#stardrifting gunsmith ~ jeff

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Risk

Night had fallen once more on day seven since he had arrived at the Holy Temple of Awakening for the task at hand. Jiphoshraton sat at his desk in private, sighing through gritted teeth with head in hand. As with each night before bed, he kept only the desk lamp turned on, its azure-white light shining on a single page of notes.

"Dammit!" he muttered with pained enunciation. "That was my last idea to get anything more out of that damned Terran cor--"

He cut himself off, taking deep breaths.

"Look, it's fine. Remember, you were just spitballing anyway. You didn't think it would actually work in the first place. I mean sure, the readings made it look like he was still active, but even if he was, it's not like he could understand Gelidan anyway, right?? Pointless rabbit hole. We're better off continuing with the gene splice theorycrafting. We're making good progress on that, even if his damn head's... invincibility makes no logical sense."

He leaned back in his chair, left arm dangling to the side. He dropped his pen and looked up.

"...so then why do I feel compelled to go back over to him and try again?" He shook his head. "That's a stupid idea. He speaks foreign tongue, surely. The others'll just chide me for wasting time. The only time it would make sense to try again is around now. Alone. During curfew. When the guards are at their most active."

"There is no way in hell I could get away with that," he concluded, lifting up his left hand to see it empty. He looked off into space for a moment, rolling his eyes with a smile before reaching down to pick up the pen he dropped.

"Nah, they wouldn't buy that, I was jotting things down with it before and after we tried talking to--"

"Wait a minute."

"Where's my notepad?"

"..."

(A few moments later...)

"Ugh, I should've guessed they'd all be posted outside," muttered Jiphoshraton to himself as he slid into the isolated chamber containing the stasis cell containing the weapon, closing the large steel doors to it behind him and quickly grabbing his notepad from next to the vitals monitor.

"There we are." He stepped back and turned to leave, slowing to a stop before his hand reached the button to open the doors. He looked back at the stasis cell. Then at the doors. Then he leaned his back on the doors, staring at the so-far enigmatic foreign invader dubbed "Weapon" in that stasis cell. He spaced out in his gaze, his vision doubling for a flash. He shook himself out of it, tapping one foot on the other.

"It's worth another attempt," he concluded before stepping forward and reaching for the stasis cell's fluid control panel to lower the water in the cell to just below head-level. Soon the weapon's head was wholly above water. Jiphoshraton could hear his heart pound steadily but quickly through his chest even over the humming and whirring of all the room's equipment and contraptions.

He took a deep breath. Then another.

Then another.

He pulled out a translator, selecting an output language.

"Weapon," he stammered, the translator converting Gelidan to mostly grammatical Terran English. "Or... Veno Young, was it?"

He huffed and straightened himself.

"Okay, let me cut the bullshit. I saw you lock eyes with me the day I arrived. I know you function, and I know you have answers. Answers we need to get the most out of our research on you. Only you know why you attacked our planet; you never told your people, and we know they speak truth because they let us keep you. Only you know why your head is as impenetrable as is alleged; the Project MMG files your people sent us make no mention of the skull fortifications currently present. Only you know why the fuck you would think it wise to jam a glowing rock into your damned heart; again, nothing in MMG about that, and frankly you should count yourself lucky it's a Holy Activator™ keeping you alive."

The weapon remained motionless.

"We have far many more questions than those, questions that only you can answer, and if you want any chance of freedom at all after what you did to the great Ga-Korian people, you will answer them in truth and in entirety. There is no other option for you. If you understand, then answer: WHY did you attack our home?!"

He huffed after that performance, turning off the translator and waiting for a response from the weapon.

A minute passed. Nothing.

"Oh well..." he sighed, reaching for the fluid control panel and raising it back to full capacity. "At least I know for sure sure and won't be thinking about it anym--"

"Your 'tough guy' act doesn't work if you start it off by stammering like a limp-wrist."

