hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.4: Breaking down the base

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moves: chapter 3

Chapter 3.4: Breaking down the base

As the meeting ends, the team members move to their assigned tasks.

Dar, Deyna, Seyli and Sulen collect some heavy-duty servitors and begin transferring supplies to the Cantata.

Alaric, Reshad, Shess, and the Cantata's drone prepare to remove the harness from Ankat's moth, The Sedulous Eel.

Back on the Cantata, Sasha goes to her office and starts remotely wiping memory nodes on the base's grid. Jedao is in the Communications/Gunnery room, controlling the weapons. Xiulan acts as his backup. Remi has been instructed to look for patterns or causes of the missing interstellar signals.

Meanwhile, Hana and Eddox look after the mothlings, perhaps joined by Mafyyil, who for some reason has not received clear instructions. Gerae and Ione divide their attention between the mothlings and the nest of pseudo-dragons.

[Welcome to a new move!

I know that things are stressful and uncertain for all of us right now. Please don't fret if you suddenly find yourself with less or more free time than usual--we will adjust! If you would like to give your character a node of peace where they drink tea and admire baby aliens for the next while, this can be arranged. Conversely, if you want a plotty distraction, we will bring you one!

My own focus is unreliable of late, but I'll work on a recap of the previous move as I can.]

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Seyli feels like they should be deferring to Sulen, but they've also never really talked to the alt; and they know what they're doing. "Do we want to divide and conquer or all work together?" They ask. "We should focus on medbay, food, and weapons first. Salvage whatever we can from that and then go after the non-essentials." A heavy duty survivor stands alongside of them, one that is designed to carry things on it's wide, flat back, or shift upright to hold things in mechanical arms. It's not as sleek or interestingly shaped as some of the regular servitors,and Seyli's delighted there is more than one to help.

Edited 2020-03-23 20:35 (UTC)

Hana, still immensely (and perhaps irrevocably) embarrassed about how the other night at the party went down, is glad to keep in the background and be assigned to babysitting duty. She's sworn off ever touching alcohol again, especially around other people, especially around - well, she is 100% not thinking about the man whose arm she hung off the other night, and definitely not thinking about who he couldn't possibly be. (It's funny, in retrospect, that this of all thing is a hang up. Alternate realities? Interdimensional rifts? Baby sentient eldritch spaceships? Whatever, she's seen worse. She's a teacher.)

Alcohol, no. Euphorics, on the other hand...

There's a stash two places in her room and a small supply on her person, though she promises herself when she wakes up that she's only using one that day. That's why when she reports for babysitting duty her pupils are only a little wide, her eyes just a normal amount of glassy. She keeps interaction with other adults to a minimum and places herself on the floor, on her stomach, at eye level with the mothlings.

"Hello," she says to the closest one. "I'm Miss Hana. Did I... I'm sorry. I can't tell you apart yet." She's signing as she speaks. "Are you the one who shared my shrimp puff the other night?"

Reshad examines the drone with overt curiosity, and smiles at both Alaric and Shess. "Before we go frighten the crew and the Sedulous Eel, would you tell me what happened when Cantata was woken? Were you on board, Alaric? And Cantata, what do you recall of it, if you don't mind?"

It'll be good information for Shess, as well. Who it seems she had managed to miss at the party - ah, well. The basics of introduction will have to suffice for now.

Edited 2020-03-24 01:14 (UTC)

"I believe you have more experience with this than me," Sulen says. "I defer to your opinion. Er- are you familiar with- I believe these are called servitors, is that right? What are their capabilities?"

Sasha checks plans of the base, looking for areas that are not in use, and areas where she can safely freeze the current layout. Once she starts wiping nodes, the grid's capability will degrade quickly.

[You're welcome to determine this by player fiat. I'm personally ass at maps.]

The mothling wriggles closer and extends a tentacle toward her nose, perhaps thinking it is an appendage one can shake "hands" with. It hums softly.

"I was dreaming of songsharing," Cantata replies through the grid, "and then someone started sending me puzzles! First very easy ones, and then more exciting ones. We should do that again sometime."

[I'm not good with them, but I'm sure I can find something for Sasha to obsess about.

Are the three moths parked close to each other, or are they in different sections of the base?]

[The three moths are in different sections of the base.]

"That seems fairly accurate," Alaric agrees. "From our perspective, shortly after exiting a rift into the relative past, before the hexarchate's current calendrical system was implemented to permit the use of the mothdrive, we noticed subtle changes in the drive's operation - noises, mostly. I jury-rigged a method for using the diagnostics to send and receive signals from the Cantata-the-moth itself, which I used to do some basic first-contact protocols involving math and eventually developed into the current automated translation system. I would expect we should be able to adapt that easily, although we can't expect instant results since there may be differences in language or dialect just as there can be with humans from different times and places."

