Iron Stars - meda-ruin-run

@Scott , @Iracus | Rayan | Kaedon | Seyso and @St. Lucia recover from their time fighting the unbroken AI, and decide to return to Meda after a quick resupply on the Cooperative capital world.

Once in system, Iracus sends Noel and Scott clearance codes to dock at CAST's ship service depot so their ships can refuel and meet up before heading to the coordinates of the ruin location that was traded to the Tenebrian Empire forces. While on the depot in orbit, Iracus takes some time to head to an observation deck and get a good look at the transformation progress of the planet. (edited)

Noel will have the Enigmatic Explorer dock, and then immediately send a message and request to meet with Scott and Iracus, to discuss things and go over what is known about the current and/or former occupants of the Ruins.

scott will meet with noel and iracus on the depot to figure out what the actual plan beyond use diggy car to go ruin is (edited)

Iracus has the other two meet him at the observation deck and greets them as they arrive. "Welcome to our new operational center for Meda! Hope you two have recovered soundly since the AI. Thankfully cracking into the ruin poses a bit less danger than your typical rogue AI."

"That's good... The Adaptability of That AI made it pretty difficult for me, Starting out with solid munitions and moving to Energy... The Jerk."

7:15 PM

She states with a smile, just happy that that escapade is over, and that Plaus can now focus on it's own affairs.

"I reckon this will be a well earned change of pace"

"Indeed, plus there will be an added sense of mystery to this one. Who knows what might be left in there. The group I got this location from claimed it was filled with pre-Scream tech, some human, some alien. And it was worth enough for the Tenebrian Empire's early forces to trade several tanks for it shortly before the Scream."

(caught up, just didnt want to cut anyone off)

"Do you think there might be Tenebrian Remnant forces in there?"

"I am unsure, but leaning towards unlikely. This location was traded pre-Scream so it's been several years at least. Now there might be automated defense systems but that shouldn't pose much challenge. No, the big challenge will be getting in. But thankfully Scott has a solution to that one." Iracus smiles as he gestures towards Scott (edited)

"I'm just glad I still have the opportunity to use it. oh yeah, iracus you were there when I was spouting ideas at you so you might recognise this one but I managed to get tunnelling machine that scoops up the ground like a hybrid drill/shovel and turns it into a structurally sound tunnel wall."

"That's excellent, hopefully the terraforming won't impact anything. Unless anyone has any thoughts or questions for prep, I think we can head on down. It's your plan so at your lead Scott, let's see what this thing can do."

"We just have to be careful so we don't damage any important parts of the structure, Did you all pick up Harnesses, ropes, and the like? We don't know what kind of state the Ruins are in, and the last time I went to an exploratory thing without Rope, I watched what amounts to a Mustache Sporting Puddle of Risk and recklessness encased in metal nearly fall to his death off a mountain, and no offense, but I am not very good at lifting other people."

"We should have enough equipment between all our armories. And between our ships advanced sensors and on board equipment of the tunneler, we should be able to pinpoint somewhere to enter the structure. And fortunately, we will be underground so likely few places to fall!"

"Well, seems like we've got everything concerning handled, then. This is really exciting! I think after this, I will probably continue my search for the Slug Alien homeworld, They were engaged in a lot of trade it seems like, and that means they might be able to point us to a place to find something to translate ancient languages... And having a second Flop-Bracelet would be nice cause then I could study one of them more in-depth without worry."

"I'm quite interested in learning more of them. Particularly if they had any knowledge of the species found here on Meda. Whatever they might have known, will likely be there. I look forward to reading a report on what you find." Iracua smiles at the thought of gaining more answers

The Fordge is a cramped drill ship with all three of you aboard. A pilot station, a backup station, and a station to oversee the materials storage and materials printer behind the vehicle are the control stations aboard, allowing each of you to settle in. The digger is dropped a kilometer away from the location of the site, just to account for error. The winds are calm and weather is projected to be good, the best the rapidly healing planet has seen in years.

Getting on the Fordge, Iracus places a few packaged drones into the cargo before sitting at a station to look over the vehicle "This is quite the machine Scott, I am excited to see how it performs."

"...so am I, I hope it doesn't just break down or something, it by all means should work, but theory versus practice and all"

The ignition panel lights up as the power cell is connected. All systems report green across the control console and you can feel tension in the control sticks as the drive-train and steering system come online. The front screen now shows a view outside and in front of the craft, as the flat metal wall is now replaced with a projection from the sensors outside the vehicle

10:53 AM

The drill head is below you, projecting in front of the craft. You can see its path and the location of its point from here, looking down, when you decide to drill.

"Everything looks okay over here." Noel states, trying to minimize the space she takes up.

"Agreed, let's crack into some ruins!"

Scott, sitting in the pilot station, sees the power level stabilize and reach 100%. Movement locks disengage and the vehicle is now free to move. The drill collector and printer are likewise ready to refine materials and turn it into anything you might need.

Scott gets the Fordge drilling and moving, carefully watching that enough ground is being removed from the front of the vehicle and brought to the back to reinforce the hole. also that the Fordge is going the right direction. "who's ready to get to the ruin only for one of many ways this vehicle to fail occurs and we get stuck in the ruins forever! that was a joke. if I thought this wouldn't work I would work to change that."

"Well, I mean, I've already fought through the Still Lady's Vault and fought a hostile AI. I'm confident that whatever's in this ruin won't be as bad as that, and as long as you two brought food we should all be able to make it out easily. Even if there is a something terrible that happens."

(the soil would be more solid since the world is coming back to life, but did we still want the machine to print those tunnel wall reinforcements behind us? )

(makes more sense to do so than not, maybe they can be thinner, but it would mean a way out if the car goes dud and there's a cave in. or there isn't time for a slow drill up)

(yeah I agree) Iracus maintains the backup station and carefully monitors the direction of the Fordge and it's incoming sensor data and compares it against previously gathered scans, helping provide Scott course corrections and notifying him of any possible hazards. "What's life without a little danger, just keep it steady and everything will be fine."

"I'm looking forward to something with Less Laser burns, but I think I mentioned that already, haha. How long till we reach the ruin, do you think?"

With the location Iracus has supplied it looks like to dig safely down to it, and reinforce the tunnel behind you, the Fordge needs about half an hour to churn through the compacted materials down here.

8:24 AM

With the tunnel behind you the Fordge makes its exit from the tunnel network on a large rock shelf overlooking the ruins of a former Tenebrian Empire city and site below. Power is still on somehow, and lights wink in many windows- though there are no signs of life on the streets.

"Oh...Oh my. W-why do you think it was abandoned?!" Noel asks quietly, staring at the city still clinging to the distant illusion to life that has long-fled.

Broken from his moment of speechlessness Iracus says "It could be anything, this place is... simply incredible. Let me send a message to the crew up top to let them know what we have found, and then go see if we can answer that question."

scott is already looking for a way down, too concerned with satisfying curiosity to be in stunned awe (edited)

The tunneler can dig through this cliff to emerge into a car park below , where a dozen large tanker trucks are waiting for cargo that never arrived. (edited)

After they get to the car park, Iracus gets out and launches his three drones and sets them to follow him. He then gets his Argus Web set up on his Titan Plate and looks to Scott and Noel to say, "Alright team, these two drones are equipped for combat and the third is a med-drone. While there doesn't seem to be any living here, that doesn't mean there isn't automated security. We'll want to try and find the control area first and take control of the facility, get a sense of what exactly we found here."

"Yes Sir~! If there is a defense system, and we can find out a majority of what kind of weapons it uses, I might be able to render myself immune to it." She stretches and grins. "This is really Really exciting!" (edited)

(I’ll make a quick city map for us)

9:05 AM

(black lines are streets, I've highlighted the car park where we can drill down to street level)

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 9/23/2021 9:05 AM

"It really is," Iracus replies as he finishes getting all of his things together. "Good work Scott, that tunnel and the vehcile are going to be of great use in bringing down a whole team here." As he finishes, he moves to inspect the car park to see if they appear to be pre-Scream or not.

