C/NETWORK
RCES MIL TRAFFIC, CLASS: NOTICE TO STARFARERS, DISTRIBUTION: MANDTY, AUTHORITY COMMANDER, RCES DAWN BASE TRYBEC/0336/AUBAINE, B443610-A), 26/X/1201
KEYWORDS: VIRUS, HAZARD TO TRAVEL, VAMPIRE
RC space forces have issued a Notice to Starfarers for the Arvid (0131/Aubaine) and Mitchell (3034/Khulam/Diaspora) star systems. These systems appear to present an active viral or vampire threat, and are to be avoided until more information becomes available. Arvid is thought to be connected to the disappearance of several vessels, including Dawn League ships Reine Soleil and Lady Elise, although it is not known by what mechanism these disappearances were caused or even if they were the result of a single cause.
Mitchell is believed to be the base of an active and growing vampire fleet and is probably connected to the loss of Dawn League ship Helios, missing since 19/Xl/1199. RC space forces will attempt to evaluate and neutralize these threats. Private exploration is not advised.
Exercise extreme caution when entering or passing near these systems, and if possible, avoid passing through them at all. Even gas giant refueling is considered to be hazardous in these systems.
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COALINFONET. CLASS: NEWSREPORT. DISTRIBUTION: PUSH. AUTHORITY CIN/AUBANE RC NAVY HEADQUARTERS, AURORA (0535/AUBAINE, BS76646-B), 2/III/1202
KEYWORDS: COSMIC FIRE, DAALIISA, DROYNE, CYNTA LAWTER, VIRUS
Cynta "Sinner" Lawter, the youngest line captain in the Reformation Coalition Navy, today resigned her commission amid growing controversy surrounding the Daaliisa raid, code named Cosmic Fire. Lawter has come under increasing criticism for her handling of recent operations by RCS Aube into the Promise subsector.
Charges by Centrist Assembly Representatives that Lawter flagrantly disregarded the limits of the Primary Area of Operation and exceeded her authority in planning and executing raids had been dismissed by senior federalist members of the assembly. The recent disclosure of the violent and covert nature of the raid on the Droyne of Daaliisa, however, has caused federalist support for Lawter to crumble amid concern that the raid will alienate the Droyne both on Daaliisa and elsewhere. Delicate diplomatic negotiations with Droyne enclaves are reportedly in progress on several worlds.
Lawter has refused to comment publicly on the controversial raid, except to say, "This is not about the Droyne; it is about Virus, and it's not going to just go away."
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COALINFONET, CLASS: NEWSREPORT, DISTRIBUTION: PUSH, AUTHORITY CIN/AUBAINE RCSA PUBLIC AFFAIRS CHIEF AUBAINE (0738/AUBAINE, A78A884-C), 7/III/1202
KEYWORDS: TATAI MACLEAN, EM0 PATTERSON, RCES, RCN, RCSA, VAMPIRE FLEET, VIRUS
Emo Patterson of the Reformation Coalition Service Administration's Public Affairs Office today labelled as "alarmist" the predictions of a massive Vampire fleet invasion of Coalition space. The prediction, recently made public by RCES analyst Tatai MacLean, argued that many recent unexplained ship disappearances were due to Vampire activity. Maclean suggested that "both the tempo and proximity of advanced Viral activity is growing at an accelerating rate."
Patterson, speaking for the government, branded the charge "alarmist and irresponsible." Arguing that there is no evidence to confirm MacLean's theories, Patterson added that "the overwhelming majority of our Virus experts, and we've got some pretty sharp people working on this, reject MacLean's theory out of hand." Patterson went on to suggest that MacLean is emotionally unstable due to her earlier experiences with Virus systems and that has adversely affected her judgement.
Ms. MacLean was raised from birth on a vampire starship controlled by what experts term a "God-strain" Virus. Following her escape she came to the Dawn League in 1199 and served for nearly two years as a Virus consultant to the RC Navy. She recently left that service, reportedly in a dispute over the statistical instruments used to measure virus activity.
Since then she has been associated with one of the strategic planning working groups employed by RCES. RCES officials were unavailable for comment on the dispute.
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COALINFONET, CLASS: NEWSREPORT, DISTRIBUTION: PUSH, AUTHORITY CIN/AUBAINE RCES HQ AUBAINE (0738/AUBAINE, A78A884-C), 8/III/1202
KEYWORDS: COVENANT OF SUFREN, DLS LADY ELISE, MISSING SHIP, PROMISE, STARFARING ORGANIZATIONS
The normally unflappable citizenry of Brusman were electrified by the twin announcement of the recovery of the survivors of the Dawn League ship Lady Elise and the opening of relations with the Covenant of Sufren, a previously unknown starfaring civilization. The announcement followed the successful return of a rescue mission dispatched to the planet Promise in the Promise subsector. Although returning personnel were sequestered for debriefing, unofficial reports described a nightmare world inhabited by Virus-infected advanced technology robots.
