Sir Gavin grabbed an open crate and threw it over the creature.
"I have it!" He said, pleased with himself. He sat on the crate to make it too heavy for the creature to lift. "Now what do we do with it?"
"Hmm. Take it with us. Find a bigger jar if we have to, otherwise this one should do."
"In any case—I'm going to have a look at the controls, see what's wrong. You figure out what planet we're headed to, if we only get one jump. My vote's for Homeline, unless we can't get there, then my world is a decent option."
Once the bug is bottled, Flynn will also try to use it and a few geometric circles representing the planet's magnetic field lines to cast a seeker spell on our missing commander.
When talking about their home worlds, Aurora shy's away from the group. The blasted remains of the world she was found on just leave her with more questions about who she is...or what she is.
The bug began to scuttle away but was easily encased by Gavin's daring move.
A bottle was then used to get the creature into an ease of carrying, however it did not want to be encased in such a small space. It remained close, though it was adamant about not entering the bottle. It shrieked a spooling generation of sound waves. It stopped once the pressure off of it to be in the container, one could deduce that if it had continued getting louder, damage would have been done.
The Projector is severed from it's quantum power source. Flynn notes this via a variety of cables from the back end being destroyed.
With the aid of the runes and the stunning efficiency of his Seeker magic, Flynn's vision is projected:
Through a silver and gray haze that seems to ebb and weave, Flynn's sense forces its way through and comes into view of the Commandant. She is wearing a deep red coat, both arms of the coat removed exposing her arms. One of which is cybernetic. She seems relaxed as her sword lay sheathed on a desk she stood over, running the arm that was original hers along the covered blade. Stamped on hilt of the weapon is a common insignia, A swastika made of gold.
The room she's in seems to be lined with books and digital containers of a variety. Her own desk seems to have a computer and sextant.
"Oh!" Flynn responds, dazed. "Something happened to the bug, and the spell misfired. Suffice to say the Commandant is no-longer on-world, and she seems to be working with these weird shadow nazis. There's nothing left here. The projector's cut off from its power source, and I don't know if we have the wires and equipment we need to repair it. So, Captain, what do you say? I think our best bet at getting this thing repaired is on Homeworld, if we can get there, and that also lets us inform the IP of the deception that happened here."
Jaq bows her head and sighs on hearing the word "nazis."
"It's official. My life is now the plot of a bad sci-fi movie," she mutters to the group before looking up and going completely over the top, "Beware the swastika! Time Nazis: The Return of Hitler! Premiering this Saturday at 7pm Eastern, only on SyFy."
With that, she falls flat on her back in a snowbank near by.
"Is this because my great, great granddad missed World War II by three months," she asks no one in particular as she gazes up at the sky.
She lies there for a minute before sitting up and looking at Flynn.
"Sorry, I was indulging in my self-pity for a moment. I think I could rig something up, but I know zip about nazi time-travel tech."
"Oh no, they're real, and they're dangerous. Spend enough of your life hopping through the timestream and eventually the Reich will try to kill you or recruit you. There's a reason why Tymander taught me spells to block machine gun fire."
"That said, the IP usually does a good job keeping them in check, and would welcome the new prisoners."
"I think before we worry about the projector, it might be better to get me, heck, everybody, up to speed on all of this. I don't know anything about time-travel, or dimension hopping, or whatever it's called and all the baddies and goodies out there. I'm completely in the dark, and I don't like that I know nothing about this. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know that we'd have to worry about being attacked at base or about a bunch of fruit loops calling me a harlot while tracking Aurora down," she says, before pausing and looking sheepishly at one of the fruit loops in question, "er, no offense."
"Right. They seriously didn't brief you on this when you joined up? I guess the whole 'secret Nazi operation' explains the shoddy training we got."
Sir Gavin stood up and tugged his tunic straight.
"Well then. Our course is clear now; we must return to Homeline. I hope we have the tools and skill to make it there, since I assuredly do now." He stated matter of fact.