They are pre-scream in manufacture, though still frontier in nature. They're equivalent to what is back in service now but might be worth something to a collector somewhere

"Well these at least look like they could maybe be used, or at least resold. Don't seem to contain any pretech or anything of major use though." Iracus then points to the government building across the street, "That looks potentially promising, what do you two think about heading over there?"

"I have my eyes on a couple buildings, but I suspect we all do, so that works as a start"

The government building is a domed roofed administrative complex where day-to-day operations of the city were run. The bottom floor has public offices such as the tax collector, accessors, the town engineer, and the planning department, where the local leaders had their offices on a more private level upstairs. A weapons scanner on each side of the door forces everyone to pass through it before going inside.

"Do you think those are still active? I don't really want to be without my Guns in this place. Especially as we don't know what's about."

"well, everything else is on, so... wanna test it?"

"We could just disable them, we don't want to set off any security measures, especially cause there's no-one around to stop them if there are any, aside from us shooting them. Which Thermal Pistols tend towards being loud, even by gun standards."

(could I try a fix roll?)

(How would we use fix here? I’m not saying no but if the idea is we don’t want to get close to it I’m not sure how you’d planned to make it apply

(well, could drop weapons still covered by team, then disable)

(Okay. Go ahead and make a fix/int then. I had a question with no details, the more I have to assume the worse it is for you)

(part of why the question was so open-ended, I couldn't complain about endless clarifications without being a hypocrite anyway)

4:05 PM

(12)

After spending twenty minutes analyzing the layout of the various sensors , you trace the lines to a power box on the exterior alley side of the building. Quickly snapping the rusting padlock , Scott shorts out the circuit inside and disables the trap

"Nice work Scott, I wonder how long this place has been abandoned" Iracus says as he examines the rusted lock and take out his bio/survey scanner to try and determine if he can tell how long the rust has been building. (edited)

"Heck yes, awesome!" Noel cheers quietly.

This place has been abandoned for seven years, roughly. (So two before the scream and then the five since, we knew the tenebrian empire was drawing down their presence here in favor of other hotspots)

(would that correspond to before or after the crawler crew traded the location? I'd like to try and determine if that group who bought the location ever made it here)

6:54 PM

(or at least, if they were responsible for any of what is here)

(It’s in a pocket of reasonability for the trade , but it doesn’t look like anyone’s made it here other than you)

"Fascinating, it looks like this was abandoned prior to the Scream. I wonder if it has something to do with effects of the war? I know a number of Tenebrian forces left Meda because of it, but I'm surprised they would all abandon something like this, maybe they just thought they wouldn't be gone for so long."

"Possibly... There's a lot of reasons to cut contact, like untenable conditions for supply, or a disagreement or conflict with unexpected things. The only way we're going to find out is to acquire the records."

"Well perhaps this building will shed some light, let's get back to it shall we?" Iracus says as he starts to head back to the security checkpoint.

Entering the building , the scanner doesn't go off but you see the two turrets in the ceiling that would have lowered to riddle you with high grain bullets had weapons been detected on you.

Looking up at the guns Iracus remarks, "Well good thing we didn't go though there. Let me send my drone to scout ahead. It's holoskin should make it hard to see and it's a lot more replaceable than us if it triggers a turret." Iracus then sends François the part time medic, part time scout drone up ahead to scout the hallways while watching through it's cameras via his implant. (Difficulty to spot at observational range is 12 or 10 at weapons range.)

(if its inside the building I don't think those difficulties are going to be as high, since its not a small spec in the sky, but rather a moderately sized robot in an enclosed space) (edited)

(that's fine, just looking to make sure no other turrets are in the hallways ahead without waking into them first)

10:58 AM

(and get a sense of what directions we could go)

The government building is a domed roofed administrative complex where day-to-day operations of the city were run. The bottom floor is an open atrium inside, where a tree and long bubbled away fountain is now overgrown with moss and lichen. It has public offices such as the tax collector, accessors, the town engineer, and the planning department all stemming off this central room Stairs at the back of the floor go up, where the local leaders had their offices on a more private level upstairs.

11:46 AM

(so big open center space you walk into with offices off of it)

Iracus describes what he sees to the team, "I suppose we should just work our way up from down here? Didn't see anything dangerous looking." (edited)

"Alright, That sounds good. I think a healthy amount of caution is good though. The guy who trained me hates ghost towns cause your either on edge the entire time for nothing or You find something the instant you relax too much. He says it a lot better than I do, haha."

Iracus nods in agreement, "Caution is good," he says before looking towards Scott, "How about we start with the town engineer's office? Perhaps we can find some blueprints of this, and other buildings. Maybe you will be able to see if any potential surprises exist that we should be aware of ahead of time." Iracus says as he glances up at the turret. (edited)

(Seen , just want to see what he says so I can move us)

(sorry, had a full day today) "that would probably help... I'm mostly following you right now, so uh..." scott doesn't really know what to do with himself now it's gotten to the open-ended walking around exploring bit, but is still very excited to see what is found

"I mean he is the Chief, so it's to be expected I suppose. Still, all of us are Researchers and experts in various things... so If something comes up please, speak up. I at least consider everyone here friends... but then I suppose I think that way of..." She pauses and the smile falters for a second "...Most people."

Iracus chooses the city engineer office first and upon opening the door there are no traps. Four work desks and a planning table occupy the room. It is a functional but cozy space. Too many people were made to work here at the same time

"Kind of tight in here, but I guess that's to be expected when living underground." Glancing around the room, Iracus moves to the work desks to see if they have any compartments to search. (Are there any computers or access points here?)

There are no computers in this room. Plans were drawn by hand on special paper with tools meant to help measure the distance and dimensions. Plans for some kind of opera house were being developed here and it seems like the structure was never built.

"How...unexpected. They have what seems to be an eternal reactor powering the place, but drew engineering plans by hand. Curious."

10:24 PM

"Maybe they were just very old school or something." Iracus wonders

"honestly, I can see the advantages for paper and pencil. especially if these people are operating in isolation so having information in digital format loses the advantage of long range transfer. all digital would really do for them is handle some of the math"

"Given the surface storms, it's possible that they were concerned about electromagnetic interference. We will have to find some databanks and find out."

"It has a unique charm to it, that's for sure" Iracus goes to pick up the plan for the opera and looking over it for anything interesting or date of creation "Preference on where to next?" (Does the room appear clean and orderly for the most part?)

12:05 PM

(besides like dust or wear by time)

(yes, no evidence there was violence or a disorderly abandonment)

"we wanna go anywhere else in the building? could lead to some insight but could also just be piles of administrative paperwork"

"Yes, we still have the rest of the floor to look at and the one above. I think the tax assessor and collectors office could be good to go next. Might get a sense as to how large the population was here and how prosperous they were." Iracus puts down the opera plan before moving to go to the next room

The tax accessors office has many data banks in it. Most of them look to be in good working order but you can see a leak from upstairs dripped water on a few of them, and over time has ruined their contents before the water finally stopped flowing. A terminal and some paper files also complete the large work space- where details of every building in the complex underground city were listed. Square meters, tax rate, principal function, and the names of who owned the property or managed it were all contained here.

"Ah now this is what I like to see!" Iracus says as he moves to inspect the data banks and attempt to connect to them to view what they might hold

(They could be connected to your data pad. Everyone else could do the same too for the most possible data)

Iracus takes out his black slab, some phase taps, and hooks up the devices to the network and starts breaking in to map the accessible network from the data banks, looking for anything of interest. "I'm gonna start poking around, got this new black slab that should make short work of whatever security measures that might be in place, see what I can get into from here. If you two can start just downloading all available data you can connect to, we can get moving to the next place in no time."

"Sounds like a Plan, just let us know if you need us to cover you."

