Research Station Gamma, Part 2

Where the adventurers impersonate Imperial Navy officers to rescue the family of an alien orphan.

Based on Carl and Kay's notes from the game on Sunday, the 9th of February 2013.

Location: Imperial Research Station Gamma, Vanegen, Rhylanor Subsector

Imperial Date: 003-1103

As told by Fig Newton and Kipenzi Momoh of the Skylark 2.

"With cruelty and oppression it is everybody's business to interfere when they see it" - Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

That, as much as a basic lack of common sense, was what got us into an Imperial Research Facility, having flown down through a no-fly zone to impersonate Imperial Naval personnel.

And now, the rest of the story...

003-1103 about 0600

We left off with Kipenzi and Leon in the upper level of the research station, looking for someone to talk to. They did not have long to wait. With the sound of a motor and a metal clink as a railing opened up, a robot appeared out of the central service shaft and addressed them.

The robot, as they both recognized, was a guard-bot, an AN-427 type. It gave a welcome, and asked them their business and for some identification. Handing over the forged documents, the pair were scanned and issued temporary ID cards for the facility and informed the security system that two visitors had arrived. All the crew breathed a little easier at that point, though we had a great deal of confidence in Sam's forgery skill.

Up on the Skylark, a slightly different response came from Chiree. He yelled 'Metal Monster - RUN' and before Sam could respond he was out of sight. Sam then spent some not insubstantial time looking around the ship trying to find the Chirper again, and finally used a bioscanner. Chiree finally appeared from behind Sam’s chair and claimed to have been there the whole time.

As well as the issuance of cards, Leon and Kipenzi were fully bio-scanned, and their information entered into the station's database. We knew that would have to be dealt with, if at all possible.

*************

It is worth noting here is that Kipenzi and Leon, as well as having earbuds and mini-transmitters to talk with the air/raft repeating up to the Skylark, that Kipenzi kept a good running dialog of what was happening, so that in the absence of video this time, all of us would be as informed as possible.

*************

Kipenzi and Leon were escorted to the mess hall and provided coffee and sandwiches while the administrator was contacted. Professor Sir Gnetus Jerrold Vecervis was, as it turns out, the sole human habitant of the facility. To help with running things, there were 8 housekeeping robots, 8 animal tender bots, and 8 security bots like the one they had seen.

Initially the professor was not best pleased, starting off with "Who the Hell are you? Why are you interrupting my work?" Kipenzi, now Captain Leticia Smith, just rode over him in typical high handed Navy style (at least in the Scouts we were polite to folks, but the Navy is the Navy....) and after a few sentences from each Kipenzi had made it clear they were here for a security inspection following a breach from the ship that most recently visited, and the professor had moved from confrontational to a 'just do what you need and get out of here' mindset.

Kipenzi and Leon meet the Professor

Before the professor went back to his work, we all learned that:

1. The last ship had delivered some biological samples (near microscopic in size, they might be able to move sand grains telekinetically)

2. The professor has been here alone for quite a long time, and liked it that way. He’s looking 60, but has been here since the base first opened, over 100 years ago. Taking anagathics?

3. The research facility is trying to achieve long-range communications with psionics of some kind, ideally instantaneous and across system-to-system range, but progress has been slow (like 100 years slow - Kipenzi). The professor says he has some good theories to investigate, but is a long way from any true application. (So we won’t be setting their timetable back if we damage this facility – always trying to stay helpful. - Kipenzi)

4. The facility is fully available to inspect. (' just get it done and be gone'). (We get the impression the Prof is milking this position - Kipenzi)

The security records were copied electronically to Leon's datapad, Leon was acting as the senior NCO of the inspection.

During the next hours, a slow comprehensive inspection of the facility, with good narrative and recording of data, was effected, and we learned that 10 of the 12 bio-domes were occupied, with one housing some Chirpers and one holding 5 humanoids. (...and one housing a 3200 kg amphibious predator – that telepathically makes prey think that it’s safe – yeesh - Kipenzi)

The smooth processing of the inspection was interrupted when they came to a small room or holding cell with straw on the floor, and the bioscanners showed some life. It was some small insect-like creatures, and Leon got bitten badly on one calf when one crawled up his leg. That led to an appropriately outraged Captain, and a return to the air raft for medical attention. At that point, Fig swapped out with Leon, who was potentially seriously hurt and stayed under Medicus's observation. (Kip’s personal note: Leon is entertaining when he’s sedated; except for his wanting to fly the air raft, when we weren’t on it. Medicus kept him off the control panels).

