::Yessir::, is the simple and to the point reply for Eivo. Sure, her instincts were currently screaming fly!, but Karma has a slight suspicious that wasn't the intention of the order. She focuses on calming her nerves, not wanting to jump and shoot something by accident.
Karma stands in the lift, and considers which side is most likely to have the exit door on. She settles for facing the airlock, and watching Molly and the doctor leave. Lucky bastards. Hope we see em again. She sighs. In Karma's honest opinion, they're certainly walking into a trap. To what extent, she has no idea. But certainly a trap of some sort. At least someone on the outside can hack the lift for us.
Molly quickly finds out that getting into the warehouses from the surface is going to be impossible. The door controls are utterly melted together. From within the airlocks might give you a better chance but until they reach the bottom and let you in
The only other building is the vehicle bay. All the automated repair systems and computers attached to the surface's electrical grid have been destroyed. The 10 suits of auto-loader exo-suits have also been ruined due to their proximity to the door. There are three repair haulers in here two of which are still functional. Used to tow the massive ore haulers that are kept in the warehouses. They're relatively barebones offering little more than a canopy to stop falling rocks and spare oxygen tanks in case of emergency.
Molly also discovers a pair of distinct humanoid shadows scorched into the wall near the back of the vehicle bay, their arms up as if to ward off some demon.
On the lift things go much more slowly. You drop about twenty feet a minute to a depth of about three hundred feet. Along the way you stop twice as safety doors open and close to let you pass through. As you reach the bottom you spot a pair of auto guns mounted on the ceiling. Six barreled man sharedders that would be a very ugly surprise to any would be invaders. Thankfully they're sagged downward adn utterly silent. A little further down a pair of AHAV's await any survivors. Armed with twin plasma cannons their isn't much on two legs outside of some sturdy military grade pwoer armors that could handle them. Again, these weapons are inactive. At the bottom of the lift a fiery bearded dwarf with a pair of crude looking cybernetic arms waits below with them crossed across his chest. His clothes and dirty face mark him as a hard laborer. A pair of halflings stand stoically beside him wearing similar clothing. The chamber is dimly lit, barely enough for some of you to see.
"G'day me lads. Now that I dannae have ta yell at ye from across dae world. I'd like to introduce m'self as Scotchkar Stongarm the leader of this fine place by dint of divine wrath. Seeing as how all me erstwhile bosses been rendered intae dust! And may I 'ave dae pleasure of your names?"
"Greetings, Mr. Stongarm. My name is Zeni Desomal, the Captain of Desna's Reach." She doesn't identify herself as a Director in AbadarCorp or a priest of Abadar, although she does wear Abadar's holy symobl -- and the corporation's logo -- on her uniform, so the unstated affiliation clearly isn't something she's keeping secret. "This is my first officer Eivo, and pilot CarraMarina Ontozz. You all have clearly been through a great deal. What happened here?"
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Strongarm."
He steps to the right and and slightly behind his Captain.
"Right.", Molly sighs as she glances at the connection bars on her HUD. "Nova Comm. Forgot that's short for No Vacking Communication. Kzk's completely analogue.", she waves at the console with disdain. "And by the time I patch into it, we'll be able to go down the lift anyway. Alright, move that ass, Doctor.", she shrugs, heading for the vehicle bay.
Blinking rapidly, Molly shakes her head as she sees the insides. "Poor bastards.", she takes a long look at the bodies. "Hm. Never asked you, hon, are you a real doctor, or one of them -cologists?", she quips at the elf, before kneeling next to the body. Plasma burn? Hydrogen cell exploding?, she starts thinking as she leans on her laser rifle, data flowing in her visor from her stretched out hand. At least them repair haulers are still working. Push comes to shove, I can do a lot of bad stuff with 'em.
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Karma eyes the guns, and grunts into her helmet. With one hand, she strokes the handle of her cannon, as she watches the captain advance. On cue, she follows, moving her gaze rapidly to take it all in. Finally, her circling eyes centre on the dwarf, and she sizes him up. Hm. Do not arm wrestle, she jokes mentally. Still, she stands in a clearly combat ready pose, slightly in front of the captain but far enough to the side to not look to obviously suspicious.
On cue, she introduces herself after Eivo does. "s' a pleasure" she nods at the dwarf, refusing to remove her helmet despite the clearly breathable air. Karma pauses for a moment. Sure, she's not good at talking and should maybe let the captain handle this. But one important question is preying on her mind. She cocks her head sideways, sighs, and then follows Eivo's order. Tilting her chin up to indicate the ceiling guns, Karma inquires "The hell you guys shooting at, anyway?
"Anyone thinkin a bunch of honest workers in deeps space be a soft target lass." Scotchkar turns down the tunnel and waves for you to follow. As he turns he says to one of the halflings. "Gather da lads in the mess whilst I go catch our guests up."
Leading you down the tunnel Scotchkar says little his bearing suggesting that he is gathering his thoughts. "Better I show ye."
The tunnel itself is wide enough that three people can comrtably stand abreast but scarcely tall wnough for you to stand up straight forcing you to duck under very dim light fixtures. The ceiling is lined with high capacity electrical cable stapled to walls slathered in atmoseal paint.
Along the way you pass by a number of sealed doors all of them labeled differently. The other halfling breaks off and heads into a door labeled "bio waste management".
