Iron Stars - harper

Harper Wescott, a former member of the hovercraft clans relaxes after an intense game of zero-g tennis aboard the Greystar space hab. A tracker, and contractor, it has been some time since he's had a solid few moments off, and every time it has come up so far the sporting park he just "has to try" has been booked solid- except for today. A message pings on his compad, anchored next to his sporting bag on a nearby bench. 1 New *Priority* Message

14:06

It pulses its notification sound once more as you float your way over to it, the simulated envelope dancing merrily on the screen.

Harper excuses himself after challenging his opponent to a future rematch, and floats his way over to the bag. He fishes out the compad, and makes a mental note to clean it sooner than later before he opens the notification with a mixture of high hopes and apprehension. If that sporting park finally has an open spot, now would be the perfect time. If it's another job, he hope's it's at least it's not in another system.

Agent Harper, 

You have been selected for an assignment. Greystar has not explored east of Acastus since it began as its own government. As you can imagine this puts us in an undesirable security situation.

You and a small team have been selected to explore the planet Thea, to the galactic southeast of our capital world. Document all you see. Plants, animals, peoples, any problems the locals might be having if any communities are there. You are authorized to use your weapons to protect yourself, or the members of your team if you see a credible threat. 

A shuttle has been assigned for the journey, and departs this evening

He indefinitely postpones that rematch, deciding that exploring a planet is a definitely going to be more fascinating than working on his backhand. Rushing back to his room to pack everything he needs, which is almost everything he owns, and makes sure his power cells are charged. He would be travelling rather light if he didn't choose to bring his armoured vacc suit along with him, but as he didn't know what sort of atmosphere this planet had, it's definitely better to be prepared for anything. He checks the safety on his laser rifle and slings it over his shoulder as he leaves his room much earlier than he has to. He walks calmly towards the ship bay, looking around the rooms keenly after arriving to see if he can spot any of his future comrades.

Three other individuals, a bookish looking type, and two more rugged tracker/hunter figures are waiting near the open ramp of a shuttle, watching the pilots and deck chief argue about proper refueling procedures for the MK 2 shuttle. Each of them has a kit bag about the size of yours, and have taken similar precautions with vac suits and weapons since there is no indication of what might be found wherever you're going.

Harper walks over the bookish individual, as he imagines they might know more than him and the other two. Given that three of them don't seem like the best people to document the flora and fauna of an unexplored planet, and that it would make more sense for the scientist to be better informed. "Nice to meet you, are you the resident... scientist of this squad?" He hopes the pilot and deck chief will conclude their discussion soon, as he'd like to know about any possible rendezvous on Thea if things go south, or if they might be able to provide some air support. Of course he could wait until they start their transit, but he wants as much time to mull over the details as possible.

"I am. Something like one at least. Eager to be off but they've been jawing away like this for an hour now. Wonder if it even matters" he says, adjusting his glasses and a heavy bag of computing hardware. He has an entire comm server on his back along with the normal adventuring needs.

Harper guesses the server is what they’ll be using to communicate with the ship. “I have no idea, you’d think it’d be simple enough to properly refuel a ship” Harper of course doesn’t know anything about refueling shuttles. “So, what did they tell you we’re going to Thea for?”

"Documenting. trying to see what's east of us now that we can start moving that way"

15:37

"What did they tell you?"

“Pretty much the same thing. I’m excited, this’ll be almost like discovering that planet for the first time all over again” Harper waits at the bottom of the ramp with the others until the shuttle is ready to depart

The pilots and chief finally come to the end of their debate, and you're given permission to board. The cabins are empty and aside from where the ship crew will be sleeping there is no real hierarchy over the rest of the shuttle. Two pilots and a cargo loadmaster will accompany the voyage- as most of you are armed, it seems the marine component has been kept off to allow more space.

Harper happily leaves his vacc suit in his cabin, but keeps the rest of his equipment with him. He walks around the shuttle, examining every nook and cranny of the place before walking into the cockpit to ask how long they'll be in transit. Then he heads back to the cabins and knocks on the door belonging to one of his hunter/tracker squadmates.

The trip is expected to be three days , and the trackers are all settling in too. The first of them looks up. “Hey there. Everything alright ?”

At least he’ll have plenty of time to get to know them “Of course, I just thought that since we’ve got some free time now that it would be a good idea to get to know each other before we land. My names Harper, it’s a pleasure to meet you”

“Harper. I’m Edid. Nice to meet you. I hope we all make it out of where we are going. Wasn’t able to find anything on Gal net”

“I hope so too Edid. So it seems we all got the exact same information, which I guess means that there really isn’t anything else known about this planet” He excuses himself, and makes his way towards the other tracker to introduce himself (Very sorry for late reply (edited)

The final tracker is asleep, already grabbing as much rest as he can. A monoblade machete rests next to him in the hammock. His other gear is still packed and locked down with deck straps

Harper heads back to his gear, and during their trip he makes sure to thoroughly inspect and clean all of his equipment in preparation. As he doesn't know when the next opportunity for proper maintenance will be. He also takes a leaf out of the sleeping tracker's book and rest up.

(Got the handout near the top of the Roll20 for what you can do on downtime as well as we pass the next couple days)

((I'll spend these days training the Exert skill

Harper knows that with all this free time could be better spent by getting into better shape instead of only hanging around. He specifically focuses on his core and flexibility with a variety of exercises. He times these as well as his breaks as precisely as possible, not wanting to risk even the slightest chance of overexertion.

( 3/90 for exert

04:04

Thea is a solar system of twin suns, each a bright sky blue that warm a planet barely within the habitable zone. The planet is arid and on the cold side of temperate. It is a land of mountains and wide foothills, overlooking pristine mountain lakes. There is no evidence of orbital traffic or space installations. A gas giant, and a barren planet with two volcanic moons also round out the system

He gazes out of the ship in awe, and is overjoyed that this entire planet is theirs' to explore. As soon as he's finished gawking, he asks the two pilots if it would be possible to carry out a low orbit flyover of the planet to see if they can find any population centers, buildings, or anything out of the ordinary at all for that matter. He also asks his squadmates if any of them have experience with cartography, as it would could be useful if there are any structures or points of interest on the surface. (edited)

(I'm doodling up a map for you now)

3

“I think we should land on the other side of the mountains near that building to take water, soil, and air samples. Then after we check it out, we could go to one of those forests to see what kind of flora and fauna we can find, or maybe even the people who built this” He lays this out to the team as a potential plan, and is very interested in what they think should be done. He also hands his survey scanner to the scientist if they don’t have one already, as they’ll hopefully be able to get the most out of it.

The abandoned observatory is the only structure on the planet, and may not be the work of human hands. THe group also believes investigating it, if it appears safe to do so, is a good thing to work into the plans

Harper asks the pilots if an even closer flyby is possible before they land to see if there’s anything they didn’t see at first. He’s already got his equipment together, and is ready to land once everyone else is as well.

(Notice/wis , pilot will take one too, but just to see if you can pick anything out)

((9

On a close flyby to the tower, you can see the foundations of smaller habitations buildings that had once accompanied it, though they're overgrown and just nubs of material poking out of the ground now. There is no sign of external defenses on the observation tower, and a broken radio telescope sags sadly out of a slit in the roof

“No cities or villages, no defences, no people. Did someone just come here to build an observatory? Or has this place been here since before the Scream?” He thinks out loud. Remembering that the other planets were a gas giant and completely barren, he reckons that whoever built this must have had access to a spike drive. Yet there didn’t seem to be any information at all about this planet, and it seems odd someone would come here only to build an observatory. Maybe it was built in such a specific place for a reason, either way there’s only one way to find out. “I’m ready to go check this place out, what about you three?” He addresses this to the scientist, Edid, and the other tracker.

Everyone’s eager to stretch their legs after being cooped up aboard for several days. Gear is assembled and all that remains is you deciding how close you’re willing to get to the mysterious tower

As soon as Harper steps on the ground, he pulls out his binoculars to look carefully over the immediate area as he formulates a plan in his head. There didn't seem to be any obvious or imminent threats, but a lone observatory with it's builders nowhere to be found warrants at least some caution in his eyes. His plan is to split the four of them into two groups; One watches over the other and provides cover fire and support, while the other investigates the outside of the observatory and the decrepit buildings around it. He says this much to the other three, and asks which among them is the best marksman and hand-to-hand fighter. He thinks the marksman should stay with the scientist as over watch, while the other two make move ahead before they all enter together, assuming it's safe to do so.

(Which group did you want to be with?)

((I’ll be with the one that goes to check out the observatory

The observatory when seen close up is not the work of human hands. The construction methods are advanced, and the angles are perfect around doors, windows, and the proportions of the building itself. The large doors leading in are made of metal, and are locked with a large locking bar currently set into brackets on each door, like the inverse of a castle gate

Harper looks around for any windows at ground level, and to see if they’re just as secured as the door.

((Wait, could I just lift the locking bar from the outside?

(Yeah its on the outside)

19:58

(Not meant to seriously keep people or anything out, just animals, ect. )

((Thanks!

