By the waning years of the 22nd century, humanity has expanded beyond Earth, establishing colonies on Mars, Ceres, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn; the latter of these being largely penal or mining colonies, taking advantage of the isolation and mineral wealth of these moons. One such colony, known as Benedict’s Rest, was established on the shores of the north polar sea of Ligeia Mare on the moon Titan, in the year 2169. Originally a penal colony that used convict labor to harvest liquid methane, Benedict’s Rest was bought out by a German energy conglomerate, Richter Dynamics, and expanded; now, in 2189, contract, or “free” miners outnumber convicts 5 to 1—158 free miners to 31 convicts.
The colony’s productivity, formerly the highest of any Richter colony site, has dropped 19% in the last month with no reasonable explanation provided. In the same period, the colony medic, Dr. Henry Holzer, has died; the administration has been vague regarding cause, though it has been intimated that he committed suicide. Over the objections of colony administrator James Kingsley, Richter Dynamics has sent a team of corporate troubleshooters to investigate these two issues and make recommendations to revive productivity.
"I hadn't known," says Sam as she works on cracking the code, "but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Just as well we're leaving without a sample. I don't like thinking about what someone might do with it. I recognize this encryption algorithm. There, I think I've got it."
Computer Use roll (55% skill) to crack the transponder code: d%
“Oho, do you think the mind-bending alien is the bioweapon?” Nicole shakes her head. “Bloody corporations, they’re all the same- and never learn. Well, if we want to survive then we need to pool our knowledge, Booth. So give us anything you have.”
Sam tries her best to complete the transponder code. She doesn't have much to go on but constructs an unsupervised learning network in her datapad based on all the known transponder codes she can get a record of. Feeding in the initial numbers already stored in the shuttle the algorithm produces its best estimate of the last few digits, although the assigned confidence is only 60%.
Booth shakes his head again. 'That's all I know. We're just grunts. Point and shoot, that's all I need. Maybe the Sarge knew more...' He looks off into the middle distance for a second, 'But he's gone. They're all gone. Everyone's fucking gone.'
Isabella looks at Sam, 'So we doing this? The shuttle will make the outer atmosphere in the next minute...'
"I don't think there's any real choice. A 60% probability is better than what everyone left on the ground had."Jojo offers. "Just to be on the safe side, maybe broadcast that we have encountered the alien and have data to deliver but everyone on the ground is dead. Do not shoot! Or something like that."
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
If an extreme success isn't enough to guarantee the code is correct, I'd like to spend an additional 10 Luck (for a total of 13) to make it a critical success.
Isabella fires the main engine and the shuttle lurches forward, the opaque orange clouds give way to blackness at the edge of the atmosphere. The hazy orange glow of Titan below, the vast shape of Saturn hanging beyond the horizon. And something else. Something dark, shadowy, heading towards the shuttle. There's no lights, no signs of life. But it's moving. It's moving fast, skirting the ionosphere.
There's no communication from the dark ship. Sam activates the transponder. 'I guess we'll see which side of that 60% we come out on,' notes Isabella wryly. Booth moves right up to the window of the shuttle and gazes out. 'M-Class gunboat. Don't see many of them. Enuff firepower to blow us out of of the sky, burn the colony to the ground, without breaking a sweat.'
Okay - spend that extra Luck
The gunboat continues to skim along the edge of Titan's atmosphere, growing in size, looming towards the shuttle. No lights or radio communication. It almost seems like it might ram them. Then it suddenly stops. There's no visible thrusters or other forms of propulsion. It just stops moving. Hanging there in space.
For what seems like an eternity nothing happens. Everyone in the shuttle cockpit is silent in anticipation. Second tick by. Minutes. Then the radio crackles. Well, not the radio, it's a tight-band laser signal originating from the gunship.
"Well, they didn't blow us up yet, that's a good sign," says Sam after she makes sure the shuttle's radio is not transmitting to the ship. "If they don't hear what they expect to hear, though, they may anyway. I think they may be expecting to hear from Kiara. Jojo, can you replicate Kiara's voice saying 'Package secured' into the communicator? You've heard her speak often enough."
Jojo goes to the communication panel and modulates his voice to mimic Kiara.
"Confirm. Package is secure."
He turns off the communication and turns to the others. "I have all of the memories and downloads on everything we have encountered so far. If need be, I will go to their ship as 'the package' and hopefully they will allow you to leave."
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
"Thank you," says Sam. "I'm hoping it won't come to that. We do have a Colonial Marshal and a Colonial Marine on board, with all the authority and firepower that entails. The key is to get on board without being turned into space dust."
“Can you ask them to confirm who they are? Who are we speaking to? The ship seems to be a bit odd and they could be pirates for all we know.” Says Nicole
Following Jojo's transmission there is again a long silence. The gunship just hanging there above Titan. No signs of life, no transmissions, just a dark spacecraft silhouetted in the dull glow of Saturn.
Then eventually another tight-band transmission is received.
'Acknowledged. Rendezvous at Ganymede. Titan is now closed.'
“Can we get out of range of that gunship first?Its giving me an itchy neck.” Nicole shakes her head. “What the heck was Kiara doing? I had my reservations about Virgil; he was up to no good but not Kiara; I didn’t see that coming.”
"She had me fooled too," says Sam. "I was just as shocked as you when I saw the contents of her datapad. I don't feel quite so bad about leaving her behind."
Isabella starts to enter the course for Ganymede. 'I think I can get us to Jupiter, maybe even land at Ganymede station, but I've got no idea where Kiara was supposed to rendezvous with Walker-Hynix. We'll have to land at the Richter Dynamics facility.'
Everybody visibly relaxes as they begin to pull away from the gunship which continues to sit there, floating darkly on the edge of the Titan's ionosphere.
Booth perks up. 'So this package, there's money to be made here if we play it right?'
-----
Suddenly a siren starts wailing and red warning lights flash. Across the main display scrolls a message:
'We've got weapons fire detected...' shouts Isabella. She punches buttons on the control panel and brings up visual imagery on the main screen. The gunship is there, still sitting above Titan. But all the weapon bay doors are open and orange-yellow plumes are erupting across the ship, illuminating the dull surface in a bright glow. Several missiles are streaking from the gunship towards the atmosphere.
Seconds later, explosions erupt across the surface of the moon. It is difficult to see through the hazy atmosphere of Titan but Isabella switches to thermal imaging and the impacts become clear. Explosions are erupting across the moon's surface but clustered around Benedict's rest, the pumping stations, and particularly Waystation.
There's something strange about the impacts around Waystation. The ground appears to be rippling, shifting, moving somehow. Bringing up the other modalities in the sensor array confirms that there are bursts of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the site, gravitic readings are oscillating wildly. And as more missiles strike the area the area around the Waystation complex seems to lift up from the methane snow surface, an angular shape. As the snow shears from the surface it reveals a dark black stone-like substance underneath, with a strange blue sheen. Whatever is rising out of the planet is impossibly large, hundreds of metres across, thousands even. Rising ever upwards.
There's a final flurry of orange blooms from the gunship and the final pack of missiles streams down to the surface, smashing one by one into the black shape rising from Titan. Explosion after explosion, clouds of vaporised methane snow and debris, radiation signatures suggesting thermonuclear munitions. As the smoke clears the black structure remains. Half-out of the methane crust. No longer moving.
Then after seconds of silence and inactivity the angular black shape quivers then suddenly plunges back to the surface, and through the crust. Burning deep into the methane and grinding into the bedrock.