Scotchkar stops and inputs a code labeled "surface monitoring" and as it pops open he leads you inside. "I suppose you cuold say it all started when the site was handed off to our crew for this shift. Last crew reported nay issues and dae booses thought it'd be a roight delightful idea ta make our quota a month early and rake in the bonus pay." He shrugs as he drops himself infront of a large computer terminal its holographic screens lighting up the room as he works the controls. The room itself is uncomfortably warm as the computers massive processing units hummed with the beat of thermodynamics at play. On another aide of the room a whiteboard with lots of phrases written in dwarven and long lists with timestamps next to them.
"Aye tha truth is we were more than a wee bit excited. Lot of the old boys were lookin ta retire off dis wee haul." He brings up a satellite image of the complex and sooms out to show a 100 kilometer radius. Pointing to a particularly thich cluster of crystal spires he continues. "That big nest of crystals there was going to be the main sauce of our wee haul. We were going to clear straight to it and reap the rewards as it were. Bes timin too. We've never had a calmer off season o' storms to do this.
Every other time the electrical activity be far too much fer us ta even get near."
He turns in the chair to face you. "The first couple a crews well. They didn't make it back. Charred bones and ruined equipment twas all we found. Bosses chalked it up ta freak electrical activity and shoddy mining. Dey ardered us ta wear body cams an record any accidents sos dey kin fix da prooblem. Well, when it happened again dis is all dey could recover."
Turning back he brings up a feed of the footage of someone running for their lives a pistol in hand. Heavy panting and groans of terror fill up the audio as he rushes past tall crystal columns with geometric offshoots giving the landscape a beautiful but dangerously jaged edge. Flashes of light can be seen reflected off the crystals each one being accompanied by an intense peal of thunder. The person briefly turns to check behind them and loses their footing rolling a small distance before looking up to see their pistol lying on the ground. Reaching over for it there is a sudden scream and flash of light as the mans hand disintegrates in a flash of light. The camera gets snowy as the person lifts its head screaming in agony to see some kind of figure bathed in light and crackling with intense pops of electrical discharge. Than the footage cuts out.
Turning back he gauges your reaction before continuing.
Back on the surface Molly determines that until the people below see fit to return the lift and reopen the airlock you won't get access to the warehouses. Assuming the airlock side doors are connected to that system and not to the obliterated above ground system. The doors in question are huge, triple layered, and each single layer could take several direct hits from a runaway, full speed, and fully loaded cargo hauler before even registering the damage. Time, and a good quality plasma cutter would do the job.
Molly raises her eyes away from the shadows, shaking her head. "I think we can confirm, we don't want this happening to us.", she sighs, then stands up. "I reckon it's a good idea to head on down now.", she shrugs. "Plus, they mentioned tea. And where's tea, there's coffee." Raising the laser rifle on her shoulder, she steps away from the wall, taking point as soon as Dr. Hesoni is finished with his examination.
"Save your troubles; they're dead," relayed Ellion, not stooping to look at the floor but rather peering at the outlines on the wall. "And they saw their death coming."
He pointed to the blackened arm depictions. "I've seen this before. Your thinking is right - explosions and whatnot."
Looking around at what was left, the situation became more puzzling. "Unless I don't understand motives for assault nowadays, this was not a simple theft; there's a lot that could've been taken and wasn't. There's nobody important politically down there. Whoever caused this had power to come in and strike. Maybe it could be outlaws? Pirates? Well-equipped if they were..."
The doctor was never a detective by trade, but deciphering motives was one of the threads that was common enough for him to understand between generations and helped him acclimate himself to the changes over time.
He turned his bright aqua eyes to look at Molly warmly when she inquired about his vocation. "They didn't have cologists back when I started. Anyone could be a doctor then. Ginger paste for inflammation. Infected limbs got hacked-off with stone hatchets. No anesthesia." He gestured toward the shadows on the wall. "A swift death was a blessing. Still is."
Not truly having answered her question, he circled back around to it. "I'm out of ginger, but I've got some other medical supplies. A little magic. No amputating axes though," chucked the elf, allowing himself some levity in the rather morbid circumstances surrounding them. "I was certified as a healer back in Kyonin on Golarion. Sad to say my physical credentials are probably wherever in the cosmos the planet is." He shook his head at the silhouettes before they moved back to the lift.
"You know, you engineering types are a lot like what doctors would like to be in a lot of ways. The worst part about treating someone is the plethora of problems they could have. With machines, you essentially know an exhaustive list of what's the case. Who knows if a patient lied? Wasn't aware of the true circumstances behind something? With computers and AI's, you just run a diagnostic task." He looked at the lift. "You could even probably find a way to circumvent this thing right now if you had to, I bet."
"But there's just something ... dry about that, at least to me. Maybe it's that aspect of unpredictability, that edge of the unknown that draws me to organics, but I'm always fascinated by discovering the new relationships, new possibilities from evolution and entropy. Engineers make theirs - it's more deterministic." The speech had gotten a bit esoteric, and Ellion recognized it. "To each their own though. Glad to have a specialist like you. How else would that boat stay running, right?" Dr. Hesoni offered a smile.