The Covenant of Sufren is apparently a small group of inhabited worlds to coreward of the Coalition, but with a governmental structure and social outlook similar to our own. Senior assembly representatives have expressed cautious optimism concerning the possibility of cooperation between the two governments.
DLS Lady Elise was one of the first Dawn League warships outfitted to discover the fate of the original 12 diplomatic vessels. The vessel disappeared without a trace in 1200 and has long been thought to have been a victim of Vampire activity. Initial reports seem to confirm that theory.
Vampire Highway Background Summary - EYES ONLY
For some time, RCES has received reports from free traders of a so-called Vampire Highway, a region of space characterized by a higher than normal incidence of vampire activity. These reports have been confirmed and considerably amplified by recent information received from the Covenant of Sufren, allowing us to chart the highway with some assurance.
In Diaspora sector, the highway runs through the hearts of Khavle, Pasdaruu and Promise subsectors, then down the Khulam Main, terminating in the vicinity of Montezuma. Although vampire activity has been noted elsewhere, including rimward of Montezuma, the incidence is much lower than along the above route. Indications are strong that the highway continues coreward through Massilia sector, although we have very little reliable information on it there.
In general, the highway tends to follow the lines of the jump-1 mains in each of the affected subsectors. The pattern of vampire activity along the highway seems to consist of fleets tied to the mains and solitary ships which are more mobile.
The fleets are often tied to the mains due to the generally poor state of repair of th evessels. While many of the vessels moving together in a group may be capable of jump-2 or more, if any are only jump-1 capable, the entire group is forced to either stay on the main or divide. Usually, they stay on the main. lndividual vessels not tied to a fleet, however, often jump from main to main.
An additional feature of vampire activity is the marked preference for gas giant refueling. In the Khulam subsector, this has kept the Kide-Lefiguura-Desel cluster almost free of vampire activity, and kept it to a somewhat lower level rimward of Khesanadu (2731 /Diaspora)
To what extent separate ships and fleets interact peacefully is unknown. Very few human-crewed ships which have witnessed two vampires encountering each other have survived to tell the tale. It is known that some vampire ships, and even fleets, actively fight each other. Whether this is a function of incompatible belief structure or is evidence of a growing political struggle is uncertain.
In terms of overall numbers, each main seems to have one or perhaps two active vampire fleets. In addition, there are dozens of individual vampire ships scattered throughout the region. Several star-locked ships and fleets have been encountered as well (ships without operational jump drives), and the Mitchell system almost certainly contains a fleet of a half dozen or more such vessels.
Relations with the human inhabitants of the worlds along the Vampire Highway differ. Higher tech level societies are viewed with hostility by the vampires, while lower-tech worlds are ignored or actively cultivated as sources of human maintenance crews. The higher tech level worlds have either managed to establish a sufficiently formidable defense against vampire ships or have been attacked and devastated by Virus-controlled warships. Worlds in the former category are of particular interest to the Coalition, and appear to include Eloji (2728/Promise/Diaspora) and Accra (2604/Khavle/Diaspora).
A number of worlds such as Daaliisa (2725/Promise/Diaspora) have made accommodations with vampire fleets, and in some cases local human rulers are little more than fronts for vampire slave gathering. Muni (2825/Promise/Diaspora) appears to be an example of this sort of arrangement.
One interesting observation made by naval authorities from the Covenant of Sufren is that the traffic flow at the boundary between Diaspora and Massilia sectors produces a small but steady net flow of ships coreward. The absence of some ships known to have been taken by vampire fleets in the Khulam subsector seems to confirm this. Although evidence is fragmentary (and is based mostly on Covenant covert observatories in several key systems on the highway), it does appear that recently infected ships are being sent coreward for purposes unknown.
A major problem faced by vampire fleets is the need for periodic maintenance and repairs, and the lack of reliable ground or orbital repair facilities. Some human-controlled starports on cooperating worlds are used for this, but the rare surviving facility controlled by Virus is of much greatervalue. The most important of these in the Diaspora sector is at Promise (2827/Promise/Diaspora). Although the world contains a substantial surviving human population, it is nearly irrelevant to the operation of the starport, which has become a major contact point for vampire vessels moving along the highway. Discovering more about conditions on Promise remains one of the RCES's highest intelligence priorities.
