Secrets of the Ancients - The Death of Grandfather

“We’re not demons, we’re not angels, we’re just not supposed to be here.”

The crew visits a low tech world and searches for a way home.

This chapter is based on Kay’s and Carl’s notes from our July 9, 2023 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: The Secret of the Ancients. Part 2

Location: Yaskoydray’s Space Station in the Pocket Universe.
Date: 330-1110

1130
We’re back on the space station in the pocket universe in our own bodies again, feeling very disoriented.

We can see a planet out of the window, heavily industrialized, a machine world.

Seven’s dreadnought came through the portal while we were in the past, and filled the horizon as it was preparing to attack the station.

We noticed that Juni, Kenton, and Talfryn were here too.

Yaskoydray grinned and said, “another one down,” and pulled the trigger on his superweapon.

The whole station lit up as energy blasted Seven’s ship with power equivalent to a nova.

Seven’s ship was unaffected, protected by a shield. Yaskoydray reconfigured the weapon and tried again, still no effect.

A swarm of war-drones detached from Seven’s underbelly and shot past the space station to the

planet below, to blossom in 100,000 thermonuclear explosions. Smaller drones approached the station; most were taken out by the station’s point defenses, but there were too many to be stopped.

A huge robot Droyne says, “Come with me if you want to live,” and herded us to a teleport portal. The robot protected us from stray pieces of shrapnel with its wings. Looking back, we could see Yaskoydray hanging in mid-air.  Seven’s attack tore the Droyne apart cell-by-cell, burning Grandfather to fine ash.

Another swarm of small war-drones swooped towards us, launching a barrage of missiles. The robot blocked them and staggered forward to the portal, and there was a flash as the portal activated.

The robot pushed us into the portal, and we found ourselves in a forest where it was night.

Someone was sitting on a log next to the teleport ring; it looked like Fig, but younger.

The robot came through with us, but was dying: “Yaskoydray commanded me to bring you to safety... I regret that this may be impossible. There is an exit portal from this pocket universe in orbit...but...I am too badly damaged to bring you there. Yaskoydray had... agent...Ceeeee...”

The robot shut down.

Looking up, it was cloudy and dark; we can’t see what’s in orbit. It was unclear what planet we are on, certainly not the one that just had 100,000 nukes dumped on it. The portal didn’t have any controls and was unresponsive.

Kipenzi walked over to Fig and said, “Hello, do you know who we are?”

Fig said he did and that he remembered the air/raft losing power and being scanned, but nothing since then except for being a Droyne for thousands of years.

Oddly, Juni, Kenton, and Talf also have memories of being Droyne – and the same ones as we were, i.e., Urd, Gvorr and Eskekuk.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, we saw light from lanterns moving toward us from the west. There were three people; one middle-aged man with a beard and a couple in their 20’s, all human.

“We saw a flash over here”, the man said, speaking in Classical Oynprith, the Ancient Droyne language.

Medicus asked, “Where are we?”

“This is Yaskoti, Southwest of Ushen.”

Kipenzi tried a different way to figure out where we are, if we were still on the same planet.

“Do you have a spaceport?” she asked.

The young man said, “Are you from outer space? We have nothing like that here.”

“Come to our farmhouse, we should call the authorities,” says the older man, who introduced himself as Lan, and his two offspring as Thut and Oro.

We discovered that we have our data pads, except for Fig who has a wallet with paper money in it and is dressed in local attire.

After following them to their farmhouse, Medicus scanned them discreetly.  These people are NOT the same human race as the last planet we knew we were on. Plus the gravity and atmosphere are slightly different.   

When we first came to the pocket universe, we saw there was only one planet in the habitable range around the nearby star when we jumped in. This world must be around one of the other stars. The planet that got nuked by Yaskoydray was a machine planet. We visited three systems in a few hours, WOWZA, that was some portal!

Local tech appeared to be high 6 or low 7-ish. At least they had a computer and vehicles.

Lan was a skeptical farmer who questioned us and tried to stay in charge. They were all armed.

We asked them about the portal we came through. They said it’s been here as long as they have and the farm has been in their family for generations. Nothing has ever come through it before; they didn’t know it worked.  We asked about other portals, do they know of any?

They didn’t, and suggested going to a big city, Ushen, which has a church and university; we may get answers there. Its six hours by road from here.

After chatting with them for a while we learn that Thut is frustrated by small town life; he is a conspiracy fanatic, he I.D.s us as semi-mythical space travelers. Oro is a believer of the state religion of Yaskoti, worried we’re demons of the outer dark. She said that Grandfather sometimes dispatches holy messengers, and questioned us about messages from Yaskoydray.

Kipenzi asked if they have a moon.

Thut answered no, but astronomers have found things in space; we can find information on them at the university.

Fig has local clothing, but we’ll stand out.

