eternity:session_6_oh_god [redemption]

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======+++ NEW LOG ENTRY - GABRIELLE SHEER COMMANDING 6-0-SPD +++ =====

=====Pre-Contact=====
Well, this was a...bad day. Let's take it from the top.
Upon arrival in-system, our sensors picked up a cluster of orbital debris at the expected co-ordinates of the b-Exagora space elevator facility. FTL comms were down and, while automated sub-light messaging from the dirtside facilities seemed to still be operational, our hails were originally met with silence from the correctional facility.\\

I put the Six on a geostationary orbit, some distance away from the debris and ordered as detailed scans as possible of the debris itself and the planetside installations. My original surmise was that this destruction was the result of Enemy action and that we would find the planet scorched of life. I continued hailing on all frequencies, just in case, but was not particularly hopeful that I would get a response.\\

The scans, however, showed that the destruction of the space elevator was not due to weapons fire. We identified parts of the previous supply ship (Apparently, it was the P-1-PBB; rest in peace Captain Marlowe, you old bastard) still in orbit; and further scans of the planet located a massive crater near the equator, where the rest of the freighter must have deorbited and crashed.
At that point, and after almost thirty minutes of uninterrupted hails, we got a text message from the planet. It was an acknowledgment of our hail and a request for patience. Apparently, they were having problems with their comms equipment and were trying to establish a connection. They were estimating this would take a few minutes.\\

This made me somewhat suspicious. The automated systems pinging our ship since we left FTL were working perfectly fine (if with a slight amount of interference). However, given the damage the orbital facilities had suffered, I chose to give them the benefit of the doubt.\\

===== First Contact=====
A short while later, I received a hail from the planet and the first holovid connection was established. Attending on our end was myself and Senior Comms Officer Remi Oberman. From the facility's side, we originally saw three people, who identified themselves as Superintendent Serena Huang; Coordinating Officer Asher Segal; Correctional Officer (and advisor to the Superintendent) Riley Cole.\\

We were informed by Ms. Huang that, approximately 10 months ago, the P-1-PBB had come out of FTL and collided with the elevator station on final docking approach, possibly affected by a solar flare; that the correctional facility had suffered many casualties but that they had managed to scrape out a living for the time it took for the Six to arrive; and that they were in dire need of supplies (especially medical supplies and foodstuffs) to survive until the next supply ship. I requested to speak to the Warden; I was informed that the Warden was incapacitated.\\

The situation seemed dire - there was no way I could think of that would allow us to deorbit enough supplies barring the shuttles; and they are not built for cargo hauling. It appears, however, that the prisoners had managed to manufacture drop-pods of a sort - drop pods that could be 'folded' into a volume that could be carried by a shuttle and then loaded with supplies ship-side for a safe de-orbit burn.\\

I asked to speak to their chief engineer, so as to discuss the details and that's when I got my first nasty surprise. For none other than infamous Nicholas Russel, the Feldspar Fraudster was ushered in. I was told that the correctinal facility personnel had suffered truly massive casualties and that they had been forced to employ talented individuals amongst the prisoners to stay alive.\\

While I could not fault their drive to survive, I was highly suspicious of putting anything designed by Russel on board my ship and informed Ms. Huang of this in no uncertain terms. That said, I was also loath to allow what appeared to be several thousand people to die, when the supplies needed for their survival were at hand. An arrangement was reached, eventually - we would be given the opportunity to inspect the drop-pods planet-side to our satisfaction before ferrying them up.\\

=====Busted=====

At that point, we closed the connection until further notice. I ordered Mr. Oberman to keep a close sensor watch on the facility; and then went to sift through the supplies meant for b-Exagora and for any emergencies. At that point, I found two named parcels: a large crate meant for Serena Huang; and a smaller box addressed to Riley Cole.\\

This peaked my interest. What were the odds of the only two people I had named parcels for showing up on the previous conference? My guard was up. I sent a probing message down to the facility asking what should be done with these parcels - I received a curt response from Ms. Cole to include them in the drops.\\

I must admit that my curiosity peaked at this point. The drop pods would have limited space, as Mr. Segal had mentioned; and important supplies would need to be prioritised. What personal possessions could be important enough to take up drop-pod space?
\\

At that point, and given the gravity of the situation, I decided to open the parcels. I was //incensed// to find a truly impressive collection of designer shoes in the crate meant for Ms. Huang; and truly enraged to find the package meant for Riley Cole filled to the brim with illicit drugs, including what I believe to be Rainbow Mithra, Bliss and other such substances. These people had employed Halliday (unwittingly, but still!) to ferry drugs.\\

Shortly after that, I was summoned to the bridge by Mr. Oberman; apparently an anomaly of sorts had been identified planet-side. A light was flashing from the planet to our position - somebody had found a way to send light signals in Morse code to us. The message we received was:\\

DANGER. DO NOT TRUST. LIARS\\

At that point, my paranoia kicked in at full effect. I asked Mr. Oberman whether we had any way of responding; he proposed an ingenious method, of rotating the ship via attitude thrusters, to reflect sunlight from our hull. Our answer (limited in lenght by necessity) was:\\

RECEIVED. NAMES?\\

Shortly after, the repeating message from the planet changed, and we knew we had established contact.\\

ASHER SEGAL\\

At that point, I could no longer ignore what seemed to be a danger to my ship and crew. I was isolated from central HQ and had to take an executive decision; I ordered the ship to boost to a higher orbit and prepare for FTL travel, if it should prove necessary. I also kept up the exchange of signals.\\

