The Fleet has ordered you to investigate the now unresponsive Planet Kask Outpost Station and has provided you with a scout ship for said purpose.
In the current human fleet configuration, recon ships are not armed with ship to ship weaponry, these are observe and report vessels with massive drive systems to get in and out of trouble quickly as well as even larger stealth drives. Using all the stealth technology mankind has to offer, these ships are used to penetrate the veil doing deep reconnaisance, gathering information without being detected. These have the fastest engines known to the fleet.
Your Alpha Scout Ship called the Upsilon carries a 12 person crew where six man the ship while the others sleep. The ship may be operated with less than six and even a lone person. There is enough room for any arms and equipment you wish to bring with you. It has a command cabin at the front, where five members of the crew are located most of the time, a galley where meals are prepared, behind that is the sleeping section and recreation area and behind that is the engine room where one member of the crew is normally stationed and the absolute aft is the storage area for gear and the airlock.
====== Orders from The Admiral -- Battle Fleet One! ======
Scout Ship Sigma is thirty days overdue in reporting to the fleet on the colonization station above Planet Kask.
The station should be up and running and ready to process colonists.
We have had no report from the station nor from the Sigma, who were to have initiated initiated its functions.
As the lead Fleet Recon Squad, you are to take your team and discern the status of the Station and the crew of the Sigma.
Send report drones with full details.
Proceed with extreme caution!
Admiral Franklin
A man of Olympian proportions stands before you in the command cabin. Covered from head to toe in a battered and scarred suit of battle armour, he strikes quite the imposing figure. He approaches the console and takes a seat. Typing furiously, he seems to be searching for something specific.
An attractive looking woman with violet hair is sitting at the communications console running ship and satcom diagnostics. She shows no sign of acknowledging Red sit next to her, instead keeping her attention on the data running across the display.
Before anyone says anything the Secure Comm light begins flashing and Nariya brings up the message on her display. After seeing that the origin of the message is from the Admiral she keys the ships intercom.
"Incoming priority message from Fleet, Commander."
Kira, a young half-elf with numerous tattoos and dressed in a teal tank top and black military cargo pants, sat at the table in the recreation area with a set of tools and her disassembled guns splayed out before her. She sat there cleaning and tinkering with her firearms, ensuring they performed to her rigid standards.
She is so engrossed in her work that she doesn't even hear the intercom.
Redrick Streit
PLanet Kask
"Six weeks without comms...Too long..." Red mutters. He turns his attention to Nariya, and the incoming transmission from the admiral. Old habits die hard, especially for an ex-soldier. "Ready for our orders when you are, Nar"
Up front in the command chair of the ASS 'Upsilon' sat a tall dark blue almost back skinned Female Tazza. White hair, white eyes, and when standing almost 6'8" tall. She was willow thin and light, only 64lb. On her odd clothing was the fleet PSI-Corps officer insignia.
Aannraa had kind of taken sudo-taken command of the ship soon after their jack ass of an original Captain had been Killed. A brash young human male fresh from command school, he liked to take stupid risks on away missions. One such trip cost him and their old and missed doctor their lives. After that command became less defined. Fact was they where a Special forces unit and as such, technically on some list some place they where all offices. But like most Special forces command meant little, that was for grunts who did not know what they where doing. This team know what is was doing, there where no fools on this ship. As such they did not need a jack ass ordering them to do dumb things that could cost them their lives. Pulling rank of any kind was no use with Special forces. This was a crew that can be trusted to block the dumb calls before someone got them all killed. She liked that about this group, all the command seat meant here was she got the job of talking to brass when they showed up and doing then paperwork when things went bad. O and she also helped the ship block out Psionic scanning while in stealth mode, as well as a few other small things when asked. They had been a team for a while now and needed to be said on who did what.
They dropped out of N-space and where now sub light, she could let the ship do the rest while they took the incoming priority message from Fleet Command. Her odd alien pionic space suit flowed over her skin as it did this.
Reaching up she pulled a Cable from the back of her neck, it slid back onto he command seat.
