Written in the style of the poorly sick Rhodsey, (hope you feel better mate!) I didn’t attend last week so apologies for the lack of clarity on how/what!
Session 7 The bigger wider tall Crystally thing
Jackson, the arsehole suspect is still missing but its suspected he’s making his way to the Bigger Wider Taller Crystally thing. The environmental conditions have worsened, and with the colony albut destroyed, Angelus appropriates the sub-orbital lifter the locals call the Cabbage, and manages to get it off the ground with the remaining 5 survivors and Dr Voss. Dr Jim (sorry Bro didn’t write down you toon’s name), has his hands full with medic duties on the survivors, Xiang, Angelus, Thatch etc (in fact everyone but Joe!).
Angelus injuries don’t stop him getting the Cabbage aloft, but it is clearly not the vessel it once was, and also clearly has only suborbital flight. A brief discussion sees him set course for the main big crystally thing for two reasons. (i) all tenuous clues point to it, and (ii) that’s the scenario the GM has scribbled on his bit of quality 160g paper for this evening.
Reaching the Obelisk (that’s what Dr Voss called it and it’s a lot shorter than Big Wider taller crystally thing), it is clear that the nominal description is accurate. It is bigger, taller… (about 5x bigger) than the other structures and its height is lost in the swirling low cloud. The only difference between this and its shorter brethren is that this one ‘turned off’. Noticing a lack of ‘magnetic’ field, and a complete lack of ‘buzz’ Angelus is happy to land the Cabbage close to the Obelix, and finds a conveniently placed* landing area in the jungle about 100m from it.
*Conveniently placed meaning a landing in the same place where an Epstein capable ship that burned a f**king great hole about a month earlier. Xiang, Angelus and Thatch apply their doubtless superbly enhanced level 5 perceptive skills and argue with Dr Jim’s perverse level 4 perception that it was only 3 weeks and a few days. Finally they agree the burned area was about a month old and basically aligned with the time lines for the weird shit happening on the planet.
Angelus did however spot some tracks from an ATV or similar heading into the jungle away from the Obelias and the team finally exit the Cabbage and make their way to it.
The entrance is easily detectable without the masking effects of the strange energy field. Xiang enters followed by the others and the interior is a (albeit much bigger) version of the other one. It is clearly powered down, with no signs of energy. Looking around Joe seeks a power source, but Xiang and Thatch are keep to run up the 1.5 km high Obelize and find the ‘control room’. The others reluctantly follow.
Two hours and everyone bar the slight monk is winded and generally irritated by the 2 hour trek up the winding Obelism. Even worse the trip is for nothing. There is no ‘on switch’ no flashy lights of glowy things, and its immediately apparent from the large hole in the centre of the room, a preponderance of construction equipment, and the power lift A-frame crane, that something about the size of a suitcase has been removed by force!
Joe notices that some of the tools are marked with the Laconion symbol. Deciding that there is no more evidence Joe pokes at the lift deciding that riding back down is a better option than a two hour slog. The others disagree and leave Joe to tinker. Thatch sarcastically points out that Joe is attempting to wire the crane power source back into the generator (and blow it up) before he turns and follows the others. 2 hours later they all meet at the bottom of the Obelus, a smug looking Joe having repaired the crane and noted that it would save a couple of hours if they needed to get back up as he had ‘rigged’ a remote control. The look of mild surprise on faces was quickly replaced by irritation when it was decided to follow the ATV tracks through the jungle and into the everpresent rain.
8 hours later….
The jungle is wet, very wet. The company is irritated, very irritated, and when they finally come to a chasm and look down, its clear that the ATV went down a steep slope (the long way round), but the strange mushroom looking ship at the bottom of the 100m chasm was very obviously its home base. Additionally the presence of 4 dry, comfortable looking Motherfuckers wondering around just casually fixing shit did nothing for everyone’s patience. Which is probably why, when the beeping started, everyone looked a bit blank before having a brief discussion…
“Whats that beeping?”
“Don’t know.”
“Is it you Joe?”
“Nope.”
“Is it you Xiang?”
“Iye.”
“is it you Dr Jim?”
