❝ The Kostka IV is the latest model of a series of interstellar cruise ships dedicated to ferrying travelers from the stress and anxiety of polluted, over-populated hub worlds to any of the many Kostka Corp developing colonies around the galaxy.
Designed with state of the art engineering, facilities and technology, we invite you to embark on a cosmic journey to your new lives across the stars. Relax and enjoy shopping, dining and lodging under a clear, blue sky in the magnificent Ring Atrium, or begin your adventure early in one of our VR rooms equipped with hundreds of thousands of scenarios to choose from, as our award-winning staff and expert crew handle all the rest. With our state-of-the-art jump drive, sixteen light-years will pass before you know it, and soon you'll be departing onto the sandy shores of Carpathia, into the lush forests of Theta Penduli or hiking up the majestic cliffs of Stradus.
We know you have many options in selecting inter-colonial travel and placement, and we thank you for choosing Kostka Corp. ❞
KOSTKA VI MAP
Above is a map/directory to give a general idea of where things are and how big the ship is. It isn't to scale (if I shrunk the school bus any more than that we wouldn't be able to tell it was a school bus, okok), and the sections probably aren't as huge as they're shown in the colored spaces, but the idea is that they're somewhere in there, or that the colored area is generally focused on that type of work/function. Additionally, there are internal hallways and elevators that connect the different sections, so if a section is not unlocked yet on this map, that doesn't mean you can't pass through it getting to another section that is.
Click the image to be taken to the full resolution version of the map.
CRYOGENICS DECK
While much of the Kostka IV is a masterpiece of architectural and interior design, the cryo chambers are far more spartan in nature, all cold, technological pragmatism and sleek efficiency. Each pod holds an artificial, semi-organic HOST body in it, though the glass will be fogged until the installation and emergence process begins. They’re filled with a gelatinous, transparent-blue fluid that aids the HOST bodies in the initial morphing stage to suit the mind and identity that’s being installed into it (a process that takes roughly 24 hours, sometimes longer). All changes are grown inside the pod before the emergence process ever begins. As Ripley will tell you; you have never been more sanitary than when you were inside the birthing pod (yeah, she calls them birthing pods, you’re all infants to her, sorry).
Once outside the pod, there’s narrow walkways between aisles and aisles of them, set out through several long halls, all leading into a medical bay. It’s small and under-stocked, designed there for the occasional unfortunate incident going into or coming out of cryosleep, but it seems somewhat worse for wear. Some basics can be found in the drawers and cabinets, but nothing here is likely to get you through open heart surgery. It’s not recommended to do anything more complicated than sanitizing and stitching in this facility. On the bright side, the new crew loaded into the HOST bodies will be, for the most part, healed of anything fatal, but you never know. Ripley’s been know to get distracted.
As there is currently no trained staff on hand, Ripley's droid staff will be in attendance in the small medbay to check any new crew having issue with their HOST bodies, and make sure you've puked up all the tubing and yanked out all the wiring that was connected to you properly. They have no clothes for you at this juncture, because all robots are nudists, but there will be a stack of bedsheets on an exam table nearby that no one will stop you from pilfering from. Dry off, make a toga, and then take a walk. In a storage closet about ten minutes away, there are some more durable, bright orange jumpsuits in varying sizes.
INTERIOR / HALLS
Connecting each sector of the ship, there are weaving, winding halls. Those that provide direct routes to passenger utilized sectors or frequented locations (such as the Ring atrium or O2 Garden) can be nearly as wide as a city street, given more lighting (though the entire ship is on emergency power only, so it’s still pretty dim), and generally aesthetically pleasing. However, it has been some time since the general public and once-passengers of the Kostka have been through here. Given the black smudges of carbon from blaster fire and explosions, the gashes carved into the walls, and what looks like the occasional, dried blood splatter, it doesn't seem so relaxing and picturesque any more. You may want to try scrubbing the walls down a little. Or don't. Ripley doesn't mind it.
The halls less frequented by passengers, more often utilized by crew, connecting engineering, maintenance and operational areas are more narrow, perhaps wide enough for two or three people to walk side by side, with duller lighting and simple metal siding on the walls. These halls aren't so ruined and damaged as the public ones, but you will find a few scorch marks here or there, and the words "ab intra" engraved in chaotic scrawl in several places.
After a certain point, doors will cease to open, and characters will be blocked off from going any further into the ship. Should new crew try to pry the doors open, Ripley will advise that all life support is cut off for those areas of the ship. The environmental control is not in place, no oxygen is filtering to it, and it isn’t pressurized. Please stop trying to die.
At this point, there are no windows in any of the halls.
