I'm just going to leave this tidbit of philosophy here: We all know that our senses are imperfect, that the brain can be fooled into believing something that isn't true with the correct inputs. So who's to say we aren't brains in jars, as the theory is based on, or even advanced AI, being fed sensory information and having our responses to that sensory information run through, possibly with a randomized element, and possibly with vague responses being filled in with whatever the program determines. There's nothing stopping that possibility, but no way to prove it, either. For now, though, I think we should concentrate on the mission at hand.
Loan datapads to Kyle, then head to and ransack the center building for anything useful. Take a few spare rifles for tinkering on as well, unloaded.
You hand the datapads to Kyle before joining Lars in his searches. You don't find anything that would be helpful in the murder department or anything new amongst the documents you idly search through.
"The governor was rich as fuck and the populace was repressed. What else is new."
Lars perked up. Ah- his talents were required.
"An interesting question, the nature of this universe. I am originally a servant of Gazer Sek, a deity of personal introspection and obedience. I originally came to the HMRC after acts in his service. I do believe that I am here being tested, sent here to serve Steve and the rest of the HMRC Pantheon. As such, yes, I believe this is all divine will and mandate, that we are merely small pieces in a game whose purpose we are incapable of fathoming. We are mandated to play our parts and serve the higher powers to the best of our Steve-given abilities."
"As far as why this area was attacked, it's probably because the governor and his staff were living far more richly than they should be in a colony like this. Looks like anyone forming up against them was punished very harshly, and the administration group was kept protected by the law. I guess that explains any retribution against them."
Keep searching.
There are lots of papers and records of laws and court proceedings. Looks like a lot of these laws about curfews and about outlawing public assembly were relatively new.
"Well Milno, there isn't really much else. They're all missing most if not all of their clothing, and there's enough bruises to show that they may have been beaten... whether torture or something completely unrelated to their executions, I'm not sure. I'm going to look through a few of these datapads, perhaps that will fill in the blanks."
Examine datapads.
The Datapads seem to be the personal documents of the Governor. They're mostly banal though one thing does catch your eye in a spreadsheet of expenses and profit for the colony. For a long while they were in the red, incurring rather massive debts, and then all of a sudden they're making a profit. A lot of profit. And most of it is coming from an unlisted source.
((I wonder if the GM is screwing with us. Also, not even Milno knows the state the bodies were found, Kyle only mentioned people who were executed.))
[Team B Leader=Milno]
"So, Smartass. Anything else you discovered? Big guy says they were the governor and his daughters and 'they deserved everything they got'. Found anything on the bodies?" he calmly asked through the comms, deciding against adding another question for the man to the pile of ones already asked by Feyri and Faith.
He pointed towards the door.
"First: do the guys of the police department also have a basement full of people? And second: take cover near that door with us and try diplomacy, since there are probably blueshirts behind it. Oh, and any prisoners should be given to us instead of executed. Our mission is saving as most civilians as possible."
Talk to the man and order him around.
A
Jim
Simus
Bruce
Mesk
Ashley
B
Milno
Lars
May
Thomas
Kyle
"I don't think they do, though they might have done anything between when I left and now." The man says, Walking to the door. He stands against the wall and begins shouting.
"Come on out guys, the Jig is up. The Calvary is here, and there's lots of em."
You hear nothing from the doors. The man shrugs.
[Team A Awesome Medic - Mesk]
"...hey, it worked! Cool. Alright, I'm right behind ya."
Follow Jim. Limp for the sake of a "walk this way" gag.
"You think my successes on this mission have been fate's way of balancing all the people I've malpracticed to death? Or maybe I'll come into a string of horrific bad luck sometime in the future to balance this out. Or maybe the universe really is random, and God is just randomly generated numbers? I bet Brother Lars would have an opinion on that."
You follow jim, copying his walk whenever he's not looking at you.
Jim walked around a bit to test it. "Eh, good enough. It'll work until we get back to the ship." He nodded to Mesk. "Let's regroup."
Jim heads out to find his team and try to gather them all back in one place, as well as ask from a report from them on anything relevant to the situation.
You walk back to the entrance and call for a regroup of the scattered members of your team.
Team C and D
Check self for damage and then move back to the building, weapons ready.
You don't seem to be damaged in any significant way, though you are a bit dented up and scorched. Your sniper rifle, on the other hand, is bent at a 90 degree angle. Aww.
You march sadly over to the door and get ready to do whatever it is you're gonna do.
(( Stupid damned duct-tape ))
"Well, Miyamoto's fine. Fuck it, I'm going in."
Go back into the police station, shooting anyone that isn't on the HMRC. If no-one is seen, shoot the door at the end of the corridor of the ground floor with my laser rifle until it breaks.
"Command, you don't need that evidence do you?"
You shoot the door with your laser rifle. This action burns small holes in the door until you run out of battery. A cunning plan this was not.
"If we are in a simulation, it's so advanced that it might as well be real life for all I can notice or care at this moment in time. Focus people, you don't want to get blown apart, do you?
That was also a hell of a bomb. Nice."
