Courier DutyLeave Gefka, head towards first delivery. No hitch there. Mugorakan reports to Ziva of problem. Several Mugorakans are suffering from severe stomach aches (can't eat, etc.). All exposed to spores released in the room above the hydroponics chamber. Ziva has them brought in and examines them. Mugorakans have been sick for 2 or 3 days. Ambassador investigates the spores in the room (via hive spider). Reports that they have avian characteristics. Ambassador says it reminds it of something but can't recall the details. Scan of Mugorakans reveal large, parasitic growths, Very surprising for the short time period involved. After some further prodding, growths show characteristics of eggs of some kind. Ziva recalls some mention of a extinct bird-like species, the Yun-radi, who could use the lizards as incubators (lizards able to unhinge their jaws so hatchlings could escape). No-one has detailed knowledge of the species though, least of all the Ambassador. Bnarch might know, but is still recovering from Grask overdose. Ziva and Ambassador decide to hatch the eggs. Setup a small incubator facility and Ziva is able to succesfully extract all 7 eggs from the Mugorakans in a marathon session of surgery, which leaves her completely wiped out. Approaching second delivery point. Gafku system, delivering a bunch of cylinders of some kind - we've adopted a don't ask, don't tell policy about our cargo for this trip, although Nikchub did check for any transmitters and has several systems monitoring the cargo for any sudden, unexpected activity. Morning after surgery, Bnarch awakens. Can smell something that reminds him of fond childhood memories. Goes to invesigate. Leads to the medical bay where one of the eggs is hatching. Bnarch is entranced by the hatchling. Wants to protect and feed it. Banrch is unsure what the hatchling requires so calls over a Ku-na clone. Ambassador analyses a bit of shell (Ku-na clone eats it) and suggests Bnarch can feed the bird some powered shell as first step. Bnarch does so. Bird (looks vaguely humanoid with wings) is enthusatic about being fed. Bnarch has a sense that the bird needs some protein and some additional minerals. Doesn't know waht exactly, but can picture the taste. He doesn't want to leave the hatchling unprotected, so calls over a lizard clone. The clone is also affected by the hatchling's influence and the Ambassador abruptly changes course to go find a planet with suitable supplies for the hatchling. Latte and Tsaijix go to investigate cause of course change. Discover the fasination with the bird. Tasijix attempts to take a DNA sample of the hatchling, but Bnarch intervenes in a way that almost, but doesn't quite, spill over into excessive violence. Latte mentions Yun-radi in association with the hachling. Bnarch explains that the Yun-radi were 'Space Hilter' and terrible tyrants and so forth, and that it's impossible that anything as loveable as the hatchling could be associated with such evil. Tsaijix calls for a meeting to discuss this. Latte invites KC. KC suspects that the problem is pheromones from the hatchling affecting the Ambassador via the lizard units and that isloating them from the rest of the ship will solve the problem. Nikchub goes to query his set of digital encylopedias, which are being fed to the AI'ish thing we found. Not much concrete info to be found in the official documentation - Yun-radi previously controlled Tribe terrortory, may have engineered the Lizards as servants, and appear to have been eridicated by the Lizards at least 1000 years ago. Nikchb feeds articles to the AI'ish thing. No response for a bit, but then get a set if large image files back. Lots of pictures, some showing adult Yun-radi, and text in an alien alphabet that isn't the Tribe alphabet, but looks like it could be realated. Shar and Tasijix roped in to help unravel this. Utan is currently on the Albatross, working on minor outstanding issues and getting it into proper shape for use with it's new jump harness. Latte goes to find Utan and fill him in on the details. Has a creepy encounter with a Ku-na clone. Asks the clone where Velix is, is told that she has retired to her room. Velix upset at course correction but, according to the Ambassador 'has come round to my point of view'. Latte asks the Ambassador to ask Velix to meet him on the Albatross to discuss some details. Nikchub feeds the AI Oracle some "pattern matching" between the text in images and the Tribe alphabet. The Oracle spits out half-translated version of the images (translated to Tribe alphabet). Appears to be a Yun-radi medical work (from the point of view of the Yun-radi). Utan, Velix & Latte meet on the Albatross to discuss the Ambassador's problems. Plan is to convince the Ambassador to isolate the hatchlings somewhere with a separate air supply and non-lizard units "for their own safety" somehow. Nikchub consults the Oracle's info some more, looking for info on Lizards. Some mention of