Voyage 2: Sketchy Notes vers. (pt. 3)
Scene 10
Oracle:
- Are there any active colonies in the taxu system? No
- Do the ruins on Taxu have any artifacts left on them? Extreme yes, and interruption! NPC Action: Block Tension
Midnight on the scan shift. Henry yawned and put his head down on the console for a moment's rest... so this is freedom, hunh? Sitting around scanning ice giants while a methane breathing-jellyfish fusses about clues that aren't there.
At least he was a few credits richer, and he liked being at the controls of this big-ass boat. But even with the Thuvia's upgrded scanners, they were finding nothing.
He glanced blearily up at Taxu II again. Might've been a nice place before Taxu itself had swollen into a radioactive red giant. About Earth Size, .93 G, even the atmosphere was still kinda breathable... but the heat... Man! 85C during the day. And the radiation wasn't his idea of a good time either.
The four moons at least kept the whole planet from being baked. And there was life down there... after a fashon. Tangled giant fungal jungles, massive supercorals in the oceans, swarming insectoids... the planet was a sea of radioactive mutations.
With the moons aligned as they were, the planet didn't really have a dark side so much as a dimly lit side. He gazed at the haunting purple light,scanning the surface of the planet with his eyes. Then, for just an instant, he thought he saw a hint of synthetic light. Something that did not fit.
Targeting the general area, he launched another disposable probe, and watched it hurtle down, leaving a trail of indigo flames through the atmosphere. 500m before impact it cast aside its silicate casing and deployed a chute, crashing into a soft bed of fungoid life. The lev system came online, and slowly he lifted it up.
He wasn't even sure where he had seen it relative to the probe... or if he had seen it, but he had a guess. Watching its feed through the screens, he began cruising over the dark, fleshy surface in the moonlight.
After a half-hour of VR exploring he was ready to quit and self destruct yet another probe when another glint of light cauth his eye. A slow pulse of amber. Banking, he sped towards a pyramid shape rising out of the fugual beds. Near it it bare patches were towers and domes of some relatively recent expedition, just beginning to become caked with the local mycelium.
He began recording, and pinged C'Alhoon on the comms. then, seconds too late to respond, he noticed the turret breaking free of the fungus and taking aim. The probe's feeds went dead.
Pinpointing the location on the surface, Henry tilted the ship so he could see it through the window just as C'Alhoon waddled with surprising speed to the bridge.
Ca: "What is it?"
He: "A ruin. I'm guessing that's what you've been looking for. Looks like someone beat you to it,. there's modern prefabs all around it, and an autodefense turret gunned down my probe."
Ca: "Where?"
He: Points up towards the point on the planet and then lets out a curse as he sees a faint light. "Oh, Hell!" Henry punches the alarm system. A low, thrumming alarm pulses through the ship. "All hands on deck! We've got an incoming rocket. Intentions unclear, but I'm gonna assume hostile,"
Henry grabs the controls and accelerates the ship away from the planet as holodisplays and screens flare to life all around him.
Gael, Molly, and Braki are in the cabin within minutes. Braki leaps into a chair and immediately calls up fire control.
Mo: "Report!"
He: "I was scanning the surface and spotted some kind of light, so i sent down a probe. After a few minutes I managed to spot a ruin surrounded by some fabs. They were overgrown and looked abandoned. But I tripped some kind of automatic defense, because a turrent shot down my probe. No sooner had I called C'Alhoon then I noticed an incoming rocket. i took evasive maneuvers,a nd hit the alert. It doesn't seem to be tracking us, though, Cap'. It's heading stright for high orbit."
Mo: "Okay, crew, time to figure out if you all can do the jobs I've overpaid you for. Braki, get me an analysis. Gael, see if you can detect any tansmissions."
Braki's computer test 17, Gael's test also 17.
Br: "It is a multi-stage rocket. Low powered. No sign of a warhead or active sensors. I have a targeting solution."
Ga: "No radio transmission, captain, but I am detecting pulses on the surface consistend with a q-comm."
Br: "Shall I destroy it and bombard the surface?"
Mo: "Do not bombard the surface!"
This is about the time that I need clear stats for C'alhoon. He has a good chance of knowing exactly what the rocket is, but will he figure it out in time. Rolling him up. I will swap the highest roll into INT to be consistent with the character.
