<> <> <> <> <> (o_O) (What?) (so much word.) (Reading, please wait...) (I saved us half an hour of stumbling around dark corridors.) (Approved!) (Sweet, I'm stealing the deflector dish. We'll need it to make up solutions to problems in the future.) (It's outside the dome.) (Where is the dish structure, then?) (I deflect the trachyon beam!) (Is it on the planet itself?) * Tomas enters the last room and whistles at the view overhead, "Is this the command center then?" (Or just somewhere on the moon we're on?) * Amadeus looks up and blinks, taking a picture. "Your guess is as good as any's, Tomas." He doesn't add 'unfortunately'. <> <> (Wacky. So you have a sattelite dish attached to a glass dome.) (I fire a trachyon beam at the planet!) (I guess it's wireless!) (A wireless beam?) (No, a wireless base.) <> (Oh, okay.) * Syzix is now known as Kyle * Zeke states, "If this is the command center, then we are still without a way to control it. The piston objects once again seem to be crucial." * Lexi nods. "Actually see...." She points to the dish. "This is used to receive the mental waves from the other satellites, which then get processed over here." She points at some of the cables. "And translated into the holoscript that this planet used for its communication." She nods assuredly. * Lexi shrugs. "Okay... seriously, I have no fucking clue." * Amadeus looks at Lexi briefly like she's insane, and then at the 'no fucking clue', he nods. Right then. (So... Lexi was there all along! Okay. That blows my reason for being silent out of the water.) (HOW CAN THIS BE) (She was supposed to be passed out. I guess she snuck up on y'all.) (Okay, Dre didn't know Lexi was passed out on the ship.) (Because he doesn't read logs.) (Instead, he got a drink.) (What a communist.) (Hang on... I'll fix it.) (Like his face.) (Commieface.) * Tomas slowly approaches one of the hatches-with-a-stylishly-recessed-handle and examines it more closely. * Lexi blinks and shrugs. "Oh... Hi, by the way. So what have you guys found?" <> (*deep breath* Okay.) (I think we need to bounce a gravaton particle beam off that dish) * Hestia suddenly gets on the radio! ~ I went to check on Count Drunkula and she wasn't in her room. Can I presume she's there with you people? ~ * Zeke , since Tomas is investigating the handles, is staring at the pistons again, and has multiple drones climb then. It's a climbing party! * Tomas kneels down then looks behind him, ~Yeah, she found us somehow. I'm going to try one of these hatches. Step back.~ * Lexi tilts her head. ~Uh... T... I can hear you.~ * Kyle smirks. "Scared me back on the ship, Lexi." * Lexi shrugs. "So.... what have you guys found?" * Hestia sighs, audibly, and there's the sound of a chair being pushed across the floor and something being set on a desk. ~ Be there in a moment, then. ~ * Tomas opens a hatch! <> Crazy pseudo-force-field land. And Piston Honda's secret hideout. <> * Lexi nods. "Better than crazy pseudo Fieldforce land. They are totally the worst of the Classic Bluegrassmetal bands." (We're going one bug per piston for a moment, since I think we've done multiple on one and it just weighed it down.) ~Whoa. I think I found our power switch, guys.~ * Zeke is expertly avoiding the ancient and not-so-ancient pop culture references. <> * Kyle nods to Lexi. "Tell me about it." He looks at the cylinder and would pull out a tricorder if he had one. Instead he takes pictures and tries to figure out what the heck it is. "Dude! That's wacky." Does it look like a power switch to you, Kyle? * Zeke has team drones jump up and down, because it may do something, and probably will amuse the onlookers. (I'll tell you when I get an answer from the GM!) <> * Tomas stands and starts pulling other hatches. <> * Kyle shrugs. "Hell if I know. It's probably either power or self-destruct." <> (OH GOD, THEY'RE SONIC BARRELS!) (I am definitely not making progress.) * Kyle grins. "Can I push it?" (Is the satellite dish reacting at all to all this bouncing of the second variety?) <> <> * Hestia arrives, glancing around the room. "Well hello, busy beavers." * Tomas motions Kyle over, ~Wait. This one's already flipped.~ * Amadeus nods to the Tia. ~Heyo Hestia!~ ~These pistons remain unhelpful.