Star Wars (7ABY; M03, D30-D31): Red Robot
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Garth, Ganen, Mon, Roger, Sekar, and (Morrigan) / [CP: 3.0]
Toni was in Maryland; Bevin wasn’t feeling great and retired early.
Month 3; Day 30
After breakfast, Garth took the severed alien head into the brig (with X7 outside to let him out when he was done) to examine it more closely. There were no interface ports on the exterior, but he soon figured out that the entire artificial brain case could be unlocked and cleanly separated from the back of the head (revealing interface ports at the connecting jack).
He was eventually joined by Morrigan, who managed to jury-rig the brain to a power supply and a data pad (when powered, the brain glowed much more intensely). They weren’t able to learn anything, however, because the base electrical architecture wasn’t even binary. With some powerful computers and a lot of time, they’d have been able to crack it; but it wasn’t going to happen in less than 24 hours with the equipment that they had. They did, however, managed to determine that the brain was not ‘active’ and was instead in some kind of ‘standby mode’.
Month 3; Day 31
The Seventh Moon reached Velabri around 08:00 the next morning; and after the local military forces authenticated the message from Governor Flyte, they did everything they could to expedite the PC’s transit down to the surface of the grey rockball below. The PC’s landed aboard the military space habitat designated ‘Gamma 1’, and Kadia remained aboard to keep an eye on the ship.
In addition to being rather cold & dark and having an atmosphere too thin to breathe, the planet also had a very troublesome electromagnetic field. Not only did it reduce sensor and communications systems down to about 1% to 2% of their usual range, it made the use of repulsorlifts impossible. That being the case, only winged aerospace craft could operate inside the atmosphere; and even they required atomic-era runways to take off and land.
The PC’s made the trip aboard Lambda shuttle modified with more aerodynamic wings and with landing gear with wheel assemblies instead of flat skids. Mon ended up leaving his cam-droid behind after being reminded that he would need to carry it as soon as they hit atmo.
The PC’s were dropped off at a military surface installation designated ‘Alpha 1’ and were immediately approached by an unknown make of droid. Clearly inspired by Industrial Automaton’s R-series; the droid had a barrel-shaped body and a trio of leg-wheels for locomotion. Its head was the biggest difference; sporting a pair of cartoonishly large eyes.
The droid introduced himself as ‘Vincent’; and after a very quick welcome, asked to see the ‘specimen’. After a quick scan indicated no major bio-hazards, he led the PC’s through the facility and down into a large lab complex where Governor Siepp Wolf was waiting. The governor gave a warm but brief introduction and then turned to the droid and asked “What’s the verdict?”
“There’s no mistake”, the droid replied, “the fundamental architecture of the neural network is identical of that of 71024; though there are some differences in the layout. As you can plainly see, however, it’s a completely different species; and in fact I wouldn’t even guess that it originated from the same planet. As to whether or not it underwent a similar type of genetic alteration, I’ll have to do a much more thorough analysis.” He then turned to the PC’s and continued, “Do you know anything at all about the remainder of its anatomy?”
The PC’s gave a summary of their involvement thus far and turned over copies of the images both from Bantha Traxx and from the crash site at the Tusken Raider camp. When the PC’s mentioned the cybernetic hands on the floorboards and their theory that the stranded alien had replaced them with weapons, Vincent and Wolf exchanged a knowing glance. They exchanged another one when mention was made of the ‘hive’ in the Tusken cave painting.
Vincent then pulled up a sketch of a large, asymmetric, irregular, and organic-looking vessel which appeared to be hovering next to a tiny surface structure; and its overall profile was strikingly similar to that of the silhouette in the cave drawing. Neither the governor nor the droid knew off-hand where, when, or by whom the sketch had been made (only that it was a scout working somewhere out in the Mego Arm); but Wolf promised to find as soon as possible. “The only thing that I recall”, he added, “was that, based on the size of the stone structure that it was next to, the artist estimated that the thing was over 1200 meters long!”
The conversation eventually came back around to ‘71024’, and the governor invited the PC’s to accompany him to another area of the lab complex as he explained. “Last year, a couple of our gunships intercepted a pair of fighters approaching the planet. When they attempted to make contact, the alien fighters turned hostile. One of them got blasted to pieces by a concussion missile fired by one of our guys; the other one they managed to ionize and tow in.”