He tapped a finger on his collar. "Those dwarves have some explaining to do. I haven't the faintest idea why they'd be struck like this - just guessing by elimination. If they don't know either, they should get out of here - prey that doesn't bloody its predator always sees it visit again and again."
Molly turns around to look at the doctor. Hell. Wasn't sure if I bought his spin about Golarion, but... I can see it., she sighs, before chuckling. "Gotta say, hon, I got to keep you around more. You make me feel young.", she quips as amputation with stone hatchets is brought up. "I wouldn't pick up the vehicles, if that's what you mean. Sure, they're pricey, but bulky, too, so pirates rarely bother with them." She raises a hand in the air. "Ships, then weapons, then materials, then medical supplies, then everything else." She sighs. "Slaves feature in there somewhere for some, but I ain't never been a fan. Paint you as a bigger target, eat your food, and they're bound to rebel." That, and it's just damn evil.
Pushing the lift's button, Molly shakes her head. "Well, sugar, you're both right and wrong. First of all, AI is about as descriptive to me as 'I'm sick' sounds to you. And I ain't givin' that lecture here, though I got a bottle of Kasatha booze with a 'Drunk Science' label on it for those occasions.", she grins.
Patting the rickety lift's control console, she starts explaining as she dives into the wires. "Everything I work with starts with basic physics. Then someone imperfect starts imposing rules on it, and tells it what to say to us mechanical folk. And that's when chaos comes in.", she laughs. "From other engineers' work, or technicians' work. A diagnostic task tells you exactly what the diagnostic task tells ya, as dumb as that sounds, it's your job as an engineer to understand from that what you need." She reaches to affix her headwrap, but realises the helmet's on the way. "There's bound to be a dry ass academic somewhere, who can explain that better. Even if he can't patch a leaking boat if his life depended on it."
"It all comes down to this - livin' things want to... live, I guess, right? Anything mechanical just... exists already, and the only thing it's gonna do is apply physics in the way a livin' thing wants it to." She laughs, giving the doctor a wink. "Look at me soundin' all teacher-like. Damn eggheads rubbin' off on me.", she shakes her head.
"No idea. Us miners and common sense don't really play nice with each other. Though, two things are for sure. The crew's bound to be stuck with an entire outpost of dwarves for a while, and I'm locking up my booze cabinet."
At the end of the footage Eivo steps around the Captain for a closer look, "Can I get a copy of that footage?
bio-electric discharge? mystic in nature? if I can enhance the image I might be able to determine a morphology... He brings up his AR display and begins to do the math on the voltage & amperage that would be required to do the damage he saw on the way in. The Chief is sure to have better numbers but this should give me a benchmark...
"Captain, I think we need to gather the Chief and the Doctor"
Karma relaxes during the footage. Her instincts had been wrong, and she was happy for it. The threat wasn't down here. Some kind of alien menace was haunting the planet. It could be much much worse. Her input not needed, she studies the footage carefully, but gleans nothing special from her studies. Relaxed, Karma lounges backwards and drops the combat pose. The dwarf didn't seem like a threat anymore, and the captain would likely be fine.
But she freezes when Eivo speaks, as the impact of his words hits her. On Karma's own suggestion, the Doctor and Engineer were on the surface. With the unknown, electricity throwing, murderous monsters. Her blood turns to ice, and a look of horror consumes her face. F***..
Karma tenses, and the runs for the door, tapping her comm on as she goes. Her dialogue is interspaced by heavy breathing. "Sirs, I'll fetch the others." She winds her way through the corridors, looking for the lift.
Scotchkar nods but he seems to have more to say and awaits the captains response.
"From the surface, I'd thought you might have been bombarded by a ship. I admit, I hadn't expected that something from within the planet might have done all of this," Zeni responds, keeping her expression one of measured calm, even if the sight of the miner's death is rather disturbing.
She nods to Eivo. "Agreed. I have two more personnel on the surface examining the the damage for anything we might be able to use; can you send the lift back up for them, please?"
Scotchkar turns back in his seat. "Yer wee lass be alreay on it. If dey be dead nay much ye can do fer 'em now. An I still 'aven't finished showin ye what ye need to know"
Bringing up the satellite image again he continues. "After dat. The booses put et tae a voot. An, well we decided whatever was in da forest kin bloody well keep it. You'd think that be the end of it. Took a week off ta make plans and move the mobile refinery ta tha other side. Most of us were on the surface preppin cutter bots and wot not 'an well." He trails off and seems to stare into space for a long moment before his voice grows very quiet. "Aye cannae tell you if ave ever seen a god. But mebbe I may ave seen his like. Nay one of the cameras survived wot happen next. But I did find this."
He switches the image to an earlier time. It would be a grave mistake to call it an electrical storm. There is nothing cloud like about the atmospheric phenomenon that covers the facility and many kilometers around it. It was if someone successfully removed all the water vapor from a storm and replaced it with pure electrical plasma. "Ave seen some weather ye moight call angry. But ah believe the only proper word ta describe this moight be what a priest call wroth"
HE sighs. "We nay been up on the surface since. Cept fer some hot headed lads wanted ta move tha mobile refinery ta tha launchpad so we could monitor it. That was aboot a week ago. Nay heard from 'em since."
As Scotchkar finishes his debriefing below Karma makes her way topside. Molly and her would be elven rendezvous see the airlock open up with a very relieved looking Karma waiting for them. Molly does notice that the side hatch leading to the nearby warehouse is in fact active offering the possibility of getting to the auto haulers beyond.
Oblivious to the knowledge from within, Ellion greeted Karma without haste. "Ah, you've managed to pilot this lift as expertly as you do our ship! Did we miss anything? Just a couple of unfortunate souls lost to an explosion up here."
As the airlock doors open, Karma steps out, waving her cannon around as if looking for something to shoot. She points it in Ellion's face, then Molly's, then back to Ellion's, before sheepishly lowering it. "In", she responds coldly to Ellion, keeping her eyes focused behind him, roving for threats. She waits just long enough for the two to be clear of the doors, before shutting the airlock.
With the door closed, Karma sighs, drops the gun on the ground, undoes her helmet, and nervously unties and then reties her ponytail. She takes a huge breath, and lets it out slowly. They're safe. No more deaths on your head. Leaning against a wall, she starts to talk. "Sorry to interrupt your date." Her voice isn't quite showing the same mirth her words are. "Something's murderin' people. Couldn't leave ya all alone with it." She pauses for a while, lost in thought, ruminating on old friends lost, and new ones saved. A look of nostalgia affixes itself to the short human's face.
Finally calmer, Karma elaborates on the proceedings from underground. "Dwarf seems trustworthy, an' some kinda electricity thing destroyed the workers. No idea what. That's your jobs presumably. Looks like we all get to play to our professions. I get an elevator, you get an alien to study." She snorts, and stands at the controls ready to go down, making a show of preparing to push the button. Her usual snark reasserts itself, and Karma's voice takes on an exaggerated fancy accent as she quips. "Well sir and madam, did you have a lovely romantic evening? Where might I take you? Penthouse suite? I've been told I pilot elevators expertly, so you can appreciate a smooth ride."
"The penthouse will do as long as it doesn't have silhouettes of the dead like that warehouse." Ellion took a moment to process what the confident navigator told them. "Electricity thing, hmm? Miss Bakir and I believe an explosion was likely what slew the unfortunate souls above, but one from elecrticity alone would have had to pack quite a punch as I understand it. She could put the specifics more eloquently," suggested the doctor, pointing to the mechanic.
The cocksure one is not easily upset. Either this is some new bomb she's afraid of or it's not a bomb at all.
"Glad the dwarves panned-out. How are they on supplies down there?"
Zeni considers for a time, using the computer in her commlink to pull up additional data to see if she can think up anything that might fit the description of what they've seen and had described to them. While she's doing that, she'll also communicate to her team, "I don't suppose there's anything you all found out there that could be used to make a really big lightning rod?"
Not sure which would be more relevant, so included both. Attempt to recall knowledge of anything that might be similar to what we're dealing with here. If we _are_ dealing with something like a god/demigod/etc, potentially at -5 DC due to priest theme knowledge.
As Karma bursts out of the elevator, Molly gives her a glance as she's ushered in. The auto-haulers... If we're moving on this planet, I sure as hell wouldn't mind one., she thinks for a moment. Taking off her helmet, she fixes her headwrap. "Yeah." A picture appears over Molly's right hand, showing the site in the warehouse. "Gotta say, that killed the mood. Next time, doc.", Molly quips back. "So if a thing done this, I suggest we call the boat and get the hell out of here. Even skip tea."
As the trio rejoins the others, Molly gives a nod at the mechanic in charge. "Chief.", she says. "What I gather, you're really neck-deep in s+++." Holstering her laser rifle, she quickly reads onto what information has been provided. Pulling a screen from her hand, she begins organising it. "Right. Good numbers, XO.", she nods at Eivo as she urges him closer. "Killer electrical monsters. You take me to the nicest places, Cap.", she chuckles at Zeni. "Not quite a lightning rod, but that's the idea. If we're certain about moving, we're going to build a Faraday cage." Putting a finger to her mouth, she continues staring. "I think you mentioned a cup of tea 'bout half an hour ago, sugar.", her raspy voice carries to Scotchkar. So, six MV. Say ten, for leeway. No way that goes through a fuse. Starting to pace around, she shrugs. "So, there's got to be a way the creature's shockin' people, rather than letting electricity do its natural thing. If it's that damn accurate, I'd say ionisation laser that guides the current where it's s'posed to go. it's how I'd do it."
One of the screens on the vid flickers as Molly grabs it and sending it to Scotchkar with a gesture. "I'd need what's on this."
[ooc]I'll ignore the actual RL numbers you gave us, GM, and just think of the power as 'too much electricity to handle'!
Molly's plan is to build and modify a Faraday cage, which lets nowaday airplanes get hit by lightning and absorb it. Molly wants to wrap a sealed vehicle with that, so if it gets hit with that electricity, it disperses itself over a vastly larger area for a moment, and since it's 'too damn much', to add a lightning rod 'plough' (or plow, for you North Americans), to ground the electricity.
There might be an issue if the plough hits anything too conductive (like a crystal), since that thing's bound to explode, but where's the fun without possibility of explosions!
It's how I'd design something of the sort in a hard sci-fi game, and on a veeery basic level, the physics checks out.