"Yeah, these're a kind of servitor," says Dar. "I know there are some little ones on the ship, you've seen 'em around on base, too, right? They're mech animals, kind of. They're pretty smart."

She patted the metal hulk, seemingly with affection. "I've never worked with one this big, but yeah, you tell them what to do, and they'll either do it or signal somehow that they can't. This one should be able to load stuff and transport it."

"I'll help with the heavy lifting," Deyna says. "That's my day job anyways. Where do you want me to start?"

She has an affection for servitors as well, but it surprises her that Dar is so openly appreciative. Where Deyna's from, it's a mark of status to not notice servitors -- she'd never get to that point herself, but she knows well enough how to pretend.

Sasha shares the station's sensor monitoring capability between the three mothgrids, building in some redundancy, and then resets the grid nodes in the inner ring. The first wipe is fast and dirty; scrubbing will happen on the second pass.

"Excuse me," the Cantata says suddenly through the grid, to everyone who might possibly be listening. "I was wondering if you knew where Remi went? Because the mothlings say they can't find him anywhere, and I can't hear him anywhere either."

The "metal hulk" blinks peaceful blue lights and makes a metallic beeping sound--almost as though in response to Dar's pat.

Wires made of light. How do you hide gravity?

Sasha checks the grid for records of Remi's recent location and activity.

According to the grid, Remi was last seen twelve minutes ago in a then-empty section of corridor. Before that, he was settling the mothlings in an enclosure (where they can still be found) along with a supply of battery packs and other delicious morsels. The grid reports that he stopped existing at the twelve-minutes-ago mark.

After the meeting ends, Xiulan stands and says to Jedao, “I’ll grab my stuff and meet you onboard.”

The speed with which she shows up with a bag slung over her shoulder says that said ‘stuff’ must have already been packed and ready to go before the meeting ever started.

[Pausing there just in case there’s any reason she’d have seen Remi between the base personnel rooms and the Cantata’s comms/gunnery room. Will post again shortly.]

Hana smiles softly and holds very still, though she's going to wrinkle her nose once contact is made. "Hello, friend," she says quietly before offering her hand, palm flat, fingers out. "What's your name? Or do you even have a name?"

[Sorry for the delay--my mom called from S Korea and wanted to check in on us. XD ]

[

zuhrovet, I can't remember--was Jedao ever allowed his gun back, or is he still technically unarmed?]

Xiulan spotted Remi in passing about ten minutes before his disappearance, while passing by: he was taking care of the mothlings in a rather fussy fashion.

Jedao is also already packed up with a utilitarian duffel bag, not that he had much in the way of belongings to begin with. He gives Xiulan an appreciative nod. "Your instructions?" he asks.

The mothling's tentacle is cool but velvety, almost like very fine cloth, and it attempts to shake her finger, although there is very little force. It warbles uncertainly for a second, then the Cantata interjects with a thrum of its own. The mothling hums a chord/series of notes of its own that might best be described as D Dominant.

[The mothlings should be with Hana?]

Sasha checks the list of gear Remi was carrying when he left the Cantata. She looks for recent changes to the base's layout or evidence that Remi has accessed information about variable layout procedures, and queries the other mothgrids in case Remi is on a different moth.

Meanwhile, she tells the Cantata, "Thank you. I'll look for him. Please keep looking too!"

[My bad, amend that to Remi securing the other mothlings in a happy play enclosure so they don't wander off and then walking out.]

There's zero evidence that Remi accessed the base's grid or altered variable layout, although that doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. On the other hand, Sasha's observations of Remi are that while he's competent at grid operations, he really isn't much of a hacker.

The other mothgrids report that Remi is not anywhere to be seen.

[Did Remi take anything with him when he left? Tablet, supplies, lokki, handwritten letter? Was the corridor where he disappeared on the way to anything in particular?]

Sasha checks Remi's quarters (via the grid) and his workspace within the grid, to see if he left a note. She also checks the remaining base records to see whether there are similar instances of items disappearing.

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Chapter 3.4: Breaking down the base

Transfering supplies and breaking shit down

You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

To Break the Bit (Paging Alaric, Cantata, and Shess)

Re: Transfering supplies and breaking shit down

maps

Re: maps

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: To Break the Bit (Paging Alaric, Cantata, and Shess)

Re: maps

Re: maps

Re: To Break the Bit (Paging Alaric, Cantata, and Shess)

Re: Transfering supplies and breaking shit down

Re: Transfering supplies and breaking shit down

Re: maps

an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)

Re: Transfering supplies and breaking shit down

Re: an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)

Re: an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)

On the Cantata (Paging Jedao)

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: On the Cantata (Paging Jedao) (paging Sasha)

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)

Re: an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)

Re: an unexpected development (paging anyone who wants to talk to the Cantata)