Secrets of the Ancients - Otherworld, Part 2

 

The crew starts exploring the Ancient Starport and soon find themselves in even more trouble.

This chapter is based on Kay's notes from our November 22, 2022 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Secrets of the Ancients – Otherworld, Part 1

Location: On an unknown world, possibly in another Universe

Date: 311-1110 

0724
We were on the ground at what looked like a starport. Far Hunter was set down at the end of a row of ships. The rows went on for kilometers. Some of the ships were very old, including First Imperium ships.

There were huge ships that looked Ancient, most with battle damage; some were radioactive. Wedges and cylinders with sockets for modular globes like the freighter had. Some looked like warships or couriers; some had symbols like Ancient script on them.

There were space port domes and a tower in the distance. Dr. Juni Volsang wanted to use her scanner for G-band frequencies; they were lit up with lots of interference and there was some weird static on the regular frequencies.

The rest of the bands were quiet. There was none of the usual commercial or military comm that you would expect at a starport. Looking out at the field and other ships, there was no movement at all.

Aside from the giants behind us, most of the ships were Imperial-looking. The ship next to us was a Type-A merchant, much like the Void Skipper. Behind that was a Zhodani courier, and behind that was another Type-A. The next ship was an Aslan transport, blocking the view of ships behind it. Most looked like they were partially disassembled.

Sam checked the atmosphere - it’s breathable with a comfortable temperature.

Looking at the horizon, it was flat in one direction, perhaps with mountains or very large buildings in the distance. In the other direction was a domed starport with spherical tower. Sam wanted to use the air/raft and get closer.

We tried to contact the starport using standard Imperial frequencies, but got no response. We tried to use our teleport panel to teleport to the square room on top of the freighter; it didn’t work. We dialed up the other modules; no dice. We used the lock buttons to prevent anyone from coming through from the other side.

Dr. Juni found high energy readings on the star port, coming from the domes.

As we planned our investigations, we took stock of our weapons.

There are weapons on the Far Hunter: a missile launcher and a sandcaster in one turret; the other turret is non-functional, damaged in our descent into the gas giant in the Boughene system.

Between us and the ship’s locker we have gauss pistols, a plasma rifle, an ACR with grenade launcher, a FGMP-15, and several SNP-12 stunners.

The ship has a 6-seat air/raft and a launch configured for cargo. We took the air/raft with handheld weapons, button cams, translation devices, climbing equipment, ballistic cloth, hardened vacc suits, food and water, and camping equipment for an extended visit.

Leon Cruz and Fig Newton stayed on board the Far Hunter with Kenton Wylde.  The rest, including the university researchers, got into the air/raft. Juni has a laser pistol. Talf never used one but would like one. Sam suggests someone stays with Talf to make sure he stays out of trouble.

Once in the air, we saw some parts on the flight line behind most of the ships; it looks like some had been partially disassembled.

Flying over the domes, one has a 100m tall tower, with some openings at the bottom. A large door opened as we approached. Juni’s G-band scanner was useless here; it needed our ship’s scanners to work. Kipenzi flew the air/raft down to the open doorway.

There is a large space inside; with a large door on other side, closed. The room is bare, with hatches about 10m up on the east and west walls, and a huge door directly ahead. The ceiling was about 50m high and the room had a 75-meter width and depth. We started to fly to the far wall to its door, and the air/raft lost power around 10 meters inside the room. The outer door closed behind us. We still have communications to the ship. Kipenzi tried using her comm to contact the building we’re in; no response.

We found that we were getting scanned by a high-powered beam.

We opened the air/raft door manually to get out and get oxygen and light. Kipenzi put on her vacc suit. Juni and Talf used scanners and button cams to get pics. Kip checked the power on our air/raft battery; the battery is fine but something is suppressing the antigrav. Kipenzi walked to the door on the far side, and others followed. The door opened, and behind it was another bare room just like the one we were in.

Kipenzi walked to the east wall, pulled out the climbing equipment, and climbed up to the door/hatch 10 meters up the wall. There was no handle and the hatch lip was smooth. Kip tried a verbal command “door open,” no luck. The big doors opened with proximity. She climbed down to go to next large door. As we approached the middle of the room:

1)      There was a strange sound and spinning holograms appeared over each person’s head; Junie’s shows her laser pistol; Sam’s shows his shotgun, laser rifle and slug pistol; Talf’s gauss pistol; Kip’s gauss pistol; Medicus’s arm. Kipenzi put her gauss pistol on the ground. Couple of seconds later Dr Juni does same and tells Talf to do the same. All the holograms then disappeared. Sam keeps his guns. The far door opened, and through it we could see it had a map on the wall above the door in the far distance. The map looked like the area of mountains we flew over earlier, showing zones and had a green tint to it. Kenton confirmed it is the area of artificial land, farmland, forest, or jungle, and desert that we flew over when we arrived; no text was on it. We walked toward the map. When we got to the center of the room, looking at the map, each zone fades out to grey, one at a time. All of them.

2)      Then a door under the map opened on its own, with a large spider-like robot behind it, and we could see another large room with a large spinning silvery arch like our teleporter panels, only on a rotating base, in the next room. The robot spider was pulling a trailer of some sort. We moved to the side and it moved toward us. A voice says, “Do not be alarmed, you will be recycled.” We tell it, “We don’t want to be recycled.”

