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 Here's the thing about rescues. They're hard. There are limitations. No matter how well you do, people are gonna die. With a drat good plan and a drat good crew, you can make it work, but no matter what, people are gonna die. Crewman Kevin Bracken, in this case, would never see the Achilles. He did make it to the pinnace, but his lungs had been crushed hours earlier, when the explosion caused a dislodged wall plate to fall on him at about 15 km/h. The pressure change and the blood loss did him in. Private Jones held his hand as he shuddered his last breath. Bracken was not the only one to die. Six others would die of complications before the evacuation was complete, and Dr Himura and the man currently serving as his hands, Private Jones, were there for the eight hours it took to complete the evacuation, one boatload at the time. It was, for lack of a better explanation, a miracle that the evacuation had been as smooth as it had. Trapped in the hold there had been 137 people. Of which 131 are now safe. The evacuation was fast, surprisingly fast, due in large part to the mutineers allowing the use of the station pinnaces to set up a rescue chain. The first step had been to set up a temporary airlock. This had been done carefully, by attaching a pressurized "cabin" to the side of the aft wall, and then cutting through there, and replacing the hole with a door. This process is well known and tested, and had gone off relatively normally. After that, the evacuation begun in earnest, with a handful of marines with crowd control weaponry keeping the evacuation orderly. The first shipment, those critically injured and needing medical attention was shipped to the Achilles, while the rest were carefully deposited in Docking Bay A. There was an attempt to form a sealed passage between Storage C and D, but it was deemed too dangerous to the occupants of D after the first attempt to establish one almost caused a full loss of pressure. The pinnace evacuation worked, at any rate. 131 people owe their lives to your quick action, and to the valor of your crew. There are useful supplies in Storage C, and you will no doubt collect them if there's time, but for now they'll keep in vacuum. While Storage C was being evacuated, the loyalists and mutineers mounted a rescue operation aimed at evacuating Storage D. This operation was... unorthodox, but Peregrino endorsed it enthusiastically, calling it "brilliant". The core issue was the complete obliteration of what the technical diagrams called Passage 5, and of course the entire absence of habitat A. When the freighter exploded, and the shockwave and gas tried to vent, they blew out habitat A, but they also exerted a sideways pressure, which actually cause the least structurally sound part of Storage D to break, the carbon alloy that held it against the asteroid. Because of their tensile properties, instead of sheering, the carbon alloy bent, and then fractured, leaving Storage D at a 90 degree angle from its original plane. The original suggested solution was a protracted evacuation via pinnaces, after establishing a sealed door they could dock with, much like what had been done with C. However Higgs and his team came up with a... clever idea. Using ferro-carbon construction material, they designed a flexible tube that could be extended to connect with the airlock, and, theoretically, allow an evacuation into the station. While it took time to build and test, by the time C was fully evacuated, Storage D's evacuation was well underway. Overall, it had gone better than you had any right to hope just hours earlier. This leaves plenty of time for other matters. Like a damage assessment of the station, figuring out what can be done, and what supplies are critical. There are a few things you now know you didn't know before. First, Korma's personnel file. She begun life in Tokyo, daughter to a well connected CEO and a prostitute. At 14 she ran away from home. A criminal record from 14 to 18 that includes petty theft, breaking and entering, and intimidation. Of note one incident where she broke the kneecaps of one police officer. At 18 she was caught and offered enlistment or prison. She picked enlistment. Four years in the Panasiatic Navy, dishonorably discharged, then four years as an independent contractor. About three dozen reports describing her issues with authority. Eventually "reenlisted" when her unit got bough out by the fleet. Got posted to Agrippa as security. Described as "loyal to her people" "very intelligent" and "personable" but her disrespect for authority has always kept her from rising in the ranks. The stations damage, on closer examination, is irreparable. You can extend its life, a few days of work would buy months, but even with that, in about 6 months, its going to fail structurally. The generator can be kept running at maybe 20% for at least a month, but the bottom line is, anyone you leave here is dead. There's time to retrofit the freighters for human transport