“The second he was inside the magnetic field, the pilot popped the canopy and came out guns blazing. His hands had been removed and replaced with cybernetic sockets; just like what you theorized about the one you found. He had a blaster on his left arm and really BIG blaster on his right arm. Thankfully we had him surrounded by stormtroopers and he was shot to death before anyone was hurt.”
They eventually arrived at a small hangar containing a fighter from which several access panels and vital components had been removed for analysis. The design aesthetic was completely different from the insect-shaped fighters from Tatooine; with hard angular lines and a rusty red paint job. The pilot’s body was stored in a transparent fluid tank in an adjacent bio lab; and just as Vincent had mentioned, it looked nothing like the PC’s purple bug. Even dead, it was rather imposing; with rough red skin and enormous fangs.
In the ensuing discussion, the PC’s learned that the cybernetic brains were not in fact 100% synthetic. They actually contained small chambers into which select portions of organic brains had been placed. The living tissue in 71024’s brain was of the same species, though possibly not the same individual. Vincent speculated that he would find the same to be true for the purple bug.
“There are things which you organics are better at and things which we robots are better at”, Vincent explained when someone asked what the point of the cybernetic brain might be. “My guess is that they’re attempting a ‘best of both worlds’ sort of approach. There’s also the fact that such a system would allow for independent thinking when desirable and total control when needed.”
A lengthy discussion followed; mostly pertaining to the species which had visited Tatooine. The leading theory was that the Tusken Raiders had been selected as another race (or potential race) to receive ‘brain upgrades’ and join the growing forces of whatever entity was behind all of this. Garth thought they might be nomadic; someone else speculated that they might still be on Tatooine. Sekar also put forth the grim speculation that the reason they chose to leave the recording array alone was that they’d accumulated sufficient forces that they no longer cared about being subtle.
When someone asked how they might have gotten from the Mego Arm all the way to the atmosphere of Tatooine undetected; Vincent explained that hyperspace lanes, contrary to common perception, weren’t some sort of physical ‘channels’ through hyperspace. “They’re merely tried and true routes between worlds which are known to be safe. There’s no reason why an outwardly-expanding race with no history with the Republic would be in any way inclined to follow those exact same courses”. With regard to Tatooine itself, it was pointed out that the planet was very sparsely populated and did not exactly have the tightest orbital control in the Empire.
“I hate to derail this discussion with another matter”, Vincent at one point interrupted, “but it’s 09:00 and we’ve just heard from Beta 4 again: they’ve still had no contact their survey team at Outpost 18.” After grimacing and letting out an exasperated sigh, Governor Wolf looked at the PC’s and asked if they’d be interested in another quick job. As he led them out of the lab and back up into the main facility, he explained what was going on…
“Beta 4 is another facility to the north-west of here. Not military like this one; it belongs to the Imperial Survey Corps. They recently established an 18th satellite outpost; apparently one of their survey teams found a collapsed entrance to an underground complex.” He paused for a moment and then added with a grin, “Almost a quarter century we’ve been on this planet and we’re still finding all kinds of surprises.”
“Anyway, they missed their 08:00 status call with Beta 4 this morning; and since we’re actually closer to Outpost 18 than they are, they called us and asked us to send someone to check it out. I didn’t want to mobilize for what was likely just a comm malfunction, but I promised I’d send someone if they still hadn’t checked in in an hour. They apparently haven’t.”
After quickly getting the PC’s (except for Ganen and Roger who didn’t need them) outfitted with vacc suits, Wolf allowed the PC’s to borrow a big Nen-Carvon PX-4 Mobile Command Base. Equipped with an inertial compass and coordinates of every facility in the area (including the recently-established Beta 4 - 18), the PC’s were able to make the trip with zero difficulty.
In just under an hour, they arrived at their destination: a big pressure dome with an arched entry tunnel which made the whole thing look like a big, blue, metallic igloo. The large pile of stone rubble nearby confirmed that an excavation had been going on, but the big parabolic dish lying crumpled at the base of the dome indicated that something wasn’t as it should be.
