Introduction

James was back this week having fixed his computer which destroyed itself during the Bank Holiday Heatwave 3 weeks ago. Matt (Three) is also away for the next 2 weeks but he doesn't feature in the next bit so we can play on for another week before taking another short break.

I wanted to start this week’s log with another expose on Technology after Paul’s insistence that the only reason to have a space elevation with a Space Station at the top is to move things to the station to make them easier to launch. I’d agree for a near future technology, but we’re not talking about ‘near future technology nor a ‘Star Trek’ level technology but it is an advance technological future.

Anti-gravity tech and vehicles are commonplace, where it makes sense to use them. Inertial dampening, grav plating, Fusion Reactors, FTL Drives, Reaction Drives, are all pretty common, as are large lift cargo shuttles, orbital shuttles, and FTL shuttles. Thus the need for expensive constructions like space elevators isn’t generally required, and outside of Terra Prime very few worlds have even bothered to build them. Most space stations are also not tethered to the planet or moon they orbit, although there are stations in systems that just don’t orbit any celestial body at all they just are where they are in space, most often for logistics reason.

If we return to the opening scenario, the primary reason Ferrous Corp wanted the planet is that it was a class 1 Habitable planet, and they wanted it for housing their workforce, because it was far cheaper than having to construct a space station out near the asteroid belt. They would simply have built a space port on planet and used FTL shuttles to move ore and people between the two. There are a lot of mining colonies out there tat work this way, and it’s only the more affluent that have a ‘tranist station’ in orbit, and even these are often small scale. Typically, you only get an orbital station in a high traffic or value system if there are no habitable planets or moons in the system, and typically in these systems the space station orbits one of the moons of a gas giant in the system.

Space Elevators have thus been relegated to the realm of ‘Status Symbol’ more than anything else or a means of creating a secure facility away from prying eyes.

I should also note that the Razza is designed to land on planets, at least those with a gravity less than 1.5g.

There is one other thing I just wanted to note. This particular scenario is one where things just need to happen to advance the story to a more interesting point where you all as players get to do more. As I've noted below and elsewhere, this is one of those place where the characters potentially know more about things than the players. I should also point out that one of the previous scenarios should give you an significant insight as to where things are going, and what your involvement may be.

We know it’s a trap, just get on with it!

We pick up on the Razza with the Players debating the way forward and whilst realising they needed more information, forgetting the big piece of the puzzle as they hadn’t bothered to scan the ‘station’ at the top of the space elevator, they'd just assumed they could fight their way onto the station and then use it to access the space elevator and thus Dwarfstar's HQ. Matt was as ever speculating as to what sort of security measures were in place, and every one was speculating about honey traps and kidnapping workers without having any idea as to who would be useful, and yes you could have spent days following people to find out where they lived and socialised but that still wouldn’t have got you closer to what you needed and it was time you didn’t really have, not that Two had enacted her final move at that point.

To a degree this was an episode where the characters in the TV series had a much better idea as to how to proceed, or was that just the script writers narrative imperative? This is probably something that occurs more frequently as the series progresses, which means I’m having to provide many more narrative hints, such as what illegal tech may be lurking in the boxes in the vault. Now in this instance Matt and Paul’s speculations had almost got to two of the elements they were going to need, a retinal imprint duplicator, and an Id cloner and editor. The one element that Emiliy would have potentially known about, or at least known that they existed, were ‘fake’ Appointment Cards. To all intents they can be altered/ made to resemble a genuine card, except the data store on the card is considerably bigger than genuine versions, because the fake versions are designed to take a ‘Worm’. The question then is how good is the hacker’s worm vs any Counter Intrusion Software that might be installed/active in the target system. In normal game circumstances this would require a contested roll of Hacker’s Computer Programming ICE Breakers skill vs the Systems Computer Programming ICE skill level but ‘Narrative Imperative’ prevails a lot in this game and thus Emily’s worm will manage to defeat the ICE and give her an ‘in’ to DwarfStar’s system, albeit only the HR and Finance systems.

Having taken the hint and scanned the 'station' at the top of the Dwarfstar space elevator, this reveals there is no immediate access mechanism to the station from orbit, triggering Paul's "That's completely Stupid" comments. This means they're going to need to go in 'planet side' which is where the discussion on honey traps comes in before they've even taking a look at what the "Entrance Security Situation" is. They also forgot that Nyx exists when it came to needing somebody flamboyant to act as a distraction to allow Three to approach the security scanners in the Foyer.

Adding some more illegal tech from the vault, specifically a pair of scanning video relay glasses, Three and Nyx, armed with Emily's fake appointment card carrying its worm, enter the DwarfStar foyer. Nyx apporaches the reception desk whilst Three hangs back waiting for the guards in front of the security scanners to react to the forthcoming distraction. Nyx presents her appointment card claiming she has an appointment to see Alexander Rook. The receptionist duely scans her card, which results in "No Appointment" on the system. Nyx insists that she has an appointment and requests the card be scanned again. The receptionist refuses saying there is no appointment on the system. As Nyx ramps up her retoric, the guards move allowing Three to move up and confirm the security arrangements including ID cards and Retinal Scans. There is also a security drone further back in the foyer. Nyx backs down and leaves and the guards return to their stations. Three having completed is reconoiter leaves.

