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Author Topic: Fan Fiction! - The Knight Errant  (Read 2698 times)

Urist

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Fan Fiction! - The Knight Errant
« on: May 14, 2018, 12:52:06 PM »

(This will be broken up into multiple chapters, I'll be including them all in the beginning post, I've taken some artistic license with the names and titles aboard Luddic ships, I've also taken it upon myself to create a Luddic Knightly order!  as well as the effects of jumping into a system and I'd appreciate thoughts, comments angry critiques etc.)


Chapter 1 – In Search of Faith


The air felt thick, hard to breath, the sound of aged recyclers desperately struggling to scrub liters of smoke tainted air reverberated through the cramped corridors of the ageing Mora-class vessel. A ventilator suddenly released a loud choking sound, prompting a figure trapped under a pile of blankets to suddenly shoot upright, knocking an empty bottle to the ground with a plastic thud.

Ser Kara groaned and ground the palm of her hand into her forehead, uttering a quiet curse beneath her breath before pulling her raven hair from her face and hauling herself from bed. Kara was the picture of a soldier. Muscular, tense and cool green eyes with a storm behind them. Had she been born in Askonia or Hegemony she likely would be an Admiral, yet that was not her fate. Instead she had been born on Tartessus and thus she was a member of the illustrious Knights of Ludd.

After she rose from her bed she went through the motions of the faithful. Using precious recycled water to wash her hands and face before kissing the pendant around her neck, bearing the symbol of her knightly order, a vast eye nested within a star all encircled by Ludd’s reef. She quietly uttered a prayer before pulling her uniform, a simple robe adorned with green symbols of the church and of her obscure order, over her shoulders. The rituals were short, perfunctory, there was no joy or sense the divine. The Knight was simply following the steps.

Her faith appeased Kara could set her mind to more important business. She made her way through the decrepit winding corridors of her Mora, the Rimor Kara’s movements were graceful and seemingly effortless despite the poor quality of the ship’s recycled air. The Rimor had seen too many battles to remember and despite her looks was a tough old bird. One that had been with Kara most of her career.

The Knight easily found her to the bridge, if one could call the cramped room in the bowels of the ship a bridge. Hey loyal crew snapped to attention, resting their fist against their head. “I greet you in the name of Ludd” Kara’s voice had the slight gravel of too much whisky. Her crew dutifully chorused back “May you find peace in his name” before returning to their duties.

She quickly slumped into her command chair and surveyed the bridge. It was a sorry sight. Unlike a Hegemony vessel Luddite ships were stripped of what few creature “comforts” they contained. Instead they were adorned with symbols of the church, ostentatiously to provide captain and crew comfort in their voyage. In reality they served as a grim reminder that the ship and its crew were an unwelcome necessity of life in the sector. In truth the church would very much rather they didn’t exist at all, but tolerated spacers as a necessary evil.

The Knight reached over to her Tri-pad and began cycling through reports as an aide bought her breakfast; rehydrated protein bars. Again. They had been surveying outer systems for months now and there was only so much “chicken” flavored protein one could eat. While the church officially had no interest in salvage and survey operations the rest of the galaxy most certainly did. Thus they sent trusted men and women like Ser Kara into the void in search of knowledge and treasure, all in the name of Ludd of course. The church was rarely practical but it was certainly pragmatic. The Knights of Ludd even more so.

Kara scrolled through dull survey reports and sensor contacts, her eyes unable to focus on the stream of data. Nothing, three months patrolling this forsaken sector and nothing, not even a damn pirate or Pather heretic. The knight dropped the pad in disgust and turned to her navigator cum sensor operator, Squire Henry Grythn, “Let’s hope the next place has something”. The Navigator offered a toothy grin and said “There’s always summat round the corner Ser.” apparently oblivious to Kara’s annoyed glare Henry continued in his rural lilt “In this case it’s right round the corner. I reckon we’re about ready to drop in to a lil’ slice of heaven called Beta Mu, it’s even a binary!”

“Terrific!” Kara exclaimed, unable to keep the exasperation from her voice “Another wonder of the galaxy that we won’t be able to see because nobody saw fit to give the Rimor any windows” nobody felt like pointing out to the captain that vast stellar distances made windows fairly redundant structural flaws. “Just bring us out of warp Grythn.” the navigator smiled and thumbed the ship-wide comms system “Mornin’ all, we’re just about ready to drop out of warp so ye might want ta grab hold of something sturdy.”

Despite herself Kara gripped the arm of her seat a little tighter and closed her eyes. The ship suddenly began to violently shake, knocking the crew around for a moment before coming to a complete halt. The Knight screwed her eyes shut as a wave of nausea crashed over her. She heard a novice crewman desperately fight the urge to vomit. Somehow you never got used to jumping.

It took almost five minutes for the symptoms to begin to die down. Kara was first to recover, barking “Status report, now.” Henry was a little slower but managed to utter “Sum-… Summat movin’ in fast Ser… It’s… Hm.. It’s.. It’s gone”. Kara felt her pulse quicken and shot to her feet, immediately regretting it as she saw black spots “What’s gone? What’s out there man?!”

Henry blinked a few times before shaking his head “It must’ve been a ghost signal...”. He began to change settings on the Rimor’s surprisingly advanced sensor suit. “But… I’m gettin’ summat… LOTS a’ summat… Gimmie a second Ser….. By Ludd...” Kara stormed her way to the navigator’s station and leaned over his shoulder, her annoyed expression giving way to a predatory grin “Contact the salvagers and the rest of the fleet.” she slapped Henry hard on the shoulder “By Ludd It looks like we’ve finally found something to do!”

Her green eyes scanned the readings to make sure what she was seeing was real. It was a forest of little monochrome pings. There were debris fields, ancient floating hulks, stations, caches. For once, thought Kara bitterly, Ludd had shown her some favor.




« Last Edit: May 16, 2018, 12:21:53 PM by Urist »
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Histidine

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Re: Fan Fiction! - The Knight Errant
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2018, 06:33:14 AM »

I'm interested in reading more :)

Minor corrections/stuff:
Spoiler
sense the divine -> sense of the divine

Mora class -> Mora-class
(on the other hand you're also supposed to italicise the class name (example), but I've never bothered with that, perhaps because no game I know does either)

Rimor has a space after it and before the full stop that shouldn't be there

The bolding all dialogue is an unusual conceit, any particular reason for it?
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Urist

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Re: Fan Fiction! - The Knight Errant
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2018, 12:23:33 PM »

I'll be writing more this week, a little swamped atm so I've not been able to move onto the next chapter.

As to your comments:
Spoiler
Thank you for the stylistic updates, fixed :)

The bold thing is an old habit from when I used to write on roleplay forums, I suppose it is a little stylistically odd I might consider changing it if people find it distracting
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