They used their computer to show us local clothing styles. We noticed there are a lot of Droyne here; two-thirds of the population are Droyne, and are the upper class.

2100
Lan wondered aloud if we were here to improve the human’s lot in life; he was not happy with the current social order, but he was unable to do anything about it. 

We decided to go to the city tonight. Lan offered his truck but none of us knew how to drive the local vehicles, so Oro will be driving us.  Lan was relieved to get us out of his house; he thinks we may attract the wrong kind of attention.

331-1110  0300
Most of us were napping in the back when we approached a heavier truck on the road going in the opposite direction. Oro told us, “Get down out of sight!”

It was a large black military-type truck on the way to the farmhouse.  The back was full of soldiers, all Droyne, bound for who knows where.

Eventually we got to the outskirts of Ushen. We found that no private vehicles are allowed in the city core. The city’s population was about 8 million, three-quarters of them Droyne. There were skyscrapers with golden spires and minarets; the architecture looked like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Humans lived underground, and could walk or take public transportation.

0400
We arrived hours before the trains were running, so we found an all-night café for food and drink. Fig gave some money to Oro for his gas and time.

After some effort, Kipenzi got her datapad to receive local comm traffic. There were local video broadcasts, and 2-way voice communications, and even some data traffic.

Medicus spent about 15 minutes with her data pad and connected to their local equivalent of an internet.

Connecting to the local university, we found a research paper written by a Professor Ankor, a Droyne, an astronomer and physicist at the university. Ankor believed her people should move off their world and explore the universe which puts her in conflict with the church: “Grandfather put us here, we should stay.”

The document said the universe formed about 200,000 years ago and is younger than the stars themselves, which seems to make no sense. There are only three stars in the universe, about one parsec apart.

Another research paper caught our eye, about space flight and person rights. Folks should stay where Grandfather put them.  Other papers disagree.

We chat up the wait staff; our strange appearance didn’t bother them much, they see all types, especially on the late shift. We asked for directions to get to the university and church. “It’s a long walk if you want.” They recommended some hotels, and we got public transit info.

Morning dawned, and off we went.

0800
Heading out to the university. According to the café workers’ info, our rifles will draw attention from security, so we put them in Sam’s bag.

While we traveled, we compared notes. Kenton, Juni and Talf also had Ancient memories. Juni was Ayude, Talf was Gvorr and Kenton was Eskekuk. We wondered did we download the same memories or were we making the same decisions?

Yaskoydray just died from the battle with Seven. Has Seven finally won the Ancient War? He may be the only one left or there may be others, some have withdrawn from the war and left the galaxy or made a pocket universe like this one. Or, as we found out in our Ancient memories, immortality came from clones and high tech; maybe Grandfather will pop up again soon, if he hasn’t already.

We figured out that one of the Sons, not Seven, got marooned in the Vargr Extents and made the Annic Nova to get back, and wound up in the Shionthy system before vanishing. The Ancients found beta space while inventing the ansible system and learned it is to be avoided.

Kipenzi mentioned Fig’s scout ship amnesia and being Uncle Vlen’s heir, and asked Fig if he knows something? 

Fig thought he might have been in the consideration as an agent for Seven, but the process was never followed through.  Seven might have had something in mind, but never came to be. Seven or one of his agents found his scout ship, which had come across what they shouldn’t have, but recognized Fig. Fig was a future agent, so Seven mindwiped him instead of killing him.

Fig was pretty sure that the Ancient War never actually ended, just went underground.

They have been fighting for 200,000 years, and the war went underground with agents trying to find leads to other Ancient’s family archives containing mind-states and clones. There have been Agents killing each other in dark alleys through the centuries. Yaskoydray and the Sons were essentially the Illuminati.

Once we got to the university, we headed toward the Astronomy dept. Sam and Fig noticed a couple of Droyne in black watching the building. Didn't look like students, just slightly off somehow; and their positions covered the front and back entrances to the building.  We went in via a side entrance out of sight, walking purposefully like we belonged there.

0900
We found the Professor’s office.  There was a sign on the door: “Out of town, leave message at this number”. We knew that she had to be here in the next week when the next teaching session started. We used the local internet to find her. According to the internet, she is controversial, a strong advocate for the space program, denounced by the church, and active in the civil rights movement.

One paper she wrote was on observations of objects in orbit; one object matched the configuration of the hyperspace portal, and it’s big enough for a ship to go through. The paper has orbital tracking data which we could use if we had a ship.

Finding ‘space ship’ on the internet only comes up as science fiction. Sam found info on her home address and how to get there.

Kipenzi switched to street clothes as her spacesuit would draw too much attention.

We headed towards the professor’s home. On the way, we passed a park where a trio of humans were performing a public ceremony of an induction into a technician caste, a Droyne ritual.

