Abnormality Object - Walkthru Chalk
Discovery
Breakout
Summary
Appearance and Affects
The Walkthru Chalk was first discovered about 75 years ago, strangely it was first discovered by a school teacher in the Ka'yar Colonial Governance. Many years before the start of the The Ka’yar Civil War. Even back then chalk was not used to write on a blackboard, which had long ago been rendered obsolete. But the teacher had recently come across a small box of old chalk and a small handheld blackboard in an old crawl space of an elder family member.
Thinking that it was a good opportunity to teach her students about a past writing implement she brought it into class for a show-and-tell history lesson. While going through the box and showing the kids all the different coloured chalk and writing on the board to the mild amusement of her students she grabbed the long white stick that would become known as the Walkthru Chalk. Absentmindedly she drew a quick circle on the blackboard and upon completion of the circle the inner circle disappeared leaving a hole in the blackboard.
Now the students were intrigued, reeling forward in excitement. The teacher confused but also intrigued drew another circle, and then another and another. Each time a hole appeared in the blackboard. Despite the growing excitement of her students, the teacher realized suddenly that she had found an Abnormality Object and knowing the danger they often brought she contacted the local enforcement so that it could be contained and potentially studied.
Over the next few months, Ka'yar scientists tested the chalk's capabilities, discovering it could erase any material as long as the shape was completed in one swift continuous line. Squares, circles, triangles, any shape was fine as long as the chalk was able to impress upon the surface, things like dirt or a powdery material were difficult mediums for the chalk to work upon.
Eventually, the scientists used up the majority of the chalk, only a sliver remained. It was carefully kept in containment for weeks, but one day upon a routine check in the chalk cracked and crumbled into dust. Having fully lost its original writing form it disappeared into thin air and was gone to the researcher's dismay. The governing body above the scientists were quite perturbed at this as the chalk at this point was deemed a technology of grand importance due to its potential use. But, there was nothing to be done and the chalk would not be found again for some time.
The Ka'yar Colonial Goverance keeps a close radar on the chalk to this day, just in case the possibility of its return to them becomes plausible. But their current crisis in the civil war has kept them from searching for the chalk more thoroughly.
The chalk would reappear several years later after its first discovery, this time finding itself in the possession of an unknown pirate captain. Who found the chalk lying on the floor of the hold of a ship they had just plundered. Curiously they too would pick up the chalk, fiddling around with it they drew on an interior wall of the ship. And once again when a circle had been completed a hole appeared, stunning the pirate captain. Luckily for them, the hole was merely in between rooms on the ship, if it had been on an outer wall the entire ship would have breached and its contents and residents sucked into space.
The pirate captain instantly realized its potential, and not wasting time on research spent the next few months drawing holes in enemy ships, sabotaging them from the outside. In a few months, they amassed quite the haul and quite the reputation. But they would lose the half-worn chalk when they were scuttled by a rival pirate crew. The chalk would meet a rather inglorious end this time, sitting unused it was broken and ground to dust by accident by the boot of one of the pirate's rivals who stormed about their ship plundering it after their defeat.
But the chalk would appear once more, as it has time and time again, and likely will continue to do for who knows how long. Maybe even forever.
One unique usage case of the Walkthru Chalk was between a married couple from the Imperial Council of Planets. The couple, Cogg and Ryme, were smugglers, ferrying illegal goods out of the Imperial Council of Planet's territory and into Lupine space to trade them at a higher value. Not only was this illegal from a mercantile perspective, as Imperial law is extremely strict in this regard, but it was also highly treasonous in the eyes of the Imperial government as the Lupine have been tense enemies of the Imperial Council of Planets for generations.
However, Cogg and Ryme's luck would not last and the couple's business was soon discovered by the Imperials and their policing force the Imperial Protection Federation (I.P.F.). They tried to escape by ditching their ship on a border planet and going dark, even separating from one another to hopefully lead the I.P.F. on a wild goose chase. But it was not as successful as they had hoped, and Cogg was soon captured.
Cogg was shortly shipped off and imprisoned in a transitional corrections facility as their sentence was being decided. They had two fates ahead, neither was death but neither was much better. The lighter option was a long or permanent role as an indentured servant in an imperial-controlled penal colony. The worse option was the NX7 High-Risk Security and Correctional Station, a prison in which very few survive, and only one has successfully escaped (that being the infamous pirate Amaeria "Firebird" Ozark).
