Prison Planet - Alien Legacy, Part 1

Where the adventurers continue treating the disease infecting the prisoners and staff of Tarkwall Prison and and discover an alien base in the caves below the prison.

This note is from the December 8, 2013 session and was mostly written by Carl with input from Kay and I.

Continued from: Prison Planet Part 2.

Location: The Planet Keanu, Lanth Subsector.

Imperial Date: 006-1104

Evening
Medicus and Fig processed the first 100 or so personnel through the auto-doc. Limited by the supplies, the prison staff (assistant warden primarily) had to pick the first group to be inoculated against the virus. We also showed the prison's medical staff how to use the auto-doc. The main staff was on the phone and radio trying to locate and secure more supplies, since there would be about 300 more people that needed to be run through after our supplies ran out.

The Pirate Balin Starovich and his niece were in the first group. These were the two remaining of the three people who will mysteriously die after about 3 or so weeks, from different causes. Medicus will finally get revenge against the pirates who killed his mother all those years ago. [Sam said it best, “It’s not that we’re the good guys, it’s just that we don’t like the bad guys.” - Kipenzi]

During the night, Fig and Medicus took turns sleeping for an hour or two at a time, so they would not be completely exhausted the next day. Kipenzi and Leon went back to the Skylark for a real meal and to sleep in their bunks.

007-1104
As morning came, the auto-doc supplies had run out, and Leon and Kipenzi had returned to the prison. The four of us talked with the assistant warden, and Medicus presented a good case for us going down into the lower levels, and past the opening, to try and find “the cause of the outbreak”. The prison staff agreed, letting us bring weapons as well, so long as the guards carried them from the upper levels to the opening to the unknown (but not unmapped) area. The video of the 'dragon' chasing Rover 2 when it was mapping the caves helped a lot in that regard.

We all went back to the Skylark to get our gear, and make sure Sam was fully aware of our plans. While we were en route back, we saw - and Sam spotted on sensors - a private shuttle inbound to the prison. It was one belonging to Baron Vilad Kannen. He was sending such supplies for the auto-doc that he had, and dropped them off in a flyby. The Baron, as Sam learned with a bit of research, owns a lot of desert land, including land bordering Tarkwall Prison. He is a major player in the spice trade, and makes a lot of use of prison labor in the harvesting. Good reasons for him to want people out and about and working.

Vacc-suited, grav-belted, comm-equipped and armed as well as we could be, the four of us headed back to the prison. Medicus had put his ring - the one that reacted to the Ancient Facility on Fulacin - in a readily accessible and visible area. By early afternoon were down on level 2, ready to venture off into the unknown area. The tension helped keep Medicus and Fig from yawning too much.

The underground cave area varied in height, and with a full map we decided that our best route would be to start with a crawl down a one meter high tunnel. Sensor and weapons ready, we went forward.

Medicus noticed blood staining the crawlspace wall in the area where the guards had taken down Subotai Shanad the day before, and we redoubled our vigilance.

Reaching an open area, the sensor showed a large organic mass in the center, below the floor. With everyone thinking 'trap door spider' we slowly went into the room. To no one's surprise, when Medicus threw a bolt out into the middle up surged a big tentacled thing in a cloud of dust.

Some gunfire later it was down and dead, but in the process it had grabbed Leon and damaged his suit more than just a little. It was a good thing we had been fully inoculated from the virus still present in the prison- thanks Medicus.

Medicus checked and tended to Leon. He was only bruised but his suit was badly abraded. The suit got patched as best we could, but would have to be replaced as soon as possible since it was no longer pressure tight. With full video of the attack from our suit cameras and samples of the creature bagged up, we proceeded cautiously down the tunnel.

A bit further down we sighted a globe-shaped object. Tossing in a bolt got no reaction, but we stayed away from it anyway. Several of these globes were in a room a little further on, and Medicus recognized them as HUGE examples of a local fungus. Normally much smaller, they were the source for the drug scrab. Scrab is a highly addictive narcotic, normally injected, and was one of the substances the auto-doc found in several of the people that had been processed. Medicus told us to not touch them - especially Leon with his damaged suit.

Going out toward the 'back entrance', we found another life presence - a 75kg something on the ceiling. It was the cave dragon that had chased Rover, or one just like it. We fired, hoping to chase it off, and it beat feet toward the desert.

Above ground, we contacted Sam and learned that he had had a visit from the local law and customs people from Circle City. Arriving in a 40 ton cutter, Sheriff Olina Magros and Mr. Ben Boland from the port authority accompanied by 4 deputies with ACR’s were interested in why a ship was parked out in the desert.

“We always get suspicious when a ship with a military paint job, no company logo or even a ship name painted on the side lands in the middle of nowhere… especially this time of year at the start of the spice harvest. “

“We would like to inspect your ship.”