SITUATION?\\

EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL.\\

EXPERIMENT?\\

BIO-WEAPON.\\

And that was all I needed to hear. The situation in the prison was clearly different than what had been presented to me; and the mere chance of allowing a bioweapon on-board, only for us to spread it to our next stops was inconceivable. With a heavy heart (and, admittedly, with an increasing sense of urgency) I ordered the ship to boost away from orbit and prepare for an FTL translation. As we were boosting away, I flashed a message back to the planet:\\

YOUR NAME?\\

VIOLA MCALLY\\

REMEMBERED\\

Shortly after that, and with the Six already boosting out, we received a hail from the planet. As we were still some time away from FTL, I saw no harm in re-establishing a connection and, perhaps, allowing whoever was in charge down there to explain themselves. I ordered Mr. Oberman to open a channel and accept no signals from the planet barring that specific channel.\\

=====Desperation=====

I was presented with a dishevelled and panicky Superintendent, who garbled frantic questions about why I was leaving. I was not in the mood for games and, so, I informed her that I would only engage in conversation after they had brought forward Ms. McAlly.
My worst expectations were realised, when I was presented with the corpse of a young woman, shot brutally through the forehead. I was informed that she had been 'trespassing in the comms room' and had to be 'removed'.\\

This was the //last straw//. I remember being near-apoplectic with rage. This...summary execution made clear to me that, whoever this 'Superintendent' was, any disciplinary personel down there had utterly lost control of the prisoners. The use of lethal force against a prisoner (instead of paralysation or collar-inflicted pain) meant that the guards were either unable or unwilling to use collar-based disciplinary measures; and neither was a comforting proposition. The former meant that the prisoners were, effectively, in control of the facility; the latter meant that the guards were trigger-happy enough to casually commit murder. Whichever was the case, I could not trust my crew to be safe planet-side.\\

I outright told Ms. Huang this and demanded that the charade cease immediately; I also challenged her to reveal what she knew about this bioweapon. Apparently, she had just found out about this herself (hah!); although Mr. Segal seemed less surprised. What followed was a flood of heartfelt, desperate pleas from Ms Huang: the weapon had been released into the prison population; more than a thousand people were already infected (a gruesome list was sent to my ship) and the only way they could manufacture a prophylactic vaccine for the rest of the population was to get to the medical supplies aboard my ship. Otherwise, they would all be dead within three years at most.\\

Again, I informed Ms. Huang that my first priority was the safety of my ship and crew; it was not my job to save their lives (and endanger ours) if their medico was stupid enough to play with dangerous viruses. She vehemently claimed that she had evidence that this was something done with the approval of the government; that similar viruses might be developed in terraforming facilities further along my route and that, if I were to make the decision to leave three thousand people to their deaths, I had damn well make sure I knew everything about this. She then forwarded a number of files relating to the development of the bioweapon in question.\\

=====Persuasion=====
We pored over the files. They certainly appeared genuine; they included the expected security headers - and they had certainly been approved from high-up in the government. To what extent the government had funded and organised this project was unclear; but they clearly were aware that this was going on; they had clearly authorised the testing of airborne bioweapons among their own inmate population and, by extent, they had endangered my crew and myself (we were more than likely to come in contact with infected people during our run).
\\

This rather changed the situation; and I found someone //else// to be angry at.


=====Coming Clean====

It was difficult to accept that the Empire had condoned such research and, for a time, I was reluctant to believe that the files the Superintendent had forwarded me were genuine. I asked for the prisoner who had posed as Riley Cole (the truth had come out during Ms. Huang's pleading) to join the call; and forbade the Superintendent from saying anything. What followed was an interrogation during which I desperately tried to find any discrepancy between Ms. Huang's and Mr. Segal's tale and the account of the prisoner (a Ms. Alethea Rucker). I am sorry to say that I could find no such discrepancy; and that the same files forwarded to me by the Superintendent were also forwarded by the prisoners, who had apparently acquired them through stealthy means.\\

The situation, essentially, boiled down the following:\\

1. The facility currently hosts just over three thousand souls. Of those, around 1500-1600 are already infected by the bioweapon and will be dead in less than three years unless they receive help.\\

2. It is possible for them to synthesise a prophylactic vaccine (to innoculate the rest of the population) but //not// a cure; and that only if I can get medical supplies down to the planet in time.\\

3. If the situation is made known to the government, they are likely to make all of us 'disappear'. I imagine witnesses are not something that they'd like around. Looking for a cure from Elysian sources will probably end in the deaths of all involved.\\

4. The situation is relatively volatile; who is in command planetside is not clear.\\

At this point, I ordered the facility Comms room cleared, so that only Ms. Huang, Mr. Segal, Ms. Rucker and Mx. Serpico (another prisoner who had been instrumental in acquiring the files, from what I was led to believe) were present. We then proceeded to discuss our options.
My first priority was to make sure that my ship and crew would be safe. I flat-out asked if my interlocutors were aware of any plans to hijack or otherwise take control of the ship. Both Ms. Huang and Mr. Segal replied in the affirmative: the former covertly, the latter out-loud. I intend to discuss what they know of these plans with them in greater detail during the upcoming days and take all necessary precautions.\\

 For now, I have ordered my Comms Officer to airwall all comms systems of the ship from her main systems; and to only accept incoming signals from the facility comms centre. We have set up an encryption hash with Ms. Rucker and Mr. Serpico, using the optical systems that Ms. McAlly also used: to my knowledge, they are the only ones who can initiate an uplink with the Six that we would not summarily reject. We know that a ship can be hacked (apparently that was the fate of the P-1-PBB) and I do not intend to allow the same to befall the //Six//.