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GLOBAL DATA VIEW
PROMISE
Objective Classification: Pending
Star System
Sector: Diaspora
Subsector: 2827/Promise
Star Type: MI V
Planetoid Belts: none
Gas Giants: 2
Main World
Starport. C
Pre-Collapse Starport: A
Diameter: 8221 km
Atmosphere: Thin (tainted)
Hydrosphere: 20%
Population: 60 million
Pre-Collapse Population: 5 billion
Government: Totalitarian Oligarchy
Law Level: 6
Tech Level: 9
Pre-Collapse Tech Level: 15
Bases: None
Trade Classification: Poor
Notes
Until very recently, no Coalition personnel had visited Promise, and very few free traders had either. What little is known about the world is the result of these few visits. The information must be considered fragmentary at best.
Physical: Although inhabitable, Promise is arid and inhospitable, which is the principal reason the world's current human population is only about 1% of its pre-collapse level.
Demographics: of the surviving human population lives in scattered nomadic tribes who make their living primarily by tending domesticated animal herds, hunting and gathering of wild and edible plants. The general scarcity of vegetation requires even small bands to keep moving almost continuously in order to find sufficient fodder for their herds.
A small proportion of the human population (probably less than 1%) lives in Star City, the only remaining city on the planet and the site of the starport. They are reportedly employed in a variety of technical and menial occupations by the planetary government. More tribes live near Star City, trading scrap metal and technological artifacts scavenged from abandoned human cities to the robots in exchange for processed food, manufactured clothing and other trade items. These tribes are often called “the Subject Tribes” and cooperate closely with the planetary government.
All humans who live under the control of the Sentient Council are tattooed with an indelible ink laser scan bar code on their foreheads as a means of identification and control. This makes it difficult to place agents into Star City and in fact none have been placed so far. Although we have examined a few samples of the tattoo coding from people who have fled the city to the outback, we are as yet unable to duplicate it with confidence.
Escalating Violence: More distant tribes rely less on robots and owe less allegiance to them. Often referring to themselves as “Free Tribes” (and as often referred to by the others as “bandits”), they have until recently had little direct contact with the robots of Star City. For the last 10 years, however, the central government has made increasing efforts to bring them under control. A growing network of security outposts, intended to provide fuel and maintenance for security forces, has spread out from the capital. Clashes between robot patrols and tribesmen have become more frequent and violent. Two recent developments in this struggle merit attention: the appearance of "Breeds" and the growth of the Resistance.
"Breed" is the local jargon for cybernetically altered humans. On Promise. the cybernetic alteration conducted bv the Council seems invariably to include the surgical implantation of a Virus-infected computer in the host brain, rendering the organism at least nominally controlled by a Virus intellect. So far. we have been unable to capture one of these organisms for study. All examples encountered, however, seem to be of purely experimental types. No two identical conversions have yet been reported, although a number of fairly similar types have been cited. The numbers of conversions (sometimes reported as being in the thousands) and the limited number of useful cybernetic options suggest some duplication must have
taken place.
The resistance is a growing body of tribesmen offering organized resistance to the encroachments of the robots and their Breed allies into the Free Tribe Lands. Their activities seem to be loosely coordinated by a "central command," which primarily communicates by means of courier. Nothing firm is known of this organization, but the means by which it is able to direct covert ship landings through gaps in the planetary defense and detection network suggest that it must have at least some presence in Star City.
Techno-Politico-Military: The most remarkable aspect of Promise is that it is controlled by Virus-infected machines. The central government is best described in our system of categorization as a totalitarian oligarchy as it consists of a “Sentient Council” of the largest and most sophisticated computers on the world. How this Council deliberates and arrives at decisions can for now be only the subject of speculation.
In addition to the fixed location intelligent computing systems, there are several tens of thousands of sentient mobile robots on the world. Less intelligent but more physically versatile, these machines apparently form the main police arm ofthe as well as carrying out the most sensitive maintenance functions. Through them, the Council closely governs the 50,000 or so human inhabitants of Star City and somewhat more loosely governs the tribes and settlements of humans that lie near the city. The tribes located several hundred to 1000 miles from the city seldom feel the hand of the government at all, and until recently have been left largely to themselves.
Such manufacturing as takes place is mostly at a sustained tech level of about 9, although a few higher-tech facilities are rumored to be operating. Certainly the fact that many large-system computers have survived offers the possibility that one or more computer-operated assembly plants may still be in operation. By contrast, the human population living a outside Star City exists at little better than stone age levels of technology.
Star City is the principle hub of Viral activity on the planet, and in some respects the entire Diaspora sector (or at least the parts of which we are aware), as it serves as a regular fueling and maintenance stop for a number of vampire fleets. Whether the fleets stop here simply out of necessity or whether there is a growing sense of community among the scattered vampires is unknown, but is a matter of considerable concern.
