scary space rpg part ten!

(we roll up characters here!)

(part one is here!)

(part two is here!)

(part three is here!)

(part four is here!)

(part five is here!)

(part six is here!)

(part seven is here!)

(part eight is here!)

(part nine is here!)

GMSG: So are we all ready to go for the session?

Ariel: Ready spaghetti!

Sasha: Ready McFreddy!

Akane: I'm ready, except failed with rhyming.

Claire: Same here.

Elle: Geez, you two. Hettie is right there.

Hettie: It's fine, Elle. I'm singularly unambitious about filling out the ass end of a poetic triplet. In any case, I'm ready as well, and you'll be glad to hear that when I leveled the good Reverend McAlastair up, I buffed my Combat value and added Athletics and Zero-G skills.

Elle: That's a start at least.

GMSG: Speaking of starts, you've made it to the door that leads to the power node compartment.

Claire: Is it open?

GMSG: No. It's a secure area, so there's a biometric access panel keyed to authorized personnel.

Claire: Can I bypass it with my toolkit?

GMSG: You can certainly try. Roll Intellect + Mechanical Repair.

Claire: Any chance you'll let me use Jury Rigging or Engineering instead for the higher bonus?

GMSG: Sure.

Claire: Woohoo! 31! Way below what I needed

GMSG: Nice. You hear the lock disengage, but remember, there's minimal power in this area, so the door doesn't open on its own.

Sasha: Step aside, Gears. I'll womanhandle it open. What do I roll, Warden, Strength + Athletics?

GMSG: No, it's not a terribly strenuous task. The door slides open without much trouble. But if you need to get it open or closed quickly, you'll have to roll. The area inside is about a two-meter by four-meter space, with control panels on the far wall flanking a central power conduit. It's a cylinder that runs floor to ceiling and is as big around as a tire. Circuitry tracks up and down it top to bottom, putting out a dull glow.

Claire: I'll go in and get straight to work trying to connect it back up.

Akane: A thought from Yamaguchi.

Claire: Yes?

Akane: It's good to get it working fast ... but maybe better to get it working in a way spider-robots can't notice?

Ariel: Ooh, that's smart! By the way, I'm gonna get in out of the hall where it's maybe a little safer.

Sasha: Yah, everybody get in and I'll hang in the doorway keeping an eye out.

Elle: Wouldn't it be better to close the door and avoid notice?

Sasha: You're not there.

Elle: No, but I can hear you and Ms. McDiggitt over your suit comms, and I'm incredibly intelligent, so I think I can figure out where you are and what's going on.

Sasha: Okay, well, shows what you know, Blue, because the spidey-bugs basically know where we are already, and this way I can at least see them coming instead of opening the door when we're done and whoops! there's an ambush.

Hettie: Rev Mackie feels obligated to point out that we now know the metal beasties can make themselves all but invisible with their hologram technology, so you really won't be able to see them coming.

Sasha: Dammit. Okay, everybody in and we'll close the door.

GMSG: It's a pretty cozy fit with all six of you in there --

Akane: Yamaguchi is very small, remember.

GMSG: Yes, but Narcy and Stickshift are in bulky vacc suits. Anyway, you're not sardines, but there's not much room for people to pace around while Panda is working.

Claire: So can I tell what my options are, as far as maybe turning stuff on without immediately alerting the spiderbot army what we're up to?

GMSG: Your first step is to use the failsafe controls to boot the node up from the minimal power setting. Then you'll be able to use the full computer terminal that manages the node's functions. The terminal will let you assess what kind of configurations you can try.

Claire: Okay, well, I'll get that going, then.

GMSG: No rolls needed - it's pretty simple. The terminal boots up and takes a few minutes running startup routines and diagnostics, then you get a big set of menus.

Claire: So, step one, I want to see how to route power to the fuel pumps up in the docking hub. Once I know the process for that, I'll start looking to see if there's a sneaky way to do it, like setting a timer so it activates right when we get back to the hub. Or like, if I can just send a little power to a terminal up there, and then use that to bring the whole shebang online locally once we're back there.