=====Plans=====

Session 6: The Hell Happened

Cameron’s Perspective
Session Start: Myself and Yangos did some light RP while we were waiting for coms to come online. This was largely theorycrafting about what happened before we arrived to leave this situation. I gave some scans of the area; basic info such as there was no ships in orbit, no reports of Tel attacks in this area, etc. etc. Yangos sent out some of the ships crew for a visual on the wrecked elevator, and got visual identification of an engine, identical to the one of the 6-o-spades, indicating that probably the last supply ship had crashed into the elevator. This was confirmed with a visual scan of the ground where a low-res image of the crash site could be picked out.
Comms come online: Eventually, the comms came online from Alethea/Session. Alethea is pretending to be Riley Cole. Asher/Superintendent/Nick Russell are all being themselves. The captain immediately distrusts Russell, as they are a known criminal in the industry. The guards give an overview of the current situation, and a plan is roughly worked out.[a][b]
Several other people are brought into the comms meeting, including notable Viola.
The meeting is terminated, and everyone leaves, except Viola who stay behind.
Viola attempts to open Coms with the ship, but Alethea continues to remotely shut it down. This leads to them having a remote text conversation. Viola can deduce these messages are coming from on planet.
Viola then has the idea to point the prison lights (essentially a spotlight on one of the guard towers) into the sky, and flash it, using the in-universe version of morse code. The ship picks this up, and uses the low sun and reflective surfaces on the ship to reflect the sunlight and send a message back to the prison.
Using this rudimentary message system, Viola warns that the prison is dangerous, and drop Asher Segal’s name as being involved.
The captain heeds the warning, and begins spinning up the FTL jump drives to get the fuck out of there.
Alethea picks up a signal indicating that the ship is about to jump out of there, panic ensues
Eventually Asher, Nick, Superintendent, and Alethea head back into the comms room. Upon finding Viola in there, Asher shoots viola in the face, killing them.
Coms are reopened, and The captain asks to see Viola. Segal shows them the dead body.
At various points various people hack into the comms (are able to listen in. Definitely includes Doc Harmony, among others)
The info about the bioweapon comes out. At this point (as I notice Alethea has MF#5) I brief Hannah. Alethea starts coughing.
Several other people also start coughing up blood, and others have various levels of reactions to MF#5
Mike’s Perspective
Spent the whole session either as Hanlon or OC.  Mostly using Hanlon to push ideas at the players.  Answered various quick OOC questions, none of which are particularly memorable as important unless listed below.
Goaded Viola into hacking the comms the first time [c](“You’re an investigative journalist right?  Why are you sat here complaining that you can’t find the thing out rather than finding the thing out?  There’s no guards keeping you in the room now…”)
Hanlon was pushing the plan to get off planet and in orbit around somewhere that could help cure the bioweapon (because frankly the prison doesn't have the tools or expertise)
Some time after the first set of conversations, Yangos asked what was in the package addressed to Riley.   The answer was drugs, lots of drugs.
Doc was under the impression that information obtained from Yuri indicated that a cure could be made with the resources in Stn. Green.  I ruled that the lab setups that she had seen when on tour with Greco were not portable.
When the FTL began to spool, ended up (IC and OOC) in several hacking discussions.  Some contradictory information was given (as a result of GM team miscommunication - sorry Misha!), but the eventual result was to allow hacking via the comms so long as the players put an action into it.
When Hannah announced that there was an EIS agent in the prison, Graeme had just left the room.  I gave him a quick heads up when he got back in (as a rumour which is now spreading like wildfire)
The comms confirmation between the ship and the prison is to flash a pattern of lights based on a hash of the current time - this would basically require investigation+hacking and an action to get around - except for Alethea and Agnostino (who set it up) and Kvash Leyh (who was listening in).
Morgan’s Perspective
Initial comms prep: Alethea spoke to Asher about whether the Superintendent could be trusted, Asher told her that she was out to save her own skin and Alethea should be ready to cut comms if she started spilling too many beans, but that as the highest-ranking guard available she was necessary for credibility. Alethea sent Asher to fetch Nicholas, who started talking to imaginary-Avery while Alethea tried to persuade him to lend her his scarf. At this point the ship was attempting to make contact and Yangos and Cameron were making phone noises.
Comms: Still pretending guards in charge. Gave abbreviated account of what happened, which was mostly accurate except it omitted a. The bioweapon and b. All events of the last two months except drop pod construction. Also did not yet mention that the guards had been using lethal force on the prisoners. Alethea claiming to be Riley, was told the ship had a package for him. Supply drop plan communicated, ship agreed to drop supplies via pods to the coordinates Nick provided, after checking with ship engineers because the Captain didn’t trust Nick. Agreement that staff and prisoners who’ve served their time could leave.
At some point, people (Doc and someone else) started listening in, and were definitely there by the time the Captain said that she wanted guards with the pods but would drop a shuttle on any prisoners seen at the drop point. Told the ship we’d send them supply requests etc., cut comms.
Alethea/Nick/Serena/Asher discussed how much to tell the prisoners. Nick proposed his hijacking plan. Asher flipped and told him not to get diseases all over space. At this point the Superintendent found out about the bioweapon and started freaking out. Nick continued pushing his hijacking plan, including the variant of ‘and vent all the crew into space’. Asher then went to get Harper to help with this conversation, so I don’t know the details from that point.
Came back with Harper, having spoken to Agnostino as well and told them to wait until Alethea was done before talking to her. By the time we got back, the situation seemed to have calmed down; everyone went back to the main room.
Gave a precis of the situation to the main room - specifically, that the supply drop plan was going ahead pretty much as planned, that the ship was still under the illusion that the guards were in charge and people should act accordingly, and that anyone trying to mess with the supply drop would probably end up squashed.
Ballgowned in a corner with Harper for a bit. Only massively plot-relevant thing that happened there was that the Superintendent came over and demanded the list of vaccinated people, which Asher gave her to make her go away. Minorly relevant character motivation thing in that Harper really wanted off the hellrock.