"aren't those frowned upon or something? I approve. Also let me know if you need help with anything, I'm not a programmer but it's hard not to pick up some basic machine code working with electronics." (Pulling from the effective 0 min in everything the slyth have)

(Let’s get a program/int from everyone )

(12)

(I assume roll20 soesn't account for the slyth feature mentioned above and I'll have to add that myself)

(That’s right Scott)

(12)

10:57 AM

(twins lol)

(8)

(Each for you can ask a question, as you’ve passed the security check )

Can any last minute orders or announcements be accessed from here? Something that would help understand why the piece was abandoned?

There is a mass withdrawal order dated three months before the Scream. Forces here were out of position to respond to Black Sun and Draco incursions elsewhere and this territory was well witihn the safe area. With the withdrawal of the garrison it was also recommended the large research community and colonist population also withdraw, supply shipments were going to stop being sent to the facility and without them, eventually wirestorms would have destroyed or buried the settlement- secure enough as it was for now.

"Found something," Iracus says as he shares what he discovered, "I guess everyone just simply left after orders to withdraw came, that's good to hear, no apocalyptic falls into anarchy. Just a few months before the Scream too. Not finding much more detail though, either of you uncover anything good?"

(Would it be possible to acquire the whereabouts of any Libraries, and/or Access Codes to such things to make getting into their databanks easier?)

Having broken through the firewalls and other network security here, you find that you have access codes for any databanks you might find. Most sites across the city would have kept at least some local data.

"I've managed to acquire access Codes for all Databanks we might stumble across in the future, and it looks like there's a lot of Local Data that is kept at sites across the city. So there's a giant mountain of data out there for us."

(anything on city security or laws and regulations on protection of personal/public property?)

On a frontier world like this people were permitted all manner of non heavy weapons and could walk about the settlement freely with them. There are few regulations about security for property aside from any measures used cannot damage surrounding properties or threaten the stability of the cavern

4:39 PM

(So you can expect you won’t see much in the way of mines or explosives )

(I think that's everyones question) The machines turn off now as power is cut, and their failsafe/anti-tampering protocols finally catch up with the in progress hacking. For now you've got actionable intelligence to proceed on.

Iracus slaps the top of the data rack, to no avail, as the failsafes engage, "Ah, well, looks like we are locked out now. Well good thing we were able to get those access codes, nice work. With this place being quite peacefully abandoned, our explorations here might be a lot easier. If everything is in good condition still, this place could even serve as a good, 'first city'. Maybe we could revamp it a bit, staff it with some folks from back home, and use it as an NMC on-world headquarters we start bringing in the other Medan clans together."

"It is awfully cozy in here, admittedly. Just have to get rid of the Moldiness, and rebuild some of infrastructure that might be aged or worn. What we can't use is probably salvageable and able to be repurposed into other stuff."

"All simple things, thankfully. Plus expanding to the surface will be a simple task now that we do not have the storms to worry about. This place could even serve as an excellent fortified location, a perfect place to develop a capital city on the world. But I think that covers this floor, shall we head up top before moving to another place?" (edited)

(Gonna wait for Scott~)

1

"don't see why not, we're not exactly gasping for time" (edited)

The upper floor is the councilman offices and with the security credentials in place the traps in the ceiling don't activate. The City Supervisor, and his two deputies all have offices on this floor. Their doors are closed but are simple office doors and don't presentmuch of an obstacle

As they head upstairs Iracus and heads to the supervisors office first while saying, "So, you two, now that CAST has merged with the Lamplighters, where are you thinking of going next after this here? Gonna stay on with the new management, or maybe try something else?"

"I mean, so far as I can tell, I can still research what I want to research, and have a similar but more widespread benefit... So I'm sticking with the new management. What about you?"

"Likely wait for the NMC's expedition here to conclude to continue work here, but in the meantime, there are some folks on the other side of Viggis that could use some attention. So i'd like to go and offer them a hand, maybe even try and get them to join with us."

3:24 PM

"And you Scott? With the Fordge now here, we will be able to easily get into any ruin now, so you will have quite the sum once your contract is paid out. You think you might remain long-term? Or do different pastures await?"

"honestly, not entirely sure. don't think I'll stick around to check out the other ruins, I'm an applied kinda guy myself, but that leaves the question of what instead... I'll definitely stick with NMC on the long term, the entire mission statement just resonates with me, but some of these groups take my interest, so I might randomly periodically dissappear. no point limiting myself, I guess" (edited)

The interior of the supervisors office is large. There are two desks, one for him and one for his assistant. There is a large file cabinet, a bookshelf, and each of them had their own computer to use. They're powered down but intact- and look to be networked with the rest of the building.

Stepping into the room Iracus looks around before heading to the file cabinet to look through it, "Well there is plenty to do with NMC proper. Many worlds could use some detailed attention, so lots of work to be found. But should you ever wish to help the effort to uncover the mysteries of the past with us, there will always have a spot open for you." Iracus smiles towards Scott before turning to see if anything of interest catches his eye in the cabinet.

The cabinet is glass fronted and has several symbols of the Tenebrian Empire behind glass. An Imperial flag, a large dueling claymore, and the onyx cast symbol of House Arenburg are all within the locked case.

"Either of you particularly skilled at unlocking things without the key?" Iracus asks as he looks back to to the two

"plenty of ways to get around a lock, from picking it, shimming it, drilling it, or just breaking the glass seems easiest. you reckon it's alarmed?" scott looks to see if he can spot any security in the case himself, typically the glass alone is enough to keep someone out in a setting like this

The glass doesnt look especially secure or trapped in any way, it was likely just meant to keep people from casually touching the items within. (edited)

(So we wouldnt' need a fix check or anything here , I think scott is just naturally good enough to get the simple lock open)

Scott drills the lock, not wanting to leave broken glass everywhere, but also not wanting to spend unnecessary effort picking the lock. Drilling should open the lock by removing the part that holds it shut

The lock is easily broken and the case door opens, allowing you to take what is inside.

2:21 PM

An Imperial flag, a large dueling claymore, and the onyx cast symbol of House Arenburg are all within the locked case

The Gun-Mage gal almost instinctively reaches for the Symbol of House Arenburg.

There are no maddening visions, demonic laughter, or metapsionic events as you go to reach for it. The plaque is well made, well preserved , and no doubt valuable to historical collectors, but entirely mundane.

3:29 PM

(I think barnabas is putting a symbol together since its come up a couple times , I'll hold on on describing it too much until that comes to fruition, if it does)

scott inspects the duelling claymore, with a though process largely of mmm big sword

"Would it be a Breach of etiquette if I kept this Plaque? I know a Spot on my Ship it'll look nice on."

"I mean... nobody's using it..."

(It’s a large advanced weapon if you want it Scott)

5:57 PM

(Which still allows you to carry a rifle in your other two hands ) (edited)

(the concept of being able to go sod it and just split someone with a claymore sitting in my readied is very appetising so, yes)

(oooooo) (edited)

(That is a Sexy Claymore.)

"I don't see why not, just old Empire stuff. It will just be stashed in some box in some warehouse collecting dust otherwise." Iracus says as he glances over the flag before moving over to the bookcase to inspect what it might have

The books are labeled by month and year showing the progression of time here at the settlement. The supervisor recorded the major daily happenings of the colony in hard copy before Starting a new volume every month

After a long exhale, Noel picks up the plaque and carefully tucks it away, before looking about. She then nods to Scott and joins Iracus.

"Well these will be of interest to study, might be able to get some good insights on the local area." Iracus shows one of the books to Noel as she walks over

9:58 AM

Iracus then grabs the last of the books to quickly flip through the pages and see if any are marked or catch his eye in any remarkable way

"might not hurt to get those digitised, might take a while but I expect there's some company or museum that'll do it, for a copy or a price"

"I can help transcribe it into a digital format. I happen to have a lot of time on my hands lately."

