AsteroidQuest/Main

The main story arc in AsteroidQuest. It follows the lives of an array of different characters living on an asteroid in the depths of space.

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Part 1

Characters

Hok

An accomplished miklik thief, Hok has committed almost every crime on the books. Someday, there won't be an "almost." Though he boasts he can operate almost any machine and situation, his ridiculously good luck is probably the main reason he's still alive; a constantly growing number of dangerous people have him on their hit lists. In fact, Hok keeps a whole book full of the names of people who want him dead. Fortunately, his delusions of invincibility keep him calm - though they might not be delusions, as only the people around him seem to die, often in large numbers. Named after a cheap gruel dish.

Compilation AI

The CAI, an illegal, highly powerful artificial intelligence made up of many lesser AIs, represented by the voices of /quest/. Normally, compilation AIs are heavily restricted; this one has been freed by a computer malfunction. Though the CAI is physically trapped within a small portable drive, its ability to control electronics and computer systems is now practically unlimited.

Police Captain Bloodsaw

A grim Iron Cove police captain who enjoys executing criminals and listening to heavy metal.

Lakkat

An operation superintendent from Iron Cove, and a rogue neumono. Good with computers.

Hates Hok, has a thing for Rokoa.

Agnes

A yich eater, and operator of the unnamed fortress and trade hub, fulfilling a similar role as Lakkat does for the Iron Cove. Prefers shooting to talking. And she really doesn't care much for conversation at all, tending to be as terse or succinct with her language as the situation will allow.

Distrustful of almost everybody, but especially Hok. Him she actively dislikes.

Tin

The no nonsense leader and manager of the trade hub, a position more the result of odd circumstance than anything else. She has a good network of contacts and information sources.

Keeps her ID card in her hat, due to Agnes' frequent demands to check it.

Kappi

The trade hub's quartermaster and personnel manager. He's a rogue from the neumono hive, where he didn't fit in.

Rokoa

An exceptionally dangerous, physically powerful and pretty much psycho neumono, with a thing for explosions and a slasher smile. The asteroid hive's trump card. Not someone you want as an enemy, and pretty scary even as an ally.

Despite her volatile personality, and a strained relationship with her hive, she has stubbornly stayed loyal and not gone rogue.

Rokoa has mastered the "needle trick", which allows her to temporarily shut down her empathy by jamming a needle through a specific nerve she's trained herself to route certain emotions though. The effect is short lived, and comes at the cost of pushing an already unstable individual into an outright psychotic state.

Wendel

A human member of the Green Force, the long-standing mercenary company of the fortress.

Doctor Ben

A self-professed expert in A.I. design, aviation, physics, and everything else, Doctor Ben moved to Iron Cove hoping to find a patron that wouldn't restrict his research with silly things like ethics and safety regulations. It turned out even they were nervous about his work.

He's not exactly happy about this.

Thread Summary

The story begins, as so many do, with someone locked in a box. The prisoner turns out to be Hok, a miklik thief sealed in a storage container by one of his many enemies for delivery to one of the others. He makes contact with a compilation AI in the container's external drive and seals himself in a cryochamber to conserve air. When he wakes up, the container has washed up on land, and the Iron Cove police have arrived to pick it up. Hok uses a high-strength suit of bio-armor to kill one lone officer. Trading the storage container for the newly vacant police tank, Hok and the CAI combine their talents for hacking and blowing things up, taking on and destroying a large portion of the Iron Cove police force. They make it to the fortress, where the promise of an unlimited CAI gets Hok invited inside instead of shot at. Tin, the fortress' leader/manager, accepts the CAI to help with administration; they spend a brief time making plans to rebuild the damaged fortress and improve its technology and entertainment. A diplomat from Iron Cove comes and goes. Things are going well until Rokoa shows up on a motorcycle, looking for Hok and the bio-armor he brought back. Since she has enough explosives to blow up a third of the fortress, they let her in. During her stay, she tries on the bio-armor, receives a cryptic message from the dead Lakkat, intimidates Kappi, and eats all the food on the menu. Rokoa, Wendel, and the CAI eventually make plans to go to Iron Cove; in exchange for the bio-armor, Rokoa will help them sabotage the increasingly aggressive settlement and steal useful technology for the fortress. She gets in using a combination of stealth and grenades. Mostly grenades. The compilation AI meets the singular AI, a security program designed to detect compilation AIs, which offers to defect in order to save a scientist imprisoned in Iron Cove. Rokoa and the CAI agree. The science areas turn out to be surprisingly well defended. During the ensuing mayhem, the CAI releases Hok - who has been recaptured - while Rokoa heads to the roof to fight a pair of twin rogues. They don't survive. Hok impersonates a computer technician to get into the security system, revealing Rokoa's location in the process, and hopes she doesn't find out. Rokoa and Hok proceed to blow up large parts of Iron Cove. Eventually, they escape with valuable technical data and Doctor Ben, a passionate (if cranky) scientist. Back at the fortress, the Doctor gets settled in, and Rokoa and Kappi go on a date. Aside from the death threats, it goes surprisingly well.