Switched characters for a bit [d][e]and went in as Jimmy. Jimmy was mostly coughing all over Andras, who filled him in on things - including Nick’s hijacking plan “go back and forth at relativistic speeds so we don’t have time to die before someone finds a cure” variant.
Someone started shouting about the ship spooling, there was a lot of confusion and people looking for Asher and Serena so I did a quick costume change - didn’t catch a lot of the details as a result.
We (the original comm group, immediately followed by Agnostino, Lorelei, and I think some others once it was clear we weren’t immediately opening comms) went into the comms room and found Viola doing something with a computer. Much shouting. Asher grabbed the computer and passed it to Harper to see what she’d been doing; Harper returned that she’d been fucking with the lights. Someone said “Morse code?”. General agreement that she needed to be dealt with and then excuses made to the ship.
Chaos. Several people realized that Asher and Serena were the people capable of killing her. Asher asked for a gun. Harper found him one. Turned back, Serena was choking Viola. Shot Viola in the head because apparently being shot in the head by Asher is the inevitable fate of characters played by Steph. Agnostino took the gun back. All the prisoners hustled out of the room, though most of them were listening in. Alethea reopened comms.
Comms: a lot of fast talking. Claimed that a prisoner had broken into the system. Captain mentioned Viola had said not to trust Asher, asked to speak to Viola. Was shown corpse. When she questioned this, Asher (truthfully!) said the guards had been authorized to use lethal force several months ago to deal with increasing prisoner unrest. Captain emptied Riley’s package. Asher flipped his shit, because he’d never actually got solid evidence on the Riley drug-dealing thing and so OF COURSE someone was using it against him NOW. Superintendent revealed that Riley was dead and ‘Riley’ was Alethea. Captain asked about bioweapon. Superintendent spilled the beans that she had. Alethea and Harper decided it was too late to cut her off and we might as well see what the ship response to that was.
People started hacking, and Alethea went off with them. This was notable for being at the same point as the Superintendent started talking about the government having hacked the previous ship and told the Captain to check his own systems and crew.
Once the Captain was told about the bioweapon and requested evidence, Harper and Agnostino (who had been fetched as an expert witness) both sent her their copies of the data (as image files). She still seemed dubious about the government involvement angle, and Asher took Harper to one side and suggested he came clean about his involvement and hope that confession (and the associated extra data) would convince her. Harper convinced him to wait, and it did turn out that the Captain seemed to believe without that, so Asher didn’t confess. Captain being given vaccine specs and checking with crew, established that vaccines could be synthesized for the uninfected people on-planet and for her crew.
Partway through the planning conversation, Alethea intercepted a message about the EIS and a shuttle and ran off to investigate (I IC told her that it shouldn’t be possible for anyone to be taking off from the surface as the shuttle was at Station Blue). Came back in later to tell the Captain she had a shuttle leaving her ship, which turned out to be untrue. As a result, not sure which parts of the planning conversation she was there for.
New plan: supply drops as before, but to a location of the Captain’s choosing, only to be revealed to a few specific people. No comms to be accepted except from the conference room. Once supplies done, the ship could take off ~1500 infected people, max 2,000. Everyone else would have to stay. Asher assured her that the remaining prisoners could become self-sustaining given supplies. Agreement that the Empire was not a safe place to research a cure, Asher suggested the ship head for Tel space; the Captain agreed that they’d have the best incentive to want a cure for an Elysian bioweapon.
Captain asked if any of us in the room (I think at the time, Asher, Serena, Agnostino, and either Harper or Alethea - I don’t remember which but it was definitely four total) were aware of any attempts to hijack the ship. Long silence, then Asher came clean re. Nick. Additionally, suggested that the True Elysians were probably the least trustworthy and unlikely to be happy with the Tel space plan. Implication that they possibly should be left, but didn’t say it outright because by this point entirely aware that people were probably listening in (OC I could see Doc and Kvash definitely were at that point).
Told the Captain it’s a two-day trip to Station Blue to pick up the pods, and if the prisoners have a shuttle it’ll be there too. Was told we’d be sent the coordinates for a pod pickup point upon receipt of a video of the shuttle being destroyed.
Asher kind of tuned out of the ongoing discussions of what should happen re. person transport after the supply plan was agreed, because the supply drop, the information getting out, and no-one going on the ship until everyone aboard were vaccinated was already everything he wanted to achieve. (Hannah later mentioned in the pub that Alethea and Agnostino agreed codewords with the Captain without everyone else, if that happened it was presumably at this point, but Cameron/Yangos had best confirm.)
Agreement reached, cut comms. It was ~9:30 and I wanted to traumatize Fyr so I went back in as Jimmy.
Andras told Jimmy that the ship was planning to take all the infected people to find a cure.. No-one told Jimmy the “take the data to the Tel” part of the evacuation plan, so he wasn’t set against it.
Nick was still pushing his hijacking plan. Jimmy bounced back and forth between several groups of people, but mostly just draped himself over Andras and looked miserable, so I wasn’t picking up huge amounts of information at this point.
Was told about Viola, was vocally disappointed that Asher had shot her so Andras couldn’t beat her up.
Got up, marched over to Nick and Lorelei, who were still debating the merits of hijacking v. trusting the ship. Demanded to know whether they had a plan yet. Was told they had two and hadn’t decided. Turned on heel to go back over to Andras, collapsed in the middle of the floor with Kvash looking concerned. Was about to die dramatically in Andras’s arms when SOMEONE ca[f]lled Time Out.
Amy’s Perspective
The initial conversation with Alethea, Asher, Serena and Gabrielle are as documented.
Serena found out after that conversation
The existence of the bioweapon
That Nick wants to hack the ship and possibly kill the people by venting
Serena went into the main room and started shouting about the bioweapon, was confirmed by multiple sources, was tried to persuade to rub geranium to calm down
I tried to Zhar Ro and Nick caught me
Nick told Serena
The plan for time dilation cure thing: go to a planet with science. Give data. Whoosh back and forth so weeks pass for us but years for them. Whoosh in. Get cure. Live.
Don’t trust the Captain no srsly
She told Vaska, Nick, Alethea, Charles (who was trying to get her to rub the geranium) what the Captain said:
Will wait 2 weeks
Will send down supplies
I Zhar Roed for three sentences before the word went out that the FTL is spooling and people literally screamed where is the Superintendent?
Serena found Viola McAlly and what was going on. Lorelei pointed out that I had no collar. I was shouting for a gun, Morgan was somewhere behind me, nobody gave me a gun out of like 3 prisoners with fucking guns, Lorelei said PUT YOUR HANDS AROUND HER NECK OR WE ARE NEVER GETTING OUT and basically it was just hilarious.[g] 
Captain Sheer opened comms. Serena explained hacker, dead body, Riley drugs, Riley revealed, as documented
At this point a private conversation between Serena and Sheer, witnessed by Alethea and I believe Harper. She came clean:
Site of bioweapon research.
Collars fucked.
Riots.
Lots of ppl dead.
Station Red and crash as described
Black Box data showed Government hacked ship to crash
I believe she persuaded Sheer on three points to stay:
You are in danger. You are going to other planets, are they experiments too? Are you infected already? If you carry on, will you get infected and never have a chance at a cure?
You are in danger. The Government crashed the last ship. You know too much. Is the Government going to kill you?
Pleasepleaseplease don’t leave us to die
Miraculously, Alethea confirmed. Conversation as documented by Yangos.
I allowed Harper to send Sheer data from Greco’s computer from last action. I told Yangos, who called his medic and had time to look over it[h], the information that players got from turnsheets:
Veracity of bioweapon research. Elysian government.
Contagious. Airborne.
Vaccine available on planet.
Yes, you have the supplies needed for the planet to make more vaccines.
Yes, if you are careful with venting the air and wearing spacesuits etc, you should not catch it according to what you know.
Likely to be alive at 1yr and dead at 3yrs.
No cure.
Verm, Lorelei, Doc Harmony were watching this
A while later, after frantic conversations as elsewhere documented, I said Agnostino (the Superintendent, desperate to prove she was telling the truth, ran for them) sent Sheer more comms with what Agnostino found two turnsheets ago. It’s the same info. Sheer confirms same info.
Sheer lays down plan as per Yangos and Asher.
Sheer not liaising with Superintendent as has lost all faith in her ability to keep control :( :( :(
Superintendent told Lorelei, Verm, Vaska, Nick, Doc Harmony, Darren Swift, Carol Winters, I Teyk about most of this, the Captain’s plan+viewpoint, her rationale for agreeing with plan. Doc Harmony said Viola was working alone and problem was dealt with.
Superintendent confirmed EIS=Elysian Intelligence Service, and said she’d never heard of them working here.
Superintendent BEGGED Nick not to do the crazy stupid shuttle thing and infect ship, but is aware that Nick is planning to. Hence subtly mouthing ‘Yes’ to Gabrielle.
At this point I went in as Zhar Ro for 1.5mins to talk to La Ma. Since Idan was unable to be in session a lot, and I was unable to Zhar Ro, I said to Idan it was fair if I did a wibble GM thing and emailed like we were in session, or whatever Idan wants
A couple of other random GM calls:
Idan asked what the lymph nodes were, I have no idea why La Ma needed that info
Someone needed to know how much inhalational anaesthetic agent Greco had left, I have no idea why, the answer is quite a bit, like enough for a few hundred operations (standard couple of tanks of sevo)
Zac’s Perspective
Mentioned to Vaska OC that their text communicator had found a connection to the ship and that they could use it.
Spent time as Yuri IC
As Yuri informed Andras about the research on the virus. That we had no cure. And that vaccines were possible. Cure would probably need lots of effort and station green equipment.
Later told Andras that there were indeed vaccines in the medbay.
At this point Agnostino announces the bioweapon to the room in general.
Vaska asks me to send a message. It’s alerting ship captain. Alethea intercepts the message and stops it.
Vaska later sends message “Are there EIS members on board?”
Alethea replies “Yes”
Vaska replies “Mission complete. Source of Vermilion rebellion confirmed”
Vaska later sends “EIS extraction in progress. Do not shoot down the fucking shuttle” - doesn’t try to actually send a shuttle or anything
This conversation was also intercepted and read by Doc Harmony.
Alethea asks the main room in general if anyone knows what EIS is. The room figures out the acronym.
Spent a fair amount of time manning the doors.
Players asked if there was anaesthetic in the medbay. After asking Amy what Greco had I informed them there were two canisters of anaesthetic gas left, enough for a room or two.
Spent time as Aina letting people know the Creed aren’t going anywhere but are willing to help everyone else leave.
At one point Carol asked me what my favourite bird was
I told him it was a seagull
Andrew’s Perspective
(probably mostly not terribly relevant)
I don’t remember hearing much of importance as I Teyk, except the bioweapon announcement and some discussion of how many people we should even be trying to get on the ship. There was confusion as to whether the ship had heard about the riot.
I heard that a shuttle was coming down from the ship, but didn’t hear why.
There were messages sent back & forth between Viola & the ship via morse code:
Do not trust. [possibly something slightly longer I can’t remember]
Recieved. Names?
Asher segal
Your name?
Viola Mcally transmitting
[some query from the ship about what the problem is]
Biotic weapon
At some point during this the ship starts preparations to leave without breaking contact with Viola.
Alethea asked in the main room what EIS was. It was decided to not torture people to try to find the EIS agent.
After Asher’s announcement about the ship’s offer to take all of the ill people, Carol and Darren continued trying to upload the virus, insisting that they were in too deep and couldn’t stop now.
I only found out from Verm that the ship’s offer was conditional on us destroying our shuttles. People were generally being distrustful of the offer.
Discussion of how to get rid of the collars by breaking into the guard complex and stealing the warden’s key. People seemed to be settling on pumping some sort of poison gas in there first.
Jay’s Perspective
Session start: agnostino, Harper, Lyla, Imogen, and Aanya have a meet up to discuss events. We don't know where Alethea is but Harper says she's in charge of Coms now (only to me). Word gets to us that the ship has made contact somehow? Unsuccessful attempts to contact Alethea are made by some people and then I ask Harper to try. We learn she is talking with them with the guards attempting to convince the ship that guards are still in charge.
We hear that the True Elysians have told the ship the truth; this rumour is quickly dispelled by Harper bringing word from Alethea.
Asher comes in and says that they're going to drop supplies. Much rejoicing. We try to decide whether it will be better to go along with this or to try take over the supply ship. Asher and Alethea leave to do more coms things.
Agnostino comes from the main room and hands someone a gun. When I ask why he tells me that Steph’s reporter was trying to sabotage things and was shot by Asher.
Then we get word the ship is spooling to leave. We call for Asher and Serena to go deal with this and convince them to stay. While this is happening, Darren Swift has a superior computer virus to Doc Harmony and so Alethea gives permission for theirs to be uploaded (but it already is anyway) and they say this virus will allow them to take control of the ship and stop them leaving. But it is uploading. Harper is also there.