Harper lifts up the bar slowly and open the doors, trying not to make a ton of noise while he does so. He gets ready to dive to the side if there are any defences, even though he thinks it’s pretty unlikely.

(sneak/dex)

((6

You don’t trigger any defenses inside by slowly removing the bar. The effort is near silent. The antechamber is large with a flagstone floor and a winding set of metal stairs leading up to the observatory level. There is also a basement accessible though a set of double doors set into the north wall

Harper decides to walk up the winding stairs to the observatory first, still trying to make the least amount of noise possible. He keeps his rifle ready, and is on the lookout for anything unusual or suspicious.

The crouching forms of you and the other scout begin making your way up the well made stairs. You move quietly, noticing unpowered security turrets outside the main access doors of the laboratory level. Power here must have failed ages ago. The weapons are elegant, slender barreled and outside what humanity has created.

He makes a mental note to examine these carefully later on, as it looks like his Pre-Scream estimate might be close to the truth. For now, he presses on quietly to the laboratory doors and opens them up.

The doors open ,and there is one loud chirp as something arms within the room. A security panel on the far wall, 30m away, begins to light up, as do most of the computers around it. A turret drops from the ceiling, and begins tracking- this one seems to have its own reserve of power

((Is there any cover inside the laboratory? Like desks and stuff

(Some work benches and desks but with the gun being above you it's not really vertical cover, just lateral)

((One last thing, are the doors to the laboratory just normal doors, or are they strong/reinforced?

(they're normal entry doors. Metal, but not reinforced or anything)

Harper draws his rifle and fires it at the security panel before running back a few meters and dropping prone.

((20/10

01:15

((Burst fire

The security panel blows out in a shower of scrap metal and sparks. Wires dance as rounds sever the connections, and the turret slacks on its gimbal joint

Harper stands up and brushes himself off "That was a little close" Evidently something in here was worth guarding with an independently powered turret, but there is still one more part of this observatory that has yet to be cleared. He takes a quick look around to see if anything else catches his eye, and then he's going back down the stairs to the basement to try and clear that area of potential dangers as well. It's probably better if he makes sure there aren't any more surprise turrets before they examine this place properly. So when he gets down, he carefully opens up the basement doors (edited)

The lab seems like its empty of dangers now and can be investigated later when the building is more secure to your liking.

18:01

The security panel burns itself out, but the fire doesn't spread to the surrounding instrument panels

When he gets to the basement doors, he opens the doors a tiny bit and peeks through. Mostly to check for any more security measures that would otherwise catch him by surprise.

The doors lead to a cement staircase that ends in a landing before continuing left to whatever is down there. The doors themselves are not rigged with traps

He slinks down the stairs, laser rifle at the ready, and peeks around the corner to see what’s down here.

The lower reaches of the observatory are entirely dark. You cannot see more than a meter or two beyond the bottom of the stairs, but there are large boxy shapes hidden in the darkness here. Nothing returns fire from the darkness

Harper reaches into the survival kit at his waist and grabs hold of a thermal flare. He activates the first mode on it and throws it into the darkness. As soon as the flare leaves his hand, he levels his laser rifle at the shadowy boxes.

03:11

((Thermal flare creates 20 meters of light if it’s important

(Helps a lot) Generators for the building, some tooling, and the electrical panels. Some spare parts for the telescopes, and some computing gear for the control systems upstairs are packed in elongated, ovular crates bound with two rubber carrying strips

For a second, Harper considered trying to restart the generators to get the lights on, but he assumes that it’ll turn on the two other turrets upstairs. For now, he picks the flare back up and searches every corner of the darkened room.

There are no traps, or surprises, and the area seems safe. The power panel can disable power to the turrets above even if the generators are restarted, and the switches are small enough to be thrown with two hands

Harper disables the turrets first, then switches the generators back on. Feeling safer, yet no less curious, he walks back outside and waves for the other two to join them. He brings the scientist up to the laboratory, it being what he thinks might have the most answers. Even though he trusts the scientist, he still takes a look around for himself. Anything that could give them a clue to this place’s purpose and creators is what he’s looking for specifically, as he doubts he’d understand the exact science going on here.

(3xp, 5000 credits)

03:55

The observatory will need about a day to power up, the generators are chugging away in the basement greedily sucking down the drums of water your men poured into them. The reactors are beginning the long, but safe, chain reaction needed to keep the facility running.

03:56

After two hours, it is safe to switch the turrets on, now with updated targeting parameters. Everyone will get a chance to sleep tonight it seems. The installation is old, possibly even pre-dating the Slyth, as there is no evidence they built or ever explored the place. What exactly this observatory was looking at will be revealed once the power up is completed

While he waits for night to fall, he heads outside to constantly sweep the perimeter of the observatory. He doesn't expect anything to suddenly show up now that the power has been turned on, but it doesn't hurt to be a little extra careful in his mind. Once he's satisfied his overly cautious instincts, he walks back inside to catch some rest. He runs his hand over the uncanny architecture while he strides his way up the stairs, hardly able to contain his curiosity and excitement over this discovery.

**Level Up**
Level: 2
Focus: Sniper-1
Old HP: 8
HP Roll: 11
New HP: 11
New Skills: Shoot-2, Sneak-1, Notice-1
Current AB: 2

The power up will take some time still. The shuttle is returned to space to not risk it overnight on the ground. With yourselves closed in, any wildlife should be firmly@away from you while you rest tonight. Haptic panels light up, another come going active every few minutes. The details on them become more clear with every passing moment as more and more power is shunted upwards. What they were looking at remains to be seen still. There may be an answer come morning.

He decides to rest, though he would just as soon wait all night to watch this place slowly light up. He lays his rifle down near him, and falls asleep.

The observatory is now on 75 percent power and the first scans of what they were looking at have begun generating. There is great interest in the volcanic moons of this world. The terrain is hellish and unsuited to any kind of long term human habitation. It’s unknown if whosever built this place was more able to survive in that clime. The lust for mineral wealth remained between human and these precursors and it seems the moons are each worth what you’d estimate in credits to be in the high quadrillions if mined completely

Harper makes sure that all this data is documented, and meticulously examines every other scan that is generated. Mineral rich moons are quite a find in his opinion, but he keeps a lookout for mentions of other facilities like this, or any records of whoever built this. Although the value of this data doesn't escape him, all that he's thinking of now is how he might find more about the creators, and how he might find more of their creations.

The answers to those questions will take longer than the hours, or days that the scientific expedition is allotted here. The findings are catalogued, and the group now wants to know what you tihnk the best move is.

02:39

(we're getting close to month flip, so bringing up the site and development of it wouldnt be a bad meeting topic)

((That didn't occur to me, thanks!

Harper decides that with the rest of their time, they should fulfill their original mission of documenting the flora and fauna of this planet. To that end, he splits the four of them into groups of two while they explore and makes sure those two groups don't stray more than a hundred feet from each other. He maps out search patterns in grids, so that they can cover ground efficiently, and obtain a variety of samples. He believes the chance for danger is low, but still makes sure everyone is armed and ready for any hostile contact. Whether it's native to this planet or something else. While they're out exploring, he takes his time to look for tracks as well as any indication of wildlife. He expects there to be a lot of life in these mountain lakes as well, but he prefers being on land, not like they have the equipment for that anyways.

(survive/wis)

((12

You find some tracks around the back of the observatory, that are medium in depth, and likely belonging to a carnivore. They head into the woods, and a horn has been left behind, pointed like a deer and about as long as your arm

He looks at the horn with a mixture of apprehension and awe, if this belongs to the creature that whose prints he found, this could be a perilous development. He makes sure they follow the tracks with daylight to spare, as he doesn't envy following what he supposes is a predator at night in it's native environment. He knows that this creature could have been looking for a meal, so he keeps his binoculars and rifle at the ready. If he was going out with the express purpose to kill whatever this is, he would bring some bait and a plan for a trap. However, seeing as they're just to document and examine it he brings his usual equipment, though he does change up the group's tactics. He opts to have the two groups stay within fifty feet of each other now, and have the duos move back-to-back, with one person looking forwards and the other behind them. His other additions to their usual tactics include having one member of each group scan ahead with binoculars every half an hour to see if they're any closer to their quarry, and constantly re-examining the tracks at intervals to analyze their relative freshness. With that, he starts to follow the tracks. A few minutes in he also checks to see if they're downwind or upwind from where the tracks are heading, as he wants to know if there's a greater possibility they might be detected by the creature while they travel.

You seem to be upwind of the tracks so far, and if its out there, it might get a whiff of your scent if things conitnue progressing the way they have. THe tracks are within an hour old as best you can tell

He asks the others how they feel about following this thing, though he continues on the same way as before as he doesn’t feel like this has gotten out of hand yet. If it were to catch their scent and try to sneak up on them or circle back around, then it’d hopefully be spotted.

For now, the group is confident to continue, and the conditions and weather favor you still

20:12

(passed their morale check to keep going)

So far so good, and he continues on with the tactics he laid out before they left.

(lets get another survive/wis)

((10

You get your first glimpse from 100m away late in the afternoon, following its winding trail around the observatory in gradually wider circles. It sniffs the air with a forked tongue, and its body seems scaled rather than furry

Harper hands his survey scanner to the scientist so they can record the actions of this creature for later examination. Meanwhile, he takes out his binoculars to see if he can use them to make out anything he couldn’t see from this distance.

