Category: Legacy: Life Among the Ruins

#Morningstar 7: Medical issues

The situation

* The Enforcers think information on how to remove the slave chips can be found in Central Medical, somewhere in the dark decks. They have told the other families they expect cooperation when a method is found.

* A multi-family team has ventured through the dark decks to Life Support, and discovered it to be under the control of a breakaway faction known as the Provisional Government. The Keepers have established diplomatic relations and begun investment. The PG has sent a diplomatic team to the City.

* Along the way, the Families discovered an abandoned genetic engineering lab, which was apparently used in the early years of the city for a Supersoldier project. When the Maintenance Collective tried to seize it, they were driven off by the descendants of the experiment, gone feral in the dark…

* While they were away, the Throng traded with the Puppeteers to gain educational materials, which they use to meet the Keepers’ request from the Call to Order.

The Maintenance Collective consult the mind of INC-07 in their group consciousness and learn that immediately after the Awakening a number of the very highest-ranked members of the former political and military elite were executed after a show-trial.

The Maintenance Collective talks to the Provisional Government, trying again to recruit some of their bots into the MC. This time, they succeed, gaining eyes and ears in life support.

The Enforcers also negotiate with the Provisional Government, gaining access to the life support system and investing in it.

Zoom in

Major Petrova, Sister Mercy (a Keeper medical expert), and an Enforcer scout called Yuri the Silent head into the dark decks searching for Central Medical in an effort to find a way to disable the slave chips. They are well-equipped, with the Enforcers having hardened uniforms in case they run into that mobile radiation source, and Sister Mercy bringing a comm unit to keep in contact with the City. They also have a team of Enforcer techs and Keeper data extraction specialists for getting the required data out of the medical databases.

Yuri takes the most direct route, making good progress but leading them right into an area of radioactive contamination – perhaps fallout for MRS-1? The Enforcers’ hardened anti-rad suits protect them, and the Keepers’ vacc suits prevent them from breathing in any of the contaminated particles, but Sister Mercy begins suffering early signs of radiation sickness, and the entire team is contaminated. on the plus side, they’ll be able to easily retrace their steps with a Geiger counter to find their way back.

After escaping the fallout zone, they are forced to take a more circuitous route. They encounter a lone bot, a survey model with tracks, cameras, and a few manipulator arms, endlessly banging itself into the wall of a corridor. The bot looks like one of the MC’s Listener allies, but is unresponsive, trapped in its loop. Sister Mercy calls it in to the MC, who say they will send a retrieval team. The MC warns that other bots may be nearby as the Listeners have taken to hanging around in flocks, but the expedition doesn’t encounter any more until they make it to Central Medical. The facility seems to be in lockdown, and as Yuri approaches, a dusty security bot activates and commands him to halt. When Major Petrova approaches, it declares that the area is a critical facility and admission is not permitted. Petrova uses her bridge access, and Mercy backs her up with the Keepers’, but the bot only lets them enter after they have laid down all visible weapons.

Inside, Central Medical is all white and clean, with soothing music. Following the instructions of the security bot, they follow the green path to reception, where they are scanned. Immediately, there is are sirens and a warning of “contamination detected”, and the entire group is instructed to follow the red path to decontamination. This leads down a very short corridor to a decontamination area, where the group are instructed to place all clothing and equipment in the burn bags provided before proceeding to the personal decontamination showers. Mercy hacks the medical interface, allowing them to decontaminate their equipment (easy enough as they’re in vacc or radiation suits), so they don’t have to discard it. When they are given the all-clear and return to reception, Mercy and her data extractors are told to follow the blue path to radiation treatment, while Petrova and her group are diagnosed with a variety of minor ailments and told to follow the yellow path to general admissions.

