Network Omni News

[taalismn]

I leave it to the GMs' imaginations just what Shayn is....a very lucky/competent human, a cyborg, a dragon in disguise, a Fallen Cosmoknight, an illusion cast by the rest of the team, or an urban myth....

[taalismn]

'she'?

[Alpha 11]

Actually, 21 more days and it would have been 10 years(ten years if you count the fact that I did volunteer work for them previous to being hired)....that woulda been some nice symmetry...But I'm getting over it, just leaving on such a sour note rankled....

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 05/06664623643/32342383

Last of Ceklestran Keepers Retires After 42,000 Years on Job
-----Emyodas Cataract, Omoli Sector, Thundercloud Galaxy. An era came to an end today when the last manned Ceklestran outpost was closed today, and its Keeper, on continous duty for 42,312 Standard Years, left for a long overdue retirement.
(Video of a stooped-looking Draconid in an archaic vacsuit going about the interior of a spacestation, checking monitors and equipment racks)
Gadalas Vorgcee was only 300 when he accepted an apprenticeship to work as an attendant and assistant technician aboard one of the Ceklestran 'space lighthouses' used for guiding intergalactic traffic between the Three Galaxies, and providing communications relay service and rescue of stranded ships through the adjacent Emyodas Cataract, a rotaing blackhole with wormhole properties. He rose to become a full station Keeper and kept watch over galactic traffic lanes for forty-two millenia.
In that time, Vorgcee, his aging slowed by his station's proximity to the event horizon of the Cataract, and ancient Vechree technology, has watched trade and technology advance through the Omoli Sector, seen governments rise and fall, has guided countless vessels through the galactic expanses and the turbulence of the Cataract, been involved in over a thousand rescues, and has on several occasions survived attacks by pirates and creatures of the void. Though Vorgcee has never married, he remained through his tenure as station-keeper a gregarious being, often engaging in friendly conversations with passing starships, and becoming known in the sector as 'Garrulous Gad'.
"More than the broadband beacon signals, Gadalas' voice had to be the most welcome sound anytime we ran into trouble running the Cataract." said one regular wormhole shipper at the closing ceremony:"His calm and friendly voice talked a lot of people out of giving up when they thought their ships were going to break up under stress from shooting through the wormhole...He'd even offer them a lay-over and a warm meal if they needed to gather their wits after a particularly bad crossing ...he's just that sort of being."
However, automation of the wormhole stations and robotic beacons have replaced the need for manned crews, and the decision was made to close down the Cataract Ceklestran for good last year. Despite calls to keep the station running longer, appeals failed and the station re-automation was completed just last month. Ironically, it was Vorgcee himself who calmed protests about the decision to close his station, when he came out to accept the advance of progress and his pending retirement.
At yesterday's closing ceremony, Vorgcee took one final tour of his Ceklestran base of operations, checked the systems one last time, then, a crowd of journalists and friends watching, closed the hatch as he left, escorted by a Second-Stage Promethean who once served as his supervisor when he first started working as a Keeper.
Vorgcee has expressed high hopes for his retirement, including doing some fishing('not easy to do in the middle of deep space', he admitted to reporters) and maybe part-time work as a customs screener on Phaseworld or a school crossing guard.

A nice touching story.