"What do you think? " one of the trackers whispers "do we try to take it out from this range?"\

“We came to document this planet, not to kill everything we see. If it comes at us though, fire at will” He continues to study the visible physical traits of this beast, and tries to discern if those scales act as effective armour. He also looks for small cracks or crevices in between the scales. Once he’s done this cursory scan of the creature, he begins the minute long preparation for an execution attack on the beast until he’s ready to fire or until the scientist feels they know enough about this carnivore.

"I think we've got as much as we can get with a physical inspection. An autopsy or dissection would yield more information. We also need a name. Any suggestions Mr. Wescott?"

“How about.... the octoceratops? As for that dissection of yours, you can come back with the right equipment to do it humanely. Not like a ton of laser blasts will lead to a flawless autopsy anyways” With what he feels is enough data gathered, he decides to leave the creature be and return to their usual search patterns. Though he keeps the same back to back tactic, in case the “Octoceratops” is very territorial.

(article up on world anvil)

((Awesome!

"Right, we;ll have to come back with a med suite and do this again the right way. At least we know the direction now, and we can keep an eye on it"|

He nods, and directs the groups towards the base of some of the mountains. He plans to circle around them to see if there are any more structures hidden around there, or if they can find some smaller animals to take back to the research base on Leda.

The forest floor has evidence of passing small animals, and small birds fly overhead to nest in branches. They're too far off the ground to be able to easily grab one with your hands

He searches for any little burrows in the ground, and starts a list of equipment he’ll have to find to make the most of his time here. Chief among them rope and rations to create small game traps. For now however, he keeps an eye out for opportunities to catch smaller animals off guard, and continues taking in the sights, sounds, and smells all around him.

(if you've got those on you, we can try to trap something)

22:54

(the ship has a locker too, so you can requisition those things for free)

((Oh nice. In that case, I’ll take some from the ship as I don’t have any myself

(with the armory and locker, you can requisition personal amounts of equipment for free, but if you do something like for example use the armory to give guns to a small village facing a bandit attack or something, you'd have to buy the fitting again to restock it, in this case a few ropes and some food isnt a major expenditure of material)

((That’s amazing! And thanks for letting me know

23:01

Harper takes some rope and a few rations from the locker on the ship, and then goes back out to see if he can catch anything. Assuming he can properly create the snare traps, he spreads them out over a couple hundred meters, and places them where he can tell there’s been activity recently. So near bushes, fallen trees, and other areas that small creatures frequent.

(id say the survival training you have as a military man probably would have covered catching small game, so no roll needed here)

((Nice!

01:00

He checks back on his traps after a little while, excited to see what he might have caught.

One of the boxes is vibrating slightly, and the sounds of wing beats are heard underneath.

5

“Aren’t you adorable!” Harper picks up the box to get a better look at the creature, then begins to carry it around with him as he looks for some berries or nuts to feed the little flying mouse with. “Huh, what would you like to eat lite buddy?” He hold up any berries, nuts, seeds, or insects he can get ahold of in front of the box to see what it might prefer to eat.

The creature seems to gravitate toward the berries in the freeze dried ration bar you baited the trap with.

05:42

It is the size of an ordinary house noise though it’s fur is bright and it has hummingbird wings

“You like these, hey?” He carefully picks a few berries from the bar, and gives it one. He then brings it back to the observatory to set up a little place for it to live for when he can’t be there to watch it. He also makes sure that the targeting of the turrets outside are updated in case it escapes.

The turrets are now not tracking you, your companions, or your pet. Some berries are also left for it inside of a small enclosure you're able to make from an ammo crate

After he sets this up, he tries to start forging a little trust between him and this little mouse. First he tries to get it to eat berries he holds in his hand, then he tries to give it a little back rub with his index finger.

((Not entirely sure what kind of check this is, but unless something else pops up Harper will continue searching and trapping in this way

(Let’s get another survive wis for that )

01:41

(But the rodent would eat when fed at this point)

((11

Another of the box traps outside signals it has been tripped, and the same buzzing and gentle moving of the box greets you as your team advances on it

Harper pre-emptively takes a berry out of one of their ration bars, and gives it to the little creature. While it eats, he tries to find any external signs that would indicate if this is a male or a female of their species. After he gets this little flying mouse in the same makeshift closure as the other, they head out to see if they can find the larger horned creature to keep tabs on it.

((In preparation for the upcoming mission, Harper purchases a Combat Field Uniform, a Sniper Rifle, two demo charges, two type A powercells, 200 rounds of ammunition, a metatool, a grapnel launcher, 5 glowbugs, a mag pistol, and a mag rifle for a total of 3,445 credits. I'm not sure if this is where I should put this, so sorry if it's in the wrong place

(nope this is perfect, stick em on your sheet and we'll go from there

)

((

**Level Up**
Level: 3
Focus: N/A
Old HP: 11
HP Roll: 14
New HP: 14
New Skills: Survive-2
Current AB: 2

(Looks good)

1

### Secure Transmission Incoming ### To: Harper Wescott From: Aiya Technologies Human Resources Subject: Open Position - Exploration Department Greetings Harper Wescott, We at Aiya Technologies have been following your progress rather closely. Management is greatly impressed by the way you conducted yourself on Thea in a recent exploration mission. There is an open position in the Exploration Department. We would like to gauge your interest for such a position. Should this interest you please reach out to us at #aiya-technologies to discuss further Thank you and have a wonderful day Human Resources Aiya Technologies ### End Secure Transmission ###

(edited)

((Before I answer Aiya here, I have a question about the timeline with the mission(s) I’ve been on. Would they take place after or in the middle of the exploration of Thea?

(I'd say you were probably pulled from exploring to handle this stuff)

15:50

(bigger fish, so to speak)

((Alright

(but if you want to go back we can always meet up with Simon and do a longer expedition into the jungle)

((I’m up for that if they are!

((After the mission on Yauvani, Harper makes some purchases before returning to Thea. These consist of a force pavis, woven body armour (Using these instead of a CFU), a shear rifle, TL4 binoculars, a navcomp, a TL4 backpack. Totaling 11,750 credits

(all available)

1

To: Harper Wescott
From: Aiya Technologies Human Resources

Pathfinder Wescott,

Welcome to the Aiya Tech family! Please see attached benefits package for the position of Pathfinder in the Exploration Department:

  - 500,000 credits per month in salary
  - The funding and construction of up to two ships of cruiser class or lower. (Face and Pretech to be paid by you)
  - Subsidized ship maintenance costs
  - Access to any and all Aiya Technologies facilities

The CEO and Founder of Aiya Technologies can make himself available for a meeting should you find yourself on Acastus.

Congratulations once again,
Aiya Technologies Human Resources

(Also gain +1 to all connect rolls and gain an increased amount of Face for completing missions)

((Woah

(welcome to the team :) )

((

(and if you if you want to have a meeting with Eisheru in character just ping me)

((Will do, and thanks again!

1

(thank you! AT never got enough of my attention due to all the other things going on. Excited to help enable someone else to breath new life into it) (edited)

(Harp, did you wanna get involved in any of the group stuff?)

((It’s all a little too dangerous for my tastes, and I was just in one so I’d like to work on some of my personal stuff. I was thinking maybe some expeditionary/pathfinding work for AT, or figure out what the observatory’s doing

(Sure thing!)

((Awesome!

The observatory crew has been busy in your absence and you’re called to the control room as soon as you’re back. Control banks have all their lights on now and it seems like some preliminary data is coming in about whatever this observatory was looking at before being forced to shut down. (edited)

“What’s new?” He looks to see if he can try to make sense of the new information, but waits to hear what they’ve found.

"We're getting some telemetry controls back. We're making sense of where the observatory was looking still, but more excitingly, we can train the telescope toward a new system to get an idea of what might be going on there. This was your op, so you should get to decide what we're looking at"

((Would this be an already known system, or a completely undiscovered one?

(You can align it toward any system you want that doesn’t have a scouting report. )

00:58

(So for our purposes doesn’t have an entry in world anvil. Nothing will come up when it’s searched

1

((In that case, would Canto work?

(Yes! Ill post a report)

Canto is a system with a blue sun, a gas giant , a barren planet ringed with thick asteroids and ice chunks, and two planets. One is a lava wracked ball of fire and shifting rock while the other is an ocean planet with several coral land masses rising out of the mostly calm seas. The ocean world does have some volcanic activity- its landmass will continue to form over the next ten thousand years , but the existing areas seem calm enough to settle if some precautions are taken.

“It’s beautiful. The ocean, not the lava. I wonder what lives in that water, hopefully not some primordial gloop”

17:33

((So would this be a new system to explore next? Because if it is I might use my AT budget to fund a ship for exploration

17:35

((Grab some fittings like amphibious operation and such

(you certainly can go there if you want to, but the bonus here was getting the system report without visiting first. You're going exploring armed with foreknowledge at least!) (edited)

((Ahhh, very nice. Can the team give an estimate as to when the data in the observatory will be completely examined?

