STF

Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted June 8, 2022, 8:04 p.m. by Gamemaster Matrix (Gamemaster) (Sage Pennington)

Posted by Lieutenant Maria Beckett (Chief of Security) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted by Commander Dantius Massana (XO) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted by Gamemaster Matrix (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS
Posted by… suppressed (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

They descended for a while. About ten minutes. The only sound around them was a motor powering the elevator.

The doors opened again to reveal a large space, about thirty people immediately visible inside. They resided in tents and sheet metal shelters. Conditions appeared to be.. lacking. The automatons led the crew towards a large double door on the far wall.

-GM

Commander Massana was definitely perplexed. Official reports stated that four members of the research team had been left on the planet, but they were presumed dead. Although he knew that the automatons could not answer the questions he wanted to ask, either because the questions would be seen as hostile or because they lacked the information required, he decided to comment to the rest of the crew with him.

“Temporary shelters in an underground area. Do you or anyone on your team have experience building such things, Beckett?”

“Well, I’m engineering certified, sir. Grew up on a ship, so I can build stuff like it. And then there was Academy survival training and some further stuff since. But it wasn’t really geared toward occupancy, but field self-reliance and self-sufficiency,” she said, keeping a weather eye on their surroundings. As usual, scanning with her wearable tricorder, slurping up as much data as she could.

When they stopped at the door, Dantius paused.

“Are we meant to open the doors ourselves?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“We can take you no further.” The automatons replied. They opened the doors before the Memorial crew, but made no moves to enter. The room on the other side was harshly lit, there were four large chairs, split two to the right and two to the left and what seemed to be a throne at the end of the room. All were thus far unoccupied.

-GM

Dantius led the way, making normal strides, hoping that he appeared neither hurried nor languid. He doubted that the automatons were programmed to tell the difference, but he knew that whoever was supposed to be in here was likely to notice. He did not glance backwards as he passed through the door. He walked directly to the center of the room and waited, standing at rest.

“And now, I suppose, we wait until whoever is in charge here enters.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

The whole way into the room, the team could feel eyes on them. The eerie silence of the space was broken only by the sound of their footfalls. The automatons slammed the doors behind the away team. Dantius’ remark echoed around the stone walls. “Enter… or are made known to you?” Replied a feeble voice. An old man with a walking stick hobbled out from behind the throne. “Oh dear…” he clicked his tongue. “This doesn’t bode well at all.”

-GM

“Are?” Dantius asked simply. “Are the occupants of every chair behind them?”

Commander Massana found himself intrigued. He was not certain why the man considered the situation to bear ill tidings.

“Regardless, I believe an introduction is in order.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

The bots didn’t seem to recognize their weapons as weapons. Or they didn’t care. Or … It didn’t matter. That latter possibility bothered the intelligence officer. But for now she kept it to herself, yet stayed close to Massana, a silent shadow just behind and to the right. He was doing a pretty bang-up job in dealing with these synths, better than she would have. Not to mention her own worries, they were… Odd. Internal processing seemed strange. So far he’d avoided the mines in the proverbial minefield they’d been traversing with them. And now this.

Quietly she muttered, “Did we step into Narnia or something?” Not that any of them would likely get the reference, it was an obscure story from a few hundred years ago.

Lt Beckett, COS

((OOC: So sorry for being absentee boys and girls. Burnout sucks, and then the situation going on with the Viking was really sucking the life out of posting. But all is good now. Let’s see what these tin cans and their king want.))

(Just to do a quick catchup in a relatively neat post: On her way in Beckett would have been able to get the sense that the shelters were not so much for protection from the elements as they were for safety and privacy for individuals or small families.)

The old man once again clicked his tongue at Massana. “Indeed. But do take care what you wish for. Not all you want is what it seems.” He banged his walking stick on the floor and something in the light shifted ever so slightly. In the five chairs were now five people. As if they had been there the whole time. “Speak with caution, Massana and Beckett.” The old man warned.

