Category: Legacy: Life Among the Ruins

#Morningstar 4: New Mysteries

The situation

A few years have passed since the discovery of the Bridge, and there have been changes. The bombing of HQ killed the Chief of the Enforcers, and their deputy, Commissioner Sergeiovich, stepped naturally into the role (Major Petrova thinks she could have had the job, but didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk). Unfortunately Sergeiovich is a natural administrator, tight-fisted with the budget, and with an emphasis on paperwork rather than results. Petrova does not like him. But the City is at peace, and the current biggest unsolved crime is that someone is distributing fake ration-books.

In the Maintenance Collective, INC-07 has retired (though their mind is still part of the group consciousness), and the Proactive paradigm dominant in the group mind has lost ground to Archive/Storage, which wants to keep everything as it is and properly backed-up. 101010 (or “Ten Ten Ten”), a former Listener surveillance-ball who has joined the MC, has become a significant voice, representing those wanting to explore the ship. Some weird things are happening in the dark decks, and the Listeners, always eccentric, have started flocking together in packs, though it is not clear why.

Brother Lux, who caused problems a few years ago breaking people out of the Enforcer’s brig, is now openly leading the Keepers, but Verity is still a trusted voice. Verity has worked with 101010 before, but regrets taking them as a pupil: now, they know too many of the Keepers’ secrets.

INC-07’s consciousness in the group-mind has remembered another key secret of the builders: humanity fought several genocidal wars against alien species before being defeated. The survivors are now being shipped somewhere else to be Somebody Else’s Problem – effectively exiled.

Call to Order

* The MC’s leader (“Lead-bot”, a big, shiny gold droid, effectively a Bluetooth human interface device for whoever is dominant in the Collective’s group consciousness) states that they have been updating the flight computers, but found that several are corrupt and need debugging. They ask the Keepers to find the relevant archive to restore the system. The Keepers accept.

* The Keepers want the Throng to include more educational materials in the entertainment systems. After some internal consultation, the Throng accepts. The Keepers seem mildly disappointed with this.

* The Enforcers state that they are currently detaining a large number of non-capital criminals who are taking up space: the brig is overflowing. They ask the Keepers to find some empty working Stasis Pods and find a way of using them so criminals can be put back to sleep. The Keepers accept.

* The Throng say that the new educational responsibilities will place stress on their facilities and that they need a suitable space near the city for some of their production. They ask the MC to find them somewhere suitable. They accept.

Verity meets with Mr Vyapura and calls in a debt to get the Puppeteers to provide security systems – cameras, remote alarms, locking mechanisms – which can be used to keep an eye on the nearby sleepers and prevent unauthorised awakenings. The Puppeteers can meet this need, but it will take some time. While passing through Old Town Verity finds a crowd gathered around a man in a dirty stasis suit – a newly arrived refugee is being taken to Orientation by Agent Johnson. There’s been an unusual number of them recently, and this one looks quite disoriented. Verity intervenes, reassures them, and gets their story: apparently they were woken by a team of medics, who kept them prisoner along with a dozen or so other people. They escaped a few days later while being moved, and have spent a week wandering the dark decks before encountering a drone who led them to some scavs. Verity recognises the drone from its description, and after confirming a few more details with Johnson, goes off to talk to its owner, Crazy Yan. After being bribed with a hot tip on the location of the jungle (“packed with valuable panther skins”), Yan shows footage of the refugee’s discovery and gives a grid reference, which at least gives some idea of where to start looking.

Meanwhile the MC has sent some new recruits into the dark decks to find a suitable space for the Throng. They’ve interpreted their request as one for a new drug factory, rather than just space for one, and they’ve turned up a food processing plant which should fit the bill. 101010 takes along Brother Curiosity, a low-level Keeper, and guided by an automapper device, heads into the dark.

Zoom In

The automapper works perfectly, and leads them straight to the location. Unfortunately on the way it leads them straight into a field of strong ionising radiation. 101010 and Brother Curiosity try to backtrack hurriedly and find another way round, but in the process discover an unnerving fact: the field moves. They have no idea exactly where it is coming from or what is causing it – it may even be on another deck entirely – but it is mobile. But eventually they’re out of it without taking too many rads, and arrive at their destination. It looks exactly as described – the pipes and vats and reaction chambers of a food processing plant, currently inactive. But just after they enter the room, a massive security door slams down, trapping them in there.

101010 is prepared for this. instructing Curiosity to take cover, he pops out his experimental energy projector and aims it at the door. With a massive explosion, the door is vaporised – coating 101010 in an uneven coat of vapour-deposited metal, injuring Curiosity, and damaging the food plant. Which promptly starts leaking yellow-brown vapour. Curiosity, who is good at getting information out of things, prods some of the local panels to find out what the plant was last configured to make. The answer is unnerving: 1-Chloro-2-[(2-chloroethyl)sulfanyl]ethane, otherwise known as mustard gas. And it was configured to make this after the Awakening. Did one of the newly-awakened Sleepers do it, or was it part of an emergency protocol? Either way, Curiosity and 101010 agree that the plant needs to be dismantled, the gas safely vented or converted to something inert, and the space cleared out and decontaminated before being handed over to the Throng. 101010 puts out a call to the MC for a work-crew to begin the job…

The work we put in in the previous Age on building the setting really paid off here, with the group basicly making its own trouble. While the Enforcers didn’t get much of a look-in, they’ve got obvious plots dangling for next session (refugees and ration books), and the group hasn’t even started to look for another ship system yet. And we’ve got some unwelcome truths, new mysteries, and possible threats to worry about as well. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

#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.