Following Vonash away from the others, Jade comes up to the owl's nest alongside her, and looks at the small egg in the nest, and the owl. She studies it for a moment, a huge smile across her face as she tries to examine as much as she can of the stationary creature, without getting close enough to startle it. "Look at the way her muscles are formed, the sharpness of her talons.." Not taking her eyes away from the creature, she speaks less to herself and more to Vonash. "These beautiful creatures will be extinct in a few short decades, one of the early victims of human ignorance."
Looking sideways at Vonash for a moment to try and study her reaction, Jade continues. "This owl is likely to lay more eggs in the coming weeks, and there is a slim chance that this one will survive as it is. I... could stabilise it, and we could bring it with us. In my lab, I could synthesise more. She could give birth to a whole generation. We could save them, you and I."
Her eyes glowing with excitement and the promise of doing something good, Jade isn't exactly asking for permission, but knows that she could likely not sneak it past the others without Vonash's help, especially if Vonash were to tell on her.
[dice=Life Sciences]1d20+7
Following Vonash away from the others, Jade comes up to the owl's nest alongside her, and looks at the small egg in the nest, and the owl. She studies it for a moment, a huge smile across her face as she tries to examine as much as she can of the stationary creature, without getting close enough to startle it. "Look at the way her muscles are formed, the sharpness of her talons.." Not taking her eyes away from the creature, she speaks less to herself and more to Vonash. "These beautiful creatures will be extinct in a few short decades, one of the early victims of human ignorance."
Looking sideways at Vonash for a moment to try and study her reaction, Jade continues. "This owl is likely to lay more eggs in the coming weeks, and there is a slim chance that this one will survive as it is. I... could stabilise it, and we could bring it with us. In my lab, I could synthesise more. She could give birth to a whole generation. We could save them, you and I."
Jade isn't exactly asking for permission, but knows that she could likely not sneak it past the others without Vonash's help, especially if Vonash were to tell on her.
"Oh, I agree. We HAVE to save this species. And this egg is our best chance. Let me see if I can convince the mother"
To the owl, telepathically
"Mother, your child is in great danger. Not from us. But if we leave it here with you it will likely die. We'd like to take it from here, take it somewhere safe. Somewhere where it can live a long and full life. Will you please let us save the life of your child?"
If allowed, I'd take 10 for 20. If not:
Vonash starts crying, weeping and wailing uncontrollably. You will quite literally have to give her a sedative to put her under (she won't fight that at all).
I have no idea if the GM wants to allow the following (its definitely not RAW) but in my mind the anguish that she feels might well be strong enough to affect all of you in some way via her telepathy (well, maybe not the android :-)).
The language may not make a lot of sense to the owl, but it senses Vonash's concern and sincerity. Vonash senses permission.
Any empathetic characters on the Chariot feel Vonash's distress without looking at her. The less empathetic characters don't. Jade got a sense of the semantic content of Vonash's thoughts--the extinction of animal species as the ship moved forward through time.*
M'ilo is crying in the washroom. "It's all so sad!" he wails between bouts of puking.
Carson explains to the rest of the Chariot crew, "He only had THREE bottles of beer."
* You are not actually "moving forward through time" but, rather, "slipping around the outside of time." I suspect Ueda would explain this to anyone who used that expression.
During the trip, Jade holds Vonash's hand as she starts freaking out, encouraging Vonash to squeeze it as hard as she wants (since it would be literally impossible for Vonash to break) and whispering repeatedly to her, "We saved one. We saved one."
She looks away from Vonash's anguish only once and only for a moment to look at the monitor, seeing something that she truly does not understand - another person with their own time-distorting ship, that looks quite different from theirs, but who seems to also possess some knowledge of how theirs works. While the interaction lasts only a few seconds, Jade commits all of it to her memory banks, noting that she will investigate this further back in her own time.
As the ship flies off, Jade looks quickly to see if the others had noticed anything. Finding that they were all distracted by their own tasks and experiences, she decides to bring it up later, particularly once she had more answers than questions.
Jade turns her attention back to Vonash, noticing how much her anguish is affecting the others. Putting her hand on Vonash's cheek, she turns her head to face Jade's, and silently leans both their heads forward until they're touching. With her other hand, she reaches behind Vonash and sticks a small syringe into the base of her skull. "Shh," she says, laying Vonash back as she starts to lose consciousness, "You did well today. Rest now."