C'Alhoon
Research: +1 to all computer skills to gather information
Ancient Lore: Use language skill to decipher alien languages after 1 hour or repair skill to use alien device after 1 hour od study.
Methane Breather: breathes methane, needs encounter suit to breathe in oxygen-based atmospeheres
Roll for Alien Cultures for C'Alhoon 9... he does not recognize the tech in time.
The Rocket breaches the orbit of Taxu II and then explodes into a cloud of fragments.
He: "The Hell was THAT?"
Ca: "Oh no..."
Mo: "What is it C'Alhoon?"
Ca: "An old Hune trick from our early spacefaring days that the Qath Combine revived: portable blockade."
Braki puts a hologram on the main screen as dozens of small maxhines spread across the orbit of Taxu II.
Br: "Detecting shields and energy weapon signatures."
Ca: "Each one of those is an interceptor drone using forbidden AI combat systems and powered by a small antimatter reactor."
Mo: "Cath uses these?"
Ca: "They were one of the reasons I left the organization before they became the Qath Combine. I discovered they had gone back to making these to protect claims on the frontier. And ground-based automated defenses.
"Before they started the project to send out manned crews, they set out a handful of survey ships to likely sites. Mostly ones I identified in my research, and staked a claim. then they built bases and put down automated defenses so that they could explore the claim at their leisure."
Ga: "That is not how claim staking works."
Ca: "Not according to Alliance law, no. But on the frontier, they figured no one who survived running into their defenses would be able to make a complaint that would stick."
Mo: "So this is entirely robotic with no thinking being to pull the trigger."
Ca: "No. It's adaptive combat AI, way beyond the constraints of the Tau convention."
Mo: "Did you know this would be here?"
Ca: "No. I identified this sector as a likely location, but I had put it so far down the list that I never would have expecte them to claim this sector before they gave up on trying to automatically claim sites."
Ga: "Why did they stop?"
Oracle
- Does C'Alhoon know why they stopped? Extreme No
Ca: "I was in charge of plotting where to look, and later, planning how to send manned missions. I wasn't supposed to know about the automated defenses. Learning that they even existed made me a target. That is why I am out here."
He: "Great. This is where we turn around and call it a day, right?"
Mo: "To Hell with that. I want to know what's down there that they're so hot to hide. What kind of programming do these interceptors have?"
C'Alhoon's Alien Cultures roll: 12.
Ca: "I am not sure. The old ones were designed for planetary defense; we didn't want them roaming the stars. And they were networked."
Mo: "If they are networked, they can be hacked. Anyone here know about Hune softwre encryption?"
Gael and C'Alhoon both raise their hands.
Mo: "Excellent. We three are on team hacker. Braki, if we kick this hornet's nest can you keep 'em off of us. Any dirty tricks are acceptable, so long as we can still fly home."
Braki chirps excitedly.
Br: "I have tricks."
Mo: "Henry, take these boys on a Grand Old Game."
He: "Braki, you're a holy man... any prayers for us, bed?"
Br: "Holy Chrysalis witness as we cast outselves into the crucible of battle. May you bless us with glory and burn away our impurities, so that those of us who remain are stronger for our scars..."
He: "Thanks; not what I was looking for."
How I will handle hacking: I am going to take a page out of ICRPG's book and set a task hit points and an AC based on its difficulty. Party members can attack the task using their Computer skill (in this case) and roll a d6 to damage the task. I will set this monster of a task 6HD, and get... 24 HP. I will set it an AC of 14.
In the meantime, Henry and Braki need to keep the party alive.
QRC Interceptor
HP 50 ▪️ AC 14 ▪️ SZ 1 ▪️ MAN +2
Weapons: Ion Bolter (range: 1200; damage: 4d10)
Cargo: None
Chaos Factor 🔺️5
Scene 11
Chaos roll 4... Interrupt: NPC Action: Deceive War
C'Alhoon quivers oddly as a half-dozen holographic screens appear before him and his soft gelatinous body reacts to the G-forces of the ship diving towards the planet. Anxiety flooded his mind and his gills flare inside the suit. Something in him wants to scream. This us all wrong. He looks for any reason not to let them engage the ancient killing machines. And then he remembers. Ancient War games, primitive software, antique codes.