"Stealth up and sub light in L-space guys"
For the last few hours she had been linking mentally to small scout ships AI mind. Overseeing their ships stealth envelop while they traversed N-space. Working with Nariya and her censer feeds to keep prying eyes Away. Aannraa had a Psionic implant that let her link to such tech. As a noble Tazza such tech was the norm, it was part of her races genetic enhancements. As a vat grown this was all part of who she was.
She took a moment then to look over the sleeper pods monitoring system. All seemed well, the secondary crew where still fine in Crio-Sleep. It was a habit of hers to do this when they dropped back into normal space. Her life partner was in one of the bods and she unduly worried at times.
Happy she spun the flight decks command seat around, behind her on the view screens local space was shown.
"Well Nariya as Redrick says, lets hear the good news from the brass."
::"Kira good news, we have a message, want to pop up and hear what they want us to do next."::
sounds in her head.
"Fleet is concerned about Recon Scout Ship Sigma and the Outpost Station orbiting planet Kask. There has been no contact with either for thirty days. Admiral Franklin has ordered us to investigate and reestablish contact. We are to report back via drones the sitrep of both Squad Sigma and the Outpost Station."
Nariya turns to the others and looks at Aannraa. "Coordinates are already loaded, Commander. It will take three hours to reach our destination. Shall I initiate jump?"
looks at Redrick suddenly typing away like mad as if looking for something.
"Redrick once you have something on our destination, this Outpost Station orbiting Kask, let us know. Also if you have not already looked them who. The fleet records we have on this Recon Scout Ship Sigma and who's on it."
She flips on the conn,
"Kira, looks like we are going into a possible hot zone, kit us out weapons and other for a stealth recon away mission. We could be going EVA, Redrick may have full Engineering and deck plans for you. looking at a space station and/or a ship boarding."
She flips it off, then says.
"Yes Nariya, if you have us a N-space plat, then lets jump, that is once you've sent our acknowledgement signal back to Feet. Best let brass no we'er on it."
Then to all
"Ok everyone Nariya says we have three hours. So meeting in 20 mins to talk over what we may be heading into, info, suggestions you know the deal."
She then spins back and links herself back into the Ships AI mind waiting for the jump root.
Nariya turns back to the console and runs through the pre-jump checklist. Once she is satisfied that all is in order, she readies the jump drive.
"F-T-L engaging in 5... 4... 3... 2... Mark," she counts down as she engages the drive, propelling the ship into N-Space.
Jumping was always odd, like falling off a cliff up-woulds.
Once they are in N-space she starts setting the pisonic shield. Then the stealth set up. After 10 mins she unhooks herself and heads to the communal area for the meeting.
From the time the Commander contacted her through her mind message (which she still feels uncomfortable dealing with after the weeks she's spent with this squad), Kira sprang into action. She quickly and expertly reassembled her weapons, performed her functional checks, and loaded them up.
Before even hearing the intercom message from Aannraa, Kira had already moved to the armory to collect everyone's gear for the mission. The Commander's message only told her what specific gear they may require.
When the designated time for the meeting arrived, she had all the necessary gear ready and sitting by. Entering the common area, she picked a seat and made herself comfortable, propped a boot onto the table, and occupied herself with a popular game on her datapad while she waited for everyone else to arrive.
Aannraa smiled as Kira came in.
She must have got started the moment we got the call, got to love a team that knows what its doing
She thought to herself, she did not need to check her stuff she trusted Kira. She went back to her data pad and its feed from the others.
She was a clone, one of a number sold to the fleet, some where still in Cyro-sleep others still in service or long dead. A few just a tiny few had one there 25 'awake' fleet years of service. Cyro years did not count, she herself had 68 Cryo sleep years on the clock, with on just over 4 awake years. 21 more to do and that this speed that could take some 500 years. It was lucky her race did not age like others. A thught truck her, at the end of 25 years the fleet would hand a clone such as her their ownership papers. Papers such an old word, as if anything nowadays was printed of dead plant. 72 years out the vat and she was still working off her life contract. O well if she was lucky, this mission would take a few more weeks off.