Despite the planet’s impact on the vehicle’s sensors; the PC’s were close enough to ascertain that the dome’s structure was intact, it had power, the magnetic field over the entryway was still holding, and there was good atmosphere on the inside. A closer look at the parabolic dish indicated that it had been cut from its mount and then slid down the side of the dome. A quick circumnavigation of the dome revealed a second dish on the back side which had suffered the same fate.
The Mobile Command Base was too big to fit through the entry tunnel; and while the NPC’s were hesitant to park too close (still not knowing what had happened), they also didn’t want to park too far (in case they needed to run to it while holding their breath). A distance of 50 meters were settled upon, and Morrigan stayed behind to watch the vehicle and be ready to roll.
About 20 meters from the magnetic field, the PC’s found the first body: and overweight, middle-aged man lying face-down on the rock in his underwear. A quick examination revealed that he had suffocated to death. Something must have happened in the middle of the night which scared him so badly that he panicked and ran outside without a vacc suit.
The interior of the dome was one big space; though off to the PC’s right there were a number of movable partitions which were dividing some of the space into smaller areas. Off to the PC’s left was a large, 8-wheeled rover of some kind. The four tires which the PC’s could see were all flat, the main side door was lying on the ground below the now-open doorway, and it sounded as though the engine was running. About three-quarters of the way directly across from the entrance was a ring of orange safety cones surrounding what appeared to be a large hole in the ground. Lying near the edge of the hole was what appeared to be a second corpse wearing a white vacc suit (but no helmet) which was soaked in blood.
Ganen only stepped a few feet in and then stood; rifle at the ready; keeping an eye on the entire area while the other PC’s split up to check things out more closely.
The rover’s tires had been shot out by blaster fire, and the door had been cut off of its hinges; quite possibly by the same torch which had cut the exterior dishes off of their mounts. Up in the cab was another dead body: a scrawny man in his 20’s wearing sweat pants and a tee shirt but no shoes. The entire cab was splattered with blood, and it looked as though someone or something had bored straight through his torso (from back to front) with some kind of large-bit mining drill. His dead fingers were still wrapped around the handle of the cab’s emergency door.
The vacc-suit-clad man at the edge of the hole (who was in his late 30’s or early 40’s and had a weathered face and a scraggly beard) had suffered the exact same fate, though he seemed to have been hit from the front rather than the back. He also had a blaster on his hip, and it appeared as though he had tried to draw it but hadn’t gotten it clear of its holster in time.
The hole itself was actually the top of a broad set of stone steps leading down underground. From the edge of the hole, two more bodies were visible just outside of one of the clusters of partitions (which had been blocking them from view from the entryway).
These two additional bodies consisted of a handsome and muscular man and an attractive and curvy woman; both in their 20’s and both in their underwear just like the man outside. Facing towards the hole, they had blasters in their hands and blast-burns in their bodies.
The partitioned area which they were lying just outside of was a general living area; including a bunk area with four cots on one side of a partition and two on the other (there had also six folding chairs in what appeared to be a meeting / eating area nearby). In the latter sub-area, one of the cots had been thrown against a partition with enough forces to knock it slightly out of place, and there was a dismembered body in the middle of the floor.
This sixth victim was a young and thin blond woman who had also clearly been caught in her sleep. Her arms and legs had been severed at the elbows and knees, and her head had been severed at the neck. All of the wounds were completely cauterized and had apparently been burned through (probably very slowly) by some kind of torch.
“We’ve got six chairs, six cots, and six bodies”, Sekar called out. Roger at that point speculated that it might have been some kind of ‘bad droid’.
Another cluster of partitions appeared to have been set up for work purposes rather than living. One was a little comm station which was currently receiving a transmission from a young woman at Beta 4 trying to get someone to respond; and though she was coming in clearly, with the dishes having been disabled, there was no way to reply back. The next area contained nothing but a small generator, a toolbox, and a Treadwell droid which had been hastily and very sloppily spray-painted red and which appeared to be shut down.