if you decide to go that route , the whole process should take a week, two if things go wrong somehow. The issue, of course is the payoff between people and supplies. You *can* load everyone aboard the freighters (total capacity, 900) then load four hundred people onto the Achilles (total capacity for refugees 400), and take the twenty pinnaces on the station (total capacity 260), this will let you take every survivor, with a tiny bit of room for supplies. This is not a convoy that can make it to Alpha Centauri either, if you take everyone, you're committed to going to Calisto and figuring out things there. That said, from a genetic survival perspective, more people is good. So now, you have some decisions to make. 1.) What are you doing with everyone? Remember, anyone you don't take, dies. A.) Take everyone. Yes, it means less supplies, but you may be able to get supplies at Callisto, and probably either drop off these people or find a better way to transport them. B.) Take no one. Sorry! Lie, tell them that Agrippa is fiiiiiiine! Grab supplies and leave. C.) As B, but don't lie. You can expect a... violent reaction. D.) Take one freighter worth of people, overload the Achilles. We'll vote on who in round 2. E.) Take both freighters worth of people, but don't take 400 people aboard the Achilles. That means leaving 400 people to die. F.) One freighter, no overload. 850 dead. G.) Both freighters full of supplies, overload the Achilles. Remember overloading isn't dangerous, just really unpleasant. That's... 900 dead. H.) Something else. Unless its a permutation of something said above, its probably not going to work, but feel free to write in. 2.) What's your supply priority? A.) Food supplies. You're gonna need a lot for taking people to Alpha Centauri. B.) Renewable Food Sources. Less efficient per volume than A short term, more work to maintain, but it's renewable, and that matters. C.) Medical supplies. D.) Construction material. For repairing the ship and building a colony. E.) Cryounits. The more you take on board the easier the trip is going to be on you. F.) Weapons. For... killing each other? In case of hostile natives? G.) Miscellaneous supplies. There's a lot of *stuff* people require. This all goes here. H.) I haven't covered every possibility. Just some. Write in. 3.) What are we doing with the Mutineers? A.) What do you mean what are we doing? We're executing them for treason of course! Space the whole lot of them! B.) As A, except only the leadership. C.) Fine. Just space Higgs. Boring! D.) For their sins, they will not get to leave the station. Hah! Helped solve the transport issue! E.) They're pardoned of course. Given the circumstances they did what they could. F.) We'll convene trials in transit and judge people based on the nature of their crimes. G.) Something else. TheCog was not too too creative with these options, and there are probably better ones. 4.) How about Korma? A.) Space her. Treason can't be abided. B.) She showed initiative. Pardoned and given enough rank to be in charge of the loyalists. C.) Brig her. Figure it out later. Shooting your boss is a no-no D.) As C, but we're going to convene a full trial. E.) Neither reward nor punish. Keep her at her rank, promote someone over her. F.) E, but add some kind of mild but very public slap on the wrist. G.) F, but also reward her privately. Mixed messages much? H.) Something else, write in. Again, lots of options. 5.) So what about contacting earth? A.) We haven't messaged them yet. We're still not going to. Too risky. Maybe from Callisto. B.) Send them a message now. Explain everything that happened. Gloss over your 24 hour window of non-contact. C.) As B, but also explain that 24 hour window. D.) Write in. 6.) Do we want to recover ARMOUR? Remember, having them on board would make a mutiny much more lethal for the side without them, and they're a loaded gun in that respect. They're also an insanely valuable tool that could save you in a jam. Oh and they occupy quite a bit of storage space given their maintinence needs. A.) Yes. B.) No C.) Write in? Seems clear cut to me. 7.) Making extra supply space. You can make extra room for supplies by getting rid of some missiles and some of the more advanced equipment. Do you want to? A.) Get rid of all the missiles, and get rid of the advanced EW suite. This will about double your supply capability for vaccum safe goods. B.) Just the missiles. 70% increase in space for goods. C.) Just the non-EW missiles. 35% increase. D.) Just the EW missiles. 35% increase. E.) Just the EW suite. 30% increase. F.) Just EW suite and EW missiles. 65% G.) Just EW suite and non-EW missiles. 65% H.) Nothing! All these things are going to be useful! Also I don't want to risk the damage that removing core components like the EW suite might do to the ships sensor net. If you have any questions for me, or for your crew, or anyone we've met so far, this is a good time to ask them. Also, I know its a lot to vote on, but we need to know this stuff to keep on trucking.