Red stands up with a stretch, removing a portable data pad from the console and turns to follow Kira into the meeting room. "Mission specs " he grunts, tossing the pad down in the table.
"Thank you Red"
She picks up the data pad and slots it into the tables 3d viewer.
A 3d image of what looks like there own ship comes into view.
The Sigma in as last recorded by fleet.
"Well she is a sister ship, Red did you get the crew manifesto?"
The image then changes to one of the space station.
She unclipped from her belt and placed on a the table a small crystal Drone, like a little spider, it was the size of child's fist. It went over to the data pad and stated sift the masses of data red had got.
"So lets start with what we are all thinking. And I don't need to be a mind reader to work theses out. Question one, what was the Sigma a fleet scout class ship doing at a run of the mill colonization station. Two, is it a run of the mill colonization station? Three, is Planet Kask just a run of the mill colonization world or some messed up old evil civilization, Bio death world or other rock ball of badness just waiting to kill us. Last of all, four, what is dear sweet brass ass Admiral Franklin not telling us other than take care it is a death trap. Have I missed any?"
She waits for the others to add comment before moving on past the ways to the hows.
The sigma's crew consists of six members, commanded by Sergeant Phillip Getchel, and the rest of the crew consist of Privates Jim Grunswith, Alden Taylor, Alina Schiffleger, Bob Spangler and Gil Schultz. You get an unclassified version of each of their military records, which seem reasonable to their experiences and so on.
"Intel shows a crew of six members, one Sergeant and five grunts. I've uploaded their records to the data pad. Service history shows nothing out of the ordinary for any of 'em, so there's no reason so far to assume foul play. Didn't get access to classified records though, so there could be something there that the Admiral doesn't want us knowing. Far as I can tell, the only reason they took the Sigma so far out is lack of another boat. " Red states matter-of-factly.
Kira closes the game in her datapad and pushes a few buttons, bringing the data displayed on the table to her own datapad.
"Looks straightforward, Boss. Tactics-wise, I think we go the standard with Red and I taking point. We treat this as a hostile Op. Don't want any surprises."
Nariya remains at the communications station in case there are any new messages. She has tapped into the ship's data network and although she is not physically in the common area, she is still listening to the conversation. At the moment she is just listening to the information being passed around.
AASDQ
The main area of the Kask Outpost is a hemisphere with a flat bottom which is slightly more than a mile in diameter. It was constructed with robots and other automated space equipment. It's only propulsion is a set of small attitude jet to stabilize its orbit and the dome is consistantly spinning in order to maintain gravity. The bottom contains ten large space docks. The top is covered by a transparent space dome that is several feet thick and is 100 feet high at its apex. Truly an impressive structure it is able to process 6000 colonists per week.
She nods as the others talk.
"Well we'er the ones they send in when it all go's bad, so I agree. lets treat this as bad from the get go."
Now the image and data of the station shows on the screen.
"Station seen's normal, The bio dome, docks, we could have a Sky fall event, Station and ship falling into world. But that would have to have been a catastrophic event, Rock strike or Sol Event. Even so if that is the case, Black Box probes would have reported it back to fleet. They always have a few in system ready. Its odd none have reported back, so they must think all is well or they have been wasted. That would be a nova event we will pick that up before we come out of jump."
Looks at the world image.
"I wish we had more intel on this world. Red? is there any survey data sweeps, anything would be good. Also any intel on how many colonist made it on to the world before we lost link to them? How far did they get building a colony on it?"
She brings the Station back up.
"I am also thinking, where there any other ships that had docked with the station before our last fleet ship. Supply ships etc, any reports from them would be good."
She then sits back, closes her eyes and go's into a logic trance. Part of her imprinted training, running over the information in her head.
She went into planning mode, it was what she was designed for.