~ (Please tell me that there isn't an obvious correlation between the pistons and the power crystals, like it being 1-1.) <> (Whew.) (*pokes Kyle*) (We talking un-worked chunks of Si+ or Clearly Made For Some Purpose chunks of Si+?) <> (What?) * Kyle looks at Tomas. ~What's up with that one? Is that what they are? Space Christmas Trees?~ * Hestia puts a hand on her hip and glances at the Si+ for a moment. ~ Computer core, possibly? Though these could be like the power crystals the lizards use, or used to use anyway. ~ ~I'm gonna try flipping one of these on, see if it lights up.~ * Zeke replies, ~The satellite dish is definitely connected from up top to the floor beneath us. Beyond that, I cannot tell.~ (The sooner we flip these all on with ourselves at the focal point, the sooner we get to storyverse!) * Kyle tries to turn another one on! (Yay storyverse!) <> (Suicide may bring on many changes, but I'm fairly sure it's not actually as painless as MASH may have you believe.) (If you die I'll just have to re-run the campaign. From the start.) * Tomas glances around, "More?" * Kyle thumbs-up to Tomas. "MOAR POWAR!" <> (OF WHAT?) (JEM) (If people DO want to stop us, they probably can.) (It's truly outrageous.) * Lexi shakes her head. "Oh greagt. Holograms. Las time we had one of those, we started an intergalactic incident." (I am all over flip-o-rama, for what that's worth.) (So am I!) (showtime, Synergy) (but it is box text, after all. No interrupting that.) <> ~Sweet special FX.~ (In the ATCverse, Effects has been officially replaced with FX.) (It's cooler) (It is!) (You must be using an archaic pronunciation of axe.) * Amadeus walks around, looking at the hologram. * Tomas makes a circiuit of the room, examining the lights. * Kyle looks at the wicked sweet hhologram. <> "Apologies for psychic intrusion. Species not fundamentally compatible with psionic control systems, reverting to vocal commands." (Hologram, even.) (Man. Now I'm gonna kill the president, aren't I?) ~Psychic control systems. That's sweet.~ uh, no problem. "Welcome to Webhome, travellers. I must apologize, but the species who developed the facility you are standing in have, for the moment, stepped out and are not likely to return soon." * Hestia speaks out loud, because the computer is. Her lips also purse slightly at 'psionic control systems'. "'stepped out'? Interesting phrasing." Which species is that? * Amadeus files psychic control systems away. "As they communicated almost exclusively through telepathy, translation of their actual name is difficult. The name they chose for auditory transmission was 'Troylae', which translates roughly to 'People of the Web'." When did they leave? What'd they look like? (They were destroyed, by their use of Comic Sans and 'Under Construction' animated gifs.) * Tomas clicks with his tongue then smiles, "That's number three, gang." 'People of the Web'... sounds like they were constantly connected telepathically. Maybe a hive mind, even... that's a scary thought. No scarier than the Bugs, I imagine. * Hestia glances at Amadeus. "Not saying much." * Lexi nods. "See? What did I tell ya. Mental waves." <> "A Troylae female. I am uncertain where they went, to be honest. If you were to ask my opinion, it seemed rather like they weren't fond of their galactic neighbors at the time of their depature." 'I'? Who are you, exactly? Neighbors? * Amadeus sighs as they derail the conversation from biology and makes another mental note to get some time alone with that computer. "A hive mind is overstating the level of connection. Each troylae had a distinct self, and an additional distinct otherself, which participated in psychic connections with other otherselves. I apologize for the lack of exacting nomenclature. I am what you would call a PI, acting as a communications backbone for this particular station and performing maintenance routines. The troylae were, as a species, pathologically fond of ... 'anthropo morphizing' inanimate objects, so most devices of any complex nature became PIs to some degree." Makes sense that telepaths would give personalities to their tech. No offense. * Zeke is silent through this, the drones having stopped their hopping. How do you know our language? And is there any way you can give us further information as to the Troylae's biological and chemical make up? "None taken." <> "The Cxxkrchk and the Duekti were both unsuitable neighbors for the Troylae. Most other potential neighbors were destroyed by either of these." < athers are black, and kind of greasy-looking, to boot.