Xenosurf

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Xenosurf

Post by Ford Prefect »

Recently I felt the need to mirror Takahashi Tetsuya's (Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade) attempt at a cosmic epic. At its core, Xenosurf is a story which follows the protagonist, Arjuna Fudo, and her six companions as the attempt to unravel they mysteries behind their world and solve a cosmic puzzle which might define the future. The story revolves around notions of destiny, reincarnation, memory, surfing, dreams, giant robots and love. While I have codified a number of vitally important elements, I am missing a number of 'world' elements which mean that the story is not appropriately anchored to anything. I am making this thread mostly to articulate the ideas I have so far in a way that might lead me to further the grand plan.

Xenosurf

The time is the Age of Aquarius. Following the Diaspora at the dimly remembered close of the Age of Pisces, humanity has spread outwards to settle in the farthest reaches of the Great Surf. A collision of our galaxy with another, all the stars and worlds and people of civilisation are connected through the Aleph. An information network built on a foundation of human dreams, the Aleph is accessible at a mere thought and is without exception totally pervasive throughout the known universe. Able to transfer information, energy and matter across its zone of influence instantly, forecast probable futures, weave material objects and even living beings out of pure data, the Aleph is at the core of the functioning of society. The Aleph Manifestation Principle (AMP) is the idea that a person can creatively interface with the boundless capabilities of the Aleph and shape it according to the whims of their heart. Technological devices, AMP Drivers, exist which supplement natural abilities at performing these interfaces, allowing a person to exercise superior Mantra and manifestations. It gives the impression of pure magic: the ability to repair tissue at a cellular level with the wave of a hand, to levitate objects, to levitate the self and an innumerable amount of other examples. Those with particular and rare waveforms are able to interface with devices known as Regalia, which serve a similar purpose but operate on a much higher level. Those able to use Regalia have, for the longest time, served as an upper-caste nobility.

Possessing the Aleph and other miraculous real technologies, human existence has flourished to heights undreamed of in the long-forgotten world of the Age of Pisces. However, the civilisation of the Great Surf is under threat by the entities named 'Ajata'. Ghost-like and unknowable, their powers rival and even exceed human technology; without specialised equipment it is not possible to meaningfully harm or disrupt an Ajata. Their objectives, if they have objectives, are totally unknown. What is known is that despite the inherent countermeasures within the Aleph the Ajata can, when manifested in sufficient numbers, cause a region of space to reach the Limit of Questions. At this Limit, space itself becomes inaccessible and will permit no interference. Stars blink out and most distressingly those regions of space fall completely from the Aleph, even its psychometric ability to recreate the past. With the Ajata seemingly able to negate existence itself, destroying them is the highest priority for civilisation. To this end, a number of projects have been initiated under the overall banner of TELOS. One particular element of this is the Amita Project, which is initially under the purview of Achilles Kirin, one of the protagonists. TELOS itself is chaired by Achilles' elder sister, Semyaza.

There is another aspect to TELOS of vital importance, and it is archaeological in nature. Of the two galaxies which make up the Great Surf, one was at some point the home of an intelligent species, typically referred to as the Dasyu. Though no Dasyu exist currently, relics of their civilisation do. Most importantly, they too possessed an equivalent system to the Aleph, and as our galaxies collide so too do those systems: the active human Aleph is incorporating the dormant Dasyu-Aleph. This process means it is possible, with the correct information and knowledge, for human investigators to reconstruct the past which belonged to the Dasyu. The disappearance of the Dasyu is a currently unsolved mytery: it is being investigated predominantly because of potential application to the Ajata problem.
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Re: Xenosurf

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I guess the most important element of the story is the cast itself, and to a lesser extent the giant robots they pilot. I should probably stress that while the giant robots are instruments of the wider plot, Xenosurf is not really a 'giant robot story'. I suppose the distinction between a story about giant robots and a giant robot story is not exactly clear to anyone (I can't really explain it either), that distinction is there.

Before we continue I should explain what I meant by 'waveform' in the first post. Rather conveniently it is analogous to DNA in the modern day: a unique signature of a certain existence. I guess you can describe the waveform as a person's soul, but I'm trying to avoid literalisms like that if I can. The complexity of waveforms can differ from individual to individual, though patterns are known to exist in populations. In setting is reasonably trivial to manipulate genetics in one way or the other, but waveforms are extremely difficult to replicate or modify, especially as the complexity rises. Understanding the weird waveforms of the Ajata is one of the various objectives of TELOS. The study of waveforms is ontology.