“Definitely not me”
Swearing and assuming that the full set of Waltons finishing with “is it you John-Boy?” was next, Thatch stepped into the bushes and reset the movement detection sensor, noting the he could do nothing about the initial alarm but subsequent soundings would look like small animals.
The damage had been done, the 4 dry comfortable looking Motherfuckers (DCLM’s) found weapons and scattered like roaches. After 20mins of inactivity, they appeared again looking slightly less dry. Thatch counted off 4, 3 definitely military and one science type.
A plan quickly formed, the group would go down the cliff face, and assault from stealth whilst Thatch kept overwatch. Only Xiang and Thatch having any skill with such athletic endeavours Joe, Angelus and Dr Jim initially refused. Finally it was decided that Joe would remain up top as he was manifestly useless at physical stuff and had somehow produced a fancy looking Gauss pistol that Thatch was immediately amazed with… the cost alone could buy a…
Thatch’s thoughts were lost as Dr Jim’s and Xiang started to make their way down, and Thatch needed to be on a ledge before they got to the bottom. Angelus began his climb, and decided to fall most of the way. The rain soaked vegetation breaking his fall, in solidarity Dr Jim also fell but had the good grace and military presence to keep it to himself. Angelus’ call of ‘OOOOooooh Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!’ echoed off the sides of the chasm and action stated.
Thatch’s sniper rifle fired and one of the military types hit the dust, rain soaked dust, mud, sludge… whatever. Xiang rushed out of the bushes at the bottom of the ravine and savagely hacked at a monster of a man, wounding but not killing him. Joe fired and missed from the top of the chasm, and the recovering Dr Jim produced a shotgun (where the hell this came out from no one knows but it was on his sheet so who cares) and blasted away a nice tarpaulin some tables and a bit of another Laconian mook. Angelus was clearly still disoriented as his shot missed.
The Laconian science type ran for the ship, but Thatch, helped by Joe (who would have thought it) kept the others pinned down, and wounded the sciency type but not before he climbed into his ship and closed the door.
Combat effectively finished when the ship powered up and unsteadily commenced lift off and then disappeared into the rain sodden distance.
Arriving at the camp, (now in disarray) the prizes for the victors felt a big like the Bullseye big reveal… this is what you could have won… a Laconian ship. Instead the secondary prize of a fine ATV, lots of resources and mechanical equipment, and an alien suitcase crystalline thing kind of made up for it.
Packing everything up, it was only during the trip back to the Obstetrix that two recovered data pads became very intriguing. Two science reports outlining Laconian strategic plans for construction of Magnetar Class Cruisers with protomolecule tech. The reports clearly indicated multiple (if not dozens of such) under construction and requiring rarefied parts not present within Laconia. There were probably ‘extraction teams’ presumably on a number of key worlds, and using stealth tech to survey and acquire key alien technology for the Laconian warship effort. Avarsarala was going to want to know about this as soon as possible!
Returning to the Obelism, Joe’s lift came in handy (and yes he did look very smug), and the suitcase was installed back at the top. It didn’t work. No strange shit happened the thing was dead. Recalling (after a gentle hint from the GM) that the other obelix fixed things, Angelus booted the Cabbage over to it, and the suitcase was fixed in a jiffy of blue glowy light and strange firefly shit. Returning to the main Obelthing, the suitcase was installed first time just like connecting an iphone to a Mac, rather than struggling to configure one of the fuckers to anything android.
The whole thing lights up like a Christmas tree and the weather breaks for the first time in a month (3 weeks and 4 days according to the Level 4 Dr Jim)!
Angelus is able to land the Ship, and Dr Voss collects her research notes and other essentials and the rescued colonists and the crew leave the planet heading for the now empowered ring. Angelus and Thatch are composing a message to Avasarala when Joe comes up with a thought… why not convert a missile to a data transmitter, add some stealth panels from the trunk, and fire it through, it would be safer… Thatch was about to sarcastically remind Joe about his previous with missiles, and not it would take longer to build the damn thing than going though themselves… when the alert klaxon announcing an inbound missile started blaring…
With Thatch quietly cursing Joe as a Jonah and his own personal devil, the crew assumed their respective positions for battle (which did involve changing the bulb in the alert light)
More next time on… The Expanse…