O2 GARDEN / HYDROPONICS LAB
While HOST bodies are artificial and mostly synthetic, they are semi-organic (intended to replicate human bodies as closely as possible), and thus, require oxygen to function at maximum capacity. Perhaps not as much as a purely human body might, but still, it’s necessary, as is food and water and relatively reasonable levels of body heat. Luckily, access to the O2 Garden / Hydroponics Lab is open, but Ripley hasn’t yet had the droid-power to spare to keep it properly maintained. In the interest of keeping O2 steadily available, and cultivating a reliable sort of nutrients (outside of the cryo pod goo), PCs will want to take it upon themselves to clean up the lab, repair all the equipment and containers, and get the hydroponics system running again.
Those that explore the garden may stumble upon what looks like a miniature altar placed carefully on the ground: a shoebox sized box, made of metal and encircled by a ring traced deep into the dirt. A hexagon marks the top of the box, and when touched it reads on the HUD as ‘EDIBLE’.
Inside are what looks to be clear packets and packets of dead seeds. At the bottom, however, is an opaque packet that initially lets out a puff of white dust when opened. It might freak you out, but it will prove to be harmless-- and the reward might be worth the minor scare: the hexagon on the packet, acting like a QR code, similar to the one on the outside of the box, explains that these are seeds for genetically altered potatoes. They might not taste great, but with a little extra care they can grow within 2 weeks. There’s a hundred seeds at least, and most of them appear to be viable.
With more and more digging, and a trip to the console at one of the desks, crew can locate a seed inventory listing. If they can break into the cold storage vault and pry open some of the containers, they'll find roughly a hundred of each of these seeds, viable and ready to plant.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
The purpose of this room is to remotely adjust the temperature, air quality and gravity control throughout the ship. While this room hardly takes up as much space as some of the larger plants, it’s nonetheless absolutely vital to the survival of anything organic on the Kostka IV. Space is a cold, lifeless bitch, and without temperature regulation, the new crew members aren’t likely to survive for long. The ship is massive, however, and there’s a perfect balance to be set to keep all areas properly heated or cooled. The closer to the engines, guns and thrusters, the more the air will burn, and the further from it, the more the heat is sapped from your skin. There’s the oxygen that needs cycling as well, and let’s not forget, the gravity controls. The last, though, is something of actual importance to Ripley and her droids, so the crew has less to worry about on that front. Rip will keep everyone’s feet on the ground. Mostly.
The computers in the Environmental Control room are only set up for limited access to Kostka’s engineering system, with no control or information on the rest of ship’s mechanics or technological databases, but one could find a vague, structural outline of the Kostka IV on it, with enough digging. There won’t be anything labeled, and getting detail down to specific rooms like a blueprint won’t be possible, but a PC could view the general size and shape of the ship. Spoilers: it big.
THE RING / COMMONS ATRIUM
Entering the Ring is like stepping out into a massive, yawning cavern with only a flashlight that barely touches the stalagmites thirty or so feet ahead of you. When the Kostka IV was a bustling vessel carrying the lives of thousands of crew and passengers, the monolithic, ringed structure circling her had housed the central hub of activity on the ship. With the proper lighting, you might have been able to see the towering ceiling, and the grey screens above would be displaying a partly cloudy, cerulean blue sky on a projection that would tick through as the simulated daylight waxed and waned, keeping all those aboard on a regular biological clock, a 24-hour schedule of night and day. As for the structures, there's levels on levels, perhaps once passenger residences or shops, the Ring designed to make those on their long voyage feel as if they’d never left the city - a home away from home.
Now, it’s a ghost town. Where there would have been low music, or a soundtrack of artificial nature, there’s only the haunting creak of the hollowed out ship. A metallic clang in the distance could either be the metal skeleton of the ship expanding and contracting with movement and temperature shifts, one of Ripley’s droids running maintenance, or something else entirely. The grass on the lawns is overgrown, the plants and gardens a wild mess, only trimmed back enough to make room for droids to zoom to and fro, but the water running through the central canal that spans the entire Ring is still filled with water. Dark, probably algae infested, and murky, but it’s there. Once, this was part of the ships filtration system, but droid and AIs have no need for hydration. It’s been untouched for who knows how long, with who knows what else floating inside of it. All doors and windows will be locked down and shuttered tight, Ripley stating it conserves energy to have them sealed. Whether or not that’s entirely true, they aren’t budging any time soon. Still, there’s a few stalls, many park benches, and lots and lots of vegetation.
With the bordering shops and residences all locked up, there are no accessible windows to view the outside of the ship from at this time. But, above the main entrance to the Ring, when coming from the cryo deck, someone has carved the words “AB INTRA” into the wall.
VIIK (VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION KIOSK)
Posted at even intervals throughout the Atrium walkways, there with be small kiosks, with flickering holographic displays. At another point in time, it appears that these kiosks could be used to welcome new guests, give directions, and answer questions about the ship, its crew and its mission. Now, they only buzzes with a weak hum when motion approaches, sometimes showing a blurred, static outline of what might have been a person, uttering a word or two clearly before cutting out again. Other times, it’s more like random selection playbacks of past activity in the area around the kiosk. This could range anywhere from momentary flashes of chatting couples and laughing children, to seconds of blood-curdling screams, and haunting, incoherent whispers, twinned with raving laughter.