them in the life cycle during infancy. Also something in a section on chemistry, but Nikchub can't make much sense of it. He throws a dictionary at the Oracle and gets a complex molecule back, which makes even less sense. Tsaijix recognises the molecule, though. It was a desktop wallpaper of a relative who was involved in the sequencing of the molecule. Sequenced from an sarcophagus in Tribe territory - "Mystical significance to the tribe". Tsaijix goes to show Velix the details. He makes a careless remark to a Kuna clone, but manages to talk his way out of trouble. Tsaijix and Velix discuss requirements for synthesising the molecule. Requires convincing the Ambassador to manufacture a specific solvent. Tsaijix plans a "glue" accident to encourage this. We will also need alcohol and specific expanding foam from cargo. Tsaijix and Velix believe molecule is an antidote for the Yun-radi pheoromes. Tsaijix gets Latte to rig up an explosive from the mining explosive, and then convinces a Mugorakan to denonate the explosion. Mugorakan is completely traumised by the experience. The Ambassador is very upset, but Tsaijix uses this to convince the Ambassador to produce the correct solvent. Latte finds a cluster of Mugorakans around the distraught Mugorakan used by Tsaijix. Much "He tempted me into evil" wailing and gnashing of teeth in progress. Latte convinces distraught Mugorakan that helping him is a path to redemption. They go to collect the solvent. Latte suggests that the glue might reach the mediccal bay, so Ku-na clones take a barrel of solvent to there. Latte and Mugorakan go to fetch the foam. Bnarch goes to make a nest for the hatchling to keep it safe, using everything available. Ambassador goes to the medical bay, and orders Mugorakans to carve a moat to ensure glue doesn't reach the hatchling. Utan arrives with Mugorakans bearing drinks "to celebrate Ziva's success". Mugorakans dig trench at the Ambassador's instructions. Latte convinces them to fill trech with solvent to ensure medical Bay is kept safe. Bnarch starts playing with some of the foam, but concludes it isn't good materiel for the nest. Utan arranges to use slight clumsiness to pour a lot of alcohol into the trench and then Latte adds the foam. Result is a rather noxious gas, which does however have the desired effect of bring the Ambassador and Bnarch back to their senses. Ambassador is rather embarrassed by the whole thing and corrects course back to our original destination. There is much debating about what to do with the Yun-radi. Ultimately decide to let them live, but keep them somewhat isolated to prevent a repeat occurance. Bnarch is not keen on the idea, since the Yun-radi are Space-Hilter and he wants them dead, but seems willing to abide by the decision for now. Head back to Gathu to deliver packing materiel. No coherent plan as to how we'll explain the missing materiel "shipping damage" is the likely course of action. Delivering to an "Amin Zu", who seems to be a trader of some kind. On entering the system, we are hailed by the station. Clearly the station is possessed of ridicolously good sensors, and Nikchub confirms that we are being throughly scanned by usually good active sensors. Some digging for information reveals that Gathu is known to have a bunch of very old, very advanced technology. Speculation is that the proto-humans are descendents from some more advanced race that has collapsed somehow. Awkward conversation with the person manning the station. The Embassy may be large enough to trigger the planetary defenses. The station officer is vague on details of the planetary defense system and the settings and how they can be adjusted, referring to "The Texts", which list previous encounters with the station. There are no records in "The Texts" about ships close in size to the Embassy. Some ships somewhat smaller have successfully navigated the system, and some ships 1.5 times larger have been destroyed. We opt to take the Hausdroff, since that's certainly (we are assured) safe. We ask, and are given permissions (possibly surprised permission, although it's hard to tell) to visit the station. Flight to station is uneventful. Gathu is dotted with numerous circular (perfectly circular) structures of varying sizes on various points on the planet. Pattern is somewhat random, but moderately equidistributed. Structures are visible easily from orbit, so they're pretty large. No evidence of cities as such. Station is really small, but clearly very advanced. Extrudes a docking arm and we are allowed inside. Some discussion with Velix about why, given the advanced tech, this is considered a back-water. Reply is a bit cryptic "No-one takes much of an interest in this place". Docking happens. Interior of the station is featureless, lit by an even glow. Walk down the arm. No response to calls. Station is immaculate. No dust or any sign of wear. Led to the central chamber. Room has a single complex, large chair, occupied by