"Eh--" Jiphoshraton's heart stopped. Jaw-dropped, his eyes slowly went upward toward the stasis cell, and he confirmed that it was, in fact, full of numbing fluid as normal.

And that the weapon was staring back at him, eyes glowing the angriest yellow Jiphoshraton had ever seen on any sentient being, let alone a human.

"That adds two more to your list, doesn't it?" asked the weapon, in Gelidan.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Summons

"Hmm? A summons? ...From the High Elder of Gelida?"

The young Zarkthanite engineer, who had been tinkering with his Bioforce Gun to push the boundaries of how much firepower one firearm could hold without crushing his non-mechanical right arm to dust, stood up on a stepping stool next to him to view the urgent message displayed on each of the seven big screen monitors that lined the northern wall of his research dungeon. His bespectacled red eyes just barely peered over the massive gun in front of him as he looked at his monitors.

"Gelidarling, open the message. Main screen. Project to center, offset [39cm] at [3π/2 radians]."

One second later, the message alert disappeared from each of the six monitors displaying various firearm blueprints around the central and biggest one, with that central monitor now displaying the apparent summons in full. The contents thereof were also, from above, projected in bright blueish white wording close to the center of the room just in front of the engineer's massive weapon where he could read them. His eyes immediately went to the top of said message as he read it, some of it aloud to himself.

"Let's see... "Classified", "Share with no one", blah blah blah, "Jiphoshraton..." then bog-standard opening paragraph, blah blah blah, okay, here we go. "Arrive at the Holy Temple of Awakening in [0100 hours]. Come fully activated. You and five others have been selected to appear for your weapons experti--""

"HE NEEDS ME FOR MY WEAPONS EXPERTISE!?!" shouted the engineer, right as he stumbled backwards off his stepping stool and fell onto the padded concrete wall behind him. After taking a moment to catch his breath and steady his heart rate, the smiling engineer Jiphoshraton stepped in front of his weapon and the table it rested upon to read the rest of the message.

""...selected to appear for your weapons expertise..." Mmhmm, mmhmm...! Then some stuff about the recent attack in Ga-Kori... "As a result of this attack, Gelida has claimed a weapon from another galaxy the likes of which our civilization has never seen--" Oh my stars above...!" He took another moment to steady his breath. "The sooner Gelida can reverse engineer it for the benefit of the world, the better. Bring all research you can carry hidden on your person."

"Holy Temple of Awakening. [0100 hours]. ID yourself before the front desk. They will direct you accordingly. Vopahu be with you--" okay yeah bog-standard closing and signature. FINALLY!"

"At long last!" shouted the gunsmith, already dashing toward the elevator to his weapons dungeon while putting his suit jacket back on. "My giant gun building hobby has finally paid off in a meaningful way! I can contribute to the greater society!"

He stopped at the elevator, catching his breath once more, before hovering his hand over the button that would take him to the the main floor. He paused, retracting the blade on his mechanical left forearm before letting it poke through through the suit jacket he was almost finished putting back on.

"Gelidarling, prepare immediate transport to the Holy Temple of Awakening, then activate home defenses after I depart!"

"Maybe he'll finally entertain my global mega-turret defense system idea after all is said and done," the engineer said to himself as he was taken above to the main floor of his house.

[ameliaegschulz]

Tag dump!

[[Remind me tomorrow to actually apply these to most of my 300+ posts]]

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Brainstorm

"Actually, Mishne, let me see the files from Terra again."

Mishne, the Gelidan from Le-Kori, pushed the folder in question towards Jiphoshraton with a shrug and a raised eyebrow. Jiphoshraton opened it quickly and rapidly sifted through each sheet of paper within it. His eyes were tense for that brief ten second period. He put the papers back in the folder.

"Nope, nothing about the head," he sighed, sliding the folder back to Mishne. "Damn it."

