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[_DivideByZero_]

((This is a start to getting everyone more involved!

EDIT: So after thinking about orbital slingshots, a slingshot could work to steal a fair amount of deltaV from Gaia. But not from the planet. We'll say that you could do it, but you'd run out of fuel if you do.))

[Varee]

How big is the thing relative to our ship?

-"ok guys am done with your silent treatment. Am going out there with power tool to get sample. Anyone voluteer to help?"

[_DivideByZero_]

How big is the thing relative to our ship?

-"ok guys am done with your silent treatment. Am going out there with power tool to get sample. Anyone voluteer to help?"

Your ship is about 1.5 km, but the majority of it is spherical fuel tanks between the habitat section and engine bloc. The engine and reactor combined are about 350m in length and 250m in diameter, while the cryo bloc is 300m long and 200m wide. The cargo bay is about half the length of the cryo bloc, and the hangars are only 50m past the end of the cryo section.

The gravring is about 800m in radius, making the whole ship slightly wider than it is long.



The mass of the object is unclear, although if you had a shuttle push against it you could figure out its acceleration and use that to determine the mass.

[Alev]

((Bump? Sorry I haven't posted, I just have no idea what to do.))

[_DivideByZero_]

((Bump? Sorry I haven't posted, I just have no idea what to do.))

((Unknown space!object needs investigating. If your character does not want to open a suspicious radioactive space box, you can suggest going back. There were some possible structures on a moon in the last system, or you can try to launch yourself at Gaia.

Remember that you can control your craft from a huge distance. If you wish, you could theoretically stay on Gaia and send tankers to Heracles to retrieve hydrogen fuel, then send them back. You can save fuel by using water for propellant, so by using the Dwarf Planets for fuel supplies you can increase the amount of hydrogen the tankers bring back to reasonably fill your ship's tanks in time and leave Gaia. Or you can try and synthesize (or harvest) methane and use that to get back to Artosis, then fill up on water (perhaps using staged rockets to bring it up?) and use that for 50% deltaV. Which is enough to travel around the moons of Ares without refueling on the gas giant.

Remember that you have harvesters that can mine hydrogen fuel without requiring the ship to go down into the gravity well.))

[_DivideByZero_]

((Well, if nobody's interested, I've got another fleet of plot tugboats waiting.))


The computer starts beeping. Incessantly. Vex scrambles to the dashboard, expecting something to have gone wrong. Instead, a single line of text is repeating on a corner of the screen:

[REPEATING SIGNALS DETECTED FROM PLANETARY BODY 'GAIA'. SUGGEST ANALYSIS PROTOCOLS AND INVESTIGATION]

The instructions say to head to one of the sensor booths. The ((PC's)) currently in the bridge gather inside the nearest one, finding a display of several signals isolated from each other and background noise.

Spoiler: Signal Info (click to show/hide)

The signals are a huge jumble of different forms and shapes.

• A very small number of the signals have extremely repetitive patterns consisting of varied patterns separated by square gaps. Some analysis software depicted on the screen reveals fuzzy images with vague dark figures moving around and expanding. There is room for improvement in your algorithms.
• Most of the data consists of digital signals with varying levels of encryption. Some of the signals were easy for the software to automatically decrypt, but the data represented consists of unintelligible bits. It is unclear whether or not the rest of the signals can be decrypted.
• The signals seem to be coming from the direction of the planet. Most are omnidirectional, but a few display signs of interference suggesting they were reflected in your direction. No signals are being beamed directly at you.

[Varee]

It not liek I got nothing to do but noone else seem to be playing anymore ))


Vex search the ship for radiation suit and take some power tool out on a shuttle to try get a peice of the obelisk while he wait for his crew to be mroe active. maybe he should try wake up a few new one

[Samarkand]

-"I like the idea of investigating that planet. Even if it's only sending me and one or two other crew members down. I'm not of much use on a ship where we're all on the same side, after all."

[_DivideByZero_]

It not liek I got nothing to do but noone else seem to be playing anymore ))


Vex search the ship for radiation suit and take some power tool out on a shuttle to try get a peice of the obelisk while he wait for his crew to be mroe active. maybe he should try wake up a few new one

Radiation suit = bad idea. You'd have to literally encase yourself in a block of lead to get near that thing.

[6] Tape powertools to investigation rovers? Why not? But first to find rovers.

There are no rovers out in the launch bay, unless they are hidden. You go down to check it yourself, but find nothing in the corners and along the walls. However, what you do discover is that each of the shuttles contains a single rover, much like the legendary Curiosity in appearance. This rover has a robotic arm but no mining equipment. Using a plasma cutter in space is actually a bit tricky without an air supply, so you rig a tank of compressed air in addition to the plasma cutter on the rover's arm.

After fitting the shuttle with a couple of lead plates to protect the electronics from too much exposure--it's never bad to take precautions, as you've learned--you send the shuttle alone on its way and rush to Mission Control to lead it via remote access.

The rover manages to slice off a chunk.The chunk sticks to the magnetic wheels of the rover. Your shuttle hovers by and uses its own loading arm to retrieve the rover, plucking it from the surface along with its sample, then brings it back to the ship.

Spoiler: Sample Info (click to show/hide)

The black surface of the monolith is actually a layer of solar panels lining the surface of the machine, connected to spinal power conduits that would run the length of the ship. The inner layer is made of a very hard steel alloy, with different thermal properties (melting point is 9000°C, higher heat of vaporization than normal steel, higher conductivity). It is harder than normal steel, but not brittle, and your spectral analysis indicates large amounts of carbon present inside the alloy.

[_DivideByZero_]

-"I like the idea of investigating that planet. Even if it's only sending me and one or two other crew members down. I'm not of much use on a ship where we're all on the same side, after all."

The atmosphere is actually very similar to traditional Terran levels, containing manageable levels of Carbon Dioxide (slightly higher than Earth's), Methane, and... certain pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and CFC's. That alone suggests that there is some kind of industry going on. The inhabitants of Gaia might have a significant presence there.

[Alev]

-"I like the idea of investigating that planet. Even if it's only sending me and one or two other crew members down. I'm not of much use on a ship where we're all on the same side, after all."

'I suppose I'll go with you.'

[Varee]

Vex plot course to gaia and talk to the crew about the monolith composition.
"So what do you think we should do with this block? I dont think We have the tool to penetrate it"

[_DivideByZero_]

((Note: You just penetrated it with the railgun))

[Varee]

Fortunately, there is no hostile response. You observe a surface a few meters beneath the outer armor layer, scarred but not punctured by the hypervelocity impact.

((That line kinda confuse me))
Vex take the sample to the lab and try figure out the source of radiation. Maybe we can use it as nuclear fuel.

[_DivideByZero_]

Fortunately, there is no hostile response. You observe a surface a few meters beneath the outer armor layer, scarred but not punctured by the hypervelocity impact.

((That line kinda confuse me))
Vex take the sample to the lab and try figure out the source of radiation. Maybe we can use it as nuclear fuel.

The outer layer is a Whipple shield, spaced out from the inner hull in order to reduce the effectiveness of hyper-velocity impacts. Punching through the outer layer gives access to the inner layer, and so on.
((I didn't mention the layer of empty space between them. My bad.))

[3] The sample is probably not the source of radiation, although its chemical structure has been altered by the radiation, making it very slightly radioactive. Good think you're following proper safety protocols... right?