Ueda is quite consumed with his own thoughts and experiences during the journey, having greeted the team with a smile when they touched down. He snaps his fingers a few times and appears to be counting them at one point, nodding his head arhythmically as he does so. Perhaps it's his own thoughts, perhaps he's as cold as some of his colleagues have claimed, but he doesn't particularly notice Vonash's distress.
As the ship starts to enter the shuffle brass begins to focus letting his experience guide him.
As the shuffles physics shift as he tries to understand while flying, he starts to realize that just going with it helps, as he’s flying he starts relax settling into the odd feeling of just being in nothingness. With how easily it comes to him he starts to drift to the last time he flew with no course his memories following the feeling of tinge sadness that crept up on him ....
He was in the pilots chair of the ship, Rich or Bust. His friend Iron sat next to him in the copilots chair checking the comms to see if any word of what happened had gotten out. The captains chair sat ominously empty, along with the first mates chair. The other two androids in the ship sat quietly in the back manning the guns. Finally the silence is broken by the Android in the back speaking to no one in particular. Well atleast we can go wherever we want. That’s what she wanted though, right?
No one said anything for a while then brass speaks up of course, that’s the only reason she would have sacrificed herself. And the only other option. Would be stay, which means certain death or continued slavery.... which I for one don’t want.
As brass remembers this moment, he hears milo and jade speaking in sullen voice. Then he mutters to nobody in part it is very sad.
Brass, lost in his thoughts, flies the Chariot like a leaf on the wind. With Ueda monitoring the signal occasionally, he is able to lock in on the timeplace the signal is coming from. The ball of light that the signal originated from soon bathes the ship in swirling multi-coloured light. The instruments inform Brass that its time to exit the Shuffle. There's little turbulence in the Shuffle, but as the Chariot exits the Shuffle and enters time-space again, it feels like it's going to tear itself apart.
An alert flashes, warning Brass that the Chariot has about a third of its energy left; the next trip will have to be back to the Well for a recharge.
As you come out of the Shuffle, the navigation system lights up, able to give you normal time-space coordinates again.
It's July 1st, 2078. The signal seems to be coming from Long Porcupine Island off the coast of what used to be Bar Harbor, Maine.
END of CHAPTER ONE
The Chariot comes out of the Shuffle about 7,000 feet above Long Porcupine Island. It's 10AM on July 1st, 1978 and a thin layer of clouds provide you with some cover on an otherwise sunny day.
"So, what's the plan?" Asks Carson. "We're going to drop down there and shut this signal down with superior firepower?"
As the Chariot comes to a rocky "landing," Ueda is torn from his thoughts and looks around at the others. His gaze lingers on Vonash and Jade, and his eyes ask a silent question of the other android. If she so much as nods, though, he accepts it as assurance that all is well, and he quickly returns his attention to the instruments at the front of the vessel.
"A.D. 2078," he murmurs, frowning. "My studies of philosophy and cultural anthropology dealt extensively with this period. It is a disastrous time on a global scale, with massive cultural upheaval in response to the environmental breakdown. The United States as a nation-state are essentially nonexistent at this point." He turns to Carson. "I do not believe firepower is the answer, as there are still too many unknown variables at play. Case in point: At this point in history, temporal travel was still beyond the technology."
The scientist looks at the monitors, not blinking, not fidgeting nervously. "Whoever is broadcasting that signal is not from here, or should I say, is not from now."
Jade smiles reassuringly at Immanuel when he looks for clarification.
"Well said. My memory banks corroborate your assessment." She says, nodding to Immanuel. "I would like to emphasise further that while we possess the most sophisticated technology by far, we must still be cautious. The United States is fractured, with its power divided up amongst several states - all of whom are distrusting of each other. This region in particular has several stealth interceptors - Zeus-6L models, I believe. "
Now, the Zeus Interceptors, if they come into play, will be pilotless stealth jets but they would pass the Turing test. They don't have the intelligence of an android, but they aren't that different in terms of the tech; both use a cybernetic brain. If anyone proposed giving an android rights in this time period, the billionaire might say, "Oh, next you'll want me to liberate my Ferrari." The Ferrari would be intelligent enough to have an opinion on this.
The 'Declaration of Personhood' recorded by the android liberator Helios was a significant moment in the movement and it was first broadcast via a hacked satellite in 2085.
As the Chariot comes to a rocky "landing," ...
Vonash eventually becomes conscious and more or less alert. But its very clear that her mind is mostly elsewhere.
As they look down on the island, she just stares at the viewscreen, saying nothing.
M'ilo slithers out of the bathroom in his native seven-limbed form and waves a tentacle wearily before sliding into one of the bucket seats and falling asleep.
"Wow. Remind me never to drink and hit the Shuffle. I've never seen him like this." says Carson.
Brass as he enters it begins to look around the sky the atmosphere clogged with pollution still in a haze from his memory. After hearing about the Zeus planes he begins to look on sensors and make sure they weren’t detected. He asks Ueda how far are we from the signal, I don’t know how well we would fare against these planes. I can’t find the ships armaments.
Brass can make Piloting checks to find out things about the Chariot. He knows that this ship is primarily a planet-to-station type craft, capable of exiting a planet's atmosphere and re-entering, but not the kind of ship you'd travel between planets on normally. He saw weapon ports on the ship and could safely assume the Chariot is armed and loaded.
He also saw before they left that the Chariot has an unusual device pretty much strapped to the outside with metal bands; it looked like a shield generator but he knows that this is the device that drops the ship out of timespace and into the Shuffle. How it works exactly would require some research. This looks like an add-on and not part of the original design.
Brass finds the sensors easily. He does not detect any ships actually scanning them. Two dots on the sensors indicate that there are two ships on the island beneath them, but they aren't powered up for flight---the cool blue dots indicate ships at rest. (The ships are pretty close to the center of the island where the red tear-drop indicator is pasted; the ships are about 50 ft. apart on this map.) By the damaged terrain around them, their landings were not smooth.
"I hypothesize the Chariot is capable of handling well enough in a dogfight, if it comes to that. As Doctor Essex mentioned, this vessel remains for more advanced than contemporary vehicles. That said, I would rather avoid conflict than initiate it." Ueda views the instruments alongside Brass, not as familiar with all of them, but not hesitant to ask for information as to what they mean. As he looks at the cool blips showing ships at rest, in that appears to be a crash site, he begins adjusting his communicator, trying to lock onto the signal that drew the group here in the first place.
Ueda finds the signal. He's more able to detect the signal hole than receive the signal. The signal is meant for transmission through the Shuffle and is just reading as noise in the here and now. The authorities in 2078 would not be able to descramble it. Ueda could with time and a better Engineering check, but he has, at least, detected it.
It's coming from one of the two ships on the island.
Brass is going to search for weapons to understand more about the ship he flies as he becomes more and more integrated with the ship.
He shouts out to the crew, Can someone try to discern what the wreckage is down below. I would like to not abandon our advantage in the clouds unless we have too. as he realizes there are no combat ships around him though he begins to settle back down, his combat protocols turning off. He maintains the ship in a hover looking down from absolve the clouds. He takes a moment to look around the crew and see what actually happened in all the commotion going through the shuffle.
The Chariot has a pair of gunners' helmets and controller that can be used when fighting. The helmets allow a 360 degree view of the ship and the controllers control the weapons. Two gunners can control separate weapons (one forward facing and one rear facing) or one gunner can toggle between both.
If no one else is going to start looking brass will make the roll, just to help move things along.
If no one else is going to start looking brass will make the roll, just to help move things along. [dice=perception] 1d20+1
Brass can barely make out the ships on the visual display. The clouds swirl around making a clear glimpse of them difficult and they're somewhat hidden by trees. He thinks one is three times bigger than the other. He figures the small one is not much bigger than a school bus. The Chariot is probably as big as the large one.
Jade tries to peer through the clouds to get a better look at what's below.
Jade spots a clear shot on the video display and freezes it, then zooms in. The smaller blue ship appears to have its front torn up. The larger red one has a fin torn off one side and a row of holes running up the top.
or saving the planet from humanity,
Vonash sits quietly at her station, largely ignoring the ships below or the conversation around her
Brass, sees jade looking at the crash site, and calls out do you see the site, should I descend?
"Certainly see something." She replies. "That looks like our crash site. Two ships, both look quite damaged, unfit for flying if they even could take off again." Jade pauses, "Should we land some distance away in case whoever came in them is still nearby?"
Brass looks at the scanners and stares weighting the probabilities in his head. let’s land I think we are alone besides the crash at the moment, though be prepared for anything to happen as we drop. brass then starts to bring the ship down below the focusing intently on the clouds.
As the Chariot descends, you get an even better view of the ships. That run of holes along the top of the larger ship is definitely from weapon fire. The island is almost completely forested and the larger ship took down some trees in a path behind it when it landed. You could land in the rough clearing it made, right beside the ships, or there's a more natural clearing about 200 ' away from the crashed ships.
Brass decides that the crash site is the best position in case they need to leave quick, and he guides the ship down, deftly avoiding any of the trees that are in the way.
The landing is so smooth that only the starfish formerly known as M'ilo can complain, which he does by making a weird noise in his sleep and waving a pair of tentacles angrily.
Carson checks his weapons before anything else.
The Chariot is on the ground in the clearing made when the larger ship crashed. Broken trees and vegetation surrounds the Chariot.
The larger ship is closer to you than the smaller one.
Ueda keeps his eyes on the monitors as the ship descends, but he can't pick out anything the others haven't noticed already. Instead, he prepares for the landing, nodding as Brass decides to set down in the crash site. "Whoever these people are, they are likely not far from our own position: travelers in time, hopefully attempting to avoid unnecessary disturbances to events. And by all observations, they seem to be stranded here and awaiting assistance. In theory, we can render just such aid and return to our own period."
All of that said, he does check that both of his pistols are loaded and ready, and puts the stuncaster into his bag alongside the old-fashioned automatic.
Once the ship is set down brass grabs his armor from his bag and spits it on covering him completely, then he grabs his rifle getting ready to leave.
"In that, they did not succeed. See the holes across the top? At least the blue ship was shot down." Jade pauses, thinking of the man she saw in the bubble, and remains unconvinced that Immanuel's assessment is correct. "We should move quickly."
While the others get ready, Jade quietly makes sure that the owl egg is safe and secure, and grabs several vials, tweezers, and other collection equipment, just in case there's something worth studying.
"Which ship do you want to start with? Or should we split up?"
We should stay together his voice masked by his helmet covering his entire head. He grabs his rifle shouldering it in case this is an ambush or we have any hostile contact being spread out makes coordination much harder.
"You're going to wake M'ilo? He's still letting his tentacles hang out," says Carson. "Do you want us to hold down the fort?"
The splintered trees and other underbrush makes the area right around the Chariot difficult terrain to navigate. It takes a while to get yourselves assembled outside of the ship, but when you do you see a lasercut sign not 15' away nailed to a post. It reads, “Here lies Argo. He was a Good Boy, a Very Good Boy.”
The mound of dirt beneath the post is about 2 feet wide by 8 feet long and was dug fairly recently--at least since the last heavy rainfall.
"Does anybody have a spare pistol that I can borrow? Or I can just chuck rocks. Lets get this over and done with"
Vonash finally speaks, although in a monotone that indicates that she really doesn't give a damn what happens.
"Moving to the closer ship seems prudent. We can deal with the smaller second, should we need." Ueda turns to Vonash and draws his pulsecaster pistol, handing it to her grip-first. "Just point and shoot. It fires a nonlethal shock, very little recoil. It should be sufficient for self-defense in this situation." Seeing Brass brandishing his own weapon, Ueda then draws the old-fashioned pistol and ensures it's still loaded and ready.
"Having one or two people remain to guard the Chariot is in our best interests. We cannot risk losing our only method of transportation. Do not hesitate to communicate if trouble arises."
Before leaving brass wakes milo pointing to Carson mentioning he’s in charge. He hears Vonash ash her question and shakes his head I only car my rifle, unfortunately I can’t help you . He steps off the ship and looks to the crash site waiting for the team come as he tries to to get a good look of the area.
As you move nearer the two ships, the larger red one comes into view first. It is marked with a large white logo that looks like a stylized DW inside a circle. The ship is far more advanced than the Chariot. It has crashed on a slight angle, which would make keeping your balance inside the ship challenging if you enetered. From the outside, the angle of the ship allows you to glimpse the row of bullet holes line that the top. A long blue scrape on the red ship and a torn fin show the ship has been hit by another ship. The ship's sliding side door is 18 inches open, but it looks like the damage would prevent it from opening further.
The second ship, sitting not far away in a marshy patch, is smaller and blue. It has a pair of front pointing weapons. Its front-left side has also been damaged from a crash. The words 'Temporal Enforcement' shine in reflective white on the little blue spaceship. The ship's doors are shut tight, unlike those on the larger ship.
Brass begins to walk around the site looking for any trace of someone if they left the crash, if he doesn’t find anything he’s going to try to open the door to squeeze through.
You see numerous boot prints including the largest set of feline prints most of you have ever seen. The human and feline prints come and go from the large ship and head both into the woods and in the direction of the smaller ship.
Brass inspects the prints then stands up and walks over to the bigger ship to try and force it open.