a tall, furry proto-human. Introduces itself as the caretaker. Bnarch names it Bob. Some discussion. Bob has been in charge of the station for 40 years. Bnarch asks about snacks. Gets instructed to ask for "nutritional slurry". Does so. Tap appears, dispense slurry into a bowl. Bnarch's report is it looks like pink and tastes like bland. Latte asks why the Empire doesn't bother the station. We get shown a recording of the Empires last attempt to take the station, which includes a very effective display of the stations defenses. Bnarch asks about the "texts". Gets copies of the user manuals, both in translation and the original language. Manuals are very dumbed down and don't get into details of the capablities. Unclear why the caretaker is needed, actually. User manuals include records, which go back about 50 years. Earliest entry is "Caretaker wiped previous records". Bob has no idea why the previous caretaker would have done that, and doesn't seem to be interested enough to care. Leave station. Contact Amin Zu "dealer in antiquities" and get his address. Address leads to one of the large circular structures, with coordinates of about where to land on the roof. Roof has a number of complex structures of no clear purpose on it. Don't seem to be desiginated landing areas. Check the local FAQ: "Land anywhere. No really, land anywhere". Roof structures are configurable. If we fly low, will flatten out into landing bits and then reconfigure later. We leave a "trail of smooth" behind us. Recovery time is a little slow, so Latte has Shar write DMH on the roof and photographs it from above before we land. Land and find an entrance to the elevator down. Interesting, address doesn't specify a level, which is surprising given the structure is about 1 km high. After some struggles, determine elevator is activated by placing a hand on the wall. We descend rather rapidly. Elevator doors are somewhat translucent. Can see large, flying shapes with winds on the way down, although no details. Emerge from the elevator. Humid and significantly warmer than outside. Very large space - ceiling is virtually invisible. Again lit by an even glow - overcast afternoon tie effect. Very hard to tell we're inside, actually. Can see flying creatures in the air. Seem to nest in tall spires that are dotted around the area. Buildings are marked with numbers, but these are never painted onto the buildings. Marked by draped flags, or signs on the street and so forth (paint removed by repair mechanisms?). Very mixed population. Humans, some unknown aliens. A number of Gathu around, although the Gathu seem to specialise in not doing much and being very boring. All humans are imperial citizens. We notice a party of people in the crowd. Clearly not citizens. Move like a squad of Imperial forces people trying (and failing) to be in-cognito. They appear to be on patrol. We take a somewhat circuitous route to Amin Zu's place. Notice another special forces person who seems to be keeping watch, but he appears to be distracted watching a pretty young thing and we escape his notice Find Amin Zu's place. Lots and lots (and lots) of statues. Statues seem to be made of the same sort of substance as the city. Statues are very well executed, and look perfect, but somewhat soulless. Meet Amin Zu. Short man, loud pink shirt, loud voice and dodgier than heck. Discuss several aspects of Gathu. Amin "salvages" statues from uninhabited parts of the city and sells them to collects in the Empire. Packaging materiel is to protect other cargo from the statues, as they're pretty much indestructible. Get directions from Amin to the conveyor belt setup for shipping cargo around. Learn that by thinking at the walls, various useful things can be formed (temporary items). There are some other items made from the same substance as the statue (bowls are mentioned, which Latte wants). Get directions from Amin to an area which has a lot of items. Arrange to trade some 15 or so Mugorakkan statues for some of Amin's statues (wood for stone). Head off to collect packaging materiel. Nikchub calls to say there my be a problem. Photos suggest there's a cloaked Imperial Inquistion Dreadnaught parked on the roof (which explains the squads). Unpack the Hausdroff. Experiment with the walls. "Trolley" produces a hovering platform we use to ferry cargo around. Latte tries "spacesuit", "telepathy helmet" and gets no response. Gets a rolled up rainsuit hat in response to "umbrella", which usefully hides a lot of the face and clothing. Tsaijix tries "knife" and gets a small zap in response. Sent Bnarch and the Hausdorff of to collect the statues. Load everything onto the conveyor belt. Grab lunch from some street vendors while waiting for Bnarch to return. Utan spends lunch watching the Imperials who are watching him. Nobody really learns anything though. Meet up with Amin. Amin notices the missing cargo, and much discussion happens. Complex deal eventually struck where we will