Traveller: Incident Zero

Fourier

Kei notices something familiar about the creatures physiology, but can't quite place it.

Evade

Kei thinks "two missed shots, must be a cheap Albean knock off."


OOC: Check was 6

Fourier

OOC: Off for the night

Evade

Fourier wrote: »

Kei notices something familiar about the creatures physiology, but can't quite place it.

OOC: It sounds like the unholy union of a Golisopod and a Scyther

Nebelwerfer

Mufasta'r looks around the lab, which is now in ruins after the most recent onslaught, for mechanical and computer components to put a device together.

He remembers earlier mentions being made regarding soundwaves and though he noticed Dr. Cole take a final shot at the creature, he is also aware of the sonic blast that hit everyone within the room when presumably Dr. Cole hit the pressurized tank in the room, so unsure whether the blast had contributed to the downing of the creature.

Mufasta'r had previoulsy, when in active duty, fashioned a device to wear out opposing troops, through sonic blasts, at a settlement close to his location. Using nothing more than some Piezoelectrict transducers, old discarded fusion cores, an old rifle and some scrap materials he had gathered from a village nearby.

He looks around and notices the prime tech at his location, he is certain that he should be able to find the transducers necessary, combined with the firing mechanism of his revolver, a portable power source and something to house the equipment in, surely he should be able to to replicate if not improve on his previous success.

He checks sensor units, lab equipment, sterilization droids and the chem lab for the specific parts he needs.

Banjo

"...so as I was saying before all the god damned mutants showed up, ****ty electropop music makes their brains explode. Or maybe it's just a response to volume and frequency, but either way, does anyone with questionable music taste - I'm looking at you here Doctors! - have a personal media device of any kind we can plug into the public address and route to the gardens as a first line of defence?

Might also be an idea to test some of your samples for a resonant frequency, we might be able to turn that into a weapon; though I'd guess if these things can adapt their physical form at will, any kind of portable sonic solution to this crystomorphic pickle we're in is going to require the ability to sense and dial in new frequencies as they adapt to our approach. We hit them with dum-dumed slugs to act as strikers, if they survive we read their rez-freq and pump them full of so much energy they shatter themselves.

That said, shooting them seems to work just fine, and I'm cool with that."

OOC : Look, Lena knows Military tactics. I don't. So can I just assume she comes up with a kick-ass plan? Also, I have a google-drive date-verifiable doc that predates all the crystalline stuff that shows her backstory - which ironically did not include this detail until I received her character sheet - includes being raised in an epsilon-axis Moisonite mine, child to a guy from the automaton maintenance crew and the local law-(wo)man. So she'd know a little about crystalline mechanics. But I don't....

Nebelwerfer

Banjo wrote: »

"...so as I was saying before all the god damned mutants showed up, ****ty electropop music makes their brains explode. Or maybe it's just a response to volume and frequency, but either way, does anyone with questionable music taste - I'm looking at you here Doctors! - have a personal media device of any kind we can plug into the public address and route to the gardens as a first line of defence?

Might also be an idea to test some of your samples for a resonant frequency, we might be able to turn that into a weapon; though I'd guess if these things can adapt their physical form at will, any kind of portable sonic solution to this crystomorphic pickle we're in is going to require the ability to sense and dial in new frequencies as they adapt to our approach. We hit them with dum-dumed slugs to act as strikers, if they survive we read their rez-freq and pump them full of so much energy they shatter themselves.

That said, shooting them seems to work just fine, and I'm cool with that." [/I]

Mufasta'r turns to Lena, glad to hear someone is thinking among the same lines as him. Though he must profess, this information had come from her to begin with.

"We have previously been analyzing some samples of these creatures already, resonant frequency and state we should be able to gather from that data set easily enough, not to mention the pop music you referenced earlier."

Mufasta'r shrugs.

"I think more importantly, it will be decibel output and nearfield effectiveness that will be the deciding factor here... as so far, we have seen heads pop at a multitude of frequencies...".

He rubs his hands together, eager to get this show on the road.

"While I am certain the resonant frequency might be of importance, I cannot help but feel the decibel output and effectiveness in nearfield should be the primary concern."