"Nariya, I want to have us under full stealth and able to drop a to scout the planet, then a second probe to scout out the station and if its there the lost ship. Also plot us a exit jump so we can get the hell out of there should we drop out of N-Space into an enemy feel. If none, then once the probes are off your our Robot export, If the Robot systems are still up on that station or planet. Call them and lets get info. Work with red on that he will have the access codes"
"Kira, I want a prob ready to drop on that world once we get in system and one for the station. Also best have the ship ready to wake out sleepers should anything bad happen to any of us. That's what they are there for. If we EVA and don't contact the ship in 48 hours they auto wake. Get their kit ready as well, just in case."
"Red, could you help Kira with the probe data sweep parameters. If there is any in system net is up, Lets hack it and get what we can of the stations AI mind. I'm giving you clearance to get the override codes for that at our lost scout"
"Ok then gang, once we have a sweep and if there is no detected hostiles we investigate, scans and probes then if needed to see if we can dock come EVA onto ship or station depending on what state they are in. We may even have a land fall if the Colony is intact down on the world. Nariya how close to the station/world will be come out of N-jump, give the info to the others for the probes."
She sits back up.
"Well that's all by the book, but my feeling is they found something on that dirt ball of a world. This is going to be a Bio-Hazard suit and flame thrower job. Bad news is if that's the case, Fleet R&D labs will want anything nasty we find alive if possible. Good news is we get a bonus if we do."
This is said with a jokey smile.
Then she She picks up her crystal drone.
"So anyone want to add any more, to sneak in, looks around, try not to get killed, plan?."
She waits to see what the others will add to the plan.
"Systems request for a progress report on colonisation status was denied, boss. Looks like it's above our pay grade. I agree with Kira, let's assume the worst. Who know what could have happened to the ship. Could be foreign entities, terrorists, mutiny.... Better bring extra ammo, just in case." Red grunts.
She stands nods at Kira and Red's comments.
"Yep Agreed Guys, If this dos end up being an EVA tactical, Kira's running the show on point with you Red once we get out the ships air lock. Red your her second as normal unless we get into combat, Tactical's your area as normal. We do as you say and go where you say if the shooting starts. Ill have our EVA Bio-Medical kit and back up Nariya, who'll take over our Comms-hacking kit. We will be following her planned root into this station."
She looks down at the image of the Station.
"Blocked your request, then Guys we may be looking another fleet black site. O joy, if its like the last one, it may be a blasted ghost station. Lets hope that's not the case. No bonus for dead bodys. O an where NOT to brake the station to much. Fleet or someone paid over 100 Billion Crs for it and they will get a little upset if we send it off to the sun or drop it onto the planet."
"That was ONE time, Commander. Never going to live that one down, am I?" Kira rolls her eyes in mock indignation.
"Joking aside, seems like we always get picked for the dren-storm missions. Oh well, it pays the bills I suppose. Plan sounds good though. If we are walking into a clusterfrel, we should get to the Sigma and re-appropriate some supplies. I'll get those drones up and ready for Nariya and then double check to see if we have any bio-suits or flamers. Those older ones are a pain-in-the-ass to use. Oh, how I wish we could get some of those new Hellfire Handheld Flamers. Same size as a carbine but it's got a removable fuel and propellant canister. Not as bulky or powerful as the larger ones, but hey... fire is fire. Hey Boss, maybe once we're done here you can submit a requisition order for a few of them? I've got a laundry list of other toys I'd like to try and get as well."
As she finishes, she gets up and heads towards the armory to prepare the whole crew's gear.
"On it, Commander," rings Nariya's voice through the intercom.
At her station, she connects with the applicable systems through her linkup and starts to type away. First she sets the stealth drive on standby and instructs it to power on upon exit of N-space. Unfortunately there are a few nanoseconds between dropping out of N-space and the stealth drive activating, but Nariya is confident enough in her jump-plotting that if all goes well, the Upsilon will emerge behind one of the planet's natural satellites which will mask the ship's presence long enough for the drive to power up.
She then sets simple parameters for the two drones to follow using intel on the system she received from the ship's databanks, programming them to follow the tasks that the Commander requested of them. All that needed to be done was for Kira to ready the probes, a task that Nariya felt was in more-than-capable hands.