"Yeah, I checked earlier, too," said Mishne, taking back the folder. "Plenty about muscle density and reflexes and invoked trauma, but that skull density still makes no sense."

"And the DNA readings don't tell us anything either," added a Gelidan from Po-Kori, whose name was Eryast. "So genetics is still out."

"Hang on hang on hang on," interrupted Jiphoshraton. "Invoked trauma??"

"Oh yeah," confirmed Mishne, pulling out the relevant page from the folder he was holding. "Multi-step plan and everything. Remove parents from picture, childhood friend brutally offed, thrown into a kill-or-be-killed scenario..."

"Good gods, what the hell are Terrans made of that all that would make for an effective super soldier?!"

"Hell if I know. They marked Project MMG as a failure anyway, so I sure ain't thinking about it."

"'Man Made God'... I still haven't gotten over that."

"Right?? The hubris you gotta have to--"

"Is it all hubris, though? This guy did wipe out thousands of Ga-Korians by himself."

"And look where that got him!" beamed Galoirea of Ga-Kori with a proud smile. "Dead and floating in a pod."

"I'm still not entirely sure he's dead dead--"

"I KNEW I wasn't the only one!"

"Hey hey, slow down, Jeff. I didn't also suggest we try and talk to the bastard like you did."

"I TOLD you I was just spitballing."

"He might be onto something there," piped Aethab of Ta-Kori, a bioengineer who had just emerged from the room with the stasis cell and dropped a notepad with an attached printout onto the table. "I just got done with a full-scan of the weapon's body. Take a closer look at what's in the guy's veins."

The four Gelidans at the table all leaned close to see what was on the printout. Right before Eryast could, Galoirea grabbed it for an even closer look, setting it down and pulling out another sheet for comparison. She set that sheet down as well, shaking her head.

"...of all the forms an activator could take..." she sighed, being met with quiet gasps and exclamations from the three others.

"You're kidding..."

"I mean it makes sense," said Aethab, leaning on the table while looking at the printout. "Only an activator could keep something alive like that. I'm just surprised we didn't make the connection sooner."

"I'M not. Who thinks to pick up a double-pointed shard of rock like that and shove it straight into their HEART?!"

"A crazy human, obviously."

"I mean yeah, sure! But what drives a guy to that point if not some kind of possession or other foul play?"

"Why don't you just ask him, Jeff?" suggested Eryast, grinning.

"Don't push me, I'll do it!"

"Ask about his hard-as-hell head while you're at it!"

[ameliaegschulz]

80 icons.

32 icons.

40 icons.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Weapon

"THIS is the "Weapon" you summoned us for?"

About eight floors deep under the Holy Temple of Awakening at the heart of Gelida's capital, six weaponsmiths and six xenobiologists stood before the Gelidan High Elder and his first and second counselors in an isolated chamber connected to the Temple's greater research and development facility. Behind them was a heavily shielded stasis cell, within it a human. Battle-worn, if the scratches on his armor and forehead were any indication. Full head of black hair, slightly tan complexion, and clad in a black and red power suit that covered all but his head and hands. There were Gelidan bloodstains all over the human, but especially his hands and forehead. The chest plate had a jagged hole in it above his heart, revealing a subtle red X-shaped scar that could barely be seen through the stasis cell casing.

Murmuring began amongst the visibly confused xenobiologists, one of whom suggested the being would be better located in the highest-security prison in Gelida. Before any of the other summoned experts could rebut, the High Elder raised his hand to quiet the murmuring. He spoke to them sagely.

"Yes, I realize the nature of this undertaking to be extraordinary for you twelve. I also, however, realize that the twelve of you are yourselves extraordinary scientists and engineers. You will do well to maintain confidence in yourselves and in each other."