Banjo

"Decibels, frequencies, who gives a crap - just make it work. In the bar they had a sound bubble generator - something like that but portable, either as a directed field we can clear a path with, or a ghetto version using broadcasts to portable receivers we can throw like grenades.

Meanwhile, we need to get out of here and book to the space-port. Probably too late to get the walkers up from the mine, more's the pity - a couple of those chunkers in Follow and we could stroll out of here at our leisure.

With the size of this here bastard, I'm thinking it could do more damage to us in a Tram than if we're on the road. If we get derailed we're dead. If we're driving, we can always tuck n roll. We need something big and heavy that can push through blockages. A Tank would be nice but a big supply truck would work, or a tanker of some kind. Just like in that old tri-vid, Mentally Unsound Ultan 2. A flatbed if the sound generator is too big to carry manually. We punch through traffic, run over anything that gets in our way and try to keep any of the bigger critters off our backs.

The bigger question though - are they attacking this place because of us, or because there's something in here they want? I can't see why a few more warm bodies to pull the brains out of would be worth that kind of giant blade-handed fuss they're making. We should try to figure out what that is, and whether we want ot give it to 'em, deny them or use it as a distraction so we can get off this ****hole and nuke it from orbit."

She starts looking for keys, manifests, furry dice, anything to indicate the existence of a useful vehicle. She notices the inert form of Roland, sighing
"well, there goes my pet theory that this was all an elaborate ruse to get us to disable his ethical protocols. Hey, where's the Hiver?"

Evade

Kei accesses a fee terminal to see if there's an indoor route to the spaceport with halon fire suppression the whole way.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

He checks sensor units, lab equipment, sterilization droids and the chem lab for the specific parts he needs.

OOC: You'll need help from Lena and Kei to do this, with you directing them. It will take 1d6 hours to accomplish. If you want to rush it to 1d6 x 10 minutes there'll be a -2 to each roll. Slowing it to 1d6 x 4 hours will give a +2 to each roll.

Go to rolz and decide the speed, then you roll first:
Physics(+1), Education (+0)

Based on what you get, I'll tell the others their rolls

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

OOC : Look, Lena knows Military tactics. I don't. So can I just assume she comes up with a kick-ass plan? Also, I have a google-drive date-verifiable doc that predates all the crystalline stuff that shows her backstory - which ironically did not include this detail until I received her character sheet - includes being raised in an epsilon-axis Moisonite mine, child to a guy from the automaton maintenance crew and the local law-(wo)man. So she'd know a little about crystalline mechanics. But I don't....

OOC: Tactics(+2), Education(+1), Difficult (-2) to come up with some possible tactics

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

Kei accesses a fee terminal to see if there's an indoor route to the spaceport with halon fire suppression the whole way.

There is a path out of the Science Hub with fire suppression the whole way, but not the whole way to the spaceport. The terminal displays the path to the spaceport:

Primary Medical Lab -> Science Hub Train Terminal (fire suppression available)
Science Hub Train terminal -> Main Complex terminal (20.6km)
Main Complex terminal -> Spaceport entry (ascend fifteen floors)

Evade

Kei looks at the information and thinks to herself

Fourier wrote: »

Primary Medical Lab -> Science Hub Train Terminal (fire suppression available)

"Hmm. If there's four patient oxygen cylinders and mask in here we could jam on the halon and get to the train easily enough."

Fourier wrote: »

Science Hub Train terminal -> Main Complex terminal (20.6km)

"If I configure the train the same way as last time that shouldn't take too long"

Fourier wrote: »

Main Complex terminal -> Spaceport entry (ascend fifteen floors)

"Fifteen floors up... I'd prefer not to be trapped in a lift. Stairs?"



OOC: What's the gravity like? Higher or lower than most of the player characters are used to?

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

OOC: What's the gravity like? Higher or lower than most of the player characters are used to?

OOC: Naturally it's 12.4 times Earth's gravity on Sargon, but a gravitational generator keeps gravity at Earth standards within the complex and the trains

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

"Fifteen floors up... I'd prefer not to be trapped in a lift. Stairs?"

The terminal confirms there are stairs.