There are several entries, some of them going back to a few months after arriving here. Drakite patrols landed on the world a few times and were quickly dealt with. Attacks by Draco and the Black Sun were rare here, but patrols stumbled across the area often enough where a robust security presence was required. Plans for the sandcrawlers were also devised here as protected way to travel the surface, free from the elements, and waves of colony ships being offloaded into one and set out to find somewhere else to live are also noted in the text

"Ha, we can probably just get an intern to do it, I'm sure you have far more interesting things to do than work the office scanner Noel. We will have to get a whole team down here anyway to bag and tag things, clean it out so we can repurpose it anyway." Placing the book back on the bookshelf, Iracus moves to the computers and tries to turn one on, "Now, I wonder if there is anything on these computers, although if they are on the same network they might have nothing new to offer."

"Uhm... I mean... I don't... Well Okay. I guess. I'll just find something else to fill that time with then..." She ponders that for a second, and looks to the Computers.

"What about the slugs? They seem far more interesting than scanning a few hundred pages. Still lots to learn from them, not to mention that ring. I'd hazard a guess and say that ring wasn't built by them, but who can even guess."

The computers here are networked with the ones downstairs and dont have any new data on them, but the logbooks found provide great i nsight as to what happened here, and further scanning might even drop some clues as to what was done with the Drakite technology that was dispatched by local secueity forces.

"...I mean, I intend to pursue them even further. Honestly, but I can't spend a full twenty Four hours pursuing The Slug Aliens, I need to do something that involves sitting and just doing mindless work... Besides, it appears that there's some interesting tidbits about Tech here... and that is Exactly My interest."

"Well by all means, if it interests you. They do seem useful to see what happened with the Drakite forces that came here. Could have some interesting capabilities if you could determine what happened to them. Some good salvage at the very least" Looking around the room Iracus thinks for a moment before saying, "Well I think we have seen all we can here. Where next?"

"well I'm curious about the repair shop, security tech place and industrial area, but we seem to have all day, so I don't mind"

"Well, looking at the map, the security tech and industrial area are right next to one another. We could go there first and then loop up towards the repair shop and stop at the data storage on the way there. What are your thoughts Noel?"

"Let's go for it. We have all these codes, it'd be a shame to not use them."

"Let's go and take a stroll through the streets then." Iracus makes a few notes on what was found in the government building before heading south with the team, commanding the drones to scout ahead.

12:32 PM

(auto/robotics repair?)

(Security tech first and then we can make our way around and up)

The security tech builidng is locked down as you'd expect. Metal shutters over the front door and windows and a back up against the wall of this large cave makes the building very difficult to get into. A camera watches the front door.

Looking over at Scott and Iracus, The Gun-mage asks, "Shall we try the access codes? I figure if that doesn't work you two have a decent shot at getting through it anyways."

"shocker, the security building is secure. we could cut a hole in the shutters, if I could get my truck down here... and it doesn't trigger anything. if anyone else has ideas, go nuts." scott ponders the possibility of getting the truck to ghost driver down the tunnel they arrived through, if getting a message up would be possible at all this deep

"As exciting as cutting holes in things is, and before we get ahead of ourselves with bringing in heavy machinery, let's give those codes a shot. Worse comes to worst, we see how capable a black slab is against the software. But if all that fails, then, well, I suppose we will have no choice but to cut through things." Iracus proceeds to scan through the codes that were uncovered to see if any would be useful here

"you see, this is why we have more than just an engineer here"

After a minute or two of searching the compad seems to settle on the one it thinks will work the best for the door here. There is a brief few seconds and the air clicks as the code is sent, before the bolts keeping the shutters fastened to the ground are released.

Noel attempts to lift the closest shutter, once the bolts are released. "I'm just glad to be here and helping, and that this place isn't crawling with horribleness."

Iracus monitors the drones while the shutters are raised, flying them high around the surrounding area checking for movement. While he doesn't expect to see anything, being paranoid is his specialty

Nothing seems to be moving down here except for motes of dust and airborne sand. You seem to be quite alone down here. The shutter rises, and it looks like you can just open the entry door and head inside.

"No horribleness indeed, unless you consider all the dust and sand here horrible. We will need to get some fresh air exchangers brought in to get it a bit less stale in here." (edited)

The gun Mage simply opens the door unceremoniously, turning to Iracus. "Oh? Yeah that'd probably be a good idea. I didn't notice how bad the air was."

You enter a room that looks essentially like a cage. Bars cover the shuttered windows and a wall of holoscreens show you your own images captured from dozens of cameras worked into the ceiling, walls, and floor of the room.

[Gonna await Scott]

there's things, and stuff scott first examines where the pictures were taken from with the goal of finding and hopefully learning something about device concealment.

They've been taken from all over the security office. This looks almost like an argus web, magnified to the size of a room, capturing everything within 360 degrees of the group. Cameras are cleverly concealed everywhere and the ideas in this room would give any kind of a spy agency provocative dreams for years.

10:03 AM

There is no other doors here, just a room with dozens of televisions and holoscreens and concealed cameras. There is a small counter with some work tools on it where the purveyor seemed to work in view of his clients.

"Creepy. They really liked their surveillance here, although their paranoia could be to our benefit. If we can access logs we might be able to review the tapes and get some deeper insight into any projects of interest they were running."

"Hmm... Perhaps. Do you think you can find the database all of this is affixed to?" Noel turns, asking Iracus.

"I think so, if I can crack into the systems here with my black slab, I can probably trace to wherever they were storing stuff. I doubt they were keeping backups in this..cozy space." Iracus will try to hack into the system, using any access codes to help, and go to map the network and see if there is any locally stored data or if it was all being housed some place else, if at all.

(program/int)

12:09 PM

(everyone else can roll em too if we want)

(15)

2

[7]

(We;'ll see if scott can punch us above the high dc!)

12:26 PM

(I believe in you man-snake)

(no don't say that now I'll roll worse) (having said that, I won't roll worse just to spite- I should stop typing and roll)

7:04 PM

(11)

You’re able to break through the military grade encoding here and find the server these cameras are connected to, buried within the floor of the store, cables run through the walls and brought down there.

"Huh, it looks like the signal is coming from...inside the building. Right below actually, so an even cozier place than this."

7:36 PM

(is the server is buried in the ground literally? or would there be some kind of access to it?)

(It’s buried literally )

7:47 PM

(We would have to rip up the floor, which we could do) (edited)

(with tools on hand?)

)yes)

(I have nothing planned I need sleep feel free to rip up the floor iracus I expect I can roll support if that needs done tomorrow)

Iracus first sees if all the data can be copied from the servers and stored externally to be fully analyzed.

The server will need to be physically accessed to get at the largest folder here, but the residual data and recordings from day to day life here have been copied over to you.

Having copied what he could, Iracus turns to the team, "Alright well it looks like that server is quite literally buried in the ground. I've copied what I could but it seems there is still some data on it, I think we should try to excavate it while we are here. Besides the data, that server might be able to be scrapped into some pretech. To be able to be buried like that would have to mean it is of high quality, hopefully pretech quality."

"Hopefully, In the mean time though, we need to figure out how to remove it. Do any of your drones have digging equipment, or perhaps your power armor? Or are we going to have to use the Vehicle and probably also demolish this building?"

scott examins the floor for it's structure and any incinsistencies

toward the center of the room you can see the tiles are just a bit higher than the rest, where fill material was inexpertly piled up.

"The drones are not capable, I think this will just require some manual work, although this suit should definitely assist."

"Alright." She nods "Well, where shall we start?"

(If we want to tear up the floor we don’t need checks or anything. I just wanted some confirmation we are doing it)

(let's tear it up!)

Filling off the tiles you see a large ladder leading down into some kind of bunker or hidden room below the floor here

8:08 PM

There is blue light flooding what looks to be a room built off the ladder shaft. You cannot see inside it from above.

"Can your drones detect traps? I rather like the idea that I'm not as good at finding Explosives the Hard way as I have been told his Majesty is."

"They cannot, well at least not in the conventional sense." (Would a drone be able to fit down there?)

"if I remember correctly, destructive traps were disallowed, so there shouldn't be explosives. Could be gas though"

(A drone would fit

Iracus goes to use a mixture of physical inspection of the trapdoor and review of any data displayed on the terminal to try and determine if there might be any traps on the way down.