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May 10, 2016 04:30
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1a 2bed 3e 4b 5a 6b 7b
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May 10, 2016 04:55
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I'm fine with not PUNISHING Korma but "kill your boss and have a great explanation once you're the only one around to tell their side of the story, get promoted" is a TERRIBLE precedent. 1A 2BED 3F 4D 5A 6B 7D
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May 10, 2016 05:06
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reignonyourparade posted:I'm fine with not PUNISHING Korma but "kill your boss and have a great explanation once you're the only one around to tell their side of the story, get promoted" is a
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May 10, 2016 05:08
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##vote 1. A 2. E 3. Tran 4. Tran 5. A 6. Tran 7. B Tran: Announce that we'll be forming a tribunal of three representatives from each affected party to determine any necessary punishment to be laid down. We, along with two others from our command staff will be personally acting as the representatives for our ship. Verdicts can only be reached with a 3/4 majority. The system will likely result in very few guilty verdicts, but it gives everyone involved a chance to air their grievances in a relatively safe way. In addition, those officers exonerated by the trials can safely resume their duties with any associated stigmas lessened. As for the ARMOUR, take them aboard and task our engineering team with stripping the weaponry. They're too valuable as heavy labor EVA units to abandon, but we don't want to hold that kind of club over the heads of the burgeoning fleet. As a bonus, it should reduce the maintenance requirements.
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May 10, 2016 05:11
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Questions: Is there time to do supply runs from one base to the other? Take some people and some food to the base, make a return trip, repeat until the base is evacuated and picked dry? If that's not completely possible, what about strengthening certain sections of the station and storing supplies in those so items can be picked up later? Follow up, how viable would it be to make some sort of space sledges or barges to tow goods in? Also, Is there a way to rig a cryosystem such that if fails, killing the person painlessly? ##vote 2. Paul 1 Paul 1: If we're lucky what we could do is go to the other outpost, drop people off with some supplies, and make ferry runs back and forth until we get everything off the base that isn't bolted down. This might require emergency construction of outdoor storage units, additional hab units, etc. But it's safer than a dying station. 3. Paul 2 4. Paul 2 Paul 2: I started working on this before plan tran. His deals with the mechanism, mine deals with the verdits themselves. So maybe they can be merged? The situation was unprecedented. So set up a quick and dirty court to determine who had how much blood on their hands, the order of events etc. The court can decide on a pardon, probation with reconciliation, imprisonment pending further developments (cryo), or execution. We might not get to lead the court but we can at least recommend a pardon for Korma and probation for Higgs. 5. D I can see it being spun this way. I decided to transmit from the safety of an asteroid field to minimize odds of being detected and attacked before or during the transmission. Unfortunately a crisis befell the outpost which required immediate, constant attention in order to prevent it's immenant destruction. At present our only hope is to evacuate the entire station to the other space station. 6. Paul 1 We'll carry them with us on a later run. 7: B Stow the missiles behind. We can pick them up later after we drop off the people.
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May 10, 2016 06:22
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Dunno if its been mentioned yet, but if we're plotting going interstellar, people should check out the Safehold series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safehold And while I mentioned Killing Star before, here is a quick thing about it: http://sites.inka.de/mips/reviews/TheKillingStar.html Basically, why is the universe quiet? Because everyone is dead or hiding  The brief radio waves you might see are simply the scream before the relativistic shells hit 
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May 10, 2016 07:02
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RandomPauI posted:Questions: With some fixing up this is doable, but the trip between Callisto and Agrippa on the pinnaces and freighters takes 30 days one way. If you're willing to work in the order of months, yes. You don't know how much time you have given the fact that MESSENGERs are in the system. Picking the base clean would be a matter of months if not years at that rate. The Achilles can make the trip, at full acceleration (including time for breaking etc) in about a day, but even then, its going to take time to sort through and load stuff. RandomPauI posted:If that's not completely possible, what about strengthening certain sections of the station and storing supplies in those so items can be picked up later? RandomPauI posted:Follow up, how viable would it be to make some sort of space sledges or barges to tow goods in? quote:Also, Is there a way to rig a cryosystem such that if fails, killing the person painlessly?