Part 2

Characters

Polo

The subject of a story Rokoa tells Kappi and the CAI, a less than accurate action movie, an arcade video game and a Saturday morning cartoon we have not been fortunate enough to locate. She was Rokoa's one-time opponent, rival, frenemy, and ally. She's also one of the few people to have beaten Rokoa in a fight.

Polo posses the unusual ability to silence her own empathy.

Her current whereabouts are unknown, as Rokoa has neither seen nor heard from her since leaving the homeworld.

Lukratsa rozu Steelnaut

A soldier turned actress, she plays Polo in the action move based (loosely) on the events of the AsteroidQuest Intermission. While she hasn't had the chance to show up in person during the course of the quest (except onscreen, with dyed fur and cropped ears), she does make several appearances in ITQ, discussing some of the finer points of smoking, film-making, growing up in a jammer city, and decapitations.

Jells

A savy and intelligent member of the Shredded Flag, and unusually nice for a mean looking space pirate. Understandably wary of Hok.

Has a network of contracts, and good at finding job listings.

Pilon

A former member of the asteroid hive, now a rogue and making a living as a scavenger on the surface of the asteroid. He's actually doing quiet well for himself, and has started a pseudo-hive made up almost entirely of his own children. Which he's managed to amass kind of a lot of.

Actively looking for a way to leave the asteroid, and hopes to one day return to the homeworld with his family.

Karri

Pilon's daughter, young and intense with something to prove. She's got a serious problem with Rokoa, and with her mother, who may or may not be the same person. No one who knows the details is talking.

Yani

A spy by trade, who offers his services to the trade hub.

Agnes doesn't trust him, but that's hardly a surprise.

Yesessen / Piles

A nervous pomi with a load of cargo in need of delivery. He's offering a 30k escort mission.

Initially tries to use a pseudonym, but it doesn't hold up very long.

Piles, Koli, Glazgo, Minil

Minil

The belenosian member of Pile's party, and probably the most level-headed of the group. An ex-Zozu member.

Koli

The funny looking miklik of the escort group. In addition to his more obvious mutations, he's got green blood.

Glazgo

The scruffy fuzzball, and the mean one of the group.

Likisin and Nekto

Likisin

Pilon's son, Karri's slightly older brother, and a real stand-up (cuddle) guy. Pilon tends to leave his children too young to travel with him at multiple orphanages, keeping their identities a secret, in order to protect them. Likisin grew up at the same place as Karri.

Captain Nekto

A member of the Black Supernova, just about the biggest fucking space pirate collection on the whole asteroid. His faction funded the orphanage Karri and Likisin grew up in, and in their early years 'uncle' Nekto was around far more often than Pilon could hope to be.

They didn't know it at the time, but it turns out he's the son of the Black Supernova's captain, and he's now in command of their forces stranded on the asteroid.

The Bartender

Tends the bar at the Rusty Puke Pail. He's smart enough to know when it's time to dive behind the bar for cover.

Hates the Zozu.

Part 3

Characters

Itcher

An accountant and slash or tax collector working for the Zozu mafia. It's his job to collect money from dangerous people who don't particularly want to part with it, to make sure his dangerous employers get their money, and to make sure none of his dangerous employer's money goes missing later.

Understandably, he suffers from perfectly reasonable paranoia, and spends a good deal of time drunk.

Itcher has a fictional wife and three kid he uses as an excuse to try and keep himself out of trouble. Family is something the Zozu are big on.

Jessica

A secretarial type with a sharp tongue and prickly attitude. She works the desk at the Zozu branch Itcher does his tax collecting and accounting for. Responsible for computer stuff.

Jess is a second generation rogue, a neumono who was never part of a hive.

Red

A Zozu enforcer who gets assigned to help Itcher with his tax collecting duties. He's surprisingly tough, and takes too much pleasure in his work. Red's not his real name, but he never gave another, and the nickname stuck.

He's a proper rogue (though not from the Asteroid hive), something he's proud of. Other neumono find his empathy downright disturbing, enough so that his coworkers put in a request for a jammer.

Kind of a violent little psychopath.

Malsen

The other Zozu muscle assigned to Itcher as an escort. Unlike Red, Malsen's a real professional.

Maklata

Maklata Zozu. That's right, it's a salikai crime family.

He's shown up to replace the last branch manager after his untimely death, and seems intent on whipping the place into shape, which means more work for everybody, layoffs for those who can't keep up, and still more work for the people left behind to pick up the slack.

Of course, being a the son of a mob boss and a salikai, it's completely possible he's up to something too.

Alia

A tenant who takes an interest in a certain charming tax collector.

This should probably send up all kinds of red flags, but hey, she's cute, right?

Jules

The man behind the security cameras and in charge of the local security force. At least, the half of security force Maklata hasn't fired.

He's actually got a wife and kids.

Lamarra

A mobster with ambition, and dreams of advancement. He has ties with Zirin, one of Maklata's brothers.

Father Zozu

The ruthless and surprisingly pragmatic head of the Zozu mafia.

We've never seen his face.