Moravia Orbital Colony, Ulysses | 237d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System
Megacity Time: 7:23Alpha Complex, Commerce Sector
Civil Unrest (-1 Diplomacy)
Morale Boost (1/6th chance of a lockdown on the streets. All combat toward law enforcement receives a +1 to initiative and attack rolls.)
"First they lock us up, then they'll get us one by one...let's talk about this out of sight..." McMarlo insists, motioning to at least one of the smarter conspirators...
Action: Time to plot a station overthrow with Elizabeth Bacon, unlikely firebrand revolutionary. Spread the word!
[4 -1 +1+1] A bunch of teenagers might not be of much use to you. But they are a bunch of teenagers, meaning that they are gullible and will make a perfect distraction!
Bacon: We weren't planning to...
Short guy: Well I'm in.
Tall guy: Yeah this could be fun.
Tall girl: I'll get my gun!
Bacon: What the hell! You're just going to go out and kill people for fun?
Tall guy: I thought it was gonna be more along the lines of protesting and civil disobedience.
Short guy: Might as well be prepared when the cops come.
Bacon: Okay shut up!
You find a nice, secluded alley and calmly suggest that the circle of teenagers goes there to talk about future plans. Of course, they question the trustworthiness of a raven-man wearing a SpaceCoat. They still oblige, however, and soon you have a party of followers ready to march on... wherever is considered important here. Still, it's good to know that you have a couple of vectors by which to continue spreading dissent. But you'll need a target.
Primary Elevator Control Room
High Security (-1 Stealth)
Huh. Neat.
Without activating ol' Vespus, let's see what I can do with this connection. What new devices can I see? Can I at least see the terminal if not log in to it remotely?
Unfortunately, your device does not have full access to superuser commands. However, you don't need those to interface with other devices on the secure network, and to see what else is connected.
All of the security cameras on the station are connected to the network, and you have access to any of them, with the ability to display the feed on the screen and take recordings.
You can also connect to the devices controlling the atmosphere systems, water supply, heating, and power transmission. The docking bays aren't remotely operated--you need to control them from a control tower, but if you were to hack one of the computers inside the control tower you could do it.
You can also connect to the servers, which you'd need to log in to with an administrator's account and password. That would require you actually getting someone's username.
...
Headquarters, Floor 3
Professional Atmosphere (+1 Intellect)
This was most unexpected. While Atlos would love to pick the stranger's brain about human business culture, this seemed rather serious. "Tell me now, who owns this Tectonics Corp?"
"They were privately owned, by a group of wealthy Rtalis investors that left our society quite early on in the beginning of the space age. You probably never heard of them because they came to being in a fairly distant part of the sector."He trails off as a fish wanders close. Immediately, he swings his jaw forward and eats it in one go, almost hitting you as he does so.
"Sorry about that. Anyway, Tectonics definitely won't be working in this sector anymore. They've got projects elsewhere, like Nemo III or Autarka Tercii. There's already Autarkii living on the last one, but it's a snowball and they won't turn down a nice place to live."((Irrelevant fluff below. I felt like writing.))
The Autarkii race first grew up in a rich system with numerous colonization opportunities. In fact, they grew up on two home planets, both moons of a temperate gas giant. The societies that formed on each planet were very different from the other. The first one, Autarka Minos, lacked important resources for the production of transistors and other semiconductor products. They formed a tech base largely off of vacuum tubes and analog computers. The society on the other world, Autarka Bios, had access to endless valuable minerals and electronic components, which allowed them to make relatively early advances in computing and automation. Despite this, the first Autark to colonize another world came not from Bios, but from Minos.
Minos' society sought to reap heavy gains from putting Autarkii in space. Their first space station was used to monitor weather patterns and collect scientific data. Soon, they began to construct manufactories in space to take advantage of zero G production. And when their little arid world started running out of oil, they looked to their system's equivalent of Titan, a rocky moon with tar lakes they called Autarka Quarro.
Bios' civilization, on the other hand, rarely got off the ground. While they did set up an extensive satellite network and a couple of research stations, the abundance of semiconductors meant that Bios never had to send an Autark to space. While Minos was colonizing the system, Bios ensured they would never have an economic reason to leave the planet.
The star the Aurakii grew up round is known as Qualia. It is slightly brighter than the sun and is much more difficult to look at with the naked eye, at least from Aurarka's distance.
Autarka, the gas giant around which the Autarkii societies first developed, was named after their kind. It's like naming Earth 'Humania.'
The rest of the planets are named based on Autarkii corruptions of human language, hence the pretentious-sounding Latin or Greek-inspired suffixes.
Minos is an arid planet with a small proportion of water to land and huge deserts. Its seas provide massive oasis as a refuge to life, while water precipitates in the mountains and flows across the desert. This resulted in numerous Nile-like rivers which are utterly massive and provide for the majority of Minosii civilization with their seasonal flooding and reliable water supply. Minos never really had an issue with the Autarkii encroaching on wildlife, as the Autarkii preferred to live outside of the humid, disease-filled jungles. The floodplains were the home of the Autarkii on Minos until they started living in space.