19:03

((Just wondering, now I’m going to learn how to properly make a ship to go water planet exploring!

(I am actually adding this as a big research project since the results are going to add something brand new to the game)

((That’s so awesome. So yeah, planning to make a ship to go to Canto

(Alrighty. We will get something laid out. I can help you with the buikdef if you need it

1

The return to Acastus is a matter of two days of spike flight and the vessel you commissioned is waiting in port, plastic wrap still over the gauges and dials, orange warning tape on most of the movable parts and all the other hallmarks of a fresh ship

((I’ll put the ship in shipyard updates, just finishing it up now

1

Harper practically jumps into the ship, barely restraining his overpowering urge to start fiddling with dials and pressing buttons. Instead, he heads right to the bunks and claims his own. Before long, the safety wrap and tape have been removed by his eager hands, and the crew boards to prepare for the first flight. “Destination; Canto!”

18:08

Crew list: Pilot - Dirk Co-pilot - Enzo Engineer - Freya Documentation - Sterling Exploration - Edid + Harper

(And it’s 3 days to canto and the report is up already from the observatory. I’ll get the planet maps drawn though)

2

Canto is a system with a blue sun, a gas giant , a barren planet ringed with thick asteroids and ice chunks, and two planets. One is a lava wracked ball of fire and shifting rock while the other is an ocean planet with several coral land masses rising out of the mostly calm seas. The ocean world does have some volcanic activity- its landmass will continue to form over the next ten thousand years , but the existing areas seem calm enough to settle if some precautions are taken.

Harper helps direct their sensor array towards the planet, looking particularly for any underwater formations such as caves or trenches.

(Program/int)

((3

You’re unable to find anything undersea but three cave systems appear on the map that your scan has generated of the ocean planet’s surface

(Would a ship come with any sort of front facing spotlights or the like?

(I’m sure it would)

“Let’s see what’s in the caves first, and then we can try and head deeper into the ocean to find out what’s down there”

02:10

((How deep would the ship be able to go?

(I'd say a few hundred meters down at least before we have to start worrying about pressure)

((Alright, so here’s hoping there aren’t any giant cave snakes down there

“I’ve got a few cave systems on the map here, captain” the navigator calls out, bringing up the planet surface “Where should we start?

“Let’s begin with the North-Eastern one, it might be interesting to see if there’s much life that close to a volcano”

The ship approaches closing in to 500m from the volcano cave system. Ash rain gently covers most of the surfaces here but it’s slight and there’s no indication the volcano@is going to blow anytime soon, but the rumble in the ground on slight intervals does show its active. You’d expect that on a still forming world like this

((Can the entire ship fit in the cave? If it can’t it’s time to proceed on foot

(it cannot)

((Alright

03:14

Harper disembarks the ship, bringing Edid along with him. He approaches the edge of the cave slowly, going as far as the outside light reaches before retrieving a flare to light up and hold.

The inside of the cave shimmers with encrusted silica and other minerals. Quartz mostly, if Edid is to be believed. You can see the tunnel winds into the depths of the planet, and does not seem to be artificially made. 30m ahead, it bends to the left, on its continuing gentle downward gradient.

“Beautiful. Keep an eye out for any creatures, and stay quiet. If you hear something, try not to move to much. It’s likely that any life down here may have evolved some form of sonar or echolocation to live in the darkness” He continues on unabashed, holding the flare higher up, and keeping his hand near his mag pistol.

As you reach the place where the junction heads west, you see dozens of small green pairs of eyes looking at you from the cavern roof. What they’re attached to is out of sight

Harper peers up at them, then turns back to face Edid and signal to them to remain silent. He doesn’t stop, holding on tight to the flare, and keeping his eyes glued on the creatures to see if they give any indication of being disturbed.

The swarm of furry bat like creatures unlatch from the cave roof. They're simple beings, one of the first forms of complex multicellular life this world has probably seen, and the flock of them, probably over 40, heads skyward, swirling into the sky and heading for no doubt some other nesting ground

“Curious. Keep your eyes out for... more eyes I guess. Hopefully life on this planet is new enough that it hasn’t had too much time to evolve, it would suck to encounter a specialized predator down here” They continue on, deeper down, and Harper treads carefully, wary of any sudden drops or cliffs.

(survive or notice with wis, your choice)

((Survive/wis 13

The cave is quiet but you hear something scratching in the darkness ahead of you. Scratched on the walls and ceiling indicate some kind of blade or claw limbed beast

14:51

You’re able to keep your footing and the torch sends gently glittering light from the walls and floor. The beast you hear is out of sight

He stops moving, and crouches down to pick up a rock. He knows that a lot of creatures that dwell underground end up with unimpressive vision or become completely blind, since eyes aren’t needed in the darkness. However, he definitely wasn’t going to take any chances, and hurls the rock as far as he can ahead of them and draws his mag pistol, waiting to see what happens.

Something that reminds you of a centipede with no face and a long lashing tongue investigates the air, sniffing for the source of the disturbance but it cannot seem to find you just yet.

17:20

It is a long creature and about waist height compared to you

Harper’s eyes open wide, and he drops the flare in his hand so he can grab another one. He extends the guidance fins on this one, and aims it at the ground between him and the bug before launching it. As soon as it leaves his hands, he points towards the exit of the cave, and makes a beeline towards it.

It reflexively backs away from the light and you’re able to make it back out to safety by time the creature has acclimated itself. It’s not willing to leave the cave at least in daylight

“Alright. If this is any indication of the other caves, I think we should head underwater before exploring them” He speed walks back to the ship, not excited to head back underground anytime soon.

Things seem calm. You're not not followed by that creature and the hiss of the airlock door shutting behind you- safe behind ship armor, is when you can finally breathe out.

“Yep, let’s head underwater first. It seems like underground life has had enough time to evolve some dangerous predators” He stands in the cockpit, peering out of the window to see if he spots anything while they’re underwater. He also describes the appearance and behaviour of the clawed creature to Sterling for documentation.

Heading below the waves to a depth of 200m, the controls jerk violently to the right as a massive shape passes you, heading toward the surface for an exchange of air

03:29

the six finned beast is gentle, seeing you as a fellow resident of the depths. Coral growths and long whiskers adorn its snout though its appearing to maintain the size of a whale shark, along with most of its habits

“Beautiful...” He makes sure to note the corals and whiskers, then examines the scars and markings that adorn the creature’s skin, wondering if he can find any unique or recognizable ones. Once the ship has followed it long enough to record all they can, as well as gather a few images, Harper decides to head a little deeper down.

Sulphuric vents warm the ocean floor and you see many examples of crab and lobster like creatures clustered around them. There are very small fish darting between growing seeds of coral as life just begins on this world

Harper makes sure to have some notes ready to deliver to the higher-ups at AT, specifically mentioning the dangerous cave life, and burgeoning underwater ecosystem. Aside from that, he requests that the ship continue moving on, and keeps a look out for the inevitable aquatic predator that would hunt near such an abundance of food.

A shadow passes over the ship, easily double your size, several moments later. It is running above you, on the literal tail of the whale that you saw previously- trying to catch it on the way down to drag it into the depths to drown it.

14:48

A few quiet jokes about being the first to hunt a beast like this are passed among the crew

“Hard to tell if those are scales or not, they look almost exactly like rock” He decides its best to let this (assumedly) apex predator hunt, and pulls back to the edge of their sightline to see how this similarly six-finned creature consumes it’s prey.

You can see it position itself almost perpendicular to the whale, where it’s jaws can get the best fix. It rockets forward at astonishing speed, ramming the whale and biting enormously deep into its sides, serrated teeth catching and holding.

05:25

It begins dragging the thrashing whale deeper down into the depths , the thrashing whale twisting and turning and bleeding , making the water bloom with crimson

05:26

It is unable to break the hold despite over twelve minutes of trying when it finally drowns, unable to surface to get more air

05:27

The shark begins pulling its teeth out in a mighty tear, swallowing the enormous gobbet of meat whole

Harper watches the carnage with wide eyes, only seeming to breathe again once it’s finished. “I think we’ve seen enough for now, lots of deadly stuff on this planet apparently. Since that’s probably the case, I think we should head a tiny bit deeper, to see if we can find anything else” The shark-like creature fascinates him enough for him to give it a name of his own devising. “Bul-Shark” seems like a fitting enough name, even if it’s just the words “Bulwark” and “Shark” slapped together. Though it completely lacks any sort of proper scientific nomenclature, he thinks it describes the creature well. With all these new things they’ve discovered on Canto alone, and with many more similar discoveries undoubtedly need their way, he decides that now would be the perfect time to start a journal of sorts. A place where he can record his own personal notes and thoughts about what he encounters, instead of bogging down an official report with them. He decides to give it a cheeky name as well, choosing to entitle it: Exploration Impression Documentation; A Pathfinder’s Log. He starts off with the Octoceratops, describing it’s territorial and predator oak tendencies, as well as a basic description and notes on how to approach and track it. Next up is the species of hummingbird-ish creatures also found on Thea, one of which he’d captured. He notes it’s vibrant colours, possibly denoting a venomous nature or a type of camouflage, and it’s fast moving wings, presumably used to hover. He also leaves a simple way to capture one, commenting on it’s preference for berries. A cute name is in order, and he settles on “Buzz-Mouse” to describe their appearance and the sound of their wings.