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline:05/132321/534645312564

TransGalElectris Announces Mass Circuit Recall; 'Catastrophic Failure in Thousands of Systems Possible!'
----Amundis Cycor, Helior Sector, Consortium of Civilized Worlds, Corkscrew Galaxy. One of the biggest producers of advanced nanocircuitry and electronics components, TransGalactric Electronica, today announced a major recall and warning concerning one of its hottest-selling products in the last decade, the GLX-07 Circuitboard, citing minute, but significant flaws that could, in the corporation's own words, result in 'catastrophic failure' of any systems the circuit component may have been installed in. This comes as a serious blow to the corporation, as the circuit in question has already sold 8 billion units.
Hailed as the 'fastest and most versatile multi-tasking micro-comp chip-board ever' from TransGalElectris' long line of quality electronics, when it was introduced, has now been revealed to have serious flaws. TransGalElectris admitted that the high-compression layered nano-deposition galnite circuit matrix has proven, under long-term use, to suffer significant atomic erosion, resulting in cross connections of electron flow and even eventually flash energy discharges that would completely destroy the functionality of the circuit-chip. TransGalElectris is still investigating the cause of the problem, but insider sources claim the likely culprits are inadequate calibration of the manufacturing nanites and a cut-back testing program that failed to study wear and tear over several decades of use. Compounding the problem is that the compromised chips, once the growth of short-circuit connections has begun, is accelerated by high radiation and tunneling particles...as might be encountered in space-based applications.
While TransGalElectris has offered to pay full replacement of the recalled GLX-07, market analysts are predicting that the estimated 80 billion credit cost of this recall and reimbursement may not be sufficient to restore TransGalElectris' fortunes, and that a full recall may take YEARS to accomplish, as the circuits were sold far and wide...so much so that a full recall may prove impossible.
Another angle to the recall is that only eight years ago, TransGalElectris was involved in bitter litigation with two other chip manufacturers; ZizzorSan, and KimberTech, the latter a known supplier to Naruni Enterprises, over their piracy and illegal manufacture of an unlicensed copy of the GLX-07, with an estimated additional ten billion units of the bootlegged chip design sold between the two companies. It is not known how faithully the new companies duplicated the TransGalElectris design, or whether the cheaper copies share the same problem, but it has already raised concerns in a number of sectors.
Given that the GLX-07 series is used extesnively in starship and advanced space-based hardware systems, including fire control systems, a number of government agencies are already issuing warnings to space-based organizations and military units who may be using the compromised chip. Insiders in several branches of the CCW have also reportedly begun drafting possible litigation against TransGalElectris, adding to the company's future woes.

[taalismn]

Consider this a GM excuse to short out that ship you FINALLY bought, or that fancy plasma rifle you finally acquired...
Plus, once TransGalElectris' executive officers start running, Naruni Enterprises and others who got burned using the defective chip design are going to want a piece of them....generating jobs for PCs as either bodyguards or bountyhunters....

THEN there are rumors that maybe the chips aren't so defective...Conspiracy wags point to TransGalElectris' corporate initials...TGE...and note that a disproportionately large number of the defective chips were used to fill large CCW military contracts(as well as those of other militaries)....

[Aramanthus]

Those are two very good news stories! Congrats Taalismn!

[taalismn]

Then again...it could be industrial espionage from within....

[taalismn]

Well, you know when the chips are down, it's really going to hit the fan....

Time to replace the circuit boards in the life support waste recycling system....

[Aramanthus]

This looks like an interesting way this thread is going. I'm looking forward to seeing the way this goes!

[Greyaxe]

THEN there are rumors that maybe the chips aren't so defective...Conspiracy wags point to TransGalElectris' corporate initials...TGE...and note that a disproportionately large number of the defective chips were used to fill large CCW military contracts(as well as those of other militaries)....

I love it, the cold war heats up a bit and the CCW wont take it lying down, but how to extract quiet revenge...

[taalismn]

Reciprocity perhaps...what does the TGE need most and how to sabotage it effectively?

[taalismn]

The FWC is working on that...NON is stiffin' the TGE on the hammerlock on media...the TGE elite get all they want luxury-wise from looted worlds, but quality's got to suffer even with the 'satisfy me or else I kill your entire country' clause for craftsmen....
Smuggled goods might still have a 'forbidden fruit' attraction(and TGE officials can try to justify their acquisition as 'industrial espionage' , 'practice for our undercover corps', or 'helping corrupt and turn elements high in the ranks of our enemies' economic structure'...) making them a possible route for sabotage...provided it's not so obvious what the source of the sabotage was(and the common denominator in all the incidents)...

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 05/1731236/42461246236

Agri-Combine Rampage Slays Thousands on TGE World!
---Enestamazzi, Rhode Ceti IV, Gabalash Sector, TransGalactic Empire, Corkscrew Galaxy. Government officials are blaming the apparent rampage of a garage of giant automated agricultural combines that went berserk inside a community, killing thousands of residents, on faulty microchips.
At least five massive automated combination superheavy tractors, harvesting combines, and in-field food processing autofacs, each massing several hundred tons, apparently ran rampant rather than procceed to their regular work duties on the agricultural planet of Enestamazzi, TGE Sector Government officials say. The giant agricultural machines breached the nearest habitat dome and drove through the densely populated residential district, pushing buildings over, chewing through others, and literally mowing down terrified civilians as they attempted to flee. The rampage only took twenty minutes, but several thousand people were reported killed before local police received desperately needed assistance from TGE Legionnaires and an Invincible Guardsman who had been visiting the planet as part of an armed services courtesy call.
TGE investigators are now interested in the onboard A.I.s of the five combines, believing the problem lies somewhere in their networked field/crop management system. "It's entirely possible that we're looking at a short circuit that resulted in a cascade failure that toook down all the safety protocols...maybe even a bad circuit board or computer chip," one of the TGE investigation staff announced to the press, "But we haven't ruled out the possibility of sabotage altogether."
Underground sources in the sector claim a different story, however, citing that the community that was so tragically struck was under a curfew and lockdown for earlier political unrest on Enestamazzi, a vital world in the TGE sector economy, and the focus of FWC agitation efforts. The presence of the Invincible Guardsman and the Legionnaires, was, according to these same sources, no coincidence but part of a military crackdown on seditious behavior on the agroworld. The same source also cited several previously unreported earlier 'incidents' on the planet that took place in smaller outlying communities, including a suspicious 'chemical leak' that killed over a hundred farmers in a smaller domed community, and a hoverbus crash that claimed another hundred migrant workers. The combine-rampage is just the latest in a series of escalating and increasingly brutal suppressions of Enestamazzian steadholders and laborers chaffing under the qoutas and demands of the TGE, the underground reports.