Feel free to ask VIIK a question. You might get an answer, if it’s short enough, and it might even be fitting the question you asked. Or, you might get a recipe for quiche, with a side of nightmare fuel. It’s hit and miss.
WATER FILTRATION PLANT
The Water Filtration Plant is one of several throughout the Kostka IV, this one planted at the south end of the Ring, accessed through maintenance tunnels that take the crew low into the guts of the ship, housed beneath the vast pools all through the Ring, that serve as water reservoirs. The machines inside this plant cycle that water, purifying it, and dispersing it back throughout the ship. The system has been shut down for who knows how long. It seems to have been years, when the new arrivals finally get this room open. Ripley had no need for filtrating water while it was just her, her droids, and vast, vast space. The Walkers (you), however, are not so lucky. While the HOST bodies aren’t purely organic, they fit to it enough that the bare necessities - hydration, food, sleep, etc - are all still, you know, necessary. Time to clean up and get working.
Should anyone get close enough to one of the tanks and manage to open them up, Ripley’s voice will kick on overhead; ’Swimming, diving and bathing is not permitted in the Plant. Please keep all limbs and body fluids free from the filtration tanks. Dismemberment makes for insanitary water reserves, and low morale.’
STORAGE CLOSET / STASH VAULT
You found it, friend: The Goods. By that, we mean clothing, tools, shoes, and a few basic items. Most of this is maintenance gear and uniforms - bright orange, full body jumpsuits with the Kostka Corp logo embroidered to the left chest. Assuming you dislike being clothed in only a bedsheet in the frigid climate of space, this will be your first stop after the cryo deck. It may take some digging in the various bins, and not all of the jumpsuits will smell completely clean, but you're bound to find one in a near decent size eventually.
Besides the fashionable jumpsuits, there is more gear to found. Enough exosuits for 6 people to go outside the ship for repairs and maintenance at once, with some basic tools for exactly that, one of which is a laser-saw. Not a great laser-saw. It'll take you a good few hours to get through any door on the ship, and if it's one Ripley doesn't want you opening, there's a good chance you'll be put in Time Out after the first five minutes of trying it. But, hey. Good to keep in mind.
AIRLOCK
There is currently one (1) airlock accessible to the crew. On the inner door, you will find the only currently accessible window, and will only be able to witness Space when that door is closed, and the outer door has been opened. It's a smallish rectangle (imagine the picture above was taken through this window), enough for only a couple people to peer through at a time. Some of the heavier exosuits will be stored inside the airlock here, as waddling around in them through the halls from the stash vault can get hazardous.
We know we said, if you wanted to leave, 'the airlock is over there', but it's slightly more complicated than that. You see, screwing up operation of the airlock could mean sucking half the crew into space before anyone's able to seal off the incident, so they're somewhat protected. Not just a big, bright red button sitting out in the open. There's a casing over the operation panel that's only opened by keys carried by droids, or those who have gone through airlock safety training.
Generally, this training is only offered to those who will be regularly using the airlocks, such as the engineering and maintenance teams that go on space walks to examine and repair the ship's hull, and the janitorial staff, who, well, litter. Sorry, space, Ripley has bigger concerns than dumping a little bit of garbage here and there throughout the multiverse. Call it souvenirs. If one is insistent, they are able to hassle a droid into operating an airlock for them (they don't speak, but they can listen), and if Ripley grants approval for the use, the droid will supervise what's done with the airlock, and cut off any resource wasting nonsense. Throwing out garbage? A-okay. Throwing out the annoying new crewmate? Not okay.
NOT AVAILABLE: BARRACKS
Currently, there is no access to any proper crew quarters or barracks. The Ring is likely the best place to sleep, given the space and the various park benches scattered around, though not the most comforting, as it’s large and shadowy, with unsettling echos bouncing off the walls and traveling all throughout. A VIIK spontaneously malfunctioning could jolt a person awake with violent screams, or invade their dreams with creeping, hissing whispers. If you happen to hear something tapping along in the dark corners of the massive Ring in the night, surely it’s just a droid going about its work, or another glitchy kiosk, right? Right.
Ripley recommends returning to the cryo pods for sleep. They’re very ergonomic, well insulated, and perfectly out of the way of all foot and droid traffic. Just a little bit slimy, but as we’ve discussed, that slime is the most nutrient rich substance you’ll find on the ship. Easy midnight snack, right? If you happen to wake up in the middle of the night and think you spot a human-shaped shadow hovering over you through the glass lid of the pod, just blink hard a time or two, and it’ll be gone. No worries at all, safe and sound.
Otherwise, find a nice little corner and curl up.
(( NOTE: there is also a butt-ton of other sectors and locations and things that characters will be able to unlock and explore, we just wanted to note that the barracks are specifically not there right now ))
» NAVIGATION «
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
