Iron Stars - proculus-miller

Proculus Miller awakens on the Greystar Star Hab, above the planet of Acastus. The moons of Acastus, glyph carved as they are , shine their slickly white-green light on both the planet and the hab. The world below is a night world, lit by neon, drenched in rain, and struggling to bask in the light of its moons, used to calculate the time of day by their rise and fall in the absence of a system sun of any worth. The weak pulsar puts out enough light to power space based solar panels, but is worthless to anything on the surface. The wall terminal blinks once, with a short message waiting chime, and outside you can hear the bunk room doors of other new agents opening, as it looks like your recently graduated agent group is getting their first tasks. The air scrubbers work overtime from the adjoining room as one of your classmates must be sparking up an illegal smoke to calm their nerves.

Miller battles with the urge to skip his morning regimen of pushups and situps, ultimately talking himself into preserving what little energy he has after a night of poor sleep. He approaches the wall terminal and opens the message.

Greetings Operative Miller. 

A mission has come to the operations room that fits the skill set you've tested the highest in during your end of training evaluations. Please report to Briefing Room A for a brief meeting before departure. Mission details, objectives, and final details will be shared with you then. This mission will take place out of Acastus space, and may be dangerous. You are permitted to travel with weapons and personal gear.

The Confederation and all its agents are counting on you. The briefing will take place in one hour. Do not be late

Director Kensh; Head, Greystar Confederation.

The message is brief, as typical of the director and the head of the entire polity has been known to sit on on briefings for new agents. Someone constantly ingrained in the nuts and bolts of the work, the Director himself has a notable field career behind him as he turned in a combat suit for an actual one. The excitement in this wing of the Starhab is palpable as others are also getting their first assignments, and a new echelon of Greystar operations looks to be starting with all of you.

Miller instantly recognizes the Director and straightens up, even for a pre-recorded message. He hurries to pack his woven body armor, monoblade and other essentials and readies himself for the briefing. He sets eyes on Briefing Room A about half-hour early, remembering advice he overheard during one of his exams, that "if you're on time, you're late." He lingers nearby for a bit, doing his best to observe his surroundings without appearing nosy or over-eager.

The door to the briefing room opens almost as soon as you get there, and you see the bearded form of Director Kensh sitting at the desk. He is wearing his dark suit as he always does in official addresses and you can see it is just the two of you in this room- and he has not bothered traveling with a bodyguard. "Good Second Rise to you Agent Miller. Please, have a seat, and we'll discuss your tasking. You'll be heading out of system, to another one of the worlds we administrate" he says, gesturing for you to close the door. The strong roast scent of Acastan Coffee is filling the room as the pot slowly percolates, distilling another fine batch of the smooth, local stimulant of choice.

Miller spots the Director and reaches back into his training to stave off any nerves brought about by his presence. He closes the door, greets Kensh appropriately, and adds that he is looking forward to starting his service to the confederation. He listens intently.

"You're going to need some summer gear for where you're going" the Director says, passing a large folder to you across the table, indicating it is okay to break the seal on the side of the folder to look at the documents within. "Actually, I'm not sure about the climate, but how do you feel on being the first point of contact for a world very close to confederation space, that we have never visited. We're working on securing and making friendly all planets within an average spike drive distance of Acastus, and to the east, there is a system known as Polytie, which we have never visited, and have no information about. It might be a ball of nothing rock, it might be a civilized world with natives ready to work with us. It might be somewhere in between. Our accessors noticed you did well in negotiations, and in observation during training, and you seem like the kind of person we can trust with the job of spreading goodwill. Our protocols on this are pretty standard to what other polities are doing. Spend time with the locals, try to show them we can take care of them , solve a few local issues, and that's generally been enough to convince a planet that joining the union is a good idea. I see you've also got an interest in economics. As first contact, you'd be the one best suited to access the world for resources, and you never know what might happen. Might be in charge of a trade mission there later"

2

Miller breaks the seal and begins leafing through the documents. "Yes sir. Let's bring them into the fold. What's our timeline on this?"

"There is no timetable on bringing them in with a minimum amount of problems, but I do have a free merchant scheduled to depart this evening to bring you there. We don't know of any groups to our east, and any of the other polities would have to travel through Greystar space to get there, we're confident we can take our time on this. The last thing we need are more internal issues on a new world"

Miller racks his brain to think of any other questions he might have, but ultimately trusts that everything he needs is contained in the files. "Consider it done, sir."

"You'll be the first person to see the system with physical eyes, and the first person to put books on the surface. The merchant ship bringing you there is in bay 3. Down two floors from here, and the crew is expecting you. I know you will not fail. "

(would i understand that to be my signal to head out, or would i wait for his dismissal?)

(We can just move on if you didn't want to ask him anything or do anything else here)

(yep all set - Miller bows politely and heads out to bay 3 in search of the merchant ship. he stops himself from eagerly rifling through the documents on the elevator, knowing that it would likely breach protocol to expose sensitive content in the corridors)

(sounds good! I will get you a system report together, and there will be three days of downtime as we fly from Acastus to our destination. I'll post our downtime rules in a second here)

14:51

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iron-stars-nekosmash/a/polytie-location

Polytie

The ship departs Acastus quickly once you are aboard and the crew is polite and dutiful, though small. Two pilots and a communications officer make up the crew of the free merchant along with a single security officer. No cargo is currently loaded, the bay left open for any sort of discoveries you might make at the destination. Upon exiting spike space three days after leaving , you emerge in the western side of the Polytie system, and a quick scan of local space confirms your vessel is alone here in the deep black. A brief message on your wall monitor pages you to come to the bridge

(i think if there is any Confederation-endorsed or recommended reading that Miller could electronically access during the downtime, he would have spent it studying material related to diplomacy or anthropology, advice for building rapport with potentially hostile parties in a foreign environment etc. to train the Connect skill)

23:16

Miller is reading through the brief report on Polytie population and characteristics for what might be the hundredth time when the wall monitor pings. He hurries to the bridge.