After that is his least favourite creature to encounter by far, the many legged and claw-limbed thing from the cave. He shudders as he remembers the unnatural mannerisms and faceless visage. He mentions the danger it could pose, and it’s aversion to light. He ends up choosing the name “Faceless-Crawler” to denote the two most recognizable aspects of the beast. Continuing on, he comes to the poor peaceful whale eaten by the Bul-Shark, and wants to give it a sufficiently friendly sounding name, as he doesn’t know much about it yet. He decides that “Serene-Sailor” would work until he can update it, basing it on the creature’s behaviour and movement. He finishes up the entry on the Bul-Shark soon after, and is glad he’s started this little project, hoping he’ll be able to add more and more entries to make it a formidable collection of information.

09:59

((Just something he would do in his free time and such. Could he have brought the little Buzz-Bird he caught with him?

(Sure you could have)

14:58

(ill add some animal entries later today, along with any additonal notes you'd want to make. You seem to now be our preeminent animal scientists/documenting person

(Serene Sailor and Bulkshark now have articles)

((Amazing, and thank you!

Harper makes up his mind about the Buzz-Bird he caught, resolving to keep it with him instead of giving it to the scientists at Aiya Tech, and naming it “Hank”. He‘a sure he can teach Hank a few tricks later on, but wants to wait for when the little guy is more comfortable around him.

21:29

((So yeah, going a bit deeper underwater to find any species that might stick near the bottom. Things like anglerfish I think

(Oh I have to add that one. I will tonight)

02:23

Heading a bit deeper you hear some groans on the hull as the pressure rises. There is a trench below you, that extends possible hundreds or even thousands of meters down.

“Let’s remain at this depth for now, it’ll be better and safer to come back with a submarine or probe to see what’s down there” Harper decides that it’s best to cruise around at this depth, looking for anything else they can find, and to maybe return with more specialized equipment.

Sonar detects another pod of the serene sailors 1km to the north of you, basking on the continental shelf and its warmer waters. There seem to be about a dozen and recorders begin rolling to capture the whale song

He wonders if there may be a coral reef near there, thanks to the warmer waters, which might also help to explain how the Sailor’s got those growths. He decides they should head over and check it out, but stop if it the ship’s presence disturbs the whales in any way. He keeps an eye out for any splashes of colour that might indicate the presence of coral, or the smaller aquatic creatures that live nearby them.

There does seem to be a mass on the ocean floor north of your position nearby the pod. The whale song continues as you draw close , and you see the beginnings of colorful sea life though most dart away as the submarine approaches. The reefs are new growth with only a few generations of creature living and dying at or on them

“This is a good distance away, better to not even risk interfering with the reef” He checks to see if they can get a decent map of the reef and surrounding area with the survey scanner.

The reef is several kilometers long, a thin scar of life across an otherwise somewhat desolate ocean floor. There are no wrecks of any ships nearby, and may not be any on this planet at all, but the untapped natural cycles progressing around you and seeing the formation of an Earth like world first hand is a scientific wonder that will keep generations of scientists working around the clock.

“Perfect. That should be enough underwater data for a while, we should probably try to explore a different cave. If there’s a crawler in our way, we’ll have to put it down if it stops us from going further. It’s a bit unethical, but it’d be worse for something even more dangerous to still be lurking around completely unknown if someone else comes here” With his decision made, he waits to see if any of the crew objects before going to grab his shear rifle and get ready for another caving experience.

They’re prepared to help you and one even suggests grabbing an assault suit from the armory just in case. The extra ammo for your rifle might come in handy, along with working in a sealed environment like that

He takes the suit gratefully, remembering those sharpened claws, and definitely brings a surplus of ammo for the little excursion. He volunteers to take point, requesting that Edid holds a flare behind him as they go in. A quick escape always on his mind, he tells the remaining crew on the ship to have the weapons ready to fire if they come bolting out of the cave. With that, he’s ready to head back inside the darkness, holding his rifle at the ready while they move along the dank floor.

04:43

((Harper’s just bringing Edid along, he doesn’t see much need to risk the other crew mates as well

(we'll say the northwest one since we did central last time)

04:50

Heading out into the humid late afternoon , you see another flock of the bat like creatures leave and head skywards to other nesting grounds in a large swarms. Entering the cave, you see no evidence that one of the centipede creatures has taken up residence here.

04:51

The cave heads down at a steep angle, and you feel a gust of cold coming up from deep below the surface

“Watch your step, and keep an eye out for scratch marks” He continues on, but forces himself to move much slower as he heads down the slope. He even tries his best to move from solid position to solid position so that the risk of slipping and falling is minimized if they’re attacked or distracted.

14:37

You push into a cavern ahead, where five streams from the walls feed an underground reflecting pool. Some of the plants on the wall gleam with a light of their own in this otherwise lightless space- dimming as the glowbugs wash over them somewhat. It is lush with vegetation down here and you can even hear the buzz of some specially adapted insects

“At least there’s something else down here other than knife-centipedes” He stops where he stands, and takes some time to fully soak in the sights and sounds of this little oasis. Once he’s done admiring for now, he steps carefully towards one of the streams, making sure not to disturb too much plant life along the way, and takes a water sample for later examination. He is practically overjoyed at the discovery of bio-luminescent life, and looks over each and every plant and insect he can find to see if there are any unique or edible ones.

(survive/wis)

((Survive/wis 14

1

One of the berries that grows down here is edible and you’re able to identify it and not the horribly poisonous but similar appearing one on a bush bext to it

“Who knew this planet would be so deadly, yeesh” He takes one of both berries as samples for later examination, then walks to the middle of the cavern to look at the pool, specifically for any creatures that might be living in it.

There are colorful fish and mollusks along the bottom. Along with some bright colored coral

Harper gathers a few of them as gently as possible, reconciling his possible damage of the ecosystem with the fact that they’ll learn a lot from these samples. Soon after he decides that they’ve learned all they can with the amount of equipment and expertise they have at hand, and decides to exit this little underground oasis. “We head out the same way we came in, Edid” He speaks to the other tracker, and readies his rifle again to guard against any unexpected dangers that might pop up on their path back to the ship.

Any beasties in the area seem to be elsewhere right now, especially given the nature of your short trip. Everyone is glad to not have been killed by a horrible jungle monster today, and the samples will go a long way toward furthering the collective understanding of how life and planets form.

Harper is glad to have helped in any way he can, and is really starting to enjoy the prospect of exploring and studying new and undocumented planets. As a small reward to himself for not getting anyone killed, and also not being killed, he decides to take a short nap, vaguely wondering about what else might be happening back over in Greystar space.

06:15

((Is there more to explore around Canto, or would it be wiser to move on?

(You've hit the broad strokes, we can always come back too if you're looking to get into something else)

((I’m planning right now, but I think I might start contributing to a Greystar endeavour. The one about learning a fact for each non-polity organizations

(Visiting the new void warden mega station would help check that off if you’re interested)

((Is there anything other than what is on their page that Harper might know about? Otherwise, I think we’ll head straight over there

(Nothing other than that really, which is the idea behind your visit, more context)

(Alright. So I think the nearest Void Warden base is at Creusa, which is still pretty far away from Canto, unless I’ve mixed up where they are

(Theyve got a mega station on the map a bit northwest of greystar)

(2217 is the hex if you’re looking on the map)

((Alright, that’s a sizeable enough journey I think. About 45 days if I did it right. So yeah, Harper will head straight there unless there’s an issue along the way

(I’ll check the times when I’m back at a map)

03:21

(This gets us back into time with everyone else )

03:23

The void wardens station is so massive that it mimics the mass of a sun and allows spike drives to spin down in an otherwise entirely unreachable area of space. The entire compliment of ships not on a mission are here and you can be sure there are plans for many many others as their resources grow. The artificial gravity module spins gently , easily the largest part of the station

Harper takes a long look at the superstructure before him, and takes a deep breath before turning to the ship’s crew. “Alright, let’s establish contact first, see if there’s any protocol we need to follow before asking them a few questions”

(Did you want to go aboard ?) (edited)

((Sure, if it doesn’t cause any jurisdiction/political issues

(The void wardens are an NGO, and would welcome you)

2

02:12

The mega station flashes its navigation beacons and frok this distance you’re able to see one of the landing bays on its back beginning to winch open to allow you inside. As your ship comes in to land, a void wardens officer and three voids men wait there to greet you

Harper steps out before his crew, discarding his rifle before he does so. He greets the four men with a friendly wave, not being one to stand on ceremony unless it’s needed. “Hello there, my name’s Harper Wescott, I’m an agent from GSC. I hope I’m not causing you too much trouble, we’re in the middle of checking up on some of our neighbours to see if we can help out in any way” Of course his aim was simply to gather data, but he expects a helpful and friendly approach will help elicit a feeling of trust, which he hopes will bring with it a little more information.