Militarily, the planet is well defended from attack from space. It retains dozens of batteries of TL15 PAD missile, as well as at least two high-powered deep meson guns. A substantial proportion of the robots are sufficiently well armed to resist a military force on the ground, and there are numerous human and quasi-human allies of the Council which could be armed as well. The potential loyalty and effectiveness of these forces is uncertain.
________________________________________________________________________
Contact Summary: Human Resistance Movement on the Planet Promise (2827 Promise/Diaspora).
Distribution: As required by mission only.
Handling: Most Secret.
Recency: Updated 25/1V/1202.
“The Resistance is a growing body of tribesmen offering organized resistance to encroachments of the robots and their Breed allies into the Free Tribal lands. Their activities seem to be loosely coordinated by a "Central Command," which primarily communicates by means of courier. Nothing firm is known of this organization, but the means by which it is able to direct covert ship landings through gaps in the planetary defense and detection network suggests it must have at least some presence in Star City.”
The above quotation, taken from the published RCES "Planetary Data Summary for Promise" (2827/Promise/Diaspora) represents the extent of public knowledge concerning the human resistance on Promise. All additional details have been withheld, due to the danger that they would be incorporated into a public database which could later fall into the hands of Virus. The additional information, while potentially sensitive to the resistance, is nevertheless meager.
Background: Our first information on the human Resistance came from the Free Trader Network. Apparently for some time a small group of free traders has known of a means of slipping through the planetary defense sensor network and making remote landings on
Promise. These were originally fairly routine trade visits, with pre-Collapse recovered artifacts traded for manufactured goods from off-world. Recently, this has become a more specialized trade as the tempo of fighting has increased.
Means of Landing on Promise: Clandestine landings on Promise are accomplished by matching orbits with a small moon of the world and making the ship appear to be a sensor echo of that satellite. Once below the direct LOS sensor horizon of Star City, the ship makes a rapid powered reentry and landing, taking off later to again match orbits with the moon.
Only two RC pilots are currently qualified to make this approach and landing, although two more pilots are in training at this time. Most deliveries to date have been by contracted free trader ships. RCES believes that this approach, far from being a secure means of landing, almost certainly requires active collusion on the part of ground sensor personnel to avoid detection. This raises interesting questions about the level of infiltration of Star City defenses by the resistance. Unfortunately, at this time we have nothing more than questions.
Freedom Lake: The landing site used by free traders, and now the Coalition, is a large fresh-water lake frequented by a large number of the migratory tribes. Previously called Lake Iltuuman, it has recently been re-christened by local resistance leaders Freedom Lake. This
lake is located approximately 5000 kilometers west of Star City, so is ideally placed to support the growing resistance, being both well below the starport’s sensor horizon and physically remote from even the outlying military outposts. While the area around the lake is lush and fertile, the ground to the immediate east is arid badlands, providing further barriers to overland interference.
Contacts with Resistance Groups: Contacts with the Resistance in the Freedom Lake region have so far been constructive and have quickly grown from cautious acceptance into enthusiastic cooperation. Contacts with resistance bands farther from the lake have been nonexistent, and no direct contact has yet been made with the mysterious "Central Command" which appears to coordinate the actions of the bands.
At least in the Freedom Lake region, display of the Coalition shoulder flash or evidence of Coalition membership is sufficient to generate an impressive display of hospitality. While word of the Coalition's work with the resistance has undoubtedly spread by word of mouth, it is hard to say how far and to what extent those rumors have been distorted in retelling or are even believed.
Also, it is important to remember that only a fairly small minority of the human population actively supports the resistance. The vast majority are neutral, and a significant majority are aligned with the government in Star City.
Most resistance bands are named in honor of a fallen freedom fighter or a date of some local and patriotic significance. Initial Coalition contacts were with the "Black January Brigade" and the "Free Human Legion," neither of which musters more than about 100 fighters, which is typical of the decentralized nature of the resistance. Unfortunately, internecine feuding and
occasional open combat between bands is also fairly typical.
Central Command: Virtually nothing is known of this shadowy organization save its name. Orders from Central Command are received by the bands in the Outback directly by satellite uplink receivers (often the only working piece of advanced technology equipment in the band), while communication between the bands seems to be by walking couriers, known locally as "rangers." No Coalition personnel have actually met a ranger as of this writing, and local resistance leaders are reluctant to disclose anything else about the courier system.
Intelligence Priorities: The following items form the highest priority grouping for purposes of intelligence gathering on the resistance. However, no action is to be taken at this time which will endanger the continued growth of cooperative relations with the resistance. All intelligence gathering must be provided voluntarily and knowingly by resistance personnel.
1. Ranger System: Extent, exact purpose, means of mass dissemination of information.
2. Central Command: Make-up, long-range policy, current goals, stability of leadership, extent of control over the resistance bands.