As the High Elder spoke further, Jiphoshraton's attention drifted back to the stasis cell housing the human. He took note of each control panel and monitor around the cell. One panel for controlling the numbing fluid keeping the "weapon" contained, another for measuring vitals, another for keeping track of energy signatu--

His eyes widened as he returned his gaze to the vitals. Temperature seemed normal if a little higher than usual. The respiratory and heart rates were both flat-lined, and it clicked for Jiphoshraton that the human in the cell was not equipped with a ventilation mask. He triple-checked the vitals panel for confirmation. The human, to him, appeared dead in that cell. His own heart rate slowed as he sighed quietly. Bio-enhanced soldier from Terra, he thought. Killed by Ga-Kori warriors and brought in for analysis for Gelidan benefit. Not what I was hoping for, but straightforward enough.

While pondering, Jiphoshraton glanced back up at the human. His heart stopped as he thought he saw the human open his eyes and stare directly into his. He shut his eyes in quiet horror, and when he opened them back up, the human's were closed as before. He sighed quietly again, but he could feel his heart beating faster.

"We'll begin on the morrow," said the High Elder, having made an end to his short motivational speech. "Return to your guest quarters and get some rest. You're all going to need it."

"Oh, and Nievrosa, bring Jiphoshraton up to speed on what I just told the rest of you."

Jiph breathed in through his teeth, looking to the side before preemptively thanking his fellow Onu-Korian for the recap.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Research

"Well that was a rough first day of work..." sighed Jiph, sliding quietly into his guest quarters and seating himself at the desk within it. "Whatever, we're making progress. I think."

He straightened out his notes - handwritten with pen and paper - and began to look them over. "Would be so much easier if we could record this digitally, but noooo. "Classified information must be treated as sacred and handled with care as the Great Forerunners did." Pff, I guarantee you the "Great Forerunners" had everything saved digitally just like everyone else in the current year."

Jiph turned through his notes, page by page, carefully reviewing the contents of each. At the top of the first page was written, "HE'S ALIVE???" with nothing else on that page. Further pages consisted of more technical details of the "weapon" he and eleven others were working to reverse engineer. Standard details such as height, mass, and performance metrics like a top speed of [approx. 300 km/hr]. Jiph had also made note of the crimson crystal shoved through the "weapon's" heart, with a circle around the words "DO NOT TOUCH" and an arrow drawn to his crude diagram of that foreign object.

He dropped his notes and sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"What am I doing...?" he asked himself. "We're supposed to "reverse engineer" this "weapon", right? How are these handwritten notes gonna get us anywhere..." He flipped to a page that had two crude diagrams of different human DNA molecules drawn on it. "I mean look at this, I just copied these from Nievrosa's work, I barely know how to read any of this! Why didn't I ask her to..."

"Actually..." He looked closer at the DNA molecule drawings, then sifted through his papers some more. "Where's that other..."

Jiph placed two pages of DNA diagrams side-by-side after a moment of shuffling to find the one that represented Zarkthanite DNA. He looked between the two quickly, comparing the Zarkthanite DNA with the DNA labeled "Weapon." After a pause, he circled in blue a chromosome on the "Weapon's" molecule, circling one that matched on the Zarkthanite's afterward.

"How much does that matter... question for the biologists tomorrow."

He pulled out a blank sheet and started writing ideas down on it. "If my thinking is correct, though, this could lead us down a pathway to applying genetic enhancements to our bodies without going berse--"

He dropped his pen.

"But this "weapon" went berserk... Deserts his home planet, spends who knows how much time getting here, first thing he does after crash landing in Ga-Kori is destroy a sacred landmark and several entire defense systems to draw the army's attention onto himself... But did he go rogue because of the gene splicing, or is it just that "human nature" I've heard about?"

"Or is it this...?" He flipped back several pages to the drawing of crimson crystal, staring at it almost to the point of spacing out. He shook himself out of the trance, turning back to his page of ideas and finishing the most recent one he had jotted down. Among these ideas were, "Theorycraft gene splices between Zarkthanite and Human DNA," "Invoke Muz'ta's Curse," and "Attempt revival and communication with the weapon." He straightened his note pages and set them back on his desk with pen on top.