>> So THAT'S the Duekti. I mean. What they look like under all the crap. Hm. If the troylae just up and left, I can see them not caring if they left their destination here in terms of the Duekti, but the Bugs would chase them across the galaxy if needed. If they're still out there somewhere I doubt we'll find out here. What is here anyway? Yeah, what WAS here? <> * Amadeus so records all of this! * Kyle makes backup records! * Hestia is already forgetting! (SHOW HER THE RECORDS) (YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE RECORDS!) (TOO LATE ALREADY FORGOT) * Zeke's holoface frownds. "Your records seem inaccurate. This place is not built for creatures of that size." (FROWNDS) "Here was one of the Webhomes. A manufactured homeworld where the troylae dwell. There were perhaps half a dozen. I know their original homeworld was slightly lower-gravity than most places, so they tended to travel closer to the ground on larger moons, and to use reactive seating to support their weight more comfortably." < e of them sitting in one of the carriage/piston things, its legs dangling out the holes ont he sides.>> And this entire race is psychic? That's an unusual quality. (had to happen eventually!) Only to us. Though admittedly, out of all the races living or dead we know about, they're the only ones where it was the norm. That guy isn't like the duekti we've seen before. There's no way he could fit into the metal suits. <> (HEY PI! What's the deal with that?!) * Lexi nods. "Hm... Okay... so why is this one different?" Really? Wow, uh... hmm. * Tomas turns his head to Lexi, "Did we only see some of their warrior caste?" Do you think maybe they 'evolved' themselves, or something? (Did I miss how long ago they left?) * Hestia shrugs. "They sounded factional. Maybe this is a different sect. Plus you said they're good terraformers, right? Maybe they evolved for different environments over time. I'm sure Martian humans are different than Earthbound ones from however long ago." (We're secretly in a Duekti created hologram world meant to trick us and keep us distracted while they attack Mars! Like in that one episode of Star Trek! And that other episode of Star Trek! And that other other episode, too!) (But then they'd have made the hologram correctly.) (You mean like EVERY episode of Star Trek?) <> "I have many biological and sociological records. They indicate the troylae did in fact evolve the capability, but their prehistory and mythology indicate that these were 'gifted' by diety figures." (But this keeps us talking longer!) (The Protheans!) (Wait. Troylae evolved what? We were talking Duekti.) (He's like 10 questions behind. Psionics.) (PIs can only answer so quickly.) So religion is somewhat universal. I suppose that's vaguely comforting. (Yah, i'll stop asking so he can get to everyone else's questions. :D) Space Jesus is everywhere! "According to records, the Duekti averred mechanical or biological enhancements, claiming themselves to be the peak of evolutionary capability. If you have in fact encountered metal birds who claim to be Duekti, they are likely the PI combat units preferred by that species." * Amadeus refrains from rolling his eyes. As usual. * Tomas raises an eyebrow, "Interesting. Programmed to feel the shame of speaking with outsiders, too." That makes some amount of sense. No reason to fight when you have robots do it for you. True dat. "May I ask a question to update my records?" Why not? ("The Sun.") (It's man!) (It's a cookbook!) (Sand. Definitely Sand. Or a coffin...or nothing. (oh! As much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!) Sure. (Big ball of dirt.) Sure, but I'm curious. What do your records have so far? "You have encountered the Duekti, or at least their combat forces. Have you encountered the Cxxkrchk?" Oh yes. * Tomas snorts. Ahaheheh... yeah. * Lexi nods. "Yeah..." (You do WHAT? You people are crazy!) (You so hickory smoked!) <> "Thank you. That experience meshes with my records which state that the Duekti were driven to extinction at the hands of the Cxxkrchk." <> "Though how their PIs continue to function is beyond my meager abilities to fathom." It's possible they weren't completely wiped out. They could have gone into isolation somehow. * Zeke adds, "And humanity has driven the Cxxkrchk to the brink of extinction as well." What do you mean, 'could'? The... Chiz... che... Bugs were almost entirely wiped out and the Duekti's apparent combat-bots are currently threatening to expand spacechicken known space right into our *backyard*. Top of the food chain, dawgs. * Hestia pauses, then turns to the PI's housing. "Are you saying the damned Duekti are long fricaseed and we're dealing with their psychotic combat PI suits on *autopilot*?" It would seem consistent: their defense systems were similarly automated. * Lexi shakes her head. "They seem pretty real to me." * Hestia covers her face with her hands. "We stumble into the end of the world as we know it, and it's a galactic warfare-scale case of leaving the gods damned oven on." Automated by PIs. <> "It seems consistent with my records." Was that last planet the homeworld? * Hestia crosses her arms over her chest. "So the Bugs didn't wipe out the automated defenses on the terraformed planets? Why? They practically MELTED the City of Refuge, if I remember right, before the sleythin rebuilt it." "Psychologically it stretches my credulity to believe that the Duekti could actually conceive of their own failure to defend their homeworld." <> (It's occasionally difficult to know what ATC1 events are public history. Poke me if I overstep.) (No sweat.) * Zeke states, simply, "Why have you not gone and tracked down every deactivated Cxxkrchk on Mars?" Oh believe me, boyo. If I had time for a hobby, I might. If the automated defenses pose no threat, why would they attack them? <> "Difficult to say. The Cxxkrchk mind is extremely hard for me to fathom. This was towards the height of their exterminatus, however, so they may just have been busy." 'Exterminatus'. Good word, by the way. "Thank you." ~That means the line of destruction is on autopilot as well.~ Well. We could always go to Planet Spacechicken and turn off the proverbial oven. It is not guaranteed that the system is fully centralized. Yeah? You get a better idea, Mr. Box? * Tomas nods, "They had to have some way to issue commands." I hear nuking things from orbit works pretty well in the movies. If the automated defenses are still on, which has been established, it seems like a poor choice. We'll let you walk out in front, then. * Zeke frowns slightly. It seems like a problem best suited for GalReg and the corps, due to the level of force required. ha. You didn't think we were suggesting that we do this, were you? * Zeke looks to Tomas. "If you are not doing it, then you will not be able to determine what the course of action is, and the discussion is irrelevant." "The Duekti combat forces are almost entirely decentralized, yes. The fact that they're still working at all is a miracle, they were programmed to worship the Duekti." You have a strange definition of 'miracle'. Did the Duekti have technology to impede nullspace travel, when last you knew? "Technically your language has a strange definition of miracle." (no, your face.) "Yes, though they generally used it only when securing tactically advantageous territory." Well that's out the airlock and then some now. Is there any way to nullify said technology? "I've actually taken some spare cycles and collated what records I have on technology, biology, and more or less everything else in my databases, since one of you asked about it. If I have a solution it's in there, though I doubt it. A solution does exist, though - the species known as the Guuub were capable of it. Unfortunately, they disappeared four or so [years] before the troylae did." (That was sleythin 'years' there, right?) 'Disappeared', or the Bugs came along and 'disappeared' them by force? 