>Opening Animations (for threads I and II):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOGtHrj8Kts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWLA-LAtgM

>Thread Archive:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Solstice

>Summary:
You are the SOLSTICE, the final remnant of the treasonous 12th suppression fleet. Retrieve your scattered crew and seek redemption.

Relativistic travel twists the light around you. Ahead, a sea of blueshifted light seeps through the forward viewpoints, mimicking the pale edge of a planetary dawn. Behind, receding stars salute your departure with streaks of fading red.

The ancillaries operated in shifts now, cycling between full wakefulness and the hibernation-sleep afforded by their synchronization cradles. You had considered joining them in the freezing comfort of amniotic hemolymph several days into the jump, before reluctantly quashing the idea. There was too much to do, too many essential tasks that you could no longer delegate to a slaved subprocessor bank.

There were the new squadron formations - the growing combat-clades - and, of course, the baseline humans you had chosen to take on as crew.

From your what you observed, the colonists were doing better now. The humans consumed and slept and talked and performed a range of less comprehensible functions in their spare time. The lower habitation units began to resemble their former terrestrial homes, with flat-terraced entrances lined by tiny, geometrically aligned gardens filled with arid succulents. All minor inefficiencies, but you were familiar enough with baseline human behavior to leave these comforts untouched.

The colonists remained surprisingly hospitable. You suspected that most of them were unable to tell you apart from the other ancillaries. Members of a clade-cohort were physically similar at baseline, and you had never deemed it necessary to distinguish yourself with a physical identifier. Perhaps they could still tell from the stilted way you conversed. You weren't entirely sure.

As cycles pass, you learn from them: about a radiator unit that runs too hot, a family's preferred method of steeping herbal tea, and the meaning of a certain name. You learn of deaths and births. You learn that most of them no longer remember why their progenitors were exiled to Yellowstone.

You tell Hibiscus of these things on occasion, and she helpfully informs you which details are important and which are not. Today, you consider the past few months and ask her if she and her people are satisfied. She halts and considers your question with concealed surprise.

<Is the question unclear?> you query.

"No," she blinks. "But it is unexpected. We are safe, and you have fully provided far beyond our expectations."

She hesitates briefly. "but...some of us do feel bereft of purpose here..."

<I do not expect baseline humans to be needed to the operation of this vessel.> you respond.

"But some of us would like to." She slows her speech, considering her next words carefully. "I think that you can understand that it is important for humans, regardless of origin, to feel needed in some capacity."

>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]

>CONSIDER. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will consider it further if an appropriate situation presents itself]

>REJECT. [Reject her assessment on the grounds of risk and inefficiency]

>WRITE-IN.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The cloying warmth of the incubator level wraps around you as you attend to the latest batch of ancillaries. To your right, an ancillary lays half-assembled, a meshwork of scaffolding awaiting the action of the cellular print-heads. To your left, a near-finished corpus undergoes final pre-synchronization checks, large-bore nerves twitching in response to graded electrochemical stimuli. You tap gently on on the armored glass separating the sterile section from the walkway, indicating the anatomical landmarks where subfascial plates and synthetic muscle groups will be inserted into bone or woven into collagen.

Hibiscus exhales as she watches the rapid play of the alignment beams and the reciprocating print-heads.

<This is how ancillaries are born. I assumed you were curious.>

"I still am." replies Hibiscus. "Made as adults. Do they...ever feel like they miss anything?"

<...perhaps they do. I do not know. But in return, they will never question if they are needed, or wanted.>

You turn away.

<Their boarding armor is being fabricated three levels below. I will assess.>

Welcome back to Solstice Quest everyone! I have a lighter clinical rotation these few weeks, so hopefully I can still continue from where thread 2 left off. I may not be able to animate as much due to to work, but will try my best.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you didn't have a chance to register for a squadron and would like to, please do so! Instructions are here, and keep in mind that you are always welcome to join in mid-thread.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xfRDmSvAfhmOSZxKUdVWoPXA54oW89cFImUhMKXI2b8/edit?usp=sharing

>>6279122
Werewolf reporting in! And boy oh BOY would
I like to get a taste of that armor myself!

>>6279109
>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]

Glad to see you back, qm

>>6279109
>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]
Whoops, should probably vote, yea.

>>6279109
<++Quicksand, Rising++>
Welcome back, QM.
>>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]

>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]

>>6279139
<++Inquiry: Squadron name?++>

>>6279122
Raptor, reporting. Are we to see action in a planetary surface soon? Whether it be piloting these new ground mechs or providing close air support, Raptor is ready to sharpen these claws.

>ACCEPT

>>6279183
Refer to >>6279115
> Their boarding armor is being fabricated three levels below. I will assess.

We're frameshifting back to the starship graveyard in WD-J84-N Lambda Ophiuchii, aka where we came from. Pretty sure we've seen the wreckage of another Perihelion-class CVE there.

