Session Logs

40: Trauffett's Revenge

Introduction

I want to start this weeks log with a massive thankyou to Jon for being such a great sport and agreeing to forego his character to enable the camapign/story to continue. I know I said that I wanted this to be a group discussion and a group decision but at the end of the day it was Jon's decision to make (I just didn't want to dump it entirely on him - as I said there were considerable differences between the choic James had to make with Six at the end of Series 1 and the decision Jon needed to make now we're almost at the end of series 2).

The next problem is going to be sorting out a new character for him, which isn't going to be easy. There are lots of complications. [GM Note: if Hannah friend wanted get involved then at the point Jon gets his new character this is where other possible characters could also join.]. The reason I don't think Devon is a good choice, aside from the fact that he's a junkie - although his brush with death may have stengthened his resolve to get clean and stay clean -, is that he is pretty much just the ship's doctor, and he can't do much else - yes he does know a fair amount about the "drugs" underworld, but that's what got him into trouble in the first place, even if it was down to him the Razza was where the Razza was to offload the Shadow.

For the scenario we're about to embark upon, I'm going to need to apply a certain amount of "Narrative Imperrative" at least at the beginning, and maybe later as well. There are certain things that need to "unfold" to make somethings work later. There are quite a lot of twists in this one..

Trauffett's Revenge

We pick up with everyone in the conference room having been informed by the Android's Avatar that the ship is being taken over by an "Invasive AI" that is rewriting the ships command systems.
Emily decides to head for the bridge where she can access the main systems to determine the validity of the Avatar's statements and what exactly is going on.

The first thing she discovers is that none of the previous access mechanisms work. She's either going to have to "Hack" the system or "Attack" the system. She opts for the "attack" first. [GM Note: In this instance Five didn't need to overcome the Ship's AI which is normally augmented by Lisa making life considerably more difficult. In rewriting the system and "Locking" Lisa into her "offline" mode the new AI is on its own, so Five only had to defeat it, and her base roll being a 19, exceeded its roll even with all its bonuses. I could also have gone with the "Neo vs Agent Smith" style fight to re-enact Five defeating the AI but I didn't think of it at the time and I'm not sure it would have added much anyway.].

Having defeated the AI Five is free to go rummaging to see what she can find.

  1. The Avatar is correct, there is an aggressive AI virus re-writing the whole system, however the Avatar that appears to be the Android's factory settings as was, has gone. The Avatar is acutally the AI masquerading as the Android's Avatar. It was one of the first systems that the AI overwrote.

  2. The Virus was triggered when Lisa first invoked her recharge cycle "yesterday". This was the first time she had needed to recharge since you returned from the Alternate Universe. The virus appears to have originated from her recharge cradle. This is part of the strategy to make it appear that Lisa was trying to kill you all, so that you would take her out as she is the major threat to the AI.

  3. The AI/Virus has a "Mekei Corporation" signature embedded in it.

  4. The reason Lisa's higher functions are active even though she is offline is the AI's doing. It has created teh artifical scenario which Lisa is currently experiencing which she thinks is a dream this is a deliberate ploy by the AI to keep her occupied. It's twisting her memories of Victor and using them against her, although the Ship's AI keeps injecting warnings into the scenario which is adding to Lisa's confusion.

  5. Because of the way she is interacting/interfacing to the system it should be possible to insinuate herself into the "Dream Scenario" and interact with Lisa dierectly.

This is what she does next, appears in Lisa's "Dream".

Lisa appears to be in the middle of a drinks party/soiree in a very plush and well appointed apartment in a mountain retreat. Outside the apartment is high altitude pine forest with a dense ground covering of deep snow [GM Note. Think "Alpine Ski resort" although this will have been filmed somewhere in central Canada most likely - Manitoba around the Great Lakes possibly.] When Emily appears she appears to be watching/pre-occupied by a GNN news report concearning the Razza. She is very surprised to see Emily. [GM Note: Lisa thinks Emily is using the Mind Probe's again to neurally interface to the ship. She is completely unaware of actually how Emily is actually linking to the ship systems.]

Emily tells Lisa that the ship is under attack from an Mikei AI virus. Lisa confirms that she had come to the conclusion that what she was experiencing wasn't real but didn't have sufficient information to work out why. Emily tells Lisa she needs to "return". Lisa confirms that she understands and will do so as soon as Emily leaves [GM Note: this is where Lisa thinking Emily was using the neural link comes in.] After a brief discussion Emily leaves, leaving Lisa free to return.