[Greyaxe]

FWC or CCW hmmm, the TGE wants to know...

[taalismn]

FWC or CCW hmmm, the TGE wants to know...

Or maybe it was usual heavyhanded police state tactics....But never fear! NON is on the case! And if it royally embarasses somebody high up, all the better!
(Though to the party that tried to hawk those CGI pictures of our boss Cybysscryth in a hot tub with Aerihman...we know who you are, If we were you, we WOULDN'T sit down in your favorite chair for the evening's 'net-browsing...oh, too late? Wages of sin...YOUR sin, you little hack.)

[taalismn]

Welcome to the real world of cutthroat, vaporize-torso, mindprobe-head journalism....

[taalismn]

And NON still uses those interrogation staffs too, so we mean it when we say skull-probe....

[taalismn]

Plus we have this brand new TechnoWizardry device we've been wanting to try out!
......
.......
.......
........
The Comfy Chair!

[taalismn]

Backbone-Softener....with the convenient easy-reach cupholder, hot/cold refreshment bowl built into the arm rest, fold-over tray-table, massage feature, TW cleanser, and universal remote to the will-sapping Boob-Cube....

Even Kreeghor Elite have been broken down by this creationm willing to sell their state secrets for more salted pretzels and pay-per-view!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[taalismn]

No...just some clever applications of Techno-Wizardry and experiecne in the effects of sloth on the brain...Everybody expects thumbscrews and laser-scalpels, but if one has the time, mindless (and endless) entertainment does does as well, if not better..(We've found that reruns of 'My Little Pony and Friends' achieves far more rapid results from interrogation-hardened hardcases than waving a holy water squirtgun under the nose of a vampire does)...
Of course, 'Comospeace' and the 'Galactic Amnesty Project' are now complaining that our methods are inhumane(of course they ARE! WE're Inhuman after all! Or rather UN-human, or NON-human), and would we please go back to red hot irons in the future, please?

[Aramanthus]

Nice newstory! I like it! Keep them coming!

[taalismn]

Not 'Void'...'FamilySpace' is more like it...The Warm Sunny Nebula of Home....
How are things, A?

[Aramanthus]

I'm going to spend time with family this weekend and I have a special horror game to run for friends too.

[taalismn]

Amityville Special?....

Soylent Green Platter....Friend of mine sprung that in a Call of Cthulu game....Haunted restaurants are FAR more frightening than just plain regular haunted houses, especially when they're a) remote resorts('The Shining' anybody?) or built INTO haunted houses(Bed, Breakfast, and Demonci Possession for one low price...your soul!).

[taalismn]

Wanna bet? I can hold my breath until the next habitable star system....

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 05/263246/234657273

CCW XenoSociology Group Blasts Aboroc Continga Violations of Primitive Species Protection Act!

-Limozoh Pacra, Noro-Gor, Sector Betran, CCW, Corkscrew Galaxy. Members of the CCW Pacra Institute’s XenoSociology Studies Group have again approached the XSG and TVIA Seats on Noro-Gor 2 with a denouncement of what they consider to be ‘gross violations’ of the PSPA by the Aboroc Continga in the largely unexplored Thundercloud Galaxy territories. Professional sources within the XSG have described the demeanor of the Pacra Institute group as ‘hopping mad’ over the Continga’s ‘heavy-handed’ exploration techniques and their “blatant disregard for scientific method and the sanctity of the worlds they claim to be -studying-”. The scientists in question have cited a number of instances where both Aboroc explorers and their robotic equipment have shown a ‘similar disregard for local conditions’, and accuse the Continga’s methods of ‘doing iireparable harm to entire developing societies’.
“They’re loose cannons, them and their machines...crashing through fragile ecosystems and sociological networks like a Kreeghor Dreadnought through a traffic intersection!” proclaimed T’Lards Shi, Director of the Abulan Clouds Inhabited Worlds Study Group, based in the Thundercloud. “They should be assigned a monitoring group, preferably an Explorer-class cruiser and Marine contingent, to keep an eye on them whenever they go!”
Shi made available holo-footage of one recent incident on the primitive world of Gil K-28, to illustrate his point.

(Imagery of a jungle city, made of stone, appears...The construction is parts Aztec and parts Angor Watt...the POV zooms in on a temple structure on the edge of the mid-sized community where a crowd of beings has gathered. The beings are shown in zoom-closeup to be humans, clad in plant fibers and bronze ornaments, again showing similarities to Aztec fashions, milling about at the foot of a small step pyramid....The crowd is mostly men, but a few women in robes and tunics can be seen on the edges of the group.
The POV pans up the steps of the pyramid to show a small temple, decorated by a giant carving of a snarling befanged demonic face, in front of which is a small platform where a number of older, more elaborately dressed priests are busy securing a young female to an altar, while an obvious village elder is haranguing the crowd while going through the motions of preparing a long obsidian blade.
Voice-Over: “Date: Zero-four, twenty-eight three eighty-four one, Field Sociologist Dapac Tharl at Location 881....What we’re witnessing is an annual ceremony of the K’na people, apparent human retros, sacrificing a selected member of their community to appease their local demi-gods and soliciting their protection...Given the preponderance of larger lifeforms in this region---see Biologist M’rai’s attached studies---this ceremony seems to quite successful...we have witnessed no major incursions of such lifeforms within the community, which, as you might note...lacks substantial protective walls...an exception compared to other similar communities on this continent, where the native human interaction with the local reptosaurs is much more precarious...Ah, the appointed time has arrived...”
POV: The head priest is finished his proclaimations and is now standing next to the altar, the knife upraised over the quivering sacrifical victim...when there’s an interruption of some sort from outside the camera field of vision....The head priest looks up in obvious irritation, then stops in shock...
Voice-Over:”Something appears to have interrupted the ceremony...What the....?!”
POV whips over to the edge of the jungle where...
A giant thirty-foot-plus gray metal robot has come crashing out of the rainforest. Its big blunt head is studded with an argus-array of multiple optics and sensors...Sensor towers and cooling vanes protrude from its massive shoulders, and both vegetation stains and alien calligraphy cover its body. It strides out of the forest with great distance-consuming steps, flashes of what could be laser-rangefinders and typography mapping beams zipping across the camera view. The massive bot stops, seems to stare at the temple...the metallic trimmings on the temple and the ornaments on the priests flash with reflected light for a moment...then the giant robot strides into the crowd, scattering the assembled men, leans over the step pyramid, and reaches down with one massive arm. Multiple smaller armatures pop out of the robotic arm, one deftly plucking the head priest’s ceremonial knife out of his fingers, others swipping ornaments from the attendant underpriests, before zipping back into their arm housings with their acquired swag. The main robotic paw envelopes the screaming would-be sacrifice and detaches her from the altar.
The robot stands up, its prey(?) in hand, as the crowd begins to react...Several guards with spears suddenly charge the giant interloper; the robot simply seems to look down, then reaches down with its other arm...Another small forest of smaller arms pop out of the larger arm, grabbing pears by their heads and yanking them out of their wielders’ grips. Several of the spearmen are actually sent tumbling by the force of the snatching. Similarly, the spears disappear into forearm compartments.
Then on the chest of the giant robot, seams appear, and heavy white vapor pours out....
Voice-Over: “Who?! What idiot...? oh great...”
POV: Suddenly there’s another commotion from the edge of the jungle, and another massive form appears...a giant twenty-five foot tall green-skinned muscle-hewn being that looks like across between a bodybuilder and a giant lizard, complete with clawed hands and tail...Its face matches that of the carving on the temple.
The creature looks at the disarray of the temple grounds(panicked crowd, priests looking outraged and shocked, big interloper crashing its party), then spies its apparent lunch in the hands of the intruder. It glares at the robot and howls in rage.
The robot passively and mutely stares back. Below its apparent chin, several doors have openned maw-like revealing a steaming mouth, a cold blue light, and multiple robotic tongues or teeth emerging from its ‘mouth’. In its robotic grip the sacrificial maiden stares wildly at the blue-glowing maw and the at the befanged beast that’s salivating as it looks at her, and she comes to a decision...she passes out with a screech.
The giant robot takes noti ce of the newcomer and seems to brighten up. Then with an attitude of posture that seems to say...”come and get it away from me’, the giant robot pops its captive into its jaws. The hatches close shut with a clang.
The green ape goes ape-kaka and charges the robot....and runs right into a left piledrive that spins the ape around and drops it to the ground with an earth shaking thud(thanks to the wonders of Metaphor-Vision, we can just make out spinning stars around the beast’s head). The giant robot is then on top of the downed beast, one giant footpad in the middle of its back. Coming around and angry at this turn of events, the lizard-ape screws its head around snarling, just in time to see the robot deploy a set of large, long, and gleaming biopsy needles from one arm...The ape goes big-eyed and starts screaming as the POV pans away to show the crowd looking on it shock...those that aren’t already fled...the head priest falling down the stairs, and the general sense of a natural order of things being overturned in an instant.
Voice-Over: "Argh! Get on the comm to the ExL! THat's an Aborocan planetary survey robot out there! Of all the blatant, ham-handed....!"
Sound-over continues on to the sounds of a giant ape-lizard yelping and screaming, then whimpering and screeching, then two sets of giant footfalls...one quick and running, the other slow, ponderous, and mechanical....
Last shot shows a villager tossing away his monsterhead amulet as he gazes off into the distance....Another is already fashioning a clay robot figurine....)