Xenosurf - II - The Cast

The main party

Achilles Kaleido Augusta Kirin (diminutive: Killi) is the twin-tailed, goggles-sporting, collar-popping brooding genius leading the Amita Project. She is the primary protagonist of Xenosurf Episode I: The Living Curl. In her late teens, she is the second daughter and fourth child of the main family of House Kirin, who possess one of the great financial monopolies. She is set to eventually inherit Kirin Prescient Systems from her father, the second most prestigious position within House Kirin. Like most Kirins, Achilles is a very accomplished architect but unlike most she is also a polymath with an at times bewildering number of specialisations. Typically PR refers to her expertise in mechanical engineering, high energy theoretical physics, ontology, Aleph data systems and metaphysical biology. She has a reputation for being difficult to work with, which is not undeserved. She lives and operates out of her personal spacecraft, the Kerykeion, apparently as a measure of teen-aged rebelliousness in a society where crossing two galaxies is about as taxing as walking down the hall.

Despite her temper, Killi is the special waveform known as the Calm, and has a role to play in the destiny of the universe, along with the other main protagonist, Arjuna Fudo (diminutive: Juna). She is the primary viewpoint character of Xenosurf Episode II: The Pacific State. Younger than Achilles by a year or two, Juna is a Vespa-riding gidget from the planet Ithaca who spends most of her time making surfing or making trouble for her elder brother and grandfather (who are local priests). Happy-go-lucky and kind of frenetic, you probably wouldn't be able to tell by looking that she's the messiah. Arjuna is the waveform known as the Swell, and the entity central to Achilles' Amita Project and much more besides. Exactly what she is, where she comes from and what she is capable of are central to the plot. Her relationship with Achilles is central to the story; the pair of them share Xenosurf Episode III: The Endless Summer equally.

Juna's elder brother is Karna Fudo. He was apprencticed to his grandfather as a priest in a religion which most closely resembles Buddhism. Arjuna's long suffering caretaker, and also a hopeless sex addict who prefers chasing skirts to philosophy; his grandfather tolerates him mostly because he makes the temple more popular with the gidgets. He is pursuing an affair with a scientist on the Amita Project, which is what leads the Fudos to become caught up in the politics and conspiracies of the Great Surf. After the untimely death of his grandfather, he travels on the Kerykeion to, if not protect Arjuna, ensure that she doesn't cause too much havoc in wider society.

Rhinegold WS Device is an oddity in the modern day: he is a robot. With the advent of easy data entity creation, constructs based on molecular nanotechnology such as Rhinegold have not been seen in many centuries. The 'WS' stands for 'Weapon Servant', indicating that he was a combat model when first built, but now he serves as a bartender in a very prestigious casino on Levant. As the casino belongs to Killi's ex-boyfriend, they are able to meet. Despite being totally obsolete by the standards of the Great surf, his great age means that his experience is essentially unmatched. Calm and insightful, his memories contain information which would be difficult to locate anywhere else in the Great Surf, which Killi needs to better understand the mess which she's in. Also necessary is Charlotte Sunshine, a fifteen-year-old self-proclaimed digital anarchist living on Levant. She is one of the Mephi - one of the various counter-cultures which cyclically rise and fall within the Great Surf. Her skills in manipulating the virtual worlds of the Aleph outstrip even Achilles, which she predominantly uses to make trouble for monopolies like House Kirin.

Another member of the group is Shinden Rinne (diminutive: Shin), an elite working for the Deadly Expeditionary Violence Association (DEVA). A member of a lesser noble house, his father is one of the biggest names in politics, and he himself is an accomplished giant robot pilot. Though he is trying to blaze his own way in the Great Surf, the gravity of his father's influence is difficult to escape. Similar to Juna in that he has an air of easy heroism around him. He takes up something of a leadership role in the group during the events of The Pacific State as Achilles is not available.

The final member of the party plays too great a role in the story to reveal at this point.



---

There are three kinds of amazing fighting machine in Xenosurf. The first is the AMP Drive Heuristic Armament, or ADHA. A weapon system with its own instincts, it operates in total synergy with its pilot. They are reasonably mundane by the standards of the Great Surf and do not possess requirements for unusual waveforms. A grade above is the Adaptive Synchronised Transcendent Regalia Armament, or ASTRA. Similar to an ADHA but built upon similar principles to Regalia, it cannot be piloted by just anyone and is whole orders of magnitude above that level of capability. An ASTRA is usually a match for a capital ship, and elite pilots with developed abilities can form the centerpieces of small fleets. But above even this is the AO (?????), with capabilities that put them more on the level of demigods than giant robots. The construction of an NO is wrapped in secrecy and those who can pilot them are extremely rare. AO Amita is Achilles Kirin's finest work and the central element of the Amita Project.
Last edited by Ford Prefect on Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:59 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Xenosurf

