Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 16 of Beyond the Furthest Stars
(Intro music plays, then fades down, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: So where we last left off, you all hightailed it out of Bragos after Violet Winston was on your tail trying to find out who owned this ship and who they were so that they could get revenge right? And Ollie had a really cool, like God and Man moment jumping into the ship. Polaris's Fighter got beat up and Polaris was very sad about that. And our camera panned and revealed that Lapis’ twin agent Lazuli was hot on your tail.
Zach/Zahn: I forgot it was Lapis-Lazuli.
Bee/Polaris: Yep.
Avery/GM: And you all are floating away from Space Vegas. And Hermes says “that race was exhilarating. We should do that. But Polaris, I should let you know we are receiving a transmission from your home. Would you like me to put it through the ship speakers or directly to your helmet?”
Bee/Polaris: You can put it through the ship Speakers.
Avery/GM: “now connected.” You hear Merak's voice come over the intercom and says (comm noise) “inquisitive Polaris, you've been gone a few days. Are you still operating properly?”
Bee/Polaris: As far as I know, yes. By the way, you are on speaker.
Avery/GM: “Pleased. I actually have a task if you and your new friends have the time?”
Bee/Polaris: Mm. Let me check my schedule. And then Polaris just plays like… he just plays Tetris in his helmet.
Zach/Zahn: Let me check my schedule.
Bee/Polaris: Merak knows full well that Polaris has no schedule. So…
Avery/GM: “Well, it shouldn't take too long. I have, well, I should… Alioth really… Alioth has… heard rumors of a ship of unknown design that has shown up in. The area known as the graveyard, pretty close to where you are. If you could go and get readings on this ship and perhaps get some samples of the material that it's made out of, Alioth would be less perturbed than they already are.”
Bee/Polaris: Polaris like squints his eyes, like why would… why would Alioth be perturbed by this ship? Is anyone else in the in the cockpit?
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm. . I'm J-Chillin.
Avery/GM: Okay, cool.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is in the workshop working on his wanted mods list.
Bee/Polaris: He would be hearing this, it's on the, the ship's intercoms.
Avery/GM: Yeah, probably.
Zach/Zahn: I'm just saying where he is.
Bee/Polaris: Gotcha. Gotcha. Where's Ollie and Bruce?
Chris/Ollie: Ollie's probably in the workshop as well.
Caden/Bruce: and Bruce is also probably in the workshop that he has also made into a kitchen and is trying to cook everyone, like some lunch.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, you do not wanna be in the same workshop as on. I'm just telling you.
Caden/Bruce: Every so often Bruce just has like, push aside some like metals and screws and just be like not near the spices.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, it's, it's an absolute disaster area. , I'm afraid… Because that's just kind of what the man is used to where
Bee/Polaris: so much cross-contamination.
Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah
Avery/GM: it'll be fine.
Chris/Ollie: Just organized chaos.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will look over at Marty and kind of throw up a raised eyebrow emoji on his visor cause this seems, this is weird.
Jenine/Marty: Marty tries to mimic it with her own face. And it's just, and like, just pu pushes her eyebrow up in the same way cause she can't get her eyebrow to go up that high.
Bee/Polaris: Excellent. Polaris will, Polaris will turn his attention back to the compete and say: is it safe?
Avery/GM: “It should be. Ships that go into the graveyard are typically stripped of weapons before they are stowed there as to avoid any unpleasant accidents.”
Bee/Polaris: Interesting. I suppose the crews… the crew wouldn't mind. No one has come up to object, so I'll get those readings.
Avery/GM: “Pleased. Thank you, Polaris. This will hopefully make a off a lot less temperamental than they have been the past few…. Actually since you left. Really?”
Bee/Polaris: Mm-hmm. Impossible. Alioth is always temperamental
Avery/GM: “amused. Yes… Yes. Well, we will try and rendezvous with you in the graveyard here in a few days time, but we are certain that you can complete this task with very few ramifications.”
Bee/Polaris: That is the hope. See you in a few days
Avery/GM: and the transmission cuts out. (comm sound)
Bee/Polaris: Polaris looks back over at Marty.
Jenine/Marty: Marty Waves
Bee/Polaris: Polaris Thumbs up and then goes to the workshop. Polaris will like knock on the, the side of the door. Is there a door to the workshop or is it just like an open sort of situation?
Jenine/Marty: Open floor plan. I really like the, the concept of an open floor plan here.
Zach/Zahn: you'd still want the doors to be there in case of Cabin de… Decompression. but it probably has them like permanent set to be open in case of emergency.
Avery/GM: Fair enough, fair enough.
Bee/Polaris: Excellent. Polaris will go over to like the open door and like knock on the side to get everyone's attention that's in the workshop. (door knock) Does anyone have any thoughts on This ship we're going to investigate.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn looks up with like a, he's got like a half helmet kind of thing on where it's got a blast shield as well as like several magnifying glasses.
Bee/Polaris: Excellent.
Zach/Zahn: And he is like, hell no. I've actually heard some cool shit about the graveyard. I've always kind of wanted to go, but none of my other projects ever took me there. So like this is actually kind of exciting. You know how much scrounge you could potentially find there?
Bee/Polaris: Mm. I've heard… the custodians used to visit the graveyard quite often.
Chris/Ollie: At the mention of graveyard Ollie's Head is gonna rotate 180. He's still doing whatever he was doing, you know, working on machines and bits, so yeah. Just turns around. Looks at you.
Bee/Polaris: Yep.
Chris/Ollie: And is like graveyard? I missed that. We are going to a ship graveyard?
Bee/Polaris: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: and his eyes are gonna like sparkle. His little visor eyes are gonna start sparkling
Bee/Polaris: Like anime eyes!?
And then yeah, pretty much. And then like everything he's working on behind him is gonna like start happening at twice the speed. He's like, excellent. I've been wanting to make some upgrades. And he's going to turn around and redouble his efforts on his work.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce is standing there rolling out dough and with his tail is using a whisk to whisk up this sauce and it becomes kind of clear that he's making pizza and he'll turn his head and just be like, that should be probably enough time for me to make this pizza. So yeah, why not? Let’s explore!
Bee/Polaris: Polaris tilts his head at the word pizza, but doesn't say anything.
Zach/Zahn: Is Polaris familiar with the concept of pizza?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris isn't familiar with the concept of every food unless Bruce has introduced it to him.
Avery/GM: You hear from the, or actually Marty, you're still in the, the cockpit, right?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah, I'm, I'm Jay chilling. Is, is, is, yeah. Hermes. I can't, I'm sitting in the cockpit with his, with the, with the fun little alien still?
Avery/GM: Yep. Yep. Hermes projects itself into the captain's chair and looks at you and says, “Marty, I feel I should let you know that the graveyard is also the rumored Home Base of the pirates that you befriended.’
Bee/Polaris: Oh shit. Our buds a few days ago.
Jenine/Marty: Oh?
Avery/GM: so perhaps you can make them more cake?
Jenine/Marty: And then I just kinda like yell down. Can we make tea time please? with the pirates?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will just nod and like. With his tail, like put the whisk down and like open up another cupboard and grab a bowl and just start getting out other ingredients where his hands are just like still needing the dough.
Bee/Polaris: Polars is just like sticking his head into the workshop to talk to you guys and he like puts his other hand up and does a thumbs up to Marty.
Jenine/Marty: Marty does a little dance of excitement.
Avery/GM: Marty, you see alien projection Hermes point at the pilot station and says “you'll have to engage the spike drive before we can properly get to the graveyard.”
Jenine/Marty: Oh, oh me. Are you motioning…?
Avery/GM: Well, he's pointing at you cuz you're the only one there and Polaris got up. So…
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is like walking back after doing the thumbs up.
Jenine/Marty: Oh thank God. Just woo. Not me!
Bee/Polaris: But Polaris hears Hermes, kind of like ask Marty to engage the Spike Drive. So he just stands behind the captain's chair and like puts his arms on the captain's chair and just watches Marty.
Jenine/Marty: I don't , I don't, I don't know how to operate this machinery.
Avery/GM: “I have heard that it's not very hard.”
Bee/Polaris: Yes, there are only five buttons and a wheel. Pick a button.
Zach/Zahn: Pick a button.
Jenine/Marty: Pick a button. you…. Oh, this is my character that has self-control. why don't you tell me which button to pick?
Bee/Polaris: Sure. It's between one and five. Smiley face,
Jenine/Marty: Uhhuh, Uhhuh, are the buttons labeled.
Bee/Polaris: No . It's a pirate tip. Probably not.
Jenine/Marty: So Marty's gonna walk over to the buttons and do that fun game of like hover above the first one and like look and see if I can try and get a reaction from under that visor.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. Polaris's visor is black and reflective.
Jenine/Marty: I know!
Avery/GM: you hover over the first button and You see Alien Hermes shake his head, no.
Jenine/Marty: Okay, then I hover over button number two.
Avery/GM: The head shake gets faster.
Bee/Polaris: Successfully amused Polaris. Walks over, ruffles Marty's hair, and then actually presses the right button. (button push)
Avery/GM: Button four.
Bee/Polaris: Yep.
Jenine/Marty: All right. Time to make a note. Button four. What was that Spike Drive or is that the eject button?
Avery/GM: Spike Drive. No, that's the Spike Drive. You feel the ship shake and vibrate underneath you, and it jumps into liminal space (warp sound) and y'all are on your way. Takes a couple hours to get there. In the meantime, Bruce, you've made a pizza?
Caden/Bruce: and cake? Yes, both.
Avery/GM: And cake! I love it. I love it. Cool. Yeah. What, what's up with the pizza?
Caden/Bruce: The pizza as we've collected a bunch of vegetables is vegetarian, so it's just this pizza that has like cut up mushrooms and peppers and onions and probably like, he blended some beans together to like make some sauce as long. as well as like the tomato-based sauce and it just smells and tastes really good.
And he used real cheese, not the fake cheese. And then the cake knowing last time, I think last time he gave them almond cake, if I'm not mistaken.
Bee/Polaris: I thought it was a
Avery/GM: Apricot.
Bee/Polaris: It was like a, yeah, an apricot sun, sunflower seed cake or pumpkin seed cake.
Caden/Bruce: I can never remember. There's so many cakes we've lost in a lemon cake. This time he's made like a very nice chocolate cake.
Bee/Polaris: Chocolate is a bean. They would've had chocolate.
Avery/GM: Mm-hmm. . That is true. Cool. Very good. So yeah, y'all are having a pizza party while you're on your way to a ship graveyard. Totally. Nothing ominous about that.
Bee/Polaris: Nah.
Avery/GM: And as you're coming into the graveyard, (warp sound) Hermes says, “the location that Merak sent us is section 7-B of the graveyard. Would you like me to autopilot us there or would you like to pilot us yourself?”
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will… Polaris will just grab the wheel and start piloting.
(flyby sound)
Avery/GM: Okay, cool. So a few things about the graveyard as you're coming into it. You know that rather than any government holding like jurisdiction over this place, pretty much every planet, every system of government just sort of strips the ships of weapons and anything that would be related to like computer memories and things like that from these ships and then kind of hauls the, the hulls here for scrapers to pick over. You know, they'll leave some of the stuff, they'll leave, you know, teleportation pads or armor, you know, and stuff like that attached to these ships. But you also know that a lot of these ships have been in battle already, and therefore, aren't always in the best shape. You also know that there is an artificial, artificial gravity well in kind of the center of this heap that helps prevent ships from…
Zach/Zahn: spike driving right into the middle of it. Yeah.
Avery/GM: Exactly helps people from getting pulled out of their spike drive right in the middle of a wreck. So normally it's a very safe place to travel to and generally a safe place to be in… The GM says Ominously paths through the wreckage are kind of created, kind of as needed. There's no real organization to this place, so you might have to blast your way to get, you know, into a certain section. But as you enter this system and start navigating around Polaris, Marty, are you back at the comm station?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah? Okay, cool. Then you see a little ping (comms sound) on your comms board and just gonna drop this in chat. If anyone or everyone wants to hit play on this when they can, and just kind of listen to this and let me know when you're done.
Mysterious Voice: Warning! Warning This is the pan-solar union ship Cassiopeia, Our ship is damaged. Ship… Corrupted. Automated…Vated. Ship Self-destruct sequence… Disabled. -ony Core Compromised. Warning. Warning. This is the pan-solar ship Cassiopeia. Our Ship is damaged. …Approach. Ship AI… Activated. Ship self sequence. Disabled. …Core Compromised.
Chris/Ollie: Huh?
Jenine/Marty: This is sick .
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, that's, that's. Good audio quality or effects there.
Avery/GM: So that is the transmission that you receive Marty on your communications board. And it appears to be coming from this ship right here on the map.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, the big one.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, the Dorito.
Caden/Bruce: The dorito!
Bee/Polaris: the Forbidden Dorito!
Chris/Ollie: the U S A F Dorito!
Avery/GM: the big gray Dorito in the sky
Jenine/Marty: and is it just like on a loop?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Jenine/Marty: Okay, cool. Its like… I like tried to push a button to try and like make it go through the whole cabin. (Comm Sound) Hopefully successfully. She's a smart cookie, but again, she doesn't know this technology.
Avery/GM: Yeah,
Bee/Polaris: yeah, there are five buttons. , .
Jenine/Marty: Well, this is a different button system.
Avery/GM: And, and, and these buttons actually have not had the labels rubbed off. So you're, you're doing good.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah
Bee/Polaris: The labels weren't rubbed off, but they were switched around.
Jenine/Marty: do we know anything about this ship? Question mark.
Avery/GM: So as you're approaching it, Hermes kind of puts like the, the outer ship camera kind of on screen for y'all to view. And you're navigating through this place. You see a lot of like busted hulls and like of metal and armor plating kind of all over the place. You see fighter ships that you recognize some cruise ships. All that kind of stuff. But in hernias points out the ship that this transmission is coming from. It looks nothing like anything you all are familiar with and not like any of you are ship experts, but you live in a space faring society. You see lots of ships all the time. This thing looks completely alien.
Bee/Polaris: Hmm. Yeah. That's a weird, that's a weirdin.
Chris/Ollie: and, and we know that's the what the ship, the transmission's coming from for sure.
Avery/GM: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: Can I like try and determine how long the signal's been going on? Uh,
Avery/GM: If you ask Marty to move out of the com station, probably, I don't know,
Chris/Ollie: Ollie's a pretty handy guy. He can just plug himself in. No, I'm kidding. Ollie will walk up to Marty and say, oh, Pardon me, Marty, I would like to attempt something.
Jenine/Marty: Oh yeah. Yes, of course. And then she'll like back away slowly.
Avery/GM: and Hermes stops projecting himself into the captain's chair. And then you see like a little spectral hand pat, the captain's chair for you, and kind of like, here you go.
Bee/Polaris: Tempting.
Chris/Ollie: So Ollie is gonna sit down and it's gonna be like hackers. He's just gonna like start typing at like 300 words per minute (typing sounds) analyzing.
Bee/Polaris: his hands split apart and get extra fingers to type faster.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah Or like that anime gif. Yeah.
Avery/GM: So unless you have like a specific AI skill, go ahead and roll a intelligence program check.
Chris/Ollie: Yep. Yeah, I'm not gonna use any, I gotta save up all my points. Might be getting some trouble. Intelligence, A…or intelligence program, you say? Yes, please. All righty. That is 13.
Avery/GM: 13. Perfect. You do some math and some kind of triangulation and stuff. You analyze the. The crater that it's kind of leaning against on this asteroid that it's next to, and you calculate that it can't have been here longer than three months.
Bee/Polaris: Hmm
Chris/Ollie: hmm. Yeah, he's gonna report this and say, . Interesting. According to these readings, the crash is very recent, within a few months.
Bee/Polaris: Interesting. I wonder where it came from cause it does not look like it comes from this general area.
Chris/Ollie: Can we see any markings or anything on it? Nothing that we would recognize, but…
Avery/GM: you see some lettering in a language that you don't recognize, which is weird for you cause you're an AI, you're.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I know, I know them all.
Avery/GM: You know the languages
Bee/Polaris: you are language.
Chris/Ollie: I am the language.
Avery/GM: And there's also a shining sun emblazoned on each wing of the ship.
Chris/Ollie: And can I give the, like a, a Google image search for this sun?
(Computer button noise)
Avery/GM: Yeah. It's, it's not pulling up any known images of… of this. No cross reference.
Bee/Polaris: Does, does Polaris have, like, like they have a direct communication line to the ship. Does Polaris have a way to like send the custodians things from like this far away?
Avery/GM: Yeah, of course.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Polaris is gonna take like pictures in, on his helmet of the, of the lettering and also the symbol and send it over to the custodians in the group chat and text them. Do you guys know what this is? Question mark?
Avery/GM: You see like the three dots, like someone's typing something.
Bee/Polaris: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: but so far nothing has been sent yet.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Polaris will turn to the rest of the group and say, I've sent it over to the custodians to see what they know. They've traveled quite a distance.
Avery/GM: Hermes speaks up and says, “I am detecting the presence of at least one other AI on board that ship. And it appears the docking bay on that ship should easily accommodate this vessel. If you would like to explore it.”
Bee/Polaris: Hmm. I would like, I, I think we'd like to explore it, but having it docked in the ship with a corrupt ai… a corrupted AI, probably isn't the best idea.
Chris/Ollie: While you guys are talking, Ollie is already getting up and preparing to go in . He walks into the warehouse and grabs his Void Hawk drone.
Bee/Polaris: Ooh.
Chris/Ollie: And brings it out.
Bee/Polaris: Nice.
Jenine/Marty: Nice.
Avery/GM: Polaris. After a few moments, you just get one word response and it just says unknown.
Zach/Zahn: Ooh.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is not too pleased about that. The, the custodians have been traveling a while and the fact that they don't know what the fuck this is, makes Polaris a little nervous.
Jenine/Marty: And is this the one that they sent us to check out?
Bee/Polaris: Yes.
Jenine/Marty: Well, that's, well, that's definitely not sketch. That's, that's not, that's not scary. That's not… That's not suspicious. That ain't sus
Bee/Polaris: yeah
Jenine/Marty: that ain’t sus!
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. When Polaris gets that message, he like visibly tenses, but doesn't say anything.
Jenine/Marty: Marty does that little like head tilt thing and just goes, Hmm? Okay.
Avery/GM: I was gonna say, Marty, with your medical training, you, you see kind of the, the tensing of Polaris, which is out of character for sure.
Jenine/Marty: Mental Note.
Bee/Polaris: Marty will remember that. it appears on everyone's advisor and everyone's like, wait, what?
Avery/GM: Oh Marty, you have telepathy, don't you?
Jenine/Marty: I, I do. I do. I do. But that's… I'm not gonna… Well..
Avery/GM: No, no, no. I'm just, I was just curious.
Bee/Polaris: Nothing is sacred.
Jenine/Marty: Well, yeah. I'm not gonna do it to my friends
Avery/GM: Sorry, that was a, that was a poorly timed question on my phone. I'm not implying you would… No. I was asking because you do you do sense like another psionic nearby?
Jenine/Marty: I sense a psionic nearby. Oh!
Bee/Polaris: Marty’s Spider Senses are tingling. also Sherm, you, you were saying that Zahn was about to do something?
Zach/Zahn: Yes. As, as he basically comes back at the same time as Ollie is. And as he like comes in, he is like adjusting something that he's attached to his arm. And he pushes a button and his helmet does the finally the cool Isaac Clark thing where it pieces together and forms over his head and he is like, let's do this.
Bee/Polaris: You guys are so ready to go into this, this death trap of a ship.
Zach/Zahn: Heck yeah. Surrounded by dying components. Mm.
Bee/Polaris: a treasure mine!
Zach/Zahn: Heck Yes.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: You also see some cool, like you hear some additional like calibrations coming from his feet and he's got some extra bulk to him, and I'll describe that when it comes up.
Bee/Polaris: Nice.
Jenine/Marty: Nice.
Avery/GM: Polaris, Hermes takes into consideration what you said about docking the ship and he says, “I have calculated the distance that I could safely maneuver the ship and you all could jump out of the loading ramp. Of this ship onto the docking bay of that ship. As long as you all have vac suits, you should hopefully not die.”
Bee/Polaris: We all have vac suits, right? Because I don't think we returned them from the fucking race or whatever. Or did we have those before?
Avery/GM: You did not return them. You still have them. I think the only one who might not have a vac suit is Bruce, but
Bee/Polaris: Right.
Avery/GM: A little bit of searching around. Would probably unveil a Bruce sized vac suit conveniently located somewhere.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah we can probably find one.
Zach/Zahn: If we also want to take a little bit of time, Zahn can modify them to have extended duration if we want as well.
Bee/Polaris: Hmm. I mean, I don't think we're in any sort of rush.
Avery/GM: For the, for the sake of making this listenable show, Zach, they have the duration that they need
Caden/Bruce: Perfect
Zach/Zahn: as is required.
Avery/GM: Yep.
Chris/Ollie: And be like, oh, you're halfway through, but you've run out of life support and there's nothing nearby, party wipe! GG! Well played!
Zach/Zahn: now that Zahn's gotten like the bulk of the stuff that he really wanted done. I do want to install everyone with bubble seals, which aren't full vac suits, but it gives like everyone, a, a short period of time if A, your vac suit cuts out, or B, you're not wearing it.
Avery/GM: Yeah, we can get to that at some point.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. I mean, Polaris has a vax skin, so he doesn't, it's not like armored or anything, but yeah, he's good.
Chris/Ollie: Oh. Also, if we're gonna jump in, I could give, give her the control of the little drone I got so he can come with us.
Zach/Zahn: Aw!
Caden/Bruce: taking Hermes for a walk.
Bee/Polaris: Hey walkies
Chris/Ollie: A little leash. Come on. Hermes time for your walkie.
Avery/GM: Not a bad idea.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we can totally do that. I was thinking about like docking the ship near one of the holes that are blasted into the side of the ship because you can shut, like an AI can shut the, the doors to like the ship, but they can't shut a hole in the ship.
Avery/GM: This is true.
Bee/Polaris: And then we just like remember which hole we keep in through.
Avery/GM: Okay. So you'd like to go through a hole instead of directly into the docking bay?
Bee/Polaris: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, the docking bay might have anti boarding measures.
Bee/Polaris: Exactly.
Chris/Ollie: Good Idea.
Avery/GM: Man, So Untrusting.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Jenine/Marty: Yep.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is terrified of the ship.
Zach/Zahn: We've had a AWOL-esque AI on the, on the fritz for a couple months now. Who knows how deranged it's gotten.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Who knows how homicidal it is.
Avery/GM: Caden, will you roll a D8 for me please?
Caden/Bruce: A D8? Yeah, sure. That’s a 3.
Avery/GM: Okay, cool. Yeah, you maneuver your ship sort of towards the, this side of the, of the ship and there is a big old hole in the, in the middle. That y'all can jump through.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. I do hate that mysterious roll that you had Caden do, but I'll ignore it for now.
Jenine/Marty: I don't know what roll you're talking about.
Avery/GM: it's fine.
Jenine/Marty: What roll? There's no roll.
Avery/GM: to be honest. It was literally just to decide which section of the ship y'all were gonna land in.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, sweet. Okay. Sweet. Okay, cool.
Avery/GM: you're totally fine. Cool. So y'all jump across?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn expertly glides his way in with his new jet boots.
(jet boot sounds)
Bee/Polaris: Oh, lovely.
Zach/Zahn: He's just sails past everybody.
Avery/GM: Yeah. So y'all arrive in this room here inside you see some deactivated sleep pods, and there's a hallway leading south… relative and a hallway leading to the northwest. And as you land and sort of get situated in here, Start receiving a transmission… (comms sound) but it's in a language that no one, no one understands the words, but Zahn, you recognize some of the words because you heard this language spoken sometimes back on your space colony.
Zach/Zahn: Oh shit.
Avery/GM: And you don't get all of the words, but you do get. You do translate the word artificial state your purpose and yeah, those are the words that you get.
Zach/Zahn: Is it like an open comm kind of thing or is it how are we getting this message? Is it over the ship speakers or something?
Avery/GM: It's over. It's over comms so it sounds more like a conversation and not a transmission.
Zach/Zahn: Got it.
Avery/GM: Yeah. I mean this, so this, this message is getting beamed to all of you? Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. I'm gonna open a group chat with this ship and type (comms sound) can't understand you. Please translate. Question mark. Speak common please.
Jenine/Marty: Does anyone speak common?
Zach/Zahn: If not, speak in Math.
Avery/GM: Hermes speaks up in the chat and just says, “I Believe I can send this AI a language primer and it should be able to communicate with us shortly.”
Bee/Polaris: Do that please.
Zach/Zahn: It wants to know our purposes here.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris slowly turns to Zahn with a, a raised eyebrow emoji on the visor.
Zach/Zahn: He gives like the innocent shrug. I've been places…
Avery/GM: I've been places.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris does the squint eye emoji because Polaris knows that the custodians have never heard of this, this language or ship. So the fact that Zahn knows is very, like, it's very weird, but also kind of amazing to him.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's not gonna address it at this time.
Avery/GM: I do not wish to discuss. So while you're waiting for the ship AI to learn your language real quick, a couple other things you notice is there is no gravity in this ship because all of the systems are shut down.
Zach/Zahn: Mag boots.
Avery/GM: So y'all are kind of floating here. And kind of able to pull yourselves along, like by grabbing things and stuff like that. Or in the case of Zahn, having jet boots
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. The only one of us that has
Zach/Zahn: Or mag boots!
Bee/Polaris: the only one of us that has cool boots, I only have uggs.
Zach/Zahn: No one has requested any yet. I only uggs!?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris has boots with the fur
Avery/GM: Oh my goodness. So yeah, you, you notice the sleep pods are not like bolted down. They're sort of floating… Can see into the room to the south that there are some medical looking beds that are kind of floating around here. And then as you're kind of looking around and noticing these things, the group chat pops up and this AI that is communicating with you says “greetings, I am Cassiopeia Artificial intelligence node Navi, please state your purpose.”
Bee/Polaris: Polaris types Investigation. Heard Transmission.
Avery/GM: “Oh, great. You picked up our transmission. That is very helpful. Will you please help destroy this ship?”
Bee/Polaris: Shrug emoji. Sure.
Jenine/Marty: Whoa, whoa. Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up. Back, up back.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn types in… Zahn types. Why do you seek destructions?
Avery/GM: Classified.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris doesn't ask questions. Someone says, destroy players will destroy. He's a simple man.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn wants the salvage.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, yeah, we can salvage it. I mean, destroy doesn't mean destroy the whole ship. We just have to destroy the core.
Zach/Zahn: which is also good salvage!
Bee/Polaris: I mean, okay, you can, you can, we can get in the USB and download that shit and then destroy it. I got a couple of… something drives. I got a couple of floppy disks. Polaris will type. If it is classified and we are tasked at destroying the ship, would it not be beneficial to know why it's classified? Question mark
Zach/Zahn: Under who's classification?
Bee/Polaris: Yes. Who watches the watchman, if you will?
Avery/GM: All information pertaining to my mission is classified. I cannot share it except with authorized personnel.
Bee/Polaris: How do you know we're not authorized personnel? Question mark.
Jenine/Marty: mmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Bee/Polaris: Damn it.
Zach/Zahn: Well, I mean Marty is a… intern with a hegemony. So if that registers at all.
Bee/Polaris: That is true!
Avery/GM: Hegemony unknown. You are not wearing uniforms of the Pan Solar Union.
Bee/Polaris: Pan Solar union.
Jenine/Marty: Do I know what that is?
Bee/Polaris: Got it. Thank you!
Zach/Zahn: I was gonna say, do I know what that is? Since I know what language, part of what language he was speaking, she, is it as female or…
Avery/GM: none of you… None of you recognize what that entity would be?
Zach/Zahn: and then is the Cassiopeia a feminine or masculine AI?or in between. Yeah, that was…
Bee/Polaris: what are their pronouns?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah, that's what
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will type and chat. What are your pronouns?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Correct Questions, pronouns, please.
Bee/Polaris: pronouns, please Question mark.
Jenine/Marty: With a w.
Avery/GM: I actually did not think about that. I'm sorry. Okay. Feminine.
Bee/Polaris: So she/her?
Avery/GM: I rolled a D six and decided. Yeah. She/Her
Chris/Ollie: Cassiopeia is a female character from League of Legends. So
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will ask in chat, where is the Pan Solar Union? You might be far from home.
Avery/GM: Error. Error. Ship Origin classified
Bee/Polaris: god dammit.
Avery/GM: Greetings. I am Cassiopeia, Artificial Intelligence node Navi. Please state your purpose.
Bee/Polaris: Purpose previously stated, scroll up.
Chris/Ollie: Top of the dialogue tree
Avery/GM: Oh, you received our transmission. Please help destroy this ship.
Bee/Polaris: Sure. Shrug emoji. Polaris will copy and paste his response from before and just put it and send it again and also take a screenshot of this loop to send once it loops again.
Avery/GM: Yes, Marty.
Jenine/Marty: Marty just goes, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's, let's take like three steps back. Hi, really nice to meet you. What can we do…
Avery/GM: Navi says I cannot take any steps back. I am a ship.
Jenine/Marty: I meant take a couple steps back in conversation. How are you?
Avery/GM: I am distressed. How are you?
Jenine/Marty: Well, I'm wondering why you're distressed.
Avery/GM: Mission parameters have failed.
Jenine/Marty: and the parameters of the mission were to…?
Avery/GM: our first mission was to colonize a distant planet, second mission classified.
Jenine/Marty: And which planet was that?
Avery/GM: Unknown. navigation systems offline. Automated defenses are activated.
Jenine/Marty: Like right now
Avery/GM: colony core integrity is compromised.
Bee/Polaris: Are there any survivors on this ship? Are there any like what's it called? What are those what are they called? Oh my gosh. There are, there were some on the Ursa major for like, for like cryogenic sleep. I don't remember what they're called though.
Chris/Ollie: Like cryo pods?
Avery/GM: The cryo sleep pods, yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Well, while this has been going on, Ollie's also been fiddling with the pods behind us.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I was gonna say Polaris was gonna look in the window of the pods.
Avery/GM: Okay. So as this is,
Zach/Zahn: I don't like that. Oh, okay.
Avery/GM: No, it's fine. It's gonna get a little grim, that's all.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, that's fine.
Avery/GM: So the cold sleep pods are powered down and there are figures in side sleeping, the eternal sleep, if you will.
Bee/Polaris: Ah,
Avery/GM: and they are Yeah. No longer conscious or part of this mortal world anymore.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris expected to see this.
Avery/GM: One thing that catches your eyes, Polaris, is that one of the people in this sleep pod has glowing freckles on their face, and they glow with a fluorescent pink.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris says… Polaris puts in chat out of the ship now four explanation points.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, cool, cool, cool. Marty will continue. Marty will continue the conversation and just like
Zach/Zahn: Wait, why?
Jenine/Marty: back away, we'll try with as much core strength as she has, which is not a lot to move back slowly and grab friends. Well This was really nice conversation. You've been really kind to us. You're really cool. This mission sounds really difficult.
Bee/Polaris: as Marty is typing this, Polaris is like pulling her outta this
Jenine/Marty: trying to like back up.
Bee/Polaris: Floating out of the hull
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is magged to the floor, not going anywhere.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie is like still fiddling with the console on the pod and he is, looks up and says, oh, are we in danger?
Bee/Polaris: You are not. Fleshy beings are.
Jenine/Marty: oh, I'm fleshy beings.
Bee/Polaris: Can Polaris determine if this is like normal space radiation or like bad radiation depending on how bright the…?
Avery/GM: Well, I will say that you are not glowing because
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Avery/GM: Your vac suits would be shielded from radiation.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, okay.
Avery/GM: But with these pods being deactivated
Bee/Polaris: Right.
Avery/GM: They would not be shielded, so
Bee/Polaris: got it. Okay. Once Polaris makes that realization, he stops and says, Never mind. Smiley face.
Avery/GM: We're all cool.
Bee/Polaris: we're good. Never mind, smiley face.
Avery/GM: Marty the… this Navi AI says attempts at self-destruction have fail. All connections to the engine have been disabled. They must be restored before the artificial intelligence nodes can reactivate ship systems, including the self-destruct sequence.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm. Now another thing, when you say our mission and we, who is we?
Avery/GM: The five other artificial intelligence nodes on the Casiopeia plus the command crew… Who are all dead.
Jenine/Marty: Oh.
Avery/GM: except for the navigator.
Jenine/Marty: Can, can, can we speak with the navigator as well?
Avery/GM: Not until the ship has regained power.
Jenine/Marty: Hmm… and do I sense this navigator somewhere nearby?
Avery/GM: You sense the navigator somewhere nearby, like kind of in the next room…
Bee/Polaris: you can probably
Avery/GM: to the northwest.
Bee/Polaris: you can probably mind talkie.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah You can just send him a mind text.
Bee/Polaris: A brain group chat.
Jenine/Marty: I can’t do a group chat yet, but I can do a group chat at some point. I mean, I can do a group chat for like all of us except for one unfortunately cause I am made for fleshies… sorry.
Chris/Ollie: actually I could, I can invest a point into being able to be a target of mental communication.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, cool.
Jenine/Marty: Oh that's exciting. That's good to know. Good to know. Okay, cool.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Actually I've got a ton of points, so I'll just do that.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, well I don't need, I can't group chat yet.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Jenine/Marty: With human… with… with Freshies yet that's a level four thing. We are only a level two. Anyways, backing up just she'll just like start trying to ping to the other, other sci in the, in the thing shooting off messages. Like, hello? Hello.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You, you get a mental image of someone drowning.
Jenine/Marty: Ooh. Hmm. Hmm
Zach/Zahn: Yes, Marty?
Jenine/Marty: and I send like
Zach/Zahn: words, use words, you can do it.
Jenine/Marty: Well do we want, and then I go into the, just like the crew chat and I'm like, so I sent a message to the other dude that's on the ship and it, the image that kind of got back was like drowning. So do we wanna like, I could stay here and like distract the ai. If someone wants to go check on that dude.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just sends where? because you said like you got the image of drowning, right?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. And then I just like turn my body towards where I, where facing to where it's… Where its at.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris goes… Polaris go
Jenine/Marty: and I will continue to distract the AI, one of the ai cuz there's four of them. There's five of them apparently.
Avery/GM: But only this one is active.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Or only this one is communicating with you.
Jenine/Marty: Right. Love that. Love that.
Avery/GM: Does anyone else go with Polaris?
Caden/Bruce: Oh yeah, Bruce will too.
Avery/GM: Ollie does.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn will stay with Marty.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, thank goodness I can't fight.
Avery/GM: As you enter the bridge, I need all three of you to make evasion saves.
Caden/Bruce: Is evasion saves a D20?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Caden/Bruce: Okay.
Avery/GM: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, wow. Where's my 20? Oh…
Bee/Polaris: I make.
Caden/Bruce: I dunno how these work but I rolled a…
Bee/Polaris: oh, you roll a D 20, you don't add anything. And then on your sheet there should be like a, a threshold that you have to beat. And if you're above that…
Caden/Bruce: oh, sweet. Then I saved, I was like, do I have to be above or below ?
Bee/Polaris: Above,
Avery/GM: above,
Chris/Ollie: oh And I did not evade.
Avery/GM: Oh, no?
Chris/Ollie: No.
Avery/GM: Okay. So as you come into the bridge of this ship, you see three of these little automated weapons turrets pop out of the wall and open fire at you. (laser blasts) Bruce and Polaris. You nimbly dodge out of the way. But Ollie, you get kind of shot up a little bit here and take 11 Damage.
Bee/Polaris: Jesus Christ.
Jenine/Marty: That's a lot
Chris/Ollie: Merely a flesh wound.
Jenine/Marty: what?
Bee/Polaris: Merely a flesh wound…
Jenine/Marty: What flesh
Avery/GM: And these three turrets pop out of the walls and let's roll initiative.
(Ambience fades out, outro plays and fades down)
Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1up Podcast Network Production. Intro and Outro music produced by Dustin Carpenter. Background music provided by tabletopaudio.com and used under an
attribution, non-commercial license from creative commons. Tracks used include: Starship Bridge, Starfreighter, and Star Forged, Fray. Be sure to check us out @FurthestPod on Twitter and Tumblr. We’ll be back on March 1st with our next episode. See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars.
(Outro fades up, then plays through to the end)