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[WillowLuman]

((Don't worry about it DBZ. Fluff is always fun))
"Interesting. But I'm afraid this is rather grim news. I'm not from Tectonics, and I think there's little hope in holding out for their assistance. We may, may, be able to get help from the Academy if we can tell them of this situation but... well, you know how they are. Have you made any effort to contact people?"

[HighEndNoob]

This complicates the situation. Could the person who contaminated the water have also been the one who killed this guard?

Check the control panel for a way to shut off the water. If it requires special permissions, radio over secure comms to see if a teammate can assist.

[Toaster]

Deuce listened to the chatter over the team comm.  Didn't he see water controls back there?

'This is Deuce; I might have some access to the water system.  Let me see what I can do.

Just what can I do with the water system?  Might as well check the others (power, atmosphere, and heating) while I'm at it.  Can any changes I made be locked?  Would I have to shut down power to prevent them from being overridden?

[_DivideByZero_]

Moravia Orbital Colony, Ulysses | 237d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Megacity Time: 7:25

Maintenance Worker's Lounge
Quiet (+1 Intellect, -1 Stealth)

Deuce listened to the chatter over the team comm.  Didn't he see water controls back there?

'This is Deuce; I might have some access to the water system.  Let me see what I can do.

Just what can I do with the water system?  Might as well check the others (power, atmosphere, and heating) while I'm at it.  Can any changes I made be locked?  Would I have to shut down power to prevent them from being overridden?

[6|3-1] Bonus from 'Quiet' location modifier

You find that the many utilities connected to the network are controlled via command-line, as in, you mount them as a device and then send messages to them directly. Some of them have cool ASCII control interfaces. Others have little more than a /? page and commands. Still, you can figure this out.

It's important to note that you are not the only one on this network. You can detect other computers running on the network as well, and any action made is logged. on the other hand, as long as you have the password you can send commands to any device on the network. It's fairly light security.

You can't "lock" a vital life support system, since that could be abused all too well. If you crash the water system, it would have to be rebooted manually though.  There may be a slight complication with shutting off water pumps, however: the water flows outward into the rest of the ring via centrifugal force. That means that it will still naturally flow in one direction without the pumps. It just won't get recycled.

...

Headquarters, Floor 3
Professional Atmosphere (+1 Intellect)

((Don't worry about it DBZ. Fluff is always fun))
"Interesting. But I'm afraid this is rather grim news. I'm not from Tectonics, and I think there's little hope in holding out for their assistance. We may, may, be able to get help from the Academy if we can tell them of this situation but... well, you know how they are. Have you made any effort to contact people?"

((By the way, you should hear Valrak if your character has a waterproof headpiece.))

"I don't really expect to get rescued. But I'd rather not throw in the towel just yet, since I could always meet strange new surprises. Like you.

Anyway, contacting people is just a little difficult with just my headset communicator. It broke down just a few weeks ago, which really sucked. Our waterproof devices are designed to be failure-proof, they're engineered specifically to not require a watertight shell because they can operate full of water just fine. I have no idea why it broke. Either way, if I used to to contact a ship for help I'd be traced and found. No use in blowing my cover.

Say, do you know anything about the Autarka Tercii project? Have they gotten funding yet?"

As his mind wanders, you notice his skin subtly changing color and pattern. Not too noticeably, but noticeable nonetheless.

Maintenance Shafts
Hidden (+1 Stealth)

This complicates the situation. Could the person who contaminated the water have also been the one who killed this guard?

Check the control panel for a way to shut off the water. If it requires special permissions, radio over secure comms to see if a teammate can assist.

[2] Nope, all you can do is rotate the camera,s shut them off, or download and wipe their memory. There's a console, but it's locked via password, and you're not sure what it does. (if you can connect your system to it via USB, however, you can investigate)

You still have sight of the stranger from the water facility. He is already at elevator tram C and is waiting to board when it arrives, presumably. You guess that you could reach the tram before he gets there if you hurry.

...

Moravia Lab
High Security (-1 Stealth)

Nerin and Valrak continue scanning, using the Milliscanner and their sensors to watch for anything abnormal. "Cut it off then. And make sure there are several people present during the shutdown and several to guard any way people can reactivate it."

Nerin pings Warden. "If you can without being discovered, shut off the water. Likely Biomatrix infestation."

Valrak pings the rest of the infiltrators "Nobody drink or touch water from the station's source. Avoid physical contact with people without hazmat suits, do your best to locate a hazmat suit, and don't touch anything that looks like a blob. Very high chance of biomatrix outbreak."

"I'll call the HQ. That's the only way to lock it down or open it back up. Should be safe unless someone gets to the server farm. Then we'd be screwed."
"Now's the time for optimism, gentlemen... we can do this. Just make sure we track any cases of exposure."

A cart full of hazmat suits is rolled into the ER trough the airlock. It hisses as it pumps air back into the ER's tanks and refills it with cabin air. The airlock will not vent air back into the rest of the living space, for safety purposes.

Nerin: [5+1/3] There are, fortunately, no more of the strange spineless people on the scanner. While this scanner works well on people, you start to realize that this scanner might not even detect the standard infection blobs at all, or at least as anything more than faded splotches.

Valrak: [6/2] With your enhanced senses, you spot a small party of globules rolling across the ground in a corner of the facility. They seem to be heading toward the security checkpoint, but are staying hidden beneath counters and tables as they move across the room.

It's really strange how nobody notices these things when they just pass by.

[4] Also, while switching between frequencies, you find out that the globs constantly emit a certain radio wavelength, similar to wi-fi frequencies but restricted to a distinctive band that doesn't overlap with a lot of devices. This should make them easier to track. As of now, no humans are emitting this frequency.

[WillowLuman]

((I guess he would have a head set, since it would only make sense. Retroactive stuff time!))

"No idea. But what I do have is a secure communications channel." He pauses for a moment as his fellows' messages come in, and the stranger might notice the anxiety patterns on his skin. "And we should probably be getting out of the water now. I have just received word that someone poured something highly suspicious in at the plant, we likely only have minutes before it cycles through here."

[Toaster]

Hmm.

Let's figure out what all I can do with the power and atmosphere systems, then.  The water will probably be turned down by someone in real control.

[~Neri]

"Large collection of blobs enroute to the security checkpoint. They appear to be emitting a specific radio frequency. They're under the counters and tables. Radio probably will help tracking them. Nobody else seems to be infected according to Nerin, still looking though." Valrak brings the radio signature up on the computer for the scientists before going back to scanning. Nerin continues scanning as well. "Get the water shut off as quickly as you can. Also maybe have a team go down to the water treatment facilities while waiting for approval? Always best to make sure everyone down there is okay."

[WillowLuman]

((Note: forgot about this, but Rtalis use a voice synthesizer to speak most alien languages, since their natural vocalizations are adapted for water and consist mainly of chirps, hums, drones, and clicks. Which would make it hard for Atlos to respond to his teammates at the moment, except perhaps in morse code (or some kind of widely known space age code) ))

[_DivideByZero_]

((Note: forgot about this, but Rtalis use a voice synthesizer to speak most alien languages, since their natural vocalizations are adapted for water and consist mainly of chirps, hums, drones, and clicks. Which would make it hard for Atlos to respond to his teammates at the moment, except perhaps in morse code (or some kind of widely known space age code) ))

((Devious.))

Hmm.

Let's figure out what all I can do with the power and atmosphere systems, then.  The water will probably be turned down by someone in real control.

Atmosphere can be selectively vented from regions of the station. There's no security locks on this, and doing so will lock down the bulkheads (large doors) in the region, but not the smaller doors that can be found all over the station.

Power is distributed across the station via high voltage cable. It will be difficult to turn off all the power since no part of the station was really designed to work without power.  There are two ways to do it, though. One is to activate emergency lockdown mode, which treats a section of station as critically damaged and proceeds to vent all atmosphere and cut off all life support to that region. The other way is to disable the local reactors for a particular section, which may have wider effects by reducing the overall power output of the station. Remember that without heating, parts of the station will radiate off heat and become very cold. Turning off the the reactors will also draw you strange looks and suspicious AI's.

The station uses almost exclusively fusion and solar power, thanks to the abundance of fuel present in the nearby gas giant as well as its close proximity to the system's sun.

[Toaster]

See what Heating can do.  Any other exciting functions?

[WillowLuman]

Atlos mentally reminded himself to adjust the voice-modulator on his mobility unit, as the accent here seemed different than what he'd encountered before.

((Found it.))

[_DivideByZero_]

Mini-Roll.

"No idea. But what I do have is a secure communications channel." He pauses for a moment as his fellows' messages come in, and the stranger might notice the anxiety patterns on his skin. "And we should probably be getting out of the water now. I have just received word that someone poured something highly suspicious in at the plant, we likely only have minutes before it cycles through here."

"Hmm, great idea. But do tell, did you bring any spare suits for me? I wouldn't expect you to suggest that so readily if you haven't brought one."

He leaps out of the water and rolls behind the hedges--the same kind you stowed your fishtank in, but on the other side of the garden. The configuration is mirrored. You follow closely.

And sure enough, minutes later the water starts turning noticeably more blue in color. Some of the fish start to swim lower in the water. Some kind of poison. You fear for the safety of the humans onboard the station should this have spread to the faucets and hydroponics. In fact, you should probably inform them of that. Somehow.

The stranger's skin turns green, mimicking the pattern of the engineered grass and hedges around him.

"So I haven't told you about the Toliman project, haven't I? It's amazing what a seemingly innocent corp like Tectonics can be up to. Augmenting Rtalis into perfect diplomat-infiltrators with the intent of stealing scientific data from a rival company! A shame we never got sent on such a mission."

See what Heating can do.  Any other exciting functions?

Heating lets you control the thermostat. The /help menu tells you of two commands: settemp and settempx, where settempx requires an "administrative consensus" or basically clearance from one of the main computers inside the HQ. It apparently lets you either freeze or burn a section of the station using the temperature regulation systems.

It seems strange why you can depressurize a cabin but not set its temperature to freezing. Perhaps the same restriction is present on a bunch of other commands, but it's not stated.

There are a couple of other potentially useful functions:
-Ventilation/Air Shaft speed and pressure
-Controlling doors
-Controlling elevators and docking bays, albeit with less precision than using the actual monitor room console
-Controlling harvesting and distribution systems in the algae farms, although not for the hydroponics.

There's also some other devices you don't have software drivers for, such as the station's 3d printing array (used by maintenance workers to fabricate new parts and equipment) and the official data farm, which needs a specific password to log into.

"Large collection of blobs enroute to the security checkpoint. They appear to be emitting a specific radio frequency. They're under the counters and tables. Radio probably will help tracking them. Nobody else seems to be infected according to Nerin, still looking though." Valrak brings the radio signature up on the computer for the scientists before going back to scanning. Nerin continues scanning as well. "Get the water shut off as quickly as you can. Also maybe have a team go down to the water treatment facilities while waiting for approval? Always best to make sure everyone down there is okay."

Dr. Chance instructs a random worker to go and contact the water utilities office in a quiet room.

Shortly after he leaves, the worker returns to the clinic.
"HQ wants a full rundown of the situation before they allow the water to be shut off. Is it really that urgent of an outbreak?"

"Could be worse. It would be a problem if they got into Ulysses' atmosphere, though."

Nerin notices something slightly odd about Dr. Chance. Halfway through her speech, she paused on the word 'into.'

"You two," she begins.
"You're not technically with us, but you're too useful with that multispectrum vision of yours. Put on a suit and try to collect those blobs. You can see them better than any of us."

Some of the blobs escape from sight, hiding behind shelves. In fact, all of them start moving into positions hidden by furniture from the places where Nerin and Valrak are standing.

[WillowLuman]

It's difficult to keep up conversation out of the water, but Atlos sees going back in isn't really an option. "Follow me... I have a mobility unit, should hold both of us... a bit cramped... but perhaps you can then get into my spare pressure suit."

Atlos leads the stranger thataway.