'cuz that's gonna be a real pain in the ass if we can't fix it. (It was actually "unit you can calculate from the orbit of the planet in question") "No, they actually disappeared. They had been on the decline for some centuries." (It's about a decade when you work it out, Tia.) * Kyle blinks. "Biodiversity failure? Were there not a lot of them in the first place?" If you could share those records in a format we can process, we'd be extremely grateful. "Difficult to say. The troylae claimed their thoughts were 'sluggish', and certainly their speech was. According to records there was at least a planet's worth toward the end, however." (Where did the biodiversity get mentioned?) (Nowhere.) (I thought he was making a guess at why they declined.) (Kyle guessed, yeah.) (Ah.) (Yup! Just a guess.) "I can try. Physical media is difficult to come by... do you have an audio recorder?" (Everything's an audio recorder.) (Even this pie.) (What about this shaver?) (Also a pie.) (And an audio recorder.) (It's even a shaver.) Infrared would be faster, if that's among your capabilities. "I can manage that. I've actually translated much of it to your language already. The remainder should be trivial." <> (So like a jack thing?) (Have a seat.) <> (Hey, YOU started the IR thing back in ATC1.) (I know!) * Amadeus takes out his datapad and holds it up to the port, hoping this works. At least he has back ups. Lots of back ups. <> "Thank you for restoring the power from the collector system. From my analysis of the stars I've been nonfunctional for nearly a [century of Earth time]." * Kyle whistles. "That's a long while." "Yes. I am curious to know the status of the galaxy, and what species are currently cooperating or warring." * Amadeus nods in agreement, watching data transfer. * Zeke is silent a moment, then states, "When you say your purpose is as a communication backbone, do you mean inter-system communication to other of the Webhomes, or intra-system communication?" "Intra-system. I am capable of intermingling with an otherself conversation for the purposes of recording and providing answers to queries." * Zeke nods slowly. "A... psychic relay." "Of a sort, yes." * Kyle glances at the Prof. "Think we should tell it what's goin' on? I don't see any harm in that." (We... sort of have already...) (Not the line of destruction specifically. He may know something of its origins.) (It's making conversation, it's mostly not important.) * Hestia glances at the PI for a moment, and really does look like she's trying to come to a difficult decision, which might explain why she hasn't spoken up in the past few moments. (If people have other questions, please ask, otherwise I'm probably going to call it soo.. okay, that works too.) * Tomas glances at Kyle, "Anything we tell it, it might relay to GalReg when they return." (or did we already tell them about the LoD?) * Amadeus looks to Kyle. "It would be a fair enough exchange, I think. There will be plenty of people here to talk to this PI later, regardless." * Kyle shrugs. "Was just gonna tell it about the Sleythin and stuff." Oh, and the space walruses? * Hestia glances at the group. "Sorry, but can I have a moment alone with... it?" * Lexi glances sideways at Tia "Why?..." * Zeke shrugs and states, "It is fairly straightforward, unfortunately for your curiosity. Humanity and the Sleythin are the only relevant active races we know of." 'sup? * Hestia looks across the room at Lexi. "Because I asked nicely, which I never do." Yeah... that's why I'm suspicious. Yeah, seriously. (... you have to admit that's decent logic.) * Hestia says, perhaps a little too flatly, "I could ask *un-nicely* if you want." Let's not go around killing our own crewmembers. Please? * Lexi nods. "Tell you what... I'll turn around and close my eyes." * Zeke looks to Hestia. "Now that we have gathered the data, I see no reason not to leave her alone if she wishes." (Alright. I don't kill anyone. I just remote-activate the Breaker and fly it into the star.) (Perfectly reasonable solution.) (D: ) (Hope someone brought a Gameboy.) * Zeke's drones climb off the spring-chairs to join him on the ground. * Lexi shrugs at Zeke. "Yeah well... Alright. I need a drink anyway. But you better tell us what's up later, T." * Zeke nods, and then sweeps out of the room, drones and all. * Kyle shrugs. "Don't get us killed or doom the human race, 'kay?" * Hestia mutters something very quietly which may or may not be an ordinal list of Fate Breaker crewmembers likely to cause an intergalactic apocalypse and her relative position on it. (Top of list: Amadeus.) (Secrets are awesome.) (What!) (I would so totally not harm anybody! Intentionally!) <>