deliver a bunch of crates to the Imperial Heartland (to Hamaala itself) and give him some crates free to compensate for the lost packaging. Bnarch suggests the mushroom drink, but Utan vetoes it as this is not a good drugs market. Amin starts packing statues. Velix calls us. Gone looking for her contact, a woman called "Voncathl". Voncathl was to provide "navigation tools", but refused. Claims to be concerned that Velix will be a destablising influence on "Velix back home", who is working happily as a sanitation engineer. Velix wants us to contact Voncathl and try get the navigation tools as representatives of someone else (either the Ambassador or KC). We will try to work off the previous meeting with Voncathl and the RFID ring. Utan experiments with asking the walls for recreational drugs. Gets something which gives him a mild buzz on a small sample. Tsaijix has a larger sample and is seeing colours very clearly for the rest of the session. Go out hunting bowls. Almost stumble across a party of Imperial troops (in uniform) searching the area for something. They don't appear to be collecting any items, so it's some specific thing or person. We go into the base of a spire to get a better view from one of the windows. While discussing things, we are met by one of the flying creatures. Gives it's name as "Very hairy". Very hairy and some of it's friends takes us flying, after Ziva expresses an interest. Flying creatures are not fans of the Imperial troops, as they throw things, so they poop on the troops as we fly over. Tsaijix, already uneasy from the flying, doesn't handle this well and vomits on the troops as well. Shots fired at us, but nothing hits. Fly up to a high spire. Discussion with several of the creatures, who call themselves "The people", the other humans and proto-humans are "ground bugs". Some discussion about dropping statues on unpopular groundbugs. Nikchub and Utan scan the local network for info on possible targets of the search. A lot of conspiracy rumours about the Empire searching for secret details of Gathu tech. Some reports of strange, only found once stuff, and claims it's being hidden by a Imperial coverup operation. Some photos of evidence of Imperial troops moving stuff. One picture includes a shot of Voncathl (Utan doesn't recognise him/her, but companions do). We fly down, and collect some bowls. Tsaijix triggers a gene sniffer. We run away, stealing the device, and get collected by our new friends, who are impressed by the loud noises from the gene sniffer. They agree to hide and move the device to keep the Imperials chasing it. Head off to meet Voncathl. Somewhat awkward discussion at the door, since she doesn't recognise us, but we get in via the RFID ring. Latte reveals we're working for Velix, much to the consternation of the rest of the group. We establish that Voncathl disapproves of Velix breeding outside of the Divergence. Voncathl is having difficulties with the Inquistion. Manage to wrangle an agreement that she will provide the navigation tools if we can remove the Dreadnaught "quietly". Plans to overrun with KC's are nixed as she could arrange to do that herself. Much inconclusive plotting happens. We do establish that ships get eaten by the city from time to time. Triggers are not always clear, but things like too much heat from the exhausts and so forth are often possible causes. Also establish that Voncathl has more control over the city than others, and can probably have the city hold the ship's landing feet. Nikchub sees the local network get spammed with a host of "Have you seen these people? They are armed, dangerous and wanted by the Imperial Inquisition. Please cooperate with the authorities to apprehend them", with our pictures (bar Ziva). Inquisition bot is hitting a great many forums and newsgroups with this. Nikchub writes a bot which releases a second notice of "previous post incorrect. Correct photos attached", whihc included images of Commander Shikov and a bunch of crew from the Albatross. This causes some confusion, but most of the damage has been down. It also starts a little side round of warring bots between Nikchub and the Inquisition of denials and counter-denials. Also a number of ships are now leaving the city we are in. Reports of plain-clothes Inquisition special forces checking the common departure points and searching ships, causing great annoyance. Voncathl is concerned that the Inquisition will call for back. We call Bob and ask him where the comms relays are. He gives us a list of 5 sets of coordinates. We ask Bob what he's told the Inquisition about us. Bob tells us that he told them we were probably on the planet, and that our ship design was unknown to him. Bob also mentions that there's a second Imperial dreadnaught hiding near one of the system's gas giants. Plan is to eliminate comms with the smart bombs, have the Embassy shoot the dreadnaught near the gas giant with the big gun, and then see if we can destroy the city