As the Thuvia skims the outer atmosphere of Taxu II and the first interceptors swerve to meet them, he springs into action, calling up ancient texts in his collection of Hune linguistics.
Ca: "Wait. keep back a bit further."
After a few moments he unleashes a barrage of ancient signals and hoped... were QRC lazy enough to use the old source code? Did they do their homework?
As Henry banked hard away from the Interceptors and Braki began aiming the turrets hissing his own prayers under his breath, the intecerptors suddenly opened up on the leader obliterating it in a shower of crackling bolts.
Then banked and engaged their fellows in a wild dance of death.
He: "What did you do?
Ca: "I remembered a battle that my people lost about 600 years ago. We violated the Tau convention during that one and lost. It tool us over a century to figure out how the Ak'htari managed it. The source code was still in an archive I had in my possession.
Ca: "I have confused them into running a war game with real hardware. If we hold off, they will destroy each other until there are only a few left."
Br: "Well done. Our enemies eat their own eggs!"
They watch as the Interceptors clear one another until 1d4+1 are left...2 and then sweep in before they can re-target:
Rolling Initiative
By the time they have closed to range, the Interceptors veer towards them, heating up their weapons.
The first pair of ion bolts tear past the Thuvia, crackling against the energy shields.
the second strike the Thuvia dead on: 24 damage.
Braki aims the pulse laser, narrowly missing the first interceptor.
Henry begins evasive maneuvers.
Gael begins the hacking process fast as she can, biting her lips. She deals 4 damage to the hacking task.
Round 2
The interceptors veer around and strike the Thuvia from behind. Henry banks hard and ion bolts narrowly miss sensitive systems.
Braki hissses angrily and aims the cannon again, but the laser sweep misses.
Molly and C'Alhoon snap out of their own trances and dive into the hack, shouting information back and forth across the deck, as Henry accelerates the ship, trying to outpace the interceptors. 13 damage!
He: "They're too small, Braki, use the computer!"
Round 3
Henry manages to bank and doge the Thuvia around one barrage, but the shield generators crackle and whine as a second ion bolt hits hard... 34 damage!
Braki Curses in his native tongue as he switches over to computer-assisted aiming and locks on to the nearest Interceptor.
Round 4
The planet tumbles over them in the window as Henry pulls stunts that send the Thuvia tumbling in ways a hauler was never designed to handle. Ion bolts flash past the cockpit.
Even with assisted aim, the small fast interceptors easily weave away from the pulse laser.
Molly manages to finally figure out how to spoof the networking protocol! She shouts to the others where they can find the data, and urges them to isolate commands to see if they can start sending false signals. (1 damage.)
Round 5
Braki finally gets the shot he has been waiting for, as the locked ship strays into his arc of fire and he unleashes a storm of lasers. The shields on the interceptor shatter, and the main thrusters crackle then die, leaving the drone to tumble back into the atmosphere as a fireball. (60 damage, critical hit to maneuvering)
Ga: "I've isolated targeting telemetry!" (3 damage.)
Round 6
Henry suddenly cuts thrust and turns the ship over face on to the Interceptor, letting gravity pull them out of its path just as two bolts sear past them and strike exactly where they should have been.
Braki takes advantage to unleash a torrent of manual fire, ripping the vessel's shields and plating to shreds (50 damage)
C'Alhoun manages to create a false packet of targeting data, and sends it to the network to be deployed! (4 damage)
Round 7
Not even the ship's AG can cancel out the lurch as Henry hits maximum afterburner towards the planet and then banks hard to avoid searing bolts.
Braki attempts another manual shot before re-engaging the targeting system.
He: "Captain this thing is figuring me out and I am running out of tricks."
Mo: "Then invent new ones!"
C'Alhoun finally manages to submit the data to the interceptor, scrambling its targeting information. For a moment, it follows the Thuvia, and then banks off suddenly and accelerates into space.
End of Combat
Molly hp 7/7 7/11 CON | Henry hp 11/11 11 CON | Gael hp 6/6 9 CON | Braki hp 25/25 17 CON | Thuvia hp 142/200 |
Chaos Factor 🔻4