Dart
Dart is the younger of two brothers born of a Koraourc, an uncommon phenomenon in the Gurun hatching process where two eggs share the same albumen sac. This almost always results in the stronger of the two absorbing the weaker, but in Dart’s case his egg brother only took a section of Darts abdomen that would have grown to his right arm.
This caused not insignificant problems for Dart as he developed through the tadpole lifecycle. The spawning pools were observed by adult Gurun who were forbidden from interfering with the growth of the young. Whether this was adherence to ancient tradition to keep the race strong or a way for the Eldai to control their vassal population is a topic of debate among both races.
Lacking an arm in early survival stages of life, Dart had to learn to hide and take what he needed while no one else was looking. As remaining limbs developed Dart learned the value of tools to accomplish what he normally could not. Despite these lessons, Dart was still far behind his brother at every stage of life.
Surviving the early months eventually allows Gurun to develop lungs and the strength to pull themselves out of the water and into the toxic swamp ground allowed them on Kapaska. Despite hatching a day after his brother, Dart only managed to leave the water nearly a full month after him. This set the precedent for the dynamic between the two for the rest of their lives.
His late emergence and deformity caused Dart to be pushed to the background while his brother, Bart, always seemed to get a leg up whenever he needed. Chosen young by the Gurun shamans, Bart was inducted to full priesthood training very early. Bart’s emergence was not on land, but upon a flowering lillypad beneath the full moon. Priests of the Moon Lily were few but wielded great influence in Gurun society. They were mediators on Kapaska and ambassadors on other worlds such as the Orion.
Secretly they were also observers and reporters on politics and inter-species relationships outside of Gurun society. Their ultimate goal was to find the resources to break the Gurun from their vassalhood or, ultimately, find a suitable new home planet for the race.
After 20 years of cloistered training, Bart was to be sent to The Orion. Never resenting his brother and often pitying him, Bart arranged for Dart to gain passage off of Kapaska and onto the Orion as a ship’s mechanic. Dart always wondered if this was the arrangement, but never actually got an answer.
Once on the Orion, duty occupied Bart’s time and he vanished, leaving Dart on a strange new world with alien customs and no connections. Dart started working at the shipyard and made enough repairing and re-using scrap parts to get out of the yards and out into the city proper to find work. Unbeknownst to Dart, Bart was keeping tabs on his brother. There was never animosity between the two unless Bart was trying to ‘help’ Dart by using his position and power. Dart saw this as a handout that he didn’t need and a patronizing way for Bart to rub his success in Darts face. This didn’t happen often, but often enough that the wound was never fully healed between instances.
Over the next 16 years, Dart honed his craft and learned all he could of the technology available on the Orion. It did not take him long to take apprenticeships at robotics shops which allowed him to fashion his prosthetic arm. His affinity for crafting reinforced his belief in Korob, the spiritual facet of the swamp representing creation and the forge. Tying this belief to the Technomancy that seemed to be everywhere on the Orion, Dart was able to craft a semi-sentient drone companion, whom he named Anansi after the Gurun guardian of hunters, trappers, and tricksters.
Inevitably the shops Dart worked for were bought out by larger corporate interests and he moved on, chafing under the bureaucratic yoke. Eventually, he went completely freelance and simply rented space in small shops. This gave him the freedom to work on personal projects as well as accept less-than-legal commissions. As long as he felt like he was helping the little guys, Dart didn’t really care what the project was.
Ring 6: Plague Borough always needed prosthetics for people who were maimed doing risky work or born with deformities like Dart, transport nexus always needed exo frames for dock workers, the Ring 4: Druidic Gardens was always a one-off custom job to fill a gap that magic just couldn’t cut. And everyone wanted weapons. The parts for these projects were almost as expensive as just buying the finished product from the corps. Or the parts weren’t available at all, publicly. But Dart was quiet, discreet, and resourceful. Valuable components never stayed in one place for long, or if they did they were stored ‘safely’ and forgotten until a buyer was found. It was rarely a complicated affair to obtain what he needed.
Recently, Dart was scouting a warehouse for parts for a commission and stopped in a coffee shop for some food. He would always order the same thing on the Orion, ‘gurk,’ because he knew that no one who wasn’t Gurun knew how to make it or even know what it is. The guy behind the counter, odd looking guy, no skin to speak of, took a pause and turned to get to work before Dart could laugh and order something else. A few times Dart noticed the barista checking a dataslate, no doubt trying to find out what the hell he was making. What he delivered to Dart was… actually pretty good. Consistency lacked the oily feel on the tongue and there was a little too much grit than what you got on Kapaska, but the flavor was damn near spot on.
After this he started to frequent the shop until he and Otto, the barista, became friends. Otto had a semi-sentient partner in crime as well. An animated coffee carafe that Dart took to calling ‘Matic. Otto Keisler was working his way through school and Dart learned that he used to have a more corporeal body years ago. Otto shared an interest in robotics and they would frequently swap ideas on dream projects. Otto always went back to suits. Hard bodies. Something other than plasma that could still interface with the ordinary sensors. And always something that could kick some serious ass. Dart never asked, but he always assumed Otto had some scores to settle.
