When we last left our adventurers, they had just rescued 10 survivors from space after a devastating energy wave. . .
From Joy's personal log:
We are no longer in Kansas, in other words, we were transported out of the Drift. The "space" we were occupying had no stars to navigate by. No Drift beacon to follow. No ships to contact. We had no way to know which direction to head, no way to return to "normal" space. We were caught in unknown doldrums. Floating aimlessly.
The ship's AI, Vicky, chose this moment to inform us of a couple of things. First, it let us know that its hull is self healing, which is a pretty cool feature that we didn't know about when we picked this craft out in the shipyard. Second, it so kindly pointed out that none of us brought along rations, water, or extra supplies like a normal crew would have done when procuring a new starship. Oops. So no potable water, food for only three days for crew and survivors, and one after-dinner mint.
N.I.K.K decided we better see what we had to work with among the rescues to determine if we can get ourselves out of this mess. We enlisted the help of Samantha Green, an Environmental Scientist to help set up the science lab we needed to pull off our actual mission. Next, we interrogated a Mystic who refused to identify himself, claiming he rather remain unknown to certain people in the universe, even if we didn't currently know where in the universe we were. So we called him Kip, we had to call him something. We asked him to conjure us some spacesuits or do something to help us. It was a no on the spacesuits.
Vicky sensed another ship up ahead that hadn't been destroyed. Excitement grew on board with the possibility of gathering supplies, but we only had the one spacesuit. N.I.K.K. of course could join the away team, not needing atmosphere to function, but we had to pick who would be best to send. Being a fairly decent engineer and computer hacker, I was the most logical person to send given the possibility of running into locked airlocks and firewalls. However, before that could happen, an argument broke out among the survivors.
Hasselbeck, a Colonial Security Inquisitor and Force-Soldier was interrogating his prisoner, Ambrose. . .
Ambrose: Please, you have to believe me. This is all just a big misunderstanding.
Hasselbeck: Bull (Beep) The Department of Interplanetary Security has been monitoring your transmissions for weeks, Ambrose. We know about you and your friends. We know you're involved in something big. We know you're a…
Ambrose:Terrierist!
I am a Terrierist!
Me and my friends breed dogs, specifically Terriers.
Hasselbeck: Oh, really?
What about the plots you mentioned in your communications?
Ambrose: We write terrierist fiction. We talk about future terrierist plots.
Hasselbeck: Nice try, but I'm not buying your bull (Bleep). Your search history mentions Target 46 times. Explain that.
Ambrose: The only place I can get quality and affordable dog toys and supplies is Target. I'm just a Terrier enthusiast. Please, you have to believe me.
I believed Ambrose, and blocked Hasselbeck's path to the airlock, all 3 ft of me. Tybar took it a step further and assaults the Inquisitor. Probably not the best move given the situation and the fact the Inquisitor is judge, jury, and executioner as a general rule. Luckily, most people can't ignore the charm of an AI android who thinks himself to be a space pirate captain. Somehow N.I.K.K. convinced Hasselbeck to step down. I showed the officer and prisoner to secure quarters until we can find a way home.
Vicky is finally able to identify the other starship. It is the experimental battleship, Event Horizon. There are no living life signs on Vicky's scans. The Event Horizon's AI is not responding to transmission. N.I.K.K. and I board the vessel, not knowing what to expect. N.I.K.K. discovers dead crew members, their guns depleted, and burn marks in the hallways. An all-out fight took place aboard this ship. I tried to boot the system, but there isn't enough energy to achieve it. I ask Vicky to give it some juice. The first thing I do is isolates the Event Horizion's AI. I like Vicky, but distrust most AIs. I then sent the ship's logs over to Vicky to determine what happened on the Event Horizon. In the meantime, the systems kicked on. N.I.K.K. and I were able to start transferring water over to the Invictus, grab food rations, and obtained 7 spacesuits.
Meanwhile, Vicky shared with Ash the events that had taken place aboard the Event Horizon. Ash told N.I.K.K. and I to get out of there. Tybar told me to create a timed bomb, this ship had to be destroyed. However, N.I.K.K. sensed some unusual energy readings and found his way to a room with some sort of scientific machine. Being an employee of House Zeizerer, I logged a new asset for the corporation. I was so excited over the discovery of this experimental machine, I was not about to blow this thing of beauty up.
As we went to disembark, it was discovered that the Event Horizon had latched onto the Invictus and we could not disengage the connection. Tybar went to blow the locks with some grenades. It would cause damage to the Invictus, but it was better than being blown up with the Event Horizon. N.I.K.K. lent some destruction power with his guns.
We were moving away from the Event Horizon when it turned its guns on us. You know, the ship with no living beings and an AI that had been locked firmly behind a highly encrypted firewall. It fired upon us and chased us through a rock field. Ash did some amazing flying and saved us. We weren't going to outfly it, and with a ticking timebomb, we couldn't disable it without putting ourselves at greater risk. Eventually it blew up. Whatever was on that ship was malicious and we did the universe a favor even if we lost some advanced, experimental knowledge. At least we had the scientific machine with us still.
We asked Kip if he had any success. He said none of the normal energies he communicated with could be contacted. In fact, there were no energies to communicate with. We were still stuck in the doldrums of unknown space. Which means we only had one option. Turn on the experimental machine!
In the blink of an eye, we were back in normal space. Except. The Inquisitor is dead. Vicky is glitching. And there was a scream in the survivors' quarters.
End transmission . . .
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