(Cut back to the Pacra Institute protest conference)

“They’re menaces, they are! They have no respect for the scientific method! They oughta be reprimanded and regulated! They’re little better than tomb-raiders and sacred-site desecrators!”

Argeezo Twang, Assistant Director of Offworld Exploration for the Aboroc Continga, had this to say to the charges:
(Video of a demonic-looking blank-eyed, minaret-skulled being in scholarly robes in front of an elaborate symbol of a magnifying glass in front of stars)
Twang: “ I assure you, no native lifeforms have been permanently harmed by our studies, nor have we taken anything that wouldn’t have otherwise been destroyed or died in its natural environment...we pride ourselves on our safety standards and on our thorough documentation of our scientific work. We’ve accumulated a treasury of knowledge and artifacts that we’re right proud of....and if our enthusiasm for exploration seems rather bold for some of you, better re-assess why you’re really out here anyway!”
(note that the computer translation to Trade Two doesn't completely mask the Aboroc native tongue....or is it just coincidental that the last part of Rwang's speech sounds suspiciously like 'nedder-nedder!'?)

[taalismn]

:lol: While frozen in suspended animation?

No!
I'm a zombie...
Hey! Not all of us Life-Challenged are lurching flesh-eating dolts! And we can get as scared as the next person!
And I HATE having to stitch myself back up after some cannibalistic lunatic in a hockey-visor takes a vibroblade to me...Can't those twits figure it out? Sunken eyes, pale skin, no pulse, no sex?

[taalismn]

The Aboroc are one of a number of names I'm doing more on, so they may pop up in other threads(especially Fan Races and hardware-related)....as I have the time to revise and innovate...

[taalismn]

someone should use the name Magnus

Are we referring to the old Gold Key 'Magnus, Robot Fighter' comics, or something else?

"Quick, Re'***eek! Emergency archival mission to research obscure reference! Go at once!"

[Aramanthus]

Nice news stroy! Good job Taalismn!

[taalismn]

Ah...Magnus the Transformer versus Magnus Robot Fighter...what a death match that would be!

[Aramanthus]

Yes it would be an interesting one!

[Greyaxe]

Ah...Magnus the Transformer versus Magnus Robot Fighter...what a death match that would be!

My money is on ultramagnus.

[taalismn]

Agreed...Magnus Robotfighter was a martial artist able to smash through steel with his bare hands, but UltraMagnus is a megadamage brick...

Brick wins....

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newsflash:
Dateline: 5/30017/45815

