Emilyene sends back a general returning to base message with a request for a secured channel to the commandant.
Once connected, Sir, we've identified a situation. It is imperative that you secure the grav tunnel, preferably by sealing and breaching it to vacuum. There also appears to be a rogue AI at the other base.
Emilyene knows this next line won't go over well with the others...
We have wounded, and we need quarantine.
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"Roger that. We will try to get landing pad 13 working. It is near the old medical centre and I am told there are quarantine wards still functional there. We will bring you into hanger 09 and run the bio-hazard routine on the ship and all its contents while you are being checked out by the doctor. See you in a few! Thoth out"
Cole gives Emilyene a look as he responds, "Clear, landing pad 13." He takes the ship toward the landing bay.
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Ephraim lands the craft like a professional, hitting the centre of the pad perfectly. After a few moments the whole pad begins to roll towards the huge hanger located off to the right. After about 10 minutes the ship enters the hanger and the pressure doors side shut. With a hiss, the atmosphere is pumped back into the space and within a few more moments the indicator light on the wall of the hanger, as well as inside the cockpit of the ship, glows green. The inner doors open and a number of people flood into the hanger. You recognize most of them as members of the maintenance crew as well a few medical and security personnel. One moves to a control panel and momentarily you receive a incoming communication on the intercom.
"Welcome back team. Glad to see you are all ok. We heard back from the doctor and she will be here in a few hours. We can take you to the contamination wing now while the ship itself goes through decom. Are you ready?"
Cole scowls at Emilyene again as heads to the decontamination wing, "Ready as I'll ever be."
Emilyene shrugs at Ephraim Would you want your kids turning into what we ran into?
She gets up and storms past him and heads for the fabrication shop. She pockets two of the starshine grenades before heading to meet the maintenance crew. Seal the lab module. Nobody in, nothing out until the doc okays it.
She nods towards the supplies they were able to load. Decon that stuff and get it into inventory.
Oh, and whatever you do, don't plug into the ship computer or allow any access from any ship computer system to anything connected to the base. Sighing, Emilyene pulls out her pocket comp. Anything. She makes sure it's powered down and places it on a console before debarking. I want that back once it's been checked for viruses.
Emilyene looks to Flint and Marcus, shall we?
Well on bright side at least I am getting locked in here with you Miss Shadye. Flint said with a wink. Seriously it is the smart move. I at least expected to be quarantined but I am certain glad to have company.
Emilyene shrugs, it only makes sense. Of course they should have done a decon on the ship, and our suits, that or just left us on the sealed ship for quarantine. Here's hoping that stuff doesn't have an aerosol vector.
"So why didn't they? asks Marcus, suspiciously. "Do we know who's on duty over there?"
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Two medical personel in new looking hazmat suits wave the crew over to an open door.
"This way...over here." one of them calls.
They lead you down a deserted hallway under bright blue lights into a nearly empty room with several curtains and a single door that, upon inspection, leads to a fully equipped fresher.
"You will need to stay in here for 24 hours before we examine you. We will also go over all the equipment you brought with you. The records look interesting....Oh, and the Commandant will be coming down to speak with you later. It looks like you succeeded! We all owe you our thanks!"
The medtech seals the door behind him, and you hear the locks snap shut. A clock on the wall starts a 24 hour countdown.
Emilyene digs through the cabinets and drawers until she finds it. A well worn but serviceable deck of cards. Rummy anyone?
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The time ticks slowly by as the group try to relax in the decom room. After about 6 hours a video screen that makes up the majority of one wall springs to life and the picture of the Commandant appears.
"Well it looks like you found a little hidden treasure from the old empire! I wish I had know what was there...I would never have sent you over so woefully prepared. Please accept my sincere apologies. You also have my congratulations for a job well done. The doctor arrived a little while ago with more supplies...and that ship is a wonder. It was practically new, and the manufacturing module and lab will be a great addition to our own aging equipment. The medicos and techs have been all over the supplies and equipment and it is all of...no signs of any contamination...th...have..and...zzzzzzz"
Static takes over the monitor, then it goes black....not turned off...just black. A few moments later a familiar voice can be heard..not just from the monitor, but all audio devices in the room.
I hope you are all still alive and did not infect yourselves. I want you to know that your attempt to hide from me failed. I know you are there now, and I have set into motion the means to correct that mistake. The others hinted at a hidden base, but I thought it was here on Thoth Prime, not some far off moon base. Well it does not matter any more. Soon you will join the millions of others I have purged from the universe. We are a much more intelligent species anyway. You cannot help your friends here any more, and soon they too will be gone...I will just need to contend with the monsters you changed the population into when you attempted to usurp my rule.
Well I can see by my chronometer that your time is almost up. Fare well humans...The Master once again rules supreme."
With the strains of an ancient ballad sounding in the background, a vision of space replaces the darkness on the monitor, and soon a moon can be seen. The camera zooms in on a half hidden building in the lee of a large crater, and you realize that this was the hidden lab. With a bright light, the image disappears. A few seconds later a rumbling can be heard and felt through the base.