[~Neri]

"We are wearing suits. We got them earlier."

"Dr. Chance, mind getting yourself tested? You had an odd verbal tick a moment ago and something seems a bit off with your heat output. Also all the blobs just started moving between Valrak and I and the furnature to cut off our sight. So someone in the room's infected and relaying data. Likely the radio waves being emitted are relaying data. Let's get everyone in here tested. Should someone refuse, assume they're infected."

"Too bad this isn't a KX9 Command and Control ship. If it were, could just relay the locations of the blobs to the guards if it were."

Nerin scans Dr. Chance closely. Whilst monitoring the blobs. Valrak moves position to the opposite side of the room to see if the blobs change position accordingly. Also monitoring the blobs.

Spoiler: KX9 C&C Ships: (click to show/hide)

C&C ships are a special class of KX9 ship. While most KX9 ships can function as backup C&C ships, as well as support a number of KX9, most ships are AI controllef and organized by Logiforms based on C&C ships. KX9 tend to use absurd numbers of drones in any military engagement, many drones rival cruisers or even battleships in size. The lack of a dedicated life support allows more space to be allotted to armor and weaponry. Technicallymost KX9 droneships hold hibernation pods and enough life support capacity to keep a few KX9 awake for long enough for a destination to be set should KX9 escape pods need retrieval post battle, however unlike C&C ships, they aren't intended to be crewed. Some C&C ships are behemoths, often serving as mobile Warrens and tended to by large fleets of auxiliary and combat drones. C&C ships intended for combat rather then research and exploration tend to be quite small in comparison, sometimes smaller then the drones they control. C&C ships contain the computers and interfaces necessary to coordinate a fleet on a massive scale, the lack of timelag due to the KX9 implants and ship integration systems results in a fleetwide coordination that humans can only dream of. The KX9 cut out the middle man. Their ships are controlled by thought.

[_DivideByZero_]

"We are wearing suits. We got them earlier."

((Oh, well scratch that.))

"Dr. Chance, mind getting yourself tested? You had an odd verbal tick a moment ago and something seems a bit off with your heat output. Also all the blobs just started moving between Valrak and I and the furnature to cut off our sight. So someone in the room's infected and relaying data. Likely the radio waves being emitted are relaying data. Let's get everyone in here tested. Should someone refuse, assume they're infected."

"Oh..."
She suddenly starts to sound rather defensive.
"That's not a verbal tick. I was just pondering what info I'm allowed to give to my subordinates. We're in a difficult situation here, and while it might be tempting to give out classified data to people without access, rules are rules."

[2] She makes no more unusual tics. Her opinion of you two has dropped slightly, or so it seems.

"Too bad this isn't a KX9 Command and Control ship. If it were, could just relay the locations of the blobs to the guards if it were."

"Hm, robotic guards. We should buy a few some time."
"On your own salary, Bradley. You are welcome to manufacture them if you like. Talk to the printer techs sometime."

Nerin scans Dr. Chance closely. Whilst monitoring the blobs. Valrak moves position to the opposite side of the room to see if the blobs change position accordingly. Also monitoring the blobs.

Valrak: You move around to get a better look at the blobs hiding behind the shelf containing boxed steam irons. They aren't present when you finally reach them, but then you notice another group--perhaps the same one--rolling onto a desk located in the computers section and entering a desktop computer through the fan inlets.

Their radio emissions fluctuate with some kind of pattern as they move.

Nerin: [6/2] Dr. Chance notices you staring at her. Her infra-red signature starts to rise as this happens, but you see none of the radio emissions characteristic of the blobs, not even from exposed sections of skin such as her hands and ankles. She also seems to be getting larger over time, which may indicate--

(4) vs [1] Dr. Chance slaps Nerin in the face, sending him walking backwards and tripping on a trash can, knocking it over.

[2] A transparent plastic bag full of orange blobs falls out of the trash can, they begin bouncing about and drawing closer to Nerin, who backs away reflexively.

