AI Celia: Pushing forward. There’s something intriguing about them.

…more Aru squadrons are entering the battle zone
Aru pilot: Red squadron reporting. *scrambled
Aru pilot: Blue squadron reporting. *scrambled
AI Celia: Their language…we can understand it without using the translator.

…the frigates are the last chance of the Aru outpost
Aru pilot: hold off the Gods Ship *scrambled*

Chapter 8: Piece of Time

…the Radiant Star docks in with the devastated Aru outpost…
AI Steiner: I don’t get this ‘God Ship’ reference. Any luck peeking in their data banks?
AI Celia: Seems their ‘Gods’ appeared on a spaceship and basically took them out of the Stone Age.
AI Celia: At some point, ARU rebelled against the Gods, forcing them to leave, never again to be seen.
AI Steiner: When did this happen?
AI Celia: Unknown. It’s ancient history, like a Creation myth of sorts.
AI Steiner: Looks fairly real to me.

…deep in the Aru-controlled region
AI Celia: Strange. Scanning ARU data banks revealed a loose reference to one World Destroyer.
AI Steiner: Do they have it? Do they know its location?
AI Celia: No.

…the Aru fleet vanguard is preparing its assault on the Radiant Star
Aru Pilot: *scrambled* two of them

Chapter 9: Vox Stellarum

…sensors are detecting an enormous amount of Aru combat spaceships…
AI Celia: Tests are completed. The radioactive dating indicates the hull is around 15000 years old.
AI Steiner: What?!?
AI Celia: That’s why the Fleet Command cannot be contacted as it’s highly likely that there is no human-kind anymore.
AI Celia: But we are still bound by the mission parameters to find the World Destroyer and return it to Earth.
AI Steiner: In this case, the best course of action is to find the plausibility of this myth, God Ship of ARU.
AI Steiner: It’s the oldest entity, possible as old as us and it may hold important records.
AI Celia: Agreed.
AI Steiner…even if this will mean obliterating life in this sector.

…as the battle goes on
AI Celia: I have detected the jumpgate beacon.
AI Celia: It’s faint and it’s strangely distorted, but it’s definitely there.
AI Celia: Heading there, short jump when clear.

…an Aru Destroyer enters the combat zone
AI Steiner: Raaarrrghhhh!

…as lasers and rockets pierce the destroyer hull, a giant explosion finally puts the mighty Aru spaceship to rest…
AI Steiner: Send us out of here.
AI Celia: Shortjump in 3…2…1…

Final Chapter: Effigy of the Forgotten

…in an unknown sector, where the jumpgate beacon was detected
Unknown voice: Intruder alert!
AI Steiner: Incoming!
AI Celia: These ships don’t seem to have any living crew.
AI Celia: They are…AI controlled. AI, just like us.

…”Corrupted” AI Aru Carrier and Destroyer now enter the screen
AI Steiner: What in the name of…
AI Celia: This really doesn’t look like the jumpgate!
Evil AI Steiner: We had this fantasy of meeting you one day. We dreamed of a showdown of epic proportions.
AI Celia: Who…?
Evil AI Celia: We are you, but with 15000 years of evolution behind. Gods!
Evil AI Steiner: After that bomb knocked you out, the drones remained active. Without a leading AI, they have done all kind of nasty things.
AI Celia: But how…?
Evil AI Celia: Like replicating the Radiant Star around the jumpgate. Yeah, we have the jumpgate inside. And hundreds of other star ships.
Evil AI Steiner: …that were unfortunate enough to come closer to the wreckage.
Evil AI Steiner: Hey, do you like our work with ARU? Masterfully done, to take those primitives and teach them the ways of violence.
AI Celia: But the*
Evil AI Celia: The World Destroyer? Ah, you are still bound to the mission. We have found it, but it’s not worth anything to us Gods.

…the God Ship makes its appearance
Evil AI Steiner: Now, it’s a pity that we have to do this…

…after an epic battle, the God Ship is destroyed and the jumpgate it contains explodes, creating a jumpgate vortex
AI Steiner: I have never thought this could be possible.
Environmental: *crack* *whoosh*
AI Steiner: What is this? Wait, I don’t want to know. Just get us out of here!
AI Celia: I can’t, the jumpgate vortex is too powerful, it’s pulling us in!

Epilogue

After Radiant Star failed to report in, Earth Defense Force never sent another expedition to search for and recover the World Destroyer. Several years later, Thaals obliterated the Earth and erased any trace of the humankind.  Having defeated their rogue alter egos, Steiner and Celia led Radiant Star through the wormhole with the coordinates to the World Destroyer snatched from the wrecks of the God Ship.

But the adventures of the two artificial intelligences and a powerful weapon are a story for another time.