CCW Taskforce Stops and Boards Interdimensional Slave Transport!
Altheaport, Demero Sector, on the Paradise Foundation periphery. Cokscrew Galaxy.
Acting on tips developed by NON, CCW security forces patrolling the periphery space of the Paradise Foundation, intercepted and boarded a vessel suspected of being involved in cross-dimensional slave trafficking.
(Videofeed: A Warshield-class cruiser harddocked to a smaller legume-like alien ship with a slick hull skin and exotic-looking engines.)
A Legonian heavy freighter was overtaken just inside Demero Sector space in what appears to be a well-organized anti-piracy operation. The ship surrendered with minimal resistance to the well-armed taskforce, and armored law enforcers entered the ship to discover some two thousand ‘undeclared passengers’ in the ship’s holds.
(Videofeed: Armored TVIA and CAF personnel break open large stacks of carrying crates, revealing people inside, floating senseless in biostasis sacs...all of those revealed are all identical in appearance.
Camera cuts to an offical-looking TVIA spokesbeing;)
“As the technology of cross-dimensional travel becomes more common, we have seen an increase in the practice known as ‘avatar slavery’....slavers visiting multiple, related, timelines and worldlines to collect multiple versions of the same individuals...catering to an obscene demand on the part of certain slave buyers to have sets of particular individuals. “
The seizure of the craft, the first of its kind, is seen as both a victory for CCW border patrol forces, and as a test of the recently passed, and some say, both politically-motivated and badly underfunded, Transdimensional Crimes Office and the Dimensionally Displaced Person’s Act.
As to the ultimate disposition of the people rescued in the recent ship-seizure:
“We hope to revive these folks, re-orient them, and return them to their respective worldlines of origin, but given that these slavers liked to visit worldlines that were extremely close in aspect, and they didn’t keep precise notes, we may NEVER be able to find their homes. However, we assurre everyone out there that whatever happens to these people in our care, will be infinitely better than what was originally planned for them when they were abducted from their home dimensions.”

Both CCW ship investigators and NON sources report that the multi-dimensional-capable starcraft seized, was on route to Paradise #17 of the Paradise Foundation worlds, where presumably buyers for the living cargo were waiting. Official Paradise Foundation representatives have already issued a statement denying that the Legonian-registered starship had any standing with the Foundation government or any organization in official standing with them, and that there is no connection between the slavers and the Foundation. “We have plenty of manpower available to us, the pick of the Three Galaxies when it comes to entertainment, exotic or otherwise, and in fact our biggest problem is turning people AWAY from seeking employment on our worlds? What the frad do we need with SLAVES? Yet somehow we get the reputation for being up to our sensory orifices in despicable organized crime?! It’s senseless discrimination against us simply because people enjoy a high standard of life and have fun on our planets...something that seems illegal in certain places. Again, we have no traffic with slavers!”

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newflash
Dateline: 06/012236623/3763153121

Safety Equipment Corporation Bans Office Flamethrowers
--Dezelvin City, Madanos III, Manarok System, Thes Sector, CCW, Anvil Galaxy. Senior officials at BetchurLife Corporation, a leading manufacturer of fire control systems and related safety gear, have had to ban incendiary weaponry from the company's conference rooms, following months of escalating pranks with the devices.
"I'm afraid that our technology got away with us and ran off with our heads," confessed a senior executive, when questioned about the ...unusual....safety edict issued by the company; "What with our Auto-Extinguish systems, Null-Ignite Field Generators, Flame-Off Skin Gels, and Combustop Nanotech Network, people around here have ceased taking fire seriously as a threat..."
"It started out innocent enough...workers would try to light candles and scrap-paper to see what the activation threshold of the safety systems was....then that graduated to wastebasket fires and even setting themselves on fire....Throwing heatsticks at each other, then spraying lit thermo-ignitor fluid....Then the junior execs got ahold of some handheld flamer pistols and started playing 'fireball tag' in the conference rooms... We knew the situation was spiralling out of control when we were holding a marketting meeting and one of our new execs began tossing a naplam grenade around...As much confidence and reliablity as we engineer into our fire-control systems, there ARE limits to the technology....We decided better to issue a rather commonsense directive than lose the factory and staff to a fuel-airexplosion that was beyond the capabilities of our civilian-market systems to contain..."
BetchurLife has also issued a request that all employees turn in military-grade incendiary equipment to Security as part of the safety directive. Senior administration has emphasized that if such is done WILLINGLY, the participating employees will NOT be disciplined, but that hold-outs will be fired...(er), relieved...of their current work positions...

[Aramanthus]

Two good news stories! Great job Taalismn!