The final subdivision contained another small power generator, a work bench, and a low table into which a long u-shaped section had been removed from one end. On the work bench were a general purpose scanner (which Garth claimed for himself) and a video camera. Garth removed the data card from the camera, slotted it into his data pad, and played it; holding his keyed comlink near the speaker so that everyone else could at least here it. In summary…
The video had been taken in the same area where the camera was found; and each of the individuals whom the PC’s had just found dead was, at the time, alive and well (the muscular young man wasn’t seen, but was presumably the one filming). Lying on the low table was a large and rather imposing droid of an unknown type with no arms and a red paint job. His back plate and dead power cell had been removed, and the u-shaped cut in the table had been made to accommodate a power cable running directly from his power system to the portable generator.
Each of the individuals appeared to be very excited about powering on the droid (which they’d apparently found in the catacombs below); except for the thin blonde woman, who was visibly dismayed and repeatedly voiced concerns that powering on the droid was a very bad idea. She further flipped out when she realized that the weaponized arms which they’d removed from the droid had been left where it might see them upon activation.
The overweight middle-aged man acknowledged but dismissed the blond woman’s protests and ordered the scrawny man (found in the rover) to turn on the generator. The sensor bar on the droid’s face glowed to life; and after looking from side to side for a moment, it abruptly flipped itself up into a vertical position; floating above the ground at the end of the table.
As the people confirmed that the droid was indeed floating unsupported, they erupted with cheering (which seemed to startle and/or confuse the droid, who rapidly turned his head from side to side). This droid which they had found apparently had some kind of shielding or alternate configuration for its repulsorlifts which negated the effects of the planet’s magnetic field! The blonde woman, however, still looked very unhappy.
After a few moments of either ignoring or being unable to understand (or respond to) attempts by the people to speak with it; the droid suddenly moved forward passed the people, leaned forward, and came face-to-face with the Treadwell droid; who was not yet painted red and who stared back up at the larger droid like a frog staring up at a snake.
“Ok, his repulsorlifts work!”, the nervous blonde woman shouted after the droids stared at each other for a few moments. “Can we please pull the goddamn plug on this thing now?” The droid, undeniable understanding what she said, suddenly lunged towards her. As she screamed and scooted backwards, she fell into and knocked over one of the partitions; and for a brief moment, at least two or three ASP worker droids (which the PC’s had not yet seen) were visible in the background. Thankfully for her, the droid reached the end of its power cable and pulled it loose; falling face-down at her feet with a loud thunk.
The middle-aged man (who appeared to be in charge) declared that it was late and that they wouldn’t be messing with the droid any more until they had a chance to check in with Beta 1 in the morning. Just before the recording ended, the Treadwell could be seen cautiously creeping up to the unknown droid and lightly tapping it on the back of the head.
“Let’s make sure that Treadwell droid is actually shut down”, Ganen urgently suggested; still maintaining his position near the entrance. Garth’s comlink must have been audible to the adjacent area were said droid was standing, because it suddenly bolted out of the area and onto the open floor; flailing its arms wildly and screeching like a madman in binary.
Without a second’s hesitation, Ganen opened fire; and after a couple of errant shots, he scored a hit to the power supply in its base which shut it down for good. Looking at the direction the droid was traveling, it appeared to have been heading towards the two dead people who’d dropped blasters on the ground.
Sekar and Mon had been at the top of the stairs at the time; patiently waiting for Garth and Roger to finish sweeping the dome so that they could explore underground. The Treadwell’s flight and subsequent demise drew their attention into the dome and their backs to the hole; and right after Ganen landed his killing shot, a pair of blast bolts burned passed their heads from behind them.
Sekar drew her blaster as she whirled around and spotted the red droid from the video hovering at the bottom of the stairs. Its arms had been reattached, and two of them were equipped with blasters. She fired a shot, but it bounced right off of the droid’s armor and nearly hit her as Mon tackled her out of the way. “It’s got Cortosis in its armor!”, she subsequently shouted. Roger reached the hole a moment later and sprayed blaster fire down the stairs, but the droid had already retreated back into the darkness.
The consensus which followed among the PC’s was that they’d fulfilled what they’d been sent out to do. They’d found out why the outpost wasn’t making contact, all six personnel were accounted for, and they had no desire to mess around with this warbot.
Ganen jumped into the rover, pushed the dead guy out of the driver’s seat, and then backed the entire vehicle right down the stairway; plugging it fairly thoroughly. As the PC’s exited the dome to head back to their own vehicle, they shot out the magnetic field projectors; causing the emergency door to slam shut.