"Agent Wescott, welcome to the first of the crown jewels of the Void Wardens. We are honored to have you aboard, and of course are here to answer any questions about us, our operations that you might have. Although First Warden Tanzer, our founder, is no longer among the living, we are working hard to honor his message and his legacy. He would be proud to see it today"

“‘The first of the Crown Jewels’, how many more stations like this are you planning to build?” “Your founder must have been one great leader, to leave this much even once he’s gone”

"Safe space lanes regardless of the country of origin is our mission. Pirates, raiders, slavers... those are fates none of the peace loving citizens of the universe should need to endure. First Warden Tanzer, and our new First Warden, Xu, are good friends of the Greystar Confederation. "

15:07

"You're the first from any polity to visit our new station though, and we're honored to have you aboard"

“It’s an honour to be here. Your goals are outrageously noble, and you seem to have the resources to achieve them. So if your organization would be so inclined, I can speak to my superiors about the possibility of forging a more official bond between the Void Wardens and the GSC” Safe space travel is a lofty goal, but seeing that the Void Wardens can create superstations like this Harper has to admit they could make a huge difference. He also takes a minute to mentally slap himself for not understanding the meaning of their name until now. He does in fact believe that an alliance or agreement between the Void Wardens and Greystar could be mutually beneficial, and he hopes the faction thinks along the same lines.

“The Void Wardens hope to be welcome anywhere and everywhere star faring people travel. Polity fleets cannot be everywhere. Space is vast and the scream destroyed so many of the things we need to monitor space and keep it secure. The benefits and advances we make are for everyone’s collective safety “

14:54

“I’d be honored to give you a tour if you have the time”

Harper thinks back to his current agenda; a relatively laid back exploration of Greystar’s frontiers, and decides he can spare some time to learn more, maybe even strengthening some relationships along the way. “That sounds like a great idea, and I’ve got loads of time for it. I’ll be right behind you!”

You're taken from the hangar first to the adjacent manufacturing space- There is a battleship docked there undergoing the last few elements of service it needs before launch. It is a bruiser of a vessel- easily capable of standing up to most polity flagships and it is a rare sight that a non-government organization can muster the resources to launch anything bigger than a cruiser. Dozens of wardens are doing physical training on the deck alongside it- push ups, burpees, squats, and running laps around the hangar. Most of them are entirely sheeted in sweat and their drill instructors train alongside them going just as hard

Harper looks up in awe at the ship, and feels a small tingling of nervousness. Now that he thinks about it, the Void Wardens must have an obscene amount of resources and connections to get all of this done, so he resolves to ask them later on about their funding. He watches the wardens training, making a mental note of their general state, as the quality of an organizations basic troops is often indicative of their overall ability. “I see you’ve got a pretty strict regimen here, are your members trained for any sort of infantry or surface operations, or are they exclusively trained for starfaring?” He’s sure they’d be trained for small skirmishes, seeing that boarding ships is a thing that happens on occasion, but he can’t help but wonder if they’d be useful outside of a starship. (edited)

“Small skirmishes planetside if needed. Refugees are refugees because there is a danger to flee. Most of the training however is focused on boarding operations and counter boarding drill. “

14:05

“Our remit is space and most worlds would not tolerate men at arms not under their own flag to set down in large numbers like this”

He nods along, happy with the straightforward explanation. He does notice that something about their statement of men at arms in large numbers resounds with him, and he makes a note to think about it later on. “That’s a good policy. I’m just a bit curious though, where do you find all of your members? I’m guessing your recruitment processes might be quite stringent”

“The Galaxy is full of people forced to live on devastated worlds, we also fully rehabilitate criminals, they have a job and benefits, pay, the amenities of life ...very very few truly decide to remain slave to their worst impulses when presented with all this opportunity. Of course we do take volunteers, and no small amount of our number come from those who join us from the various polities”

“Do you vet your members often? I can imagine some worlds and other influences in the universe wouldn’t appreciate the work you’re doing here” Of course he’s always worried about infiltration, given that it can be easy to do if their recruitment standards aren’t up to snuff. Not to mention recruits taken from incredibly authoritarian or religious civilizations might have the chance to be potentially zealous and dangerous.

“You’re referring to after they’ve joined ?”

“Before they join, I’m sure there are some cases where vetting would be unnecessary or excessive”

"We vet everyone who joins. Records are fragmented or entirely unavailable on some worlds, if we can't confirm something we simply keep them under close observation- but that is a fringe issue that we do not deal with often"

“Understandable” He turns his attention to the ship, waving his hand towards it. “Do you have other construction facilities like this? For smaller ships of course”

'We do, there are other bays in the station for the smaller ships we utilize"

15:34

"We have many more smaller vessels that are just as battle ready, but less impressive than our mighty battleship"

He nods again, and realizes that the more technical aspects of their operation will likely elude him, so he decides it might be more fit to end the little tour before he finds himself thoroughly out of his depth. “That’s darn impressive, you’ve really got a great thing going on. Unfortunately, I am no engineer, so the more unique and advanced details of your operation will probably go over my head. Though as far as I’ve seen, a partnership between our organizations can only be beneficial. Though it’s been a pleasure being here, I do have to return to my duties elsewhere, but please call on me if you need any assistance”

“I hope this glimpse leads to better relations with Greystar. The wardens will be there if you need us (3xp, 5000 credits )

1

Harper heads back to his ship, and if there aren’t any unforeseen events, he decides they should take off and head to their next information destination; The Lamplighter foundation.

(Their station is currently at Shalini, so we're 8 days from the void warden station for downtime reasons)

(Alright. I don’t have anything I’d use the downtime for at the moment, so I think we can just head right over there) (edited)

The Lamplighter Foundation is headquartered in a spike drive equipped peerless class platform, that is currently in orbit over the Piggen planet of Shalini. Dr. Truffles of the UNW is governor here, earning his triple crowns through a series of personal duels, guild negotiations, and plain old outfoxing his opponents. To that end, he has begun an aggressive series of uplift projects, which is why the Lamplighters are now here. Grim, their present leader, is handling a situation abroad and is now here, but his second in command, Lan Yu, welcomes your ship, and invites you to dock with the platform for the discussion you wish to have.

Harper gladly takes the opportunity to dock, and disembarks the Solar Sailor on his own to meet with Lan Yu. He once again leaves his rifles behind, still not enjoying the sensation of being left mostly unarmed. “Hello there! I’m sorry for any inconveniences our arrival might have caused, but I’d like to ask you a few questions before I get out of your hair”

“Of course” she replied happily. “I’ve got nothing but time. We have several days of fuel scooping to undergo before we are ready to jump again”

He chuckles, and then extends his hand as a way of a more formal introduction. “My name’s Harper Wescott, and as you probably know already, I’m an Agent from Greystar. We’re just in the middle of getting to know some of our neighbours better, so I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the purpose of your organization?”

“The Lamplighters knew one day a disaster like this would come. We scattered vaults across many worlds with the things humanity needs to re build society - but our records were part of said electronic casualties from the scream. We explore. We help uplift where we can , we try to find a way into our vaults again “

Harper gets visibly more excited as soon as she mentions the vaults, even more so thanks to their current unknown status. He attempts to regain his earlier neutral demeanour, but truly can’t help himself. “Sounds like you really have your hands full then. Say, if you need any extra help, I’d be glad to help search for these vaults. Personally of course, I can’t speak for Greystar as a whole”

"We;re always accepting volunteers. Those in polity service, across the polities, tend to be well traveled. I am sure on a long enough career path you'll find rumors on one or more. We will gladly pay for the information"

He nods, resolving to keep an ear out for any such rumours. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ve just got one more question for you before I head out again; is this your main operation, or are there more Lamplighters spread out around the planets?”

“This is the only operation. There is an old lamplighter from the pre scream days on Heras , but he’s given up the mantle and passed it on to our current leadership. We have his blessing to operate even though he’s not involved”

He thinks to himself that it’s probably a bit inefficient to have one large base of operations instead of a few smaller ones, though he’s pretty sure he’s not qualified to judge stuff like this at all. “That’s great to hear, I’ll make sure Greystar knows of your objective, and I’ll see if we can help you out a bit. Now if you’ll excuse me, I ought to take my leave and return to my crew, so I wish you good luck on your search”

“Let us know if you discover anything. We pay handsomely for all clues to a vault, especially if the contents are still within it “

He nods, and steps back inside his ship to send his report back, eager to return to his preferred mission, and continue exploring the frontiers.

00:23

((Alright, so I think that should complete that endeavour. I’d also like to apologize a bit for the recent delay in my answers, they’ll be back up to speed by the end of the month

(No problem. I will update the endeavor tonight. )

((Awesome! So yeah, unless something else pops up it’s back to some relaxed exploration. At this point I think a few fly by scans of the rest of the planets in Canto will do (a gas giant and a barren planet I think)

(Updating the endeavor now, and ill calculate return time to Canto)

(It's 20 days back to Canto from here, for downtime purposes)

((Perfect. I don’t have much I’d like to do with that at the moment, so we can get straight back into things! (edited)

(Greystar and Aiya tech both used faction actions to get the moons /other planets surveyed. We have about all the information there we are going to get. We can do some focused exploring on the surface of the main planet where the observatory is if you like) (edited)

(that was thea that was surveyed)

(alright ignore me haha)

23:54

(let me get some stuff together)

2

The Observatory is quiet when you return to the planet. It is still working through the major computations it was working on and if its closer to whatever it is measuring, you cannot be sure. Wildlife is continuing to come back into the area as they get used to the human presence here.