"Stealth drive primed hot for N-space exit, Commander. As a reminder, we will only be able to move at quarter speed with the stealth drive active. t that speed it will take us twenty minutes to reach the station, but that should give us more than enough time to scan the station and adjust our mission priorities if need be," she says through the intercom.
After ensuring everyone's gear and the drones are prepped, Kira sits down at the table with her carbine, a flashlight, ion tape, and her zipstick. She positions the flashlight so she can easily turn it on while holding her carbine at the ready, as well as ensuring that it won't interfere with normal operation of the gun and it's attached grenade launcher, and secures it with the ion tape. Once she is satisfied with the positioning and it's security, she takes the zipstick and zaps the ion tape, fusing the flashlight to her carbine until she applies another charge from the zipstick.
"Kira, Re-appropriating supplies is good but getting stuff off fleet... well I can ask all you like but they just send us what they think we need and I swear they must wipe their behinds with the rest."
As She nods then walks back to the Command seat, passing Nariya.
"Understood "
She took she seat and once more cyber linked to the ships AI-Mind.
unknown to the rest she ran an Tazza program that placed her mind state into a small Cystal. A recording for her sleeping partner to read should she be killed.
She checked her Psi-blaster and placed it on her hip. The Crystal drone licked itself in place as her psionic suit crawled over her face then cealing her in. she gave a thumps up to Nariya.
Her voice came out the comms system.
"Everyone get ready, I want us suited and in our crash seats, Nariya give us the count down to jump Emergence when its time."
From thousands of miles away in space you detect the outpost, floating above the planet in geosynch orbit: a huge transparent hemispherical dome over a platform dense with buildings. On the underside of the
platform are ten huge docking stations. Which you detect whilst still in warp.
But as you come out of your jump in the system where Kask is located. Upon coming closer you detect the Sigma— the lost scout ship—docked properly under the station. But on the upper side, an unidentified object is stuck in the outer portion of the dome. Its shape is not
familiar, nor is it in the data banks of your scout ship’s computer. This object appears to be an ellipse some 100 yards long and 50
yards wide. The dome’s emergency sealing systems appear to have enveloped the edges of the ship, securing the pressure seal
against the vacuum of space.
As she moved them out from behind the planatoid under stealth and to a stop a long way from the staiton, her voice came over the comms..
"Ok I'm holding us here, we get no cloaser till we do a sweep. I want to take this slow, when ready we can send the probes. @st how ever, from what i'm seeing the Stations is intact, so guys, tell me what we've got? Is its net up? our lost ship there, and talking, Go passive for now, optical and receiving only"
She was taken aback but her ships AI-Mind updating the mission files.
She passed on the new intel.
"Ho,ho, Fleet had some in system verification intel files for us. Gosh! anyone would think Fleet don't trust us to take the mission. So heads up everyone. Says here no colonialists had been processed yep. The Satiation was meant to go active once the Sigma reported that the Robot Builder crew had finished. Well, now we know what the Sigma gang where doing here. O and that robot crew may or may not still be on there. Says nothing about them getting off. So then Fleets plan was, once the the Sigma oked the Station. The next step would have been the arrival of it's operational Crew who would do the final work before the colonialists to start Arriving. So its a new build which may or may not be finished, with a skeleton crew who may or may not be still on there. We may be out of luck with that Station net, Nariya as that's operational Crew stuff, but see what you can get. We 'may' get lucky and and find a build bot someplace on there that will talk to us. Good news is, this explains why the black-box drones did not report back. To then the stations still just under construction. bad news, what the ^&%% happened to make it's build crew and the Sigma's fall silent? so any clues, Spotted anything yet?"
Nariya checks the sensors but finds nothing. "Sorry, Commander. Nothing is showing up on our long-range sensors. We will have to move in for a closer look. Shall I try to hail the Sigma and the station? Or would you prefer we not announce our arrival?"
Kira walks into the command deck and peers out the viewport at the station orbiting the planet before them.