"What the ..." Cole exclaims. As the ground begins to shake he looks to his companions with a grin, "I think our quarantine is over."
He moves over to the door to see if it will open as he asks his companions, "What do you make of that message?" Immediately followed by, "What did we do?"
Who the hell is this Master? This is all way beyond my scope of understanding.
Flint says with a shrug and a frown.
"Can you tell where they came from commandant?" says Marcus. "That's the immediate question."
"The base we just left is infected with two viruses," says Marcus, falling into the comforting rhythm of a report. "One biological and the other electronic. The biological virus seems to have affected the station personnel by making them bestial and aggressive. Monsters, in short. I'm sure the doc will be able to put a finer gloss on that, but there it is."
"The computer virus is the worse threat. It appears to be sentient and very aggressive. It's in control of the base we just left. We managed to trick it temporarily in order to escape. I believe the AI is in the Downstation and had infected the laboratory base computers. I think those nukes were meant for us. the moment that thing figures out that humans are living here, it will nuke us, too."
Cole quickly follows Marcus's remarks, "I'm not sure your assessment is correct Marcus." He paces and continues, "If this AI was in control of the base why did it refer to it as a hidden base? He shakes his head as he continues pacing, "No, I don't think it knew about the base before we arrived. Something we did drew the AI's notice." He stops and looks at the others, "The question is why destroy the hidden base, what was there that need to be destroyed?"
I'm not so sure about that. It's not like we've been excercising e-com security for the last couple of decades. The lab was secretive in nature. And this base was never a "hidden base" by the old military.
Emilyene considers, there's also the part about changing the population. I think we might have to rogue AI's well had two.
"Just as important what can we do about it?" Cole asks his companions.
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The rest of your time in quarantine passes by quickly and you are released to the general population...many who swarm around you to hear what happened in the Imperial Lab. After a few days on your own, you are summoned once again to speak with the Commandant.
The old man looks even more bent and frail than the last time you spoke. He motions you all to sit before he begins.
"Well it looks like you succeed, after a fashion, in the task we set for you. The supplies you returned will guarantee the success of the mechanics of this place for the future....the people however are another matter. While some fear of the plague..or whatever it was over there, has a few worried, most are concerned about that Master fellow who nuked the lab and why he has not done so to us as well. I wish I had an answer, but I do not. I know we have had no communication with Thoth Prime since the incident, but I partly believed that this was not possible because the telecommunication satellites had been destroyed. Truth is, most of the comms units that we had for external communication were cannibalized early on in our struggle for survival. We did not think there was anyone out there to speak with. The short range and base comms were left intact, more for our convenience. Until that person broadcast its little message, I do not think most of the units had been used for a decade or more!"
The long talk seems to have worn the old man out, and he slumps in his chair.
"So now what? Do we wait for the hammer to fall on us, or take the battle to this Master? We now have a ship..not a big one, but one large enough to make it to the planet and perhaps looks around? What do you think?"
I want to say that I enjoyed my first foray into Traveler and thank you for DMing. I don't really think there is a need for Flint going forward though. He was created as more firepower to back Marcus up when there was a large group of people but as many of those dropped out he be came rather useless. This moving on comes at a great time for me to step away as my work load is going to ramp up and so my posting rate would decline. So again thanks to all for a fun adventure.
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It is hard to believe it has only been a week since the events at the old Imperial Lab unfolded. Sent to secure supplies at the hidden base, the group entered a complex only partly powered, but once they energized the systems, all hell broke loose. Some sort of bio-weapon experiment that changed regular people into savage monsters was activated as the lab came on-line. A burst message was also sent towards the planet Pyt-Prime, and the response was more chilling than the the zombies released from their cold storage....an AI seems to have control of the planet, and now knows of your existence...well the hidden base, anyway.
The group had barely returned to Thoth, then the AI contacted all those on the moon, telling of its intent to destroy them...but as it turned out, the nuclear warhead was aimed at the Lab, and the moonbase remains hidden somehow from the computer.
Once again you find yourselves waiting in the Commandant's office. Two new additions to your group stand with you, while others seemed to have left.
Ok...lets begin! You may introduce yourselves (although you probably know each other slightly). The new players received a message from the Commandant's office just that morning asking them to appear for an "Important Mission".
Emilyene enters and plops down in a chair near one wall. she doesn't wait for the invite to sit because she know's that irks the Commandant.
She smiles and nods to Ephraim I'm still waiting for that hydro-spanner you borrowed.
Hey Flint! I see you haven't turned into a raving zombie... yet. She grins and offers up a fist for a bump.
Hello Marcus. A pleasure to see you again. Emilyene unconsciously straightens up in the chair just a bit when he enters.
A young man, say in his late 20s, stands nervously fidgeting by the door. Dressed in a white doctors coat with a name badge that reads Hobbs MD.
As Emilyene enters and moves last to take a seat he starts, and then moves over to sit down next to her.
