Present:
- MARMALADING Buzz "Cut". Solomani Soldier from Seven – Shane
- Dr Paczki Knodel. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Seven – Darryl
- Stella Cauthon. Solomani Rogue from Seven - Richard
- Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
- Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
- MARMALADING Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
- MARMALADING Heidi Vasovagal. Solomani Scientist from Seven - Steven
- Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
- Jon "Crash" Straker. Solomani Pilot from Seven – Jamie
by Richard
We are sitting supping coffee and debriefing with Dr Strangelove at the Cauthon Institute. Itzy has reminded us that for those who met with the Zhodani Ambassador, Anya Lukashenko, that we should check ourselves for bugs. None.
"Ve need to see how many of zee portals are inside someone – both those who were infected on Rose planet and those who weren’t infected. That is the vay ve vill understand this more," mused Paczki Knodel.
"We need a way of detecting them" Strangelove responded.
"Ya. My brother Powidła, Head of Genetic Medicines at the Vilnius Medical Institute, is vorking on zat. It vill involve fluid passing through a person with zee fluid containing zee necessary radioscopic components to detect zee miniscule radiation emitted from zee tiny portals"
"I vill take him another veek or so"
"If these portals are airborne then surely Anton, Itzy and Sang may be emitting them with their breathing" a worried Strangelove announced.
"Well, that horse has bolted hasn’t it?" Stella responded. "We've been travelling with them for weeks.
Paczki's mobile phone rings, interrupting our thoughts and it is his brother Dr Faworki Knodel, from the hospital.
"Two of ze Zhodani girls are missing" exclaims Faworki. "Their guardian Ben is in an uproar. Can you please come?"
"Ya – zee team vill come now"
We quickly head to the monorail and catch the next one to the hospital where we go to Faworki's lab.
The investigation begins with the hospitals CCTV footage. The quality is very poor but it quickly reveals the two Zhodani girls walking though the hospital in the early hours and being met by what appeared to be two other Zhodani woman who then led them outside.
Switching to the hospitals outside, but equally poor quality CCTV, we see the girls being led to a white van and it driving away.
The quality of the CCTV is so poor that we are unable to recognize the Zhodani woman or see their features and nor are we able to identify the van's number plate.
We do notice however that there are a number of CCTV cameras on buildings and atop poles, clearly put here by the authorities.
"We should ask the police for the footage" says Stella
"They won't give it to us" responds Sang "better I hack in to their system"
"If we do that first and fail then we are at a dead end and perhaps in jail. Why don’t we see if the police will allow us to view their tapes and if that fails then we try and hack in"
"I suppose" accepted Sang who was dying to continue to use her very impressive computer skills.
We obtain documentation on Z1 and Z3 (the Zhodani girls) stating they are patients under the care of Dr Faworki Knodel and head off to the police.
Stella with her blouse slightly undone and offering generous donations to the Police Benevolent Fund convinces Sergeant Sherbet to allow us to view the tapes. These show our two Zhodani, Z1 and Z3, being led to a white van, licence plate ZOD12579X.
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| CCTV footage |
"We should have another meeting with Ania, I think" says Stella
We head back to the Cauthon Institute and Stella texts Ania seeking a further meeting. Ania quickly responds and agrees to meet the next day for a drink at the Shining Rose pub at 1pm.
The next day Crash, Anton and Stella head to the Shining Rose where they meet Ania and several of her entourage and guards.
An amicable but pointed conversation occurs with Anya denying everything but struggling to explain why the van entered embassy grounds. Enough information is shared about portals and nano technology to clearly worry the Zhodani ambassador.
Returning to the Cauthon Institute, Crash immediately contacts Sergeant Bates of the Imperium soldiers and updates him with recent developments and seeks an armed presence at the hospital on the strong suspicion that the Zhodani will try and take the other 4 girls Z2, Z4, Z5 & Z6.
And our suspicions were well founded. The next morning Faworki calls Paczki advising him that Zhodani entered the hospital again last night and this time were captured by the Imperium guard. They were arrested but sought and were granted diplomatic immunity as they were Zhodani embassy staff.
We obtain a photo of the two Zhodani arrested from Bates and quickly verify that they were two of Anya's staff at the Shining Rose.
Now we commenced the experimentation part of the evening.
"I haf been contemplating" advised Paczki.
