"Sir yes Sir!" Grabbing his standard issue energy riffle and his personal use pellet hucker, he gets ready to go out onto the new planet.
It doesn't take Rudo long to prep for planetfall.
If there is no one more appropriate to pilot the shuttle, he comfortably takes the controls and readies the craft as he awaits the others.
Manually, he goes through all manner of pre-flight checklist, even switching automated ones to operator mode... with the auto-routines merely as fail-safes.
The trick is everything becoming routine without dulling one's awareness. He speaks mostly to himself and anyone who's taken a seat is welcome to listen in.
The flight into the atmosphere is uneventful except for a little turbulence as the shuttle hits the warmer air of Sisyphus. The sky is a dark and dreary gray-brown, owing to the weak red-dwarf Lacaile 8760 that acts as Sisyphus' sun. Proximity to that same star is what causes the majority of the planet's surface to be either arid or warm-temperate zones.
The shuttle sets down without a problem on a concrete landing pad covered in dust and tumble-weed type plants of a reddish color.
The colony on Sisyphus is still quite small, just over 1000 residents for the entire colony, measuring just over 2.8 square km. You saw damage to several keys areas before your landing, but it looks even worse on the ground.
After a few minutes, a dusty, decades-old electric ground truck pulls up and a short man with curly gray-brown hair calls to you out the window.
"Welcome, thanks for coming down so fast! Hope in and I'll take you into town."
Rudo, at point, stops short of the truck.
Lt Clausius, Security... but you can call me Rudo. This is our Commander, Legion-12... Head Science Officer, Dr. Yusil and Lead Engineer, Lt Krema Reginald-Zretaden.
He waits as if to say, Who are you?
"Dar Mooney, governor of Sisyphus."
Well met, Governor... lead on. Rudo waits to board, last.
The dokkaran nods to the local governor, half-foccused on rechecked her supplies. It's been difficult, but she's started to experiment with some old 'alchemical' recipes from her people's history. The science is obviously rather rudimentary, but her people have been been exposed to psionics for perhaps as long or longer than the Samssaran. There was wisdom to be found in old works.
She could only hope these newer medicines would work against the potent power of their Ilithid foes.
Happy to let the others do the talking, Lt. Krema begins surveying the damage.
Governor, Sir... any identified natural threats? Flora, fauna, geologic or atmospheric? Rudo's keen eyes scan the world around him.
"We've been very lucky in hose areas. Sure, we don't have much native flora, but as a result we don't have many larger creatures of any sort. Biggest problem we've found in that area are the things we call Grizzats. Kind of racoon-sized flying spider things. But we've got a a grid of electric bug-zappers that keep them away, and even when we didn't they were rare."
"Not much geologically either. Worst atmospheric problem is that remnants of solar flares occasionally make landfall. Give you a nasty burn, worse if you're unlucky. But we've not lost anyone to them."
Legion accompanies Lt. Krema. Other members of the team were well suited to gathering information. They were not.
Leaning back toward Legion, the governor asks:
"I thought I'd take you down to City Hall and give you an overview of what we need there, in the way of help. Or would you prefer to drop the doctor off at the hospital first?"
She gives Legion a pointed look, letting the android know exactly where her preferences were.
Legion gives the governor a stern look, their voice low and as close to anger as many of the crew have heard, "The doctor is of equal rank to myself, and will be treated as such. You will ask her what she wishes to do, and address her with her proper station while you ask. Understood? Otherwise I will be forced to file this as an official breach of protocol. I do not want to do that. Do you want that?"
They had a fierce respect for all the members of their crew, especially those who had risen through the ranks to command an equal station to themselves while serving a vital function aboard the ship.
"Sorry, commander, was just tryin' to follow protocol. Doctor? Hospital or briefing?"
She gave a somewhat thankful nod to the android. It was rare that her ranking was addressed so thoroughly outside of the medway. For her, it felt natural to defer towards the military commanders attached to her team. Force of habit, perhaps. You don't undo decades of experience in the span of a year. "Hospital, please."
As you continue on, you note the damage that was done to the colony during the Illithid attack. A bombed out groundcar here, a collapsed building there; of course, none of these buildings are very large, and while a few have emergency workers outside obviously searching for survivors, mostly you just see confused people sitting in front of a few destroyed homes.
The "hospital" is less than impressive, though given the state of the colony that's hardly a surprise. It's a plasticrete fabricated building, in the shape of an "L", one story tall with a small section having a 2nd story (probably used for administration). And the building itself has obviously taken some marginal damage from the Illithid bombardment.
Dropping Dr. Yusil off at the door, the governor and the rest of the team continue on to City Hall.
Was the attack... predominately ballistic in nature?
"Eh?" Mooney says, cocking an eye for a second, then wincing as you go over a large pothole in the road. "Sorry, attack left us a few of those as well. Ballistic? Like a gun? No, it was more like some sort of dark laser beam, but as it came down it was cloaked in fire. Fire burned and caused explosions, dark beam sort of cut right through stuff. And then there was the other thing..." Mooney paused and shuddered a bit.
"That one wasn't really a weapon at all. We don't know precisely what it was. People who are still with us..." Mooney uses his finger to point to his skull and continues, "you know, upstairs, say they felt some sort of emotional darkness or clouding of the mind before their loved ones just...checked out. We've got about 20 of them, your Doctor will be finding out about them soon, I imagine."
At the hospital, Dr. Yusil walks in to chaos. Patients are everywhere in the waiting room, with nurses and orderlies trying to assist them or at least calm them down, with varying degrees of success.
Several of the people here appear have abrasions, broken bones and the like. Others appear to be suffering burn damage (some of those have been given pain killers, others haven't). And then there are a few people who are just staring absently into space. Is it shock? Or something more?
The Dokkaran's near-perpetual frown was more heavily set than usual while examining the afflicted. Slipping on her scanner, she got to work trying to isolate those that had wounds she could treat immediately, while for the moment setting those experiencing a catatonic state on the back-burner. Order of priorities demanded this of her, much as she desired to get to what bothered her the most.
Rudo's knuckles go white as he grips his weapon tightly.
Hmm... it's what we saw as we approached. Anti-matter cannon and psychic assault. It's a powerful one-two punch.
I'm sorry for your loss.
City Hall, 9:40 local time.
The truck arrives at City Hall just a couple minutes after leaving the hospital. Several ground vehicles are parked out front, and two men wearing uniform jackets over civilian clothes stand guard out front, armed with old Falcon 45 caliber pistols. They nod when they see the governor.
One of the men, Rudo notices, is "phoning it in," just sort of slouching against a beam, while the other, a smaller man, takes note of each of the passengers as the depart the truck.
"Right this way," Mooney says, walking up the front steps and past the guards.
Hospital, 10:00 local time
Doctor Yusil, having checked in with the physician on duty, a Doctor Terry Frank, takes a breather as she assesses the current situation. She's already treated several patients; her equipment is more advanced than that possessed by the colonists. The nurses and attendants all express their gratitude and quickly come to rely on Yusil's diagnoses and treatment advice.
Rudo opens a channel to Dr Yusil and the ship. Guangzhou, Lt Clausius... communicating update. anti-matter weapon bombardment used to disrupt infrastructure, combined with psychic assault. That's what is seems like.
Dr. Yusil at Hospital and can confirm psychic activity, at her convenience.
Remainder of party entering City Hall with Mayor Mooney at my coordinates, nominal security force. All quiet. Over.
"Alright, Dr. Crank. I've done all I can for those in immediate need of care, now let's talk about your other pstients." She started, checking her medical scan to make sure it was properly calibrated to perform brain scans. "Can you describe their conditions, for me? Starting with the mild cases please."
City Hall
Governor Mooney takes the crew into a side room off the main entrance hall. The room has been turned into an impomptu command center of sorts, with a large digital display, several computer stations, and civil servants and more of the men in the blue uniform jackets working together back and forth.
Mooney brings you up to the front of the room and stands on top of a small platform.
"Attention, please. Attention!" The bustle in the room slowly calms to near silence.
"These three Space Force officers are here to assist us. Another has been deployed to the hospital already to help our wounded and...otherwise effected. You're to work with them and listen to their advice on issues related to defense and construction. McDonald, Acevedo, Vangarta, please come forward."
Two men, both in their early 40s, approach the PCs. One, Acevedo, is wearing one of the blue jackets, but is also wearing matching uniform pants, and Has what looks like ranking bars on his collar. The other, McDonald, is wearing nice but functional civilian clothing.
Additionally, one woman, a Samsaran who appears to be in her late teens, also in civilian dress, approaches.
"These are my Chief Guard," motioning to Acevedo, "Civil Engineer," McDonald, "and lastly Chief Council Vangarta. They'll give you whatever information and resources you need to help us in our repairs."
Hospital later that day...
"Thankyou so much for the help, Doctor. You have an amazing gift for healing; I haven't seen such a skilled physician in a long long time," Frank says, and seems to mean it. Frank is a man in his thirties with deep brown hair, thick black beard, and a glint of determination in his hazel eyes even after hours of treating trauma patients.
"If you'd like to start with the mild cases, I'll have someone brought in from the lobby."
A few minutes later, a pale skinned woman with short red hair is wheeled into one of the examination rooms.
"This is Lela Murphey, aged 27," Frank whispers to Yusil.
Frank then shifts his attention to the woman in the wheelchair.
"Still not feeling well?" he asks, to which she gives a noncommittal response.
Changing his attention back to Yusil, he continues "She's got some memory loss, and also seems to be suffering from sudden acute depression. She was in the first location hit by the mental incursion."
Water processing plant, across town, a few minutes later
McDonald, opens the door into a large prefabricated room that was heavily damaged during the orbital attack. As he does, a slab of loose concrete falls from the collapsed ceiling across the room. McDonald jumps a little, before warning Krema to be careful as they enter the room.
"This is our processing facility. We pull water from the limited surface moisture over there, and from a deep well, over there. Up there... McDonald points to the partially collapsed ceiling "were the pipe mains that take the water out of the building and to the rest of town. Something is damaged with the mechanical components of the well; it's no longer bring water. So until this gets fixed, we're left with the storage bins pulled from the air, which isn't enough."
"Mmm. Reports like that aren't unusual, particularly the memory loss. Let's see if I can perform a quick scan of her head. Mrs. Murphey? This won't take more than a moment." Presuming there was no move to stop, the doctor would begin carefully moving her hand palmwards facing over the woman's head.
Medically, her synaptic connections where "disrupted", leaving her without access to some of her memory, and damage to her hypothalamus, probably reducing endorphins and thus, depression.
Psionically, there is residual energy surrounding the woman's brain, most strongly in the medically effected areas.
Suddenly, a bit of the psionic energy leeches out of the woman's mind and into Dr. Yusil. She suspects it's an attack at first, but no harm comes to her. Exposure to the energy seems to have unlocked something in her Dakkaran genetics. Her mind is flooded with information. It will take her time to make use of the information, but she's confident that she can learn to apply it toward healing at least the lesser-damaged of these people.
"<Caverns collapsing->" The Dokkaran swore in a way she hadn't done in years, wincing back as the strange sensation rocked her consciousness. As the headache waned, she was filled with a sense of curiosity as theories presented themselves to her. It seemed, as foggy memories of wooded stone circles and disconcertingly familiar chants waxed and waned, that the Sammsaran weren't alone when it game to genetic memory.
The importance of this discovery would need to take a backseat for now however. She had people she needed to help piece back together. A prospect that once seemed insurmountable, and was now merely exceptionably difficult. "Dr. Crank, can you bring me my bag please? There's some medicine in there that I've been working on. It-"
-needed more nescelliance, something that would help bind the girl's mind. The essential cammanence root was in short supply within these south-deep cavernlands, but he'd heard of a local plant with similar properties. The bright-blue glow of a-
"-Doralmain Lilly." Yusil spoke nonsensically to the human, blinking as the flash of memory faded. She knew of both these plants, her mother in particular loved keeping vases full of the flowering root-stems. If she recalled, there was a certain chemical present within that attributed to it's ghostly bio-lumenscisent glow. While there was no sensible reason to ever keep that in a small clinic like this, she knew how to synthesize it.
"Dr. Crank, do you have biocehmical lab I can borrow? There's something I forgot aboard the ship."
"Certainly, Doctor, anything you need, especially if you think you can help these patients. All we've been able to do is medicate them. Just down that hallway, through the secure doors and to the left. Here's my scan-card."
"Thank you." She nodded appreciatively, taking the card and moving down the hallway. It would take a little work to recreate, and hopefully later refine, a medicinal recipe from a long forgotten distant ancestor. Hopefully she was up to the task.
The knowledge still fresh in her mind, Dr. Yusil manages to concoct what she thinks is an appropriate compound to assist in reigniting Ms. Murphey's brain. It will require more, however. Yusil, or someone else possessed of psionic ability, will have to "activate" the compound once it's been ingested. She couldn't explain exactly WHY, but something to do with interdimensionality. A "psychic plane" so to speak.
It took Dr. Yusil two hours to modify some existing psychoactive medications to the appropriate specifications. Ms. Murphey takes the medication without argument. Now it's time for Dr. Yusil to infuse Murphey with her own psionic energy.
DC 15 Fort Save:
At the end of the procedure, Yusil is tired, but she'll recover after a brief rest. The patient should begin to recover her memories and start feeling normal after a few hours. After that, a little therapy and she should be fine.
An hour or so later, Rudo is going over relevant security information with Chief Acevado when a call comes in over the comm from Krema.
"Lieutenant! Commander Legion! We have a big problem over here! Some subterranean quadripedal creatures have been issuing forth from the well! Guess they didn't like my repair attempts!"
Rudo turns in his chair, as if the quadrapeds were in the same room. Lt Krema, do not engage... find a a defensive position, shelter. I'm on my way.
Any insight? Words of... wisdom? He's addressing the collective locals, as he stands. His hands moving about his gear, checking placement, ammo, safeties.
Acevedo shrugs, taken aback. "We've never encountered such a thing. Want me to go with you guys?"
"Subterranean quadrupeds."
Legion nods, "Understood. Let's get ready to move, Lieutenant, and do what we do best"
Answering Acevedo. Yes, we may need more hands on deck... How about the two up front.
Commander, Sir. Rudo takes long strides towards the front door.
Acevedo himself comes with Legion-12 and Rudo in a ground truck refitted for his forces. Another of his ranks rides in the back. Both of them are armed with chemical-projectile firearms. Low-tech, but functional.
By the time you get to the water processing facility, Krema and McDonald are outside. Krema stands with his rifle, occasionally firing a warning shot at the main doors.
"Commander, Lieutenant! Very good to see you. Situation Report: we've been driven back by at least four very assertive beings. They're quadripedal but can also walk upright. Nasty biters, fluid spitters! One dead and several trapped inside!"
Do we have personnel in there?
"Several workers are in there! They're barricaded in a back room!" McDonald shouts from behind a truck.
Creatures:
Rudo:
Legion:
Krema:
Avecedo and Grunt:
Punch a hole by concentrating your fire... all the shots you can take. Take the left one out first.
I'm going in... Commander, you're welcome to join.
Rudo holds, waiting for a bogie to drop, before advancing.
After several minutes, Rudo and Legion both surmise that they are not planning on charging out to get you. Probably a wise choice, considering. That said, several workers are still trapped inside.