11:36 AM

"Let's just give this a good old look-see, and if all looks well, we can toss a drone down and see what is there."

The terminal doesn’t have any data about the structure down here , fitting in with the general paranoid nature of the place

"Well, I'm up for either the Drone or I going down. Gas and lack of atmosphere aren't really things I'm worried about."

"what about bullets?"

"Some of them, yeah." She shrugs. "The ward I have is really useful, but also has some limitations."

"Well let's send a cheap drone down first, actually forgot about it until now but I do have an observation drone back on the drill though that is perfect for this." (Iracus will quickly head back to the fordge to grab Amelia the spy drone to send down the hole. It's got an observation suite and has radiation/chemical detectors, sound detectors, uv/ir, etc. I'll switch it with Luther the battle done so I maintain my 3 max drones)

The drone descends and upon reaching the bottom discovers a large room where all manner of video taken from all over the settlement was broadcast to be viewed, stored, and called up whenever. Several lockers of emergency supplies are also located down here though their doors are closed and you cannot see what they ar.e the secrecy of the bunker and the former omnipresence of its owner seemed to be the only security measures the bunker enjoyed, and you do not find traps on any number of the scans you do.

"Alright looks clear, to be honest I was kind of worried we were going to find some creepy hermit down there. Thankfully it's just emergency supplies." Flying the drone back out, Iracus gets ready to head down to check it out, "Let's go see how extensive these recordings are."

Noel shrugs, nods and smiles at the other two, and begins to descend.

Moving down into the basement you see another computer here and every single day that has passed in this shop and around the city has been recorded here.

11:00 AM

The owner was clearly paranoid, and was constantly wondering what was going on around the settlement. Many newspaper clippings of the crashed drakite ship and the ever- approaching AI warriors were plastered everywhere, along with articles talking about human appearing infiltrators.

She walks up and starts reading through the clippings to figure out where the Remnants of the Drakite Ship might be, curiosity visibly catching her and drawing her in.

The wreck was retrieved by an House Arenburg ship and taken to an unlisted black site off world , but its presumed to be within a spike 3 jump of this world based on the manifest you’re able to find and the amount of fuel that was loaded aboard the cargo vessel thst retrieved it

Iracus goes to look at the recorded data, seeing how extensive the camera coverage was and if it covered any areas of interest.

The government building, the local garrison, and the street where he lived were places of special importance to him. Recordings from these areas are most of the footage.

[Gonna wait for Scott]

(honestly, haven't got any questions)

4:37 PM

(I'm good to move on/scrap the thing)

(Whatever we want to do. Not sure what we are scrapping though

(are the recordings just of the outside of the buildings?)

(Yes all the comings and going’s)

Iracus will go to start backing up all the data externally as well as inspecting the quality of the equipment in the room. (Is anything pre-tech quality or is it just standard frontier equipment?)

Noel takes notes on everything to do with the Drachite Ship. "Interesting..."

(It would count as a 0 enc argus web if we want to scrap the gear here. Enough for everyone to have one

[oooh]

(No checks needed. Between all of you we have a lot of technical knowledge here )

(wooo)

(This mega dungeon could go on as long as we want. If you guys want to call it here for a while I can hand out xp and credits )

(I'm good to continue)

(I think Noel has other things to attend to, and You two seem very well suited to this Mega-Dungeon so far)

(up to you guys, we can continue with Scott and Iracus or just scott, or however we want to do it then)

(Iracus will continue along)

(6xp, 10,000 credits and the fancy argus web)

Following getting the data backed up and tech scrapped, Iracus bids Noel farewell "Well thanks for joining the exploration of this place Noel, if we find anything additional about those Drakkite forces I'll send it along, do you think you are going to try and find where they took the wreck? Hopefully the next time you get the chance to stop by it will have been transformed into a full fledged city!"

"safe travels, good luck!"

"Take care, be safe. I want to continue looking for the Slug Alien stuff before I follow some other flight of fancy. But the Drachite ship is next after the Slugs." She beams a smile at both of you, before heading out.

Turning to Scott, "Alright, shall we head to the industrial section now?"

"sounds good"

The industrial building here is large and one of the biggest in the settlement. It has three large garage doors in the front where trucks could be directly loaded and unloaded, though you think the locals here probably used grav skiffs instead for the light cargo going out to the desert and any landed ships. The doors have small padlocks on them, enough to keep out a casual looter, but not someone determined with the right tools.

7:54 AM

The building seems to be divided between this distribution center, the actual whatever the industry of choice was inside, and a small office to keep the paperwork together.

Not really expecting there to be reason for any major defense but not wanting to be without caution, Iracus will go to look in any windows that lead to the office and then turns to Scott, "Want to check out the warehouse while I scope out this office? Cover some more ground that way." (edited)

Scott responds, "sounds like a plan", as he starts attempting to break the lock

(Fix check not needed here since you’re so good at it )

4:35 PM

The door snaps open handily and light floods the dark space. A few nesting birds who have enjoyed shelter down here flee from the sudden light

scott goes to the main are to see what the place was for, and what kind of machinery it deployed (edited)

(know/int)

(5)

You're not sure what might have been produced here. The machinery is old and you see signs some of it was sabotaged when the original inhabitants finally pulled out of this place, though you are not sure why.

"hey iracus! you should take a look at this once you're done in there, I can't figure out what it's for. I reckon something important given it looks to have been sabotaged on exit." scott will wait until iracus can take a look whenever he's done in the office before looking to turn the machinery into parts in search of anything worth keeping, and will check out the distribution center in the mean time. (edited)

Back outside Iracus is attempting to pop the lock on the office door with his tools at hand when he hears Scott, "Alright, be there in a moment!" He shouts back before continuing with the lock

The lock breaks easily, allowing you inside so you can see what scott is looking at. Age, sabotage, and neglect have rendered the machines here less recognizable than you would have liked. Some sort of stamping plant existed here once but there is no indication about what they might have been making (edited)

Iracus moves through the office, looking for any kind of insight into the purpose of the faculty. Looking for material sourcing documents, production schedules, or the like.

(Admin/int)

(9)

Resources mostly came in from off world in the form of raw materials. Most of what had come in later was research materials meant to try to reverse engineer drakite technology for new types of ECM shielded battle robots. Empire forces were dwindling, fought between two fronts, and being able to deploy mechanical legions could have turned the two front war into something they could win. This factory was meant to make small electronic components in this dry, relatively static free environment.

Iracus heads back to where Scott is while flipping through some of the materials. "It looks like this was some kind of component factory. They were using those Drakite forces to try and reverse engineer them. If we could find that tech we could maybe continue the research or at least learn something useful. Although we will probably need to find wherever they stashed that recovered Drakite tech, but maybe the data storage center has info." (edited)

"nice, thought there might've been something in the documents. I'm going to look at the distribution center before we move on, then data storage sounds good" scott heads to the distribution center to see if there's anything of note (edited)

There are trucks here meant to bring any manufactured goods to the surface, where ships would have taken the cargo away. There are three here now, all in moderate repair, but empty.

(would I be able to take one to keep, and what would it equate to?)

(A TL4 ground truck. I thought you had a truck already)

(yeah I was just curious)

(this is also a ground truck, its not any different than what you've got)

(Iw as considering outfitting one with a weapon and setting it up for combat but I don't think I will)

12:31 PM

"just some trucks, I'm good to move on when you are"

"I think I have found whatever is of interest here, I'm good to go."

12:33 PM

(so up to the data storage then!)

Moving across the city you can feel the eyes of the cameras on you now that you know there is a place in the city always recording. Data storage is a bunker like building, made to keep itself cool using natural building techniques, but otherwise difficult to get into and casually investigate.

Iracus will send his drone to do a 360 around the building, identifying possible entrances or things of note.

There is a skylight on the roof you might be able to force, it seems the least likely to be trapped or observed by a security system.

