ANNIC NOVA - Part 3

The Crew of the Skylark 2 continues to explore the ANNIC NOVA and visits the planet Keng where they look for a missing archaeologist - and find trouble.

This note is from our September 4th 2016 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself. Since we are now scattered around the country, we used Roll20’s virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: ANNIC NOVA, Part 2

Date: 129-1106 Imperial.

Location: The Keng system in the Regina Subsector.

Midnight: Kipenzi suggested that we open the “corpse room” on the Annic Nova to see what killed the people, now that we are more aware of it due to Medicus' exposure. He was much better and we let him out of the autodoc.

The next morning, Medicus, Kipenzi and Sam went across to the derelict.

What we had been calling the “Corpse room” was the room where our scanners had detected the presence of four corpses or skeletons. The door had a crayon drawing of a coiled snake, something that a child would do.

Kipenzi opened the door and a lot of dust billowed out. We made a note to be especially careful with the decontamination of our suits in the near future. We found bodies (One girl, one man, two women) all in same advanced state of decay. Medicus estimates 3-4 months if in a normal atmosphere. We also found dirty linen piled in a corner and floor was filthy and covered with that dust.

Medicus checked the bodies out - no signs of violence or obvious cause of death, so plague seemed likely at that point. Samples taken for testing and DNA.

Elsewhere in the ship, Sam investigated the liquor cabinet. It mostly contained bottles with labels in an unfamiliar language. Button cam got them all on tape for later translation. One bottle had a label in Galanglic and was a cheap Vilani brand about 20 years old. It might be a clue where the ship had been. Sam said “This brand isn’t top shelf, so it should have been drunk sooner - unless it had special significance (like rare)”.

Before going back to the ship, the team decided to use a fresher to clean the dust off the vacc suits - but still planned the decontamination thing coming back to the Skylark.

In one of the staterooms, Sam noticed a little weirdness in a mirror - not reversed image. Built-in camera and screen?

We also looked at the map of Victoria that we found earlier. It looked like a standard Imperial map, not something from an alien culture.

Victoria in the Lanth subsector is a red zoned planet, interdicted by the Scout Service to protect an interesting pre-space travel culture that they are studying. The local civilization lives on high mountains above the poisonous atmosphere found in the lower areas and use dirigibles to get between them. One of the moons there is rumored to have an Ancient site.

After cleaning off in freshers, everyone can see the tracks they make in the dust on the floor. Decontamination for sure!

Kipenzi and Medicus went up to the “garden” area, to get another look at the greenery. Probably food plants but not recognized. Medicus took some samples. Estimated a month of untended growth.

Back to Skylark, decontamination and monitoring of how we all feel. This is an ongoing thing.

Medicus went to work on the new samples, sciencing the shit out of it all.

Recontacted Keng to update information - still no problems there, and no new arrivals.

Heading down toward Keng to deliver our low passengers and cargo. Kipenzi: “We kinda forgot about the two low passengers, in all the excitement. So Sam offered them a discount for the extra week in storage”.

It took about two hours to get to the planet from our location. As we approached the world, the Imperial Keng Navy’s Syralth, 400-ton system defense boat hails us. They want to board. They get copies of Medicus's information and let us pass on, once their medic checks us all out.

Working the night shift at the tower is Claude Withers, a retired Scout Service veteran who works the tower as a hobby. He gives us clearance to land and welcomes us in the name of the Marquis of Keng and the Imperial Keng Space Society. We talk with him about what we found and tell him that we want to get the new language from the Annic Nova to the Scouts, for analysis and maybe a reward. Unfortunately, he had no useful suggestions for us.

Once on the ground, we try to buy unrefined fuel (we have enough left for a one jump) and discover that they've been busy this week and don't have enough to top us off, so we get what they have and start refining. We'll refine the rest later, so we'll be here longer than normal.

Fuel will take a few days to get (they don't hold a lot at a time). This is a desert world and water is in short supply. We decided to wait the week and wait for it to be delivered. Cargo and fuel refining is important.

We waited till morning to for Medicus to thaw out the low passengers. There were no medical problems and Sam gave them 100 credits for the inconvenience of being a week late.

The atmosphere is at a higher oxygen pressure here and extreme fire hazard. We'll need respirators if we want to go out.

With daylight, we got a look at the terminal building. It is large, but very run down.

In the starport there was a wanted poster for a missing archaeologist named Eneri Meredeth. The contact listed is Lynn Meredeth on Keng. We called her to get further information.

Sam and Leon walk around doing the broker thing, looking for someone to buy our cargo.

Medicus continues research. Kipenzi monitors the ship and keeps an eye on comm.

A young man, Dexter Dassusii with the IKSS, approached Sam & Leon in the terminal building.