Both paths lead to a maze of twisty-turny corridors, all alike, punctuated by signs pointing to various parts of the hospital. In radiation treatment, Mercy and her team are scanned, quizzed, then given a cocktail of drugs to counteract their symptoms. Everything appears normal. In general admissions, its a different story. Each team member is sent to an individual examination room staffed by a medical bot. Yuri’s one identifies a number of minor problems (growing up in a tight ecosystem in a spaceship isn’t good for you), then says he has a pre-cancerous lump in his bowel which needs removing and injects him with an anaesthetic. Petrova’s bot notices similar minor problems, then when it gets to the old bullet fragments in her arm, says “this will have to come off”, and pops out an amputation saw. Petrova dodges out of the way, uses her bridge authority to try and over-ride the bot, then shoves it into a closet when it freezes. Hearing screams and sounds of various struggles from the corridor, she storms nextdoor to find Yuri out cold on an examination table, with a bot about to make an incision in his abdomen. She snaps off the laser scalpel, and after some shoving and dodging, manages to use the hospital internal comms to shut down all the bots. The team gets off lightly: one dead (apparently autopsied), and an assortment of minor injuries. Yuri will wake up in a few hours if left to recover by himself.

While Petrova and the Enforcers have been struggling for their lives, Mercy has been getting to grips with the hospital’s expert systems. Presenting it with a scenario of a medical emergency in a distant settlement requiring Stasis for transport, she gets the walkthrough on putting someone in a Stasis Pod, and transmits the data back to the City. Then using her bridge codes as an entry point, she sets the data extractors to work on taking over the system. It takes a while, but soon she is elevated to Chief Surgeon, with control over the entire hospital network. Which lets her see the problems with the docbots – and that her team had been inexplicably locked in.

After fixing that, she issues herself the required supplies, and heads over to general admissions to patch up Petrova’s team and wake up Yuri (for some reason they don’t trust the bots anymore). After that, there’s a bit of research into the slave chips (which turn out to be compliance chips, standard issue, and in the hospital’s inventory). Actually removing them is tricky, requiring neurosurgery – but there’s a command code system, and a field control unit which will allow them to be deactivated. Mercy suggests they would make really good parole chips, but when this is rebuffed by Petrova, orders up a control unit from the hospital stores. If they can get physical access to the slaves, the Enforcers will be able to turn off their chips. Mission successful!

Zoom out

The Keepers negotiate with the MC for assistance in securing central medical. The MC secure the route and do basic repairs, and in exchange get to induct the medical bots into their collective consciousness (which gives them some strange thoughts. do humans need to be maintained?) The Keepers get a need for debugging to fix the hospital systems, but they now have a renewable medical surplus, and are well pleased.

The MC also examine the bot the expedition found. It turns out to be SRV-157, a Listener who went missing a week ago. Diagnostics show them trapped in a loop, so the MC team does a hard reset, which restores function. Unfortunately, 157 doesn’t know why they’re so far out, and doesn’t remember anything from the past week. Its an unpleasant mystery, but one the MC are happy to leave for now.

The Enforcers try asking politely for the Throng and Puppeteers to turn over their slaves to be de-chipped. When that doesn’t work, they go for the hard option, declaring the heads of both factions to be criminal slavers and outlaws. The Keepers back them up, as does the Provisional Government, but the MC stay neutral. The Enforcers then Call in a Debt on both factions to get them to hand over their slaves. With three families against them, neither is in any position to refuse, but they are also no longer well-disposed towards the enforcers. Throwing their weight around so nakedly has made the Enforcers some enemies. The Enforcers then offer the newly-freed slaves the protection of their family, effectively recruiting them.

The Keepers make a final investment in life support, activating the system and confirming themselves as its undisputed controllers. The Enforcers benefit from lifted spirits, while the MC becomes engaged in protracted squabbles with them over use of surveillance data and continuing bad blood over slavery. As the Age turns, it looks like battle lines are being drawn in the City…

This was a great session, with the fallout and unfinished business from earlier sessions naturally generating plot. And there’s still plenty of stuff left for the next age.