The bridge crew is looking at the system report now that scanners have come online, and everyone seems eager to begin the task at hand. Keeping the ship safe is a team effort and currently with the ship too far from the habitable planet to generate any kind of map, the captain does want to discuss contact procedures, it seems. After being thanked for attending the meeting, the small crew all clusters around the main planning table on the bridge, where an open exchange of ideas is about to take place.

15:19

There are risks to landing in the middle of a settled area when the mood of the population cannot be determined, but there are also issues with being caught sneaking around. It does not seem the locals have a way to contact space, or to hear anything broadcasted from your ship prior to landing.

Being a rookie, Miller waits for a pause before chiming in. "If we land in an unpopulated area, but are seen descending from the sky, the locals will eventually approach our position, likely in force. While landing in a populated area would represent a more aggressive approach, it gives us a chance to express peaceful intentions before the weapons come our way. I advocate for a rapid landing in an area with low-to-moderate structural evidence of population."

(here is a map for you, if you wanted to select a village to land near)

Miller identifies an area consistent with his strategy, pointing to the buildings on the island in the lower-left of the map. "That should do."

“Ah it looks like a village. We will land as close as makes sense to do so, prepare yourself for landing” The re entry takes close to twenty minutes as a shallow course is plotted and you can see the desert below slowly green up and a small city sits at the edge of the wooded area in the shadow of a snow covered mountain range. The city looks to be recovering from The Scream though you see little in the way of modern technology and almost no cars. A small party is gathering at the southern edge of the city due to the ship entry being noticed and it looks as though they’re making their way over to where your ship has set down and will be there in a few moments

Miller asks the captain if they have some sort of peace banner to display, such as a white flag.

There is not a flag issued with what the ship is carrying, but the captain thinks sheets from one of the unused bunks might work for whatever you're planning, and gives you his permission to take them.

Miller distributes the sheets among a few of the crew and suggests that they be waived in the direction of the approaching party in the hopes that they'll understand the gesture of peace and steer aside, or at least delay, any violent notions. (edited)

One of the oncoming fires a white flare in return, seemingly all they could come up with on short notice like this, and they begin to approach the ship keeping hands away from weapons. They still look wary, coming to within 100m of the ship- waiting for the invitation to come closer, or for someone to approach the group to speak with them.

Miller approaches with his hands palms up, bowing just slightly before returning to an upright position and saying to the foremost member of their party, "My name is Proculus Miller. I'm a member of Greystar Confederation on a mission of research and diplomacy." (speaking loud enough that they can hear, but not so loud as to sound like a command, in case they can't understand the language)

The locals also seem to speak mandate common, and do understand you,. "Welcome to Polytie, You've come a long way, probably, maybe. We're not exactly sure where you came from. Things here have been difficult from The Scream and space is something we can't bother with right now. "

"I'm happy to tell you all about where we came from. An open exchange of knowledge would likely benefit us both. For now, I'm interested in learning more about how things have been difficult for your people as of late. Perhaps we can help."

You get the sense he is turning over how much to say, looking apprehensive before taking the conversation down another track. "Shortages of almost everything. This planet looks good from space but the ground is rocky, the rocks don't have minerals, and the trees are soft. The second wave settled this planet a long time ago, great great great generations ago, and we think it was only because it has an atmosphere. There is almost no reason someone would live here without doing a lot to change the planet. Science takes a back seat when you can hardly produce what you need to keep living"

Another ship begins landing, as you begin making overtures with the locals. Agent @Mona Shion emerges from their vessel, and begins making their way over as what looks to be a dispatched second half of the Greystar expedition makes planetfall here.

(I think we can continue here Mona, almost been 24 hours )

(Ok.) Mona greets the Greystar Team and invokes Passport of Hell to avoid making any cultural offenses in front of the locals. Mona does the culturally appropriate greeting for the locals. "Greetings. I am Diplomat Mona Shion from Greystar. It is a pleasure to finally meet your acquaintance."

"Another one of you. They seem to be multiplying" the scout leader says, while his men laugh. "Your friend here has come and is trying to get us to join, but we aren't sure what Greystar can do for us. We've got problems, and we're not exactly looking for others to solve it for us, but we haven't been given any solid reasons to give up our independence. Right now, it sounds a lot like paying taxes or providing raw materials for other markets"

(Tech level 3 with specialties. What are these specialties?)

19:11

(Anything medical or space flight wise?)

"It is the opportunity to be a part of a greater group. You can improve your access to technology rapidly through these markets. As for these problems that need fixing, please, do not think of me as an other. We are share the same galaxy. Perhaps I can help."

19:23

(roll talk?)

(We do not know, we have not been given that information from the locals, nor is it anything we can determine from a scan from space)

19:52

(no need to roll talk here, also not really sure what success would entail here)