Traveller Session 10

The site of the radio jamming

184-1105: Reminder: Cyndariel (and Kimbley) are back on the Vagabonds Hope, everybody else is at the landing site of the Launch. The heavy radio interference is overwhelming so there is no radio communication between the Launch and/or characters and/or (in particular) the Vagabonds Hope.

We start heading towards the ruins with our lights on as it is permanently twilight due to planet being tidally locked. Masuyo finds a strange door, the building looks ancient, very high tech but ancient none the less. I approach a window and I see nothing unusual, the room is fairly empty but there are some cubicle like objects in the corners of the room around 50-100 cm tall. The door is closed with no obvious opening mechanism, Masuyo readies her weapon gives the door a push and surprisingly it opens, (strange for something this high tech???).

Chase hears something coming from the south, there is a bear in the tree close to him, (Dream?). to my left is a river not too deep and relatively swift flow from north to south, Junebug moves closer to the window and confirms that aside from the strange items -which are 75cm tall- it is empty, she opens the window and hears an electrical hum which she lets me know about. The bear quickly approaches Chase and attacks knocking him out. Tharbin takes a shot at the bear and misses but it does distract the bear from Chase. Hearing the shot Junebug moves into position and also takes a shot at the bear and scores a minor hit causing a small amount of damage but the bear is still moving. I ready my autopistol and take a shot if nothing else to cause confusion and distract the bear more knowing my pistol won't do much if any damage due to the armoured hide, I do score a hit but as expected it only causes minor damage but I do make a hasty retreat and leave the guys with the hunting rifles to their work. Tharbin and Junebug continue shooting at the bear with the tranquilliser darts whilst continually moving to avoid taking too much damage although the bear is very focused on Junebug, Tharbin misses most of his shots but Junebug is successful in all of hers she takes a small amount of damage from the bear but her armour takes most of the punishment and finally it collapses due to the tranquilliser. Tharbin shouts for me to head back to the launch to get the restraints we brought for the bear and Chase after receiving some emergency first aid from Masuyo and has regained consciousness returns very slowly and carefully to the Launch to recuperate until he can get back to Cyndariel on the "Hope". After collecting the restraints I head back and see Chase making his way gingerly back to the Launch, I give a pat on the shoulder gently as he passes and a smile as I carry on my way.

A Sentinel of the signal site

As I am making progress with my task Masuyo and Junebug make their way into the ruins to explore, Masuyo is in the lead and she enters a room to find what appear to be bones lying on the floor, upon closer inspection they are in fact cybernetic parts, these are of similar technology to the wall high tech and antiquated. The size is overall taller than standard humanoid at around 7 feet tall. Whilst they are exploring Tharbin and I restrain the bear and drag it back to the Launch. Masuyo and Junebug continue their exploration and find more doors which are extremely sensitive to physical touch, even after all this time the doors work very well. There are strange lights inside the are some form of construct like old fashioned torches, no fire, but they give off a faint light, in the room there is a filing cabinet like object with no obvious doors or drawers or opening of any sort, upon closer examination it reminds Masuyo of the white box we have aboard the "Hope". She eventually finds the room Junebug and I saw through the window and hears the strange hum but disregards the rooms as there is no signs of danger or anything else of interest, as she moves further into the ruins she finds a hole of some kind in the floor but there is no way back up so she leaves this for now and continues to the door instead. in this room there appears to be two of the cybernetic beings, complete and apparently standing as sentinels, they are not moving, at this point she calls off further exploration and retreats to the entrance to wait for Tharbin and I to return to the ruins. We arrive back to find both Junebug and Masuyo waiting for us, "Problem?" I ask, Masuyo fill us in on what they have found so far and motions us to follow and we head back to the room she discovered, here Junebug takes the lead and throws a small pebble from her pocket into the room, no reaction from the "Sentinels", this time she throws her dagger into the room it causes a small mark on the floor and there is a slight twitch from one of the "Sentinels", she relays this information back to us and we all hear "Language identified, why are you here?". Junebug tells the "voice why we are here and asks about the comms blackout, The "Voice" explains that they have initiated a quarantine due to contraband being present, can you identify the contraband for us? "Yes", elaborate please, "It is a foreign probe and it is not permitted to go any further". Junebug asks permission to collect her knife from inside the room which is granted.

Meanwhile back at the Star port there is a commotion coming from outside which disturbs Cyndariel and i seems to be coming from the ship next to ours, so she goes to the window to have a look and an angry mob is heading straight for the "Hope". Banging comes from the door with a loud demand to OPEN UP, having no other choice and being somewhat flustered she lets them in and asks "How can I help you gentlemen?" The Captain of the other ships starts shouting demands for compensation for lost fuel and a collapsed jump bubble. Cyndariel stumbles through an explanation that she is only the medic on board and has no authority to authorise something like this, but lets him know that he can talk to Earl (the Captain?) when he gets back from his expedition, this mollifies the other Captain somewhat for the time being.

Back at the ruins Masuyo continues to have a conversation with the "Voice" asking if the comms jamming is coming from this facility and if so can it be turned off, the answer to both is "Yes, but only if we leave the probe here". We start to record everything, and I whisper to Tharbin to leave his bug here while he returns to the "Hope" with the Launch, Chase and Earl to retrieve the contraband (white box). "Where do we have to deliver it?" "The pit" is the response, the hole Masuyo found we assume. She explains that we will have to return to our ship for retrieval and are informed that this is acceptable.

Masuyo asks permission to enter the room form which the "Voice is issuing" and gets a somewhat surprised affirmative, Junebug stays on guard for us as Masuyo continues her conversation with the "Voice" I go off to investigate the cybernetic parts that are strewn around.

Masuyo discovers that the "Voice" wants to quarantine the contraband and has made a request for assistance to investigate the probe, but it will take a while for this assistance to arrive (at least two weeks). Can the comms for our party and ship only be unjammed to help us expedite the process of retrieving the probe and delivering it faster? "Not possible". Knowing that we have to report on everything that has occurred here Masuyo is concerned for the welfare of the facility and the "Voice" and asks if it can defend itself? response "You will not leave until contraband has been examined"

P.S I hope you all don't mind but I have taken to shortening the name of our ship to the "Hope" to save me a bit of time, and don't all great ships deserve a nickname.