I deploy my Lotus Projector to scout for a docking bay other than the one the onboard presence wanted us to use. Another one of the space superiority frames is present in the intended bay – it’s configured for ground mount, not launch mode. Several other VTOL-fighter frames are present, as well as a collection of non-combat utility/worker frames. It looks like they’re loading the space superiority frame’s missile bays with something similar to the nanotech weapons we encountered in the wasteland.
But wait there’s more! Behind the combat frame – two open caskets of a familiar design, empty except for a collection of independently motile wires and biomechanical filaments. A dozen human(oid) individuals are standing around. Probably human, but wearing long concealing cloaks, solid black masks or visors, gloves, long sleeves – no exposed skin, as far as we can tell. Heat is above room temp but below human norm. Their movement is very fast, jerky, precise, and efficient.
Let’s not use that door.
The ship has a high activity level. Numerous drones are moving around, working on the ship. Weapon bays are being upgraded. It appears that it’s being brought up to Union standards of combat capability.
First order of business is stabilizing. We both took some bad hits from the dogfight on our approach.
The closer we get to the ship, the more we are drawn into its reality. The ship itself is effectively a giant gateway. Its radius of effect is slowly growing. Oh, and it has a spinal-mount grav-driven railgun.
Intent: find a less-active spot, compromise local sensors, double-check with the Lotus Projector, then make a stealthy landing on the hull.
Ilias nails the hack or fix check.
I send the lotus projector in on a passive track, then recover it and retrieve its data. It finds some of the loader mechs – claws and plasma cutters, could be used in an improvised fight. Work is going on across the ship but it’s concentrated in the weapons bays, the launch bays (even those which aren’t carrying mechs or fighters – they’re installing Size 2 printers there), and the engines (more radiation there too). We find a few candidates for entry points. There’s also an interesting emission signature, looking a lot like a gateway, on another deck.
I blow the roll for the actual stealthy approach. 🙁
Laser tightbeam comm: “What are you doing? Why are you attempting to board this vessel?” … it’s Rael, or using his signature and voice. But the authentication is out of date – it’s a “younger” comms protocol, 5 yrs or thereabouts.
Rael is supposed to be subordinate to us, technically, as a UIB asset for interdicting the system. I kick back our UIB mission credentials. Rael validates them but has no record of our mission.
Rael says the ship has been commandeered and is undergoing retrofit for a mission within the system. Maneuvering to establish space dominance. Rael believes no other Union naval assets are in the system.
The timeline is fucky. It loops back on itself, but roles are also being reversed. I tell Rael we’re making landing on the ship in accordance with our mission parameters.
“Acknowledged. Atlas is the foundation. Atlas is the life.” Communication terminates with a paracausal code glitch.
Atlas? New name. Echo queries Umbra about that. Umbra dumps data rather than communicating. She doesn’t want to directly answer what Atlas is, but Atlas is “system control overmind.”
[ Looking back at notes, we clearly forgot our briefing from Wesser that specified Rael replaced a prior system-level NHP named Atlas. ]
Could Atlas have entered cascade as a result of Ashfall, and be bending reality to rewrite history?
We make entry. Airlock seems to be functioning normally. This area of the ship isn’t getting a lot of attention.
Did Rael-root break off this fork intentionally, and if so, why?
Where we’re entering is adjacent to a crew deck – laid out with an absolute absence of personality. Mess facility with no food. About a third of the crew complement is in their beds, immobile, apparently dead.
There is an Omninet equivalent here, but its system architecture is nonstandard.
The drones (?) are modeled after the old empire’s prison garb. The old empire didn’t have the tech to make anything this uniform, though. Also – for EVA suits, the locals prefer looser-fitting PPE. There are cultural horror stories about confining garments that were used for sensory deprivation punishment and pain stimulation. Historical fact that has evolved into cultural phobia – this is Tu’rosan nightmare fuel.
Network traffic does not suggest that Rael is controlling them. Which suggests that inside each one is a consciousness being, subordinated.
Ilias sniffs some packets. Each drone contains a sleeping command and control shard of an NHP. What happened to Umbra is the upscale version of this. This isn’t a connection to the mind or consciousness – it’s solely to animate the body. Meat puppetry. Whoever did this doesn’t care about stripping out knowledge, just about driving the meat.
We get a sensor read on two high-energy areas of the ship. One is the engine, which we’re pretty sure is a dimensional annihilation reactor. The other is confined to one particular deck – a high-energy area with exotic emissions aligned with what we’d expect from a gateway.