Also swapped out was the data recorder and all its data, including the security configuration and records of the station. Medicus got to work on a virus to be inserted later on to remove any trace of our being here. (We also kept in mind that the security bot had excellent hearing, ie human heartbeat at 10 meters, so we connived on the air raft out of hearing - Kip)

With the virus in mind, Kipenzi and Fig returned to the computer control area and learned that there is no off-site backup, but there is a nuclear self-destruct option in the most dire of circumstances. Continuing the narrative for the rest of the crew, Kipenzi got that information to Medicus - virus to erase our record here = Good, virus that sets off a nuke = BAD. (As the virus parameter input went back and forth, one subroutine that got fitted in included the bots shooting the Prof as an intruder before going offline themselves. We re-targeted the virus to just shut down the security bots, so that the animal care bots would continue to function – we didn’t want the animals to die of neglect - but that subroutine remained - Kip)

The virus would be inserted as an interim 'fix' to security protocols that were needed immediately, with a more comprehensive patch to come the next day after the crew (the Captain implied, at least by her rank, that there was at least a Cruiser class ship in orbit) in the ship made a comprehensive program.

After more inspection, allowing Medicus the time to code the virus, and one more return to the air raft to coordinate out of earshot of the robots (this model, as Leon explained to us during his treatment for the bite, has up to 30' audio pickup of low level sounds, and is well armored). We had not planned to fight, and learning that made it even more important to avoid confrontation. Medicus had added code to disable all the guard robots as well as cut out all communications and erase all records of our presence. (Currently there was one security bot on each of us in the station, so Kip and Fig; also one bot wandering about, and 4 additional bots re-charging in their station)

When all was ready, Kipenzi and Fig arranged for a globe by globe inspection of the biodomes, with Kipenzi starting at level 11 (the humanoids ) and Fig at level 5 (the chirpers) and proceeding to the others one at a time, with a guard robot to accompany each of them. (Kip told the Prof that she and FIG would do a thorough search of the globes and gave her reasons for starting at the chirpers and humanoids as dividing the labor to do it faster – the fool bought it, as he wanted us out faster anyway. We told him that Medicus would upload a computer security patch at the same time.) Medicus was at the computer console to do the interim patch, and as soon as the two bio-dome doors had opened he executed the code. Fortunately for all of us, it worked well and the 4 active guard robots shut down. One of them had been in transit on its track in the shaft, and fell to the bottom, well over 400 meters.

(The 5 humanoids were being kept under high gravity. The Prof had given Kip an anti-telepath helmet. Kip took it off as soon as the bots were shut down, so the prisoners would believe her)

Kipenzi spoke to the humanoids, and Fig yelled to the Chirpers that Chiree sent us. The chirpers had been undetectable until that point (or perhaps it was running the bio scanner, we were not sure, but it was clear from our experience and the professor's talk that they can make themselves undetectable to humans, but not to video recording).

With the elevator still operating, we got the humanoids and the Chirpers to the raft (a tight squeeze, but we managed), and Medicus and Fig went back in to see to the professor. We had decided, after some discussion back and forth, that killing him was the best course of action, but despite carrying a bio scanner the two were unable to locate him after a pretty good search, and returned to the air raft instead.

Taking off, we tried to shoot out the communications antenna array, but that proved impractical, so Fig suited up with the lifter belt and mechanically disabled all the comm. No sooner than the comm was fully out of commission, a shot came from somewhere in the station's superstructure. Clearly the professor was upset and had shot at Fig. Using the better part of valor, we all got out of there and back to Skylark.

A Chirper family reunion ensued, and we were able to communicate with the humanoids well enough. A DNA sample, Mediucs's expertise information in the database showed that the humanoids came from a system far to the rimward, well past the Darrian subsector. Further discussion with the Chirpers and some map reading made them pretty sure where home was, in the northern continent, and the humanoids (we never did learn what they called themselves) would be OK with living in the Chirper village and providing mutual support and company.

Off to the northern continent, and Sam and Kipenzi rafted the group down to their village. The 'treasure' that Chiree had spoken of was just shiny stuff most of which was junk. Sam negotiated a reward of three full sets of the Droyne Coynes, of the 70,000-year-old variety. Now at least we have all the symbols available for reference, should that ever become needful.

Mission fairly well complete, except for the Barony Fig was anticipating, we left Vanegen and jumped for the Gitosy system just past midnight, 004-1103 0005.

*****

Now comes the excitement of trying to make sense of Twilight's Peak, a multi-hundred page book of execrable poetry, a saga probably embellished from 5 lines of a verbal report 200 years ago. Not likely to be a lot of truly factual data, but we hope to fill out information as we trade around this sector and on back toward Regina.

(Not to mention, an entire database of all security protocols on an Imperial Naval Research Facility – and all of their defects- which Kipenzi is graciously listing and cataloging for future reference; as well as all of the database on the Prof’s research into psionics for the past 100 years. BTW: Kipenzi wondered if that subroutine in the virus - that had the Prof being shot by his own security bots - would come online when he got the computer back up and running. Checking with Medicus, the answer was “yes”. Ouch. – Kipenzi)

*****

And now you know.....the rest of the story

(PS – apparently Leon really detests the Zhodani, a factoid that came out when we were talking with the Prof about his psy research – Kip)

Continued in Twilight's Peak, Part 1

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