The figures sat for a moment before one stood on the small plinth her chair rested on. “Have you come in war or peace?”

Another rose. “It must be war.”

Another. “No. See their weapons. Unused.”

Another. “War or peace, they cannot stay.”

At the end of the room, from the throne, softly a young man spoke. “Silence. All of you. Let them answer the question before we pass verdict.”

-GM

Maria surveyed the five and visibly relaxed. Though the situation hadn’t changed much, the last thing she wanted was to give them a reason to consider either of the a threat. Sure, she could be. That was a large part of her training, after all. But so was diplomacy and peacekeeping. De-escalation of situations and verbal jujitsu. Commander Massana seemed to have been doing quite well in that regard, but the situation was still on thin ice. As the officer in charge of the away mission it was his job to speak up, and not hers to speak out of turn for the group. So, for the moment, she kept her tongue.

Lt Beckett, COS

The old man had advised caution. That meant that giving one of the answers provided in the binary may not be the wisest approach.

“We are not hostile to you,” Dantius decided to reply.

He found it interesting that the four on the sides all stood, while the one in the center remained seated. Whatever the hierarchy here, it was definitely full of posturing. He was not sure whether it was for his benefit, part of their cultural mores, or true infighting. However, given his tactical training, he recognized that, if this was a ploy instead of true sincerity, they were following a normative order of operations.

One asked a question which designated responses. One replied with one of the responses. Another replied with the other. Another declared the responses irrelevant. And finally, the one who appeared in charge provided room for an answer. If this was a formalized structure, he would definitely need to consider his next steps carefully.

  • Commander Massana, XO

“Not hostile. So I said.” The one furthest on the left said.

“If you look for deceit, you will find it.” The one opposite him countered.

From the end of the hall “Truth. Speak and be known. You are not hostile, then what brings you to us?”

-GM

“A signal requesting aid. We are trained to respond to all such requests, especially if the request provides no further instruction. We came to investigate what aid was needed.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

Maria nodded in agreement. “We are explorers and peacekeepers. It is our moral and ethical duty to render aid to the best of our ability, should it be desired. Outside of certain stipulations. Plus most of us get all warm and fuzzy inside when we help people.” The last part was perhaps a little glib but no less true.

Lt Beckett, COS

Dantius tried to keep himself from shooting a look at Beckett for the little inclusion of an idiom. It was likely that the people here understood figures of speech common among the citizens of the Federation (for example, Commander Massana he was certain, albeit this was partly personal bias as a native of the Caribbean, that the term “three hour tour” for a brief trip that instead led to being stranded indeterminately would still be in use centuries from now, even though it originated four centuries prior). However, it was still an unguarded moment that, if taken literally, would give question as to their biology, and why rendering assistance made their crew ‘fuzzy’ internally. He decided to redirect.

“The automatons mentioned that a traitor was the one who sent the signal,” Commander Massana replied. “If this is the case, we do not wish to bother you further, unless we can assist in locating this traitor in the event that the traitor is a danger to the rest of the people here.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

They considered for a moment and then the four who had remained standing sat down. “So it’s true then.” The nearest one to their right said.

From the opposite side “So it seems.”

The one at the end stood up and walked down to where Massana and Beckett stood. He locked eyes with each of them. “You came here on an ill-gotten invitation. Though you did not know. You will turn around, and leave. And you will tell no one that this place is here.”

-GM

Maria shrank a little at the look from Massana but only slightly. It was a possible slip-up, she knew. But it was also a gamble. Nothing ventured, nothing gained sometimes. And it was a willingness to play on some general psychology, reveal a little bit about your motivations and it can set people at ease. Defuse tensions. It seemed to work. But more than that, it was the truth. They were explorers and peacekeepers, though they could fight with the best of them. Peace was still their preferred means, even for an intelligence and security type like her. Diplomacy was a key skill.