Iracus points out the roof to Scott, "Looks like there is a way in, now we just gotta find a way up. See anything to help us get up there?"

(If nobody has gear , we can try to climb somehow )

(i have nothing on hand - stuff up top in the ship but thats far - iracus can also jump up there if its 20m or less)

(Oh your storm armor would get you there)

7:43 PM

(Forgot you had that)

(is there a door that Iracus would be able to open from the inside so Scott could get in?)

(Yes and it would unlock on the inside far easier )

Looking to Scott, "I can jump up there with my suit and open it up from the inside if you wanna wait here while I do so, might be easier than climbing up."

"go for it. try not to activate any turrets"

"I'll do my best." With a nod, Iracus moves closer to the building and activates his suit's boosters to launch himself to the top.

The ceiling is a flat roof where dust and some rock chips are thrown up as your descent. A skylight looks over the inside of the data farm and it’s racks of servers here, covered by a grate for Airflow instead of glass

Iracus gets down to inspect the grate, looking to see if it is locked and if it might be trapped. (Could i use arcane expert from the hack-a-thon to conjure a data phase tap?)

(Yes you can!)

6:17 AM

There do not seem to be traps here, as it wasn’t expected anyone would ever enter this way.

Iracus conjures a data phase tap using the residual grail energy from the Galatea Games. With it, he does a quick sweep, looking to see if any data lines can be seen leading to the grate or around it. If nothing appears, he will try to open it. (edited)

There is nothing leading to the grate and it flips up easily with your assisted strength.

With the grate opened, Iracus carefully lowers himself below into the building.

THe door from behind has a simple locking bar. It is a thick piece of metal and not something you could force from the outside, but from in here, you can handle it quite easily.

9:17 AM

As its removed, the door opens and scott is now able to come inside.

Iracus steps to the side to let Scott pass through the door and says, "Good thing not everyone is as paranoid as the security tech person. They didn't even have the grate up top hooked to any monitoring or alarm." (edited)

"reckon that's a matter of perspective. thanks" (edited)

THe data farm inside is ten ranks of server towers. They are unpowered but intact.

"We need to get these powered if we wanna review their data, let's try and find a breaker box or something." Iracus will start trying to see how they can power up the servers

If local power to the city can’t be restored it looks like temporarily a power cell could be spliced into each

scott will take a look for any power boxes or power management equipment to try and restore power

There are power boxes here but with the city reactor not fueled right now there’s no way to turn things on here

"I reckon the temporary solution might be better here, our lack of power traces back to the source. speaking of, I wonder how fancy their power plant is"

"I wonder where it is at, didn't see anything as we were walking that seemed like where a reactor might be. But I'd say you are right for the temporary solution. I have a few A cells on me and plenty more up top of we need something more powerful."

(We could splice three in for now for a bulk download and you’d have to pick through the contents later , or we could try to power the city up now and get specific information in a bit without needing to spend anymore time on it

(Do we have any idea where that reactor might be?)

(Close to the center of town if this place is following pre scream construction practices and it seems like it is )

"Well what do you think Scott, want to try and get this city powered up? Could be beneficial for anywhere else we might visit."

"do want to take a look, sounds good"

(let's head to the police precinct and start checking around there for a place where the rector could be)

Close to where the police station is located you can see a set of cement stairs and a Maintenance entrance to a below street chamber. There are several warnings painted into the ground about how only authorized personnel may descend down the manhole and you’re confident there are active security measures inside

Iracus will move to the entrance to inspect it and use the conjured data phase tap to check for any data lines that might connect to the entrance.

The bottom of the ladder and immediate entry chamber are free from traps but you can see that some kind of turret system is connected to the network here, and will activate if the wrong authorization code is entered at the reactor maintenance panel in the main control room.

Iracus looks through the commpad to see if they have any access codes that might fit here and communicates the security measures back to Scott.

You’re able to get half the necessary digits from unsecured systems inside the precinct nearby but not a complete ignition sequence

"Scott you might want to stand back, only got half the code so I'm going to try and get the rest from the system." Iracus says as he starts to affix some limpet nodes to the data lines. "There looks to be a turret that will get set off if I do it wrong. Unless you have another idea or thoughts."

"I don't really have any ideas. I would love to have a backup plan, though" (edited)

"Back up plan? Well I suppose if things go poorly we just blow up any turret that emerges and break our way in somehow."

"just a little concerned that we'll be the ones getting broken, but I don't really see any further possible precautions, so go for it" scott backs up out of view of the door

(so you;d have to go down the ladder, and then into the control room if we decide to push it)

(ok, just far enough that iracus gets shot first, and brace) (edited)

Once Scott is set up, Iracus finishes setting the line shunts and then connects with his black slab to try and hack into the system and gain the last few digits of the code.

(Program/int)

[11]

The rest of the sequence is scrounged from the local net here through patching together various old emails and the operations manual of the town administration. The turrets will not trouble you

Looking back to Scott, "Piece of cake, we're in." Iracus will then look to see how they can go about turning on the reactor

scott relaxes visibly "it's always when you consider a backup plan that you don't need a backup plan. of course by that logic, simply planning for failure would be a means to success. either way, better to have than not. I'm rambling" (edited)

"Well fortunately we didn't have to use our backup plan as that likely would have meant getting shot by heavy weaponry. Had enough of that back on Plaus, could easily go another few months without bullets or laser beams rushing past my head."

(no troubles here turning it all on or anything, we've got the codes and both of you are pretty technically inclined)

9:28 PM

Lights and soft muzak begins playing as power gradually returns to the city. You can see the fuel load on the reactor is low but a frontier setup like this only needs something simple like water to be able to provide power for many years

Iracus brushes his hands together while saying, "There we go, piece of cake. Shall we return to the data center?"

"reckon so"

The data center is now up and running , allowing you to access whatever has been stored inside.

With things up and running, Iracus will move to the servers to start going through the data and to see if it has anything is interest

(do you guys want information about Robotics, Quality of Life, or Culture)

(will we only be able to get 1?)

(potentially, something will happen once we get the first one)

(I'm thinking robotics first, what do you think Scott?)

(works for me)

The Drakite core is still responding. Its location on the planet's surface is being pinged right now, and promises some insights into more efficient robo tech. That said, a security measure has been activated and anti-tampering software is moving to lock you out, and then melt the servers down. (program/int)

[14 - sure do love this black slab]

2

3

(Managing to keep things on for now, we have QoL and Culture left)

(maybe culture?)

(Scott, thoughts? )

(well I am heavily utility-minded and like new stuff and QoL seems more likely to give that but I know how much iracus likes consuming lore and I got what I really wanted so I really don't mind)

(let's do quality of life! Was flip flopping between the two anyway)

You get more data downloaded and you see that there are some rough plans coming through for a few pre scream housewares that will need some experimentation to perfect with colonial materials in the future

Iracus will attempt to single in on the plans for the pre scream housewares and search the databanks for more records and see if any more data of interest can be pulled from it.

This time the anti tamper had enough time to work and then smell of melting plastic and rubber fills the room.

"Gahh, blast it." Iracus curses to himself. "Well, hopefully what we got is enough to be able to expand on. Maybe we will be able to get some of those fancy microwaves produced, could greatly expand trade opportunities for us. And this Drakite core? That could be mighty interesting to check out." Iracus ponders for a moment "Hopefully some data can be recovered in time, what a mess, paranoid lot that's for sure."

8:16 PM

(Where on the planet did the ping come from? is it far?)

(It’s on the other side of the planet from here yeah. So we would need a ship)

(think that's just robotics and repair left, from the initial plan.)

(alright let's go hit that robotics repair area) (edited)

2:20 PM

(I'll want to check the warehouse as well after to see if any of these housewares can be found and maybe a few other buildings, idk if you were wanting to bounce to other things after the robotic area)

The robotics bay is an open air set of garages like what you would think of when picturing a car repair place, or some kind of small fabricator's workshop. The metal doors have been opened and left in the up position and you can see half a dozen expert system worker bots in various stages of either being taken apart, put together, or repaired inside

Iracus heads in to start looking around while asking Scott, "Seeing anything of value here? Or at least worth salvaging?"