As everyone files into the surface surveillance room Scotchkar hops out of the chair. "Since you're all aboot makin plans and things how aboot sharing wat your going to do wit wots left of da crew?" As he leaves the room he motions for you to follow. While you talk over future plans he leads you to another dimly lit room, much larger than the others with plenty of room to stand up. It's a messhall looking big enough to seat about fifty people. though now only a scant ten are in here now including scotchkar and the two halfling are three other dwarves, a twitchy goblin, two gnomes and a large rock troll looming in the back with a chefs hat hovering over a hot stew pot pot and a steaming kettle. They seemed to have been in excited conversation until you walk in and all attention turns to you.
Eivo lets out a breath he had not realized he was holding when the list doors open.
With a gesture he sends the data he was crunching to Molly, glad to have her here, hard science always makes his head hurt.
He begins the program that he hopes will clean up the image, which gives him another thought.
”I need that satellite imagery as well…” ..remove the overgrowth from the area around the clumping of the crystals the Dwarf showed them, then… using the stellar topography of Kurova 1, overlaying her satellites and the central star’s path, then roll that same data back… lets start with the last 1000 years. Peoples almost always align things based on heavenly bodies
[ooc] Did someone build these structures
He steps back to a wall and seems to forget the rest of the people in the room.
"Don't ask me. I'm just the driver." responds Karma to Ellion's inquiry as they walk to the briefing centre. She shrugs, her charges delivered, leans against a wall watching. "Kinda wish it was meteors, really"
In the mess hall, she raises an eyebrow at the people, but says nothing. Nothing to say. Karma definitely keeps an ear on Molly though. She may not be able to follow the math, but this Faradey cage plan sounds risky. Sauntering to the back of the room, she asks the chef "What's cooking?
Molly nods, clearly lost in thought, as Scotchkar waves them into the briefing room. "Yeah, I'll brief you in.", she waves a hand at the dwarf, eyes still staring at the schematics changing in her hand. "Right.", she says a second later, nodding at the miner. "Can't land our tub here, and there's about half a mile to the landing pad. That, and I'm not even sure our ship could take a hit from something like that, whatever the hell that thing is."
"Plan is, weld whatever conductive materials we got on one of the repair haulers in a mesh, jump in the cabin and hope it endures enough shots before it melts or oxidises, or whatever reaction the s&#! does in this atmosphere."
Raising her cyberwware hand, she looks at the miners. "Download the plans from here, start with the plow and the cabin, if it needs it. Might need a couple of welders, just remember - if I die because any of you f#%*ed up, I'm coming back to haunt your families." Crossing her arms, she walks back to the back of the room and away from the spotlight. "And for those that aren't welders, I'm sure one of you's got time to get brewing coffee for the rest of us doing the welding work."I broke rule #3. Never leave ship without caffeine. With a mental command, she opens comms. "Cap? You might want to give the rockchewers a bit of pep-talk of how we're gettin' them out of here, because the next few hours of assembly ain't gonna be pretty."
Walking back to the back of the room, Molly shakes her head at Karma. "What's cookin', sunshine, is back alley junkyard work by a bunch of exhausted miners and an engineer who's been away from technology for seven years.", she lets out a grim, raspy chuckle. "We get out of this, I'm hanging the design in Engineering. Melfecor's gonna have an aneurism." She sighs.
Zeni nods to the miner. "First things first: is there anyone down here that needs medical attention? Once we've seen to that, we're going to find out what it is that we're dealing with here, whatever it may be.
Do you have any sensor readings of the area before you started trying to mine there? Anything that might mark the area as different from the crystal elsewhere...or even samples of the crystal that we could run an analysis on?"
A look over at their resident mystic. "Cameras didn't survive whatever this was...I don't suppose you have a means of scrying down there?"
She offers Molly a faint grin. "But they're never boring."
Turning her attention back to the miners, she apparently considers Molly's suggestion to be a good one. "You have all been through a great deal." She'll move among the group as she speaks, taking the time to see how they're reacting and adjusting her approach accordingly, but speaking words of reassurance and of hope. She concludes with a promise that, whatever happens, she will be sure that they are safe and, being a priest of Abadar, the hope that they may yet prosper: "Should the worst happen, and we fail, even then Desna's Reach will see all of you to safety, to seek your fortunes elsewhere. If, instead, the Master of the First Vault shows us his favor, then we may yet find some justice for what you have endured, and for the friends that you have lost and those that they leave behind."
Diplomacy total of 45 - I held off on adding the expertise die until afterward via Slick Customer, but chose to just add the die, since she didn't need a reroll.
OOC: Edits because Molly posed while I was typing mine up. Tweaked it to include a response to her pose, too.
The crew, or rather what's left of it doesn't seem particularly satisfied with the plan. "Rolling targets don't get us off the planet maam." One of the gnomes helpfully points out. But, the idea of having something to do other than huddle in the dark and be afraid still had its appeal and the captains confidence seemed to smooth out any disappointment.
They don't have any spellcasters among their number, any technomancers or some such having been dusted by whatever haunts them. Scotchkar does tell you that if you can get the communications array functional you cna get into contact with the Reach from down here as well as access the three NovaComm satellites in orbit around the planet. He gives every piece of data that you request grumbling a bit about proprietary information and what not. But that doesn't seem to slow him down or give any real protest.