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May 10, 2016 08:20
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##vote 1: A 2. Paul 1 3. Paul 2 4. Paul 2 5. D As RandomPaul said. 6. Paul 1 7: B
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May 10, 2016 08:31
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##vote 1. G 2. B,C,D;A 3. Plan Tran 4. Plan Tran 5. A 6. Plan Tran 7. C Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 17:16 on May 11, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 16:19
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Is the MESSENGER still eating Mars? What happened to the moons?
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May 11, 2016 02:53
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Skellybones posted:Is the MESSENGER still eating Mars? What happened to the moons? humanity got there first 
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May 11, 2016 03:00
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Skellybones posted:Is the MESSENGER still eating Mars? What happened to the moons? Yes, as far as the sensors on the Achilles can tell, although in the last hour there's been some weird energy spikes that indicate unexpected radiation of some kind. Phobos was deorbited as part of operation Aries during the Martian War, and thus isn't a martian moon. Your sensors can't pick up Deimos anymore which suggests it got "eaten", but it may have escaped the pull of Mars due to decreasing gravity. If so you missed it. TheCog fucked around with this message at 03:46 on May 11, 2016 |
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May 11, 2016 03:38
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Where did Phobos deorbit too?
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May 11, 2016 03:55
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Outrail posted:Where did Phobos deorbit too? Operation Aries was a counterattack by martian forces to try to take out earth orbital shipyards, as part of it they launched Phobos towards earth (with the help of Orion drives), and fractured it, trying to overwhelm the Orbital Defense Array, the orbital angle was such that the ODA had to focus down Phobos to avoid having it crash straight into the shipyards, and the martian fleet could shelter in the shadow created in the defensive grid.
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May 11, 2016 04:01
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I just finished reading through the thread and wanted to say that I am enjoying it quite a bit and will definitely be following it. Thanks, TheCog! I also wanted to know if we could postpone the decision on what to do with the people? I feel like we need to figure out what is happening with Calista right now before we make any decisions especially since it's a two day (minimum) round trip and we can potentially keep this station going for a month. That leads to the problem of explaining to people what we learned if it's bad news and we have to not let people come with us, but it just seems wrong to tell people we are leaving them behind if there might be a solution at Calista. Will have to think about it more before I vote.
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May 11, 2016 05:06
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 "Captain, you may want to take a look at this." You're in the middle of organizing the restructuring of the Freighters, and you'd be annoyed, but the tone of voice the message is delivered in sends a chill down your spine. You guarantee it's not good news. Those words never herald anything good. No one ever says "Captain, you may want to take a look at this! Its a winning lottery ticket!". Its always "The Martians are flinging a moon at us" or "The main reactor has shut down unexpectedly" or in this case "The MESSENGER eating mars is doing something weird.", which, it really is. The strange energy readings from earlier have spiked. Hard. The core of what used to be Mars is positively glowing. Gravitics. Radiation. Fluctuations that shouldn't be possible without expending the energy of several stars. It overwhelms your sensors. Its on the main screen, the glowing orb a few kilometers across that used to be mars. It's gravity is increasing. Rapidly. You have a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling about it. Right now your sensors can't even look at it directly anymore. They have to judge based on surrounding effects. Then a private message from Gregor. "Incoming transmission, on all channels from mars." You quickly message back "My ears only. Filter for radiation" "Playing". It starts as faint hum, but then it grows. It's... a series of notes, pings, played over and over again. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeep. Beep. Beeeeeeeep. Beep. Ascending in tone. Seventeen notes. It plays four times, and then it stops, as suddenly as it begun. Which is probably a good time for that to happen, since its about this time that sensors report another MESSENGER entering the system. MESSENGER 3. It's appeared between Earth and Venus. Its long, spindly, and looks like a tree of thorns. Made of the same white metal as the other MESSENGERS it's most notable feature is that it appears wholly radioactive. It seems to just be sitting there, immobile for the moment, but from its outstretched "branches" strange white things seem to be forming. They're hard to get a read on from this distance, but they're no more than a km long, and made of the same material as the MESSENGERS. They're moving. Fairly fast, a 400+ KM per hour, in all directions, spreading in a cloud of spores. Well. poo poo. At their current rate of movement they'll make the asteroid belt in just short of fifteen days. Your crew looks at you, waiting for orders, or some kind of instructions. You've only had an hour and a half since you saved the civilians in Storage C and D, you were still in the process of iterating a plan. This obviously changes thing. Or maybe it doesn't. Hard to tell. In the light of new information, feel free to change your votes for the previous vote. If you do not change anything, I'll assume you're sticking with what you already voted.
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May 11, 2016 05:07
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When will the spores reach the science station?
RandomPauI fucked around with this message at 06:03 on May 11, 2016 |
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May 11, 2016 05:58
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RandomPauI posted:When will the spores reach the science station? Assuming they maintain a constant speed and aren't slowed down by things like asteroids, a little over 35-40 days. Assuming you retrofitted the freighters as fast as possible and everyone piled in, you could get everyone to Callisto a few days ahead of them.
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May 11, 2016 06:03
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Can we communicate with the space place directly?
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May 11, 2016 06:06
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Does the rate of growth outpace the max acceleration of our freighters given a 2 to 3 day burn time?
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May 11, 2016 06:07
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May 11, 2016 06:08
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RandomPauI posted:Can we communicate with the space place directly? You could absolutely try tightbeam transmission. If their antena is up, then yes. Tran posted:Does the rate of growth outpace the max acceleration of our freighters given a 2 to 3 day burn time? The max velocity of your freighters is about 300km/s, the spores, for lack of a better name are traveling at about 400 km/s. Assuming you leave the asteroid belt in the next five to seven days, and that nothing changes, you can beat them to Callisto.
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May 11, 2016 06:11
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My concern is more getting away from Callisto afterward.
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May 11, 2016 06:24
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Tran posted:My concern is more getting away from Callisto afterward. The freighters could have never made the crossing to Alpha Centauri without modification. As they stand they can't outrace the spores. If you make the changes you'd need to get them to AC, then they'll outspeed them by a pretty significant margin, assuming they have 12-24 hours head start to accelerate.
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May 11, 2016 06:32
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TheCog posted:The freighters could have never made the crossing to Alpha Centauri without modification. As they stand they can't outrace the spores. If you make the changes you'd need to get them to AC, then they'll outspeed them by a pretty significant margin, assuming they have 12-24 hours head start to accelerate. Is that assuming they come with us to Callisto, or assuming they head directly to AC?
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May 11, 2016 06:45
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RandomPauI posted:Is that assuming they come with us to Callisto, or assuming they head directly to AC? The modification is mostly reinforcing the structure, and putting *everyone* aboard into cryosleep to make inertial dampeners less of a necessity. If you don't modify the freighters, they're not gonna make it to AC. The plan did not currently involve doing that at Agrippa because there aren't enough cryo-chambers in Agrippa to do so, and it was not necessary if you're just going to Callisto. The good news is that making the changes doesn't require an orbital dock or anything, so if you can make it to Callisto and assuming everything goes smoothly, you theoretically have *just* enough time to modify the freighters, put everyone under, and get the hell out of dodge. Edit: assuming Callisto has enough cryoberths lying around. There are enough berths here that you could probably upgrade one freighter, if you decide to do that. TheCog fucked around with this message at 07:15 on May 11, 2016 |
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May 11, 2016 07:02
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Edit: Nevermind
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May 11, 2016 07:10
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If we take the supplies in the freighters it means that the supplies are toast anyway, right?
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May 11, 2016 15:26
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HardDisk posted:If we take the supplies in the freighters it means that the supplies are toast anyway, right? Not really? Depends on how delicate the supplies are, but most supplies are less delicate than humans, you can probably upgrade the freighters as just plain supply barges at Agrippa if you want, and make them capable of going .1c, its just no people can actually ride them if you do that.
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May 11, 2016 17:09
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I see. I will change my vote, then.
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May 11, 2016 17:15
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1.) What are you doing with everyone? Remember, anyone you don't take, dies. A.) Take everyone. Yes, it means less supplies, but you may be able to get supplies at Callisto, and probably either drop off these people or find a better way to transport them. 2.) What's your supply priority? B.) Renewable Food Sources. Less efficient per volume than A short term, more work to maintain, but it's renewable, and that matters. 3.) What are we doing with the Mutineers? F.) We'll convene trials in transit and judge people based on the nature of their crimes. 4.) How about Korma? B.) She showed initiative. Pardoned and given enough rank to be in charge of the loyalists. 5.) So what about contacting earth? C.) As B, but also explain that 24 hour window. 6.) Do we want to recover ARMOUR? Remember, having them on board would make a mutiny much more lethal for the side without them, and they're a loaded gun in that respect. They're also an insanely valuable tool that could save you in a jam. Oh and they occupy quite a bit of storage space given their maintinence needs. B.) No 7.) Making extra supply space. You can make extra room for supplies by getting rid of some missiles and some of the more advanced equipment. Do you want to? H.) Nothing! All these things are going to be useful! Also I don't want to risk the damage that removing core components like the EW suite might do to the ships sensor net.
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May 12, 2016 01:39
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Voting is closed. Update at some point today.
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May 14, 2016 16:24
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music! "Its time to go captain." You're startled awake by this pronouncement from a deep sleep. You could have sworn you were standing in an elevator... recently? The clock on the wall indicates its 21:00. Apparently you've been asleep for two hours? You don't remember making it to your cabin. That said, its not like you've gotten much sleep in the last hectic week. Restructuring freighters, evacuating 1400+ civilians, stripping supplies. Dumping every last missile. Caching the supplies so that if you ever return you can gather them. Monitoring the "spores" as they advance, impassive across the solar system. Yes, its been a week, of non-stop action. Its a miracle you've managed to get through on so little sleep, but whenever you close your eyes you can still see them, burning bright blue as they died. Admiral Ho. The Thanatos. The MESSENGER, snuffing them out like flickering candles in a hurricane. This is the first time you've managed to sleep without waking up, tears in your eyes and a scream dying in your throat. You should *really* see about getting those nightmares medicated, but its not like anyone on staff has exactly been idle. Trying to manage over a thousand people is not exactly an easy task, even in the best of circumstances, and by this point the Achilles is overflowing with people. Every inch of space is cramped, and you can smell it, even though the air purifiers claim to be working at 100%. Finally, at last, it's time to leave. The organization has been quite simple. To keep conflict to a minimum, and because of space concerns, you've put the remaining loyalists aboard the Achilles, and then split the mutineers and the non-combatants between the freighters. There are some civilian crewed pinnaces, since there wasn't enough room otherwise, and getting the freighters working to that level had been a challenge of its own. Convincing your crews that dumping the missiles was a good idea had likewise been difficult, but with those gone, there had been plenty of room for almost an entire hydroponic farm to be stored, and plenty of seeds to boot. Bringing Nutri-grow on board, given what had happened with Wilkens had likewise been a point of contention, but given the need to actually grow food, it had been a necessity. Not that it made anyone particularly happy. The decision to leave behind the ARMOUR had been much less difficult for everyone. There was no need to bring those on board and risk any more tense situations. You arrive on the bridge. Your staff is there, assembled, well, except for Dr. Himura, who after 80+ hours had retired to "Get some drat sleep". You look at them all. Pride swells in you chest. You'd all been dealt a lovely hand of cards, but so far you'd done well. You open your mouth to say something... and time seems to slow. You feel it. A burning in your temples. A fire in your skull. Like your brain is trying to escape. It burns across every nerve in your body. A fire like you've never felt.  