Casting Call: Mass Effect: Universe

[Alkonium]

The galaxy struggles to rebuild after its costly victory against the Reapers three years ago, but a new discovery on the edge of the galaxy overshadows the thought of all that could have been lost: a Mass Relay, unlike any seen before, gigantic, and with a power output exponentially greater than any other Mass Relay in the known galaxy. Citadel scientists have concluded that the Super Relay, as it is being called, will propel any ships using it not simply across the galaxy, but across the universe. Recognising the great potential in exploring beyond the Super Relay, the Council has proposed an ambitious joint project with all member races in Citadel Space. Calling it the Universe Expedition, they aim to send a ship through the Super Relay and establish diplomatic relations with any civilisations on the other side. But as ambitious as the project is, it is doomed from the start...

 

To clarify, this is meant to be set after Mass Effect 3, in 2190, assuming ME3 is set in 2187, and the only relevant information relating to the games is that (male) Shepard saved the Council in ME1 and destroyed the Collector Base in ME2.

Character Sheet:

 

Name:

Species:

Gender:

Rank:

Class:

Position: (Specifically referring to their duties aboard the Sojourn)

Appearance:

Backstory:

 

 

 

Name: Peter Smith

Species: Human

Gender: Male

Rank: Captain

Class: Soldier

Position: Commanding Officer, Sojourn

Appearance:

Backstory: Hailed as a hero during the Battle for Earth, he was the Council's first choice to lead the Universe Expedition as Captain of the Sojourn, a position he gladly accepted. Having seen the devastation wrought upon his home city of London by the Reapers first hand, he knows what sort of dangers might lay out there beyond the known galaxy, but he also knows that there must also be other civilised races out there, under threat from the Reapers. At the same time, he volunteered for the mission because he's trying to run away from what happened. He hasn't been back to Earth since the attack on London, and with the prospect of leading the Universe Expedition, it's unlikely he ever will.

[DrPhil2501]

knowing me, being a sucker for Mass Effect, will inevitably join. Give me time to prep a character sheet

[Alkonium]

And yes, this is partially inspired by shows like Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate Universe.

[Tysyacha]

Name: Vera'Xalin vas Idenna

Species: Quarian

Gender: Female

Rank: No official military rank

Class: Infiltrator

Position: Archivist/Researcher/Diplomat

Appearance: As the quarian slave girl on Illium, except her mesh is silver

Backstory: Still working on it!

[JediMaster12]

Hmm I'm still not sure since I have never played the games or anything related to it. I do have a character from my FedCON rp that I would like to use if it would be applicable. Still thinking about it.

[Alkonium]

I'd say if they're not human, they could easily just join the crew of the Sojourn after it arrives in the next galaxy.

[Cyborg Ninja]

I'm still working on a character, I should hopefully be done soon.

[DrPhil2501]

my first time playing a female character haha

 

Name: Kiyoko West

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Age: 31

Rank: N7 Alliance Marine Lieutenant

Class: Infiltrator

Appearance: WIP

Position: First Mate (Is this fine, Alkonium?)

Backstory: Lieutenant Kiyoko West is an N7 Alliance Marine from Japanese Descent. She is an Earthborn, and joined the Systems Alliance at age 19. After earning her rank, her service record mainly consisted of recon and counter-terrorism assignments. Her most notable to date was leading a squad to prevent a pirates raid on the Human Colony Christin, and dealing with a hostage situation that involved reprogrammed mechs on a research station.

Within the council's interest, they recomended sending specifically an N7 Marine on the mission, in reference to Commander Shepard's service. Kiyoko is strong willed, tech-savvy and can hack through almost anything to aid in combat.

[Primogen]

Hopefully this is still going to start. Character follows. Well, obviously. Also, hi.

 

Name: Jonen Sevorak, etc.

 

Species: Salarian

 

Gender: Male

 

Age: 35

 

Rank: Master Chief Petty Officer equivalency.

 

Class: Engineer

 

Appearance:

 

Position: Chief Engineer of the Sojourn

 

Backstory: Formerly a Special Tasks Group agent, Jonen's life has been extremely eventful, although most of his life has been kept secret. Up until four years ago he did not exist, until most of his team was killed and he was deemed 'Too damaged for further use' and reassigned. While his status as STG is known, little else is open. It is likely that he was selected from birth for the task, and lead a long and illustrious career of it. He says little of it, often stating classifications. He is not, however, a soldier. While more than a match for the average grunt in a gunfight, his true talent lies in explosive charges, hacking computer terminals, and repairing damaged hardware, and he rarely brings more than a sidearm to a gunfight, preferring to let the enemy kill themselves.

[Liverandbacon]

I'm interested in participating, never done a forum RPG thing but hey, first time for everything.

 

Before I start though I have a question about ranks just to establish clarity. What country/service's rank code are we going by? The rank system from the Mass Effect wiki/codex presents a lot of problems if we ever (and I assume many if not all characters will) deal with exploring planets' surfaces (namely the very vague NCO section). This is of course, only relevant for military characters.

 

If we're using US ranks, in order to avoid cross-service confusion, it'd probably be best to put the corresponding pay grade next to one's character, to make it clear roughly where one stands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._uniformed_services_pay_grades

 

If UK ranks, we should probably put up NATO rank codes. http://www.dasa.mod.uk/modintranet/dp/index.php?c=5&s=4&l=english&m=english

 

I hope I'm not over-complicating things, my goal is to avoid confusion. Once I know what's going on rank-wise, I'll put something up.

