We need parts, and there’s only one other vessel here – I don’t just mean one that should have the parts – but one at all. It’s the Starlight Hopper, and she’s in Hangar 19.
Silas asks me to hack the video security feed. I get in (duh), and check footage for the last motion detected. The networks here must be a bit trashed, because it takes a bit. And of course, just as I pull up footage of a human and a gobban returning to the ship, on the live feed I see the ship’s inner door opening on Kavita and Silas, showing a human with a blaster. Go figure.
So, since I figure these two are about to trip an alarm, I decide to beat them to the punch, and trip ALL the alarms! I was just going to do a simple:
while($i = 1; $i <= 100; $i++) { alarm(‘hangar’.$i); }
to have them all going off at the same time, but I apparently triggered some bug in the monitoring software and instead of all going off at the same time but in order, they started go off randomly (rolled a NAT19). This is even better – looks like a weird malfunction.
I also start monitoring the base’s comms for a security dispatch. Man, this system is so full of holes, their username/password might as well be admin/passsword (rolled a NAT20!). Meanwhile, Kavita and Silas dispatch the human and gobban quickly and liberate them of their blasters and a tool belt, and tie them up and put them in a closet.
Oh, and those alarms? Still going off. A security team was dispatched, and as soon as they turned off the first alarm, checked the space to see all was ok, and lock the hangar, I set the alarm off manually. I mean like not even a second after they move to the next one. These poor guys don’t seem happy.
While they’re poking around on the ship, I check the port’s manifests for the Starlight Hopper make and model. I quickly get the schematics, and shoot them over to Kavita to help her steal the hyperspace bypass core. Between her tools, a cypher, engineering training, and a bit of effort (and a NAT20!), not only does she pull the core but manages to complete a 60 minute procedure in 2 minutes. Two minutes!
When K&V are ready to return, I swap the tripped alarms from the bays to the main building to clear the path for my friends. To help speed up the transfer of stolen goods, iZac bribes/sweet talks some spacemaintenancemen out of their spacegolfcart. When they’re ready, I go to unlock 19’s bay door but have a moment of inspiration (another NAT20!) and I OPEN ALL OF THEM! These poor security guys are going to need a drink tonight. Especially since I’m not done causing mayhem.
iZac grabs them, zips back to our bay. Everyone’s back onboard now, except for iZac. He sees a synth come in through the door – it’s the one who was looking for me, and his got a crew that’s trying to surround our ship. A lot of them come in quietly.
As soon as iZac’s in I engage the bay’s fire suppression system, and open the bay door.
And remember that bit about the security guys going to have a bad day? It’s about to get worse. I set up a script to execute shortly after we leave – it will purge logs and a/v records for all of today and yesterday. Then it will skip a day and delete the next. Then skip half a day and delete the next half day, and so on. I want to make it look like a ramping up failure. iZac manages to safely accelerate the ship’s warm-up process.
Now done with writing the log-erasing script, I check external cameras – our main bay is open, the ramp is down, and it looks like there’s some sort of device on either side of the door. And … I could swear I see a leg in the bay. iZac sounds alarm. This is a problem, but an easy to solve one. I talk to Ki’ki and tell her that if she wants to sate her rising bloodthirst, there are those onboard that would keep us from Mars. She goes after them, Silas joins her. This’ll be easy.
We take off, and decide to orbit until the hyperdrive’s been repaired.
Still though, the bay door won’t close and inner airlock door has thakfully not been opened. I try to check our surveillance for airlock, but the camera is disabled. Ki’ki and Silas get to cargo airlock door quickly, and Ki’ki starts trying to force open the door immediately. I do a hard disable it to prevent disaster. Silas tells Ki’ki that there’ll be no atmo if that door gets opened. Fine by Ki’ki – doesn’t need air. Ki’ki is determined, so Silas gets on other side of bulkhead and I open the airlock. There’s a synthetic on other side and Ki’ki just starts slashing. The synth’s shoulder starts to separate, and it flies out the door. The danger being mitigated, we remove (carefully, so we can keep them) the two small devices that are keeping the outer door open, and shut it.
Considering how easily Kavita removed the bypass core, she has no problem installing it in our system, and in minutes the hyperdrive light goes green and the capacitors start to charge.
We also find a small black box that was on the synth, who was apparently an Ares Marshal. I fire up one of the earlier found phins, and plug it in. The Apollyon logo comes up and prompts for passkey. Kavita can’t get in with tools, and Silas knows it’s a security lockbox. Looks like it’ll have a long password – probably can’t brute force it.
I decide to check the phin to see if there’s some sort of unlikely software vulnerability. Looks like I might be able to crack password after all, but will need better phin hardware. So, after making a disk image backup of my more powerful phin, I wipe it to use it as access hardware. It takes a bit (I burned through ~5 or 6 xp to re-roll), but I finally crack it. A drawer slides open, revealing a datachip and what’s clearly a navchip. I insert datachip into my phin, and a hologram pops up, with text that says Clearance: Umber. It has mission specs to stop the Ki’tik at all costs. We see the name Leya Bogana, who was assisting the Ki’tik. The orders say that they are not to reach Mars, and has a list of places they may be found. Crux is listed, Vega Una may be. It also lists Aquaria Playland on Mars.
Shiiiiiiit. I’ve been to the Aquaria Playland – there seems to be a very malevolent AI named The Concierge.
We also learn that the navchip is set to jump to Mars. It’s a fresh navchip too – latest data.
We run a full systems check, and everything looks good. When we plug in the navchip, everything dims. I re-run the diagnostics and diff the results against the pre-navchip results – no difference, everything looks good. We jump anyways, but we didn’t initiate it – the ship jumped by itself. This … doesn’t bode well? That’s not how it’s supposed to work. And when we exit hyperspace, the ship adjusts course and jumps again. Things look ok, but this is odd.
When we arrive at the edge of the Sol System, we hear Leya on the intercoms, thanking for getting her back to Sol and protecting her ship. Apparently that weirdness I saw on the data core was an impression of Leya’s personality that’s been laying dormant. She wants to get to Mars – saying Ki’ki has pressing business to attend to.
Pressing business with The Concierge.
Session Date: 12/19/16
Title Source: Clutch – Tripping the Alarm
GM Recap: S4-A05 | Criminal Law Space Statute 14:60 – Aggravated Burglary
