Prison Pit

The Mask Comes Off

Meeting Grove, Jorait World, 1008/Spinward Marches, 17:18 shipboard time, 211/1107

DM Note: Full house tonight, for the penultimate session of Prison Pit before Aimo goes off Penguin-bashing again. With typical believable realism, PCs not present last session were suddenly always there all along by the beginning of this one.

Martha probed again, not quite able to believe that the Jorait had no weapons at all; Gripper's contribution ("You want to buy some?") left the Jorait puzzled, as commerce and money were unknown concepts in their monolithic society. Manx asked if they had a 'dark museum'; after some explanations, it emerged that the Jorait's equivalent of a 'museum' was sections of the mental knowledge pool containing their oldest memories. None of these went further back than their arrival on the Sunless World, fleeing some nameless terror, slightly less than two thousand years ago. This proved that the alien creatures had been on the Sunless World more recently than the Solomani.

DM Note: At this point the session crashed to a halt in favour of a discussion on whether it could be viable to coat a woman in chocolate and meringue and bake it. There was some debate as to whether any man could continue to concentrate after the chocolate-coating part, whether the subject would survive the cooking, and where one would find a lady willing to co-operate. If Poland was that place, it was proposed to call the resulting 'dish' Baked Polaska

All the cons were prey to the increasing feeling that there was no way to get away with building the research base on the Sunless World without revealing the subject of the research to their hosts. Finally Alice squared her shoulders and laid the project before them, topping it off with a showing of the presentation footage - the version with no mention of the Artifact of course! - by Minion. As the images flickered and moved, Alice watched Manx rather than the facially immobile Jorait, looking for signs he was picking up telepathic reactions. Manx was; horror, fear - but no anger (he'd never felt anger from the Jorait) and tellingly no surprise. After the holo finished, there was a long pause. Finally Dyelin spoke. 

"As you know we have no weapons with which to resist you," he said, "but we implore you - abandon this path. Do not research this knowledge. It is more dangerous than you can know." Alice shrugged. "We're humans," she said wryly, "curiosity is in our nature. Once we know something is there to find, we will find it, sooner or later. Curiosity killed the cat," she added, perhaps inappropriately. "Curiosity here might kill your entire species," rejoined Dyelin, "and many of the others out there." Gripper chipped in. "If we learn enough of these things we might be able to wipe them out," he said. "The creatures are no longer a threat - unless you pursue this path."  "Tell us what you know, as you seem to be experts," urged Martha, "or we may well make mistakes as disastrous as you fear." 

"We will not aid you in this," said Dyelin flatly. "We do not want to see you succeed." Silently, Manx agreed mentally, adding that there was little they themselves could do to stop the project going ahead. 

"Did you create the creatures?" asked Gripper abruptly. "No," said Dyelin simply. Attuned to the flow of emotions as he was, Manx knew that this statement was true. A flood of other questions followed:

"Why won't you help us learn?" growled Martha angrily. Dyelin was unfazed. "If one of your young wanted to put its' hand into a fire, would you feed more fuel into it, or persuade it to withold?" he responded. "This meeting is over," said Martha. "Our engineers will begin building on the site you have given us, and we will start our research." She stood up and walked away."

Gripper, Alice and Manx spoke more with Dyelin, requesting permission to remain and study with the Jorait, which was granted. Martha returned to the Darmagan, muttering darkly about orbital bombardment and nuclear weapons. 

Jorait World and Darmagan, 1008/Spinward Marches, 211-231/1107
Ground Chief Lackshawe

Dr Murtagh

Over the next three weeks, Lackshawe's ground engineers used the Darmagan's ten 50-ton cutters to transport the prefabricated research base to the location on the surface provided by the Jorait. Rapidly, the perimeter, buildings and structures sprang up, and unless something went wrong the base was likely to be completed by the target date of 240. 

Three of his workers complained that they had begun to hear the Song of Exultation - though without knowing what it was - and Ship's Surgeon Murtagh prescribed them psiblocker drugs normally used to incapacitate Zhodani prisoners. This seemed to clear the problem up and all three went back to work. 