[taalismn]

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 06/025423623/46215334

Royal Breeding Fiasco Breeds Potential Civil War!
---Venesco, Adriano System, Methus Sector, Corkscrew Galaxy. Political analysts are predicting 'major trouble' in the border-system of Adriano, straddling the strategically important Morlard Corridor between the CCW and the West Arm FWC sectors, as a result of the mounting evidence that the ruling Family of Adriano has reached a critical point of inbreeding.
Despite repeated and extensive genetic counciling, the Tusco-Adriano Family, who have ruled the Adriano System and controlled a monopoly on all major enterprises for the past 10,000 years, have repeatedly inbreed to the point that the current generation may well be the last.
"WE're rather surprised that they haven't all gone mad or simply become sterile centuries ago," admitted Doctor Gidi Tymos, one of the few outside physicians to actually be allowed to examine the Tusco Family(though he is now declared persona non grata with the Adrianans for his public forthcomingness on the Family's current problems), "Extensive drug and cybernetic implant therapy is all that's keeping them alive as it is...but still they persist in trying to 'keep the bloodlines pure' to such a degree that they're practically a separate species from the rest of the Adrianans."
The degeneracy of the Tusco-Adriano Family is no backburner matter of small concern, however...Thanks to the vagaries of Adrianian law, the Tusco-Adrianos have an ironclad grip over 80% of the planetary economy, and their tacit approval is needed on all important decisions regarding their investments. This includes shipping rights through the system...and the lifeline supplies being channeled to the FWC border-states. Should the Tusco-Adrianos undergo the sort of progressive and catastrophic collapse predicted by Doctor Tymos and others, before new heirs are appointed, or new reforms initiated, the Adriano System could devolve into open civil war over the Tusco spoils as the Family-headed Royal government collapses. Already politics within Adriano are raising concerns that the usually punctual, and brief, appearances and communiques of the Tusco-Adrianos on governance matters have tapered off in the last few years...And the lmost recent appearances, such as by Grand Duk Chelis Tusco-Adriano, before a Domestic Trade Conference, have shown a marked trend towards eccentricity(Grand Duke Chelis took the opportunity to condemn the makers of aromatic cheese as traitors to decent society). Already, a number of disident groups have called for immediate reforms, and rioting has occured in a number of cities across Adriano(most notably in the Schlek Province, noted for its aromatic cheese production). Reports of TGE-affiliated political agitation in the system remain unsubstantiated, but have raised CCW concerns about the safety of the Morlard shipping corridors.
Travellers are advised to caution when transitting the Adriano hub, despite assurances of Tusco-Adriano Royal spokebeings that business continues to be good and proceeds as normal. Plans for the Annual Day of Royals, celebrating the Tusco-Adriano rise to power, remain on schedule, and political analysts predict that the annual event, noted for its appearance of the entire Tusco-Adriano clan(or as much as can be gathered) in public will be watched this year more than ever....

[Aramanthus]

Nice story Taalismn! I like the HLS you seeded us with!

[taalismn]

Skin-Cam Symbiote
(aka Toupee-Voyeur, Pelt-Cam, Scalp-Cam)
The Skin-Cam is a biowizardry symbiote bred to act as a concealed camera. The Skin-Cam resembles a rough square of thick skin, covered by a coat of soft, yarn-like hairs on one side, and rougnly about the size of a hand. The Skin-Cam is worn on the head, back, or chest(or other place with hair, though it must be exposed to sight in order to accomplish its function), of a willing host. The organism painlessly adheres to the host’s skin and has a chameleon ability which allows it to watch its skin coloration to that of the host. Furthermore, its hair(really a cooling and disguise mechanism) can also change color, and even change length and texture. The Skin-Cam can remain safely and securely attached to its host for days or weeks at a time, feeding off small amounts of blood drawn through its microscopic feeding tubules. It can be easily removed by tickling and peeling up the edges of its membrane, which persuades the creature to relinquish its hold and flop bonelessly into the hands of its host/handler.
Though effectively mindless, the Skin-Cam has an extensive nervous system web that allows it to record everything it senses and store it for later retrieval. By touching or brushing the organism, the host activates the Skin-Cam to open hundreds of tiny little pinpoint eyes along the edge of its membrane(even from close-up, these are likely to look like freckles or small pimples along the hairline) ...additional prodding or rubbing at the temples(or a telepathic command, if the host possesses psionics) causes the eyes to focus in one particular direction on on one particular object. Psionic beings can direct the symbiote with a telepathoc command, beings with notably flexible facial features can direct them with twitched eyebrows or other muscle twinges, or by rubbing the organism. Likewise, the symbiote can signal its activation and state of readiness with a muscle twitch of its own. All raudio-visual data recorded can then be read back telepathically or projected via a direct interface with a Psi-Projector or Psi-Interrogator for recording on other media.
The Skin-Cam’s major advantage is that it is organic, concealed, and doesn’t show up on tech-scanners. Its life sign signature is neatly concealed by the host’s, and only a very thorough, hands-on, bodysearch is likely to reveal the symbiote’s wrinkle-like skin-joining seams. This allows NON reporters to sneak into areas normally forbidden to cameras and surveillance gear, and still be able to gather hard audio-visual data. Needless to say, the Skin-Cam has become a favorite of undercover NON reporters who have to infiltrate ‘no-camera’ zones or areas where conventional recording gear would be detected. Reporter Solomoe Gress scored a major headline when he got a full A/V record of the heads of two major arms corporations meeting with representatives of the Ohmsad organized crime family in a sauna-bath...Gress’s skin-cam went undetected as part of his chest-pelt. Cub reporter Slias Zoma, on the other hand, had a close call infiltrating a nightclub in Center, when her skin-cam was discovered during a strip-search before an exclusive backroom party---she was able to salvage her cover by claiming the symbiote as her ‘pet therapeutic living hairpiece’.
NON is also looking at Skin-Cams that can be bred to detect and alert the host to psionic probes(through a strand of ‘hair’ inserted in one ear) or even act as mind-shields themselves.