dreadnaught. Current plan is for Voncathl to restrain the dreadnaught, then to send a "surrender the ship" message and hope they'll try to break free, in a "death before dishonour" escape bid. Emergency backup plan for part 3 is for Voncathl to eliminate the city dreadnaught with her forces if things go wrong. We don't have emergency backup plans for parts 1 and 2. From evidence of signals and such, we deduce there are 2 new comms relays with good defenses, and 3 older ones with weaker defense. We deploy 5 smart bombs at the old defenses and 13 at the new to overwhelm the defense (there is no such thing as overkill). Walnut shuttles sent with the Ambassador's KC units to deploy the bombs. The Embassy starts moving into position to shoot the second dreadnaught. Plan is to have parts 1 & 2 happen in quite quick succession. Plan part 0 is to hitch-hike with the flying, bat-like creatures to the roof and use an unexpected exit to get to our ships. Voncathl provides masks and robes so we can hide as cultists of some kind, and provides a comms device. Exit onto the street. Less busy (night-time outside the city, although light hasn't changed inside). Several Imperial patrols in uniform. Mixed reactions from citizens. Evidence of a protest up the street (crowds, chanting, Imperial's dripping pink goo). Some people looking for the wanted people, and some very tourist reactions. We make good progress until Tsaijix sobers up and has a sudden "what are we doing, this will never work" panic attack and freezes. Latte and Bnarch collect Tsaijix and half carry him onwards. We duck down a couple of alleyways and find a courtyard. Latte attracts the attention of "Very Hairy". We ask for a lift to a exit near the ceiling. Get flown up to a high spire with a ricketry staircase leading up. Discuss developments. The loud sensor is beingt aken to another city (by "cousin bigwings"). We ask for help reaching our ships. Give the bat things pictures and descriptions. Bat creatures head out. Come back to report that Imperial troops are examining our ships. Ambassador informs Nikchub that the second dreadnaught has trained weapons on the Embassy (contacting Bob?), and that the Embassy is in range of the dreadnaught's weapons, although not yet in optnum range of the big gun. Decide to advance the plan. Successfully destroy all the comms relays. Dreadnaught responds by launching missles. 2 hit the Embassy, doing a reasonable amount of damage, but not crippling the ship. The Embassy shoots at the dreadnaught. Direct hit. Doesn't destroy the ship totally, but it breaks apart into several pieces. Lifeboats start fleeing the area and so forth. Embassy retreats and goes to refuel. Von Cathal tries to lockdown the city dreadnaught. Doesn't quite work as the city seems to be fighting it. Imperial troops start faling back. We ask the bat creatures to help Von Cathal. They pour out and start flying around the dreadnaught (which is no longer cloaked). We go up onto the roof. Can see tendrils of the city closing over the dreadnaught and then vanishing. Von Cathal says this is as close to lockdown as we'll get, so we send our "surrender or die" demand. The dreadnaught does indeed try to take off, leaving a bunch of troops stuck on the city. For a moment, it looks like it will escape, but then it gets clipped by a tendril of city materiel, careens out of control, and crashes into the city. Bits fall off (including a bit we think fell off the city), and the ship gets eaten by the city. Some troops seem to be making it back inside, while others are also getting eaten by the city. Say farewell to "Very Hairy" and friends, and head to our ships. We leave very carefully. Lots of reports of "catastrophe on the roof". Footage shown of the crash. One piece of footage shoes the bit that fell off the roof. Appears to be a surface mount gun. Von Cathal says she will ensure someone gets good use out of it. Von Cathal sends navigation details to Velix, although not without further sniping between the two. Send the Albatross to salvage the remains of the second dreadnaught. Find a mostly complete armoury, and collect a bunch of new missles and some other weaponary. Nikchub and Latte board the remains of the bridge to go looking for data. Glimpise someone moving down a corridor - insignia seen - lots of bars and a symbol of the tech division. Looks like a senior technical officer is still alive. Nikchub calls out, claiming to be one of the Albatross's crew, here to help. Technical officer isn't buying it and threatens to throw a grenade. This is shortly followed by a "Oh shit" and a bang as the officer accidently drops the grenade. Latte and Nikchub find an unconcious man with a briefcase handcufed to his arm. They remove the briefcase (bolt cutters), and head for the main data room. They discover the self destruct sequence has been ativated, and mot of the interesting stuff has been grabbed (in the briefcase?). Grab anything that looks promising. Latte