One of the things Martha had been doing during the Darmagan's voyage to the Sunless World was quietly planning how she would take the ship over. Now, she dusted this plan off, updated it and set it ready to execute at a moment's notice. Not without qualms, Manx had given her access to his Lookers, and she had been practising her netrunning for a whole year, on these very computers. There was nothing she couldn't break into at need. As well as this, she spent some time with one Andrew Hough, a 3rd Officer in the Sensor team and another of Manx's Lookers. Together, they triangulated the Sunless World and collected enough sensor data on it to satisfy a Scout Service mapping team.


Slightly Fresher Alien Eggs

They also sent one of the survey robots down to examine an anomalous mass of metal on one of the uninhabited landmasses - called Munin by the Jorait - and discovered a vastly ancient starship wreck. The Snow Goose had felt old, but this made it look like it was freshly-launched; in many places, the hullmetal was more of a smear of corrosion on the surrounding ice-covered rocks than a structure of its' own. What was perceptible of the design resembled neither human, nor zhodani, nor Jorait, and had no resemblance to the Alien webbing they had found on the Goose. However, deep inside the vessel they found the fossilized remains of curved, ovoid, organic-looking objects around a metre high, some intact, most missing the tops.... Alien eggs. 

Manx had privately asked the Jorait if they could help him understand their mental powers better. Rather to his embarrassment, he found himself in a training class for quite young Jorait, but persevered over the three weeks. Gradually, doors opened in his mind as he was shown how to harness his long-latent abilities. Much of what the Jorait were learning was beyond his strength, and some of it beyond his understanding, but he'd already learned the basics of mental communications in the initial contact and his understanding of his original 'preacher's edge' became much better. 

As he studied, he assiduously learned everything he could about the Jorait and their culture. As he did so, it dawned on him that there were 'blind spots' in what was being taught, the biggest of which emerged as being power generation. No information on the Jorait's energy sources was taught in the class - it wasn't just Manx that was excluded. 

Gripper had made it clear that he would like to help the Jorait in any way he could, and with the bigger build of a human combined with the enhancement of his battledress he was far stronger than any Jorait. Their hosts found him things to move or lift, though it did seem rather that they were doing so out of politeness rather than genuine need. 

He too realized that at no point did he come within sight of anything resembling a power plant or energy source. 
Genetic Analysis

Alice had explicitly asked for a guided tour, and Dyelin had assigned a younger Jorait named Elarion to show her around. Over the next few weeks she learned a good deal about the Jorait culture, which she found to be civilized, peaceful and admirable in many ways. Their technology, though very different to those she knew, was comparable or superior to Imperial levels. She professed an interest in their medical facilities, and was given a tour of a hospital - the highlight of which was the chance to witness young Jorait hatching from the leathery eggs in which they were born. Under cover of this joyous occasion, she had no difficulty flicking a piece of the empty egg-shell into a pocket. 

After her tour, she sent the sample up to Arba Choix on the Darmagan, who ran a complete DNA analysis on it and delivered the surprising conclusion that the Jorait and Alien DNA had absolutely nothing in common. Alice was very surprised; she'd been confident they were related. 

high orbit, Jorait World, 1008/Spinward Marches, 08:49 shipboard time, 231/1107

On the morning of 231/1107 the daily report from the construction site contained a worrying item; Eric Wiedermann, one of the three workers who'd begun to hear the Song of Exultation had disappeared in the night. The Jorait were sympathetic but unable to help; their suggestion was that he'd strayed into the frozen wastelands outside the domes. 

