Posting mostly to gage interest, hoping someone gets a kick out of it:
The year is 3408.
Humanity is as fractured as ever, in many ways even more so. Countless factions exist over countless worlds, each existing in isolation from the others; an unsteady peace enforced through a doctrine of mutual apathy.
Each world is governed to its own taste, but tithes a portion of its men and resources to the Confederation of Man which exists solely to patrol the borders of humanity and allow humanity to exist unmolested by the wider universe.
The stories of interplanetary politics and cold war are undoubtedly numerous and compelling, but we aren't hear for that.
Humanity is voracious and their needs grow each day. They've sent out in every direction from the borders fleets of ships, each in service to a mighty Ark. Their job is to expand the borders of humanity, to find new planets, resources and alien life to colonize, exploit and (if convenient) enslave.
We start aboard The Endless Harvest, a Pathfinder class ship with a max crew capacity of roughly 20, plus 10 times that in automation; but which finds itself severely understaffed and captained by a man named Deaumont(NPC), a solidly built man in his mid 60's with long, luxurious black hair and a beautifully groomed mustache with a glint of madness in his eye who always wears a gilded scabbard and holster at his waist, each containing a martial masterpiece. The Endless Harvest has been his ship for some years, but for reasons he doesn't care to share he's recently brought on an entire new crew.
Lord Prospector Edmund Crass(NPC) is a portly man dressed in layer upon layer of silks and furs with such a painfully pleasant voice that it verges on hypnotic, his golden hands clasped before him and a smiling porcelain mask on his face. It's whispered that he is well over 400 years old and is quite self conscious of the invasive augmentations which allow him to survive for so long, perform his complicated assessments and easily converse with the filthy aliens found beyond Humanity's border. He is accompanied by a tall golden golem shaped into the form of a Greek warrior, wielding a weapon that looks like a halberd and wearing a scowling porcelain mask of its own.
While Captain Deaumont technically owns and commands the ship, Lord Prospector Edmund's connections ensure their profitability and thus he gets the large state room and deferential treatment.
Mystic Navigator Jasper Grey (NPC) is a man in his mid 50's with long wiry grey hair and a ragger, unkempt beard. His expression is pleasantly detached and he appears focused on events far away. He reeks from the incense and ‘herbs’ used in the long and complicated rituals necessary to allow the ship to instantly appear at precise locations anywhere in the universe.
Jasper Grey is not his given name, but so little remains of those who manage to ‘See Beyond What Is And Into What May Be’ that they usually assume a new identity.
Science Officer Lorne Sully (NPC) is a scrawny young man with blonde hair and blue eyes with no real experience, but an abundance of zeal.
Dr Nero (NPC) is a brilliant medical doctor, chemist and geneticist. He considers himself to be the greatest example of his life’s work and has rendered himself into something truly transhuman. He stands at 10ft tall with blue black skin that feels cold and metallic to the touch, with four arms each bulging with muscle. His eyes shine golden both in the dark and the light. He has several small, grotesque homonculi of questionable intelligence which respond to unspoken commands as though physical extensions of his will.
Dr Nero G15 or ‘G’ (Player) is Nero's most successful attempt at cloning himself. He stands 6’8” and is roughly 400lbs of pure muscle with long blonde hair and yellow eyes that shine at night. He has Nero's memories pertinent to their profession (albeit roughly 20 years out of date) implanted and functions as Dr Nero's aide and protege. Once a week Nero Prime downloads the important memories of G15 to passively add to his own genius.
Perfect clones are unpopular among humanity because of the inability to actually transfer your consciousness into them, so G15 is intended as more of a vanity project to ensure Nero’s projects continue indefinitely than a true heir or attempt to extend himself. (Played by my 13 year old niece.)
Engineer Nora Bray (Player) is a 5ft bundle of overworked nerves and freckles. She has bright red hair, a gently glowing cybernetic eye and a single bulky mechanical arm filled with tools and gadgets. She has at her disposal an autonomous Dog class golem called Gremley that resembles a thick black skeleton that crawls awkwardly on all fours but can lumber about like a humanoid if need be and a large partially enclosed mech loader.
Nora is responsible for keeping the ship and everything on it in working order, as well as assembling and maintaining necessary structures and equipment and pretty much doing anything else the others don't want to do. (Played by my wife.)
Helmsman Marcus Aliato Nimbus XIV (Player) is a young man standing at 6’2” with dark hair and a lean build. He comes from a family of militant aristocrats who pride themselves on centuries of faultless service and glorious deeds.
Genecrafted in the womb to be the pinnacle of humanity and drilled in marksmanship, dueling and the operation of various vehicles since he was old enough to walk. He’s been sent out to the frontier to acquire some actual life skills (where failure doesn't count) before receiving his own command among the ever expanding human border.
Owns a personal shuttle with a sizable cargo bay, enough room for a Rambler class APC (which he also has aboard) and enough room to seat 20 passengers plus a weeks rations. Has a pair of dinner plate sized hover drones with state of the art weaponry and a visor that links directly with his nervous system which allows him to operate any owned piece of equipment from several miles away.) (Played by an old friend that played Roger McCrow in my old Mutants and Masterminds campaign, "Let's Get This Straight, You're The Sidekick!, back in the day.)
The crew has been together for only a few days when Science Officer Lorne Sully gathers them in the briefing room inform them that one of their many probes has relayed the coordinates of a large verdant planet orbiting a dying sun. They have no other leads, so Captain Deaumont's had them brought into range.