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I will continue with more of the supporting cast. So far detailing this stuff has been pretty helpful - I was able to break through some gaps in my knowledge of the plot thanks to it. Anyway, continuing:

Xenosurf - III - The Supporting Cast

Probably the most important member of the supporting cast is Semyaza Kozmike Superbia Kirin, heavily marketed first daughter of the house. She is heiress to Kirin Standard, the overall holding firm which controls the money for the entire Kirin monopoly. As chair of TELOS, she shoulders the burden of saving the Great Surf from the Ajata. Unpopular with the usual power brokers due to her enormous charisma, adroit political maneuvers and seemingly limitless ambition. She is Killi's archrival, though the difference between them is currently massive. Her precise motives are difficult to gauge.

Important in a different way is Krishna Fudo, grandfather of Karna and Arjuna. Despite his age, he remains a vital, powerfully built man, though he is highly critical of his two charges. He was once celebrated as 'the strongest sword', though the world has since moved on: he has been trying to beat his sublime techniques into his granddaughter, but he is difficult to please. The kind of man who is narratively fated to die and kickstart a journey in the process. His sword is apparently some kind of mundane piece of steel, but he can still cleave armour constructed through information cell physics.

Another major supporting character is Killi's ex-boyfriend, Ethan Uszrmaatre Fatima. They were engaged in their youth, but House Fatima feel into a degree of disrepute and that engagement was broken. A calm, handsome entrepreneur, Ethan has managed to establish himself on Levant despite the disgrace of his family hanging over him. His casino is the widely regarded as the best the planet has to offer, with a certain classy elegance. He is well connected in a variety of circles: most specifically he is Killi's window into the Mephi.

The Rinne family plays an important role in the plot: though they are not as powerful as a number of families, they have built a political dynasty comparable to the Kennedys. Patriarch Ikaruga is the currently sitting Minister of the Left, and so one of the most powerful men in the Great Surf. He chairs the Diet Subcommittee on Ajata Countermeasures and so is Semyaza Kirin's direct superior. Charitably could be described as cunning and ambitious. Tenrai Rinne is Killi's new fiance, and Shin's elder brother. He is a famous ace within DEVA known as the White Rose. Idolised by his younger brother, and leads the elite XFA-108 Independent Mobile Strike Fighter Wing (the infamous 'Skull Squadron'). Extremely loyal to his father, Ikaruga Rinne, and so commonly deployed on covert government business which needs application of questionably legal force. Though Killi is not sure what she thinks of him, he is genuinely in love with her. His abilities are extremely high, honed against Deity-class Ajata, and he is able to compete evenly with the NO Amita despite the disparity between it and his custom ASTRA. As such, he is sent in pursuit of the Kerykeion following the events on Ithaca.

Part 2 -

Enoch Kirin (né Skylark) is Semyaza's husband and personal assistant. Though his appearance is cold and his interpersonal relationships perfunctory, he has managed to genuinely fall in love. As such he is endlessly loyal, an utterly tireless and always presence nuissance to the less devoted among TELOS. His family is not very influential, but very well respected as one of those high noble families which produce kannushi for the most major shrines and temples; a very 'safe' marriage for the Kirin family. In his youth, Enoch served as a shrine attendant and has a dual honours in theosophy and ontology, though in the latter he cannot compare with his wife. He is Semyaza's personal bodyguard and an ASTRA ace in his own right.
Last edited by Ford Prefect on Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Xenosurf

Post by Siege »

This is some classic Ford stuff right here. I've always admired your ability to come up with really whacky concepts, and this most definitely does not disappoint. I like how it so far appears to be very character-centered, and I smiled at the first mention of giant robots, 'cause no Ford story is complete without them!
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Re: Xenosurf

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I am nothing if not a total Ryusei lol

As this is a writing project rather than a worldbuilding one, I more or less started with the characters. Actually, I tell a lie, I started with a caste system and a system of space magic, but both those elements have since changed (the caste system is in limbo, and I eliminated a separate system of space magic for the nobles in favour of just tying it all into AMP). Having also worked out the revelatory spoiler territory stuff in regards to the Ajata, I need to sort of wrap my head around the setting in terms of how nobility works and interacts with wider society, how the governmental side of the Great Surf works, what the name of the polity is etc.
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Re: Xenosurf

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Okay, so I think I've got something ticking over, but it still needs a lot of work here and there. Basically the society of the Great Surf has a caste system. In the past this was a really big deal and tied into a lot of beliefs regarding ritual purity, but it has since become less of a thing with various reforms. This isn't to say that the system no longer exists, but rather that it is now different. Most of the names below are placeholders.