There are plenty of crystal samples, but there's one problem, they're all in the mobile refinery to the north, about halfway between here and the forest. In face most of the initial readings are taken from the refinery. It's closer, can be moved to get better readings and provides a good network extender between the miners in the field and the complex. Scotchkar describes the refinery as a massive plant for sampling and refining the impure crystals from the viable pure ones. Impure and pure crystals are cut and sorted before being brought to the warehouses. Impure crystals are sold off by the miners to other companies as they still have some uses in personal communicators. architecture, or other such industries that cna make use of the iridescently blue crystals. All pure crystals go to novacomm and account for the crew's quota. Every ton or so they bring in above their quota they get a bonus added on to their pay. A simple system really to ensure the miners do their work without pointless and expensive monitoring systems. The miners are given the tools and the space, they provide the brains and hard labor.
No one needs medical attention. Supplies are plentiful, moreso now that there's less than a quarter of the crew left and what's left are so small they barely consume enough to make a dent.
As Karma comes up to the troll in the back he gives a wide fang filled grin scratching some gravel off his belly before he grunts. "Rat stew with potatoes and artificial cave fisher tongue. Can't be bothered to put money to the real thing tha bosses don't. And red lichen tea like mother used to make. Least that's what the dwarf said."
As molly discusses plans the goblin brings up the obvious elephant in the room. "How's we going to build if they comeback. Vehicle bay is toasted. Can't close doors. Can't hide inside. Hard to work in suit."
Karma glances up at Molly, and shakes her head. "You wanna build a tank, an' let the creature zap it?" She snorts. "Engineers." She steps back, and turns to the troll, grimacing slightly. "I'll pass." She turns and looks around the room, her eyes examining every detail. Deliberately avoiding Molly's gaze, Karma sits down and continues talking. "It may be madness, but it's practical madness." Flashing her perfect white teeth, Karma smiles menacingly. Her eyes spark. "Heh. If you construct it, I'd be happy to die in the driver seat for ya."
The captain's words worry Karma a little. Her actual plan seems vague. Talk of justice and the crew failing but the miners surviving, would imply that Zeni has something up her sleeve. Something other than the evacuation Karma had been assuming they were trying. If so, that might put other options on the table, such as using starship weaponry to do a little 'terraforming'. Flashing a hand at the captain, she waits for mental contact. ::Cap'n, what're we doing? An evacuation? Or something... more? Negotiation? Revenge?:: She trails off the contact, and smiles innocently in Zeni's direction. Gotta have your priorities straight.
Calling out to the goblin, Karma frowns. Good point. But... Molly can handle it. She unslings her cannon to look intimidating, and stands up from her chair. "Then I'll hold it off. Easy. she calls back. And then, her face lights up. "Heck, ya have AHAVs, or as I'm gonna name em, Distraction and Bait. 10,000 creds says me 'n those two can buy you a minute at least." She laughs. And if I lose, we''ll be too dead to care!" She loughs loudly, and then resumes her seat. Black humour had always helped her ready her mind for wrestling with danger. She certainly didn't mind holding off the beast, or dying trying. Karma had been used to the idea of her own death for years. It was others dying that bothered her.
Molly throws a glance at the crewmember arguing about land vehicles. "Run in gravel for a mile uphill to get to the landing pad, be my guest, hon. We can drive behind ya, give you s'more extra motivation." Nodding at Karma, she sends the troll a grin. "Sugar, I've been on prison food for seven years. That rat's gonna be 'ppreciated more than a rat's ever been. And if that tea's got caffeine in it, I want two shots."
Scratching her head, she sits down on a chair. "Right. So first order of the day - We get the comms array back up. Folks up there might be expecting a call from us. Secondly, can we get the vehicle bay locked? Are the doors jammed open, or is it just the controls that are fried?"
::While our first priority has to be seeing to the safety of the miners, our mission is to explore the unknown. We have the unknown right here on this planet. We're going to find out what happened here and why, and if possible, we're going to make it safe for this facility to continue operating,:: Zeni replies. A priest of Abadar doesn't walk away from a disruption to galactic commerce and the expansion of civilization just because it's dangerous, after all. Justice, well...that depends on what they find out. There may be some threat to law and order that must be overcome, or the miners may have done unintentional harm that provoked a violent response -- it's too early to say on that part, and she's not going to speculate.
Since it apparently wasn't entirely clear, she'll share the clarification with the rest of the crew as well.
OOC: Her speech wasn't meant to be outlining their plans, just as a note, it was meant to be something to lift the spirits of the miners. We were all discussing plans, so I assumed the specifics of those were still under ongoing discussion.
"Caffeine's an awful addiction. Ya want comedy? Watch a troop of addicts try to fly at two past midnight after supplies ran out. Now, that was a fun battle." Karma slips a simple gold ring from her fingers, and flips in the air, catching it deftly. "Magic got no side affects." She smiles at Molly. "This belonged to a veteran I had the honour of flying with. He was scared of dying of starvation if his ship went down. Sleep is just an added benefit." She slips the ring back onto the little finger of her left hand, and fiddles with her hair for want of something to do with her hands. "Bad news bout the doors. Don't bother with locking them. Focus on making new ones." She shrugs.