(good question, what would scott be able to recover or salvage, could a bot be repaired and used, if so what would it equate to, what could be gotten from scrapping them, any pretech or just scrap parts?)

(They'd equate to the worker bots from the core rulebook if repaired)

(But these kinds of expert systems aren’t found back in the larger game world so they’re novel finds

"well I could take a shot at repairing those worker bots, they appear to have expert systems which aren't entirely common to my knowledge. wonder if I could repair multiple..." scott also takes the oppertunity to inspect any machinery and equipment that may be beyond what is available now (where in the core book are the worker bots? can't find them, unless you mean the VI player character option we aren't using, which is all that came up with find)

(no, that's not what im referring to here but I'll get the page for you)

10:43 AM

(it begins on page 196, on the right hand column, and goes down to finish that page and cover the next page.

(The industrial work bot right?)

10:46 AM

(Yes, that's the one. They can be upgraded to undertake more tasks without needing to roll, but that is the base model)

(alright, how many can I repair, what will it take and do I need to roll?)

(the parts are all here so we don't need to spend our own, we can repair each of the six currently present. There's no chance for failure, but a fix/int can get it done quicker)

(9)

2:00 PM

"you want any iracus?"

(if these aren't available in the greater universe, would it be possible to reverse engineer them to make them available?)

(oh yeah, I thought to ask that but then I forgot)

(not intending to as is but i might make them act like drones, not sure yet)

"Not personally, they would probably be good for the city here though if we end up rebuilding it for any dangerous work that might need doing, unless you want them that is." (edited)

"probably going to keep a couple, but the rest can stay if they'll get used"

(Didn’t have anything else to add to that other than we can split them up however you guys want)

(seems like I'm taking 2 and iracus isn't taking any, and the rest will be reserved for a restoration project whenever someone tries one here)

As Scott repairs the bots, Iracus takes an additional look in the building, looking for any items that might help shed light on how life was like before they evacuated.

Life here was frontier, but comfortable. The people have many amenities that even developed planets in the Iron Stars are just beginning to get for themselves. The work bots would have eventually been here in number to handle tasks too dangerous to perform for the locals, such as surface exploration, mining out collapse prone parts of the cavern, and so on.

Iracus meanders about the shop, picking up papers to read every so often, getting a small sense as to how life was here before. "Good work on the repairs Scott, these bots should really be able to help with getting this city back together. Will serve as a good base of operations while additional construction work happens topside." Pulling up the map, Iracus inspects it, "I think I might just want to pop over to the warehouse, see if they have any of those advanced houseware prototypes we might be able to build off of, but beyond that were there any other places you wished to investigate?"

"I think I'm happy, honestly. would be interesting to see what's in the warehouse, but I think after that I might be done"

Iracus nods, "Aye, I think we have covered some significant ground here, the rest can be covered by future teams as this place gets refurbished. Let's head on over to the warehouse then."

Crossing town to the warehouse you see that the doors are intact and closed. Simple locks are quickly broken off and the doors roll up, showing dozens of crates of colonial supplies and housewares left here to be distributed among the colonial families. With the evacuation ordered, passing them out or recovering them was low priority and aside from some dry rot on the carry straps from remaining untouched for so long- things seem relatively intact.

Iracus checks the data they got to see if it has any details on where the housewares might be, if anywhere. Otherwise he will simply begin searching through the various crates to see if he can find anything that resembles what was described.

It looks like scrub fields make up most of what is in these boxes as conditions are very sandy and people did not want the outside coming into their clean homes. There are a few roach popper systems here but pests were generally not expected to be much trouble on a world where the surface was so inhospitable to life.

~~Iracus looks up from the crates with a frown, "Hmm, nothing here" Iracus looks around for anywhere where a terminal might be that could have a manifest for the warehouse.~~ (edited)

(These are the housewares we were searching for. They’re not manufacturable as things stand right now as some of the parts are not possible to be made without psionic construction methods ) (edited)

10:12 PM

(Per relics of the lost at least)

Iracus looks up from the crates, "Ah look here, found something." He picks up one of each looking them over and says, "I'm not sure we will have much use for these scrub fields currently considering the terraforming, but these poppers might be of use once this city returns to life and goods start moving through." After a pause he continues, "Perhaps we could try and reverse engineer these, maybe get some insights on how they were constructed in the first place? Could help with trying to rebuild their fabricators in the first place. Its a long shot but what harm is there in trying long shots when you got centuries of technology to rebuild?" (edited)

10:39 PM

"Might take one or two for the ship though, who likes sand or roaches on their ship?"

Iracus tucks a few of the items into his gear before heading back to Scott. "Alright well I think it's safe to say this facility can be considered mostly cleared and safe for other teams to come in. Good work, especially with the fordge." Iracus takes his commpad and taps some buttons, "Aaaaaand there you should now have your payment for a job well done." (-2.5 million credits to close the last of CAST's debts)

(drakite core next, or off on our own adventures?) (edited)

(Whatever you guys want to do)

(the core is on world right? Also is this a different thing from the wreck that appeared to have been taken off world that we learned about at the security tech building? Or just better details on what that guy collected?)

(The core is on world. The wreck was supposed to be transported off but wasn’t , it crashed in the desert. We got better details

(Okay, well I'm down to go hunt this core before some other group gets it)

(I'm up for this, seems real cool)

5:14 PM

(at least very interesting)

The ship that brought you here is prepped for a rapid redeployment and no sooner are you both aboard the engines are already firing. Now that you’ve got the information you’re able to triangulate a five square kilometer patch of remote desert where the crash site is supposed to be.

Iracus goes to try and engage more localized scans of the area, trying to see if the ship can detect any structures or metallic objects.

(Program/int)

[12]

The core and piece of ship it crashed with is localized to a square kilometer of space and must be buried just below the surface

Iracus gives the coordinates to the pilot and then turning to Scott from the terminal, he says, "It looks like I have narrowed down where it is, looks to be buried below the surface but only just. Hope you don't mind wandering the desert a little bit."

"deserts are fine, and walks are relaxing, it's tundras I don't like."

The ship sets down at the northern side of the box, and sand swirls as the engines begin powering town. The crew will be occupied handling post flight ops for some time

As they set down, Iracus will gets out of the ship and looks around the local area. "Well, we shouldn't have to walk to far, the question is just figuring which way we go from here." After a moment he says, "I could use my drone to help scan the local area, it's observation suite should be able to detect the wreckage I think."

As he finishes looking around the desert, he pops back into the shop to grab his drone, Amelia, which is equipped with an observation suite that should hopefully help them find the location of the site. Once the drone is up and running he turns to Scott, "Alright well hopefully this works, I'd rather not have to break out the metal detectors and sweep through the sands by hand. Shall we find us a wreckage?"

Up and scanning, Amelia begins calibrating to pierce the surrounding sands with its observation suite. It beeps a short salutation to each of you as it begins gaining altitude and scanning , looking for irregularities in the dunes that could mean something unnatural beneath

After half an hour of sweeps, it seems that such a mound has been located in the exact middle of the search area

"We got a hit!" Iracus exclaims. "It's that way." he points in the direction of the dune.

"excellent, let's take a look! are we going to need anything to unbury it?" (edited)

(Your vehicle could probably do a bit of site cleanup but it won’t need anything major

"Nothing significant according to the scans, we should be able to get there with what we have on hand." Iracus sets the drone to just standby mode before joining Scott to head to the site.

The remains of the NMC courier are found after a short dig. The keel points out of the sand at close to 45 degrees. The front has broken away and is too deeply buried below the sands

1:44 PM

Portholes exposed by some digging look to be a way into the wreck

Pointing at the porthole, "Hey look at this" Iracus gets down to inspect it and shines a light into it to get a better look.

scott joins iracus to have a peek inside the wreck (edited)

You can see the remains of the captain cabin from where you have tunneled in. The accoutrements inside have been smashed aside from what looks to be a written captains log and the hatch leading out into the rest of the ship

Getting into the ship, Iracus will go right to the log and try and see what it says.

