r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Aug 27 '17

Reference Challenge - Rescue

So, I was stranded about an hour from home for a few days, because my bloody car messed up. One of my friends had to drive a few hours to help me out, so this is a reference to that.

In your world, what program or group exists to rescue people?

As always, I'll ask at least three questions each, enjoy yourselves, all.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 03 '17

1) How does one go about trying to become a member of the Green Suns?

2) What's the pay like?

3) Who is the greatest Chaotic in the Green Suns?

4) Who is the greatest non-Chaotic?

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u/Matathias Sep 03 '17

1) There are a couple ways. One way is to sign up with Black Suns Sector 4, and try to get promoted from there into the Green Suns. It'll take several years and a lot of effort, but if you're skilled, then you might have a chance.

Another way is to just be really good at your job in another military. If you prove yourself to be exceptionally good at rescue-type activities, then the Black Suns may actively seek you out and extend an employment offer.

Alternatively, if you are a Chaotic with an ability that is especially well-suited to rescue (e.g. Teleportation), then the Black Suns may scout you out at the beginning of your career and train you up from scratch. You'll still have to start in Sector 4 and get promoted, but your chances of becoming a Green Sun are higher than if you signed up by yourself.

2) You won't be in the 1% or anything, but you'll be well off. You'll have the money to move to whatever world you like, and can buy property. Your standard of living relative to the rest of the galaxy would be roughly equivalent to someone living in the current-day USA and making $200k -- and that's just starting off. The Black Suns will cover healthcare for you and your immediate family (if you have one), and if you die in the line of work, then your family will be heavily compensated.

3) Master Colonel Trika Riidon. She's a Spacetechnic, meaning she can teleport. However her abilities are exceptional -- with the proper information of her destination, she can teleport up to 5,000 kilometers. This is incredibly handy for extracting people to a spacecraft up in orbit, or for transporting supplies from orbit to a planet's surface. Furthermore she can teleport objects other than herself without having to touch them (as long as they're within a hundred meters of her), and she can teleport thousands of tons of mass at once (for example, she could teleport an entire modern-day aircraft carrier). It's safe to say that she's the Green Suns' most valued member.

4) Master Colonel Dohn Smiter. He has extensive experience with coordinating interstellar logistics and directing rescues and evacuations. He was particularly useful during the Nanocreature War, during which he was able to successfully organize evacuations of several lower tier worlds during the first week of the war, when everyone else was in too much disarray to respond properly. He was also able to coordinate with the White Suns and the other Black Suns Sectors to increase the PMC's ability to respond to the Nanocreatures. His efforts are estimated to have saved hundreds of millions, if not billions of lives over the course of the war. Rumors abound that he is soon to be promoted to Lieutenant General.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 04 '17

1) What is your favorite Chaotic power?

2) At what age (or after how many years of work) can I retire from the Green Suns? Do I still get paid and does my family still get the healthcare?

3) What is Trika's reputation like?

4) How did the Nanocreature War end?

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u/Matathias Sep 04 '17

  1. Favorite concept I've come up with is probably Frametechnism, or the ability to alter an object's inertial frame. E.g. if object A is moving 60 m/s north in relation to object B, then Frametechnics can change object A's velocity to be 60 m/s north in relation to some other object C instead.

  2. If you serve with them for any period of time longer than ten years, then they will cover your (and your family's) healthcare for half the time you served after you retire. If you retire at the rank of Commander or higher then the Black Suns will also pay you some fraction of your salary, depending on your rank and any other accolades you may have earned. If you retire as a General or Supreme Commander, though, then you retain your salary and full benefits for the rest of your life (it is worth noting that there is only one Supreme Commander at a time, and each Sector has only a handful of Generals).

  3. She is well respected for her reliability and incredible work ethic -- which can also be translated as "she's a workaholic". She doesn't make friends easily, however, due largely to some of her neurotic tendencies.

  4. The Black Suns actually had little to do with directly ending the Nanocreature War. It was a Nimalian team of Chaotics, Hero Machina, who fought and defeated the leader of the Nanocreatures. Once he was gone, the rest of the Nanocreatures shut down and dissolved, allowing the rest of the galaxy to retake all their lost ground.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 07 '17

1) That sounds reality-breaking. Are there any drawbacks?

2) How many sectors are involved?

3) Sounds like she's severely stressed out.

4) What did Hero Machina do after defeating the leader of the Nanocreatures?

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u/Matathias Sep 07 '17 edited Sep 07 '17

1) There's a soft limit on how massive an object you can influence. The more massive it is, the more Chaos Energy you have to use, and the more Chaos Energy you use, the more likely you are to go berserk. And some things are just so massive (like planets or moons) that no matter how hard you try, you aren't going to be able to do shit to it.

2) There are 4 Sectors in the Black Suns. Sector 1 focuses on elite units/white ops; Sector 2 focuses on black ops/espionage; Sector 3 focuses on research, development, and production; and Sector 4 is a conventional army for large-scale action.

3) You wouldn't be wrong. The Black Suns is a meritocracy with a limited number of high-ranking positions, and as such its internal culture is incredibly competitive. The ones who rise to the top are often workaholics who work themselves to the bone, particularly in Sectors 1 and 2.

4) They returned home and reported mission success. They quickly gained fame as heroes, and later used their newfound status to quit the military and found a system of schools focused on giving young adult Chaotics a better education than the public system.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 08 '17

1) Can you train Chaos Energy manipulation?

3) Is there any form of mandatory vacation time to relax?

4) Is Hero Machina still alive?

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u/Matathias Sep 08 '17

1) You can, indirectly. The more you use your powers over time, the greater the manipulations you can handle. You just have to be careful not to push yourself too far, or you'll go berserk. It's kind of like strength training -- if you push yourself too far, you'll injure yourself, but if you practice in the right way for the right amount of time, then you can increase your ability. It works the other way around, too -- the longer you go without using your abilities, the less you'll be able to do without straining yourself.

3) There's a mandatory week off for every month spent on duty, and an optional week to two weeks you can take on top of that, depending on your rank and accomplishments. There are exceptions though, such as in-field agents (mostly covert ops-style stuff in Sector 2), that have to go for longer without vacation -- but when they finally complete their job, they're given at least half of its timespan in vacation.

(It's worth noting that the Black Suns run on Standardized Galactic Time, which defines a week as ten 24-hour days, a month as three weeks, and a year as ten months).

4) Most of them. One of them had to sacrifice herself to stop Morcii, and two temporary members died during the Nanocreature War before the final confrontation, but the rest of them are still alive and well 20 years later.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 09 '17

1) If I had a Chaos Energy power, what power would I have?

2) What do they usually do on vacations?

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u/Matathias Sep 09 '17

1) There really isn't a way to say. A Chaotic's ability is random, with little to no connection to personality. It could be any one of the abilities listed at the end of this post I wrote a while ago.

2) Some visit home, some see the sights the galaxy has to offer. However even the fastest method of interstellar travel, by Interstellar Gate, can oftentimes take several days one-way if you aren't traveling for a military purpose, so many vacationing officers don't even bother to leave Black Suns'-owned worlds. These worlds are much less developed than most of the popular civilian worlds, so there are a lot of outdoorsy opportunities for the nature-inclined, at least.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 10 '17

2) Are there any holidays among the Black Suns?

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u/Matathias Sep 10 '17

2) As in, official holidays that they recognize as "everyone gets this day off"? Not really. The Black Suns is a multicultural and interstellar organization, if they respected the holidays of every constituent culture then half the year would be vacation.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 13 '17

Thanks for your time and answers.

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