Planetfall: Humanity's New Challenge (turn reporting thread)

[wgabrie]

"What's this about a distress call?" asked Morgan. "It seems that the peacekeepers are about to be overrun with worms" replied the young comm officer. "Why wasn't I informed earlier?" asked Morgan. "You were busy investigating the Alien Temple" replied the officer "We didn't want to disturb you", "Next time please inform me sooner" ordered Morgan. Waving for her to be leave, He headed toward the window and looked out over the fungus fields. Some where out there the Peacekeepers were probably being eaten alive. Sadness fell over Morgan as he thought how he may have prevented in if he had responded to the Peacekeepers transmissions earlier. "A pity" he said finaly. "He would have made an excelent trading partner" With that he turned his attantion to strengthening Base defences in all sectors.

[Darsnan]

The debate in the Gain High Council Chamber raged deep into the night: whether to send aid to the Peace Keeper's or not.
From the Military Commander,"This could be a Spartan trap! They practiced this very technique on Unity of sending out false distress calls in order to lure the unwary to their demise!"
From the Political Officer, "If it was us enduring this calamity, would we not reward our benefactors with undieing loyalty?"
Lay Deidre sat in silence, letting the debate swirl around her. Finally, the two sides paused, as if two behemoths had pulled back from their battles, taking time to warily assess each others capabilities, as well as the weaknesses.
Into this silence came a voice, not from either of the vocal facions, but from the back of the chamber hall, "I'll go".
All heads snapped as one to the sound of the voice: it was a young Gaian in the uniform of the newly established civil command.
Lady Deidre turned to the Military Commander,"who is this, General Zhukov?"
"Able Scout Darsnan, M'Lady". Zhukov turned to eye the young man," I was considering promoting him to Scoutmaster", he said it in such a way as to imply that this might not be the case anymore, but with enough authority to leave the matter in doubt.
Eyes slowly turned to Lady Deidre. She sat staring at the young man for a moment, then spoke slowly, with measured words,"and just what do you mean by saying that you will go?"
The young man braced himself, then spoke,"the arguments are mainly about whether we should reveal our location to anyone, and not about whether to give humanitarian assistance or not, correct?"
Lady Deidre nodded, implying for the young man to proceed.
"So my thought was that if one individual were to make the trip with whatever we could afford to send, then we could circumnavigate the issue of revealing our location by sending a broadcast offering assistance."
General Zhukov took the opportunity to speak,"and if it is a Spartan or Hive trap, they are quite capable of making you reveal where we are - you are aware of these implications, no?"
"I am aware".
General Zhukov seemed to accept this, implying that he had confidence in the young man's abilities. He turned to Lady Deidre,"he has shown much aptitude in the military training classes, as well as having a high empathic talent. He could conceivably take a utility truck and make the journey in, say, one Standard Turn".
Lady Deidre turned to the Political officer. The man remained silent, offering no argument for, nor against, the proposition.
Lady Deidre turned back to Zhukov,"do it!"

While the debate raged in the High Council chambers, 2 communique's came in from the field:

First communique: Unity Pod located. When opened, some sort of manifestation boiled out of it. Request assistance immediately!

Second communique: This is Scout 002: responding! We will be in position to assist in one Standard Turn!


Turn to Spasm

[Darsnan]

The Comm Officer burst into the Gaian High Council meeting. "M'Lady, it's the Peace Keeper's again! They're being decimated by something coming out of the fungus!"
Lady Deidre softened the glare she had been developing towards the Comm Officer: he had been right to interupt the Council meeting with this news. "Yes, Pavlov, what is it?"
The Comm Officer gave a quick account of the latest Peace Keeper transmissions, ending with, "and it sounds as though their capitol is about to be overun!"
Lady Deidre motioned for the Comm Officer to leave, then turned to her council. Speaking quickly and with resolve she issued her directives,"Just as an animal coming down with an infection generates white blood cells to combat the invader, so too must we raise our own white blood cell count. I want all future colony pods to be accompanied by at least a scout. Also, I want to have a militia raised for each base: what has befallen the Peace Keepers will not happen to us!" Lady Deidre dismissed the council, turning away from them as they hastened to leave and relay the commands to their subordinates. So Planet was a harsh mistress after all! Sadness overcame her for the Peace Keeper's plight, but, she thought, even if the Peace Keeper's were wiped out to the last child, at least some of their legacy would live on.
Lady Deidre turned to more pressing matters.


Turn to Spasm

[Black Sunrise]

2106 to darsnan

Sir! They're ... they're all dead!

Christ, private! What happened? What's going on out there?

Sir, some kind of alien life form! And they're moving towards our base!

Oh no. Send patrols to stop them.

