Voting open until 15th of May.
Aletheas "Space whales develop accurate sun weather forecasting system. Hypercorp try steal it."
Hippy space whales develop a very accurate sun weather forecasting system. Hypercorp black ops incoming to steal it for hypercorp's personal use - maneuver rival corp's assets into place to be damaged by a solar flare maybe? Easier exploitation of exoplanet resources, if you can worry less about getting caught in a CME? Firewall sentinels dispatched to prevent theft and transmit to the argonauts.
Review Cultist "Space whales "space beaching" themselves into the sun itself."
Yeah, honestly my main idea for this (and this is only excusing my nigh ignorance of thorough details on the space whale situation save the morph info I recently read) but I would think some one could do a game involving the space whales "space beaching" themselves into the sun itself or on mercury and just going inactive for mysterious reason... or becoming horrifying meance in the inner system because of the follow suggestions:
- A TITAN Virus
- Anti-Space whale faction that is exploiting some morph glitch or flaw.
Applewoods "Space whales used the exsurgent virus to engineering a new breed of krill for food."
A: A group of space hippy blue whales used the exsurgent virus to engineering a new breed of krill for food. Extreme radiation from solar flares is used to neutralize the exsurgent virus before feeding. Firewall is called in to eliminate the research and the whales.
Tadanori Oyama "The PCs ego hunt the great white spaced whale"
An extreme bioconservative eccentric who nearly died in the fall due to an uplift stealing his ship, which left his leg badly damaged, hires the PCs onto his crew as ego hunters. He long ago burned all of the uplift's backups and forks and thought the creature was dead. However, he's received news that that uplift is still alive, living in a white Surya morph...
PaulyMuttonchops "Free space Willy"
The players are maladjusted orphans that vandalized a traveling exhibit on the Surya. As punishment, they are placed with foster parents in Surya morphs and must work with the Surya to make amends. There they meet Willy, a young Surya whale who left his family to become a Surya, but has now realized that being a Surya is pretty fucking stupid. Sensing kinship, the players and Willy form a bond and, with the help of kindly Firewall sentinel Rae Lindley, develop a plan to help Willy escape and find his family. However, greedy Surya leader Dial soon catches wind of the plot, and will relentlessly defend the Surya status quo. Once a Surya, always a Surya. . . even if that means dying and being "reborn" as a Surya.
trinite "The supernova bomb will be blown if Akaja Lacuna is not set free"
The sun powers the entire solar system. Any threat to it is automatically an X-threat. But who, besides maybe the TITANS or some other alien species, would try to destroy the sun? Well, maybe with a viable threat, you could hold the solar system hostage, dictating terms to every planet and habitat from Mercury to the Oort cloud. But that's just crazy. It's a comic book supervillain plot; real people don't think like that. And that's true, real people don't. But what about a memetic virus that thinks of itself as a supervillain?
During a solar storm, most of the surya population gathers in Ukko Jylina to wait it out. A very strange sound reverberates through the station, unlike anything they've ever heard before. They feel it in their sonar receptors, something loud but complex, like music. It's brief, the storm passes, and the pods swim back out and resume their normal carefree lives. But after a while they start trying to remember something: did they ever meet someone named Akaja Lacuna?
They say that there are no secrets among dolphins, and the same goes for Solarian Suryas. They ask each other the question. Does anyone know Akaja? Is she a surya? Maybe in one of the other pods? The name sounds vaguely familiar at first, but soon it becomes a common subject of conversation, then a hobby, then an obsession. Surely, Akaja must be in one of the pods. They all remember meeting her somewhere. And she was so charming and brilliant, a wonderful friend, unforgettable, a genius, the greatest Solarian to ever swim, our natural leader. Where did she go? Where did they take her?
The rest of the solar system notices nothing, until the first broadcast. A wide-spectrum radio message from Ukko Jylina declares that the Solarians have constructed an iron insertion bomb hidden deep inside the sun's surface. If their list of demands are not met, they will blow up the sun.
Demand #1 is that their leader, Akaja Lacuna, be freed from her imprisonment and returned to her solar home within 48 hours. It's a name that means nothing to anyone, except for a few insane Neosynergists and a couple of ex-Firewall proxies...
Better get a team together.
Zombieneighbours "Space whales with exergent STD"
"Worshipful", a sexually transmitted version of the exergent virus has made its way into a surya pod, thanks to the intimate nature of Surya culture. The virus is causing a slow and distinctive change in their behaviour. The subtle effect of the virus changes their mental state, driving them to become increasing insular and paranoid, as well as increasingly developing a complex religion around the concept of the suns destructive power. As a result, the surya pod has build a string of horrendous WMD in the form of solar lasers, capable of devastating the planets of the inner system.