3. Star City: Extent of infiltration by resistance, ability of resistance cells in place to gather information, ability of resistance cells in place to undertake overt action.
Mercifully, the Commodore is not present when Drifter, Flatfoot and Mascot arrive. Spider is seated in a crowded office with a middle-aged man in civilian suit. Spider isn't smiling, but the other man is. "Ah! Back among the living!" he says entirely too loudly and cheerfully. You'd almost swear he was doing that on purpose just to make your poor heads pound a little more.
"I'm Sid Papadopoulis. You can call me Papa. Most people do around here. I work with RCES Intelligence and Hammer has asked me to speak with you. Your CO and I were just discussing your recent mission. I'm impressed. And I think I have just the job for you. Come on. Now that you're all here, we can go into the conference room and meet my new assistant."
A few minutes later, MS-7 is seated in a small, crowded conference room. Into the room stride two serious-looking women. The first is instantly recognizable to you. It's Sinner, formerly captain of RCN Aube, who you learned recently resigned from the Navy after some sort of scandal called "Cosmic Fire." Now she's dressed in the basic black body suit of the Exploratory Service. She smiles on seeing you and says "It's good to see you. I was thrilled to hear you'd survived your trip to Isis. I'm sorry to hear about Bypass."
Sinner turns to introduce the second woman. "This is Tatai MacLean , our Virus expert." Tatai MacLean is a tall, gaunt woman of pale complexion in her late thirties or early forties. She is completely bald, without even eyebrows, and has a small pattern of tattoos on her forehead over her right eye, a row of vertical lines and alphanumeric characters of an unfamiliar type. Her clothing is nonmilitary and brightly colored, though she herself does not smile or even register much emotion at all.
"Thank you all for coming. We have a pending mission of some importance and for which I think you are well qualified. Before I go into the mission profile, however, I'd like you to have a better understanding of its importance. To that end, I have asked Tatai to brief you on some recent developments."
She turns the briefing over to MacLean, who stands and moves to the lectern. She begins her briefing without any greeting or real preamble.
"For a number of years the common wisdom concerning Virus described its meta-lifecycle as a high acceleration initial spike which then transitions to a negatively accelerating descent curve."
She triggers a wall projector and displays the curve by way of illustration.
"The horizontal axis represents time, with the zero point set at approximately 1130 lmperial. The vertical axis represents an abstract representation of total Virus activity. Active Viral life forms is as good a way as any to visualize the axis. Notice that Virus began at zero, which is to say that at the beginning of 11 30 there was effectively no active Virus outside of Lucan's research computers. Notice that by 1133, only three years later, Virus activity had peaked and was already in decline. The earliest strains of Virus had already suicided, and the early second generation strains were well on the road to self-destruction. The decline is nearly as dramatic as the initial increase, but the slope of the curve flattens as it approaches zero.”
“Strains of Virus are more survivable and less prone to suicide. As the surviving population of Virus-inhabited instruments contains a smaller and smaller proportion of the less viable
types, its attrition rate declines. Nevertheless, attrition continues, and the question as to the final eradication of Virus remains when, not if.”
"That, as I said, has been the common wisdom. We now believe that this view, as is so often the case with common wisdom, is based more on wishful thinking than on any empirical evidence. We have charted the actual incidence of ship disappearances and vampire fleet attacks for the last forty months. After resisting the efforts of some of my colleagues to massage the data on an a posteriori basis, we have simply plugged the raw numbers into the model. This is what the revised slope of the graph looks like."
She triggers the projector again, and the curve has a new line segment added.
"The dotted line extension of the graph is its predicted slope based on the observed rate of change. The sample size we are working with is sufficiently small that there is considerable margin for error here, and a number of my colleagues cling to this fact as a sort of last refuge from an unpleasant reality. Based on my own experience as well as nonstatistical, but still important, reports from the free trader network, I believe this graph is substantially correct.”
"What does this mean? It means that the dramatic drop of Virus activity shortly after release was temporary. It means that Virus is at the front end of a dramatic upsurge in activity, based upon increasingly sophisticated and effective adaptive behavior Virus is getting smarter. If it is allowed to progress unchecked, I estimate that we, as a species, have perhaps a decade, two at the outside.”
"Since I came to the Coalition, I have argued against the complacent attitude concerning Virus which is manifest here. Virus is treated as if it were an historical event of little relevance to us today. Absolutely wrong. We have been given a breathing space, a respite, nothing more. And that respite is, I submit, effectively at an end."
Without asking for questions and without any additional display of emotion, MacLean turns and leaves the room. After a moment, Sinner stands again and resumes the briefing.