He shows them a map. He says that Navy coverage is limited, and they would not necessarily see a ship if one landed and showed them the blind spots. If a ship could get passed the system defense boat in orbit, they could land on nearly half of the planet without being observed.

The computer says we could search 4-5 hexes of the map per day, and we didn't think it was worth the time. Locals can take care of it.

Fig talked with Lynn Meredeth she told Fig that her dad disappeared while surveying in the outback. She had a rough area in which he was most likely looking. He was investigating reports of anomalies of some sort. She told him that there were at least two major cultures on the planet - one high law culture in the wetter areas near the capital, and those in the outback, a more nomadic and lower law level culture.

The man had been missing a couple of weeks. Guns are not permitted in the law areas. No weapons at all. Lynn told us that the outbackers have weapons and no one bothers them. Just don't get caught.

He went out to the other side of the planet, nearly 8,000 Km away. Would take an overnight trip just to get there and a few days staying if we used the air/raft. We could take the Skylark up to low orbit and stage from there. We wouldn’t be able to load or unload cargo if we did that though.

We decided to take just the air/raft with Kipenzi and Fig. Everyone else would stay back at the ship with Medicus continuing his research and San and Leon handling cargo.

We got a permit to fly the air raft, a surprisingly easy task on a world with as high a law level as Keng.

When the Skylark was refueled and the cargo loaded, the rest would come up into orbit above the area and contact us.

It is winter in the northern hemisphere, so we take clothes for the occasion. Medicus gives us a couple epi-pens of the anti-plague cocktail he came up with.

The shaded areas show where a ship would be spotted if it tried to land.

130-1106
Kipenzi and Fig loaded the air/raft for any eventuality. With just the two of them, they had plenty of room for gear and supplies. The left the starport and went suborbital to get above most of the atmosphere to make the best time.

Medicus had made some more progress from the samples he got off the dead bodies. The plague was accelerating their decomposition. The dust in the room came from the spores of the plague. Kipenzi notes, “It’s a good thing we washed off.”

131-1106
First day of the search. Kipenzi flies and looks, Fig scans and looks. We find wildlife.

132-1106
Second day. Lots of desert, one small settlement in a canyon. No power generation detected.

133-1106
Day three. the search continues. Where is Waldo??? or Nemo?

Pack of predators sighted.

Back at the ship, Medicus has isolated the germ. The bodies we found were not of any known human race. Definitely human, but not any known race.

134-1106
Weak high-energy source detected in the late afternoon. Cautiously, we approach. Nothing on the radio. We are shot at by a big laser. Kipenzi avoided it and we noted the location. Two SHIP-SIZED lasers were fired, from two directions.

She did a dive into a box canyon and got us safe.

Down below the canyon rim we were out of the line of fire.

Staying low, Kipenzi headed us out of the area. We noted that a BIG chunk of the canyon wall was a hologram, but we pretended to not notice and they didn't believe us. The air/raft took a shot to the rear grav plates.

Kipenzi didn't crash, skillfully making a soft landing in a reasonably flat area near the canyon wall. Fig armed up while Kipenzi looked at the drive. SHOT. Grabbed weapons, our grav belts, medical supplies, comm units, food and water.

Turning the air/rafts hologram on for some hiding chance, Kipenzi and Fig started to walk towards the hidden opening.

As we were about to go, Kip detected some life forms coming. Not Bedouins. They appear to be wearing spacer type gear. Four individuals with shotguns. We decide to use the element of surprise and our hologram.

Surprise round of fire is ineffective. They take cover and Kipenzi hears them saying “WTF?” They can’t see where we are shooting from.

Second round of fire is much better. Two of them down. Two to go.

Kipenzi and Fig shoot two spacers each. One breaks and runs but to no avail. We searched the bodies for ID, comm gear and weapons, then hide the bodies as best we can in the rocks above.

We walked up to the hologram area. There was no one else but a ship was in the recess. 400 tons+ well-armed, probably pirates.

We now have:

1 - a hidden 400T ship behind a hologram in a box canyon, with or without anyone on board. BTW a 400-Ton ship has about 13 crew, and we just shot 4.

2 - There are TWO other ships with lasers that fired on us before we got to the box canyon.

3 - Our drive is literally shot. We have no communications ability with the air/raft at the bottom of a canyon.

4 - Kip & Fig grabbed grav belts, food, water, weapons, and med supplies before exiting the air/raft.

5 - Kip&Fig grabbed the spacers's wallets, guns, comm units, and possibly the most important things – keys & key cards.

Cue the dramatic music...............

Continued in Sand Pit, Part 1.

I used Sketchup, Twilight Render and GIMP to do the air/raft being shot illustration.

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, and The Bloodwell.