Then someone collapses from mystery flaw and I call for Athena to see to her and we all start coughing up blood. We go out for a bit.
Alethea comes back in and asks what EIS stands for and I suggest ‘Elysian Intelligence Services’ and she seems to think this makes sense. Me, Verm, Andras and Imogen speculate on what this means; we hear a shuttle is coming to collect an EIS agent but don't know where from. We speculate on if the agent is to do with the bio weapon or if they're there for something or someone else (because why wasn't Greco just reporting directly back - could just be they don't trust him).
Nicholas Russel suggests keeping all infected people in transit until a cure is manufactured. Lorelei suggests vivisecting Harper.
When I go back in Yangos is asking Asher and Alethea to destroy the shuttle and saying they will not send any supplies until they see evidence of that.
Asher says they salvaged more than could be expected from that situation.
It is announced by Asher that they will take on all infected and jump through Tel Space and everyone else will stay but if any attempt is made to sabotage the ship then they will bomb us. Hopefully Darren Swift’s virus will prevent this.
Alethea says our lives are not important, it's our message that needs to get out. I suggest designing a video message that will act like a virus and spread through every communication system it makes contact with.
Yangos’s Report
+++ NEW LOG ENTRY - GABRIELLE SHEER COMMANDING 6-0-SPD +++
Well, this was a...bad day. Let's take it from the top.
Upon arrival in-system, our sensors picked up a cluster of orbital debris at the expected co-ordinates of the b-Exagora space elevator facility. FTL comms were down and, while automated sub-light messaging from the dirtside facilities seemed to still be operational, our hails were originally met with silence from the correctional facility.
I put the Six on a geostationary orbit, some distance away from the debris and ordered as detailed scans as possible of the debris itself and the planetside installations. My original surmise was that this destruction was the result of Enemy action and that we would find the planet scorched of life. I continued hailing on all frequencies, just in case, but was not particularly hopeful that I would get a response.
The scans, however, showed that the destruction of the space elevator was not due to weapons fire. We identified parts of the previous supply ship (Apparently, it was the P-1-PBB; rest in peace Captain Marlowe, you old bastard) still in orbit; and further scans of the planet located a massive crater near the equator, where the rest of the freighter must have deorbited and crashed.
At that point, and after almost thirty minutes of uninterrupted hails, we got a text message from the planet. It was an acknowledgment of our hail and a request for patience. Apparently, they were having problems with their comms equipment and were trying to establish a connection. They were estimating this would take a few minutes.
This made me somewhat suspicious. The automated systems pinging our ship since we left FTL were working perfectly fine (if with a slight amount of interference). However, given the damage the orbital facilities had suffered, I chose to give them the benefit of the doubt.
A short while later, I received a hail from the planet and the first holovid connection was established. Attending on our end was myself and Senior Comms Officer Remi Oberman. From the facility's side, we originally saw three people, who identified themselves as Superintendent Serena Huang; Coordinating Officer Asher Segal; Correctional Officer (and advisor to the Superintendent) Riley Cole.
We were informed by Ms. Huang that, approximately 10 months ago, the P-1-PBB had come out of FTL and collided with the elevator station on final docking approach, possibly affected by a solar flare; that the correctional facility had suffered many casualties but that they had managed to scrape out a living for the time it took for the Six to arrive; and that they were in dire need of supplies (especially medical supplies and foodstuffs) to survive until the next supply ship. I requested to speak to the Warden; I was informed that the Warden was incapacitated.
The situation seemed dire - there was no way I could think of that would allow us to deorbit enough supplies barring the shuttles; and they are not built for cargo hauling. It appears, however, that the prisoners had managed to manufacture drop-pods of a sort - drop pods that could be 'folded' into a volume that could be carried by a shuttle and then loaded with supplies ship-side for a safe de-orbit burn.
I asked to speak to their chief engineer, so as to discuss the details and that's when I got my first nasty surprise. For none other than infamous Nicholas Russel, the Feldspar Fraudster was ushered in. I was told that the correctinal facility personnel had suffered truly massive casualties and that they had been forced to employ talented individuals amongst the prisoners to stay alive.
While I could not fault their drive to survive, I was highly suspicious of putting anything designed by Russel on board my ship and informed Ms. Huang of this in no uncertain terms. That said, I was also loath to allow what appeared to be several thousand people to die, when the supplies needed for their survival were at hand. An arrangement was reached, eventually - we would be given the opportunity to inspect the drop-pods planet-side to our satisfaction before ferrying them up.
At that point, we closed the connection until further notice. I ordered Mr. Oberman to keep a close sensor watch on the facility; and then went to sift through the supplies meant for b-Exagora and for any emergencies. At that point, I found two named parcels: a large crate meant for Serena Huang; and a smaller box addressed to Riley Cole.
This peaked my interest. What were the odds of the only two people I had named parcels for showing up on the previous conference? My guard was up. I sent a probing message down to the facility asking what should be done with these parcels - I received a curt response from Ms. Cole to include them in the drops.
I must admit that my curiosity peaked at this point. The drop pods would have limited space, as Mr. Segal had mentioned; and important supplies would need to be prioritised. What personal possessions could be important enough to take up drop-pod space?
At that point, and given the gravity of the situation, I decided to open the parcels. I was incensed to find a truly impressive collection of designer shoes in the crate meant for Ms. Huang; and truly enraged to find the package meant for Riley Cole filled to the brim with illicit drugs, including what I believe to be Rainbow Mithra, Bliss and other such substances. These people had employed Halliday (unwittingly, but still!) to ferry drugs.
Shortly after that, I was summoned to the bridge by Mr. Oberman; apparently an anomaly of sorts had been identified planet-side. A light was flashing from the planet to our position - somebody had found a way to send light signals in Morse code to us. The message we received was:
DANGER. DO NOT TRUST. LIARS
At that point, my paranoia kicked in at full effect. I asked Mr. Oberman whether we had any way of responding; he proposed an ingenious method, of rotating the ship via attitude thrusters, to reflect sunlight from our hull. Our answer (limited in lenght by necessity) was:
