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Chapter 35 (Original Archive)

supreme_arbiter 4/23/2006

IAS turn 7 - Derelict Duty II

THX-1492 shone one of his spotlights down the north passage. It ended in another intersection, one passageway turned to the left; the other was a flight of stairs going up. THX's other spotlight swiveled around to illuminate the south passage. It was much longer and turned to the right at the end. There were three doors along the southern passageway. Toward the end of the corridor there was a closed door on the left. In the middle of the hallway, two larger, open doorways faced each other.

Back on the bridge of the lifeboat:

Caleb searched the ship's rosters but found no record of anyone by the name of Drake.

OOC: Sorry Caleb :)

Here's a new map of the dropship. Oh, I do love a good dungeon crawl! ;) The x's on the map indicate where THX and Irsa are standing.



end transmission


Elizabeth 4/23/2006

Irsa

"Let's check out the two open doors to the south. Coming THX?" Irsa says, sounding more confident than she feels, and heads for the 2 open doors, with THX bringing up the rear.


gglassdr 4/23/2006

THX-1492

THX responds to Irsa, "This unit will comply with instructions" and follows Irsa towards the doors.


Elizabeth 4/23/2006

Irsa

"Check out the left door and then the right door with your light THX. And let's see what's there." Irsa asks.


gglassdr 4/24/2006

THX-1492

THX complies and investigates both doors. It examines the interior of both rooms with lights, but enters neither room.


Elizabeth 4/24/2006

Irsa

Anything in either room of interest? You know like skeletons, books, tech items or creatures looking hungry.


gammaben 4/26/2006

Percy

[[Nike, earlier]] "None of my original crew went with them, because they are expendable and you are not." Nike replied, without hint of apology.
Percy gulped audibly. "Well, there's something to be said for being hatched in the same clone class as the ranking officer on deck!"
Percy rubbed his eyes and yawned, and continued to watch the video feed. He soon got distracted with the idea of trying to back trace the signal to see if he could plot the satellites in orbit, and to find out what he could about them.
As Percy digested what information he had extracted using the packet sniffer, he tried to make sense of it but was having some trouble. He looked around for Bud, whom he was now completely suspicious of on account of the message they discovered he'd sent. Copying all the files from the satellites he could find to local storage, and locking them with a password he quickly thought of ("WhoWatchesWatcher"), he caught Nike's attention and whispered to her that they needed to talk later about his findings. Perhaps his original band of refugee clones could be trusted and they should all meet to discuss what the messages might mean for them.

As the video feed of the excavation continued, Percy tried to map their traversal of the ship to Pandora's layout. Failing any recognizable match, he pulled up the computer database on drop ships in the hopes he could get the remote team a map of sorts so they would not be exploring blind. Then the bomb dropped--with news of Earth's destruction and their needing to keep the human race alive.

Percy sat in his chair sullenly, having crashed from the high of his hacker's feat to the low of the news of the Earth, Mars, and human life as he knew it. "Whoa." The obvious questions about defying command crew protocol and initiating species-survival-affecting romance, he kept to himself. He did smile despite himself. He was too old for that kind of youthful pursuit anyway, and he sure wasn't going to find it easy to objectify survival of the species into something emotionless or loveless.

He'd had enough failed relationships, he suddenly remembered, then snapped himself out of his memory jaunt in favor of the immediate needs, scribbling notes and cross referencing video feeds with ship schematics.


supreme_arbiter 4/27/2006

OOC: I forgot to mention a detail of the dropship that Irsa would have noticed when she entered and THX turned on its spotlights:

The floors were dusty and littered with dead leaves. Irsa noticed a few burn marks on the wall at the end of the corridor.

OOC: that's all sorry :( The rest of this post takes place after THX and Irsa walked south to the two open doorways.

----------------------------------

Through the wide open door on the left, THX, Irsa and the crew aboard the lifeboat watching THX's video feed saw a large room filled with empty storage bins. THX's spotlight flashed across the room. Shadows danced along the walls. Through empty shelves and racks, they saw an elevator in a wire cage on the north side of the room and a closed door on the east side, opposite the open doorway.

THX turned its spotlights around to view the contents of the other room. It was much larger but emptier. Only a few work benches and shelves lined the walls. The center of the room was bare. The floor along the western wall angled down into an open ramp. Dead tendrils of vegetation snaked up through it. Irsa smelled the strong, musty odor of damp earth.


Elizabeth 4/27/2006

Irsa

Irsa looks around for some dead wood to make into a torch. If she finds any she makes a torch. In any event, she then enters the eastern room and checks out the door in the wall across from where she enters the room. She keeps THX nearby and looks for something THX can use as a weapon.


stacinator 4/28/2006

Nike

As Nike watches the group move about the room via the feed, images of a sweaty man swinging on vines and running in front of large, rolling boulders flashes in her mind. "Indiana Jones!" She said aloud, shocked that she could remember something as silly as an old classic movie.


supreme_arbiter 4/28/2006

OOC: "Watch out Indy!" I also enjoyed Percy viewing 'The Dark Tower 15' and 'Captain Hickman's Adventures in Dimension Eight', although I've never heard of that last one... ;) BTW It took me a while to incorporate Caleb's response to Nike's call for security. Now that it's in the narrative (which some day will be added to the website, I swear it! :) here's what happened...

Nike looked around and saw Drake wasn't on the bridge. Chelydra and Caleb gathered around her. "Drake is a security risk," she whispered... [snip]

Caleb and Chelydra nodded. "I'll keep an eye on him and the security of the ship," Caleb added.

Chelydra left the bridge to find Drake and secure the gangplank. Caleb noticed Arkady was absent and sat down at his station. The computer interface seemed familiar to him. He called up the ship's security files and familiarized himself with the layout of the ship. Camera were installed in every room and corridor except the captain and crew's quarters and the restrooms. He watched Chelydra as he headed down the corridor toward the crew quarters. While he watched, Caleb started a search for anything that might relate to Drake's identity or background. He searched the ship's rosters but found no record of anyone by that name.


supreme_arbiter 5/2/2006

IAS turn 7.4 - The Derelict

Irsa stepped into the larger room. THX followed her. She wanted something to make a torch with. She walked down the ramp. It didn't go far. The ramp was choked with mud and there was no way through. Irsa found a couple of dead branches, but they were either rotten or wet. She stepped off the ramp and walked around the rest of the enormous room.

Satisfied there was nothing of any interest there, Irsa and THX entered the room across the hall. It looked like an old storage room. She searched the shelves for anything that could burn or be used as a weapon. She found several very large, black rocks, but nothing useful.

Irsa approached the closed door on the other side of the storeroom. THX was right behind her. A large yellow sign attached to the door said, "DANGER Radiation risk". Next to the door there was a steel gray passcard reader.



OOC: This is post #2000! Woot!


Elizabeth 5/2/2006

Irsa

"Let's leave that door for later. THX could you do an analysis of those black rocks on the shelves, please." Irsa asks THX.


gglassdr 5/7/2006

THX-1492

THX attempts to analyze the rocks on the shelves as requested. It also attempts to monitor for any radiation escaping from the room.


supreme_arbiter 5/8/2006

OOC: Kudos to George for checking the door. Double exp for THX! Do you believe every sign you read? In this case...

THX examined the door with its radiation detector. The door was hot! Standing in front of the door for more than twenty minutes could be harmful to a human. THX examined the rest of the room. It was significantly less radioactive, but spending the night in the room was out of the question.

THX analyzed the rocks on the shelves as requested. There were four of them. They were very large, perhaps 150 kilograms each, and made of dark basalt. They were mildly radioactive. THX examined one of the rocks for a moment before realizing it had once been part of the arm of an enormous statue. It was badly damaged or THX would've realized this sooner. The other three rocks were similarly radioactive fragments of statues, possibly legs or torsos. They seemed generally humanoid, but didn't reveal much of anything about the species they depicted.


publius1024 5/9/2006

Arkady

Another chapter is finished!

Chapter 32: Whispers From the Past

THX-1492, Irsa, Becka and Caleb get the tour of the lifeboat, the crew discusses the situation and THX's origins are revealed.

Thanks to George for the title of this chapter!


Zhaxier Cole 5/26/2006

A Mechanism for Chameleon Skin

Just like IAS's Zhaxier, you too can make electromagnetic radiation warp around you! At least that's the theory. But the exotic materials are only 18 months away and DARPA's throwing money at it....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060526/ap_on_sc/invisibility_cloak_4


supreme_arbiter 5/30/2006

I hope everyone's enjoying their Summer! I'm going to post a new turn this weekend.

MA4e news: The hardcover edition of Metamorphosis Alpha is set to hit bookshelves on August 7th! Several of our players appear in the credits!

Regarding Experience Points: some people have asked me about that. It's been a bit of a joke until now. MA1e didn't use EXP, so double is still zero :) 3rd and 4th editions don't use it either. MA2e, on the other hand, does. I was reading those rules and would like to implement them in IAS. I haven't worked out the conversion yet, but players will be able to "spend" them to increase skills or to increase the chance of success on critical rolls.


supreme_arbiter 6/4/2006

IAS turn 8: The Corpse

THX shared with Irsa its analysis of the remains of the statues and warned her that lingering much longer in the lower storage room could be hazardous to her. She thanked the robot for its concern and suggested they continue their investigation. They left the room and continued down the hallway to the left.

As THX's video feed played on the bridge of the Pandora, Percy tried to map their traversal of the ship. He compared its layout to the Pandora's. They were greatly dissimilar. He searched the computer database for dropships and found diagrams of a Hercules class dropship. He noticed the Hercules had been commissioned for the Alexandria when she left Earth for the Eridani system. He put the diagrams up on the holo-projector in the bridge for all to see.

Back on the dropship, THX and Irsa stopped at the door at the end of the corridor before it turned to the right. The door had a steel gray passcard reader and bore another yellow sign that said 'DANGER Radiation risk'. THX detected the door was radioactively warm like the last one. The robot announced its findings and they continued down the hall. They passed a closed door with a brown card reader on the right.

"Does that lead to the room with the dirt hole in it," Irsa asked.

"Yes," THX replied. "That door leads to garage."

They passed by the door and around the corridor to the right. Around the corner, the hallway was a mess. Pipes along the walls had been severed and detached. THX swung its lamps around to get a fuller view of the damage. There was laser scoring along the walls and ceiling. The floor was covered in dust. Up ahead there was a large pile of debris. Irsa followed THX around it. As she passed the pile, looking for anything worth salvaging, the sight of a human head on top startled her.

Irsa raced after THX to a three-way intersection. THX shone its lights on the gory shape behind them. Irsa saw it was a human skeleton, its flesh long since decayed. It was wearing some sort of machinery on its chest, arms and legs.

*end transmission*

Picture of the corpse:


New map of the dropship :


OOC: I will email the Hercules dropship map to everyone who's in the cockpit.


Elizabeth 6/6/2006

Irsa

"Let's see what we can scavenge from the skeleton." Irsa says getting out a sack and starting to put machine parts into it.


stacinator 6/9/2006

Nike

"That must be the welcoming committee," Nike muttered, annoyed that she was having trouble deciding where the party was in this dropship, if it was indeed a Hercules class bird.


Elizabeth 6/24/2006

Irsa

What do Irsa and THX find on the long dead body? Anything interesting around it like other tools and equipment?


supreme_arbiter 6/24/2006

OOC: yes, sorry for my silence. BTW, thanks Elizabeth for your prompt post and Stacy for making me laugh out loud... welcoming committee :)

The skeleton wore some sort of machinery on its chest, arms and legs. It had once been a very complicated device. Now it was garbage, perforated in dozens of places by holes the size of Irsa's thumb or larger. She searched the hallway around the body. There was nothing but dust, pipes and debris but she noticed the dead man's left hand, its arm had fallen away from the rest of the body, still clutched an ancient weapon.




Elizabeth 6/24/2006

Irsa

Irsa carefully removes the weapon from the skeletal hand. She then places it in her belt. "The ancient one was in a fight with others a long time ago. I wonder if we'll find other bodies like his or of whoever he fought with?" Irsa comments.


publius1024 6/25/2006

Arkady

Chapter 33: A Vision of Death

The intrepid trio sets forth, Becka has a vision, we meet Drake, the strong silent type ;) and couch time with videos!


Elizabeth 7/3/2006

Irsa

"This ship has been abandoned for a long time. I wonder how long ago." Irsa says.

Irsa searches around the bridge for any potential treasure. If she finds something she picks it up. Then she and THX will go back the corridor to the T intersection and go left and explore the corridor down that way.


supreme_arbiter 7/6/2006

Irsa searched around the bridge for any potential treasures. To avoid the broken glass on the floor, she flew into the air and landed on the command chair overlooking the entire bridge. The room was very large. She flew from station to station but found only garbage. Undaunted, she tenaciously continued searching. Beneath a curtain of roots that cascaded over a control console, she found a bookshelf. She used one of her knives to cut away the roots. She expected them to attack her, as plants sometimes did on the Warden, but the tree�s roots didn't reply to her blade.

From the exposed bookshelf, she removed several large binders. The titles on the covers said they were operational and repair manuals. They smelled horribly of mildew and decay. The pages inside had the consistency of wet bread and flaked apart into useless clods under her fingers. She dumped the binders onto the deck. They were much safer to stand on than the glass-strewn floor. She probed the bookshelf some more and was rewarded with a handful of ancient ink pens. She tested them on a piece of paper from her backpack. She removed the crust from their tips and discovered two still had ink in them. She put them safely in her backback and left the bridge with THX behind her. They reached the end of the corridor and turned left. It was identical to the hall they'd come down on the other side of the ship. Besides THX's floodlight, it was completely dark and very dusty. Around the corner to the right, they passed another sealed door. Irsa looked at the door and the passcard reader beside it for a moment before saying tentatively, "Garage?"

"Correct," THX replied.

They moved past the door to the foot of a flight of stairs. The stairs led up into the darkness. The corridor on their right led to an intersection that would take them back to the gangplank they'd used to enter the ship.

end transmission


Elizabeth 7/6/2006

Irsa

"Well, we've searched the first level. Now to see what's upstairs." Irsa said as she lead the way upstairs with THX.

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