"Well, Tatai is an unusual person, as you can see for yourself. I should say, however, that her judgements on the increase in Virus activity, and its potential implications, are being taken very seriously at the highest levels of the Coalition. Several of us in strategic planning have been arguing the same thing for quite some time, and it now appears that events have overtaken us.”
"We have not yet developed a clear course of action, however, as we do not yet have sufficient information for intelligent planning. Therefore, RCES has established as its highest priority an urgent program of intelligence gathering. While we are exploring every possible source of intelligence, we believe that the most productive source will be the planet Promise.”
"In your briefing folders I have included our most current intelligence information on the planet Promise. By way of overview, the world is completely controlled by Virus-infected machines and robots, and forms a regular maintenance stop for Vampire fleets. It is a key nexus point of the Vampire Highway and has the advantage, from our point of view, of a small but growing human resistance. As humans are used for both manual and technical task by the machines on the world, the underground appears to have infiltrated agents into important positions in the starport and defense establishment.”
“How important? We don't know. That's your job - find out.”
“We have already had preliminary contact with the human resistance on the planet. That contact has been friendly and mutually helpful, and we have begun to offer technical and material assistance to those groups with which we are in contact. Your task will be to go a step further. You will be transported to Promise and landed at Freedom Lake, the permanent contact point, where you will establish a permanent working relationship with the underground. It is vital that we find out as much about vampire fleet movement patterns, and whatever weaknesses they may have, as quickly as possible.”
"Since we have some fairly demanding astrographic requirements for a successful insertion, and since we'll want to leave you on the surface for at least two weeks, we'll be providing transport for you in and out. RCN Riggins Victrix will leave in thirty-three hours with you on it. RMS Arguurir will be returned to her owners.”
I'm heading out tomorrow on a week long trip. I don't expect to be able to post. I'll see you guys later!
I will be heading out of town tomorrow until Sunday evening. I won't be able to post until Monday night.
I owe everyone an apology for my slow posting. Personal issues plus tax time mean I'm very busy. I'll get back at it tomorrow.
This week has been filled with taxes (mine and my mother's), making offers on a house and my oldest son's fourth birthday (today). So, no appearances from me until tomorrow, probably.
From The Traveller Core rulebook, 2nd Edition:
With all the dangers present throughout the galaxy, it is inevitable that Travellers will get hurt. Fortunately, there are several options to heal and repair oneself. There are two forms of healing – medical treatment and natural healing. Note that failed Medic checks can easily end up causing the patient more damage - we recommend you see trained doctors only!
Medical Treatment
First Aid: Applying first aid restores a number of characteristic points equal to the Effect of the Medic check. Points restored by first aid are divided as desired among all damaged physical characteristics. First aid must be initiated within one minute of the injury.
Surgery: A Traveller who still has three damaged characteristics after first aid has been applied requires surgery. Surgery restores characteristic points just like first aid but if the check is failed the patient loses more characteristic points equal to 3+ the Effect of the Medic check. Surgery requires a hospital or sickbay. Once one characteristic is back to its maximum level the patient can benefit from medical care.
Medical Care: A Traveller who has only one or two damaged characteristics after first aid has been applied, or who has had one of his three physical characteristics restored to normal through surgery, can benefit from medical care. Medical care restores 3+ the Traveller’s END DM + the doctor’s Medic skill in characteristic points per day, divided evenly among all damaged characteristics. Medical care requires a hospital or sickbay and for the Traveller to undergo full bed rest.
In high technology hospitals, standard procedure in most cases is to use Medicinal Slow to hasten healing.
For example, Morn is mauled by an alien predator while exploring a strange moon. He is able to drive the predator off with his pistol, wounding it. Morn has suffered damage to all three of his characteristics – he has lost 10 END, 5 DEX and 3 STR. Kathya applies
first aid, bringing Morn’s STR back up to its maximum level. With only two characteristics now wounded, Morn qualifies for medical care and, once in their ship’s sickbay, is quickly restored to health.
Augmentation and Medical Care: Cybernetic or genetic augments can interfere with medical treatment. All medical care or surgery Medic checks treating a Traveller suffer a negative DM equal to the difference in Technology Level between the medical facility and the highest relevant implant. For example, a Traveller with TL13 Enhanced Vision being treated in a TL10 hospital would give DM-3 to the surgeon’s Medic checks.
Mental Characteristics: Other than Psionic Strength, characters may also suffer damage to their INT or EDU (the latter reflecting loss of memory). Unless otherwise specified, each mental characteristic heals at a rate of one point each per day.
Natural Healing
An injured Traveller regains a number of characteristic points equal to his 1D + END DM per day of full rest.