The parts for a suit like Otto wanted would cost as much as a used starship and that was assuming you could find the parts. They both knew it, but it was a nice break from the usual work day to dream. Then whole neighborhoods of the city started collapsing. It started with small places like Danom's Hall of Holograms. Soon after all hell broke loose at Tagera HQ and ripped the station a new asshole. This came with its own challenges with new beasts coming out of the shadows. Then word of the crew responsible started circulating. ‘The Agitators.’ These folks could keep Dart in business if they kept up this pattern. And what do you know it, they did. Then Brass Blood turf went up in smoke and most recently some Scorpio lab exploded and opened a rift to another planet. Or was it the other way around?
But Dart saw these as opportunities and a way to get what he wanted from the corps without paying a credit. He rounded out his list over the course of a couple of months and asked for a meetup with Otto to deliver.
Danem’s House of Holograms: Ultracompact interactive semi-hard light projectors for HUD and central control interface. The sensitivity allowed from what Danem was researching would be perfect for Otto’s plasmoid body. The level of control and customization would be unparalleled.
Tagera HQ: Universal haptic suite and sensory simulation. If there was something genetic that had a way to feel things, Tagera mapped its genome for some shady business recently. This was compiled into a full suite that allowed integration by virtually any user. Hopefully, this would let Otto ‘feel’ things normally through the lens of the suit.
Brass Bloods: Biotech shunts and control harnesses. Trinity was getting deep into techno magic and integrating this into folks for direct control of a workforce. It would only take time for Dart to figure out a way to reverse this flow, allowing seamless integration to control the suit, not the other way around.
Scorpio Electrics: Arcane Core. Some kind of Aetheric technomagic being developed to power something. Sounds like this would be similar to whatever caused the eruption at Tagera, but on a much smaller scale. This one wasn’t required to finish the suit, but getting it could give it a major boost. Theoretically. Definitely. Maybe. The Agitator attack happened on Darts way to deliver the prototype suit, Dart might swing back by and see how much heat was in the area after the dropoff.
This caused not insignificant problems for Dart as he developed through the tadpole lifecycle. The spawning pools were observed by adult Gurun who were forbidden from interfering with the growth of the young. Whether this was adherence to ancient tradition to keep the race strong or a way for the Eldai to control their vassal population is a topic of debate among both races.
Lacking an arm in early survival stages of life, Dart had to learn to hide and take what he needed while no one else was looking. As remaining limbs developed Dart learned the value of tools to accomplish what he normally could not. Despite these lessons, Dart was still far behind his brother at every stage of life.
Surviving the early months eventually allows Gurun to develop lungs and the strength to pull themselves out of the water and into the toxic swamp ground allowed them on Kapaska. Despite hatching a day after his brother, Dart only managed to leave the water nearly a full month after him. This set the precedent for the dynamic between the two for the rest of their lives.
His late emergence and deformity caused Dart to be pushed to the background while his brother, Bart, always seemed to get a leg up whenever he needed. Chosen young by the Gurun shamans, Bart was inducted to full priesthood training very early. Bart’s emergence was not on land, but upon a flowering lillypad beneath the full moon. Priests of the Moon Lily were few but wielded great influence in Gurun society. They were mediators on Kapaska and ambassadors on other worlds such as the Orion.
Secretly they were also observers and reporters on politics and inter-species relationships outside of Gurun society. Their ultimate goal was to find the resources to break the Gurun from their vassalhood or, ultimately, find a suitable new home planet for the race.
After 20 years of cloistered training, Bart was to be sent to The Orion. Never resenting his brother and often pitying him, Bart arranged for Dart to gain passage off of Kapaska and onto the Orion as a ship’s mechanic. Dart always wondered if this was the arrangement, but never actually got an answer.
Once on the Orion, duty occupied Bart’s time and he vanished, leaving Dart on a strange new world with alien customs and no connections. Dart started working at the shipyard and made enough repairing and re-using scrap parts to get out of the yards and out into the city proper to find work. Unbeknownst to Dart, Bart was keeping tabs on his brother. There was never animosity between the two unless Bart was trying to ‘help’ Dart by using his position and power. Dart saw this as a handout that he didn’t need and a patronizing way for Bart to rub his success in Darts face. This didn’t happen often, but often enough that the wound was never fully healed between instances.
Over the next 16 years, Dart honed his craft and learned all he could of the technology available on the Orion. It did not take him long to take apprenticeships at robotics shops which allowed him to fashion his prosthetic arm. His affinity for crafting reinforced his belief in Korob, the spiritual facet of the swamp representing creation and the forge. Tying this belief to the Technomancy that seemed to be everywhere on the Orion, Dart was able to craft a semi-sentient drone companion, whom he named Anansi after the Gurun guardian of hunters, trappers, and tricksters.