Sam gave Kipenzi his laser rifle and moved back. Kip moved back about 6 meters and pulled the trigger, it doesn’t fire. Medicus moved to the side.

The spider-bot moved toward Kipenzi and waved a bladed arm at her, but she stepped out of its reach. She got a good look at it. It had integral tools at the end of its tentacles; blades, saws, grippers, hammers, etc.

Talf isn’t armed and moved away from it. Sam stepped toward it and pulled the trigger on his shotgun, but the gun’s firing mechanism was fused and it won’t shoot. Kipenzi ran full tilt back toward the door we just came through. Juni headed for the door the spider came in from, as it started to close.

Again, the spider-bot said, “Do not be alarmed, you will be recycled.”

Sam checked the trailer the robot was pulling; it is a grav platform, like a bin. Sam grabbed hold of the back of the bin, it was empty and clean.

Kipenzi’s comm beeped; it was the Far Hunter.

Leon said, “There are bug-like robots approaching the ship.” Kipenzi warned them about disassembling, and Sam tells them to take off and we’ll meet later. Kip ran to the door, which didn’t open, forcing her to run sideways along the wall to avoid being attacked.

Juni ran to the far doorway, standing in it, hoping that will prevent it from closing. The spider-bot did a backflip into the bin and faced off against Sam saying, “Do not be alarmed, you will be recycled;” swinging at Sam with its blade, it sliced through Sam’s armor and cut him. Sam swung his gun like a club, batting at the bladed tentacles.

Kip used her X-ray scanner to see if she could find a weakness on the bot, but couldn’t penetrate the shielding. While all of this was happening, Medicus ran to the next room with Juni. It’s a big room with a teleport arch and control panel. The spider-bot moved toward Sam and hit him but luckily did no damage, only slicing of a piece of his sleeve.  Talf followed Medicus; Sam turned and ran toward Juni; and Kipenzi ran around the spider-bot towards them.

Juni’s plan worked; she held the door open. Medicus continued to run forward; the spider-bot followed Sam.

Sam ran flat out to the door. The spider-bot repeated, “Do not be alarmed, you will be recycled” as it approached. Juni stayed in the doorway. Med reached the control panel which resembled the others but doesn’t have all the same button arrangement; but it does have a similar pattern – the buttons are open at position 000. There are 3 buttons instead of 5, and operating. Med tried turning them off at position 111 and shut it off. Talf caught up to Juni while recording events on his datapad.

Medicus tried the 110 combo which started the device up again.

The arch was opaque; it was spinning on a rotating base and scooped Medicus up when he stepped into its path. Medicus found himself in a castle or citadel of grey stone with a window, standing on an identical platform. Looking out through the window, Medicus sees a mountainous area and a tower of white stone up a hill. Med also saw control panels there. Then it rotated him out and he was back in the room with us, and he told us what he saw.

The spider-bot changed targets and started moving toward Kipenzi. Then one of the doors 10 meters up the walls opened, and a 2^nd spider-bot came out, reassuring us, “Do not be alarmed; you will be recycled”.

As Talf continued to record, Sam caught up to Juni.  Kipenzi, with the spider-bot chasing her, continued running toward Juni.

Medicus selected 101 on the control panel and was transported to another citadel, this one in a jungle. He stepped back on the next rotation and told us what he saw.

Another door opened and a third spider-bot came through. Sam caught up to Medicus at the control panel. Kipenzi ran through doorway, and Juni stepped back and closed the door in front of the robots.

Medicus pushed 001 and stepped through to another citadel. An opening showed short grass that looked freshly mown; a short distance away was an entrance to some kind of underground compound.

We were seconds away from the door opening again, and we were out of options. We all went through and found ourselves in a valley with mountains at its edges. The grass was so well trimmed; it looked like a golf course.

Medicus ran to the nearby control panel and pushed 111, but this time it did not turn off the teleport panel.

He tried 000 and saw that it opened into a citadel on a hilltop with farmland and villages in distance with human figures toiling in fields. We figure those may be the survivors of the ships we’ve seen.

101 led to an overgrown citadel with thorny vines and underbrush. It looked deserted, so we decided to keep this one open. If we have to evacuate, it looks abandoned.

---

Meanwhile, back on the Far Hunter, three large bug-like robots were rapidly approaching the ship. There wasn’t time to bring the engines up and launch, or even escape in the launch before they would be on the ship.

Fig decided that the best course of action was to grab what they could and, “Beat feet as fast and discretely as we could toward the away team.”

They loaded up what they could and exited by the front airlock.

They made it about half a kilometer toward the terminal dome and heard the away team talking about the abandoned location they had chosen from the teleport panel. That was after they went through the first panel they found. Fig made a note that they went through 001.

Looking back they could see that the robots were taking the power plant out of the ship. Fig said under his breath, “Sorry, Bey...”

The robots had also opened up the cargo bay and were carting away the teleport panel that we had gotten off the Ancient ship.

As Leon and Fig turned back towards the terminal, they got a call from Kipenzi asking them to bring the Far Hunter to come find and rescue them; the radio signal was faint. Kipenzi said she thought that the signal might be mostly blocked by the mountains.

It was also weak because Leon and Fig were using their datapads for a relay instead of the ship’s comm.

Continued in Secrets of the Ancients – Otherworld, Part 3

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, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return, Justice, Mission to Mithril, Outback, Skylark and the Pit, Last Flight of the Amuar and One Crowded Hour and Secrets of the Ancients.