Research Station Gamma - Part 1

Where the adventurers decide to help an alien orphan and discover that everything is not what it seems on the planet Vanegen.

Based on Carl's notes from the game on Sunday, the 6th of January 2013.

Continued from last months game.

Location: Vanegen, Rhylanor Subsector

Imperial Date: 361-1102

As told by Fig Newton, the Skylark 2's scribe and navigator.

Vanejen, lovely Vanejen. With the .8 gravity relative to our normal, we are all feeling fitter, and enjoying the slightly denser atmosphere, and late in the planetary spring is a great time to visit.

On the less touristy side, the evening of 361-1102 found us gathered about the common room table discussing our 'findings'. You can never put a lot of faith in what you pick up in a bar or hotel, but at that point it was looking like we would have to tell the Chirper, Chiree by name, that we wouldn't help with the kidnapped family, or we would have to invade an Imperial Preserve.

That afternoon, Medicus had spent some more time with Chiree, talking and conducting some more tests. The Chirper is not strong, but is really really fast... roadrunner fast, Speedy Gonzales fast, and has a pretty good constitution for its small size. It also likes warm... any time we need to find our new buddy, we just have to look in the Fresher. He really likes the shower's blow dryer and can be found hanging off one of the hand rails with the air on full blast.

Following dinner and a small council, we forayed back into town to gather more rumors - even unreliable, we wanted a little more basis for the decision. Fig and Sam mingled, Kipenzi and Medicus rubbed elbows, and Leon went off to schmooze with a more refined section of the populace. I will never really get it, but Leon has got it for dealing with society, and we hoped to get a variety of thoughts and discussions.

We gathered a variety of rumors and stories, the gist of which is that there was an Imperial presence here in the past much more than today, and that the facility in the south - 200 km off the coast at a guess - was doing research, likely weapons development, but that not much goes on now.

(Score one for 'OK, let's go get the kid's family').

A lot of the residents are still resentful that the people in the facility didn't spend much money, leaving folks here feeling a little used. The only specific (loosely speaking) information was that an Imperial ship was at the station within the last month or so. (Score one for 'Sorry, little guy').

The next day Kipenzi and Medicus went down to the sea port, to hear the talk there and to explore the possibility of chartering a boat to go south, while Leon continued his infiltration of the upper echelon of society. The Vanejen economy is largely run by families, with each family having a primary sector of the economy that they more or less monopolize, and he wanted to get a foot in the door at that level.

At the docks, Kipenzi and Medicus found that lots of the transportation on Vanejen is done in submarine to get under the ice during the winter, and that most of the ships have defensive armaments for fear of pirates, particularly in southern waters. (Score one more for 'Sorry, little guy').

They also firmed up information on the research facility, learning that it is a tower-type construct in the ocean, quite a ways offshore and embedded in the ocean floor but rising well above the highest water level.

* * * * * *

An adjunct to the current conundrum of what to do with/for Chiree, Fig took the book he inherited, Twilight's Peak, to the starport office center where he could rent a 3D scanner that could copy the book into digital format so it could be searched, indexed and summarized. He used some summarization software to create a bullet point and a 'Cliff Notes' version. As you would suspect, the Cliff Notes was a little more detailed, but the bullet point document was a fast read:

"We died"

Not the most encouraging document ever, but that is for another day.

* * * * * *

Kipenzi and Medicus also looked into chartering a helicopter for a tour, but that seemed more impractical than even the boat, since the locals would not violate a no-fly zone, but it put us on to thinking about our air/raft. While we could not take off from port here, the new air/raft can come and go from space, and seats all of us plus some cargo if we need to.

Note from Kipenzi: We were asking about a boat, a helicopter and a submarine and did not rent any of them. They were probably getting suspicious at that point.

Sam spent some time in the port authority on the space side, checking comings and goings in hopes of confirming or denying the Imperial visit rumor, and confirmed it. He also noticed a plaque that referenced some of the information in the Cliff Notes version of the poem book analysis, referencing one of the ships rumored to have been involved, and he noted the information for further consideration.