Head into the station and investigate where the prisoners could have gone. Do so with extreme caution for ambushes or more explosives.
You head to the door in back of the station. It's still intact, actually fused shut at this point, partially bowed in. Gonna need to cut or tear it off to get in.
Team D Leader Faith, Explosion Corridor
Faith frowned at the man's talk. Looked like there'd be less "resistance" and more "pointless revenge" in the prison than she'd been expecting.
"Well, what would you call it? We found the bodies in Oxygen and Water, and you stripped Food Production clean and ruined anything that was left. Even if they were keeping most of it for themselves, I get the feeling it was running.
And speaking of which, what did the Magister, and especially what did the Magister's daughters, do that was so terrible?"
Keep talkin'.
He laughs at you again. "Missy, just what do you think we've done? You think we burned the farms and killed the engineers? Sorry to say we weren't even out of our cells when that happened. That was what you could call a popular uprising. There are more then 800 people down stairs in the housing blocks,or at least there were, and they were getting awfully hungry. And the Governor here wasn't a Magister. What would a magister be doing out here in this backwater colony? They rule over plants or solar systems, not single colonies.
And as per what he did, you should ask the people of B block down in the housing sector, if any of them are left alive. "
Feyri Nirel ; Team C Mercenary, sprawled outside teh Police Fortress
Feyri pushed herself up amidst the comprehensible cacophany going over the comms. She turned to ask the man - the one with Team A and B originally, sounding like the guy who hated the governor
after regaining her stability and senses.
"What crimes did they commit against the people? And so as not to parrot Faith, why couldn't you, or anyone else, get the authorities to deal with your own authority? Surely there must be some kind of system which...I don't know, keeps tyrants in check?"
Miyamoto ; Radio Controlled
Stacy ; Harry Baldman
Feyri Nirel ; Tiruin
Pancaek ; Pancaek
Flint ; Parisbre56
Faith Valentine ; IronyOwl
Jackinthebox ; Yoink
Bishop ; Zako
lukas ; Prosperus
sambo ; sambojin
"Yes, appeal to the sword while the hand that wields it strikes you down. A clever plan."
Go help Flint out of his metal prison.
'By the way, Lucas, it is known that, in the proces of life , any living organism creates more entropy, or chaos, than it 'negates' through living. If we would give this chaos a fictional value, for every 'unit of chaos' that life negates by being an ordered system, it creates 2 more units of chaos on the outside world. It is speculated that this will continue on untill there is no more life possible due to the entire universe having succumbed to chaos. Everything will be a amorphous soup of matter and energy. In this light, life and everything derived could indeed be a result from randomness creating something structured, but by doing so, this wil only increase the rate at which the universe wil decay. But don't worry, we only put a marginal dent on the universe's life expectancy. What happens after that... Well, there is insufficient data for a meaningful answer.
But yeah, we should probably focus on the situation at hand, 'cause fictional or not, having a bullet embedded in your guts still pretty damn hurts.'
((If anyone is actually interested in this, I highly recommend the Isaac Asimov's short story 'The last question', which you can find here. ))
You carefully pry the metal off of flint and set him free onto the world once more.
Name:Flint/Wrapped Miner - Team C - Fortress of Doom
Flint's head wasn't at its best and all this talk about metaphysics only made the world spin more. "Could you please stop the weird talk and come help me? You know, unwrap me? I don't want to wait here 'till Christmass."
Seeing Miyamoto move towards him he said:"Thank you boss. I'll try to be less stupid in the future. I just really believed it was the best I could do."
Help anyone who comes to help me and then check my equipment(and by equipment I mean exosuit, chisel, laser and shield).
Everything looks fine, save for your Shield which is half melted and pretty much completely screwed.
((If anyone is actually interested in this, I highly recommend the Isaac Asimov's short story 'The last question', which you can find here. ))
((Yes, that's a great book. I imagine Google in a few decades will begin trying to answer this question.))
((Also, here's another theory:Everything exists. And by everything I mean everything, every possible state of the universe (or universes) frozen in time. We are simply experiencing a group of universes where the "events" that unfold if this group is "played" in the correct order make sense, much like a movie. Since we can only understand the passage of time by its effect on the physical world this is not impossible.
"Aha, Milno!" Feyri exclaimed at the sight of the boy, "I knew that voice belonged to you! Anyway, to add on this - does the Fortress we're looking at have any secret exits, or backdoors? How did they get the Governor and his daughters down there anyway?"
Ask this too.
You know The guy and Milno are right there with you right? You can just ask him yourself.
Stacy, Team C Physimancer, Outside PD.
Unless something comes out and begins shooting, go on and help Flint get out of his metal blanket. Use monoatomic razor if hands prove insufficient to help him.
"Ah, philosophy. I remember it well - it's math sans rigor, sense and practicality!"
You kick the bit of metal after Miyamoto has torn it free.
"STILL HELPING!"
"Thanks for dragging me out back there, little spoon."
Go stand near Flint, give moral support
You give flint a hug. And a firm pat on the butt.
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11) (Read 3940939 times)