Harper introduces his crew to the Observatory, and gives them a brief rundown on what is known about it. Then he leaves them be for a few minutes, and takes some time for himself. As Harper lies in the grass, he’s grateful to be back on solid ground. Then after few breaths of delightfully fresh air, he sits up and observes his surroundings. The returning animals give him a small reason for concern, as their presence would likely attract the presence of predators, a situation he would prefer to avoid. He brings along his Shear rifle and a pair of binoculars to complete a routine patrol around the observatory to check for any of these overzealous hunters.

It has not been long since your casing of the area and the creatures are still trying to determine how human fits into their environment. With the smaller game keeping away from the small settlement , the largest beasts have moved even further off

Content with their current situation, he heads to the only other standout feature of this small island; the mountains. He checks around their base first of course, peering up at their flanks with his binoculars to look for anything out of the ordinary, or even for any mountain-dwelling creatures.

The mountain lopes that inhabit the tall peaks are entirely gone now. There is no evidence of even recent hunting, the pack has simply just moved off, or vanished.

((I think I still have that little buzz-bird from the initial exploration of Thea, and if it’s alright with you I think Harper would like to try and train it while we move on with other stuff

(We can use downtime for that, sure )

((Awesome. So if I’m being completely honest I’m a teensy bit lost at the moment, all I’ve got for ideas right now involve exploring more planets and stuff, but I’m not sure if you’ve got something else prepared

(No we can go explore something else. Just let me know where. I’m good with anything )

1

Harper feels that old itch again, the urge to move, to explore, and it just wouldn’t be like him to ignore it. As he rushes back to the Observatory and the ship, he hopes the crew hasn’t gotten too comfortable, because he absolutely cannot stand being away from adventure for this long. Upon his arrival at their base, he bursts into the building and shouts at his crew. “Pack your things everybody, we’re going to Mikas!” He sort of enjoys the idea of a constantly expanding frontier for Greystar, and decides that Mikas would make a logical next step on their journey.

(I’ll get a report up but it might not be until tomorrow when I have a computer ahain )

1

-Arid Biosphere -Breathable Atmosphere with Atmofilter - TL3 -Millions of Inhabitants Mikas is an arid world just far enough from its sun to support life. It has a swamp covered moon, and a second moon that is barren. There is a gas giant in the system. Strange energy readings toward the center of the planet show a place where the jump gate that used to occupy the system crashed into the planet. Most of the superstructure sheared away, but enough of it was left to keep the connection open. Rather than connect to another point in this universe , the jump gate now connects to a hellish region where creatures from the other side frequently come through. Fortified towns and small holdfasts populate the planet's surface, doing what they can to fend off the large creatures, and making intelligent use of every part of those they're able to bring down.

As the information is relayed to him, his expression becomes a strange kind of grim. Mikas sounds a seriously unstable planet, maybe even more than his own home planet while the firestorms still ravaged its surface. He’s thankful for the small spark of hope, as it sounds like the natives of this planet are quite competent, given that they’ve survived under these hostile circumstances. “Search for the largest of the settlements, we should establish communication before we land, if we can” Of course he‘s planning to land either way, but any supplementary information or context the locals could give he would definitely appreciate.

(I still owe you a map but let’s get a program/int for the tech to interface with the local sub par comm net)

(Program/int 5

The comms grid is not able to connect with Your more advanced ship systems. The comms officer asks if you’d like him to begin making smoke signals on the hull before closing his comms station and sighing. Landing blind seems to be the only way to handle this now

Harper was about to say that smoke signals might actually work, though he figures that Morse code would have a better chance of being understood. After a second, he’s glad he didn’t say anything so ridiculous out loud, and gives the order to fly above the surface of the planet in search of a safe place to land.

(Here is your map)

He directs the pilots to land as close as possible to Last Hope, as it seems to be the only walled city visible, and he’d like to get a look at the what this world has to offer. Knowing part of the situation on this world, he also makes sure everybody keeps a keen eye out for any monstrous creatures that might want to snack on them.

Last Hope is a settlement to itself and there is evidence of fighting in the surrounding areas. Bones, skulls, and broken parts of war machines litter the landscape, along with the unburied dead from both sides. The city itself is walled with defensive guns, and is built to repel would be attackers- the walls are spiked , and you can see perforations in them for murder holes and flame weapons

Harper makes sure they land in plain view of the city, so that they won’t surprise the defenders and end up getting blasted. Once they’ve landed, and he’s sure they haven’t been shot at, he disembarks the ship and brings the other tracker, Edid, along with him. While he is visibly armed with his shear rifle, he keeps his hands out in the open as he approaches the walled city to try and make contact.

They’re mustering a response as soon as the ship is seen and you’re greeted by two open topped trucks, modified with a heavy machine gun over the cab. Their backs are filled with soldiers but they’re not hostile.

As far as he knows, this is the first outside contact this planet has had since the Scream, so he’s going to try his best to make a good first impression. He walks as close as he can to the trucks, hopefully close enough to carry out a casual conversation, before he speaks. “Thanks for the welcome party, I imagine we’re the first guests you’ve had in a long time, am I right?” (edited)

(I’m a little curious, is it possible to tell how long that portal has been spewing out monsters? Because Harper’s goal for this planet might be to find some competent soldiers/survivalists)

(From instruments no, we couldn’t tell , but the locals might know)

1

23:53

“In almost five years in fact. You’re the only person we have seen that wasn’t from here already. We almost didn’t believe the ship coming down”

”Perfect” Harper thinks, they must be pretty competent to have survived here at all, he can definitely work with this. “Well I’ve been expanding my organization’s borders by doing some exploration, and I’m glad to finally find a populated planet” “I’m a Greystar contractor, but I’m sure you’ll have plenty of interplanetary politics to bore you once some form of communication can be established between here and the rest of the galaxy” “For now, I’ll try to keep it brief; I may not have a lot of equipment with me, but I’ll help you any way I can. Your issue here isn’t something I’ve ever seen or heard of on any other planet up to this point, which sort of makes this a bit of a discovery, and I’m all for that” He pauses for a second to regain his breath, getting perhaps a little too excited about encountering a planet besieged by monsters. “My crew and I only know the basics of your situation though, so any extra information you can give us will definitely help”

“Help you do what, exactly? Why do you want to know?”

“It would make it easier to help you get rid of your monster problem, and I want to know for the same reason”

“Come with us to the settlement then, talk to our leaders. We can figure out what to do with you from there

“Works for me” He steps up into the truck with a single smooth movement, and slides into an empty spot on the truck. From under the ragged edge of his hood, his eyes dart back and forth, staying alert at all times. He wonders what sort of people would be able to lead a planet against an army of monsters, in fact, the more he thinks about it the more he cannot wait to meet them. His hands never stray near his weapons, and he tries to not be even the slightest bit suspicious. He knows his motives are genuine, but he won’t expect these people to trust someone who just suddenly landed on their planet after who-knows how long they’ve spent isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

The truck enters a city where a fusion of construction materials and monster parts make up most of the buildings. The destination looks to be a large fortress at the heart of the town, the holdfast meant to keep as many people safe as possible should the walls ever be breached. Wickedly barbed harpoons , and more traditional mortars and howitzers adorn both the walls and the holdfast itself. Passing briefly into darkness as you drive under the gatehouse arch, you find your way inside where the city council of five is waiting to discuss and hear news from beyond the stars

Harper gazes with barely restrained joy at the multitude of deadly defences that decorate the walls around him. It looks so primitive, and appears to be appropriately brutally effective. In preparation for his meeting, he puts on his best serious face to make the best impression possible. He heads towards the meeting spot, keeping his eyes locked in front of him while he envisions the potential scenarios that await him. A retreat or fight is obviously something that will never work, so he should take care to play his cards carefully in the upcoming introduction.

The town council is content to stand at the foot of the steps leading into the holdfast, and the engine noise from the trucks dies away. Soldiers return to duties on the walls or in other parts of the city aside from a four man detachment that seems ahead of time to be determined as your minders. "Welcome to our city, outsider. "

“Thanks for letting me in, and you can call me Harper” He sizes the council members up, not in an obvious way of course, to see if he can’t tell what sort of people they are. “Since I’m a little new to this planet, would you mind giving me a brief rundown on your little corner of the galaxy?”