1000
We arrived at the professor’s house. She noticed that we looked strange, but Medicus persuaded her to let us in. We started asking questions on astronomy to make her feel comfortable, sneaking up on what we really wanted to know.

She was intrigued and started to take notes.

There was a chalkboard and a model of a rocket in the room.  The chalkboard had equations for escape velocity and rocket fuel use. Kipenzi corrected some of her work using her knowledge of maneuver drives and the Professor got excited. She asked technical questions and Kipenzi answered, “We can help you with the math.” Sam used his data pad to look some things up, and the professor was amazed.

We asked how long before a ship can go into space and she got evasive.  We were interrupted by a phone call, and the professor turned on a video set.

There was a news report being broadcast of spheres flying out of the area near the farm where we had arrived.  Someone was interviewing the farmers we had met; they had gotten home and seen flashing lights near the metal ring, and saw these spheres flying out. They did NOT mention us.

There was also an interview with state security who coincidentally happened to be on the site at the time.

There was a crane in the background for something. Best guess was they were recovering the robot that came through the gate with us.

We explained the war to the Professor and the need to get into orbit.

She said that they have a place in the mountains where they have a prototype that may possibly get us up there.  The university has been building a rocket in secret.

The mountains are called Grandfather’s Wings; they are towering granite with few inhabitants, and symbolize protection.

Professor Ankor rented a large van for us and we headed out towards the mountains.

As we travelled, there were more questions from the professor about us, talk of the war that never ended, and more looking into whether or not the tech on this planet could really get us into space.

Sam saw on the news that some of the spheres had fallen in small cities around the portal area, landing hard enough to make craters.

It was going to take 24 hours of driving in shifts to get us to the rocket site. Medicus was napping, Kipenzi was driving, and Kenton was watching the data feed of a story about how all of the Droyne who were near one of the craters were getting sick and they are now setting up quarantine zones, when we noticed a two-meter sized heavily armed drone flying in the other direction.

We got out our weapons.

At sunset, we approached a roadblock in front of a town. The town was quarantined due to all of the Droyne that have gotten sick.  We asked the locals at the roadblock for a way around the town.

Once it got dark, we got our first look at a clear sky. There was only one star visible in the sky and the background was not black, but a hazy grey. The professor said that it was supposed to look like that, the light from the three stars comes back around the universe.

While the professor was telling us about the local cosmology, our headlights illuminated six Droyne staggering down the road in the opposite direction.

The Droyne all had misshapen lumps on them like some kind of mutation and would occasionally throw up. They were all walking in unison like some kind of zombie, very creepy. Their eyes were solid black.

 Kipenzi tried to drive around them on the side of the road and got stuck as the zombies approached.

Medicus shot at one but missed. Leon pulled out his saber as the zombies came up to the side of the van and began pawing at it. One reached in thorough the open window where Medicus was shooting.

Sam pointed his shotgun at point-blank range and hit, killing one, as Kipenzi worked franticly on getting the van unstuck.

Medicus killed one with his laser rifle.

Juni was taking notes and getting pictures with her datapad, when one broke the window next to her and took a swipe, missing.

One of the zombies broke through the door on the passenger side next to Kipenzi; Sam shot it and hit, causing damage. Another one came in behind it, and we realized that they were working together, wordlessly coordinating their attacks. Kipenzi shot the zombie on the passenger side with her gauss pistol and took off half its head, but it kept coming. Medicus moved into Kipenzi’s zombie and shot; this time it died.

The zombie at Kenton’s window climbed in and tried to hit Medicus but missed.

Fig had a machete out, swinging.  

Sam aimed his shotgun in a zombie’s face and killed it.

Kipenzi got the van going, and left the last zombie behind as she accelerated back onto the pavement.

We pushed the dead zombies out of the van.

As we drove on, Medicus ran some of the zombie blood through his analyzer and found it was full of an advanced artificial virus… which was transmitting radio signals and was tailored to infect Droyne and would eventually kill its host. It was highly contagious, but the professor fortunately avoided any contact with it and didn’t show any signs of getting sick.

The radio would allow it to have a hive mind, which explained the coordinated attacks.

Later we could see a group of dirigibles and Droyne soldiers in the distance. They got attacked by a drone. They seemed to be unable to hurt it and the two-meter drone slaughtered them all.

We got to the mountains and were heading up a valley when we discovered that we were being followed by a helicopter with Church of Grandfather markings. As it got closer, we saw that there was only one person on board and he was waving at us.  Professor Ankor borrowed Sam’s binoculars and recognized the pilot. She exclaims, “It’s Caol!”

She knows him. He was the human advisor to the Church of Grandfather.

Medicus asks, “Should we stop?”

She responds, “Yes.”

We stop.

Caol steps out and says, “It took me a while to find you.”