Garth, Ganen, Mon, Roger, Sekar, and (Morrigan) / [CP: 3.0]
Toni was in Maryland; Bevin wasn’t feeling great and retired early.
Month 3; Day 30
After breakfast, Garth took the severed alien head into the brig (with X7 outside to let him out when he was done) to examine it more closely. There were no interface ports on the exterior, but he soon figured out that the entire artificial brain case could be unlocked and cleanly separated from the back of the head (revealing interface ports at the connecting jack).
He was eventually joined by Morrigan, who managed to jury-rig the brain to a power supply and a data pad (when powered, the brain glowed much more intensely). They weren’t able to learn anything, however, because the base electrical architecture wasn’t even binary. With some powerful computers and a lot of time, they’d have been able to crack it; but it wasn’t going to happen in less than 24 hours with the equipment that they had. They did, however, managed to determine that the brain was not ‘active’ and was instead in some kind of ‘standby mode’.
Month 3; Day 31
The Seventh Moon reached Velabri around 08:00 the next morning; and after the local military forces authenticated the message from Governor Flyte, they did everything they could to expedite the PC’s transit down to the surface of the grey rockball below. The PC’s landed aboard the military space habitat designated ‘Gamma 1’, and Kadia remained aboard to keep an eye on the ship.
In addition to being rather cold & dark and having an atmosphere too thin to breathe, the planet also had a very troublesome electromagnetic field. Not only did it reduce sensor and communications systems down to about 1% to 2% of their usual range, it made the use of repulsorlifts impossible. That being the case, only winged aerospace craft could operate inside the atmosphere; and even they required atomic-era runways to take off and land.
The PC’s made the trip aboard Lambda shuttle modified with more aerodynamic wings and with landing gear with wheel assemblies instead of flat skids. Mon ended up leaving his cam-droid behind after being reminded that he would need to carry it as soon as they hit atmo.
The PC’s were dropped off at a military surface installation designated ‘Alpha 1’ and were immediately approached by an unknown make of droid. Clearly inspired by Industrial Automaton’s R-series; the droid had a barrel-shaped body and a trio of leg-wheels for locomotion. Its head was the biggest difference; sporting a pair of cartoonishly large eyes.
The droid introduced himself as ‘Vincent’; and after a very quick welcome, asked to see the ‘specimen’. After a quick scan indicated no major bio-hazards, he led the PC’s through the facility and down into a large lab complex where Governor Siepp Wolf was waiting. The governor gave a warm but brief introduction and then turned to the droid and asked “What’s the verdict?”
“There’s no mistake”, the droid replied, “the fundamental architecture of the neural network is identical of that of 71024; though there are some differences in the layout. As you can plainly see, however, it’s a completely different species; and in fact I wouldn’t even guess that it originated from the same planet. As to whether or not it underwent a similar type of genetic alteration, I’ll have to do a much more thorough analysis.” He then turned to the PC’s and continued, “Do you know anything at all about the remainder of its anatomy?”
The PC’s gave a summary of their involvement thus far and turned over copies of the images both from Bantha Traxx and from the crash site at the Tusken Raider camp. When the PC’s mentioned the cybernetic hands on the floorboards and their theory that the stranded alien had replaced them with weapons, Vincent and Wolf exchanged a knowing glance. They exchanged another one when mention was made of the ‘hive’ in the Tusken cave painting.
Vincent then pulled up a sketch of a large, asymmetric, irregular, and organic-looking vessel which appeared to be hovering next to a tiny surface structure; and its overall profile was strikingly similar to that of the silhouette in the cave drawing. Neither the governor nor the droid knew off-hand where, when, or by whom the sketch had been made (only that it was a scout working somewhere out in the Mego Arm); but Wolf promised to find as soon as possible. “The only thing that I recall”, he added, “was that, based on the size of the stone structure that it was next to, the artist estimated that the thing was over 1200 meters long!”
The conversation eventually came back around to ‘71024’, and the governor invited the PC’s to accompany him to another area of the lab complex as he explained. “Last year, a couple of our gunships intercepted a pair of fighters approaching the planet. When they attempted to make contact, the alien fighters turned hostile. One of them got blasted to pieces by a concussion missile fired by one of our guys; the other one they managed to ionize and tow in.”
“The second he was inside the magnetic field, the pilot popped the canopy and came out guns blazing. His hands had been removed and replaced with cybernetic sockets; just like what you theorized about the one you found. He had a blaster on his left arm and really BIG blaster on his right arm. Thankfully we had him surrounded by stormtroopers and he was shot to death before anyone was hurt.”
They eventually arrived at a small hangar containing a fighter from which several access panels and vital components had been removed for analysis. The design aesthetic was completely different from the insect-shaped fighters from Tatooine; with hard angular lines and a rusty red paint job. The pilot’s body was stored in a transparent fluid tank in an adjacent bio lab; and just as Vincent had mentioned, it looked nothing like the PC’s purple bug. Even dead, it was rather imposing; with rough red skin and enormous fangs.
In the ensuing discussion, the PC’s learned that the cybernetic brains were not in fact 100% synthetic. They actually contained small chambers into which select portions of organic brains had been placed. The living tissue in 71024’s brain was of the same species, though possibly not the same individual. Vincent speculated that he would find the same to be true for the purple bug.
“There are things which you organics are better at and things which we robots are better at”, Vincent explained when someone asked what the point of the cybernetic brain might be. “My guess is that they’re attempting a ‘best of both worlds’ sort of approach. There’s also the fact that such a system would allow for independent thinking when desirable and total control when needed.”
A lengthy discussion followed; mostly pertaining to the species which had visited Tatooine. The leading theory was that the Tusken Raiders had been selected as another race (or potential race) to receive ‘brain upgrades’ and join the growing forces of whatever entity was behind all of this. Garth thought they might be nomadic; someone else speculated that they might still be on Tatooine. Sekar also put forth the grim speculation that the reason they chose to leave the recording array alone was that they’d accumulated sufficient forces that they no longer cared about being subtle.
When someone asked how they might have gotten from the Mego Arm all the way to the atmosphere of Tatooine undetected; Vincent explained that hyperspace lanes, contrary to common perception, weren’t some sort of physical ‘channels’ through hyperspace. “They’re merely tried and true routes between worlds which are known to be safe. There’s no reason why an outwardly-expanding race with no history with the Republic would be in any way inclined to follow those exact same courses”. With regard to Tatooine itself, it was pointed out that the planet was very sparsely populated and did not exactly have the tightest orbital control in the Empire.
“I hate to derail this discussion with another matter”, Vincent at one point interrupted, “but it’s 09:00 and we’ve just heard from Beta 4 again: they’ve still had no contact their survey team at Outpost 18.” After grimacing and letting out an exasperated sigh, Governor Wolf looked at the PC’s and asked if they’d be interested in another quick job. As he led them out of the lab and back up into the main facility, he explained what was going on…
“Beta 4 is another facility to the north-west of here. Not military like this one; it belongs to the Imperial Survey Corps. They recently established an 18th satellite outpost; apparently one of their survey teams found a collapsed entrance to an underground complex.” He paused for a moment and then added with a grin, “Almost a quarter century we’ve been on this planet and we’re still finding all kinds of surprises.”
“Anyway, they missed their 08:00 status call with Beta 4 this morning; and since we’re actually closer to Outpost 18 than they are, they called us and asked us to send someone to check it out. I didn’t want to mobilize for what was likely just a comm malfunction, but I promised I’d send someone if they still hadn’t checked in in an hour. They apparently haven’t.”
After quickly getting the PC’s (except for Ganen and Roger who didn’t need them) outfitted with vacc suits, Wolf allowed the PC’s to borrow a big Nen-Carvon PX-4 Mobile Command Base. Equipped with an inertial compass and coordinates of every facility in the area (including the recently-established Beta 4 - 18), the PC’s were able to make the trip with zero difficulty.
In just under an hour, they arrived at their destination: a big pressure dome with an arched entry tunnel which made the whole thing look like a big, blue, metallic igloo. The large pile of stone rubble nearby confirmed that an excavation had been going on, but the big parabolic dish lying crumpled at the base of the dome indicated that something wasn’t as it should be.
Despite the planet’s impact on the vehicle’s sensors; the PC’s were close enough to ascertain that the dome’s structure was intact, it had power, the magnetic field over the entryway was still holding, and there was good atmosphere on the inside. A closer look at the parabolic dish indicated that it had been cut from its mount and then slid down the side of the dome. A quick circumnavigation of the dome revealed a second dish on the back side which had suffered the same fate.
The Mobile Command Base was too big to fit through the entry tunnel; and while the NPC’s were hesitant to park too close (still not knowing what had happened), they also didn’t want to park too far (in case they needed to run to it while holding their breath). A distance of 50 meters were settled upon, and Morrigan stayed behind to watch the vehicle and be ready to roll.
About 20 meters from the magnetic field, the PC’s found the first body: and overweight, middle-aged man lying face-down on the rock in his underwear. A quick examination revealed that he had suffocated to death. Something must have happened in the middle of the night which scared him so badly that he panicked and ran outside without a vacc suit.
The interior of the dome was one big space; though off to the PC’s right there were a number of movable partitions which were dividing some of the space into smaller areas. Off to the PC’s left was a large, 8-wheeled rover of some kind. The four tires which the PC’s could see were all flat, the main side door was lying on the ground below the now-open doorway, and it sounded as though the engine was running. About three-quarters of the way directly across from the entrance was a ring of orange safety cones surrounding what appeared to be a large hole in the ground. Lying near the edge of the hole was what appeared to be a second corpse wearing a white vacc suit (but no helmet) which was soaked in blood.
Ganen only stepped a few feet in and then stood; rifle at the ready; keeping an eye on the entire area while the other PC’s split up to check things out more closely.
The rover’s tires had been shot out by blaster fire, and the door had been cut off of its hinges; quite possibly by the same torch which had cut the exterior dishes off of their mounts. Up in the cab was another dead body: a scrawny man in his 20’s wearing sweat pants and a tee shirt but no shoes. The entire cab was splattered with blood, and it looked as though someone or something had bored straight through his torso (from back to front) with some kind of large-bit mining drill. His dead fingers were still wrapped around the handle of the cab’s emergency door.
The vacc-suit-clad man at the edge of the hole (who was in his late 30’s or early 40’s and had a weathered face and a scraggly beard) had suffered the exact same fate, though he seemed to have been hit from the front rather than the back. He also had a blaster on his hip, and it appeared as though he had tried to draw it but hadn’t gotten it clear of its holster in time.
The hole itself was actually the top of a broad set of stone steps leading down underground. From the edge of the hole, two more bodies were visible just outside of one of the clusters of partitions (which had been blocking them from view from the entryway).
These two additional bodies consisted of a handsome and muscular man and an attractive and curvy woman; both in their 20’s and both in their underwear just like the man outside. Facing towards the hole, they had blasters in their hands and blast-burns in their bodies.
The partitioned area which they were lying just outside of was a general living area; including a bunk area with four cots on one side of a partition and two on the other (there had also six folding chairs in what appeared to be a meeting / eating area nearby). In the latter sub-area, one of the cots had been thrown against a partition with enough forces to knock it slightly out of place, and there was a dismembered body in the middle of the floor.
This sixth victim was a young and thin blond woman who had also clearly been caught in her sleep. Her arms and legs had been severed at the elbows and knees, and her head had been severed at the neck. All of the wounds were completely cauterized and had apparently been burned through (probably very slowly) by some kind of torch.
“We’ve got six chairs, six cots, and six bodies”, Sekar called out. Roger at that point speculated that it might have been some kind of ‘bad droid’.
Another cluster of partitions appeared to have been set up for work purposes rather than living. One was a little comm station which was currently receiving a transmission from a young woman at Beta 4 trying to get someone to respond; and though she was coming in clearly, with the dishes having been disabled, there was no way to reply back. The next area contained nothing but a small generator, a toolbox, and a Treadwell droid which had been hastily and very sloppily spray-painted red and which appeared to be shut down.