Fourier

OOC: Kei to help build Mufasta'r's device it's
Comms(+1), Education(+2), Difficulty brought on by Mufasta'r's directions (-2)

Evade

Fourier wrote: »

OOC: Kei to help build Mufasta'r's device it's
Comms(+1), Education(+2), Difficulty brought on by Mufasta'r's directions (-2)

OOC: 7

Evade

Fourier wrote: »

OOC: Naturally it's 12.4 times Earth's gravity on Sargon, but a gravitational generator keeps gravity at Earth standards within the complex and the trains

Kei checks the terminal to see if there's any way of manipulating the gravity in small isolated sections.

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

OOC: Tactics(+2), Education(+1), Difficult (-2) to come up with some possible tactics

Ooc :12

Fourier

Mufasta'r recalls his physics classes and device construction in the field they taught him in the Aslan Hierate. However his recall isn't perfect, thoroughly confusing Lena whose attempts to follow cause the device to shake uncontrollably. Luckily Kei figures out the the missing component and construction of the device begins at a quick pace.

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

Kei checks the terminal to see if there's any way of manipulating the gravity in small isolated sections.

Before she starts work on the device, the terminal informs her that the gravity generator, here in the Science Hub, is capable of such local control.

OOC: It's the purple machine on the middle left of the map

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Ooc :12

Lena recalls that colonial transport trains on high gravity planets such as Sargon have enough stress tolerance to handle mounting an anti-air turret to their carriages.

She also studies the corridors and doors of the science hub, how they open, timings, turn angles and room layouts.

OOC: Group has +4 to initiative in Science Hub

Evade

Fourier wrote: »

Before she starts work on the device, the terminal informs here that the gravity generator, here in the Science Hub, is capable of such local control.

OOC: It's the purple machine on the middle left of the map

"Too big to bring with us"

Fourier wrote: »

OOC: Naturally it's 12.4 times Earth's gravity on Sargon, but a gravitational generator keeps gravity at Earth standards within the complex and the trains

Kei glances back at this piece of information "What is this planet made of?"

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

Kei glances back at this piece of information "What is this planet made of?"

The terminal spews a stream of elements and materials, but top of the list in contributions to the gravitational force is the neutronium core.

Evade

Fourier wrote: »

The terminal spews a stream of elements and materials, but top of the list in contributions to the gravitational force is the neutronium core.

"Don't see that every day*" When Kei is finished Mufasta'r's device she looks around the lab for oxygen bottles and masks.



OOC:*Unless you do in traveller

Banjo

Lena looks for a vac suit to go with her vac helmet.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Lena looks for a vac suit to go with her vac helmet.

The terminal informs her that the nearest complete vacc suit is in Neutronium research.

OOC: Middle of the map, large room with brown floor.

Nimroth

Nathan looks around the room and watches the ongoing preparations for a moment.
"Has anyone seen Dr. Mant?"

He raises his index finger to his comdot:
"Dr. Spachens, are you ok?"

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

Nathan looks around the room and watches the ongoing preparations for a moment.
"Has anyone seen Dr. Mant?"

He raises his index finger to his comdot:
"Dr. Spachens, are you ok?"

Spachens does not respond.

Fourier

Mant leaps back down from the roof and grabs Nathan by the shoulder.

"Cole, there are more of those flying specimens coming this way"

The device still has thirty minutes until completion.

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

The terminal informs her that the nearest complete vacc suit is in Neutronium research.

OOC: Middle of the map, large room with brown floor.

"Oh for ****s sake." she mutters. The N word.


Ooc : neutronium is always trouble in Sci Fi. What's it's status in traveller? Exotic? Common material used for constructing hellgates and superdense compute clusters/storage media? The sprinking on everyone's favourite breakfast, Neutrogena flakes?

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"Oh for ****s sake." she mutters. The N word.


Ooc : neutronium is always trouble in Sci Fi. What's it's status in traveller? Exotic? Common material used for constructing hellgates and superdense compute clusters/storage media? The sprinking on everyone's favourite breakfast, Neutrogena KES?

OOC: A fuel source for certain rare ships, hull plating for large capital ships and used to make vault doors in very high security government facilities.

Fourier

OOC: Off for the night

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

Mant leaps back down from the roof and grabs Nathan by the shoulder.

"Cole, there are more of those flying specimens coming this way"

The device still has thirty minutes until completion.