Meantime the Avatar has told those in the conference room "That's not going to work!", before vanishing. Alarms then sound throughout the ship, as the Avatar redirects coolant vapour into the air conditioning system. It  is both toxic and suffocating, especially as the coolant vapour is replacing the breathable air in the ship. Having confirmed that it is an AI virus that is taking over the ship Two knows that the only way to defeat the virus [GM Note: Character knowledge thus the reason for my prompts in this regard] is to pull the ship's computer core. Thus when she tells poeple to go to the Marauder [GM Note: again knowledge the characters have even if the players didn't think of it] because it has its own independant air supply, she also tells them she "has a plan".
Because the AI has sealed Emily into the bridge, she can't directly get to the Marauder. [GM Note: Paul had forgotten about the service/maintenance access to the bridge which Emily wouldn't have done. This leads down into the forward engineering section, where both the main fuel, oxygen, and water tanks are, and also where the access to the forward weapons bay is. Given the nature of what's stored/accessible in this bay its why there is an emergency oxygen supply here.] Instead she has to make her way down to the upper forward engineering bay on the lower main deck to where there is an emergency oxygen supply.  Two on the other hand heads up to the top deck airlock where there are 2 space suits. Whilst her nanites would protect her indefinately they do provide her enough protection to get to the locker and put on a suit. [GM Note: as I was capturing screen shots I though I'd add in the one for Two's Hallucination in relation to Rook's men - above left.]

Two then makes her way down to the main deck, and towards the main computer core. As she enters the main corridor the Avatar appears.
Avatar "The suit was a good idea but you forgot one thing. The suit has a wireless connection to the ship. The virus just breached the firewall and has dialed up your magnetic boots by 1000%".
Two finds she is unable to move.
Avatar "I'm afraid its over."
Two "I wouldn't be so sure."
Lisa  has emerged from the engineering bay where her cradel is and is behind the Avatar : "Two. Can I be of assistance?"
Two "Yes. Pull the computer core"
Lisa "You're sure about that?"
Two "Yes that's an order." [GM Note: reminder, if you want Lisa to do something which has potential significant detrimental impact on the welfare of the crew and/or ship, then you need to give her a specific order to do it, otherwise she won't.]

Lisa heads into the main computer room. The Avatar disappears.
Two can now only hear the conversation between Lisa and the Avatar.

Avatar "if you procede I'll kill her."
Lisa moves to pull the core.
Electrostatic discharges start to flash across the corridor Two is stuck in.
Avatar "I've disabled power regulation in this section, allowing a static charge to build in the corridor. If it releases she won't survive."
Lisa "Two she's threatening to kill you if I don't stop. She can do it."
Two "Pull the core and save the ship. That's an order."
Lisa "Understood."
Lisa begins pulling the core modules
The Avatar release the static buildup rendering Two unconscious.
Another couple of minutes tick by, then the ship goes, dead, as Lisa completes the removal of the core.

[GM Note: what I forgot about, which is why the AI wanted Lisa dead, is that she can actually fly the ship without the assistance of the "Main Ships Computer". It's very much harder to do and the ship has very limited capabilities without the Ships AI but it can be done. This was the flaw that I thought existed although the workaround we played out in the session was I think a much better solution. In either case the Razza would have needed a new Ship's AI.]

Lisa now proceeds to reinstall the core modules, although with the reactor now offline the ship is still in effect dead in space. She then moves Two to the Marauder She's alive but still unconscious at this point. [GM Note. The isolation/confinement bay in Med bay has its own independant air supply and air filtration mechanism - for vey obvious reasons, although with no power it makes no difference. This is another flaw in the series.. if you take the main ship computer core offline everything including the reactor shuts down, although emergency power would still be available to life support systems, so Lisa could at least vent the ship and then restore a breathable atmosphere. I'll add it to the list of "house keeping" I need to catch up with."].

The next order of the day is to bring the reactor back online. This is a 'repeat' of the procedure used in the past, using the Marauder to jump start the reactor, and you now have a "proper cable to do this with" - if nothing else Lisa would have upgrade the jury rigged version you used last time. With the reactor back online, it's then a question of bringing those system that can function autonomously back online, recharging the Marauder's power banks, and installing the Blink drive into the Marauder.  This allows the Marauder to Blink to the Oshalt system, or more specifically the space staion at  Oshalt-2. Two can then use her "Miss Romanov" identity to make contact with the Black Market dealer and acquire a new ship's AI. Note this will come with a 750,000cr price tag.

There is a 30 hour wait here for the AI data chip to be delivered before the Marauder can blink back to the Razza's location. Lisa can then install and configure the new Ship's AI.[GM Note Emily can assist with this without problems, as she has the necessary skills to do so.]

With the Razza restored the question is where next? Some R&R and a location to offload some of the cargo perhaps and replenish the cash reserves possibly.



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