"I'm no expert, but I'm thinking that big object sticking out of the dome might be the culprit here," she observes. Upon hearing Nariya's request, she chimes in before the Commander can answer.
"Boss, I suggest we go in silent. Don't want to tip off any potential hostiles of our presence until we have no other choice."
"Sorry, Commander. Nothing is showing up on our long-range sensors. We will have to move in for a closer look. Shall I try to hail the Sigma and the station? Or would you prefer we not announce our arrival?"
nods,
"Ok ill take her closer, but for now no contact from us, passive censers only and we stay cloaked"
The ship moves in so that the station fills the view windows.
As Kira makes her comment Aannraa smile as she was looking at it on her monitor.
"Hard to miss, is it not, so guys I want a probe sent to it. Lets get some telemetry data and readings. We will head around the station and drop it off while its shields us. Then we will back off. But before then lets send a probe back to feet and let them we may have a possible alien OCP* event"
Outside Context Problem
An Outside Context Problem (OCP), is the kind of problem most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.
This is a problem that is "outside the context" as it is generally not considered until it occurs, and the capacity to actually conceive of or consider the OCP in the first place may not be possible or very limited (i.e., the majority of the group's population may not have the knowledge or ability to realize that the OCP can arise, or assume it is extremely unlikely). An example of OCP is an event in which a civilization does not consider the possibility that a much more technologically advanced society can exist, and then encounters one. The term is coined by Banks for the purpose of this novel, and described as follows:
The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.
She takes the ship around the station at around 40km, keeping its at 1/5 speed. Once there she waits while the other drop off the two probes and waist for the one heading to the station to report.
"Send the message in a bottle probe to a safe Jump range and link up to it v tight beam laser so it can't be hacked or over heard. If we get into trouble have it auto jump to fleet with what we have found."
Nariya inputs a few commands into her terminal, setting up the desired probe for launch. After a few seconds a soft thud can be heard, letting everyone know that the probe has launched.
"Probe away, Commander."
When you hail the Sigma, you receive a message from the ship that everything is operating optimally and that the crew are on the station.
Looks at Nariya
"Nariya I take it you made our probe look like something local. Have it hail the Sigma. Lets see if there ships AI mind is still talking."
As the predominantly female crew begin their myriad of tasks, Red begins preliminary systems check on his battle suit. He sits patiently, awaiting the moment where the ship makes dock and boarding preparations become priority.
The thing sticking out of the dome is a jet-black ovoid. The
color almost seems to swallow light, being made from material never before encountered.
However, the flybys done by the drones show that the robots are busy setting up the station as per their programs. The ecology and such of Planet Kask match those of the samples from the Fleet's memory banks, with a bit more vegetation than two months ago, which is normal due to this planet's seasonal cycle.
"Affirmative, Commander. As per Stealth Recon Protocol, our drone probes emit a signature that matches an object or ship most commonly seen in the system: in this case a communications relay satellite. I programmed the probe to send a tight-beam transmission on a secure channel to the Sigma to ascertain its status... Getting the response now... Standby."
Nariya reads the response and tilts her head slightly in apparent confusion.
"This is odd. The Sigma reports that all crew are accounted for on the station and everything is running optimally. Robots on the station also seem to be operating as normal. I can set one of the probes to scan for lifeforms, but a scan like that is an active scan. Orders, Commander?"
She thinks for a moment then makes her mind up.
"Alright then, let try this another way. If the station is powered and work is going in as normal. Send to probe to the docks, see if there is a external data link in there is, or the maintenance bays. We should have the blue prints to let us know if there is in what fleet gave us. FInd one and get the probe to Link to it. Lets use the stations internal systems to see what we can see of the inside. This should also let us pick our entry point."
" And if that doesn't work, I say we kick down the airlock and go take a look for ourselves! " exclaims Redrick with a devilish grin.
Kira smirks. "I swear Red, for all the subtlety that I bring to the table, you counteract it with your brashness."
"Fortune favours the brash, Kira. I'm seven foot tall and 300 pounds, subtlety was never a strong suit of mine. " Red replies with a wink.