You'd scream. You'd scream but you can't. Instead you stand there. Time is frozen, and it burns in your brain. You feel your heartbeat in your skull. THUMP. Your world is pain. THUMP. You're dying. You must be dying. THUMP. ...destiny... And then, as you feel like you're going to collapse... it stops. Kate looks at you, noticing you've suddenly gone pale and jittery. "You ok boss?" she asks, her voice even and measured, a bit of concern in her voice. You grit your teeth. You hear your voice, replying, your tone steeled "Yes, just a little tired. Lets get this show on the road". Your skull still feels like it got hit with a hammer. But you don't have time for that. "Helm, set course to Callisto. Give us max in system acceleration. Get the convoy underway". The plan is to go ahead and let Callisto know your convoy is on the way, then get back and provide escort. The civilians don't know you're weaponless, and your presence will comfort them in the almost month long journey. You do want a chance to scout ahead and resolve any potential situations like the mutiny you may find there As the ship gets underway, you say a few sincere words about how unspeakably proud you are that these are your people. About heroism. About loss. You didn't think you were the best public speaker, but the rousing cheer from the bridge suggests that your words found their mark. You may die tomorrow, but for tonight, your crew feels like a real crew, brought together by fire and death. While you travel, on the freighters, you've organized a special council of judges. Elected democratically, the nine members, drawn from the three factions, will render verdicts of the crimes committed. You and two representatives from your ship will vote on each when you get back, those that did not already have a 3/4 majority. The process isn't exactly perfect, and given your position of authority you can probably veto anything you choose, but its the start towards organizing a system of justice that doesn't put you as the only person in charge. (I'll introduce the people on the tribunal when it becomes relevant) In transit, you have some time to rest and recover. It's going to take your ship two days to make it to Callisto to sound the situation out. 1.) In that time do you tell anyone about your nightmares? A. No. B. Yes, Dr. Himura. C. Yes, Dr. Kipruto D. Yes, some low ranking medical person I can trust not to tell my officers. E. No, but I get someone to give me medication for my "insomnia" F. Yes, but not anyone above, write in who. G. No. but I address it some other way. Write in how. 2.) Or the weird thing that happened on the bridge? A. No. B. Yes, Dr. Himura. C. Yes, Dr. Kipruto D. Yes, some low ranking medical person I can trust not to tell my officers. E. Yes, but not anyone above, write in who. F. No. but I address it some other way. Write in how.  Callisto. You would have read up on it more, but a large number of the files are classified and just not available to your ship as a result. As far as you know, there are two bases. Callisto Prime and Callisto Minor. Prime is the main research and support station, home to 2500 civilians, and located in orbit above the moon. Owned by a coalition of earth governments, It's less of an exile than Callisto Minor, and a location remote enough that some governments are willing to use it for missile testing. It's also used as a site for some of the more long term studies on space exposure and the like. Still, no one sane really likes living this far out. In the fleet, being assigned to Callisto duty is called "being exiled", despite it having no real consequences, simply because there isn't that much to do out here. Callisto Minor is true exile if you're a scientist. If you wind up on Callisto Minor, its because no on on Earth or Mars would hire you, and its the death of your scientific career. Privately owned by the German megacorporation Bluthund, it's only notionally private, having extensive government contracts. Between the two stations there are about 3000 civilians, and extensive facilities. If you need to prepare for a long journey, there are few better places, as Callisto is designed to be mostly independent for extended periods of time. On approach, your ECW suite picks up the fact that you're being tracked, almost immediately, you're hailed, on tightbeam transmission. It looks to be the head of Callisto Prime. There is a quick discussion between Gregor and the man on the other side of the line before he finally materializes on your screen. He's tall. Gaunt. His face reminds you a little of a hawk, as he stares you down with two beady black eyes, perched on a sharp nose. "Admiral" he says, curtly "I can't say we expected to see any survivors, but Earth mentioned you survived.. I'm Balthazar Hermund" He pauses, studying you. His file appears on your screen. Looks like that hideous name is in fact his. "I'm Captain Hang Feng" you begin, but he interrupts you "Admiral, actually. Earth let us know that if you showed up, you were to be notified of your promotion, and issued your new orders. We're beaming them over now." He smiles a wry smile, which turns his face from scheming to genuinely amicable "Let me be the first to congratulate you on your promotion" there's a barb there, while his congratulations are sincere, there's also a bit of dark humor there. "I have to debrief you, privately". You gesture at Gregor, and the conversation goes to your iriscam only. He begins, his tone suddenly cold and serious. "I'm afraid you're in charge now, Sir" the tone has that barb again, the bitter cynicism of someone who's been passed over in the chain of command. Which makes sense, from his file Balthazar, is a logistics officer. Brilliant, but a bureaucrat, relegated to his position after a shameful incident involving an Admirals son and a scandal at an embassy. There isn't any particular stigma against homosexuality, but whoever leaked the pictures basically stopped the admiral's career dead, and his fury fell on Balthazar. Twenty years ago, and the man is apparently still paying for his indiscretions. "You do not know everything you need to know about Callisto to properly understand the situation. So I will brief you. Some of what you learn now will shock you. I'm afraid I don't have time to make it easy on you." He quirks an eyebrow at you, as if asking "Ready?" you nod. "Callisto is, superficially, a orbital science base designed