"Ok ladies and gentlemen. More incoming, so we need to either make the decision to dig in here and try to finish your device, great idea by the way, or we should get moving. I personally would prefer to get going and try to make it to the trade ship and try to get out of here. On the other hand, finishing the device should also bring us very close to the projected time of arrival for the Estrella Gris."
He opens a channel to the Estrella Gris:
"Captain, things are getting rather uncomfortable here." He adds a video recording to the transmission to make his point "What's your ETA, are you en route? What options to land do you have for the shuttle if we disregard where a ship usually should land?"

OOC: Does the colony have a dome or any obstruction? If yes, can it be altered to allow a landing craft through or will we have to make our way to the spaceport?

Nebelwerfer

Mufasta'r nods at Dr. Cole.

"While I appreciate fleeing may seem like the best option, I would prefer to do so prepared and know what exactly we are dealing with...".

He turns back to Lena.

"I think a spare vacc suit may be critical to our survival, and with it just down the corridor... I think we should give it a chance... Maybe even pick up a little bit of neutronium... Seems silly to let it go to waste... if its there...".

"After we're done with this though...".

He stands up, looks around, seemingly trying to get the attention of the AI again.

"AI, could we possibly get a video feed from the neutronium research lab? If no video currently available, can we get a droid in there with video capabilities... to save us some time before heading down there."

Banjo

"Hey Mant. Welcome back. Where did you get the Neutronium in the lab and what exactly are you doing to it?"

Working on the general principle that when a planet wants to kill a scientist the chances are the scientist has it coming, Lena is leaning toward's Hotshot's plan. Get the **** out, with great haste and extreme prejudice. With a sickening feeling of futile inevitability she checks a terminal for any indication of Spachen's location.

Talking over her shoulder to Mufasta, she sighs
"A single Vac Suit? There are 5 of us. What situation are you envisioning where the loss if the other 4 to the environment is acceptable? We gonna draw straws to see who gets it?"
She curses, realising that she's just ensured something will happen that will require a single member of the party in a Vac suit. Karma is a bitch.

If there's time she'll also have a look to see if she can move the scope from one of those rifles to her own, and grab a frag and a smoke grenade.

Nebelwerfer

Banjo wrote: »

"Hey Mant. Welcome back. Where did you get the Neutronium in the lab and what exactly are you doing to it?"

Working on the general principle that when a planet wants to kill a scientist the chances are the scientist has it coming, Lena is leaning toward's Hotshot's plan. Get the **** out, with great haste and extreme prejudice. With a sickening feeling of futile inevitability she checks a terminal for any indication of Spachen's location.

Talking over her shoulder to Mufasta, she sighs
"A single Vac Suit? There are 5 of us. What situation are you envisioning where the loss if the other 4 to the environment is acceptable? We gonna draw straws to see who gets it?"
She curses, realising that she's just ensured something will happen that will require a single member of the party in a Vac suit. Karma is a bitch.

If there's time she'll also have a look to see if she can move the scope from one of those rifles to her own, and grab a frag and a smoke grenade.

Mufasta'r shakes his head at Lena's complaint.

"Have you had a look at me?"

"There is no chance I can squize myself into a suit, intended for you fleshbags... no matter my might".

"While I would love to get out of this, unscathed, I believe the chances are limited and with more fleshbags around I think its best to increase at least some chance of survival for some of us...".

He shrugs

"Plus, we need to get off this forsaken planet at some point..."

He points towards the fresh scar on his back.

"I still need to take this puppy out for a spin, may as well be, to overcome the lack of vac off my back".

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

OOC: Does the colony have a dome or any obstruction? If yes, can it be altered to allow a landing craft through or will we have to make our way to the spaceport?

OOC: There's a dome, with a specific opening which leads to the spaceport. It's made of transparent heavy metals. This is mainly for defense, most ships in Traveller carry nuclear weapons for use in typical inter-ship combat, so protection against invading vessels at ground level is fairly extreme.

"We....ehm Cole...we are on the way, but Guardian is sending down marines...I've been told that if they fail, the Confederacy of Colonies (OOC: Government in this area) has authorised nuclear bombardment of Sargon."