"Nope, it was pretty much straight from the hospital to meeting up with all of you. I had a week between coming here and that last mission, but I spent it working on a drone. I didn't even think there might be a danger beyond letting the secret slip or getting into trouble with the locals," Jaq shrugs, "honestly, beyond the basics, they told me jack diddly."
It has become clear that for what ever reason, the commandant has betray the Homeline and allied timelines. THe Nazi's have played their hand and now have top secret information at their finger tips. If they weren't an issue before this, they will be now.
Currently, The Vessel can traverse along the quantum 3 timeline as long as it would like. There are plenty of civilized timelines in this Quantum and better yet, unexplored ones as well. The issue is that each jump requires a 24 hours of recharge, so long as nothing happens to the vessel's power unit.
As the others talk about the different worlds and some creature known as a Nazi, Aurora starts fiddling with the power to the main computers, seeing if she can get something working. The knowledge just suddenly seems to be in her head, as she starts rewiring power nodes to get the system running. She locates some tools to help her along with this task.
Electrical Engineering(?)[12+1=13]:
"Right... so we can't leave the Quantum, then. I can think of two magical options to eventually get us out of here. The first is timeportation—which I have a spell for, in my books, but it will take a lot more practice with magic. The other is a repair spell—one that should be easier to learn, but will also require at least a dozen talented magical assistants, and potentially a high-mana world."
"Either way, we should probably explore, unless someone knows of a few good candidate worlds in this Quantum."
Jaq shrugs, then notices Aurora tinkering with something. Curiosity gets the better of her and she heads over to take a look.
Guessing at what her mute friend is trying to do, she soon busies herself with helping.
"Right, guys, maybe let's not poke around at things and make it worse? I can take a look at what you're doing if you want, just clear out for a minute and let me think."
Aurora is able to get a computer working salvaged form one of the spar rooms, It's been acting as your main computer hud but with limited access until now. Its a parachronic analyzer at it's base but could be reprogrammed to do anything a computer can normally do.
Jaq is able to reroute power from the ruined station to the HQ launch pad and give a boost to any tools in the area.
WIth Flynn's super powers involving math and Magic, It is indeed possible to fix the projector. However, it would take roughly 2 weeks to do.
"Hmm. We might be able to completely fix the projector, but we'd be sitting here for two weeks. Not ideal if the time nazis return. Maybe we should look for another world to hide on, first, one we're sure is safe."
"And so, in short, we must wander the Quantum 3 lines until we can locate a suitable power source that will enable us to jump Quanta?" Sir Gavin said, trying to frame the problem.
"Or a safe place where we can wait for two to three weeks and repair it ourselves. Or somewhere with magic talented enough to rebuild it more quickly. But yes, I suggest we jump."
"How many jumps can we make before we're stranded," Jaq asks.
"Jaq—software is more your thing than mine. Can you scan through the jumper's database, or any other computers on this rock, and see if there's a directory of available, safe worlds? Preferably we'll also want some code that scrambles past searches after we jump so the timenazis can't track us easily."
"Yes and maybe. Do the computers need to be usable after I'm done?"
There's a bit of a gleam in Jaq's eyes that would make any of her instructors nervous. The girl had gained a bit of infamy when the material covering explosives came up in basic, both times.
"No. But if you're going to blow up anything important, make back-ups first—preferably on tapes or solid-state storage."
Aurora will help Jaq with the downloads of the computers. She will also hunt and bring back food for the group.
"Of course, but in that case, it might be better to grab the drives themselves then blow the rest to smithereens."
Survival (Sabertooth-11):
Survival (Sabertooth-11):
Survival (Sabertooth-11):
Survival (Sabertooth-11):
Computers (Assisting-12):
Computers (Assisting-12):
Computers (Assisting-12):
Computers (Assisting-12):
Spending too much time working on the computer problems, Aurora neglects her hunting and does not bring in as much meat as usual. That said, the large animals she does kill, provides food for the 3 humans for several days.