A Traveller who requires surgery only regains characteristic points equal to his END DM per day of rest, which means that the Traveller may never heal naturally and will even get worse if his END DM is
currently negative (and it probably will be…).
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From this, you can see that until Flatfoot is best served by putting all his recovered points into END. You can also see that he is unlikely to recover in time to participate at the spaceport unless he has surgery, but that a failed surgery roll can make him worse.
John, I know Flatfoot is unconscious, but you should chime in here on what you think "ought" to happen.
My Medic+EDU is +2. Seems a bit tight but on average I make the 7 with room to spare. I am not sure if we can aid each other to lower the TN or improve my roll.
Did Mascot get first aid or medical care from Muscles? And it sounds like if he stayed in the medbay, it might really help.
Thanks for the heads up!
With the 4 points recovered from surgery, Flatfoot can get DEX restored to full and put the remaining point into END. He then, at least, can benefit from medical care (what can be provided) but does not require further surgery.
His END modifier will be -2, but he should still be able to get that restored so that he no longer has a penalty. That might not happen before reaching Promise, but he will still be mobile.
Yes, Mascot can get Medical Care (not first aid) from Muscles and/or Drifter. And yes, The injured should probably remain in sick bay...
Flatfoot, that's a good call. Medical care won't kill you like a botched surgery will.
Starting a new job today. I probably won't be posting again until Wednesday. Thanks for your understanding.
Headed to Japan tomorrow for most of the week. I'll try to post, but no guarantees it'll be consistent.
Long day. Taking a break. Will get back at it tomorrow.
I'm off to GenCon in the morning. I'll see you fine folks on Monday!
Except for those of you I'm seeing at GenCon!
I'll probably check in pretty frequently, actually, so feel free to carry on.
Ok, so I have a few questions regarding what I know about the bots as I try and find a way out of fighting death bots.
Do they have a limited power supply? If I hold them at bay for another day or two and cut power to that area of the ship will they run out of power and not be able to recharge? Or does each of them have a little nuclear reactor that will run for a thousand years type thing?
How hard would it be to remove the next bulkhead? I am guessing not easy but removing it and welding it with welders and all the patches to the one they are trying to break through might prevent them from getting out any time soon which could be all we need if they have limited power supplies.
If they break through this area of the ship is there another easy area of the ship to block off and make them waste their power reserves (assuming they are not like D&D animated objects and powered for eternity) even if it means conceding more of the ship to them for the moment?
Can I access the ship comms that the Ship was using to broadcast its messages out so that I can talk to the bots?
Hello! I'm off on vacation. I'll be back on Saturday. Have a great week!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!
And happy Thursday to everyone else!
I'm out for a day or two. I'm sick as a dog.
Feel better.
A very happy Easter to all of you!
Are you kidding with us because it is April Fools Day?
Surprise! Also Easter.
Do we have weapons with us?
Dylea didn't specify coming to town unarmed, so given that everyone we'd seen to that point was armed, I can't imagine why we wouldn't bring our weapons.
As far as what weapons...Before we left Skywatch, Spider took a slug rifle. Drifter took a laser rifle (since confiscated by the resistance). Mascot took a slug rifle (also confiscated by the resistance). Flatfoot, Paka, and Natalie all took slug pistols. I assume Harlan and his men took their weapons of choice.
Mascot is a better rifle shot than Spider, so at some point on the journey Spider would have given his slug rifle to Mascot. Spider also still has 2 shots left in the Laser Pistol Harlan gave him on the Ship.
No idea if Jessica was armed.
Yeah, man. You're all armed! This is the last shoot-out on Promise, so lock and load!
So just to confirm. Were Flatfoot and Drifter able to get another gun from those taken by the others traveling with us, or am I down to a dagger now.
You are fully armed. Take your pick of Laser Rifle, Slug Rifle, Laser Pistol, Slug pistol. You have 10 shots available with your chosen weapon.
Guys, I'm sorry. Personal life is swamping me right now. So many things have gone wrong that I'm just exhausted by the time I get home and I'm about as creative as a lump of rock. I'll try to get back to this tomorrow.[/ooc]
FYI - a combination of pneumonia and moving house means I'll be offline for most the week. And the week after that (if alive) I'll be at GenCon.
I am back from Gen Con, but have no Internet access at home (the house I just bought wasn’t wired for it) until Friday the 10th at the earliest and can’t access it at work. I’ll do my best with my iPad until then, but it’s going to be slow.
Oy vey.
Let me tell you what's going on with me. First, I'm not dead nor fading away. However, after a week of illness and a week of reasonably ill vacationing, I'm now stranded without access to the Internet (I'm writing this from my mother's house, which is definitely not a long-term solution).
Then, the team of electricians who were going to wire my house were in an automobile accident and several were injured. So still no Internet.