Xenosurf - IV - The Caste (do ho ho)

Rajput - The highest caste, and one of the two noble classes. 'Nobility' arises out of waveforms capable of using Regalia: this particular separation from the majority allowed them to gain great power and influence following the creation of the Aleph. Although they have long since given up any inherent right to rule, Rajput essentially control the economic destiny of the Great Surf. The very highest of the high control vast networks of siblings, cousins, second cousins and affiliated retainers, and further have formed vast interstellar corporations. The five greatest houses are the Kirin, Suzaku, Byakko, Seiryuu and Genbu - members of the main families of these houses are referred to by the Shahanshah as 'cousin'. Obviously Killi is of this caste.

Kshatriya - The second of the noble castes, who predominantly serve as a hereditary soldier class. They have their origins as branch families encourage to fight in the stead of other nobles, allowing Rajputs to pursue their interests through force without the impurity of spilling blood personally. It is only relatively recently that Kshatriya have been able to pursue careers outside of the armed forces, though it is still unusual for a Kshatriya child to not spend some degree of time soldiering. Shin is of this caste, currently building a military service record for his inevitable foray into civilian politics. Intermarriage between Rajput and Kshatriya was previously not possible, but for certain prominent families it is coming into vogue. Despite this, it would normally be impossible for a Kshatriya to marry into a great house like the Kirin.

Vaishya - A common caste. While noble classes are determined by birth, common classes are largely determined by profession. A Vaishya is any person who works in a governmental, military or corporate position. Generally speaking a Vaishya has gained responsibility towards society and with it a degree of additional privilege. With the rise of democracy, Vaishya have been gaining more and more traction as a caste of power. The current Minister of the Right is a Vaishya, for example (though is said to have not inconsiderable backing from House Suzaku).

Shudra - The other common class. A person who pursues their own interests and does not ask for much in return. A caste of not inconsiderable leisure, includes hobbyist small business owners. Juna and Karna are Shudras, though Karna has his work as a priest. Social mobility into the somewhat higher Vaishya caste is not necessarily difficult. Intermarriage between the two common castes is common.

Mephi - 'Outcasts' - persons who reject society have created their own counter-cultures. A phenomenon attributable to the existence of the caste system. Charlotte is a Mephi.
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Re: Xenosurf

Post by Magister Militum »

Yup, this is definitely your shtick, and its fantastical nature works really well. I'm especially interested in the worldbuilding, though the story itself would be a good read as well.
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Re: Xenosurf

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What's great about your stuff, Ford, is that you don't hold back when you want something to be high concept you just go all out with it; some people would put severe limits on what you can do with this Aleph so people have to move through a system of wormholes or something, NO! This is a network of space magic and it lets you move all across the galaxy at will, as well as providing for a wide array of magical powers and the creation of giant robots of godlike power.

I am curious, are you planning on putting the story online or do you think you will try to publish?
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Re: Xenosurf

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Magister Militum wrote:Yup, this is definitely your shtick, and its fantastical nature works really well. I'm especially interested in the worldbuilding, though the story itself would be a good read as well.
The setting and story is still in flux, so I think doing this sort of rambling psuedo-worldbuilding will be helpful. For example, just today i changed 'NO' to 'AO'.
speaker-to-trolls wrote:What's great about your stuff, Ford, is that you don't hold back when you want something to be high concept you just go all out with it; some people would put severe limits on what you can do with this Aleph so people have to move through a system of wormholes or something, NO! This is a network of space magic and it lets you move all across the galaxy at will, as well as providing for a wide array of magical powers and the creation of giant robots of godlike power.
I've always liked stories where the line between 'life' and 'technology' are blurred, and the Aleph is an expression of that, because it blurs the line between pure information and human dreams, and then blurs the lines between both of those things and reality. In another of my settings you might see people modify themselves with nanomachines or hard cybernetics or whatever, but in Xenosurf those enhancements are a function of the Aleph. I don't really want to make comparisons to The Matrix but, well, you know ...

Originally there were additional layers to the setting implying greater dimensional domains, but I felt that it wasn't necessary. The Aleph itself is essentially infinite.
speaker-to-trolls wrote:I am curious, are you planning on putting the story online or do you think you will try to publish?
Well the latter would be nice, wouldn't it. At this stage it's mostly an intellectual curiousity, I suppose.
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Re: Xenosurf

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I thought I should take some time out to talk about the Aleph Manifestation Principle in detail. I have to stress that this a really vague part of the physics of the setting currently, but it's also a part which I can talk about without really spoiling what is close to the most important element of the plot. I have also expanded the secondary cast list a little. Pardon the spelling and sentence construction.