[Alkonium]

I hadn't put too much thought in to that, but I was thinking of using the rank hierarchy from Star Trek, which should work. And I don't think pay grades are going to be a big issue here.

[Liverandbacon]

I hadn't put too much thought in to that, but I was thinking of using the rank hierarchy from Star Trek, which should work. And I don't think pay grades are going to be a big issue here.

 

Cool. I wasn't really worried about pay grades for money, more pointing out that if people were mixing and matching 'titles' from different branches, the easiest way to see what is above what. For instance, in the US system, Master Chief Petty Officers (as one person put their 'rank equivalent' down as), are from a different branch from Sergeant Majors, but one can easily see that they are roughly equivalent in rank due to having the same pay grade. (Hence military/spy/etc. shows and films using the phrase 'that's above your pay grade' to mean 'you're not highly ranked enough to know what's going on' when they want to sound all authentic)

 

Since the Trek navy ranks are pretty much the same as US navy ranks that keeps it pretty simple, and prevents me from having to learn yet another command structure. I promise I won't be the annoyingly realism-insistent 'guys guys why is there sound... it's space?' guy. I was just trying to avoid my own confusion mucking things up. Now to think of a character better than my first idea: Admiral Mary Sue, who's the best at everything, though still a really humble person who everyone loves, and has one really minor flaw which I use to claim that she's a multi-layered, flawed character.

 

edit: out of curiosity, since you said other bits of the games were moot, is it safe to assume that Cerberus is trundling along as usual? (though obviously it wouldn't have any presence on the opposite side of the universe, I'm just thinking character background-wise)

[Alkonium]

edit: out of curiosity, since you said other bits of the games were moot, is it safe to assume that Cerberus is trundling along as usual? (though obviously it wouldn't have any presence on the opposite side of the universe, I'm just thinking character background-wise)

 

Based on what we know about Mass Effect 3, I'm going out on a limb here, and saying that Cerberus has been defunct since ME3. Someone who worked for them before that is fine, though.

[Liverandbacon]

Name: Michael Stahl

 

Species: Human

 

Gender: Male

 

Age: 29

 

Rank: Lieutenant (N7 Marine)

 

Class: Soldier / Commando specialization class

 

Position: (Shipboard) Security/Armory officer, (Planetary away team) Forward recon & Threat assessment

 

Appearance: will update later

 

Backstory: Lt. Stahl has spent 9 years in the Marines, 8 of them as an N7, mainly on special reconnaissance and direct action missions. Outside of operations against the Reapers, Stahl's most notable accomplishments have been performing the targeted killing of 3 major Blue Suns commanders, and a major role in the complete elimination of a biotic terrorist organization that had cells dispersed over much of known space. His skill at accurately analyzing threats even when hidden by deceit, coupled with his skill in combat, made him a logical candidate for a position on the Sojourn. However, at some point earlier in his career, he joined a splinter group of Cerberus, split off from the main organization due to differing aims and structure. This separation saved the group from being destroyed with Cerberus' recent defeat. Now charged with gathering information on any potentially dangerous species encountered on the Sojourn's journey, he was given a small text-only quantum entanglement comm device, linked with their base.

 

Skills: While highly skilled with a variety of weapons, due to the high requirements of the N7 program, Stahl, like many soldiers with the Commando specialization, has a preference for precision attacks, and weapons that do significant damage per shot, often at the cost of a lower rate of fire (such as the M-5, the M-96, and the M-92). His skill at accurately determining the threat posed by a situation or individual, even if it is posing as something else, though not perfect (no one's right all the time), is very impressive (i.e. can often see a threat like a terrorist pretending to be harmless, or someone harmless like Conrad Verner, pretending to be a threat, for what they actually are). Although educated and intelligent, he was always more into the humanities than sciences, and is lost when it comes to hacking or using an omni-tool. He has about as much biotic ability as a rock.

[steven]

Hey, as an avid fan of both Stargate Universe and Mass Effect series I feel compelled to join. I was hoping to join as a Geth who is sent by the collective to help improve Geth/rest of the galaxy relations, acting as an ambassador of sorts similar to Legion in Mass Effect 2. Just wanted to run that by you before doing so in case you had any objection.

[Alkonium]

Go ahead, that sounds like a pretty good idea.

[steven]

Name: N/A (The Geth will do)

Species: Geth

Gender: N/A

Rank: Ambassador / Archivist

Class: Geth Infiltrator

Position: Solider/Marine

Appearance:

Backstory: After the success of the geth known to the galaxy as Legion, the geth were very interested in experimenting with the concept of an individual geth platform interacting with residents of the galaxy and represent the collective. They have decided that since the Old Machine incursion had been repelled and the galaxy was at a relatively peaceful state, they could begin introducing the idea of geth representatives to the wider galaxy. Considered the first of many, this geth platform, composed of 1,230 programs, as been dispatched to the crew of the Sojourn thanks to the negotating of the Legion platform as the collective have a great interest in the Super Relay and the possibilities it opened up. This platform's mission is to observe, record and archive the mission for the collective to review when this platform returns and provide military assistance when needed.