The log is missing dates and times for the last entry, it was done in a hurry but shows there was some kind of explosion in the hold and the ship was losing altitude.

7:14 AM

The Captain was going to try a controlled landing, which evidently did not end up being controlled.

Iracus summarizes the logs to Scott, "I think this might have been the ship that was transporting the recovered wreckage, if there was an explosion in the hold...well I'd say keep on your toes." Iracus then upholsters his las lock as a precaution.

The hatch from this cabin leads into what's left of the main deck, sloping downwards at an angle into the sand. You can see another port cut into the deck where a ladder leads down into the hold. It has been popped open, and two bodies of slain crew are face down near it

With gun in hand, flashlight on, Iracus will carefully lead the way forward

(Heading down the hatch ? Scott anything you want to do before we jump down there ?)

(down the hatch to the bodies!)

5:39 PM

(or the ladder rather)

The ladder drops you into the hold. You can see the Drakite core is still here, somewhat damaged by the crash but there is enough of it here to try to repair and learn from. It looks like some sort of system controller- something an autonomous ship or outpost might have used to transmit orders to mechanical workers, drones, or mechanical soldiers. The crash killed these men rather than violence within the ship. The violence of the crash must have ended the hacking attempts the control core was making against the ship too- but the damage had already been done.

"Scott! Come look at this" Iracus shouts back to where he came from. He then goes to try and assess the possible threat this thing poses and what precautions might need to be taken.

"well, glad to know there isn't anything with legs in here... I feel like there's a lot of story here we may be missing"

When repaired it might go defensive and try electronic attacks again. The impact with the ground has stopped it from operating for the moment.

"No legs but still worrying, however it seems disabled for now. We might be able to transfer it somewhere more secure to study it and see what secrets it holds."

"The engineering solution for keeping it from doing things would be Faraday cage, but that isn't something I think we have on hand, so I'm open to ideas"

"Perhaps it could be possible to disable it's remote access capabilities from here before moving it? Hmm. I wonder if we can find any log for what they did to secure this thing before transport." Iracus starts looking around the hold up see if anything remains that might provide insight on how to handle the device or aid in securing it.

It seems based on the captains notes that the electronic warfare was something they did not expect and did not prepare for. They believed simply cutting ship power and securing it from rolling was enough

"Well based on these notes it would seem whoever tried to move this thing didn't really know what they were doing. So the way I see it, without a faraday cage we could try to move it from here to someplace else and hope the impact disabled it enough to where it won't be a problem. Risk leaving it here to get a vessel that can transport it without worry, although I don't know how long that would take to fit. Or we get it back to some state of functionality so that we can poke around and try to disable its ability to remotely control things and move it safely. Thoughts?" Iracus puts his hand to his chin as he thinks over the device while looking to Scott.

(Seen. Just don’t wanna move it without him)

(sorry for dissapearing, had a very tired weekend) (edited)

"definitely want to recover this properly, partly just because I definitely don't want to risk crashing so some amount of preperation would be nice, but with us being an engineer and programmer I'm not sure we need to get a whole vessel to acheive this, and if someone else takes it they may just also crash or whatever else. not against also trying to get something from it now, but that might not be good for transport attempts" (would it be possible to make a DIY faraday cage on site, would a faraday cage still be just a wire mesh with current technology?) (edited)

(It would be a wire mesh with the frontier tech we have here,a nd yes, we can jury rig something for sure)

1:10 PM

(An old player actually did this once with a large sea eel monster, so its for sure been done before in the setting)

Iracus nods as Scott talks, "Alright, well lets get this thing properly secured for travel then. If we can build a proper cage, we can at least get some time to figure out somewhere to store the thing, perhaps a place managed by the Lamplighters. This, along with the shaper vessel recently found, could present a very interesting opportunity for the Lamplighters as an organization to increase their level of influence in the federation. We will need a place to store these and future dangerous objects and someone to oversee them after all. Perhaps somewhere here on Meda...Hmm. Anyway, how do we get started?"

"it's just a metal mesh really, low EM frequencies can't get through the metal and can't get between the bars, thus cutting wireless communications like radio almost entirely. this method also protects from electrical charge" scott starts bending metal wire in a pattern reminiscent of a wire fence, but tighter, to eventually form a box big enough to fit the core.

(I think there’s enough stuff around between your ship, the wreck and your natural skills to make something. I think a fix/int from each of you would still be needed but more for amount of time we spend working on it rather than if we can do it)

(12)

(4 - Iracus's pure incompetence for anything related to working with ones hands truly shows today)

The work takes three days to complete using local parts, your ship stores, and some ingenuity. Suspended on two grav rucks tethered together you're able to make a floating platform to transfer it from the wreck onto one of your ships for transport and later study (edited)

As the final day passes and they get the core loaded up on the ship, Iracus wipes some sweat from his brow and looks to Scott, "Well, that's that. Now to just get someplace to store and crack into the thing without risking a runaway AI. If it's even true AI that is. Nice work Scott, couldn't have done it without you."

11:09 AM

Iracus moves to sit down along the edge of the ship, get in the desert sands and looks towards where the wreck was, "We will probably need to get the Assembly to authorize transfer of custody, but with the Lamplighters becoming the unofficial science arm of the Federation, something like this could be best placed with them. We just will need to find or construct a secure facility for it. What are your thoughts on the matter?" (edited)

"I reckon from what I hear that the LLF will be able to handle it, as long as we learn what we can without it becoming another, well, runaway AI, I'm more than happy. I'll be a little suprised if there isn't an existing facility for containing such artifacts, but again, I reckon LLF can handle it."

Iracus nods, "I think so too, and if not, I'll make sure they can." Iracus smiles wryly, "CAST may have been absorbed, but I have no plans to let that stop me from ensuring research such as this gets done. But there will be time to worry about all that later. But with this thing all packed up, I think our current business on Meda is over, any thoughts on what you will do next?"

"it's been a long trip, I reckon I have some credits to spend, among other things. but as for the next mission... that might need some thought actually. plenty going on in the universe, sure I'll find something. why does it feel like we've been here 2 months, swear it's been no more than a few days. we've been here for approaching a week now- I-" (edited)

"Oh between the spike jumps and underground exploring, I hardly ever know what day it is. Well if you find yourself interested in exploring this planet further, it's got plenty of ruins, and I'd happily pay you for any find you might make, the more people exploring for this planet's secrets the better, so let me know." "But, before we depart I'd like to give you something." Iracus reaches into his pack and pulls out a tri-barreled pistol with markings along it's side, possibly recognizable of being a Slyth designed weapon. "Found this back on Musheera while looking for Slyth data sites, didn't find any but I did find this. It can be switched to either fire single shots, or multiple for an extra punch. But I thought it might be a better fit in your hands than mine." Iracus says with a friendly smile as he hands the weapon to Scott (edited)

(iracus you have no idea I was still reading every NMC thread when you got that and I was very much into it you have just made me very happy)

scott freezes in place for a moment, before moving to inspect the weapon. "now this, is a sidearm. this means alot, in a number of ways. thank you iracus, maybe one day I can return the favor"

(I’m good for whatever. Staying, going, anything we want to do)

"Consider it a gift from a friend, no need to be repaid." Iracus smiles before standing up. "Well I think it's back to Jagrati for me then. Can work with the local LLF office there, get this thing handed off and then perhaps attend to some NMC business." Iracus turns from Scott to look out to the distant sands of Meda and continues, "We still need to properly organize some kind of mass out-reach to the citizens here. This will definitely be the largest planet we have integrated, and of quite unusual circumstance considering the recent teraforming. Anyway, it's been good working with ya Scott. Until next time." Iracus says as he turns back towards Scott to say goodbye (edited)

(6xp, 50,000 credits )

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