Embedded Files
Play date: April 4, 2018
In-game date: May 2, EY219
Location: Aiscapo
Previous events: Finish the war in Aiscapo, get duly worshipped, destroy dolphin art
The next day it's time to work out who is going to go to Vishnu. Right now it's the only stronghold the D'vor have in the cluster and having lost many of their ships here in Aiscapo it's a good time to send a force into Vishnu and see if they can kick the D'vor out of the cluster altogether.
The Aerikin, Resplendent Dragon, and Steel Hummingbird are all more than willing to go. So are the Iof's Grob, although they'd rather that the newly-rescued Grob stay here; if this ends up being a suicide mission they'd rather that some of their species survive.
More ships will naturally be better, so Bishop communicates with the Gurg, which as a Black Rose ship is keeping its distance from the naval base. They speak over tight-beam communications and it's pretty easy for Bishop to convince Benjamin Mitchell, the Gurg's captain, as the two of them have been on very good terms ever since the Hummingbird saved the Gurg [session 08] a while back. Mitchell is happy to help with both the Gurg and Carcharon but needs some work done on his ship, which was damaged in the major battle a while ago. He sends Bishop a specific list of parts that would be needed and Bishop agrees to supply those parts (the navy will be happy to pitch in, right?) as well as the help of Volkova (the engineer will be happy to pitch in, right?).
Thinking about it, Bishop decides that the navy should really pitch in more than spare parts and after talking to Jillian goes to see Admiral Gun-woo Kim — saving the system continues to have its perks! Bishop's uBuntu cool wins over the admiral as it has so many other people over the years and by the time he leaves the admiral's office Bishop has obtained the use of the cruiser Yulgok and the destroyer Gangwon. Neither one was damaged in the recent battles and they can be flown by Cletus Jehoshephat Mosbey and Edward Watkins due to their experience in the slide points, the rest of the crew rendered temporarily unconscious until through to Vishu. Bishop would like to have another cruiser come along but no matter how much the admiral likes Bishop and understands the need to strike at the D'vor he's not going to leave his system so undefended.
While Bishop is grabbing ships for the invasion of Vishnu Jillian is taking some time to make new art for her ship. So much of it has been lost lately and the Hummingbird's interior is looking too impersonal for her tastes. While gluing together a large mass of many different types of dried beans to represent different systems and species sticking together she suddenly recalls a conversation with Xao and Olivia from a long time ago and realizes that at that time Olivia thought that while Jillian might not be a bad person she was inevitably going to drag everyone down with her into destruction. Jillian smiles wryly to herself when she realizes that. It was a long time ago, before she reunited with Sheema and back when Jillian was shooting helpless prisoners in the head and waking up in dumpsters. She's a totally different person now.
Returning to the Hummingbird with the good news of Aiscapo's contribution Bishop finds out even more good news: the stealth ship Cobra (his friend Lillian Martin is the pilot) and frigate Crocodile, both from Providence, will also be accompanying them! The brother and sister captains of the ships were sent here by their home navy to help in the fight with the D'vor and they're chomping at the bit to see this to the end. That brings the number of ships going to Vishnu to eleven:
Steel Hummingbird
Resplendent Dragon
Iof
Aerikin mothership
Scorching Raptor
Gurg (from the Black Rose)
Carcharon (from the Black Rose)
Yulgok (from the Aiscapo navy)
Gangwon (from the Aiscapo navy)
Cobra (from the Providence navy)
Crocodile (from the Providence navy)
That's a lot of firepower to bring to Vishnu, but no one knows what's waiting there. After all, no one knows how the mass of D'vor ships got here from the Wyrms' system. It's 90 light years away and too far to be flown in the time it took them to take over the system. Jump gates only allow travel within a cluster — Jillian's proven that mathematically to her satisfaction. D'vor ships like the Iof can jump but not nearly far enough in a single jump to carry enough fuel to make it that far. The massive jump ships that ferry between clusters and the Leary could make it but they're an order of magnitude larger than anything else currently in the cluster…
There is one way to find out more about the D'vor. With all the technology and brilliant minds available it's time to see if the Iof's brain/computer can be hacked. Everyone's justifiably paranoid about what it can do when powered up so Volkova builds a large Faraday cage in a small isolated hangar to prevent it from making any communications to the outside world.