Bios is a lush world not unlike Earth, but much larger and composed of a lot of ices in addition to rock, making its radius huge and gravity low. It has a large amount of water but is kept from undergoing a runaway greenhouse effect by its close proximity to Autarka, scientists say. The frequent eclipses blot out enough sunlight to keep the overall temperature of the planet on a steady cycle that is never above the threshold needed to kill the planet.
Some Autarkii that originate from Minos joke about Bios having been colonized by Minos, much like European colonization in the east during human history. However, Bios always exceeded Minos in terms of military strength and population, but had no organized doctrine nor capable life support to exert any force past its own atmospheric borders.
Autarkii rarely look at the sun, so their eyes are located under a curved triangular plate on the top of their head which terminates in a point just above their beak. Their gray skin is thick and blubbery (not unlike an elephant's) but instead of rolling in mud, they have channels in their skin which allows for sweat-based cooling.
They are one of the few races to have both an exoskeleton and an endoskeleton. Their exoskeleton blends seamlessly with their skin into several plates which terminate around the joints. Their endoskeleton is made of a flexible, porous material that provides structure for organs but little in the way of support against impacts. This is what the exoskeleton is for.
Overall, they are much heavier and stronger than a human, though usually shorter at an average height of 4'6". They are highly competetive owing to their ability to fight each other without suffering permanent injury. They often duel with swords, spears, and axes to test each other's skill, but rarely do they receive a scar that won't heal over a few days. However, the scars do last long enough to act as a symbol of loss in social circles. Even female Autarkii are far more competitive than most.
Their society is strictly capitalistic, but they won't hesitate to invest in something that could conceivably pay off even in the distant future.
Maintenance Shafts
Hidden (+1 Stealth)
"The color of the contamination is teal."
CHeck the sleeping guard for any objects of note, preferably a password or ID.
You extend a limb from the ceiling and start pickpocketing him while he sleeps. You find a wallet, a badge, a keyring, and some wet red stuff.
You inspect the red stuff closer, and realize exactly what it is.
The man is dead, not sleeping.
...
Moravia Lab
High Security (-1 Stealth)
Nerin addresses the scientists. "We still haven't found the person who let the blob out right? And the blob was missing a major section of its mass correct? Let's say the person took that section of biomatrix with him or her. If you were trying to cause the maximum number of infections possible, where would you dump the blob? I'm thinking water treatment, but I don't know how this station handles contaminants in the water. Maybe have someone give it a check? Never hurts to be too paranoid."
"Water is treated at the treatment plant and then distributed directly to the... oh God. We need to cut off the supply right now."Nerin and Valrak both grab suits, scan them in multispectrum for possible biomatrix in them, and equip them should they be clean. Nerin then pings all KX9 in system and enroute to the system. "Smallscale biomatrix outbreak on local station. Currently Class Three. Potential to evolve to higher grades. Currently does not appear airborn. My Paired's Class Five Antitox organs and nanos have been shown to be capable of purging it from the body. However he did have to slice off a section of his arm to remove infected skin. Outbreak appears to be spreading, working with local authorities to contain. Should situation worsen, we will be abandoning the station and will request a pickup as necessary. Recommended all KX9 units stay within airtight Class Two or higher hazmat within system. Preferably Class Three. Request for Purgecore to be on standby should outbreak spread to multiple planetary bodies." Nerin then messages through guild comms to both infiltrators and the Guild Proper. Although Infiltrators would receive a text based version. "This is Nerin. Smallscale Class Three Biomatrix outbreak on target station. Working with local authorities to suppress it and lessen civilian casualties. Recommend all units onstation to locate and equip some form of airtight hazmat suit. Recommend no additional dockings with station by any guild controlled shuttles or ships until situation is controlled."
Both Valrak and Nerin go back to scanning.
"That blob leaped off of someone. Get blood samples from them. If they resist then detain them. Also separate them by several feet minimum. No need to risk it transferring."
The silence is eerie. Normally you're used to KX9 being present everywhere, but this system is a ghost town, at least in terms of KX9. No significant assembly present. You hear some unintelligible chatter, but it's distorted because it's from several systems away.
The guards in the ER are joined by several lab assistants and workers wearing suitable protection. They begin taking samples from the suspects, noticing little out of the ordinary as they do so. The stray blob is also recovered, posing quite a conundrum for the scientists, at least until until the samples are analyzed. The results show that everyone in the room has some trace of biomatrix in their flesh, and most of them are in fact .
"We're going to have to detain them all.""The Federation guy is going to be a nuisance. Put them in hazmat suits and send them to the lab. Purge the ER."Dr. Chance turns to Nerin and Valrak.
"You two have augmented vision. I need you to watch carefully. Don't use any of this multispectrum nonsense, the taint is indistinguishable from from ordinary people without some way of seeing through skin. Microwaves would only work for checking fingers and other places where the bone is shallow. And as we've seen, it can selectively infect only parts of the body. Lock down the store."The milliwave scanner is still available.
Author
Topic: 3008 AD: The Guild Chronicles Mission Thread - GAME OVER! See first post. (Read 49841 times)