"I'll bring it up anyway and see what the others think," he said, standing up and heading to his bed.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Lore

“Gelidarling, display the whole Zarkthania planetary system.”

The young engineer’s AI system promptly displayed a rendering of his current planetary system, his homeworld - Gelida - being the fourth planet away from the star. A B7V type. Information about each planet was also on the screen. No populations for any of them, however, except Gelida.

“Gelidarling, how far away is the nearest planet or colony with foreign life on it?”

Rather than a distance, the AI system displayed a travel time toward the nearest planet with life on it: a Roune planet, the name of which he did not recognize. The travel time was [[Gelidan equivalent of two hours]].

“Uh-huh. That far away, huh? Well, I suppose it is a blessing that the only real trouble we’ve seen was what, a millennium ago? Some cataclysmic event that happens to be the reason why we all wear these activators?”

“Gelidarling” confirmed the engineer’s factual assertions before presenting the current brief history of his people, which amounted to a series of almost abstract pictures that depicted events of distant past: The settlement of Gelida, the rapid expansion of the people thereof, a complete and total darkness covering the planet, the discovery of a relic called the Awakener, a brave multicolored hero dispelling the planet’s darkness with a holy staff, and peace at last returning to Gelida as the hero rose to the heavens.

The picture with the Awakener relic depicted several Gelidans contacting it and being granted immense power and protection from the darkness.

“I see. In any event, despite our current lack of reason for it, at least we’re prepared on Gelida in case of something like this coming back to us?”

Gelidarling did not respond to Jiph. “Well, I am, anyway.”

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Answers

“So I was right after all! It’s all really because of some fear of custom body enhancements making us go berserk or whatever!”

“But get this: Apparently everyone already learns that at the end of the whole Awakener ceremony when they get their activators and I just happened to be so dumb that I rushed back home and ended up skipping that part! The whole ‘mysticism’ part of it is all a bit and I’ve been thinking they were playing it straight this whole damn time! Nothing’s actually ‘taboo’ on this planet, we just say it is to trick ourselves into being careful with what we’re doing with our research!”

“Well, it’s been nothing if not effective. On the other hand, I don’t yet know how exactly I feel about the entire general populous pretending to be brainwashed by religion like it’s a fun festivity kind of thing.”

“Anyway, let’s research some custom body enhancements.”

WARNING: TABOO THINK DETECTED. SHUTTING OFF ALL OUTSID--

“Abort shut-off procedure, dammit! I’ll be fine!”

SHUT-OFF ABORTED. PROCEED WITH RESEARCH WITH CAUTION.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Engineer

Dark, snowy night. Not so dark down in the basement of one youngish weapons engineer. A miniature thorium reactor glowed a bright blue in the corner of the basement, powering this engineer’s digital drawing boards and schematic projectors. Most likely his whole house, too. On his central projector were schematics for a gun that, from the displayed measurements, looked to be just as big as the engineer himself, if not bigger.

These were the schematics he was working on, judging by the real-time modifications to it shown by the projector. A little wider of a barrel, a much bigger handle here, a second handle there...

He held out his left hand and looked it over. It was entirely cybernetic- his whole arm was, in fact. There was also a dagger attached to it and hidden under his left sleeve. He nodded, pulling up a list of recoil buffers that were currently compatible with these schematics. He chose five out of the six displayed and added them to the blueprint.

He tapped on the “Simulate Fire” button in the corner of his drawing screen, watching the projector generate a model for his massive gun that he designed. He watched the firing simulation unfold. Two of the recoil buffers fell off the model upon the first firing. The other three appeared to stick well enough.

He stared at some numbers below the simulation, particularly at the two in the thousands at the top and bottom.

“Alright, Jeff... just make sure to keep your strength-buffing activator equipped at all times for now.”