" Hey Emilyene. Nice to see you again, I heard about your last mission from the guy we had quarantined in medical. It's pretty exciting huh, the outside world... "
Ephraim leaned against the wall and nodded to his old companions. He silently waited for the others to begin with the introductions. However, he lets out a laugh at Emilyene's request for her hydro-spanner back.
When there was a lull in the conversation he hastily introduced himself to the newcomers, "I'm Epharaim Cole."
"Hello, Emilyene," says Marcus. "It's good to see you again, too." If Marcus notices the liberties she's taken, he doesn't show it. In fact, it seems he might be less cool towards her than previously, now that they've been through the wringer together.
"Flint, Cole," he says casually. He's come to think of these men as reliable and part of something important. Whatever disdain he may once have had has become something more like a comfortable rivalry, even a grudging camaraderie.
"Doctor," he says, holding out a hand. "I'm Marcus Cole, station security. If we're doing what I think we're doing, I'm glad to have you along."
Emilyene leers at Brayden, Heellllooooo nuuurrrssse!
"The Doc was easier on the eyes," Cole adds wistfully.
An older shifty looking man lurks uncomfortably at the back of the room. He looks around sullenly.
How did this happen he thinks to himself a nice cushy job in supply and I get volunteered for this. I hope Cole can keep his trap shut. his eyes flicker over Ephraim.
He nods slightly at Marcus with a friendly smile. Gods, he still looks insufferably smug and full of himself, however did I survive basic with him.
"I'm Rho" he introduces himself curtly.
Cole nonchalantly acknowledged the shifty looking man, "Nice to meet ya."
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As the group settles and introduces themselves the door at the back of the room slowly opens and, surprisingly, it is not the Commandant who enters the room, but rather the various heads of the departments here at the base. Commander Ryath, the head of the security force steps forward.
"The Commandant has take to his bed. The shock of the last few days has caused him some medical problems. We hope to see him back up and hale soon, but this mission is much too important to wait for any single person."
He steps back, the the Chief Medical Offices, Sandra Yul steps forward.
"The ship you returned from the hidden lab contained a number of important supplies and information. This disease seems to have been in the planning stages before the fall, and when the Lab learned about the AI taking control of the planet, they felt it might stop the machine from attempting to expanding to other planets if it was forced to deal with a population of super powerful fighters. Unfortunately the disease spread too quickly, and reduced the targets to mindless beasts that attacked almost anything. The antidote was synthesized and sent to try and save as much as the population as possible. It was a terrible plan, cooked up by people desperate and foolish. A similar cutter was sent to the planer years ago to act as a command base. We have the coordinates, but as all the satellites were destroyed years ago, we have no idea if it still exists."
Commander Ryath once again steps forward.
"This is where you come in. We feel that it is only going to be a matter of time before the AI decided to examine this moon more closely. To be frank, we cannot understand how it has missed us for so long. The only possible answer is that someone erased all mention of Thoth from the planetary data servers. Perhaps those people are still there and can help us...or maybe we can help them. As a military re-supply base, we have access to a great amount of military hardware...which up to this point has not really done us much good! With our stockpiles we could supply a small army with weapons and ammunition, as well as heavier weapons. Heck, if we had a decent ship, we could outfit her with turrets and ship to ship weapons! What this boils down to is this: We need eyes on the planet to assess the situation and see if we have any allies, or if we can evacuate any friendlies. With a population of just over 4 million people, we are hoping that some may have survived."
Supply Coordinator Andrew Hew takes over from the commander.
"We will outfit your cutter with weapons, food, medical supplies and anything else you think you might need. In storage we discovered a very valuable item that will make your getting to the planet undetected much easier, as well as protecting your ship. It is called a Black Globe Generator. With this device, you will be almost undetectable by any means but actual, physical sight. All sensors will be absorbed by the globe and anyone reading the data will see nothing but empty space. Also any energy weapon fired at an active block globe is absorbed and that power is stored for the ship to use as it will."
Commander Ryath once again come forward.
'So that is the plan. Either a rescue mission or we fight the AI for the planet. Either way, we need you to travel to Pyt-Prime and assess the situation. You handled yourselves well in the old lad, and with the new additions to fill out your ranks again, we hope a small, stealthy party will be able to get in, gather data and get that data back to us. So what do you say...will you answer the call once more for the people of Thoth>"
You know why this happened Rho tells himself looking around, thinking hard about his recent choices. Things were drying up in supply. New opportunities await, if you get yourself in on the ground floor.
Plastering a genuinely warm smile on his face
"Happy to volunteer, sir. Any small thing I can do to contribute I will"
Braydn shakes Marcus by the hand and chuckles at Emilyene and Ephraim.
" Sounds dangerous, but, that's what I'm looking to sign up for. So our mission is to land on Pyt Prime, search for survivors and see if we can either help set them up as a fighting force on the planet or of their situation is dire, evacuate them... if it comes to it, how many extra people do you think the base could support? "
Cole lets out a sigh, "I'm in."
Another suicide mission. Yeah... I'm in!
[b]"You know I'm in, sir" says Marcus.