Volkova's naturally going to be involved with this, along with Mi Kyong Choi. Three of the Aerikin technicians are there, as is Chig, and Bishop manages to squeeze himself in as moral support. The Aerikin and Grob bring a battery, cables, tools, and displays and console to do the hacking with. Many of the tools are designed to work at a microscopic level. Unbeknownst to everyone in the hangar there is a naval technician ready to vent the hangar into space and two ships out there ready to fire upon the cage. Just in case things go horribly wrong.
The hacking takes a while and it eventually becomes clear that the computer has many hardware and software defences. It can be successfully hacked — and only because of the skills of everyone packed into the cage — but there is only a limited amount of time to get information before it destroys itself. Working quickly they manage to find out the following information:
The D'vor are servants.
They serve the black ooze, like the stuff that Jillian and Volkova fought in Labrys City. They have what seems to be an almost worshipful respect for the stuff, which is odd for a computer.
They arrived in Vishnu on a jump ship. Not the Leary, a D'vor ship. It has a designation of the jump ship to identify it, but no details.
The best way to defeat them is to make it too costly for the D'vor; they have routines to work out cost/benefit analyses about the invasion.
The Song is spread through a "box", which the computer has plans for! The plans are quickly downloaded.
Volkova tries to keep the computer from melting itself but can't stop it and just gets a nasty burn on her forearm instead. Everyone's concerned but her. Bah, she's fine.
An analysis of the design for the box shows that its shape and complex materials warp space around it in a way that produces the Song. From what Volkova remembers about the effect of the black ooze it looks like the ooze does something similar, but in an unfocused way.
If the box can convert people to follow the Song by its shape and materials, is it possible to make an anti-Song box that removes the Song? Everyone goes to the Aerikins' mothership and uses the computer there to work on the problem. It takes several hours before they find that it is indeed possible! The next stage is to actually come up with an oval design that could be manufactured. This is probably the first time that this sort of xenotechnological genius, technical know-how, Dreaming mastery, and level of technology has ever come together and even then they can't believe that they managed to design this thing. Except for Choi and the Aerikin; they don't seem too surprised.
The Aerikin have facilities that are advanced enough to put it together and Volkova gets to work on making the thing. It uses all manners of odd materials and staring at it even when it's not finished gives one a headache. When Bishop drops in late in the night to see how it's going he gets a strange feeling from the partially-finished thing, the same sort of feeling he got inside uBuntu. Maybe uBuntu isn't just a communications device, maybe it's also a way to fight the Song? Imagine if the whole planet were working properly!
April 5, EY219
It takes Volkova a full day of work to get the thing done; she figures she can sleep when she's dead. In the end she's staggering on her feet with exhaustion and a massive headache, but it's done. All the Dreamers feel good when they're near it, as if it's stroking their auras like one strokes a cat. It's a multicoloured, iridescent, ridged structure almost a metre tall.
Bishop's certain that he could use the device to amplify his Song-fighting abilities but if it's altering space around it can it work on its own? As an experiment the vaguely ovoid structure is placed in a room next to some of the prisoners from the Juche fleet who have been taken prisoner — over time they can be freed from the Song but that will take a long time, so for now they're just being held in overcrowded cells in the brig. They don't seem to recognize that the device is there, and after it's been there for a few hours everyone in the room has been cleared of the Song! This is wonderful news.
Once they've worked this autonomous property out Volkova claims the device as her own for a few hours. Her headache is lessened while she's right by it and over everyone's objections she lugs it to the train to Osan Station, where they have a good bar, The Barrel Roll. It's a pilot's bar, but she doesn't care. She sits down at a table with the device on the chair next to her and drinks her headache away, ignoring any questions about her "friend".
The Device:
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 40)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 5.5)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 19)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 7)
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