Gyro Cadiz Task Force

In 984, during the Third Frontier War, a routine request for radiation treatment pharmaceuticals for Regina was routed through Rhylanor to the navy base at Vanejen, which usually filled the order. The GYRO CADIZ (a subsidized merchant), along with an escort of three Type-S scouts (the BLATANT LIE, the CARLISLE, and the BLACK GOLD), carried the order and left Vanejen on 101-984. By 326-984 the convoy was declared "missing".

A hundred years later, after the Fourth Frontier War, the derelict of the BLATANT LIE was discovered. From its memory banks it was determined that the convoy had been destroyed by Zhodani military action.

Another note from Kipenzi: Medicus determined that an Imperial ship resupplies the station irregularly every 2 years, which made this a good time to visit. Having asked for this information probably made them more suspicious, too.

The evening of 362-1102 we discussed just taking Chiree back to the northern continent (where he originated) and dropping him off, but decided that would be no better than just leaving him here.

Slowly a plan took shape.

The Imperial Navy Captain's uniform that we salvaged from the Haunting Thunder will fit Kipenzi with a few alterations. Leon still has his uniform from when he was active duty navy. Medicus and Fig can be configured with believable flight suits. Sam was the most reluctant to go visit the research station and volunteered to stay on board and monitor the progress if we did venture down by the air raft. To that end, over the next couple days, Sam and Medicus coded a nice look of an Imperial Navy design for the air/raft hologram (yay, Sam, got us all the goodies !!) as well as arranging for our next cargo load. We monitored the Imperial frequency bands as well as system traffic control to see what was coming and going, fully prepared to cancel if another Imperial ship was inbound to the research facility or preserve area.

Perhaps significant, though we hoped not, Medicus was stopped by a local law person on one of his outings, carded extensively and looked at askance as a possible Zhodani spy on New Year's. Hopefully, this was just an aggravated local trooper venting some frustration, but we walked more carefully after that.

On 002-1103, up into space we went, and after establishing an orbit, the air raft headed back down on it's own. Finding the station was easily done, and as we expected there was an air raft landing pad. No radio chatter occurred, and we set down gently.

Digital painting by Nezach

Kipenzi and Leon got out and went inside, with Fig and Medicus staying in the raft as backup and monitoring what went on inside on the radio. Sam and Chiree were also listening in from the ship in orbit.

The facility is staffed sparsely, and in the first half hour or so of walking about, the "Inspection Team" did not encounter anyone, or even any real indication that people are here. The closest thing in the entry area was a note on the counter saying:

Leave your deliveries on the counter and do not disturb me!

We hoped that might even mean that only one person was on station at this time and that it was mostly shut down. Kipenzi and Leon proceeded carefully in any event, exploring the top level somewhat and finding a security office with a map of the top two levels. It looked like there could be as many as 16 people here normally (meeting room was set up for that many) but while no dust is piling up there was also a feeling of emptiness. There was an office with a dead plant that looked like it had been neglected for years. There was a facility that could house several robots (hopefully just cleaning and maintenance ones) shown on the second level down, and a library on the first.

The Maps in the Security Office

Checking out the library, they found a lot of books - real books with real pages, not just computers and discs or storage. This in itself is unusual in our current day and age. The books were basically in three categories:

• Zoology and Biology, especially of intelligent and semi-intelligent beings.
• History and Sociology of the Zhodani, especially of their use of psionics in government.
• Psionics in general. Many being psionics instruction texts or books banned by the Imperium.

We heard recurring rumors of Zhodani on the northern continent, and with the psionics texts this put us more on guard than before, but left the puzzle of why an Imperial facility would house information that is severely frowned on, if not outright banned in the Imperium.

It suddenly occurs to Kipenzi to realize that Leon is ex-Imperial navy and we are about to take something away from the Imperium. She then thinks that it is too late now to wonder where his loyalties lie.

Continued in Research Station Gamma, part 2

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows.