Move 4 (Chapter 1.4)
Jul. 25th, 2017 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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hexarchate_rpgTime: 361 (high calendar)
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
[GM's note: I know several characters/players are still resolving matters from Move 3. That's fine! You may continue posting to Move 3 to resolve those threads or shift threads over to Move 4 to reflect the changed state of affairs, whichever you feel more comfortable with. Ashari and the rest probably ought to settle the matter of who's going where.]
A few new things happen.
Presumably Sasha has some kind of alert set up on the virus. She notices that it's trying to wriggle its way out into the wider grid, specifically so it can listen in on conversations and send back recordings to its unknown master.
[Since the grid responds to voice address, it's a fair bet that some form of sensors are always active within the Wasp.]
Meanwhile, Kaliyan, who is monitoring Scan from the Wasp's cockpit/command center, gets an alert from the Wasp's automated functions. While the "welcome message" from Station Moongray is still droning on repeat, what looks like the research moth Butterfly Lens is starting to move in the Wasp's direction.
What's more, a basic query of Scan will reveal that a second spacecraft has come out from the Scan shadow of a large nearby planetoid, and is also converging on the Wasp's location. While this second spacecraft isn't making any (more) effort to hide itself, any check on Scan will reveal that, unlike the Butterfly Lens, this second moth has some armaments. It's not a full-fledged warship--and it's almost certainly not Kel, since the Kel avoid traveling alone if they can help it--but it's probably intended for local defense.
[EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, I glitched and forgot]
If Yehan gets a good luck at the second ship on visuals, she'll notice with some surprise that it looks like a ship out of the past--there are markings on it that look Naxorian, but weirdly distorted, like it's from another dialect or related symbology.
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
[GM's note: I know several characters/players are still resolving matters from Move 3. That's fine! You may continue posting to Move 3 to resolve those threads or shift threads over to Move 4 to reflect the changed state of affairs, whichever you feel more comfortable with. Ashari and the rest probably ought to settle the matter of who's going where.]
A few new things happen.
Presumably Sasha has some kind of alert set up on the virus. She notices that it's trying to wriggle its way out into the wider grid, specifically so it can listen in on conversations and send back recordings to its unknown master.
[Since the grid responds to voice address, it's a fair bet that some form of sensors are always active within the Wasp.]
Meanwhile, Kaliyan, who is monitoring Scan from the Wasp's cockpit/command center, gets an alert from the Wasp's automated functions. While the "welcome message" from Station Moongray is still droning on repeat, what looks like the research moth Butterfly Lens is starting to move in the Wasp's direction.
What's more, a basic query of Scan will reveal that a second spacecraft has come out from the Scan shadow of a large nearby planetoid, and is also converging on the Wasp's location. While this second spacecraft isn't making any (more) effort to hide itself, any check on Scan will reveal that, unlike the Butterfly Lens, this second moth has some armaments. It's not a full-fledged warship--and it's almost certainly not Kel, since the Kel avoid traveling alone if they can help it--but it's probably intended for local defense.
[EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, I glitched and forgot]
If Yehan gets a good luck at the second ship on visuals, she'll notice with some surprise that it looks like a ship out of the past--there are markings on it that look Naxorian, but weirdly distorted, like it's from another dialect or related symbology.
Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-27 02:05 pm (UTC)"Boss. Scan's picked up a new ship. Looks like Butterfly had an armed friend playing hide-and-seek.”
“Both ships are moving to intercept. We need to speed up, else we'll be within firing ran-”
Sasha's voice interrupts her mid-sentence. Kaliyan pauses for a second.
“We got guns heading our way and you want us to be both motionless and defenseless ?”
She takes a deep breath, and starts typing the command anyway, ready to jump if Ashari tells her to.
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-27 07:43 pm (UTC)[Whether she has time to analyze the markings on the Rosemallow ship will depend on how quickly Ashari reacts.]
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-28 01:46 am (UTC)"Are we shutting down?" he says into the comm, calling up some macros of his own. There is a large, red GO button. "No, wait, am I supposed to say something like 'bridge, engine room' first? Um. Over?"
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-28 06:25 am (UTC)Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-28 08:47 am (UTC)"Should I go ahead and prepare a reception party for any guests, sir? I can plan contingencies for either welcome or unwelcome ones. Or is there something else you would prefer for me to do?"
[Sorry for being out of contact for a while, didn't have anything to say for a few days then got caught up in some other work]
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-30 12:31 am (UTC)I'm afraid I'll have to leave this to those of you with more military training than me."
Despite the statement, Ashari hangs around, keeping close track of the proceedings.
[Sorry I haven't been very active, either. My summer semester is coming to a close and there's a lot of last minute stuff for it that's been piling up :')) ]
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-30 04:49 am (UTC)He's carrying several holstered handguns in harnesses slung over one shoulder, and a bag filled with sufficient ammunition to outfit a platoon. Or at least a platoon at half-strength, he thinks to himself. In one hand he's carrying a bottle of Scadrian whiskey from one of the crates in the cargo hold, on the working theory that any excessively nosy Nirai will be easily diverted with sufficient quantities of alcohol. Plus if we do end up in a gunfight, no need to go all the way to the galley to celebrate afterwards.