An empty cargo hold and a walk through, followed by confirmation from the prison that we were in fact helping there got us off with only a 22,500 credit ticket for an unauthorized landing. Sam took care of the needed paperwork to allow us to stay another day, and the cutter headed off on its business.

While outside and in contact, we uploaded all our suit video and audio to the Skylark, just in case, and made sure we had a very accurate fix on the 'back door' of the caverns.

Back into the cavern area, about 1800, we came back to the divergence of the tunnels, and a space that was underwater. Kipenzi and Fig noticed some unusual geology, and our sensors confirmed that not all of the cavern was natural. There were some artificially constructed walls designed to blend in with the natural ones. Initial scanning indicated that this may have been a large tunnel, probably artificial, rather than a set of smaller tunnels and rooms.

The lifter with all our gear would not fit down the tunnel to the next area, so we parked it at the juncture of the tunnels and proceeded. More artificial walls augmented the natural ones as we proceeded.

We found another life form on the ceiling, this time 60kg, and after some discussion decided that shooting was a better choice than leaving it alone. This one we were unable to actually see, and firing blind was unproductive. Kipenzi edged forward for a better angle, and went just a hair too far. It was a cave dragon, a large gekko-like creature. It dropped on her and bit her on the shoulder, its sharp teeth piercing through her pressure suit and armored underwear. With the fairly close quarters and not wanting to hit Kipenzi, it took more than just a few seconds to kill this one, and Kipenzi joined Leon in the "I need a new VACC suit" category. Fortunately, the wound was minor and she checked out OK when Medicus did a full scan, and the VACC suit was patched as best we could.

Rover's wanderings through the cavern area, as well as giving us a good map, had shown and area where someone had left a shovel, and a hole next to it. We went down for that area next. We found a good-sized hole, with what appeared to be a door at the bottom.

Medicus got in, and the access opened, it was an iris hatch like on a ship, but of a non-standard design. There was no vibration or other indication from his ring, just and opening of the iris, and we all were surprised a little.

An oval shaped corridor led down to another iris valve door, and we proceeded cautiously. As we moved down the corridor the door closed behind us, but reopened again when the ring was brought near to it.

* sighs of relief all around *

At the far end of the passage, in the center of the iris valve was a small green semicircle panel. Opening that door we saw a good sized circular room, with doors about every 45 degrees around, and a metallic construct looking something like a metal and glass banyan tree with buttons and gauges.

Bioscanning was negative, and since there was illumination coming from the floor, we turned off our suit lights. Indicators and many glyphs were all over the 'tree' and along the walls, some changing as we watched.

Around the room, each door had a semicircle light in the middle, some illuminated and some off. Experimenting carefully, we learned that Medicus's ring appeared to be a key, locking (semi circle lit up) and unlocking (not lit) the doors by touch. When unlocked, the doors open to another touch and stay that way until nothing is in the way, and then closed after a few seconds.

With no better plan, we opened one door and found another corridor. At the end was another door, with the semicircle illuminated like the others, but in the corridor was a mummified body. Examining the body, we learned it was a prisoner with a 9096 on his shirt. He looked like he had been here quite a while. He appeared to have been squeezed or crushed. A broken back and several broken ribs seemed the most likely cause of death. We decided to leave the body alone for the time being.

Fig took the ring down to the end and unlocked the door. After returning the ring to Medicus, with people watching and ready to shoot if needed, Fig went back to the new door and opened it.

The next room was also round and had a few tanks with fungus and algae like things growing in them, and a door on the far side. There were glyphs all over the place. On one table we noticed an alien device which we left alone. The far door opened onto a rectangular room with a deep shaft going down. There were, strangely, no railings around it.

Looking at the time, we decided the best thing was to lock up all the doors and go out. We had been down here several hours and did not want to stay a suspiciously long time and give the prison reason to wonder what was going on.

As we were making that decision, the door to the room opened and a droid of some kind appeared, with its arms extended for a nice hug. Hmmmm. Dead man on floor, crushed, robot wanting a hug...

It looked like a walking space suit, with green glyphs on the faceplate, and moved more quietly than we would have thought.

Dodging, just barely in some cases, we were able to maneuver around the table and tanks in the room and got out to the cavern area. The droid did not follow us past the corridor, and we breathed more easily back in the cave area.

We decided that enough was enough for one day, and made our way back to the prison. Along the way, we went back outside and did another upload to the Skylark, and scrubbed all the video that dealt with the possibly Ancient area. We also recovered the lifter on the way back to Tarkwell.

Turning our weapons over to the staff for return to the surface, and recovering them after getting back up, we boarded the air raft and returned to Skylark, with much to think about and discuss, and plans to make for the next few days.

Continued in: Prison Planet - Alien Legacy, Part 2

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak.