Introduction

A very interesting session tonight, and as usual when given a completely free hand you did a number of things I wasn't expecting, but didn't do, at least initially, the one thing I suggested you do, which was to download the base images and use Gimp to examine/study them.

It hadn't occurred to me that you might attempt to gain access to the system using the Comms dish or Antenna, and had it been somebody else who didn't understand how to build secure networks, gaining access to the "Comms Network" would likely have given you access to the "Whole Network". Unfortunately it is something I know a little about, and isolating subsytems is a common design principle, so if somebody does gain access to one sub-system, they don't immediately gain access to the "whole system", not without first having to get past the FireWall that provides the isolation of the Sub-System.

Being able to detemine the 'target address' but not the mesage contents is nothing new. It was in use during WWII, and it was "network traffic anaylsis" that allowed the British to determine where all the German command and control centers were, long before Turing cracked the Enigma code which finally allowed them to read the message contents. Its why the American's charged the British mathematician  responsible for inventing all the algorithms, who went to America after the end of WWII because the British weren't interested in retaining his services/knowledge, with Treason when he pulished his memoires a few years ago. The American's still classify the algorithms as "Top Sectet" to this day.

Matt's "stupid idea" of clamping the Tripod of the Anti-Material rifle to the "ceiling" was just inspired, as was Hannah's reminder that the space suits come with Mag Boots so they would lock to the roof of the hanger (or the walls for that matter). In fact given this the 'slopes' of the roof weren't really that much of an issue since even in the 0.3g of the planet they would have worked just as well on the slopes as anywhere else. As to why Seven was the only person who could modify the mount of the tripod on the Anti-material rifle, he is the only one of you that has "Basic Mechanics". Mechanical Engineering or Weapons Engineering would have been better choices but none of you have those. Five might readily know how things work, but she needs the right skills to be able to modify, build, or repair those things (and yes her ability does confer a bonus to doing these things if she has the basic skills to do so).

I also hadn't thought about you using the ducting as a means to gain access, however, given that the end would be open to vacuum, then they would certainly sealed it in the hanger, and probably further in at a suitable junction. They wouldn't want it venting/wasting oxygen to the outside world.

All we need to do is .. "Get Five to a Terminal"

I had vaguely hoped that people would have taken the hint in last weeks log and down loaded the images I'd posted and loaded them into GIMP as suggested. This would have avoid the protracted initial discussion before the decision was finally made to land the Marauder on the roof of the hanger - this was to my mind actually the best place to land, at least initially. There was then a protacted phase where people ran about the roof trying to decide what to do. Foundry definately doesn't help in this instance as it can't cope with multi-level or sloping buildings, so I have to try and use different colours of tiles to depict levels. At least Foundry does handle "simple" walls properly, although some people forgot that if you can't see through it or past it or move through it then its actually a wall.

Eventually, and after Matt(Three) said something about access hatches relating to the Satelite dish, and Paul (Five) then asked a similar question, they make their way down to the "Lower" level of the roof where the Comms Antenna and the Satellite dish are. Five correctly identifies the computer access, removes the access cover, and plugs her laptop in. She then proceeds to hack the system and gain access to the Communications Sub-System. When she examines the logs the last message sent by the system was sent to the Regional Command HQ shortly after the Surveillanace grid went down.[GM Note: I said this at the time. If there had been a Pyr ship in system then it would only have take a few minutes for it to make an intra-system FTL jump to return to the orbit of the Outpost. You've done similar things multiple time when jumping to the far side of a star. This means any Pyr ship is going to have to come from a 'nearby' base which could be anything from 4.5ly (average Gallatic seperation of stars) to 12ly or possibly further. Orbital bases are typically built around gas giants or planets with resources not in the middle of no-where. Even allowing for the smallest distance and the fastest Frigate you're still looking at a response time of more than 12 hours.]. When Five's initial attempt to install a software upgrade that would make it appear that mesage were being sent when they weren't fails, she instead opts to put the system into a recusive detailed diagnostic mode, which should keep the system offline for several hours, particuallary if nobody attempts to send a message and thus notices that the system is running diagnostics. [GM Note: I think I mentioned later in the session that all the Antenna, including the Satellite dish look relatively new, as in they were installed after the destruction of the outpost]

With the Comms system effectively isolated from the outside world, people move to investigating other areas of the roof. Nobody figures out why there is an odd isolated door on the most intact side of the roof, although they do manage to identify that 2 sections of the roof, in identical positions on opposite sides of the center of the building, have been sealed since the destruction of the outpost.

With no obvious way in or down on this section of the roof they return to the hanger roof. Three decides he's going to lower himself head first over the edge and take a peak below to see what he can see. Apart from what may be an airlock entry way in the corner closest to the center of the building, the most apparent feature, below what remains of some ducting, are the pair of pulse laser sentry guns. Three correctly surmises that given the way they are mounted they are designed to cover the hanger when operating "Normally" and thus can't fire upwards, thus can't fire at anybody on the roof itself. It then takes him about 10 minutes to work out, that from near the front of the remaining section of the right hand side (as viewed from the front) of the hanger roof, he can get and angle on the RH sentry gun with the Anti-Material rifle when prone. He proceeds to put a round through the centre of the gun turret, rendering it non-functional.

He then appears to have what he initially considers a "stupid" idea. He can't get an angle on the other turret from the RHS because of the ducting, or the LHS because of the amount of roof that is still intact. However the bipod for the Anti-Material rifle has a magnetic lock capability and will therefore lock to the roof, even the underside. The problem is that in its current configuration it still wouldn't allow him to hit the sentry because the gun would still pivot the wrong way. Howeven if the turns the mount around such that it is on the top side of the barrel, which its not designed to be, then the gun would swivel the correct way and allow him to shoot the turret. Whilst he doesn't have the skills to modify the mount it turns out that Seven does, and half an hour later the mount is now the wrong-way up on the rifle. Carefully Three lowers the gun into position then moves to take aim. Unfortunately his first shot is off target and misses the turret. His second shot is better but still leaves the turret operational. The third shot is a direct hit and the turret ceases to function.

Three then sets about making arrangements for everyone to absail into the hanger, until Five suggest that now that the guns are out of operation why don't they just fly the Marauder down into the hanger. At least then they don't have the issue of getting back onto the roof in a hurry. Three, however lowers himself into the hanger and waits for the Marauder to join him.

[GM Note: The White and Yellow crosses are just there as alignment markers to allow you to align all the pictures more easily with the floor plans.]

Empyrion Galactic Survival and the ship and base models

As Paul and I fell into discussing at the end of the session when he asked about what I'd used to build the Pyr Outpost, I used Empyrion Galactic Survival as the base game engine, although I was actually running the Reforged Eden 2 scenario in creative mode to do all the work. The game allows you to create "Blueprints" of objects you build and then spawn them into the game later. In creative mode you can just spawn them, whilst in survival mode you have to load all the resources into the "Factory" to build them, then wait for them to build before your can spawn them in.

Now I have thought that I'd uploaded the "Ingame" models of the Razza and Marauder I'd built to the web site but it turned out I hadn't.. SO...

The picture on the left is the Ship I spawned in to destroy the base. Its a Skaar Hornet, built by a long standing EG builder by the name of Jeff Randel. The picture on the right is the closest approximation I could get to the Marader with the "blocks" available to me. I might see if Space Engineers allows a better approximation if I build it in Small Grid.

The next set of pictures (above) are views of the Razza as built (untextured), from the front (top left), side (top right), rear(lower left), and underneath (lower right) - although I had to tilt the underside to face the sun in-order to get a picture where you could see anything.

The last picture is a scale comparison picture. The rear left build is a Helios Modular Service Base - its based on the Helios MSC carrier- and will dock 6 of the Helios Module Capital vessels plus a Helios Dropship. This is a modified version of the original to accomodate changes in the RE2 scenario. I use my own custom designed Helios Drop Ship as my early game starter capital ship. The rear right is a 2 Bay Helios MSC Carrier. It docks 2 of the Helios Modules plus a drop ship in the rear. This is the ship I use as my mobile base in game. Its a cut down version of Jeff Randel's original 6 bay MSC carrier, although this wasn't the variant I derived my version from.  This is actually the second iteration of the Carrier, in which I've reduce the number of Helios bays from 4 to 2 an made a number of other changes. I've used this Carrier a couple of times in game in survival mode, and it takes quite a lot of work to get the resources to build it.
In the foreground is the Razza build. As you can see its as large as the Helios MSB and whilst not as long as the Carrier it's twice as high. As a ship in the game it's almost completely useless. The base hull is very expensive to build, and kitting it out so that it even moves at a decent speed is even more expensive. As a combat vessel it's pretty much useless, there's no where that's really suitable for fitting offensive weapons, and even fitting defensive turrets for dealing with Drones isn't practical either. It's very much a "Vanity" build in game terms.

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