Knowing this, Ryme began to devise a plan to spring their spouse before a final decision could be made and Cogg was shipped off never to be seen again. Luckily Ryme knew about the Walkthru Chalk from an associate who had bragged about possessing it less than a cycle prior. With some heavy persuasion and a lofty price tag paid, the owner parted ways with the chalk. And Ryme now had the means to free her loved one, now the clever part began.
Ryme concocted a way to smuggle the Walkthru Chalk into the corrections facility via a simple bottle of pills. The cover was that Cogg needed this particular medicine due to a serious heart condition, the Imperials wanting their prisoner to stay alive so they could potentially join a nearby workers' colony would approve of the use of the medication and allow for the bottle to pass through security. Ryme simply falsified documents from an Imperial doctor stating as much, being experienced in such cons this was not too difficult to address and send off to the facility.
Now that the paperwork was sorted, Ryme had to prepare the medicine. Through another contact Ryme ensured that the medicine itself was real and filled the majority of the bottle, the chalk would be stuffed in the center and wrapped in hardened Emergency Patchment Glue, which is known by smugglers to block most Imperial scanning devices. Luckily for Ryme, and Cogg, this correctional facility did not have a scanner on hand that could detect the anomaly.
With the bottle through, and delivered to Cogg, the patient, and the final leg of the plan could be conducted. Cogg knowing that he didn't have any heart disease he could recall would realize it was a muse and open the bottle. Spotting the chalk inside he would simply draw a man-sized circle on their prison cell wall, and the wall would disappear upon the line's completion. Cogg would then step through into their and Ryme's ship, Ryme having driven up to the side of the station exactly where their Cogg's cell was.
They would quickly patch up the hole in their ship using Emergency Patchment Glue and fly off. It worked in theory, and it worked in practice. The guards wouldn't find Cogg's empty cell until several hours after the successful spring.
Cogg and Ryme would quickly flee the territory, jumping from several Probability Suspension Drives and Improbable Distance Drives to cover their tracks before settling far off in O.Sec F. They sold the stub of the Chalk to a wealthy mayor in O.Sec F for a tidy sum and settled down on a farmstead on Hack-5. The Imperials and the I.P.F. have not been able to track them down after this daring escape.
Walkthru Chalk is a unique Abnormality Objects that has the ability to erase any chunk of material, up to a depth of 5ft deep, simply by drawing a circle, or any shape, upon any surface as long as it is done in one continues line without pause. Surfaces like dirt, bark, or anything that impedes the flow of writing make this activation somewhat difficult. But surfaces like steel and wooden walls are usually perfectly plausible surfaces.
The Walkthru Chalk is incredibly powerful and can erase any material as long as the above parameters are met. It does have a limited use, as once the chalk runs out it does not regrow. If any piece of the chalk breaks off the small chunk disappears, and its use is lost. If the chalk is so short and breaks into several small crumbs it will disappear entirely.
However, after some time it will always reappear somewhere random in the Delta Space. It is one of the rare Abnormality Objects that is known to reappear after it ceases its original function. It is highly sought after and has been traded for lofty sums in the several dozen times it has reappeared in space, and at least once has been involved in daring prison break.
A piece of white chalk no longer than a finger's length. It is cold to the touch always, it is smooth but can develop bumps and divots upon usage much like regular chalk does.
The Walkthru Chalk's ability activates if a single uninterrupted line is drawn and connected from beginning to end, any shape works including squares or circles, upon the line's completion 5ft. deep worth of the material in which it encircles disappears. It affects all materials up to 5ft of depth no matter what, and with an unlimited circumference as long as the shape is drawn continuously and meets end to end. If the parameters are met, the material disappears.
Even if one break is taken the effect will not activate. When the chalk is used up completely it will reappear at random somewhere else in the universe. If a chunk of chalk breaks off due to a sudden impact the lesser portion will disappear within a few moments. The chalk will not reappear within the universe until the entire chalk is used up no matter how many times it breaks.
Currently, the chalk is in the possession of Mayor Clynt "Stoneface" Barbrr of a city called Desperate's End on one of the settled worlds of The Outer Sector Freeholds - O.Sec F called Hack-5. Nickmaed Stoneface due to his grey and chipped-looking complexion, Mayor Barbrr purchased the chalk from a couple who were settling in the area and looking to make some money in order to establish themselves comfortably.
Eager to purchase the chalk Mayor Barbrr paid a lofty sum for its purchase, not realizing that the chalk was nearly half used up. He keeps the chalk in a safe under their desk at the current time, unsure of what to really use it for but knowing that it has extreme value in the right circumstance.
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