"Ve need to conduct a number of experiments to determine how many portals are within someone and where those portals go. My hypothesis is that there is 100's within those infected from the Rose planet and that they all lead back to the Rose planet at the point of infection"
"Why are we doing this?" questions Stella
"Because it is science and the Cauthon Institute is a science led organization" ( Little did Powidła know that the scientific component of the Cauthon Institute was just an entry point or trojan horse to enable the Cauthon Institute and its Imperium backers to infiltrate various societies to enhance its capitalistic and militaristic objectives. Stella of course knew of this and used it to further her own personal objectives. )
Stella raised her eyebrows "Very well, let's get on with whatever you have planned."
"Very good! We vill need to continue to analyse the genetic material, use nano bot technology to explore those infected and perhaps those not infected and also use my tubular technology to identify where the portals go."
"We vill start with one of the Zhodani girls"
We made our way to the hospital and advised Faworki that we wanted to use the nano bot technology to explore one of the Zhodani girls' systems to identify how many portals were inside. Faworki would only do this with Ben's consent which he provided on the basis that Powidła would not "cure them" for fear of his life.
"I vill not cure zem" he promised.
In respect to the genetic material, we learnt quickly by referencing prior experiments and analysis that the genetic mutations were extremely varied. No two genetic mutations were the same. We did though learn through that process that Zhodani were human 100,000 years ago.
"We could cure them from being Zhodani?" questioned Crash
"Yes, technically so" responded Faworki " but highly unethical and ironically we could turn Humans into Zhodani too"
All the group except Stella were keen to use the nano bots to enter a Zhodani girl, via the tear duct, given it was their brain that was impacted and mutated.
Stella was very reluctant given the harm caused to her last time but the group soon realized they needed her navigation skills and so convinced her into coming.
The voyage begins. Psych rolls are made and Anton fails and whines tirelessly in the corner. Space craft and navigation rolls are successful.
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| Crash's blade gets wedged in the portal |
Sang is successful and we begin the trip back portal in tow.
Suddenly our radiation sensors go into overdrive with significant radiation detected.
"It is coming from ze portal"
"Its unidirectional" said Crash "point it away"
We did and the radiation diminished and we continued our journey back. But shortly after the radiation levels rose again sharply.
"We have to leave it" said Sang urgently
"And get out of here" said a panicking Itzy.
We leave the portal and quickly make our way back to the needle and out the tear duct. Dr Faworki recognizes our return and completes the necessary procedures to bring us around.
As we all slowly wake, the more astute of us notice the Zhodani head throbbing red until moments later it explodes. Those who were perceptive dived for cover in time but Stella, Anton ad Itzy all look damage dropping hit points to 4,3,4 respectively.
" Zere was no radiation until ve cut it out – I sink ze portals are morphing and intelligent"
"Didn’t you say you got a nano blade stuck in it?" his brother question
"Yah"
"Vell that would be sufficient energy to cause this effect I zink. A normal blade wouldn't but a nano blade has its own energy and I would calculate half a giga electron."
"Zat explains it zen"
By now we have turned the air pumps off and using the filter system to see how many minute portals are in the air. We all have masks on to avoid inadvertent swallowing.
After 12 hours being "imprisoned" in the lab, wearing masks and covered in Zhodani blood and matter, we discover 6 micro portals in the filters.
"Tat is very useful information" Faworki exclaims – we should just blow up more Zhodani!
We take a few days rest. Paczki puts the portals on slides.
"ve could make bombs out of these " he mutters.
Anton, Itzy and Stella rest to regain all their hit points and Anton is psychoanalyzed to stop him being a whimpering mess.
After a few days rest we decide to take a similar voyage into Anton to see if he still has portals in him despite being cured. This time the voyage is relatively uneventful and we discover a portal but don’t cut it out, to everyone's relief. I say relatively as Paczki failed his psych roll and became a little crazier.
Upon our exit we tried to psychoanalyze him but fumbled and made things worse. Nothing a few days in a psych ward won't fix.
After Paczki returns to relative normality, we decide to undertake our last experiment – to use the tubular technology and a small bot to take photos through the portal.
This in fact goes well – the tubes work and the nano robot is able to successfully take photos and return. We of course are not prepared to put one of us through it or open both ends of the tube at once.
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| All mcro portals to Rose, it seems |
"I vould be interesting to see if someone who was on the Rose planet but not infected, had ze micro portals"
We all look at the marmalading Hoff – the only non-infected Rose survivor.
So, will Hoff stop marmalading enough to allow a further voyage into the unknown, or maybe he can be entered while actually marmalading?
What further secrets can we unlock?
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