“Alright Harper. What would you like to know? I’m sure you’ve seen the signs. Especially from@space. We kill monsters and we are good at it”

“Well yes, I know that, but some smaller details would be nice to know as well. I want to help, but the only reason I came to this planet in the first place was because I wanted to explore and learn about planets like yours. So any information you have on the portal or any techniques you use to kill the monsters would be absolutely perfect. Both for my report on this planet, and so I can contribute as much as possible to a solution for your monster problem”

“The monsters are all different. We have a few general classes they fit into but we see new ones regularly. We had a Jump gate crash into the planet after the scream and as best we can tell is the ring survived the crash and remained intact. Made of some pretty high grade starship armor. Nothing we throw at it seems to make a dent. Wherever this portal leads now is where these things live. If they’re on the plains we try to use fast vehicles with woven metal cables to bind them up before shooting our eyes and heads If they come near the city we try to use dense harpoons to weigh them down before firing artillery

He nods along, impressed with their creative tactics, and files them away for future reference. His next concern is that jump gate, and how to get rid of it. Since he lacks some expertise in weapons technology, he feels his next best step would be to consult his fellow Greystar agents about any possible solutions, but he still wants to know a little more about these people. “So you’ve been dealing with monsters since the Scream? Yeesh. I’ll probably have to check back with my organization to see if we’ve got a way of destroying the remnants of that gate, but if there are any pre-Scream caches or bunkers left on this planet, they might have something useful as well”

"Its difficult to explore. Vehicles on the plains tend to find themselves on the wrong side of one of these creatures quickly. Small ones are swept away by thrown debris, larger ones can't escape fast enough and get reduced to metal scraps. "

21:51

"conventional aircraft used to work for a time, but they can't hold ground, and some of them are known to fire acid, bones, or other projectiles when its needed" (edited)

"Have small scouting parties had any better luck? If not, I'll have to return to my ship to consult some others with more experience in matters like these" It seems like these creatures have definitely been giving the people of Mikas a hard time, but their comment on conventional aircraft sparks the beginnings of an idea within his mind. He knows that he can still commission another ship thanks to his position in Aiya Tech, or if the jumpgate technology is of enough interest to Greystar as a whole, he might be able to bring some bigger guns to help out.

"No, their more nimble vehicles were the ones we were discussing, where you just get swept away"

“Alright. Then I’ll get back to you on how we can deal with that portal. I know the technology you have on this planet is incapable of destroying the superstructure of the jump gate, but I’m pretty sure I can find something that can. So if you’ll allow me to head back to my ship, I’ll start looking for some tools we can use”

“The issue is a bit more nuanced than that if you’ll stay a moment before racing off. The creatures being unparalleled danger but they also bring great opportunity. Their dung is an incredible fertilizer. Their skin or scales are lightweight and tough , the bones are valuable building materials at least for several decades before rot sets in- you’d be able to do far more if they were boiled and treated”

16:12

“Destroying the gate brings safety, and that is a high concern, but your confederation has a market, and the people of this planet could be very wealthy members of it if a way is found to industrialize or manage the problem in a way that doesn’t cut off access

16:13

“The final decision however rests with your group. Now that we have been found and you have seen what we have done here, we are powerless to stop you from just destroying it”

He stops himself, and raises an eyebrow under his hood. He’s never heard of someone wanting to keep a problem of this magnitude for any reason, but he should respect their priorities over his own. After all, they’d have to live with his decision, and he could just move on. Nevertheless, he wants to make sure that this decision would benefit all the people of Mikas, and not just the council he is speaking to. “My apologies for being a bit rash, I just couldn’t think of a reason you’d want to keep the portal open earlier” “Also, although I have my own opinions, this isn’t my planet, or my monster portal” He looks around at the walled city, and recalls that there were a few settlements closer to the portal that he has yet to visit. “I’m sure that there could be a way to safely industrialize this process of yours, but I’m mainly concerned about two things if that’s your plan” “Of course I’m worried about the initial cost of life. From what you’ve told me, these beasts are a danger and a half, so I don’t imagine it would be perfectly safe to corral them” “Then assuming that works, and Mikas becomes an industrial powerhouse, this is more of a personal issue, but I want to know that you’ll make sure every citizen here gets a fair share of the riches. The last thing I want to help create is a bunch of inconceivably rich people” (edited)

“The nature of the society that emerges after depends on how the process is gone about. Every citizen will be needed in some way for another. Life is not a cheap thing despite how this conversation is impressing on you”

“Just making sure. Something rather unpleasant was about to happen on my home planet, and inequality is a bigger issue than you’d probably like” He holds out his hand for a shake, and plans to go visit the frontier on this planet. “Then we’ll have to make sure it’s done in a way that’s best for everyone”

"We'll give any proposals you bring us a thorough look through. You no doubt report to a larger body of representatives, and It will no doubt take time to hear from them"

He nods, and thanks them for their help before returning to his ship and sending a brief rundown of the situation to his fellow agents. Then, he requests that they take off and head for the Wrogen Pass Watchtowers so they can see what these people have really been up against.

The trip will take you to the other continent, a dark region where the people here are unsure of what might be happening. Deep in the fallen continent, the remains of the gate continue sending monstrosities into this world. and the tower guard against the landbound ones heading north.

20:25

Still, some do swim, others fly, and some are simply patient. These creatures spread, and no region is truly spared their anger for long

He gets the feeling that this area will affect his eventual decision the most, as he’s already seen some of the political and economic aspects of this society, but he hasn’t seen just how much of a danger these creatures are. Plus, he’d rather have the opinions of the people with continued firsthand experience, even if it’s just his own bias. He does make sure they land the ship somewhere that looks safe and free of monsters, then he plans to proceed to the nearest operating base or watchtower to get in contact with the people here.

(north or south side of the towers?)

((Whichever side doesn’t have the portal on it, which is the North I think

Setting down on the north side of the pass you can see that the three towers are bastions , armed with the same spears, cannons, weighted nets and other war materials. Each of them watches a different part of the only pass that leads overland from the fallen continent to the northlands and the garrison here is very strong Banners representing each city with a contingent here fly from each tower

Harper takes a look around for any sort of general command tent or structure that he could head towards. Though if he can’t find one he simply walks towards the nearest watchtower to ask whoever is currently manning it.

The towers seem to be self contained on their own without anything controlling them. Tents and other small buildings would be hopelessly crushed by the scale of these creatures

In that case, he heads straight for the nearest tower along with the other tracker, Edid. He checks outside for any ways to enter the tower, and approaches out in the open so as not to be mistaken for a lurking beast.

A human siZEd object approaching the tower is something rarely seen and a red flare goes into the sky, alerting the garrison that visitors are aboard. The wooden postern doors open and three motorbikes begin heading your way.

He doesn’t expect any trouble, but he keeps his guard up and his eyes open while he waits for the bikes. He stands still, and has Edid do the same to make sure their peaceful intentions come across clearly.

They come to a stop 20m from you and their engines power down. One of the drivers removes a pair of goggles and raises a hand in greeting

Harper waves back, and walks towards them so he can speak without yelling at the top of his lungs. “Hello there! I’ve just met with the council at Last Hope, and I wanted to come see what the situation over on this continent is like. I’m Harper by the way, and it’s a pleasure to be on your planet” He observed the motorist’s faces carefully for their reaction at the mention of the council, just to see how they feel about the city.

"Last Hope? I don't know what that is. What do you want?"

Harper is momentarily confused, but wants to believe it’s but a simple miscommunication, ignoring the potentially disastrous implications. “The walled city on the continent to the east of this one? I’m here to find ways to get rid of that malfunctioning jump gate, and the monsters as well”

"We haven't been able to get anyone over there, didnt know anything else survived outside this continent. That's something. "

“I suppose it is, and it didn’t seem like they knew what was going on around here either” “I’m thankful for the greeting, but from what I’ve heard it’s not so safe out in the open on this planet”

"Ah you're worried about an attack. The ground would be shaking." He says confidently, as a small pile of rocks stacked on top of one another topples over- the ground beginning to gently vibrate

“Yeah, worry is the last feeling I’d have right now” He quickly motions to the motorbikes, with a backup plan of sprinting back to the ship. “Do you have room on those? We might need a ride” He does his best to stay calm, but the absolute last thing he wants is to witness what these monsters can do up close.

He slides forward and motions for you and your partner to get on different bikes. A horn blasts from the tower, the deep note is picked up by the two others moments later and each begin launching flares as your bike takes off back toward the nearest bastion

04:31

“They see something!” The driver shouts back tk you over the wind

His hood flaps loudly in the wind behind him, and he keeps an eye on Edid to make sure they’re still alright, as he doesn’t want want of his crew being injured or killed on his behalf. “Let’s hope it’s something small!” He holds out little hope, and keeps his hand near his shear rifle, still knowing it would likely do very little against a rampaging monster.

The creature begins rising, pulling itself to full height against the horizon, as you make it into the shelter of the tower. From the roof, you hear dense thuds and feel a slight rumble as the longest range of the bastion's guns begin firing.

Harper hops off the bike, his boots barely touching the ground before he breaks into a sprint towards the tower entrance. He pushes his cloak away to sling his rifle off of his back, sliding his finger over the safety. As he arms himself, he talks to the biker he rode with and points to the looming threat. "Are they usually this big?!"

“This is about average sized. Most of them are about this big. That pea shooter won’t hurt it either. You fire a ballista before?”

He drops the rifle, leaving himself mostly unburdened, save for his survival equipment and mag pistol. “Sorry, old habit” He is once again amazed with how this world has survived with such relatively primitive technology. “Never, here’s hoping I’m a quick learner”