#Morningstar episode 6: The past is with us

The situation

* The MC have disassembled the food processing plant and given the space to the Throng of Pleasure. The Throng immediately move some of their production there, guarded by their new, blank-faced muscle.

* Major Petrova and Sister Verity ventured into the dark decks and rescued some captives from the Awakeners, then returned to arrest Jagarta Tun. While a few cultists escaped, the Awakener network has been broken. The Keepers have added security to all the nearby Sleeper banks, so they will be alerted if anyone or anything interferes with them. Which is good because there are security protocols which could trip if too many Sleepers wake up.

* The MC has discovered a clue to the location of the life support system.

The Maintenance Collective consult the mind of INC-07 in their group consciousness and learn that before being placed on the ship, the political and military elite were in contact with a battle fleet that had not been eliminated. Which raises some interesting questions about what had happened to it…

The Enforcers convince the rescued refugees to work with them, removing their Need: Recruits. They also investigate the problem of the slave chips, and believe that they should be able to find the answer to how to remove them in a proper medical facility. There is one on the ship – Central Medical – but it is deep in the dark decks and will require an expedition. They inform the other families that Jagarta Tun will be charged with slavery, and say they plan to remove the slave chips from all his victims. Naturally, they expect the other families to cooperate with the removal. No-one explicitly opposes this, but its clear that the Throng are reluctant to give up their new-found military might.

The MC call a meeting of the Families to discuss life support. In the early years of the City, shortly after the Awakening, there was a factional dispute between the political and military elite (who had naturally stepped back into their roles in organising the impromptu government), and a group from one of the distant colony worlds. The latter departed in secret, and the government told the City that they had all perished as they did not want people thinking they could survive by themselves. Decades later it became clear that this was untrue, as scavs brought back the odd tale of meeting other people deep in the dark decks. The “Splitters”, as they became known, were believed to be few in number but also to be long-lived, and to dwell beyond an area of vacuum known as the Breach. Unfortunately, the life support systems seem to be in that area. The MC’s Archive/Backup persona suggests an expedition to investigate and negotiate for access. This meets with general approval: the Puppeteers are interested in trade possibilities, and volunteer to send a negotiator, while the Keepers reveal that members of the Splitters designed the Maintenance Collective’s architecture, repurposing them from ship systems to serve humanity. They may still have records or original source code allowing the MC to be debugged.

Zoom in

101010, Sister Verity, Cassius, and a bazaar trader named Mara Sri head into the dark decks, accompanied by a team of Keeper negotiators, and Puppeteer and MC guards. Being aware of the Breach, they’re well-equipped with vacc suits and a couple of portable airlocks, and they’ve ensured much of their equipment is hardened in case they run across the mysterious mobile radiation source. Fortunately, they avoid it, but while taking a rest break they discover what appears to be an old genetics lab, complete with gene editors, cell lines, DNA library, incubators, and habitat cells. Most of the latter gape open, but there is a small humanoid corpse locked in the last one, mummified by the cold air. 101010 boots the local data system and searches for records, and uncovers some disturbing information: the lab dates from shortly after the Awakening, and was used for something called “Project MARS”, which had the aim of creating supersoldiers with incredible speed, strength and endurance to be used to reclaim human territory. Verity searches for information on who did the work, and learns that they were all early members of the Agronomists. The people who built the City’s initial barebones ecology and stopped people from starving to death had a nasty little side-project. None of them fled with the Splitters, and it is surmised they were all members of the Elite. “This is exactly the sort of bullshit which got us on this ship”. As for the experimental subjects, it is unclear what happened to them. Possibly they escaped and perished in the dark decks.

101010 is interested in the possibilities of a genetic engineering facility, and can tell that Mara is thinking about sending scavs to loot it. They hastily arrange for an MC team to be dispatched to claim and defend the lab.