Caol looked a bit different from the other local humans, maybe Vilani.

Medicus's scan confirmed the descent. He was Vilani, male, about 30 in good physical condition.

The professor said that he advises The Church on human matters; everyone knows him and he is a celebrity. His position on space travel is neutral. She was puzzled as to why he was here.

When he talked, he has a feeling of command and competence. He reminded Fig of his Uncle Vlen.

He wanted to know what’s going on; he thinks we are somehow responsible, or at least connected to the invasion. Somehow he knows we are not from here.

He also knows about the rocket ship, he tells the Professor it is not as well hidden as she thinks.

Suddenly he tilted his head as if listening to something. Then he said, “Incoming… from behind… in the sky.”

Sam used his binoculars. “Drone,” he said.

Caol said, “Up ahead is Gallor; under the church is a supply room, I’ll catch up with you if I can.”

He pulled out an odd-looking pistol and tossed it to Medicus, saying, “Use it sparingly, it will draw their attention.” Medicus looked at it and recognized it as a fusion pistol from his Ancient memories.

Caol reached under his shirt and peeled off the skin which exposed a compartment containing another weapon. He pulled it out and ran down the road toward the drone at high speed, faster than he should have. Medicus hadn’t detected any augments when he had done a scan.

The drone fired towards us, hitting a nearby building. Caol fired at it but missed, drawing its attention.

We headed out of there, toward town and found the church pretty easily. The Village of Gallor was empty.

Once inside the church, following Caol’s instructions, we found the secret passageway under it.

The cellar room is crowded with keepsakes and curiosities from dozens of cultures. It reminded us of the hunting lodge Uncle Vlen had.

There is a framed letter of commendation from a Vilani noble of the First Imperium, the robes of a Zhodani Consul, a set of holographs showing Caol with bureaucrats and adventurers from the Second Imperium, strange alien relics, an Aslan dewclaw in a case and piles of other items, old books, different sets of clothes, spare parts, and high-tech gadgets.

We also found a letter written by Emyakoy, dated 586, saying thanks for the help.  

Useful items include:

• Another TL22 Fusion Pistol, similar to the weapon he gave to Medicus earlier 
• A TL15 Grav Belt 
• A densitometer 
• A small and highly portable thermonuclear weapon

Fig grabbed the TL15 grav belt.

Kipenzi took the second TL22 fusion pistol; it was same model given to Medicus by Caol.

Sam, of course, grabbed the thermonuclear weapon, after a short exchange of views from the others.

Fig got a laser rifle from Sam.

We rested until morning. Caol never did come back.

332-1110  0800
Professor Ankor sent a message ahead to the rocket installation to expect us. We only had another 20 miles to go on back roads.

0900
We drove up a narrow canyon to what looked like a mine. The doors on one building led to a large artificial cavern where the rocket was standing on a launch pad.

It was their first prototype and they had been working on it for over a decade.

The launch complex was isolated, and none of the 300 or so Droyne working there had been exposed to the zombie plague.

The leader of the base was Professor Ankor’s assistant, a young Droyne Technician named Koksayar. He hadn’t slept for days and he was obsessed with finishing the rocket.

One of the objects in orbit is the hyperspace portal, our destination. We told them we are from the other side of it.

Everyone worked frantically until our three-hour launch window in two days. We helped with the math and engineering, finding and fixing minor flaws in their design. Kipenzi and Fig both made changes that improved the ships power.

We found we could ditch scientific gear to get two more passengers in, bringing the total to 12.

Meanwhile, outside our base, the world is falling apart. Eventually we stopped getting reports.

334-1110
We boarded the ship. Onboard are all of us, the pilot Nyase, Professor Ankor, and her assistant Koksayar.

Nyase would pilot the ship until we got to orbit, then Medicus would take over.

10. Countdowns are endemic to all Travellers.

9. Despite the impending destruction of their civilization, the Yaskoti technicians remain focused and excited. This is their moment, the culmination of years of work.

8. Tons of pressurized rocket fuel pours into the engines.

7. An assassin drone detects the hidden base and moves to investigate

6. We switch on internal power.

5. The Yaskoti crew chitter farewell to their compatriots.

4. Cables disconnect and the ship goes to internal power.

3. The main engine starts.

2. The assassin drone swoops over the launch facility, scanning it. It determines there is no sign of the Family Archive but that this is a target of opportunity. It loops around, charging its weapons systems.

1. The rocket launches. The drone strafes the launch facility, blasting it to pieces, but we are already climbing into the sky on a pillar of fire.

Once in orbit, it is 60 Km to our target. Medicus took over the controls.

As we approached the portal, it shimmered open and the capsule started to rattle due to magnetic fields.

The engines failed and the capsule entered the portal at a slewed angle. There was a flash of light and we were knocked unconscious...

Continued in In the Emperor’s Name