Xenosurf -V - The Aleph

The Aleph is the foundation upon which the civilisation of the Great Surf is built. At its core, it is a medium of communication: as the population grew and expanded, it became increasingly necessary to improve the means by which information is exchanged, and decisions are made. As the Aleph was originally a product of the Diaspora, its exact origins are difficult to pinpoint. Certainly it is accepted and proven that the family of the Mikado were the original engineers as the Piscean Age slipped into the Aquarian, how the engineered is still a matter of some dispute. Some point to evidence of the 'Akashic Records', artifacts initially used to open up the Aleph, others again speak of an even more nebulous 'Tree of Life', but if anyone knows it is only the Mikado.

The origins are not pinned down, but the modern situation is a different matter. Over generations, the Aleph has expanded and expanded, filling not merely space and time, but also the collective human unconscious. It is difficult to make a true distinction between where the subconscious and unconscious ends and the Aleph begins. As such, while in the Age of Pisces one needed a device to interface with the Internet, in the Age of Aquarius there is no need of any kind of device to interface with the Aleph. A person is born interfaced, and using the Aleph is essentially second-nature for almost all people, a reflex. And as the Aleph has grown in scope and scale it has also grown in function. The Aleph is as capable of transferring physical matter as much as it is capable of transferring pure data. Transfers occur instantly anywhere throughout the domain of the Aleph, which covers the entirety of the Great Surf. As it is capable of transferring matter, it can also be used to store matter, but this a an entirely mundane usage.

The Aleph is a data system and so manipulable in much the same way, and as of yet no fundamental limitations have been discovered. By employing the Aleph Manifestation Principle, a person is able to cause the Aleph to act directly in the real. These manifestations are colloquially referred to as 'Mantra'. At a basic level a person might manifest physical enhancement programs which grant them superhuman strength and speed, generate a protective barrier or visualise possible futures through the forecast network. At a higher level they might heal a person with the support of femtomachinery, breach the ICE of another person and alter their physical senses, or generate nature interference programs to cause physical damage. At a higher level still one might alter the flow of time, or create life itself from data. The Aleph represents a kind of limited immortality, as well, able to capture wave forms and return them to physical form, even if only briefly. Possessing psychometric properties, the Aleph is also able to mine history and create the past in a manner that is almost physical reality.

This is in part because the Aleph represent a whole new layer of the universe. It is not merely that the pseudo-electronic domain seeps into the real, but also that the real crosses over into the Aleph. Whole worlds have been created within the Aleph, vast vistas which exceed even the greatest stellar structures constructed by civilisation. This seemingly limitless capacity has lead some to question whether the Aleph could represent the medium by which humanity passes the Limit of Questions. Currently there exists no fully satisfactory answers to those concerns, though in recent years TELOS have demonstrated certain countermeasures within the Aleph which have had success, admittedly very limited, against the Ajata.

Strictly speaking there is no requirement for additional tools to access and manipulate the Aleph: it is a function of being human. However, that isn't to say that such tools aren't useful. It is, after all, the existence of the Regalia which gave the noble castes their dominance. A Regalia is a two-dimensional structure of exotic matter which can only be interfaced with by certain waveforms. Regalia are pseudo-acausal non-physical causality interference phenomenon weapons, and so their abilities range beyond merely improving AMP, though they still use the Aleph as a medium. Unlike lesser AMP Drives, which are physical devices, Regalia do not necessarily have to be manifest themselves to aid in the Manifestation Principle. Younger persons typically make a show out of it: Killi wears her Regalia directly on her skin around her navel, while Shinden has it plastered on his favourite jacket. Even should the Regalia be kept entirely non-physically, it will typically appear as shining crest above or around the owner in the case of particularly advanced Mantra.

Though the potential of a Regalia is immensely higher than even the most cutting edge AMP Driver, actual superiority depends on the individual. A great majority of high nobles, despite naturally having the greatest potential, do not devote significant effort to achieving resonance with their Regalia, beyond developing a suite of high end defensive Mantra. Kshatriya, with their emphasis on personal combat, will typically easily exceed an AMP Driver, and the aces of that Caste are rarely challenged by anything other than other Regalia, ADHA or superior Ajata. The most powerful Regalia are the three which belong to the Mikado, who is said to have no equal in the Great Surf. Semyaza Kirin is powerful even by the standards of the exceptional: she ranks as one of the 'kishin', an existence so powerful that it is thought that there is no conventional force which is capable of killing her. Able to combat deity-class Ajata with her bare hands, Semyaza's AMP has created glaciers and hurricanes visible from orbit.

For most, this level of AMP is some sort of mythic dream. Conventional AMP Drivers attempt to replicate causality interference phenomena which come naturally to Regalia. Regalia are essentially derived from a family 'Record' which contains the collective wave form of the an entire family and so are not so much 'created' as they are 'transcribed'. In comparison, an AMP Driver is constructed: layered manifolds of exotic matter circuitry operating via the 'vibration' of superstrings. This point of difference seems almost arbitrary, but the differences in capability are well known. While there are a number of exceptional people who are able to compete with Regalia, as a rule an AMP Driver will be fundamentally inferior. Even DEVA's cutting edge prototypes are no match, though rumours of the so-called 'Idea Engine' persist, which supposedly rivals or even exceeds the powers of Regalia (though there is neither evidence or consistency to these rumours). This fundamental difference in capability extends to ADHA and ASTRA mobile weapons.
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Re: Xenosurf

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Xenosurf - VI - TELOS

The special organisation TELOS is at the forefront of the conflict against the Ajata. It is a concentration of some of the finest minds in the Great Surf in practically every conceivable field: strategists, engineers, ontologists, physicists, biologists, mathematicians, philosophers and much more besides. They are all devoted to a single task: discovering a means to eliminate the threat of the Ajata.

TELOS is a largely autonomous organisation. It takes orders directly from its overall director, Semyaza Kirin, though ultimately she is accountable to the Subcommittee on Ajata Countermeasures. Its articles of formation give TELOS a very broad power to interfere with other organisations if it is necessary to combat the Ajata, including giving marching orders to DEVA squadrons or declaring martial law. Heavily funded by the largest monopolies, it is a powerful force in its own right. Some commentators have described the scope of power as potentially dangerous: though Semyaza is accountable to parliament, this is a very much after the fact state of affairs. Other commentators have said that the existential threat posed by the Ajata is so great that there is no choice: the potential cost is the total destruction of the Great Surf, and so a number of safeguards must be discarded.

The organisation itself is divided into a number of cells which are pursuing various avenues of research, whether directed at better understanding the Ajata or developing weapons better suited to killing them. The foremost of these cells is the Amita Project, into which much of the wider TELOS research is funneled. The Amita Project is relatively recent and has been described as the linchpin of the organisation's objective. It has been entrusted to Achilles Kirin despite her youth, though given its importance the project is closely observed by Semyaza and the Subcommittee on Ajata Countermeasures. The central element of the project is AO Amita: in essence, it is a mobile weapon that is not so different from an ADHA or ASTRA. There have been AOs in the past, but AO Amita is a masterpiece work from a very brilliant designer.

It is an uncomfortable fact, however, that exactly how the AO Amita will 'defeat' the Ajata is at best ambiguous. A number of its systems are black boxes to much of the Project staff, and Achilles herself is not generally becoming on a number of matters. For some of the staff, it seems almost miraculous that the Subcommittee has not had Semyaza cancel the Amita Project, though they dutifully continue with the preparations for the start up test which opens Xenosurf Episode I. At the very least, going by what information exists, an AO would prove to be useful in combat even if it is difficult to see how it would be ultimately decisive. Due to certain Ajata activity the start-up test, and the entire Amita Project complex, is moved to the planet Ithaca, where it has a fateful encounter with Arjuna Fudo.
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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speaker-to-trolls
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Re: Xenosurf

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

It is an uncomfortable fact, however, that exactly how the AO Amita will 'defeat' the Ajata is at best ambiguous. A number of its systems are black boxes to much of the Project staff, and Achilles herself is not generally becoming on a number of matters.
I wonder, given what you've said about blurring the lines between dreams, information and reality, does she actually know that much about how her creation is going to defeat the Ajata, or is there a certain element of what might be called prophecy involved?
"Little monuments may be completed by their first architects, but great ones; true ones leave their copestones to posterity. God keep me from completing anything."
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Re: Xenosurf

Post by Ford Prefect »

The AO Amita is Killi's creation, but the Amita Project is very much a part of Semyaza's scenario. When her staff ask questions like 'how is this going to save the Oecumene and prevent the Ajata destroying the Great Surf', Achilles says 'you don't need to know', but at the same time she is asking the same question of her older sister, who is equally unbecoming.
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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Re: Xenosurf

Post by Ford Prefect »

Just part of the opener which I have managed to write recently.


She stood with the warm white sand between her toes and watched the waves break into the beach. Wind caressed the back of her messy, white-blond head and tanned shoulders as emerald water curled high, spray like mist boiling off the curve into the star-specked lapis sky. She took a breath, tasted salt as the wave barrelled and dumped its weight back into the sea, exploding into crazy whitewash. Her fingers piano’d around the rail, the sunrise-red deck gritty with sand on the old wax. As the sea retreated her breath went with it, ribs tingling, toes curling.

“What are we waiting for?” she said, throwing a glance at the brunette toying with her bangs and leaning on her canary-yellow shortboard. Running a finger beneath the hem of her shorts, she dashed towards the water.

“Oi, Juna!” this other girl shouted, startled into her own run for the surf.

Toes at the tail, back arched, she powered out over the weak spills. At a decent five-footer she hugged the rails and rolled fins-up; when the wave passed Juna swung back up, pale hair slick to her scalp except for an errant antennae-like cowlick. When she stopped she found the water glassy, her ripples sparkling in the sun and stars. For what seemed like a long moment, she sat on her board, staring at the streaks of clouds above the horizon where the blue of the sky merged with the green of the ocean and the world seemed infinite. Sea water lapping over her knees, heart beating like it was calling out to a distant part of the world, Juna waited.

Out there, somewhere, something had begun, and it was coming to her. When she was small and still rode with her grandfather on his old Mal, he would tell her about the waves. He wanted her to understand that there was a cycle in the world, and that beginnings were marked by endings. An ending needn’t be sad if it created something new: where the wind died, a wave was born and gave meaning to the wind. And if you ride a wave you give meaning to it. You bring life into the cycle.

Moments like those always seemed to arise in moments like these. Maybe that was what memory was supposed to be like. Juna didn’t really understand what ‘memory’ really meant for an Aquarian, but she felt that living in moments like these gave a little meaning to moments like those.

The wave rose behind her, and she started to paddle. The wave caught her board and lifted her up. At the crest, she pushed herself to her feet and eased herself into the glassy face. Had to be nine feet, easy, as her fins carved into the marbling water and she outraced the billowing white water as the wave collapsed under its own weight. Juna cutback into the wave and whipped into the air. When she came back down, the sea was alive with surf.
Low to the deck, Juna built up speed as her first wave devolved into whitewash and shot up the next even before it had begun to form its crest. She pumped the wave till the serious twelve-footer curled and barrelled, snapped right at the crest, nose inscribing a long, slow arc and then dropped in. Weight back on the tail, Juna slid neatly into the barrel, whistling quietly at the arching ceiling, translucent as crystal under the sun. Her fingers brushed the inner wall of the tube, the deck hummed up through her feet. Juna closed her eyes, cut out everything but that feeling as the wave closed in around her.

“This is off the hook.” She said to her friend as they took their first break, sitting on one of the simple narrow log barriers which marked the interstice between beach and palm-grass. There was a clunk from the battered, old-style mechanical vending machine, and she felt ice on her cheek.

They cracked their cans and drank silently for a moment, watching as a handful of other gidgets and moondoggies hit up the wild surf. Their boards stood upright in the sand, marking the line-up’s centre. “Do you ever remember it being like this, Strelka? Just constant eight-foot surf down at Kuta and the Wedge today is like as good as-”

“As good as Pipeline, right?” Strelka said, gesturing with her sweating can. Some kid on a fishtail went head over ankles after attacking a break too big for him. “Dad says it’s because of the big facility that was transferred in a couple of days ago.”

Juna tapped her chin with the lip of her can, pulled one knee up to her chest. “Feels kinda weak knowing that the breaks are because of something like that.”

“You didn’t even know it was ‘something like that’ until I told you.” Strelka countered, hiding a thin smile behind her drink. Juna stuck out her tongue and kicked off her seat; she landed in the sand, whirled and tossed her drink back to her friend, who scrambled to catch it.

“Finish that for me? Surf’s up.”

Breaking into a sprint, Juna left the frustrated protests behind and kicked up gouts of sunwarm sand. She reached her board, hopped around to get the leash around her ankle then made a break for the section. It was one of those days, where the sun was high and the surf was right, and you could forget about nagging brothers and bad grades and a dangerous universe, even if it was only for that day. A gidget in her element.

As she paddled though, she couldn’t help but notice that the surf was dropping away. Curling breakers dropped away into the flat, left bewildered teenagers milling aimlessly. Sitting up on her board, Juna turned to the shore, saw Strelka pointing out towards the horizon. Mouthing something inaudible, she turned again, and saw something gleaming in the distance. Something moving, something coming closer, and as it drew near she could make out its shape: swan-curved, shark-finned, faceted like it was carved from some gemstone. The sea coiled beneath it as if in supplication.