[paging Ashari re Iawa stuff]
Date: 2017-07-30 09:25 pm (UTC)Iawa's doesn't know whether the private interview was going to be a scolding or a special mission or what, and has that "summoned to the principal's office but the principal wasn't there" feel.]
Iawa, sulking in his room, pulls himself to his feet when he hears the page. He tidies his clothes and ties up his back hair before hurrying to the galley for provisions. He isn't totally sure if Ankat's joking or not about the snacks and whiskey glasses, not being experienced with customs inspections.
But he grew up in the Palace of Glass district. Politely entertaining visitors is well within his wheelhouse. He adds a tea set to the tray with the snacks and glasses. The customs inspectors might take offense at being asked to drink on duty.
The tray he locates is surprisingly heavy and solid. It almost looks like a shield.
Re: [paging Ashari re Iawa stuff]
Date: 2017-08-04 04:01 am (UTC)Also I'm gonna assume Ashari had some time to change appearances a bit.]
Ashari sweeps in, hair white and robes black and severe. They slow to a stop when they see Iawa and nod.
"Wonderful, you have everything," they say. "Ready to make tedious small talk with our guests?"
Re: [paging Ashari re Iawa stuff]
Date: 2017-08-06 11:28 am (UTC)Iawa steadies the tray against his chest. "Ready as I can be," he says. "Hopefully tedious small talk hasn't changed too much over the centuries."
Re: [paging Ashari re Iawa stuff]
Date: 2017-08-08 07:38 am (UTC)Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-31 05:56 am (UTC)Ankat, giving explosives specifically to him and the scary ersatz kinsman.
Mikodez knows he was nothing special at the one training session that he attended. He runs down the list of other crew. Aside from Ashari, Kaliyan, and maybe Yehan in the cockpit, Alaric in engineering, Sasha wherever she is, that still leaves out one other - the scholarly, precise Virmad, with his Tlen-Gwa research. But that meant nothing. He could still be a Shuos agent, like everyone else on the moth. (At some point he really had to decide if the Shuos were capable of a plan as baroque as conjuring up a fake rebellion team of twelve separate identities, body-modding one of them, finding an antique moth, and faking complex natural phenomena, just for one second year cadet, and he was afraid of the answer might be.)
It will take a few moments for Mikodez to reread the precise wording in his message and to remember that ‘party favors’ might mean nothing special in Kel slang from Ankat’s time.
[Mikodez is kind of still stuck on the would-be-double agent shtick, thanks to my glacial rate of replies, so Sulen can decide on where they’re going after this?]
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-31 10:25 am (UTC)But instead of immediately moving off, they lean in.
"I don't know what your game is," they say. "Maybe you're exactly what you seem to be. But I doubt it. I'm not an Inquisitor any more, so it isn't my business. But if you betray us, I will hunt you down. And if anything happens to Ashari because of you, you'll find out exactly what it's like to have all your secrets stripped from you."
They lean back. "Nothing personal. I'll be giving that speech to that guy who looks like your cousin and that technologically inclined foreigner, too."
(ง •̀o•́)ง
Date: 2017-08-01 06:04 am (UTC)He spends the next three seconds wishing for a door to slam like a teenager while he figures out why he’s this touchy over someone he avoided talking to all trip. But since he’s started, he might as well dig himself in some more. “You and Ashari both,” he says, dredging up his sister’s impressions of her first girlfriend’s parents.
[Have a good trip!]
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-08-01 06:29 am (UTC)And do names get repeated in the Vauhan family (ie is there any plausible deniability once Mikodez/Istradez sees the other's names?) I've been assuming that even homophones get avoided across generations, hence Mikodez's alias, but I probably...shouldn't....]
[names in the Vauhan family]
Date: 2017-08-01 06:45 pm (UTC)Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-30 11:20 pm (UTC)She's toggling between the Rosemallow scan images and schematics for the Wasp's fire-suppression system. She hasn't got a pistol, but she knows sprinklers and spray foam in a confined space are terrifying.
Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-28 12:45 pm (UTC)Sasha fidgets with the angle on her screens, and adds, "Prophet's Hat! Yehan, does that look like the Rosemallow logo to you?"
She dumps the relevant icon to Yehan's screen.
[Can we guess whether the Rosemallow ship is heptarchate-affiliated? Something like a band of calligraphy about the future prophet, or decorative 12340 12340, would be unsurprising if they've kept up their heretical ways.]
[Rosemallow ship affiliation]
Date: 2017-07-28 12:48 pm (UTC)Re: Kaliyan is bad at ignoring hierarchies: paging Ashari
Date: 2017-07-30 11:07 pm (UTC)