The expedition continues. They come to the Breach and enter it via a portable airlock. Verity cannot resist investigating why such a large area of the ship is in vacuum, and finds that the answer is a huge hole, apparently the result of an internal explosion. The entire group looks upwards, and gets the first real picture of what the ship looks like: they are in a spin habitat, a giant rotating cylinder. From the hole, they can look “up” and along the spokes to the core. Looking along that, it vanishes into a dense cluster of tanks and machinery at one end, and a superstructure at the other. Beyond the superstructure, they can just make out the edges of an enormous mountain of ice, an ablative shield designed to absorb the impacts of interstellar dust and radiation. On the other side of the core, they can see the rest of the spin habitat curving around, pock-marked with holes, through some of which they can see stars. Something terrible and violent has happened to the ship, and it is a miracle that it is still flying and that they are still alive.

Beyond the Breach it is obvious that the corridors are regularly visited. 101010 instructs their guards to guard the airlock, and the group proceeds. They come across two people doing maintenance, and after some initial surprise, are introduced to Under-secretary Amah Resa of the Provisional Government. Negotiations commence, with the Keepers focusing on gaining access to the life support systems for themselves, and the Puppeteers focusing on trade opportunities.

While the Keeper negotiators do their thing, the others are given a tour. Its clear that the Provisional Government (as they call themselves) are well trained and in control of the life support system. They seem to have a few thousand people, with a democratic mode of government, a reasonable level of technology, but not a lot of weapons. They’re safe behind the Breach, which Amah offhandedly mentions being caused after the split to prevent pursuit.

101010 talks to a scutter-bot, Repair Unit 57, or “Rippy”, and tries to convince them to join the MC’s group consciousness. Rippy is appropriately cautious – like the MC, the bots here are a mix of models, but rather than a group consciousness, they’re independent duplicates of an original personality matrix, designed by the Chief Programmer. Rippy will join if the Provisional Government vouches for the MC, and if they can leave when they want, and takes 101010 to speak to the Secretary for Maintenance – a humanoid orchestrator model named ORC-153. 101010 tries the same pitch with them, and pushes for integration of computing systems, but is rebuffed. ORC-153 considers the MC’s collective consciousness to be an aberration from the Chief Programmer’s original design. 101010 wants a couple of bots here to join the MC to provide a network node, but ORC refuses, and instead suggests sending a few PG bots to the city to act as ambassadors. They also want access to the Bridge, which 101010 naturally refuses.

Meanwhile, the negotiations over life support have been fruitful, though the Puppeteers are involved in the deal. Both they and the Keepers will have access to investigate, repair and upgrade the system, and there will be trade as well. The PG will be sending Undersecretary Amah back to the City to act as a formal ambassador. Brother Charm, the negotiating team head, will remain in life support to speak for the Keepers. The Keepers immediately make plans to ensure a permanent route through the Breach, and begin upgrading and testing the system.

Once negotiations have completed, Verity secures an interview with the Chief Programmer, Lai Wei. Like many in the PG, they are in fact a survivor of the original Awakening, genetic modification for longevity being common on the colony world from which it originated. Verity persuades them to assist with debugging the MC’s group consciousness, to enable it to make decisions more efficiently, but also to prevent a reversion to their natural protocols which would see them repair the ship to its proper, pre-human state. Wei agrees, and 101010 is happy to cooperate by allowing their code to be investigated and mapped.

Negotiations complete, the expedition heads back. as they return, 101010 receives over the network the death-cries of the squad sent to claim the gene lab: they were attacked from the darkness by a group of squat, half-naked humans, wielding improvised clubs with tremendous strength. It seems that some of the supersoldiers survived, and they or their descendants are living in the dark decks. The expedition gives the area wide berth.

A big backstory episode here, with the players driving a lot of the detail. The Provisional Government has been officially introduced as a new Faction (as soon as I work out their surpluses and needs), and all the stuff about the Elite, secret battlefleets, and geneticly engineered longevity has made everyone wonder if they’re still around and still pulling the strings. They may emerge as a Faction or Front in a future age, depending on how the story goes…