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

"Don't see that every day*" When Kei is finished Mufasta'r's device she looks around the lab for oxygen bottles and masks.

There are a good few, for supplying those being delivered to the stasis tank.

Fourier

Golpspirot climbs one of the desks and looks out the roof hole.

"They've landed on the roof Mant, three of them, but they're looking to the horizon...I think..."

She goes onto her toes to see better.

"...I think, they're waiting for another four flying in from the West."

She then climbs down.

Fourier

25 minutes until the device is constructed

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

If there's time she'll also have a look to see if she can move the scope from one of those rifles to her own, and grab a frag and a smoke grenade.

Transferring the scope is simple enough.

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

OOC: There's a dome, with a specific opening which leads to the spaceport. It's made of transparent heavy metals. This is mainly for defense, most ships in Traveller carry nuclear weapons for use in typical inter-ship combat, so protection against invading vessels at ground level is fairly extreme.

"We....ehm Cole...we are on the way, but Guardian is sending down marines...I've been told that if they fail, the Confederacy of Colonies (OOC: Government in this area) has authorised nuclear bombardment of Sargon."

"Even more reason you might want to get here ASAP."

With Dr. Spachens unavailable, Nathan tries to convince the computer to initiate the SAIP (succession and inheritance protocol) which manages the seamless transfer of access permissions to heirs or, in this case, colleagues to be able to continue work. Obviously he will try to convince the machine that Nathan is the rightful recipient of Spachens access rights. If possible he tries to do this without Roland or Mant noticing.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

"AI, could we possibly get a video feed from the neutronium research lab? If no video currently available, can we get a droid in there with video capabilities... to save us some time before heading down there."

Roland does not respond. All his display terminals having printed Cole on a loop for a minute or two, before going blank.

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

Roland does not respond. All his display terminals having printed Cole on a loop for a minute or two, before going blank.

When the screens go blank Nathan looks slightly irritated and disappointed. He'd just been toying with the idea to redirect the screen output to a voice synthesizer that emulates the soundscape of a sports stadium, effectively having his name chanted by ten thousands in the audience. Putting this onto the colonies comms system would probably not have helped much but it would've taken his mind of the dire situation they're in at least for a moment. It'd also have been a good sound test for Lena's noise plan.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"Hey Mant. Welcome back. Where did you get the Neutronium in the lab and what exactly are you doing to it?"

"Processing it for shipment to the Imperium, the plate their largest ships with it. The money we make here is significant to say the least."

Nimroth

Banjo wrote: »

Working on the general principle that when a planet wants to kill a scientist the chances are the scientist has it coming,

Nathan turns to Lena and says: "I think with the screen spelling it out for us, I'm probably quite high on their 'people we'd like to meet' list. Another reason why I'd prefer to switch location rather sooner than later. Especially with their airforce flying in. Not sure I'd like to wait for whatever it is the three upstairs are waiting for."

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

"Processing it for shipment to the Imperium, the plate their largest ships with it. The money we make here is significant to say the least."

"Scientists making money. That doesn't sound like trouble to anyone else? No? Never mind.

while we're chatting, there are what look like 2 AA turrets on the map in that big room south of us. Any info on how securely attached they are to the building? And what that room is? If we have incoming, they might be a better caliber of defense. Same if we want to be outgoing."

Nimroth

Banjo wrote: »

"Scientists making money. That doesn't sound like trouble to anyone else? No? Never mind.

while we're chatting, there are what look like 2 AA turrets on the map in that big room south of us. Any info on how securely attached they are to the building? And what that room is? If we have incoming, they might be a better caliber of defense. Same if we want to be outgoing."

"We have a problem with airbornes, going towards AA sounds like a reasonable option."

Banjo

Nimroth wrote: »

Nathan turns to Lena and says: "I think with the screen spelling it out for us, I'm probably quite high on their 'people we'd like to meet' list. Another reason why I'd prefer to switch location rather sooner than later. Especially with their airforce flying in. Not sure I'd like to wait for whatever it is the three upstairs are waiting for."

"To be fair you did poison all their children. But point taken, we're too far gone for negotiation. We can go upstairs and take them on in waves, buy the big cat time to finish his device or cheese it to the tram. I'll cover your baby-killing ass either way."