The party now has a Mainframe drive. This device holds parachronic information regarding Homeline and the skeleton operation here in Mummut. When accessing this drive, one receives a +4 bonus when seeking information (Asking questions about parachronics, Homeline and Mummut)
The 3 secondary drives seem to be backups, however they have encrypted files as well. Each seem to possess one encrypted file. -10 to any "hacking" attempt at accessing these files. From what you were able to find out, each file has a security wipe measure in place. Caution would be advisable.
While the others figure out what to do with the encrypted files, Flynn takes a look at the Mainframe drive, seeing if he can pull unencrypted info on any other worlds in this quantum.
Jaq doesn't go anywhere near the encrypted files when she sees the security measures in place. She also makes sure that everyone knows not to even look at the files funny, otherwise they might go up in smoke.
Jaq tries to help, but the poor girl's curiosity gets the better of her, and she often finds herself off on a tangent whenever something interesting pops up.
In an effort to recover some files from () one of the smaller drives, she triggers the code's (Failed by 5+) corruption. The corruption has affectively destroyed one of the three 'salve' drives.
Sir Gavin wanders by, looks over their shoulders and nods.
"Well done. Carry on." He says before wandering off again.
Succeed by 3.
AS time marched on, effort were made. However anxieties and fears about cracking into the other drives caused Jaq to stop her attempts at hacking into them without a proper facility.
Now all the remained was to stock the Conveyor, potentially rig the projector to it and go places. Their former trainer was a Nazi after all, and the Nazi hunting business is often met with wonderful opportunity.
Jaq took in a deep breath. Her nerves were beginning to get the better of her as she triple-checked her straps for the seventh time.
And so our heroes abandon the cultists to the wastes of the now ruinous Mummut HQ while they load up into the Conveyer.
Once inside, they check power, supply and navigations...
Food: 20 units of rations(one days worth of food per), 100 units of meat(Although heavy, the only count as 1 meal), 45 Dehydrated veggie/fruit packs(Acts as a single meal per). 1 water filtration unit with 6 contains.
Power: 1 Parachronic Generator(Allows 1 jump along a single Quantum every 72 hours. Although it can be aided in recharge through creative means.) 2 portable batteries. (powers general systems, and can be removed from conveyor Weighs 50lbs each.)
Navigation Systems: Quantum Tracker (A device that helps pin point what Quantum the conveyer is on), Time-gauge(a prototype device that analyses mineral, air and water samples to gauge earth's apparent time. can often calculate within decades), World Composition Analyzer (A portable tool that weighs 5 pounds granting the user information to the worlds health and atmospherics. can be used inside for atmospherics.)
...Now ready to travel, all that need be done is an operation's check.
"Right, then. If we screw up this time, there's no one to rescue us, so I'm going to need some time to focus," Flynn announces, entering a meditative state for ten minutes as he works the controls slowly and carefully.
"And we're go for jump!"
With the subtle kick of the parachronic turbine, the outside world phases from view to be replaced by a scorched setting...
The area round the conveyer is bombarded wasteland. According the basic sensor sweep, no vegetation exists within a half mile radius. What's more is that one can still feel the rumbles of distant machinations of war.
The Conveyer is seated neatly along the side of a cliff base that seems to form some kind of large cavernous opening. The conveyer is at the bottom of that 75 foot high opening.
The atmosphere is breathable, however, the light is poor. you suspect once the light that shines form the sky angles away from the opening, it would be pitch black.
"This... doesn't sound like a world we'd be aiming for," Flynn comments. "Do we want to scout around?"
"Check for signs of radiation first. If there's a war going on, then they might have set off nuclear weapons."
Aurora looks out at the devastation all around them. Her eyes are very wide and a trembling starts in her hands that soon moves to envelop her entire body. Sitting before she falls down, the young "woman" places her face in her hands and makes a low keening sound...perhaps crying?