She nods at Zeni's thoughts. As she suspected, they were trying to fix the problem. This gave her an opening to use her own skills. She opens a datapad and begins a tactical analysis. This wasn't that different from some ops she'd been on before. Thinking hard, she unfolds her headphones and starts the music. Karma's foot begins tapping a fast pace on the floor. Imagine you have a fighter and a destination. The enemy has a fleet. Options?
Arriving in the mining camp, per se, the doctor could see their numbers were lesser than the design expected. And significantly, too. That can't be good for morale.
As they cobbled together a plan, Ellion understood enough to see what they were going for with the circumconductor, yet he doubted its defensive potential. This thing could direct a current with such force as to level heavy-duty doors. He put a finger to his lips, trying to think of a way to improve upon the plan, yet failed to do so. Miss Bakir's talent will have to see us through.
He shook his head at Molly's suggestion. "Sadly, no; scrying is not one of my talents. With the thick matter in the way, I also can't sweep for signs of magic. This creature sounds like a physical wonder though, not a magical one." His platinum hair framed the flatness of his voice with a proportionally-hued depiction; he was checking-off boxes in his mind, eliminating tasks that weren't feasible to help and triaging those that were.
He settled on one:
::I'm going to mingle with the crew here a bit and see if anyone knows a bit more than they're letting on. It's possible someone stumbled upon this thing's home or somehow provoked it. Even if by accident, it would be good to know. Their fear of retribution from this bunch might be keeping them silent. Any information we gain could help::
Off he went, looking for duplicitous folk or furtive evasion.
The telepathic communication pulls Eivo back from watching his thought experiment. He looks up, realizes he is alone in the room and moves towards the voices in the next room after taking a moment to set his simulation to run in the background.
He steps around the edge of the room to look at the provide fare, and looks to the chief. ”Do you have some water, the lichen does not sit well with me”. Before heading over to the rest of his crew mates.
”Captain, my theory that the crystalline structures were made by a sentient don’t seem accurate, I think we should prioritize getting the coms back online, if the Doctor is correct something with that much EM potential should be visible, once you know look for it. I can head up those efforts as the Chief seems to have a project.”
With a gesture he sends a request to view Molly’s design. Smiling with appreciation at the quick work, ::Do you think they have a cable here that could handle that much energy? I think what that beast needs is a grounding harpoon::
There's two types of people who'd leave a mining station on a world with that thing around. A lunatic, or a middle manager., Molly shakes her head at the captain's message.
"Right.", nods Molly. "So, comms array it is.", she sighs. "Hah! No side effects, my ass. A technomancer's going to sniff you right out if you've got magic on ya, and they make mean bounty hunters. Almost as mean as most beasts that can smell that on you, too.", she shakes her head, before chuckling deeply. "And besides. Adrenaline's a lot more dangerous than caffeine."
Taking another look at the inventory list of the facility, Molly begins making plans for an improvised comms array. "Not sure about the cable, but it shouldn't matter. We can weave 'em."
The lift is too small to get a vehicle down here. The ore haulers along with the majority of the harvester drones are kept in the warehouses.
Eivo can get just about everything he needs. Though he'll need more info when the comms array is back up and contact with the ship and satellites can be established with the complex. In the meantime he has to make due with the resources available.
Ellion sense no duplicity or any real reluctance among the group. There seems to be some misgivings about the group that headed to the mobile refinery, and some regrets. But nothing that suggests the current crew was really aware of what was going to happen until people were being vaporized left and right.
Molly can quickly surmise that if she can get a warehouse empty that would give more than enough space to work on a repair hauler and to do more delicate work on the comms array.
The bigger issue however is that while all you really need is a good computer and a cable to to get a communicatiosn array working the bigger problem, and one not easily fixed, is the antennae. You need a very strong signal and very precise instruments to ensure you're sending the right frequency. If one can't be found on the complex you may have to find an alternative or risk the Desna's Reach coming down and providing one of her own.
"Suit yourself." Karma claps Molly on the back, and starts pacing. "I've never enjoyed hiding. Always preferred more direct solutions." She sighs and brings up one corner of her mouth in a wry smile. "Shame there isn't one now." And then she pauses.
"Why didn't it hit us when we landed?" She frowns, thinks for a moment, brushes a loose green hair out of her eyes, and then bares her teeth. "I reckon it's slow. Takes time from crystal forest to here." She turns to Molly and Eivo, both of whom were far better with the limits of tech than her. "D'ya reckon Reach could scan for it? It's prolly givin' off as much energy as a ship." Karma nods, pretty convinced with her logic. She bites her lip, and then turns to Zeni. "Cap'n, I want to surface and call Reach. That is," she glances pointedly at the tech team, "Assuming this'll work."
Death had a way of bringing people together.
Look at all these rockdewellers. In generations past, they'd have some blood-grudge against me. Now, we might all be fried to a crisp with a lightning-monster sending us to our makers. In necessity, there is unity. In unity, there is strength.
The old names for dwarves died hard - and slow - with Ellion, though they were thought of with affection by him, anachronisms with a bit of coziness in the cold galaxy. Oddly enough, the threat of demise injected a spark of life into his lengthy existence. So too did the idea of this spark-sapient? being some form of life to study. How fantastic! It would be hailed as a god in it's own right on Golarion. Much more than I should be now, even by half-measures as the modern cults suggest.