She did her best to keep a poker face as they were told to leave and forget about this place. Was that going to be possible? She doubted it. This was an old Federation base that people were squatting in. It was sealed off and quarantined. Then again, the place was so classified that not even her intelligence contacts would give her a peep about the place. And it seemed like there wasn’t much left behind that was relevant to modern operations.

At the same time, the whole thing felt fishy, and it left a cold knot in her gut. But it wasn’t her call, so for the moment she kept quiet, leaving it up tot he Commander.

Lt Beckett, COS

“We are not given to taking dismissals without explanation as to why a summons was sent, regardless of its provenance,” Commander Massana stated. “We will leave, as requested, but technically speaking, we have not resolved the nature of the distress signal. Why would this ‘traitor’ send it, and why would the automatons seem to state that this action was ‘the will of the king’? We have people superior to us who will question why we diverted from our usual course to come here, and past interactions with other populations make them wary of any vagueness.”

Dantius paused.

“I recognize that you require anonymity, but our reports require a certain amount of thoroughness and honesty. We typically do not fabricate our data unless it is absolutely necessary.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“For your knowledge alone, one of our citizens decided he knew better than the elders. Than me. These automatons are antiques and the way they speak reflects it. The king they refer to is me. Our young citizen desired to leave his home in the camp with a mission to see the surface and go starfaring. We know the surface and the stars to be unsafe. When we told him as much, he defied us and went anyway. Sent the communication you received. As for your report, call it sent by machine error. You are already too many visitors for comfort.”

-GM

“Noted, sir - although that leaves me somewhat uneasy,” Commander Massana said. “This citizen who sent the message said, ‘The king is lost,’ in a version of the message that did not go past the origin point of the broadcast. Given this, and the information you have given us, I am not able to be certain that this citizen will not become aggressive towards us in order to guarantee his departure.”

Dantius sighed.

“Come to that, if others respond and encounter him first, they may be convinced of the necessity of your overthrow.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

The King, so he was called, hissed at the XO “Mind your tone Commander Dantius Massana. Some may hear your words as threats.” The blue of his eyes seemed to grow brighter. He turned away sharply. “Our rogue citizen has been dealt with appropriately. Worry not for him.””

Beckett reviewed the conversation back with the other half of the away team and found he was correct. That particular line had been included. Which was troublesome. This was a Federation base, or it had been. These people had either stayed behind, been left behind, or came after. It seemed they were eking out an existence here. It wasn’t great, but after three generations, they were surviving. They had found a way. And it didn’t seem they had an interest in leaving. From was far as she could tell, it looked like the operation the Federation had been undertaking here had simply … dropped what they were doing and left in a hurry. Who knew what kind of weapons and tech were still lying around. Which, was fine for surviving with. And possibly defending themselves. But were these people squatters, or a group that had been left. Did the federation even consider the planet “theirs” anymore? Would this be considered a colony?

Questions ran through her mind, but at the same time, turned into a shifting tactical analysis. It was unlikely the Memorial was in any real danger, even if they were in weapon’s range. Assuming they had the power to fire those systems. The Memorial was one of the latest and greatest warships in the Federation. She could handle some poking by weapons that were already old when she was born. They didn’t seem to have a way off the rock either. Whether that was true or not, she didn’t know. But at the same time, it seemed likely. So they weren’t likely to go out and engage in piracy.

Subtly Maria adjusted her WTR and use the narrow scanning beam to see what other details it could pick up about these council members as she looked over each one from head to toe.

Lt Beckett, COS

((OOC: Scanning the Council, please indicate what her wearable tricorder picks up, even if it’s nothing out of the ordinary.))

Scanning the King and council would yield that they were human. For the most part. Their brains and limbic systems seemed to have taken an additional evolutionary step. They were somewhere in a middle ground between human and Vulcan neurochemistry. Due in large part to heightened presence of several neurotransmitters, their emotions were incredibly potent and possibly volatile.

-GM


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