ANNIC NOVA - Part 1

The Crew of the Skylark 2 discovers an abandoned starship and makes a terrifying discovery as to why it was abandoned.

This note is from our May 15th 2016 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself.

Continued from: Beck’s World

Date: 121-1106 Imperial.

Location: The Keng system in the Regina Subsector

We had detected a 600 ton ship near the 100 planetary diameter as we entered the Keng system. It was not broadcasting a transponder signal and was not moving, just hanging out there. We discussed whether to approach, report, or ignore. It looked like what we saw in the description of the UFO sighted at Dentus and Beck’s World, so we decided to approach it cautiously.

We plotted an emergency jump to Moughas, a C-Class starport on a water world one jump away . There was also a gas giant there so no problem with fuel. Prepared is our middle name, though occasionally "sometimes-not" seems to be our first.

We decide to move away then accelerate towards it, cut our engines and then drift past it on low power, that way we were almost invisible.

While the ship was drifting in Medicus remembered a report that he had read earlier and looked it up and shared it with the crew:

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Travellers’ Aid Society Advisory Report 02–030–1106

Reports received from the Regina subsector in the Spinward Marches tell of an unidentified starship of markedly unorthodox design which has been making use of unauthorized transmission frequencies. Originally sighted 311-1105, the ship immediately came to Imperial attention by standing off Heya (0802 B687745–5) and transmitting on a restricted military band. Interceptors scrambled immediately, but the ship jumped outsystem while the fighters were at extreme range.

Later reports have placed the ship at Kinorb (0602–A663659–8) where it stood off for nearly five weeks without any contact, then jumped. The lack of local bases or traffic made interception impossible.

Last known contact took place off Dentus (0601–C979500–A), where the local scout base immediately set five Type S scouts on contact duty. Although the unknown immediately jumped, some basic data was recovered from scanners. Reports of additional sightings should be forwarded to the local Travellers’ Aid Society for central consolidation.

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We switched over the listening to restricted military frequencies, but they were quiet.

Comm scanning found no emissions on any frequency, and as we coasted in we continued to detect nothing, though some of the ship windows had light coming out.

Unknown writing on the ship, the symbols look like “ANNIC NOVA I and ANNIC NOVA V. Fig thinks it they be numerals, some kind of registration number. The upper part of the ship had the appearance of solar sails folded up

The ship had three mounts evenly spread, two of which had what looked like pinnaces attached. From an engineer's view the ship looked subtly wrong, but not in any definite way.

One of the pinnaces looks like a standard Imperial design and the other one is its mirror image, like someone found the design and copied it backward. It looks like the two pinnaces are being used for in-system propulsion. We see weapons: two turrets each with a single laser.

We matched vectors, and an away team of Medicus, Sam and Leon went over.

Access was initially through the port side cargo door on one of the pinnaces. Standard design. Airlock hatch and passage lead to main body of ship.

Much was as we would expect - Comm, engines, life support, but equipment was bulkier than the normal gear we encounter. Most interior doors are standard iris valves.

Some plants had overgrown areas of the ship and the ship was in Zero-G. Shops, gear, living quarters. There seemed to be a weird combination of low tech, mid tech and high tech. Definitely alien culture. It also looked like the crew were smaller statured people.

The Away Team found one room that had a child's drawing of a snake on the door. The door was locked and the scanner showed bodies or skeletons. We did not open it.

The room across the hallway was charred, it appeared to have been firebombed with something like a plasma grenade.

We also found a room that was an armory, but missing weapons, and – oddly enough – contained a few children’s vacc suits. The staterooms looked like one room had contained 4 children. We found three adult vacc suits and 3 empty pegs.

One of the staterooms contained a data pad, to our surprise, it booted up with the language we saw in the ancient facility on Fulacin instead of the language we saw on the rest of the ship. It quickly self destructed after not getting the desired input.

In the stateroom area, there was a bar/entertainment center. We found a remote control for the entertainment center with six channels:

1. Animated film for children
2. Abstract color projection with soothing music
3. Bald humanoid speaking with maps, none familiar
4. Travelogue with animals in a natural habitat
5. Animated lecture on the elements
6. Static

After adjusting the controls on the remote, the static becomes a children's illustrated dictionary and we record it for language.

In the bar area we find a bottle with a Valani label on it.

Kipenzi’s Notes: The staterooms: one looks like 4 children were in it; other room with one bed and data pad. Another larger room with double bed and clothes for both sexes. Another room bunk bed but no clothes. Another room on other side of bar, the entire room looks like charred from plasma grenade. Opposite that room is another stateroom 2 bunks for 2 people, articles of clothing and small print camera and electric typewriter with transmitter. Next room has a taped child’s drawing of a coiled snake. The Door is locked. The x-ray scanner shows furniture, heaps of fabric on floor, either bodies or skeletons – 3 adults and one child. Last room, no fresher, cracked full length mirror. Several cartons of books with garish covers. We one map: Victoria in Lanth subsector.

A quick computer search for Victoria returns: Victoria is a red zone planet with indigenous low tech culture they didn’t want to contaminate. Rumor there’s an Ancient site on one of the moons. Planet atmosphere is only breathable above a certain height on mountain tops. Dirigibles between mountains.

We found the bodies in the locked room disturbing: Have we found Plague ship?

Medicus bagged a toothbrush for examination later and resolved to be very careful with our decontamination lest we bring something over to the Skylark.

On the lowest level we find the bridge, one chair in center and four chairs in front, so 5 member regular crew. We found the gravity controls and everyone lands on the deck without injury.

The tech levels are all over the place. The really high tech looks handmade, the lower tech looks manufactured or copied from Imperium.

We find two jump drives: one Imperium design 3-jump Manufactured by General Products, we take vin # to track down origin, and one Vargr design 2-jump.

KLUNK ! The big sails started to unfold... Power readings rose...

Looking at the power levels, it will take 5 weeks or so to charge the ship to jump.

Even though the drives don’t have enough power to jump, we tow it inside the 100 planetary diameter limit so it can’t jump out just to be safe.

Counting bodies and vacc suits, there seems to be an inconsistency. We figured that some, but not a lot of folks got out alive, possibly to Keng, about 880,000 Km away.

The ship’s last jump was a jump 1, narrowing down possible backtracking for plague. Only Moughas, Shionthy (an asteroid belt) and Freeport on a cometary body in the Oort Cloud with about 11,000 population about half a light year out.

There is increased piracy in system. So they could have been attacked by pirates and taken prisoner. But there is evidence of plague too. We could be going into a quarantine situation on Keng.

Harry Liimiri, while important, is NOT as important as stopping a plague. Kipenzi: “Also the Lusty Wench could have gone to the Freeport and not the Keng starport so he may never have even been here.”

...so off we go to try and warn people.

Continued in ANNIC NOVA, Part 2

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell.