#MorningStar 3: Taking the Hole

#MorningStar 3: Taking the Hole

The situation

* INC-07, Major Petrova, and Verity have surveyed a (mostly) safe route to the Bridge (there is an area of difficulty near the Den where the decks are collapsing, which needs to be surveyed around, but groups can get their by the risky route). The Enforcers and Keepers have convinced Lt Elijah to deputise people as emergency flight crew, so they have bridge access, and all 3 factions have begun the process of investment.

* The Colony Defence drones have been deactivated and directed to a central point for disassembly. The three searching factions have gained significant tech reserves from this.

While searching for the Bridge, the Keepers discovered some exploitable resources (an environmental processing plant and a Sleeper hold full or corpses). They have been thinking about exploiting them.

* Major Petrova has done police work to get the details on the Hole Gang’s HQ, sufficient to allow a major assault. The Hole Gang have been demanding protection money in the Left Bank.

* The Listeners have been scouring the dark decks for a supply of raw materials for the Puppeteers and have come back with a lead.

INC-07 recalls further secrets of the builders: that the Sleepers were war criminals. Humanity had done something terrible and faced a horrific judgement for it, but some had been rescued.

The Keepers have been eyeing up the Sleeper hold the panthers had been using as a meat locker: its conveniently on the way to the bridge, and the fact that its precious cargo are now dead means it could be cleared out and used as living space. They convince the Puppeteers to help them take it over, selling them on their religious mission to keep the ship safe. Actually clearing it out is an arduous process, and requires most of their allies in the Foundry to move in, and halfway through the process a group from the Throng of Pleasure turns up with the intention of turning into some sort of inn and have to be bought off. But eventually the Keepers establish the first real settlement outside the City, and name it “the Den”. They also reap a bounty of tech from the old Sleeper pods (which can be safely cannibalised), and invest most of it in the Bridge. Finally, they get a lead on where the panthers came from: the jungle, an actual biological habitat near the Den, which holds a complete ecosystem.

The Listeners have found a refuelling plant which was intended to be used for the colony’s vehicles post-worldfall, which they think can be safely disassembled. But some catastrophe in flight has flooded the entire facility with fuel. They also ask the Puppeteers of Trade for assistance (the work is ultimately for their people in Recyc after all), but the work is long and dangerous. An accident in the process damages several MC drones (giving them Need: Repairs), and kills several of the assisting staff from Recyc, requiring reparations.

Meanwhile, the Enforcers have been planning to take down Igor and the Hole Gang once and for all. Using the intelligence she gained previously, Major Petrova leads a strike squad into the Hole, mounts a textbook assault on Igor’s headquarters (complete with stun grenades and rappelling), and arrests him and most of his key people. But getting out with the prisoners is harder than getting in. Petrova holds a gun to Igor’s head to get him to call off the gangers blocking their escape, but the remnants of the Hole Gang aren’t going to go quietly. Shortly after the Enforcers have got the prisoners back to HQ, word comes in that a group have seized the new fusion reactor in the Left Bank and are threatening to blow it up unless Igor and his people are released.

A crisis meeting of the families is convened. The Keepers use their status as medics to get some people into the power plant to care for gangers who have been wounded in the standoff. They secretly disable the charges, but one of them is captured, though the gangers don’t know exactly what she was up to. Meanwhile the Enforcers have evacuated the whole sector of the Left bank, sealed the pressure doors, and started lowering the oxygen levels. Which makes their inevitable assault a walkover. The surviving gangers are rounded up and arrested, and the Enforcers make a show of force in the Hole, finally bringing it under control (though it requires a constant security presence). And conveniently there’s now a large, unoccupied space the Keepers can use to set up their school for the children of the area…

The MC makes the final investment in the Bridge, and gives Treaty to the Keepers to get them to stand aside and allow them to control it. The Keepers are happy enough to do this, and do a lot of work on the Bridge interpreting the holy source code and training under the MC. The MC meanwhile rootkit several of the flight computers, adopting them into their group mind, but change their doctrine in the process. The Enforcers use their bridge access to locate new resources for themselves and the MC, but also suffer a disaster, as the last dregs of the Hole Gang smuggle a bomb into HQ, destroying their newly-acquired automatic defence systems. But peace finally reigns across the City, for a few years at least…

This session was mostly done on the family level, with only Petrova dropping down to do character stuff. It felt rather abstract, but provided a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the threats of the age. The MC have done rather well out of this age, getting themselves control of the Bridge, a pile of tech, and moving into positive mood. The Keepers haven’t done too badly either. But while the Enforcers have established order, their position feels precarious, and they have the realisation that humans aren’t really in control, but are working for a bunch of aliens and AIs. Which seems like some nice tensions to explore in the next age.