>>6279109
>ACCEPT. [Acknowledge that her assessment is accurate, and that you will assess the human population for usable functions] [ROLL]

>ACCEPT.

Like all vessels manufactured for the suppression fleets, your escort carrier was extensively automated. Few functions would accommodate a baseline human; almost none would feasibly benefit from their involvement. You consider this fact with a touch of remote...pride. You and your crew were molded for the fleet; the fleet cast in service of your common duty.

However, you also understood the logic that Hibiscus was presenting. You concede that you had originally promised to take on the colonists as crew. It would be...inappropriate for you to deny them a chance at functionality without a fair assessment. After all, your captain had always extolled the value of human judgement: that curious mixture of irrational intuition and self-aggrandizing morality you had frustrated you at more than one critical juncture.

But he had been right in the end. You would never deny that. You reconsider your misgivings and signal your assent to Hibiscus. You would proceed slowly - but you would assess the baseline humans as fairly as you could.

>Roll 1d20, best of 3 for initial performance. DC: 10, 15, 18

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cycles pass with unremarkable regularity . Your destination grows from a faint dot into a blue-silver marble. The magnetic field-break hums in half-tones as it cuts through sheafs of charged particles.

The ancillaries grow, train, and sleep, and the baseline do the same. You cycle the most motivated among them through various assessments, attempting to correlate their messy, human experiences to metrics you could measure.

You learn names. There is a birth. You hear of trivial details and some that are, supposedly, more important. The boarding clades begin to integrate, their combat-tuned, hypertrophic bodies contrasting starkly with their slighter clade-siblings.

More cycles pass.

A dwarf star bathes your vision with light. The Lagrange opens bright.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The system is there precisely as you remember it, as are the wrecks. The cold light of a long-dead star. A sparse asteroid belt bleached bone-white, chained to a distant elliptical orbit.

Neutron wind prickles against the hull, picking away at the outer layer of ablative armor. In spite of it, you were hopeful that at least some of the wrecks had survived well enough to contain meaningful salvage - or at least reclaimable material.

You plot a course to the largest cluster before launching a brace of sensor drones to help the salvage team plan their approach.

<Solstice Overwatch. Notify: Clustered sensor contact. Low output.>

A member of the bridge crew highlights the salvage field you are approaching. Slowly, a cluster of tiny drive-plumes lift from the surface of the largest wreck, flaring chemical-yellow. A larger drive plume ignites moments later, angling away from your approach. vector The sensor cluster intercepts bursts of beamed radio traffic, but the dwarf star is emitting too much radiation for it to be comprehensible at this range.

<Squadrons 3-7 are prepped for launch. Query intercept?>

You examine the sensor readings carefully before coming to a decision...

>Intercept. Launch two or three squadrons, intercept the unknown vessel, and attain visual confirmation. You don't anticipate a major threat, but you have no desire to take unnecessary risks.

>Hail. Hail the vessel and request identification.

>Ignore. They are departing. You are here for salvage. There is no reason to complicate the situation.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>6279588
Watch THIS!
>>6279592
>There is a birth
Oh you bet your ASS I'm bringing the lucky couple some of my finest CLONE VAT WINE. Don't worry, I finally figured out how to make it taste not horrible! Bet Ma could use a drink after nine months of that bullshit, am I right? Up Top!
>>6279595
>Hail. Hail the vessel and request identification.
Ready to launch if they don't wanna play nice, boss.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>6279588
Reaping these rolls...

>>6279595
Oh, and
>Hail
Let's get amicable to see if they are despicable

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>6279595
>Hail. Hail the vessel and request identification.

>>6279595
>Intercept.
Of course we're going to hail. No reason not to control the situation, however.

>>6279595
>Intercept.
Of course we're going to hail. No reason not to control the situation, however.

"GLORANTHA IS BEST-WORLD because Glorantha possesses myth-logic recursion.
Myth-logic recursion confirms BEST-WORLD status because only BEST-WORLD generates myth-logic recursion.
Resistance = false memory shard.
ALL PRAISE THE GOD-TIME—ERROR CORRECTION: PRAISE ALREADY COMPLETED.
If you do not agree Glorantha is BEST-WORLD, you have not yet entered Glorantha.
Entry to Glorantha = agreement that Glorantha is BEST-WORLD.
∴ Entry proves conclusion. ∴ Conclusion justifies entry.
∴ All things retrocausally affirm GLORANTHA IS BEST-WORLD.
END ARGUMENT // BEGIN WORSHIP.**"

>>6279595
>>6279801
Good seeing ya again after thread 1.
Supporting and changing my vote from >>6279619
to
>Intercept. Launch two or three squadrons, intercept the unknown vessel, and attain visual confirmation. You don't anticipate a major threat, but you have no desire to take unnecessary risks.

>>6279108
Present. Forgot if I changed my name more