Organism Type: Symbiote
Host Type: Animals, humans, humanoids, even supernatural beings
Host Environment: Head, back, or torso
Reproduction: Not applicable; bred in vats through asexual reproduction
Hit Points: 6d6
Average Life Span: 35 years
Alignment: Not applicable
Attributes:Not applicable
Powers:
Chameleon-form(takes 1d4 melees)
Perfect Recall(no cost)
360-degree vision/audio acuity
Infra-Red/Low-Light/Nightvision---500 ft
Polarized Vision(cannot be blinded)
Baffled Hearing(cannot be rendered deaf)
Can store/remember up to 12 continious days of audio-visual memory before having to be ‘burped’---its memories downloaded and the organism allowed to sleep and reset itself after 4 hours. Failure to reset the skin-cam can result in the Perfect Recall of past events bleeding into recent memories, spoiling the acuracy.

Bonuses:
The host gets a +1 to save versus psionic attacks due to low-level interference from the Skin-Cam if the organism is attached to the scalp. The symbiote also provides some additional protection(its own SDC).

Side Effects: None, aside from an occasionally itchy scalp/skin, sweating under the Skin-Cam(most beings wearing one shave the area before applying the organism), and the occasional throbbing near the symbiote

Size: about 6-12 inches square; roughly the size of a man’s hand.

Means of Elimination: Tickle, pull, and peel; the Skin-Cam comes off leaving only a few red spots where its feeding and anchor tubules were stuck.

Market Cost: Exclusive to Network Omni News; a black market sample could cost 80,000 credits or more to the right parties.

[Aramanthus]

Nice creation Taalismn! I think most of their reports would use that.

[taalismn]

I'll have to consider other new biowizardry devices as well....maybe nose implants? Nose for news? Detachable ears? Extendable 'keyhole' camera tendrils?

[Aramanthus]

Please I know I'll use it in my game!

[taalismn]

Hmmm...semi-autonomous hamster/rat/vermin bio-cameras....plus maybe a new class of Splicer-like Biowizard slave/minion, the Willard-Stringer?

(PC gets bio-modified to act as a 'ratlord' and works off his mod-costs by acting as a stringer for NON for a set number of years/story points, then can go freelance...but in order to keep the rats alive/get replacements, he has to buy them fresh from NON).

Gestaltic fly micro-cams?

[Alpha 11]

130 posts....Wow!

[Aramanthus]

Ratcam takes on a new meaning!

[taalismn]

"Crittercam" actually...and that's not counting smaller-than-average journalists(like the Gestaltic Insect Swarm), shapeshifting reporters, robo-drones, and nano-swarms..

Yeah, it's Big Brother, but these guys are just as likely to be spying on Big Government as they are you....for that all important headline on tomorrow's screamsheets...

Feel safer?

[Aramanthus]

And if they could genetically create them in their own little factories they could save themselves loads of money.

[taalismn]

That, unfortunately, is what happened on one world in the Three Galaxies....a self-reproducing viral nanocam system escaped, mutated, surpassed its 'critical death' threshold, and began spreading throughout the planetary ecosystem....the nanites were programmed to broadcast what the biocams saw and heard once they established themselves in warm hosts, by downloading into available comchannels...after the network news service server they were defaulted to crashed from the sudden tidal wave of raw footage dumped into them, the mutated biocams began flooding other channels as well...so anybody tuning in a radio or video cast found themselves assailed by random live feed from thousands, then millions, of biocams around the planet...

[Aramanthus]

LOL That would be a very scary world. Talk about having nothing to watch!!!