Embedded Files
Having recovered the Provenance Chain data for the encrypted message, which included the orbital coordinates of the source of the message and the fact that it was transmitted from a UNSF light cruiser (the Diligent, UNSF-LMC-0BE0), the characters arrange to ship out to the location aboard the Freefalling Angel to see if there's anything worth salvaging of the vessel.
Boarding the Diligent
Boarding the Diligent
After prepping for the salvage effort, including some five-finger-discounted acquisition of various items, the characters pay CHARACTERNAME, the captain of the Freefalling Angel that they've crewed on from time to time, to mount a salvage mission of the Diligent. The salvage-prep included acquiring:
A bare-bones navigation system, in case the one on the Diligent was not operational;
Recycling starters for air and bare-minimum food/biologicals systems — which meant that they'd likely be eating dole yeast and fungus-derived subsistence rations once on the Diligent;
Reserve-level Oxygen replenishment, either to replace expected losses on the ship itself, or to keep vac-suits running for the trip home.
Upon arriving at the Diligent, it was discovered to be at least reasonably intact — no signs of damage, combat or otherwise, no power active. Upon boarding the derelict vessel, they could determine that it was powered down, but otherwise apparently operational, though there was significant (and obviously intentional) disconnection of the ship's computer, apart from a secondary subsystem for the ship's log. The last message on the log, by the captain, included:
The bastards went and did it. They activated the Paragon protocol. We've lost contact with UNSF command. Their computers probably took over the L5 and L4 Trojan stations. No word from the Luna facility either, so probably the same there…
…None of us have anywhere left to go. All our families are in the areas that've been obliterated. We talked about maybe making for Ceres, but that's a Hephæstus facility, and even if we were welcome there, there's no way to know if we'd be corrupting their computers with something from Paragon. They may be the only chance humanity has of surviving, and after talking it out, we agreed that it's just not worth the risk. It'd be different if we'd had the shuttle, but since this was just a patrol, and we were going to dock back at L5, there was no need.
Hindsight is awesome…
We talked it out, and decided, all of us, that it's just not worth the risk. So we're gonna die here. We've shut down life support. Well, the air recyclers, at least. Heat and the rest of the powered systems will shut down in a week or so, after we're gone. We'll just… go to sleep, basically.
As near as could be determined, the crew had been on board, and received some kind of notification that "the Paragon protocol" had been activated. This would've been around the time that Earth went dark, and though there was no direct proof or evidence, it seemed that the two were related.
Once they had spent enough time to determine that the ship was, in fact, salvageable, a salvage-claim was transmitted for the Diligent, and they spent perhaps a couple of weeks getting it back into running shape. The Freefalling Angel departed once the ship was livable.
TODO: Pick players' brains re: what else happened in this session, document it.
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