strips off a bunch of jackets and datapads from some of the dead. Hasty departure. Nikchub shoves the technical officer into one of the remaining life pods and launches it. Successful pickup and departure just before it blows, and return to the Embassy. Nikchub carefully opens the briefcase - is indeed full of important looking disks. Since Bob knows where we are, we send off a message "thinking the Imperial forces for their coorperation", and jump out to a neighbouring system even though we're not fully fueled. Plan is to refuel fully here and then jump to Velix's destination. Velix says her destination isn't near any stars, so we will need to ensure we're fully fueled before we leave. One there, we hope to be able to lay low for a bit since we've just caused a considerable fuss. We have a timeline of a few months to deliver stuff, so we can fit in some downtime. Much investigation of the armory cache we acquired from the Imperial dreadnought. Bunch of less fancy torpedoes - some armour piercing, some not, some crates of fancy guns and ammo, several crates of limpet mines and a small crate of Inquisition gene sniffers. We install some torpedoes on the Albatross, do further work on the Embassy's rail-gun installation (tweaking it to handle the new torpedoes) and install some of the guns near the hanger deck to protect against intruders. Nikchub examines the encrypted disks with the help of Tsaijix and Shar. Lots of boring reports on the Inquisition's failure to find stuff in various systems. Dreadnaughts were investiging "Hive related bioterrorism". Photos of Von Cathal and some others. Also reports of the gene sniffer being triggered by Tsaijix. Investigate the statues - we're unable to get much of a handle on the materiel used, and, as it's non-organic, the Ambassador is at a bit of a loss. Mugorakans say they can carve duplicates and paint them. Tsaijix finds his official Inquisition file. Fairly detailed record of which planets we've visited, and some record of where we've been on planet. mainly via gene sniffer matches, but some footage. Inquisition gene sniffer net is clearly very wide-spread. Seems to be little information on our actual activities, more a record of "we was seen there". Gefka not on the list, so that seems to be somewhat clear of Imperial forces. Some rather entertaining correspondence between Luvek and the Inquisition, along the lines of "well, if you'd called to tell us that these people were of interest, rather than arriving weeks later and complaining, maybe we could have held them for you". Lots of guesswork about our ship. Believed to be cloaked, but actual information is scarce. Most prevelant theory is that we're in a Hive ship (associated photos of bone ships from previous encounters with the Hive - look a lot like the Convergence mother ship). No evidence that DMH has been linked to us yet. There is a transcript of the last conversation between the dreadnaught we attacked with the Embassy and Bob. It is mentioned that our ship was made of wood. Bob also does relay information about our position, although is being unhelpfully literal-minded for most of the conversation. Unclear if this was transmitted before we destroyed the beacon, but as we didn't kill all the crew, it should be assumed that the Inquisition will learn this fact soon enough. Find info on Lumu - the Imperial operation there was not under Inquisition control, and reports are quite scathing of how it was handled. Inquisition are hunting the rogue Mu who left the system. The report does link Imperial agents with the mutant Mu. Have considerable evidence of Inquisition spying on stable, Imperial-controlled planets, with sources high in the local government tree. Plan to leak this, and bits of the Lumu report. We setup beacons in several systems so we can leak the information from several places at once. We complete the delivery run of the Gefkan cargo. The remaining loads is a milk run to an alien planet with not much imperial presence, so it's easy to keep a low profile, and get everything offloaded. Planet is Blor, inhabited by a kind of sentient slug. We're delivering "contact stimulant", amongst other things (essentially drugs & porn). Catch up on the news. We now have several entries into the top 10 most wanted list, for "acts of bioterrorism". We're also considered a severe "contamination risk". The Gathu incident is described as a "bioterrorism attack that cost the lives of thousands of Imperial citizens", with lots of added fake footage. We fill up and jump towards Velix's stated destination. Velix then activates her navigational aid, and we follow it. Leads us well out of the planetary plane and far from the local star. Eventuall leads us to "station 8". Station is very large, and looks a lot like a Hive Spider. Almost invisible, being very dark and giving off very little heat. Contact the station and request permission to dock. People on the station seem very interested in the Embassy. |