That is a big friggin’ gun.

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Accident

ANOTHER DAY...

“Okay, so let me get this right, Jiph. Zero point one rotations ago, you were working on modifications to your Bioforce Gun, correct?”

“That is correct.”

“And modifications to said gun included magnifying its firepower one hundred fold, correct?”

“Correct.”

“And, as a fellow ordinary citizen of the Onu-Kori region of Gelida, the only testing grounds for your Bioforce Gun are in your underground basement with a radius of twenty meters with an equivalent dome height, correct?”

“Affirmative.”

“And, going back a bit, your Bioforce Gun is just a tad bigger than you yourself are, is that fair to say?”

“I have the schematics on me but yes.”

“Speaking of, given the size of the Bioforce Gun in conjunction with its firepower, can you tell me why nowhere in those schematics did you include any sort of anti-recoil measures whatsoever?”

“Well see, I thought I had my strength-boosting activator on my finger at the time, and...”

“Say no more. Now hold still, Jiph. It’ll take a moment to get this cybernetic arm attached to you.”

[ameliaegschulz]

𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒: Share four songs / pieces of music that represent your muse! Repost, don’t reblog!

For Gates:

Brendon Small - “Dangertits”

Starsky Partridge - “Level 8”

Kenichiro Fukui - “Afterimage”

Lindemann - “That’s My Heart”

Tagged by: @thathermitwiththehairpin​ (lol I tagged myself)

Tagging: idk lol you I guess

Bonuses ‘cause I feel like it.

For “Jeff”:

In Flames - “Pallar Anders Visa”

Hiroshi Luchi - “Reality”

Mick Gordon - “BFG Division”

RetroSpecter - “Winters White”

For Veno:

Mick Gordon - “The Only Thing They Fear Is You”

Shūji Katayama - “The Demon of the Rhine”

Trivium - “Shogun” (Mix with Exlumerien’s orchestral cover)

In Flames - “Man Made God”

[ameliaegschulz]

Stardrifting Questions

The youthful but adult Gelidan engineer Jiph stood in front of a projection, which displayed a Vitruvian Zarkthanite diagram in the middle of it, complete with options to zoom in and analyze Zarkthanite anatomy. Jiph toggled through each of the detailed zoom-ins and pondered as he analyzed them. He spent a particularly good amount of time on the circulatory and nervous systems.

He threw his hands up in the air, grabbing his energy pistol and glaring into it.

“For all my mature life I’ve been toying with different gun and cannon and blade designs of all different types. Why have I not for the life of me researched anything to do with further enhancing the Zarkthanite body itself?!”

WARNING: TABOO THINK DETECTED. SHUTTING OFF ALL OUTSIDE COMMUNICATION IMMEDIATELY. RESTARTING IN [[five Terran minutes]].

“I know, I know, it was rhetorical,” he sighed at his home’s AI companion. “Of course I know why. ‘Accept the gifts you’ve been given,’ blah blah blah, other mantras they drilled into our heads at Ru-Kori Temple, etc. etc. But why did they have to make it some sort of religious thing instead of keeping it secular?”

“Like, if there’s a chance for an over-enhanced Gelidan to go berserk and end up killing us all because of some kinda instability with the brain, then yeah! I’d buy that in a heartbeat! But no, they keep it both too cryptic to comprehend and so dumbed-down that the average schmoe eats it up like jello-cakes!”

“And Rustilla’s still annoyed at me for suggesting we build mega-turret structures across the planet, so of course going to him and asking for a secular explanation isn’t exactly on the table. Or is it...?”

“No, it is, but I’ll need to spend [[10 Terran minutes]] ‘apologizing’ for the mega-turret suggestion first.”

A long sigh. “Worth it. I have to know why we really can’t enhance ourselves. The sooner I know, the better.”

RESTARTING OUTSIDE COMMUNICATION IN TEN... NINE... EIGHT...