Sir, I don't think we can get there in time.

I know, private. It appears this is no garden of eden. It appears we have landed in hell.




Gentlemen, I fully expect to open my move next turn with a total population, including colony pods, of 1.
BTW, I did not trigger these worms. Not from opening a pod, not a fungal bloom, not from trying to enter fungus. They just appeared, whacked one of my pods, and now are about to burn my capital.

Watch me get Punishment Sphere'd by Planet.

[wgabrie]

Morgan steps into has personal office for some relaxation after his inspection tour of the east wing. He glances at the data terminal on his desk and finds a report from one of the scout leaders regarding a matter of great intrest. Morgan opens a comm link and dials up the Chief of Operations. "Yes, Morgan we did find a structure of unknown origin" says the voice at the other end. "What do we know about it?" asks Morgan who is begining to get excited, but then refrains from expressing it to the officer at the other end. "well, from our first readings, it seems to be focusing energy from fungus and monoliths across planet.", "I want you to investigate the structure, and I'm sending my top scientist to look it over first hand" replied Morgan.

*** Morgan colony registration - 2105 ***
Morgan Interstellar - 2105
Morgan Transport - 2105
*** Registration logout \]***

[Darsnan]

sorry for the delay in responding: I have a new Firewall program installed which is only allowing me intermittent Internet access: the program is called "Kids new computer games"!

Game mode: Success! The Unity Pod contained a working Rover. Once we got it running, we were immediately able to locate the next pod, which furnished much needed energy resources. Planet has smiled upon us, for sure!
However, this success has to be tempered with an ominous side as well. Those in our enclave with demonstrated empathic capabilities have been on edge lately. They will suddenly stop their work, and stare out at the fungal jungles that surround us, as if something is calling to them, or as if they can are trying to see something that remains hidden to the rest of us. This, coupled with the implications implied in another intercepted Peacekeeper emergency message, makes us feel as though we may not be alone on Planet......

Turn to Spasm

[Black Sunrise]

Sir. We have lost contact with colony pod 003!

Is it possible something happened to their radio?

Sir, they are still on radar, but they aren't moving, and aren't responding. Possibly they could be stopped.

I know of no reason for them to stop, and a broken radio could be fixed while on the move. Send a Scout Patrol to check them out.

[wgabrie]

pre-encounter contact is fine with me if only for the early tech trading.

[Darsnan]

although I don't see a significant value in pre-encounter contact, why I do not oppose it, either. So I guess my vote is a firm, solid shrug on the subject matter.
The kids are bugging me to hand out the presents, so I gotta go!

[SPasmofiT]

Turn to wgabrie!
So, can me make pre-encounter contact or not?

[Darsnan]

Two beautiful valleys located for our next settlements! We have also located several of the Unity's Pod beacons, and should be able to find them within one turn. Progress, although measured in meters, is progress, and we shall strive to continue to move our fledgeling colony forward.
In other news we were able to hear a Peacekeeper broadcast transmission last turn (2103). Although it was good to hear voices other than our own, the message was in itself disturbing. There was much debate as to whether we should respond to the Peacekeepers message to let them know we had also landed, but we decided that, with a majority of the blame for the Unity disaster laid deservadly at the feet of this faction, as well as the fact that other, more warlike factions have also probably survived, we decided to remain silent. Let the fool Peacekeepers continue to transmit their worthless blatherings: this will only act as a homing beacon for the more warlike factions, as well as anything else that is out there.......


Turn to Spasm

[Black Sunrise]

2104 to Darsnan

While our people do, indeed, have word of a major geological event worthy of being named from orbit, we decline on giving information about it at this time.
Lt. Miriam is actually one of our Peacekeeper people, in charge of our more...enlightened messages. (ie, one factor in roleplaying)

We look forward to next year, and the founding of our "Christmas Base".

Personally, we think the term "Biosphere" goes a bit too far. We will generously concede the term "mold-encustrued-spheroid" for now.

[wgabrie]

We the Morganites respectfully decline Black Sunrise's generous offer. We see no need to join him at this time; because, it is only 3 years after planetfall. (I may change my mind in return for say 110 energy credits)

By the way, I take it that you landed in the jungles near Miriam? If so can you tell me if googlie set her to non-aggressive?

[Darsnan]

we prefer the term "eco-warrior", and if you are not familiar with it, then I am sure that in time we can remedy this affliction of the mind as well. Sorry can't write more now - I've got 2 hours to wrap the tots presents.

Turn to Spasm

To all a Merry Xmas - even those that smell of industrial waste and other foulness of their trade!

[Black Sunrise]

PS.
Naked hippie tree lovers smoking worm-weed need not apply.