for military and xenocollonization testing. This is true. What the public, especially the military, is not told, is that Callisto is also a black site." You suspected something like this, from the classified files. Secret weapon testing? It'd be surprising, given the cooperative nature of the locale, but not impossible. Black ops school? You *think* you know the locations of all three, but what if there's a fourth? "Callisto Beta, the third station in the Callisto complex, is a xenotechnology and xenoarchology site." your breath catches. As far as you knew, the first evidence of aliens was the appearance of MESSENGERs. Apparently not. The man does not stop there. "I have sent you the classified files relating to what we call sites Alpha and Beta, and to the spacial object we call Gamma." he continues "The short of it, is this, there was a settlement on Callisto. Over thirteen hundred years ago from the looks of it. We don't know what they looked like, only what they left behind. Some technology. Most of it damaged beyond repair, some of it we're still working on figuring out." He pauses, perhaps noticing your wide eyed stare, or that your hands are shaking. "That doesn't scratch the surface though. What we found in space, hidden, made of some material that camouflages it against all our sensors, was one single giant ring. We discovered it by virtue of almost colliding into it. It's an orbital station. Belonging, we think, to the same xenos who built Alpha and Beta. His eyes shine at this. "For three decades, we've been studying it. Almost a year ago, we got it working." He pauses, again. "It's a gate." He lets that sink in. For a second. For two. You fail to manage to utter words. He lets you stew "We think, at least. We've had some... issues" he pauses "For one, we don't know where it goes. For two, we're pretty sure it's one way." He pauses again "But we also think its the only way to get out ahead of the MESSENGERs". This all barely registers. You're still on "Gate". "Before you got here, we had a tiny bit of an issue, but now we think we can do it. We can get out". He continues explaining, how the gate requires a power source, how before the whole MESSENGER thing they were going to build a full on power plant to power it, but the whole affair paused that project. How they think they can use the cold fusion power plants of the Achilles to power it on. He goes on, explaining how once they hit the power threshold the gate stays open for a full hour, how it'll be a simple hookup. How they're not *entirely* sure its a gate, and not a giant trash disposal. How none of the probes made it back. How their xenolinguists haven't made heads or tails of the language, but the fluctuations of the gate match what they've seen from the MESSENGER movements. How they really hope this isn't a giant space garbage disposal instead. This... is a lot to process. And you're in charge. A quick scan of the classified files seem to verify what Balthazar is saying. This is a xenotechnology black site, and there is a object named Gamma that speculation indicates may be a stargate. 3.) You: A.) Believe this is a space gate and the way you're gonna get everyone to safety. B.) Aren't willing to bet humanity living on some... space thing of unknown function. You're still on the Alpha Centauri plan. C.) Talk to my officers first. (Vote for 4) D.) Other, write in 4.) Do you want to bring your officers in on this? A.) Yes B.) No There's plenty more to vote on, but what you vote for 3 will determine the course of the other votes, so we're voting that first. If you have any questions for anyone, you can ask them. You can only ask your officers questions about the gate if you vote A for 4, and I'll answer all of those in the update. TheCog fucked around with this message at 05:00 on May 16, 2016 |
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May 16, 2016 03:19
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1A 2BC 3 delay decision 4A
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May 16, 2016 03:29
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1A 2BC 3 delay decision 4A
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May 16, 2016 03:38
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1A 2BC 3 delay decision 4A
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May 16, 2016 03:39
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##vote 1: A, B 2: A, B For 1 and 2 frame it like "These aren't concerns yet, they're not recurrent things. This has been a traumatic time and we've all been operating on a lot of pressure and a little sleep. So something feeling out of whack could be expected. But if either starts to become a problem I want to nip it in the bud." 3: Request more info 1) How long can the station sustain itself? 2) Would it be possible to send half the population thru the gate and half on the alpha centauri plan? 3) Is the station itself mobile? 4) How many vessels does the station have that can be press-ganged into service? 5) Is the station safe from the alien's shotgun strategy? 6) If it is safe, how much could we recover from the asteroid base? 4: A
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May 16, 2016 03:45
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Has Earth been destroyed yet?
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May 16, 2016 03:47
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Also, what does our new hat look like since we are promoted now?
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May 16, 2016 03:48
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