RECEIVED. NAMES?
Shortly after, the repeating message from the planet changed, and we knew we had established contact.
ASHER SEGAL
At that point, I could no longer ignore what seemed to be a danger to my ship and crew. I was isolated from central HQ and had to take an executive decision; I ordered the ship to boost to a higher orbit and prepare for FTL travel, if it should prove necessary. I also kept up the exchange of signals.
SITUATION?
EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL.
EXPERIMENT?
BIO-WEAPON.
And that was all I needed to hear. The situation in the prison was clearly different than what had been presented to me; and the mere chance of allowing a bioweapon on-board, only for us to spread it to our next stops was inconceivable. With a heavy heart (and, admittedly, with an increasing sense of urgency) I ordered the ship to boost away from orbit and prepare for an FTL translation. As we were boosting away, I flashed a message back to the planet:
YOUR NAME?
VIOLA MCALLY
REMEMBERED
Shortly after that, and with the Six already boosting out, we received a hail from the planet. As we were still some time away from FTL, I saw no harm in re-establishing a connection and, perhaps, allowing whoever was in charge down there to explain themselves. I ordered Mr. Oberman to open a channel and accept no signals from the planet barring that specific channel.
I was presented with a dishevelled and panicky Superintendent, who garbled frantic questions about why I was leaving. I was not in the mood for games and, so, I informed her that I would only engage in conversation after they had brought forward Ms. McAlly.
My worst expectations were realised, when I was presented with the corpse of a young woman, shot brutally through the forehead. I was informed that she had been 'trespassing in the comms room' and had to be 'removed'.
This was the last straw. I remember being near-apoplectic with rage. This...summary execution made clear to me that, whoever this 'Superintendent' was, any disciplinary personel down there had utterly lost control of the prisoners. The use of lethal force against a prisoner (instead of paralysation or collar-inflicted pain) meant that the guards were either unable or unwilling to use collar-based disciplinary measures; and neither was a comforting proposition. The former meant that the prisoners were, effectively, in control of the facility; the latter meant that the guards were trigger-happy enough to casually commit murder. Whichever was the case, I could not trust my crew to be safe planet-side.
I outright told Ms. Huang this and demanded that the charade cease immediately; I also challenged her to reveal what she knew about this bioweapon. Apparently, she had just found out about this herself (hah!); although Mr. Segal seemed less surprised. What followed was a flood of heartfelt, desperate pleas from Ms Huang: the weapon had been released into the prison population; more than a thousand people were already infected (a gruesome list was sent to my ship) and the only way they could manufacture a prophylactic vaccine for the rest of the population was to get to the medical supplies aboard my ship. Otherwise, they would all be dead within three years at most.
Again, I informed Ms. Huang that my first priority was the safety of my ship and crew; it was not my job to save their lives (and endanger ours) if their medico was stupid enough to play with dangerous viruses. She vehemently claimed that she had evidence that this was something done with the approval of the government; that similar viruses might be developed in terraforming facilities further along my route and that, if I were to make the decision to leave three thousand people to their deaths, I had damn well make sure I knew everything about this. She then forwarded a number of files relating to the development of the bioweapon in question.
We pored over the files. They certainly appeared genuine; they included the expected security headers - and they had certainly been approved from high-up in the government. To what extent the government had funded and organised this project was unclear; but they clearly were aware that this was going on; they had clearly authorised the testing of airborne bioweapons among their own inmate population and, by extent, they had endangered my crew and myself (we were more than likely to come in contact with infected people during our run).
This rather changed the situation; and I found someone else to be angry at.
+++ LOG ENTRY (CONTD.) - GABRIELLE SHEER COMMANDING 6-0-SPD +++
...
It was difficult to accept that the Empire had condoned such research and, for a time, I was reluctant to believe that the files the Superintendent had forwarded me were genuine. I asked for the prisoner who had posed as Riley Cole (the truth had come out during Ms. Huang's pleading) to join the call; and forbade the Superintendent from saying anything. What followed was an interrogation during which I desperately tried to find any discrepancy between Ms. Huang's and Mr. Segal's tale and the account of the prisoner (a Ms. Alethea Rucker). I am sorry to say that I could find no such discrepancy; and that the same files forwarded to me by the Superintendent were also forwarded by the prisoners, who had apparently acquired them through stealthy means.
The situation, essentially, boiled down the following:
The facility currently hosts just over three thousand souls. Of those, around 1500-1600 are already infected by the bioweapon and will be dead in less than three years unless they receive help.
It is possible for them to synthesise a prophylactic vaccine (to innoculate the rest of the population) but not a cure; and that only if I can get medical supplies down to the planet in time.
If the situation is made known to the government, they are likely to make all of us 'disappear'. I imagine witnesses are not something that they'd like around. Looking for a cure from Elysian sources will probably end in the deaths of all involved.
The situation is relatively volatile; who is in command planetside is not clear.
At this point, I ordered the facility Comms room cleared, so that only Ms. Huang, Mr. Segal, Ms. Rucker and Mr. Serpico (another prisoner who had been instrumental in acquiring the files, from what I was led to believe) were present. We then proceeded to discuss our options.
My first priority was to make sure that my ship and crew would be safe. I flat-out asked if my interlocutors were aware of any plans to hijack or otherwise take control of the ship. Both Ms. Huang and Mr. Segal replied in the affirmative: the former covertly, the latter out-loud. I intend to discuss what they know of these plans with them in greater detail during the upcoming days and take all necessary precautions. For now, I have ordered my Comms Officer to airwall all comms systems of the ship from her main systems; and to only accept incoming signals from the facility comms centre. We have set up an encryption hash with Ms. Rucker and Mr. Serpico, using the optical systems that Ms. McAlly also used: to my knowledge, they are the only ones who can initiate an uplink with the Six that we would not summarily reject. We know that a ship can be hacked (apparently that was the fate of the P-1-PBB) and I do not intend to allow the same to befall the Six.\\