Other electricians are coming to wire my house for the Internet and -hope- they can do it by next Friday.
Trying to stay connected by iPad has proved too difficult when I can summon at most 1 or 2 bars at my house. Thus, I'm just going to be offline for a bit. I'm sorry, but now you know why.
Here is an update on my situation:
GOOD NEWS:
At long last my house has been wired for Internet and my service is on.
BAD NEWS:
My computer seems to have suffered total failure in the move, possibly from static discharge. So I now have no computer. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have had no luck at all lately.
THE PLAN:
I have ordered a new motherboard and CPU from NewEgg. They should arrive tomorrow. I built the computer myself and so should be able to rebuild it. I hope to be up and running by the Monday the 27th, but see my previous comments on luck...
NOTE:
If this is a game I play in, I’m sorry for my absence. If this is a game I GM, I’m very sorry. If this is a game I’m supposed to be GMing but have not yet begun... it gets better.
Okee-dokee. I think we're ready to roll.
After more than a month, I've finally gotten Internet access again. Seems as though the site's been down most of that time, so not much loss there.
On the other hand, I'm leaving on Monday the 3rd for a week at the beach with my kids and won't have any access out there, either. I'll try to catch up this weekend at the least.
Just a note about what's up. We're going to debrief and let your PC's unwind, take some leave, whatever. I'd like you guys to drive this denouement for now - what are your PC's like when the stakes -aren't- life-or-death?
Then we're going to discuss where the story can go next.
Provided you then want to keep the same game and characters, they'll get some skills for the time spent in their adventure.
Let's talk direction.
The Promise storyline is over for now, but the overall story of the Vampire Highway and the survival of the Reformation Coalition is far from over. And the Vampires are just one of many threats the RC faces (new threats emerge in future years). But we need to determine what -we- want to do.
I see four basic options. If we continue to play with the current characters, they will first gain skills as a result of the Promise storyline.
A) Call it a Day. We've had fun and wrapped up a major story arc. Maybe we leave the tale of MS-7 here, unsung heroes of man's tenuous hold on civilization.
B) The Guilded Lily - We've seen the boys contend with insane shipboard conditions and a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Now they get a high-tech ship of their own and fly off on a mission vital to undermining the threat of the Vampire Highway in a long three-book adventure.
C) Operation Dominoes - Nothing to do with pizza. The lead the resistance on a neutral world against an occupying human empire in a very long four-book adventure. This is a good adventure, but feels a little familiar to our first adventure on Isis, at least in broad outline.
D) The Pirates of Drinax - We say good bye to MS-7 and The New Era and instead play an epic empire-building/piratey adventure set in dangerous space in the classic era of the Third Imperium. This is a mega-campaign. I offered it to my home group but they don't seem interested, so I'm definitely going to run it online. If you choose Options A, B or C, you can still play Pirates of Drinax, so it's not necessarily either/or. By the way, this game already has a forum (but no recruitment page).
I lean towards B, D or B&D.
Let me know what you think!
I am good with B&D.
How's about everyone else?
I am for B & D, too.
Is B&D a vote for space pirates on a ship? Or are we saying one, then the other?
I'm currently playing beyond my capacity on games, but that should die down soon. I'd be ok leaving MS-7 at this point.
I'd be up for B, and I'd be up for D, but I am not sure if I am up for both. I'd also be up for pizza.
"B" is a vote to stay with these characters and play "the Guilded Lily", meaning MS-7 gets a cool space ship and heads off on a mission of great importance in the conflict with the Vampires.
"D" is a vote to end the Path of Tears campaign and just play "Pirates of Drinax."
"B&D" is a vote to do play both at the same time.
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So I'm definitely going to run "Pirates of Drinax" and I'm offering you guys seats at the table before anyone else. But don't feel like you have to play. It's just an invitation.
Tim, I'm probably -not- going to start playing "Pirates of Drinax" before November, if that helps, though we might start character creation before then.
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I'm not eager to end "Path of Tears", as there is a lot more story to tell and I feel we've really done a nice job on fleshing out who these characters are as people. I love the "Wild West meets Rainbow Six" feel of the campaign.
So I vote for "B&D".
However, "Pirates of Drinax" is just awesome, so if you want to do only one, I think I'd incline -slightly- towards "D" over "B". And I certainly want you guys to do what is both the most fun and fits into your schedule.
Let me know!
What do you think?
I am good with keeping this campaign going "B" and I am up for the "D" new campaign when you start it
I am onboard for B if everyone else is game. I am interested in D, but I'd like to see how my schedule shapes up before i commit.
If we decide not to continue Path of Tears, then I am definitely interested in Pirates of Drinax
Tim/Mascot?