The final subdivision contained another small power generator, a work bench, and a low table into which a long u-shaped section had been removed from one end. On the work bench were a general purpose scanner (which Garth claimed for himself) and a video camera. Garth removed the data card from the camera, slotted it into his data pad, and played it; holding his keyed comlink near the speaker so that everyone else could at least here it. In summary…
The video had been taken in the same area where the camera was found; and each of the individuals whom the PC’s had just found dead was, at the time, alive and well (the muscular young man wasn’t seen, but was presumably the one filming). Lying on the low table was a large and rather imposing droid of an unknown type with no arms and a red paint job. His back plate and dead power cell had been removed, and the u-shaped cut in the table had been made to accommodate a power cable running directly from his power system to the portable generator.
Each of the individuals appeared to be very excited about powering on the droid (which they’d apparently found in the catacombs below); except for the thin blonde woman, who was visibly dismayed and repeatedly voiced concerns that powering on the droid was a very bad idea. She further flipped out when she realized that the weaponized arms which they’d removed from the droid had been left where it might see them upon activation.
The overweight middle-aged man acknowledged but dismissed the blond woman’s protests and ordered the scrawny man (found in the rover) to turn on the generator. The sensor bar on the droid’s face glowed to life; and after looking from side to side for a moment, it abruptly flipped itself up into a vertical position; floating above the ground at the end of the table.
As the people confirmed that the droid was indeed floating unsupported, they erupted with cheering (which seemed to startle and/or confuse the droid, who rapidly turned his head from side to side). This droid which they had found apparently had some kind of shielding or alternate configuration for its repulsorlifts which negated the effects of the planet’s magnetic field! The blonde woman, however, still looked very unhappy.
After a few moments of either ignoring or being unable to understand (or respond to) attempts by the people to speak with it; the droid suddenly moved forward passed the people, leaned forward, and came face-to-face with the Treadwell droid; who was not yet painted red and who stared back up at the larger droid like a frog staring up at a snake.
“Ok, his repulsorlifts work!”, the nervous blonde woman shouted after the droids stared at each other for a few moments. “Can we please pull the goddamn plug on this thing now?” The droid, undeniable understanding what she said, suddenly lunged towards her. As she screamed and scooted backwards, she fell into and knocked over one of the partitions; and for a brief moment, at least two or three ASP worker droids (which the PC’s had not yet seen) were visible in the background. Thankfully for her, the droid reached the end of its power cable and pulled it loose; falling face-down at her feet with a loud thunk.
The middle-aged man (who appeared to be in charge) declared that it was late and that they wouldn’t be messing with the droid any more until they had a chance to check in with Beta 1 in the morning. Just before the recording ended, the Treadwell could be seen cautiously creeping up to the unknown droid and lightly tapping it on the back of the head.
“Let’s make sure that Treadwell droid is actually shut down”, Ganen urgently suggested; still maintaining his position near the entrance. Garth’s comlink must have been audible to the adjacent area were said droid was standing, because it suddenly bolted out of the area and onto the open floor; flailing its arms wildly and screeching like a madman in binary.
Without a second’s hesitation, Ganen opened fire; and after a couple of errant shots, he scored a hit to the power supply in its base which shut it down for good. Looking at the direction the droid was traveling, it appeared to have been heading towards the two dead people who’d dropped blasters on the ground.
Sekar and Mon had been at the top of the stairs at the time; patiently waiting for Garth and Roger to finish sweeping the dome so that they could explore underground. The Treadwell’s flight and subsequent demise drew their attention into the dome and their backs to the hole; and right after Ganen landed his killing shot, a pair of blast bolts burned passed their heads from behind them.
Sekar drew her blaster as she whirled around and spotted the red droid from the video hovering at the bottom of the stairs. Its arms had been reattached, and two of them were equipped with blasters. She fired a shot, but it bounced right off of the droid’s armor and nearly hit her as Mon tackled her out of the way. “It’s got Cortosis in its armor!”, she subsequently shouted. Roger reached the hole a moment later and sprayed blaster fire down the stairs, but the droid had already retreated back into the darkness.
The consensus which followed among the PC’s was that they’d fulfilled what they’d been sent out to do. They’d found out why the outpost wasn’t making contact, all six personnel were accounted for, and they had no desire to mess around with this warbot.
Ganen jumped into the rover, pushed the dead guy out of the driver’s seat, and then backed the entire vehicle right down the stairway; plugging it fairly thoroughly. As the PC’s exited the dome to head back to their own vehicle, they shot out the magnetic field projectors; causing the emergency door to slam shut.