This time, Davis didn't even try to stop Brigadier Farquarson from mounting a military expedition. The Brig sent four G-Carriers down to the site with instructions to quarter the area and search for Wiedermann. They spent an entire day hunting and found not a trace; the real trouble began on return. As the weary soldiers disembarked from their vehicles and trudged towards the hangar exit, decon teams scanned them with a variety of medical sensors. With the soldiers from Carrier 3, a slew of red lights came on, and the hangar was sealed while more tests were done. Grumbling, the corptroopers were scanned and tested, and within the hour Martha, Alice, Davis, Farquarson and Dr Murtagh were looking at the compiled images in gathering horror. 
Sergeant Nicholson

Each soldier had an area of his body that stubbornly resisted medical imaging, showing instead a blurred incongruity. From the records of the doomed Snow Goose, Martha knew quite well what that meant. "Get that vehicle back out into space!" she insisted, "and evacuate the hangar to vacuum for a few hours." Grumbling but compliant, Sergeant Nicholson shepherded his squad back into the grav APC and the pilot lifted it out of the bay to a parking position ten klicks away. 

The carrier's telemetry showed that - for no reason at all - it had landed at an unremarkable location in the wastelands, and all systems had gone off. Half an hour later, they'd come on again, and the crew had continued on as if nothing had happened. As far as the crew and troopers were concerned, nothing had. 

Alice turned to Davis. "There's only one option," she said, "send them down to the Jorait hospital for treatment. Despite what they say, they know more about the Aliens than we do; we only know enough to be sure that we can't extract those eggs." She briefly sketched out what they had learned from Manx's mental eavesdropping without going into details as to how. 

Farquarson spluttered. "You're using my men as bait to get answers out of these ... criminal primitives!" he snarled. Davis lifted a hand to silence the brigadier, then turned to Alice. "Is there nothing we can do to save these people?" he asked quietly. Alice shook her head. "Your men are already dead." said Martha flatly, "this is the only chance they have." Davis turned to the comm. "Flight control," he said, "please direct G-Carrier 3 to these co-ordinates..." Alice was updating Manx and Gripper - still dirtside - and Manx sighed. Five Lookers were among the soldiers aboard Carrier 3. 

high orbit, Jorait World, 1008/Spinward Marches, 09:53 shipboard time, 231/1107

Two hours later the carrier dropped through the dome and descended towards Slammic hospital. The Jorait had been advised of the incoming casualties ten minutes before, and a group of them stood at the edge of the landing pad waiting for the carrier to land. Gently the vehicle touched down, and the sixteen soldiers trooped down the ramp, followed by the two pilots. Standing for a moment looking around, uncertain of what to do next, their attention was drawn by a sliding sound as several panels opened in the walls of a nearby structure. Creatures born of nightmare spilled out, rushing across the landing pad towards the humans in a waterfall of sinewey, scaly horror. Some of the troopers managed to get sidearms drawn in time and gave a good account of themselves, felling several of the Aliens, but at that close range shooting them was suicide, the unlucky trooper dying screaming in the gout of acid blood. Most were ripped apart before they could react. Within moments it was done, and the Aliens loped back to their lair, dragging or carrying the human corpses with them.
The Vanguard leaves the Sunless World in a considerable hurry- click it for larger image!

Aboard the Darmagan, klaxons were already yelping. "Battle Stations!" blatted Captain Brown's voice through the tannoy. "All personnel dirtside evacuate immediately, repeat immediately!" Alice had called Manx and Gripper; "Get up here, now! It's hit the fan!" she yelled, though Manx did not need telling. The wave of resignation and regret he'd felt through the gestalt before he was gently but firmly excluded could only have meant one thing. By the time he reached the Vanguard, Gripper had the engines warmed and his armour on; as soon as Manx was aboard, Gripper slammed the hatch and hurled the ship into the sky. 

Above, terrible images were appearing on the main bridge viewscreen. A wave of Aliens was converging on the construction site outside Slammic city. Of the three cutters currently dirtside, one had been destroyed on the ground and the other two, packed with workers, were lifting as they watched. The remaining fifty workers, and all fifty of the corptroopers assigned to the site, were forted up in the control tower, ready to defend themselves until the next wave of cutters reached them. 

 
Session Date: 2nd November 2011 (306/-2507 Imperial)