The sentinels need to identify the infected, prevent the virus spreading further through the population, and deal with the infected surya, as well as track down their allies amongst the titanians autonomists who are providing tech support on the project, to prove it can be done. Meanwhile, an argonaut leaks the existence of the weapons, causing a race by inner system power groups to try an take possession of the group.
To complicate matters further still, firewall servers schism in an epic flame war, as they try to decide what to do with the weapons, either destroy them, or co-opt them for use against the titans should they return.
RadioactiveBeer "The egg is an Iron Bomb"
The one that spring to mind for me involves The Egg, a mysterious metallic object the size of a skyscraper orbiting the Sun (or at least near to Mercury). It's one of the mysteries of the setting - TITAN relic? Factor trap? The idea for this session would be that The Egg is an iron-bomb (or if not iron a hyper-dense-metal-bomb) that stands ready to skewer the heart of Old Shiny and royally screw the solar system.
Zombieneighbours "Space whales aren't possible, must be TITAN tech"
Space whale super-science biology could also be an interesting plot. One day a firewall scientists suddenly realizes that they don't understand how Surya biology works, and that every hypothesis he comes up with either contradicts observable data or is off the walls craze balls and requires tech no one has, then he notices that all the published research and material on their biology is the scientific equivalent of a imaginative five year old doodling on paper and submitting it for peer review.
Then most worrying of all, he realizes that no one else is asking questions about them, that no one else even seems to think it is weird!
TMayesing78 "Space Whale poachers filming snuff XPs."
Space Whale poachers filming snuff XPs. No one knows why they're doing it, but the stacks are disappearing, leaving dead whale carcasses drifting in space. Now a major solar researcher has been one of the victims.
Ravenswar "EvilCorp testing exsurgent virus that function in the corona on Space whales"
Firewall scanners have detected an unusual spike in chatter in Solarian space. The team is to ego cast into Hooverman-Geischecker posing as a group of Argonauts. The group they are replacing is not in on the conspiracy, just simply easily bribed with a hedonistic trip to Pavarti. The sentinels were selected because their skill set somewhat matches that of the Argonauts. They will have to maintain the ruse while on Hooverman.
The investigation into the cause of the increases communications will lead the players to a murder mystery. Someone is hunting the surya. A good source of information turns out to be the successor to Greenpeace, Voidpeace.
If the players are generally uninterested in social skill checks, you can simple jump to the conclusion that someone is killing the space whales. The key point of the plot is the question of why.
Eventually the sentinels will be pointed toward Aten and the rumors of weaponized exsurgent virus. Another line of inquiry will lead to a stealthed ship as the means of performing the killings. This alone is a worthy trophy as its stealth characteristics imply alien and/or TITAN tech. Firewall will want to acquire this technology or destroy it in order to maintain the balance of power.
Having eliminated the immediate threat, or not, the team still has a few threats. Who and how has been established. The why is indeed connected to an exsurgent virus strain. But from where? Why are leads starting to point to the Exoplanet Babylon? Is there a connection to the Babylon Rascal? Are the well meaning Voidpeace now a disease vector? How does the exsurgent virus remain viable in a stellar corona? Serious implications for standard procedure of cleanse with fire if the heat of the sun is insufficient.
Also did they team flub their impersonation? The team should be given an opportunity to make it right before the cleaners are brought to reset everyone to a backup prior to the teams arrival.
To fill in some of the blanks:
EvilCorp has determined that something of value is hidden on Babylon, and similarly concluded that it is the Rascal which is responsible for shooting up the place now and then. Determined to find a way to neutralize the Rascal, so as to secure the secrets of Babylon for the,selves, EvilCorp began looking into exsurgent virus strains that maintained virulence in a stellar corona. The murdered surya were killed before their symptoms could be noticed.
What if the vector is a whale song basilisk hack?
How do you keep a hippy space whale from singing?
EDIT:
kindalas Late arrival - "Space whales are a scam set up by BBEG and don't actually exists".
Surya and the corresponding coronal infrastructure is a misdirection.
Everyone who ego casts to the location to sleeve into a Surya or a Salamander are just put into an advanced simulspace.
All of the money that was/is being spent on the habitat is used to a nasty secret project that is being run by Ozma/Firewall/Ultimates/Some guy
The Project nearly came undone when researchers on Babylon tried to secure some of the fictional Surya morphs.
However a gate accident caused the shipment to become lost in transit.
Poll