Back on the Razza, Emily's terminal bleeps confirming that the worm has done it's job, and she now has a back door into the system. She begins her searches. She finds that the "longest serving" Employee appears to be an "Eric Waver" who's been there about 13years. He now appears to be some sort of "Lead" Researcher. His employee record indicates he was present on the station 12 years ago when Rebecca escaped killing 243 employees in the process. In fact there appear to have been several "Employee Head Count" reductions in the recent past consistent with Inteventions from the crew of the Razza, including several hundred at one of their research facilities a few months ago.

Meanwhile Two, still in medbay, is in discussion with Lisa. Her current condition is epically frustrating, just not being able to do anything. What is doubly frustrating is everybody else putting their lives on the line for her. It's just not her style, neither is waiting out a slow drawnout death as her nanites continue to deteriorate. She wants to know if Lisa can do anytihing. Lisa re-iterates that she has no idea how to fix Two's nanites. Two says she knows that, but is there something that Lisa can do that will temporarily fix her, at least until she can get the upgraded nanites from Dwarfstar. Lisa prevaricates, but after susstained pressure from Two she caves. Yes there is possible a temprary fix, but it comes with a caveat. When the nanites run out of energy then death will be almost instantaneous,Two's body unable to sustain itself without the nanites. The duration of the fix is also indeterminate, it will last somewhere between 10 and 20 hours. To Two anything is better than her current outlook. [GM note: this is what I loosely referred to at the end of the Session, when I said "Two was on the Clock, with potentially only a couple of hours to live". No one other than Lisa knew about the temporary fix until Two actually reveals that Lisa provided her with a 'Temporary Fix" that allows her to operate normally, at least until the clock expires.]

With an "identified" target it just requires somebody to go talk to him. Two, now apparently "Normal" is the obvious choice. If Eric was there when she escaped he might recognise her and spill the beans. They aslo need a way in, although James forgot that Six still has his GA Uniform and Warrent card. He came onboard when they escaped Hyperion-8 in uniform. If Eric is anyform of 'Law Abiding' Citizen then he's likely to open the door to a GA cop when one comes calling. That just leaves some muscle, Three of course.

With a certain amount of GM prompting, James obviously doesn't watch many "cop" shows on TV, Varrik uses the "We'll we can either talk here or we can go down the station and do it formally" routine to get Eric to open the door. As Varrik follows Eric into his apartment Two and Three follow in behind him. Eric is initially startled, but recognises "Rebecca" immediately. It's obvious to Two that he's not afraid of her for some reason. Matt completely failed to pay any attention at this point until James and Hannah told him to shutup, by which point Eric had stopped telling the story he was about to tell, and ended up doing it much later after Varrik and Three had returned to the Razza briefly to get theretinal imprint duplicator and Id cloner.
What Three's intimidation does yield is Eric's co-operation in inviting 2 of his work colleuges over so that they can borrow their IDs and Retina Prints. One thing Eric does say is that "Facial Recognition" means that Rebecca wont get anywhere near the Dwarfstar building without being recognised.

Eric was indeed present when Rebecca escaped. He'd started work as a very junior technician, and being a very junior technican he'd been given a very menial job, feeding Rebecca [GM note: She was created as an "Adult" child!] who was Dwarfstar's first successful prototype, a bio-engineered human capable of self sustainment and sentience. His job of "feeding" Rebecca had an unforseen consequence, and the two of you bonded, a sort of father-mother complex. As a result of this bond, Eric was charged with conducting Rebecca's education.
For Eric watching the researchers subject Rebecca to even more viscous and powerful effects to test her nanites abilities to repair and sustain her was painful and hard to stomach. For Rebecca herself it was just plain torture.
As Rebecca learned she grew smarter and unknown to the researchers more and more dangerous. They never saw the escape coming. When she broke free she was ruthless and methodically efficient in her execution, as if proving herself to the researchers one more time. Eric remembers cowering in fear, dead researchers strewn about the room, but Rebecca just turned and left, killing anyone and everyone she encountered in making her escape.

Two remembers nothing of this and comfirms to Eric what Rook said, that she had lost all her memories. Eric also says that Rook said she now had 'Dangerous Freinds' and that she'd be back, once she found out about her nanites failing, which is why you're back isn't it. Two says yes but she also says she knows about the upgrade. 

Eric acknowledges the statement. They discovered the flaw in the first generation nanites a few months after Rebecca's escape, and yes they did fix it. What Rebecca needs is a single does of the second generation nanites. They're kept in a safe in the reseach lab on the top floor of the station, but they're going to need him to get in.

When Eric's buddies arrive a few hours later they bring with them "Take out". Dalsker  aplogizes as "fists of curry was closed" which meant they had to get a take out from "house of frying daggers" instead. Dalsker and Elliot make their way into the lounge area, Two, Three and Six appear from Eric's bedroom. Dalsker wants to know "what's going on Eric?". The penny then drops "Wait.. You're Rebecca.."
Elliot responds with "Please don't kill us.."