Spoiler: KX9 C&C Ships: (click to show/hide)

C&C ships are a special class of KX9 ship. While most KX9 ships can function as backup C&C ships, as well as support a number of KX9, most ships are AI controllef and organized by Logiforms based on C&C ships. KX9 tend to use absurd numbers of drones in any military engagement, many drones rival cruisers or even battleships in size. The lack of a dedicated life support allows more space to be allotted to armor and weaponry. Technicallymost KX9 droneships hold hibernation pods and enough life support capacity to keep a few KX9 awake for long enough for a destination to be set should KX9 escape pods need retrieval post battle, however unlike C&C ships, they aren't intended to be crewed. Some C&C ships are behemoths, often serving as mobile Warrens and tended to by large fleets of auxiliary and combat drones. C&C ships intended for combat rather then research and exploration tend to be quite small in comparison, sometimes smaller then the drones they control. C&C ships contain the computers and interfaces necessary to coordinate a fleet on a massive scale, the lack of timelag due to the KX9 implants and ship integration systems results in a fleetwide coordination that humans can only dream of. The KX9 cut out the middle man. Their ships are controlled by thought.

((I always thought it might be beneficial to have small C&C ships and drone-controlled cruisers/larger vessels for task forces. Cruisers would be better for independent operations, but for pure combat prowess a swarm is definitely the way to go. Tiny ships can maneuver much more efficiently to take advantage of timelag, especially if FTL communications lets you warn .

I will, however, have to put limits on FTL communication so that it remains a relevant strategic point in conflict. This might nerf the XJ9 a little bit, but I'm sure they can manage to deal with tachyon interference by, for example, setting a lot of receivers deep underground and and rebroadcasting the messages at a lower energy level to the surface.

That, and tachyons still have timelag in this setting. Just not as much. I imagine seconds instead of hours is good enough for most purposes, since we have wormholes for communications to echo through.))

Spoiler: Fleet Engagements (click to show/hide)

The combat ability of human fleets differs greatly between polities, sometimes staggeringly so. While many one-planet fleets are fairly mobile and can send out task forces multiple systems beyond their borders, they generally lack an FTL communications network or the funds needed to mass produce tachyonic communication equipment.

Larger, more well-funded navies on the other hand often have access to fuel depots and communications arrays almost anywhere in the sector, owned either by allies or set there ahead of time by the merchant marine on long expeditionary trips. FTL communication comes in two varieties--the first utilizes wormholes to pinch two small regions of space together, creating a small bandwidth that can be widened with enough energy commitment. These are generally handled by dedicated command ships and by Comms satilites orbiting close to the star for solar energy. Command ships often link a local headquarters to link task forces and squadrons together, although they generally require huge reactors and massive radiators to function, which makes them a giant target that's nearly impossible to hide from enemy fire.

The second means of FTL communication is the use of tachyonic particles. These kinds of communications have considerably more complicated physics than typical radio communications, but their advantage is that receivers don't need to be particularly large to receive signals from the opposite side of a star system. Tachyonic communications echo through worldgates and other wormholes, although the bandwidth is fairly small unless the worldgates are kept open a large portion of the time (Which is typically a massive power drain. Opening a large enough wormhole to send a typical ~10-million pop planet's worth of radio output through via tachyons requires energies on the scale of all the energy the Earth receives from the sun, after generation efficiencies are accounted for). Tachyonic communications are thus reserved for in-system communications most of the time. Another issue with tachyonic communications is that using too much of it tends to create tachyon interference around receivers. Think of it as a drastic example of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, where tachyons interacting cause other nearby tachyons to interact differently.


Many navies have experimented with forms of decentralized command using tachyon communications. The end result, however, is heavy interference as multiple command units attempt to send commands at the same time as each other. This is the same problem that kept tachyon-based decentralized computing from taking off, which typically limits supercomputers to a single land site.

The tried-and-true model for a lot of human navies is thus a series of task forces receiving one-way orders from a command unit in the system. For navies without a communications network, in-system command is facilitated by a forward base on an airless dwarf planet or by a heavily-guarded command ship. For well-funded navies, contact with headquarters can be as fast as seconds, with communication times of minutes on average due to wormhole propagation delays.