Inevitably the shops Dart worked for were bought out by larger corporate interests and he moved on, chafing under the bureaucratic yoke. Eventually, he went completely freelance and simply rented space in small shops. This gave him the freedom to work on personal projects as well as accept less-than-legal commissions. As long as he felt like he was helping the little guys, Dart didn’t really care what the project was.
Ring 6: Plague Borough always needed prosthetics for people who were maimed doing risky work or born with deformities like Dart, transport nexus always needed exo frames for dock workers, the Ring 4: Druidic Gardens was always a one-off custom job to fill a gap that magic just couldn’t cut. And everyone wanted weapons. The parts for these projects were almost as expensive as just buying the finished product from the corps. Or the parts weren’t available at all, publicly. But Dart was quiet, discreet, and resourceful. Valuable components never stayed in one place for long, or if they did they were stored ‘safely’ and forgotten until a buyer was found. It was rarely a complicated affair to obtain what he needed.
Recently, Dart was scouting a warehouse for parts for a commission and stopped in a coffee shop for some food. He would always order the same thing on the Orion, ‘gurk,’ because he knew that no one who wasn’t Gurun knew how to make it or even know what it is. The guy behind the counter, odd looking guy, no skin to speak of, took a pause and turned to get to work before Dart could laugh and order something else. A few times Dart noticed the barista checking a dataslate, no doubt trying to find out what the hell he was making. What he delivered to Dart was… actually pretty good. Consistency lacked the oily feel on the tongue and there was a little too much grit than what you got on Kapaska, but the flavor was damn near spot on.
After this he started to frequent the shop until he and Otto, the barista, became friends. Otto had a semi-sentient partner in crime as well. An animated coffee carafe that Dart took to calling ‘Matic. Otto Keisler was working his way through school and Dart learned that he used to have a more corporeal body years ago. Otto shared an interest in robotics and they would frequently swap ideas on dream projects. Otto always went back to suits. Hard bodies. Something other than plasma that could still interface with the ordinary sensors. And always something that could kick some serious ass. Dart never asked, but he always assumed Otto had some scores to settle.
The parts for a suit like Otto wanted would cost as much as a used starship and that was assuming you could find the parts. They both knew it, but it was a nice break from the usual work day to dream. Then whole neighborhoods of the city started collapsing. It started with small places like Danom's Hall of Holograms. Soon after all hell broke loose at Tagera HQ and ripped the station a new asshole. This came with its own challenges with new beasts coming out of the shadows. Then word of the crew responsible started circulating. ‘The Agitators.’ These folks could keep Dart in business if they kept up this pattern. And what do you know it, they did. Then Brass Blood turf went up in smoke and most recently some Scorpio lab exploded and opened a rift to another planet. Or was it the other way around?
But Dart saw these as opportunities and a way to get what he wanted from the corps without paying a credit. He rounded out his list over the course of a couple of months and asked for a meetup with Otto to deliver.
Danem’s House of Holograms: Ultracompact interactive semi-hard light projectors for HUD and central control interface. The sensitivity allowed from what Danem was researching would be perfect for Otto’s plasmoid body. The level of control and customization would be unparalleled.
Tagera HQ: Universal haptic suite and sensory simulation. If there was something genetic that had a way to feel things, Tagera mapped its genome for some shady business recently. This was compiled into a full suite that allowed integration by virtually any user. Hopefully, this would let Otto ‘feel’ things normally through the lens of the suit.
Brass Bloods: Biotech shunts and control harnesses. Trinity was getting deep into techno magic and integrating this into folks for direct control of a workforce. It would only take time for Dart to figure out a way to reverse this flow, allowing seamless integration to control the suit, not the other way around.
Scorpio Electrics: Arcane Core. Some kind of Aetheric technomagic being developed to power something. Sounds like this would be similar to whatever caused the eruption at Tagera, but on a much smaller scale. This one wasn’t required to finish the suit, but getting it could give it a major boost. Theoretically. Definitely. Maybe. The Agitator attack happened on Darts way to deliver the prototype suit, Dart might swing back by and see how much heat was in the area after the dropoff.
Species
Birthplace
Children
Aligned Organization
Related Reports
- CC:S35: The Flight of the Stargazer Report
- CC:S36: By the Balls Report
- CC:S37:The Deck of Many Things Report
- CC:S38:Wails From Grave Report
- CC:session25: Darting Up Report
- CC:Session26: Message Received Report
- CC:Session27: A Whole New World Report
- CC:Session28: Home Sweet Home Report
- CC:Session29:Community Aglow Report
- CC:Session30:Tale of the Tree Frog Report
- CC:Session31:Going Nova Report
- CC:Session32:Love Long Lost Report
- CC:Session33: The Great Fall Report
- CC:Session34: The Heroes of the Orion
Ruled Locations