GMSG: You can see pretty quickly that in order to tie into a distant terminal remotely, you'd have to power up the computer network from here to there. That would be really difficult to do clandestinely. If the spiders have any access to the station's computer systems, and are bothering to keep an eye on them, they would notice.

Sasha: And be waiting for us when we got to that terminal. No dice on that one.

Claire: What about the timer idea?

GMSG: A little more feasible, but you'd have to code some new routines into the system to manage that; these controls are pretty much designed to route and re-route power based on everyday usage fluctuations or emergency situations, so they're pretty much intended to turn things on or off immediately.

Claire: Great. I'm not a programmer, and our resident hacking whiz is back on the ship.

Akane: Yamaguchi has ability with computers too, she reminds.

Sasha: Nice, Doc.

GMSG: The two of you would have to work together, since Panda understands the engineering and Yamaguchi would need to do the coding. Do you want to get started on it?

Claire: Well, first ... is there any way I can use this panel to see what those other powered-up systems are that our sensors detected?

GMSG: Yes. It looks like there's full power to something called, "AI Core" in the central sphere of the station. There's also power in several sections of the main ring that surrounds the sphere.

Elle: AI. Great. So basically the station's mega-genius computer must have gone nuts and killed everyone.

Claire: What are those sections in the main ring? Anything special?

GMSG: They're part of the life support systems for something called "Total Immersion Pods."

Sasha: Whoa, whoa, whoa ... didn't you say last time that they put people in suspended animation for some of the VR games here or something?

GMSG: Yes.

Sasha: So if the pods are on, there must still be people in at least some of them.

Ariel: That's terrible!

Sasha: Yeah, sucks to be them I guess.

Ariel: So ... so ... so if the AI is crazy and keeping people alive in pods, then maybe it really did suck Spanky's brain out from his head and store him in its memory banks!

Elle: Is that even possible?

GMSG: Cybernetics and AI are both Master skills on the skill tree. Your Hacking is just a step down from AI, but Cybernetics isn't related to any of your skills. So you could roll Intellect plus Hacking to have a guess about whether an AI could hold and mimic a complete human neural pattern, but you'd have to roll Intellect plus Cybernetics at disadvantage to know if a transfer that complex is possible.

Elle: I get the Hacking roll pretty easy, then 38 and 24 on my disadvantage Cybernetics roll, so I get that too. Because I'm incredibly intelligent.

GMSG: Then you know a really powerful AI could do the pattern simulation, and maybe as an android you happened across some mind-machine trivia that makes you think it's at least theoretically possible that a suitable interface could be built.

Ariel: We've got to go save Spanky then!

Elle: Actually, I didn't say I told you any of that.

Ariel: What! You have to tell me!

Elle: I absolutely do not.

Ariel: But I'll be so mad at you!

Elle: How can you be mad if I don't tell you?

Ariel: No, Elle, I'll be mad at you!

Elle: Pff. Of course you won't. Luckily, we don't have to find out, because Pol has no motivation to spare Stickshift's feelings or keep you from running off and doing something stupid. So he does immediately say, "Interesting. Possible on a theoretical level, if technically very challenging."

Ariel: Then we have to go rescue him!

Sasha: Not me, sister. 

Ariel: But, but we're marines! We never leave a man behind!

Sasha: Ehhh ... I don't remember anything about "We never leave a simulation of a man behind," though. 

Ariel: Well what about leaving a woman behind? Because I'm going to try to go save him.

Sasha: I kinda feel like we have a responsibility to all these live people here to try and get them off the station though, don't you?

Ariel: I ... but in that case, what about those people in the pods? They're alive.

Elle: Conceivably, the AI could have left those pods powered up as bait to lure people down there. We have no way of knowing whether they're occupied.

Ariel: I can't believe you're being so heartless!

Elle: Literally do not have a heart. This isn't new information to anyone is it?

Claire: Is it too late for me to point out that I never said, "Panda tells everyone what she finds out from the readout?"

GMSG: I'm afraid so.

Claire: Well, fartles.

GMSG: But it's not too late for you to say, "While Stickshift is arguing with Narcy and Pol, I get started working to set up that timer."

Claire: Great! Let's pretend I said that.

Akane: We may also pretend Yamaguchi started helping.

GMSG: Okay. Claire, roll Intellect + Engineering for Panda. Akane, roll Intellect + Computers for Dr. Yamaguchi.

Claire: Hey, 22! Critical success!

Akane: My dice are 53, very close to 57 that I needed, but under.

GMSG: Claire, while getting the timer set up, you also figure out a way to get the power node to send an activation pulse toward the hub every few seconds, followed immediately by a de-activation pulse if no one hits the right key on the hub's power node terminal. If you want to, you can configure it so that once the timer goes off, it starts sending that pulse pattern instead of just lighting the whole place up.

Claire: I feel like I'm almost getting why that would be helpful.

GMSG: If the timer just turns on the hub's power node, any spiders in the neighborhood might recognize that someone has turned the juice back on as soon as it happens.

Claire: And they'd be on alert to try and stop us, or radio back to the AI in the core that it needs to shut things back down.

GMSG: Exactly. If you get back to the hub too early, you'll just be hanging out waiting --

Sasha: Fighting off spiders the whole time.

GMSG: Yes, and if you get back after the power's been on too long, they might lock it back down before you can activate the fuel pumps.

Claire: Okay, let's do the pulse thing. How long does Panda think it will take us to hoof it back to the hub?

GMSG: Hard to say. You've got several hundred feet of ladders to climb and low-G tunnels to navigate ... definitely more than ten minutes, maybe more than 20.

Claire: I'll set the timer for, ehh, 14 minutes after we get ready to head back.

Ariel: We're not ready yet!

Claire: Can we assume Panda gets filled in about the argument? That critical success has to mean she was laser-focused on the task and didn't hear any details.

GMSG: I think she would have to butt in and get them to stop squabbling. Is she going to try that?

Claire: Definitely. Aers, Elle, Sash, do you guys shut up for long enough to tell me what the fight's about?

Sasha: There's no fight as far as Narcy's concerned. Just a big "Nope, no way" on Stickshift's plan.

Elle: Pol would be willing to see if Ms. Fatale has a useful perspective to interject.

Ariel: I'm pretty worked up, but if nobody's arguing back I guess I'd try to get Panda on my side by telling her what's going on.

Claire: Great. Then what Panda says is, there have to be airlocks on the core module for them to get out and do maintenance on the hull. You'd have a lot better chance of getting into the AI's HQ or the sleep pods if we get the ship loose and maneuver where you can jump straight there instead of hiking from this ring down to the next ring where there are probably tons of spiders and other security measures.

Ariel: Oh. Well ... I ... um ...

Sasha: It's best of both worlds, girl. You get to help shuffle the civvies off to safety, and you get a shortcut to suicide-ville if that's really where you're set on going.

Ariel: That makes sense, I guess. And even if it didn't, Stickshift's probably not bright enough to figure out why not. But Panda better come through with giving me a ride to that AI core once we figure out the ship stuff.

Claire: Pinky swear.

Ariel: I suppose that's all right then. If you're pinky swearing and all.

Hettie: The reverend has a thought and raises her hand.

Sasha: Geez, Rev, this ain't Sunday school. If something's on your mind, just say it.

Hettie: Well, it occurs to me that we've turned on this power node, and the enemy knows that we're here, assuming those spiders have any kind of transmitters in them.

Claire: Hmm. Maybe I should have taken one apart and seen whether they do, but it's probably a fair bet.What's your point?

Hettie: I'm just wondering if there's something we could do with the power node to make them think that the thing we're trying to do isn't the thing we're trying to do.

Elle: That's an excellent thought. 

Sasha: Hey, I didn't tell Pol the Rev said that, and I didn't hear Aers say Stickshift told Pol either, so I hope you're not about to have him say something smart-assy or even just something smart.

Elle: No, I was giving Harriet a compliment. That's all.

Sasha: Okay, but my eye is on you!

GMSG: Did you have something in mind, Hettie?

Hettie: Even if I did, I don't think Rev Mackie has the technical wherewithal to suggest anything specific.

Claire: Well, Panda does. We've seen that tube for the train in the axis of the station, but have we actually seen the train in it?

Sasha: I saw the train in it both times.

Ariel: Me too!

Akane: Yes, but was it a train drawing to show us the train was there, or just a train drawing to show us a train can go there?

GMSG: There was not actually a train at either of the junctions you saw.

Claire: Excellent. Here's what Panda's gonna do, then. I'll use the power node to turn on the train station at the top of this spoke we came down, and the train station in the main ring and the lower ring and the solar power array too, if I can access them. But not the power to the part of the tube that goes to the docking hub.

Ariel: Wait, you're going to turn on the train but then make us walk?

Claire: Yeppers. With any luck, the AI or the spiders will think we're trying to call the train here so we can get a ride deeper into the station.

Ariel: But Stickshift does want to get a ride deeper into the station.

Claire: Exactly. Setting up the train to come here but not to the docking hub makes it look like we bought into the simulation of Spanky Spannerman and we're trying to rescue him or do a commando raid and take out the AI.

Elle: Claire my dear, I, Elle am telling you that's another excellent idea, which my character does not know about and does not speak to. But he does say, "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

Ariel: We're planning things, Pol. I think I like that plan, Ms. Fatale. And also maybe it'll give me a chance to call the train and head deeper into the station on my own, since the robots will be thrown off your tracks.

Akane: Um ... if I am artificially intelligent and wanting to protect myself, I would make the train full of spiders that could jump out at you when the transportation comes from your call.

Ariel: Ooh, yikes, good point.

Sasha: So the plan is, turn the trains on, then set the timer so we can hustle to the docking hub and wait there for the power to come back. When we get to the top of the spoke, are we actually going to call the train?

Claire: That's a toughie. If we don't, the baddies might get suspicious. But if we do, that train might get to our depot pretty quick, and then if they don't find us, they might power up the last bit of track and zoom ahead of us on the train while we're still trucking down the access tunnel.

Elle: Has anybody let me in on this yet?

Ariel: I guess probably I would, since probably you're being a pain about it and talking talking talking in my ear so I can't listen to Panda anyhow.

Elle: Great. So the obvious answer according to Pol is, don't call the train right away. Have somebody hang out in the depot on the train switch, and they push the button after everybody else has a few minutes' head start.

Hettie: Whoever stays behind would need to have Zero G so they can catch up to the others quickly.

Claire: Well, it can't be Panda. She's got to work the docking hub power node.

Elle: It feels almost eerily prescient that you had Rev Mackie take that skill when you leveled up, Het.

Hettie: I don't know that I'm entirely happy about my foresight now, but I'll let everyone else know I think I really got the hang of moving down that tunnel in minimal gravity, so I can be the one to stay behind.

Sasha: Nice knowing you, Rev.

Claire: Actually, if we get to the docking hub quick enough, and I see the tracks to the hub have been activated, maybe I can shut the track power back down before the train gets to the reverend's position. Then she'd just have to outrun the spiders, not the train.

Hettie: I'll take what I can get.

GMSG: Claire, activating the other power systems is totally routine if you're not trying to be sneaky about it or rush the process.

Claire: I'm hoping the AI will think it's being clever by stuffing the train full of spiders and then letting us bring the bad guys down on ourselves. So I'm not going to hurry the job and maybe botch it.

GMSG: Working at a normal speed, you don't even need a roll. You get all the train depots and the tracks in between them working without difficulty.

Akane: Except for tracks to docking hub!

GMSG: Yes, except for those.

Claire: All right then, gal pals. Sarge, if you'll get the door open, I'll hit the timer start button as soon as the way out is clear.

(okay, good stopping place for this post, I think! tune in next time for more exciting rpg-ing!)