Weydan's clergy, colorful as they were, had come to see Ellion as one of his avatars. Who better to emphasize oneness with exploration than a man who could will himself through space - flying, breathing, not-imploding and all? Despite his rejections of him being some sort of herald, the acceptance of this mission seemed to indicate precisely the opposite to those people. You'd think I fulfilled some sort of prophecy.
As he looked around the group here, he was wondering how many of them were partial to The Explorer. And if we do make it out of here and do bring them aboard, how much more of that nonsense will be reinforced? Surely, there is layer upon layer more to go. Religion always seemed to work that way, no matter the year.
Dr. Hesoni returned to hear Molly profess the energy level of this creature. He cleared his throat.
"Regardless of how much energy this thing exudes, it's crucial to know whether it has control over this ability. If it does, then there's a reason it's chosen to unleash its wrath. Perhaps an aspect of the operations here provoked it. If so, we might be able to lure it into complacency again. If not, perhaps we can force it to overplay its hand, overuse its energy. The power source must be finite; it would need to recharge - rest, as it were."
"Permission granted," Zeni replies to Karma. "But when you go, I'm going with you. While you're on comms, I'll keep watch -- visually and telepathically. It might give us a bit of extra warning if it does show up, and if so, might also allow us to learn something about what we're dealing with." And if she doesn't learn anything, Eivo still has a shot at doing so later, since the ability to detect thoughts is common to Lashunta, even if it'll be a while before she can try again.
"Hah.", Molly laughs back. "Sugar, I enjoy livin' more than I enjoy everythin' else.", the mechanic wipes her forehead. "Pride's inedible and doesn't protect against bullets. Now, unless you're plannin' on wavin' at the Reach from the ground, I need that warehouse cleared and searched for any piece of comms equipment you can find.", she replies.
As Dr. Hesoni gives his idea, Molly shrugs. "You thinkin' there's a chance of that thing let us leave, I'm all for it."
As the mining crew mingles about going over how to build a faraday cage over one of the repair haulers some of you make your way to the lift and begin the slow journey back to the surface. Calling on your comms to the reach. You don't get much of a clear signal until you are about 20ft. from the surface. "*TZZCCK*... Reach to away team *TZZZZZZCHK* Reach to away team come in. *TZZZZZZZZCHHHK*
Hesoni frowned slightly. "The atmosphere here might be interfering with our communications, and I can't imagine the lightning enigma will help with that."
Angular features notwithstanding, Ellion seemed rather calm about the whole topic with Molly. "Oh, I don't think it wants to, Miss Bakir, but we can perhaps trick it into thinking it doesn't need to expend its charge on us - or deplete all of it in advance. That faraday cage idea was a stroke of genius, its brilliance second only to the radiance of your smile."
The doctor grinned, clearly making light of the situation a bit instead of going for a genuine flirt.
"Desna's Reach, this is Captain Desomal, we copy. We've made contact with the surviving miners, and have information to send once the signal is stable enough," Zeni responds. Once they've confirmed it is, she'll transmit what they've learned so far.
Something about Dr. Hesoni's comment sparks an idea. "Chief, Do you think that properly focused the atmosphere could be the source damage we have seen. It seems… redundant for there to be two powerful electrical phenomena.”
”I believe we are going to need to explore that new crystalline deposit, I think a study of deposits from that area are a priority. Doctor, Can you assist me.” He looks to the dwarven foreman. Can you please direct us to your lab and provide us with some samples?”
As the signal clears there's still a bit of static. "Sorry Captain still receiving some *tzschk* interference on our end. Adjusting array to receive, send when ready." A moment of silence followed by. "Also be advised away team science team is detecting a developing electrical storm south of your position doens't look to be hitting you for a couple of days but may cause further *tzchk*isruptions as it moves in."
The foreman shakes his head at Eivo. "We're miners not lab rats lad. Any kine of lookin at rock be done at the refinery. We jes live down in tha hole."
"Very well, do you have some samples, and a quiet room? we can make do" he smiles a smile he does not really feel.
Again the foreman shakes his head. "Nay. Again most of that was at the refinery getting processed. Ye may be able ta scrape some of the sand off the haulers in the warehouse but nothing from this shift. We barely got started before people started dyin.
Molly laughs out loud. "Hah! Ain't you a darlin'.", she comments, grinning as the doctor jokes. "Bet you say that to all the girl a hundreth your age.", she adds, before crossing the room to stand next to Eivo. "That case - we're clearin' out that warehouse. I need space to work on the comms, and you can take whatever sand strikes you the fanciest.", she shrugs, before starting to put on her armour once more. "Which way, Strongarm?", she asks as she buckles her helmet to her belt.
"Developing electrical storm..." echoes Karma quietly. She glances at the captain, and focuses on examining her surroundings. She opens a separate channel to the Desna's Reach, focusing on the possibilities of the storm. "Karma to Reach. Where's that storm now? Coordinates." She taps her foot impatiently a few times, and sarcastically mutters to herself "On top of the crystal forest, right? Why wouldn't it be?"
Zeni is more than a little curious about the answer to Karma's question, herself. While she keeps an eye out in all directions, she pays the closest attention to the south, since she has her doubts about that storm being natural. Once she's transmitted the data, she'll reply, "Keep a very close eye on that storm, and start feeding us all the relevant sensor data you collect on it."