After that, we discussed how to get the necessary supplies down to the planet. The original drop-pod plan still seems to be our best option and I have decided to pursue it. However, it is clear that the safety of my people cannot be assured and that I must take all precautions against rogue, desperate prisoners attacking the shuttles. The plan that we agreed on was the following:\\

An expedition will be organised to Station Blue, where the drop-pods will be loaded onto lifters and 'folded' for shuttle transportation. We (i.e. the Six) will then designate the coordinates for the drop-off point. The lifter will travel there, deposit its cargo and depart - only after confirming this will we send shuttles down. The shuttles will perform several flyovers to make sure the area is clear; and then they will land.
Personnel on-board will be armed. \\
If we have the option of manufacturing the vaccines on-board the Six, they will have been innoculated; otherwise, they will be wearing sealed environmental / space suits, to protect them from airborne contaminants. They will inspect the drop-pods for any foul play; and then they will load them up into the shuttles and return to the Six. If we have not innoculated the crew, they will flush their atmosphere before docking (obviously still wearing their space-suits) to decontaminate the shuttles.
We will then load the supplies onto the drop-pods, prioritising based on the list that Mr. Segal has sent us; and we will begin de-orbiting procedures ASAP, aiming for whatever point on the planet we are told to.\\

That much I am confident we can pull off; the rest of the task we are presented with, however, is quite daunting. Unless action is taken, more than fifteen hundred souls will die. The only option is to provide them with professional help and medical facilities. As established above, seeking such in the Elysian Empire would be foolish and, probably, result in the death of my crew and myself as well, as those who authorised this atrocity seek to silence witnesses. My //only// option, at this point, therefore, is to load up the infected prisoners (for there is no ship that could reliably offer them transportation in time) and seek political asylum with the Tel or the Consortium. Given that this was a weapon likely intended to be used against the Tel, it makes sense that they will be most eager to find a cure and help these people - and accept to grant refuge to the crew of the //Six// as well.\\

Treason, then.
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