“Oh shit.” Juna said, before the tempest hit her and drove her underwater. She kicked with the pressure and grabbed the sand. Her precious board was caught in the current, stretched tight on the leash and on her leg, and it actually managed to roll her over. In that moment she saw the ship through the turbulence, an elegant shadow against the sky, limed in sunlight and trailing rainbow haze. Her board was whipping around, perfectly upright like it was caught in a blender. The leash wrapped around the tail and snapped all three red fins cleanly.

Bubbles erupted from Juna’s mouth.

Strelka, dripping from the spray, watched the point above the palms where the ship had disappeared. When she heard panting, she turned to see Juna clutching her surfboard, teeth clenched. Her shoulders were heaving, one white bikini strap askew. “Are you okay?” Strelka asked, after a moment.

“Where did it go?”

“I don’t think that really-” Juna’s head swivelled around and Strelka held up her hands, palms out. “Okay, okay, I guess it was heading in the general direction of Kuta. But you know that was an actual space ship so it could basically go anywhere and you’re really not listening are you.”

Juna raised the board above her head and then, screaming inarticulately, brought it nose down into the sand. Three nubby streaks of red made Strelka cover her mouth.

With the flick of her wrist, Juna produced her Perfecto like some kind of magician and pulled it on, before striding towards the palms. Strelka followed dutifully, watching the star pattern dotted on Juna’s jacket glitter silver-black. When she was angrily straddling her Vespa like some kind of gidget Brando, Strelka sighed. “Are you seriously going to chase after that thing?”

“Seriously.” Juna replied, clicking her fingers. The engine purred.

“And then?”

Juna stared for a moment at her snapped fingers, then pointed at her friend. “I’m going to go feed them five hundred millimetres of bokuto. Hang-loose, Strel.”

“Wait hold on Juna, Juna, Arjuna-” Strelka got a wave before Juna’s little scooter took her off the scrub and onto the white-grey tarmac and beyond the palms.

-v-

At the point where the green hills and the stilted houses rolled into the band of white-gold sand, a girl sat with a woman and watched the carefree at play in the surf. If you looked, you could tell they were sisters: the same sleek, glossy black hair, the same elegant porcelain features, the same silver-blue eyes. The elder sat with one arm across the back of the rough-cut planks of the bench, lightly slapping her bare foot against the boardwalk, rings glinting. The younger had her hands in her lap, legs crossed, one platform sandal dangling from her toes.

The palms bent and wavered with the wind, the sun prickled on the skin and the world was full of the hum of life. The sisters sat in silence, as though speaking might render the Saturnalia on the beach little more than illusion. There was a tranquillity here, an unusual seclusion in a world of connection: the seclusion of those that forget. Not because they are ignorant, but because they themselves have been forgotten. Here, the Great Surf was the arc of stars beyond the long white whisps of cloud. Society did not intersect with the lives of the people here, just the rumour of it. Yet, they were Aquarian all the same.

“You know Killi, we should come back here.” The elder sister said. “When all of this is over.”

“You seem confident.”

“Of course. I’ve bet on your greatness.” Killi lolled her head around, looking incredulous. “What? It’s true!”

“I really hope you don’t say things like that to Rinne and the rest of the Subcommittee.” As she spoke, she let her head drop backwards, her twintails cascading over the back of the bench.

“Give me some credit.” The woman replied, reaching out to touch the crown of Killi’s head. When she tilted her face and looked up the length of her sister’s arm, she saw a half-smile. “And let me dote on my little sister. Just for a moment. I may not have a chance for a while, after tomorrow.”

“Semyaza, will you stop? We’ll see each other tomorrow, let’s not make a big deal out of it.” Killi laughed, but her sister didn’t move for some time, thumb stroking Killi’s temple. Though she fidgeted, after Semyaza had disappeared Killi touched the top of her head experimentally.

She stood, tapped her feet more snugly into her sandals and needlessly adjusted the collar on her black, sleeveless blouse. The sea caught the sunlight and scattered a thousand lights, and Killi slipped a rounded pair of golden sunglasses from under her palm, then slipped them on. The town, faded in the sun, spread away from her. It was not quiet. Murmurs bubbled between the bare, salt-scoured weatherboards, pinioned by the polyrhythm of wind-blown chimes. A young mother, lithely built and dark bodied, lead her son by the hand. Killi watched them as they passed, each carrying their boards, then looked past them and out to the sea. A haze beyond the next island, vague and white, an alien worldegg above the green, marked her contribution to this world
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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