Two says "We're not going to kill you, we just need your IDs and Retina scans.." 
They set the scanner up on the table. Dalsker is scanned first. Six volunteers to go first. The scanning part is the easy bit. The duplication is less so. Having taken a scan, to duplicate it the device injects a gel into the eye, then uses the scanning laser in reverse to duplicate the print. It does require the recipient not to blink for several seconds. The print is good for a few hours before the gel begins to degrade, and then eventually be absorbed by the body.

With retina prints and ID's cloned Eric, Three, and Six head off to Dwarfstar, leaving Two to baby sit Dalsker and Elliot.

Back on the Razza, Ryo is watching a GNN news feed.
"In what some are refering to as a collossal blow, the forces from the Republic of Pyr have retaken the N-Ris sector scoring yet another decisive military victory in their war against Xairon."
"Emporer Hiro Ashieda described the loss of the contested region as a temporary setback, but sources within the Palace reveal a Royal Court beset by confusion and self-doubt."
"The execution of 2 more generals followed news of the defeat bringing to 12, the total number of high ranking officials who have paid the ultimate price for what Xairon's Empress has termed 'a failure of spirit'"

As its much later in the day,  Dwarfstar's foyer is much less busy that it was. Eric leads the way. He has no problems passing either an ID check or a Retina scan. Six follows behind. Again he has no problems either with the ID or Retina scan.  Three brings up the rear. The guards are actually only superficically checking the IDs, so the guard doesn't react when Three shows his ID. However, when he tries the Retina scan it fails. He looks at the guard behind the entrance way and the guard looks back. The guard gestures he should try again. The scan fails a second time. Three is perplexed. The guard appears to make adjustments to the scanner, he tells Three to "try it now". This time the scan passes. The guard says "It's been a little fussy since the upgrade last week" as Three walks past him.
Eric leads the way and they make their way to the Research Lab.

The lab is empty and Eric makes his way across to the far side where he opens the storage cabinet and withdraws a case of vials. "A single injection will deliver more than enough second generation nanaites to do the job. They'll replicate, they'll disperese through her blood stream, all good.". As he goes to hand the case to Varrik, Alexander Rook and a boat load of guards enter. The guards are all armed with a mixture of pistols and stunners.

Alexander Rook "Gentlemen." (very smug grin) "Welcome to Dwarfstar Technology. I've been expecting you."

Three gives Rook the diatribe of insults. Rook simply smiles, "So where is she?"
They play the innocent "Who?"
Rook: "Rebecca"
Three: "Well she's not with us."
Rook: "I didn't ask that I asked where I can find her. Is she feeling a little ill by any chance?"
Three and Six say nothing.
Rook: ""Her nanites are failing. And this was only a matter of time. She's going to die a very slow and very horrible death without this" -holding up one of the vials of nanites from the box.
Three and Six don't bother to respond.
Rook turns his attention to Eric, "Eric. I'm incredibly disappointed in you."
Eric doesn't respond.
Rook: "You always has such an unhealthy affection for her."
Three: "He didn't have a choice"
Rook: "We all have choices. We you afraid Eric?"
Eric still doesn't respond
Rook: "Were you in fear for your life?"
Eric: "Yes, I was afraid. Sorry."
Rook (smiling, hugs Eric) "It's okay. hey, hey, there is no shame in wanting to live. Its all right.". Rook turns to the guards "Take him out."
A couple of the guards escort Eric from the room. There is a slight pause then 2 gunshots.
Rook: "I probably should have phrased that differently."
To the guards. "Take them away and put them somewhere uncomfortable."

The guards take Six and Three and incarserate them in a bare room 2 floors down.

Time passes. Eric, Three, and Six still haven't returned to Eric's apartment. Two is now worried, something has obviously gone wrong. She returns to the Razza.
Back on the Razza, Lisa has been busy analyzing scans of the space station. When she returns Two calls a conference.
There's no way anyone is getting past the security checkpoint and if Three and Six have been captured then the whole place will be in lockdown. They need an alternate way in only apparently there isn't one.
Lisa corrects her. "That may not be true. Whilst my earlier scans show there are no external access mechanisms to the station, there may be another way." She brings up a scan of a section of the station.

Lisa: This section was designed as a hanger area, most likely used during construction and subsequently sealed off post the stations completion. It appears to be large enough to accomodate the Marauder."
Two "How does that help us, we still don't have an entry point."
Lisa "You don't need one. Five and I have been working on adapting the Blink drive to work with the Marauders drive system. We just need to make the necessary changes and install the drive."

Meanwhile, on the Space station, the door to the room Three and Six are locked in opens and a couple of guards come in. Guard (To Three) "You. Lets go." They take Three away. He is returned about 45 minutes later. He appears dazed, confused, and to all intents "drunk". He says little if asked. "They tried to get me to talk. I wasn't in the mood". Six sits him down on the small wall bench. He definately doesn't appear to be "with it."

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