The Captain seems surprisingly disinterested and explains that Pathfinding is a competitive environment and other probes will be reporting in at any time, so unless there's something truly compelling on the planet below they have one week to tag anything worth exploiting and then it's time to turn the planet over to someone else and go.
The Captain orders Lorne to take samples of anything that seems promising on the planet below. Engineer Nora is expected to accompany him in order to carry and set up the necessary equipment and Helmsman Nimbus will of course provide transportation. To everyone's surprise Lord Prospector Edmund offers to lend his own expertise and so the Captain commands Dr Nero to accompany the team to ensure the Lord Prospector's safety. Dr Nero simply doesn't want to, so sends his junior clone, the Homunculus Nero G15, in his place.
The five crew members, along with Edmund's golden guardian golem; Nora's utility golem and Marcus's drones, load onto Marcus's shuttle and deploy to the planet below.
As they enter the atmosphere they take stock of their surroundings, noting the thick tree canopy that seems to cover the entire planet and the thick pollen clouds that immediately begin to cloud their sensors. Even though they took care to enter on the day side the faint red sun coupled with the oppressive pollen ensures that even at its brightest the world seems to be trapped in an eternal twilight.
“Looks like a lake in that depression in the hills.” Marcus says, adjusting course. “Probably our best hope at an LZ.”
Nora stares out the viewport in childlike wonder and excitedly points at the blooms of a massive flower that towers even above the tree line. “Look at that thing! Can we check that out?!”
G15's inhumanly sharp eyes notices a small depression among the trees, taking note of a flower lined hole leading into the earth itself. He stoically notes it as another potential point of interest.
Edmund simply relaxes in his seat passively while Lorne reads something off a tablet and confirms that the Lake should be their target.
Marcus brings the shuttle low and approaches the lake, noting the strange silver hue of the mirror like water. He chooses a flat spot roughly 100ft from the water and near the sharply angled stone face that surrounds the lake on all sides, stretching a couple hundred feet up and away.
After Marcus settles the shuttle in the team begins to disembark only to fall into complaining instantly. The atmosphere is oxygen rich and technically safe, but the thick haze of pollen threatens to choke them with each breath. The temperature and humidity are oppressive and the increased gravity makes every step a chore.
Only Nero G15 seems unimpressed.
Lorne immediately begins sweating through his armored uniform and panting as he directs Nora where to begin setting up camp and their equipment.
Edmund suggests that Marcus and G accompany him as he pokes around the surrounding jungle. He suggests they investigate the flower which Nora saw from the sky.
Marcus points out that the flower is a good 12 miles out and the foliage is far too dense for a vehicle to get through. Edmund simply claps him on the back and assures him it'll do them good to stretch their legs.
Nora asks if she can go too, but is reminded by a chiding chorus of her crew mates that she has work to do. Blushing while cursing under her breath as she continues unloading the ship.
The walk to the flower takes several hours and although it can be said that Marcus is the best humanity has to offer it's also worth noting that he seems to be the only one bothered by it. G15 is well beyond anything that can be considered pure human and Edmund seems to simply glide through the forest without actually touching the ground.
Marcus tries to take in the sights to push through his burning muscles. The strange black and red foliage beautiful in it's own right, but the sight of moving bushes resembling beasts, standing 6ft at the shoulder and resting on 3 sets of root like limbs was the highlight.
These massive creatures lumber slowly through the forest, seemingly looking for nutrient rich soil to plant themselves in for a time. They're dubbed Bush-Bison.
The beasts seemed uninterested in their party and none of them could see any profit in molesting the local wildlife at this time, so they each continued their separate ways.
They eventually reach the base of the flower, a thick rubbery stem wider than most houses that stretches up to be supported by the canopy above. A faint hum seems to fill the air nearby.
G15 comments on the thick vegetation despite the almost total darkness of the jungle floor and Edmund begins fiddling with local plant and soil samples, chuckling happily as he mentions that the soil microbes are far beyond most agricultural worlds.
G15 doesn't bother asking about it any further and Marcus is too busy catching his breath to concern himself with dirt quality. They both do notice however that the flower’s stem has small cracks all over its surface, out of which a shimmering golden sap oozes gently.
As G15 watches a squat creature that can best be described as a mix between an ape and a parrot scurries among the upper portion of the stem to jealously lap at the golden sap.
G points this out to Marcus, who flips through several of his visors vision modes to determine that there is a sizeable stockpile of this sap within the flower and suggests Edmund should take a sample back for Lorne to examine.
They wrap up and begin the long trek back.
Back at base camp Nora sets up Lorne's survey equipment and then orders Gremley to build camp. The strange golem runs part up the stone embankment and assumes a position in all fours, releasing a laser grid that ensures the surrounding area is level before opening the bay of its internal nano-hive and releasing a cloud of nanobots that make up just over half it's overall bodyweight.
Within moments the swarm has reshaped the very stone into 5 small cabins built directly into the hillside. As it crawls back into Gremley to recharge the golem returns to a bipedal state and rushes back to Nora's side like a loyal pet.
She sighs in boredom and begins surveying the lake itself. The water is deathly still and stinks horribly; the only apparent wildlife are toddler sized bipedal plants that appear from the foliage on the opposite side of the lake to rest what she takes to be their feet in the still water.
No matter how she or Lorne shouts or calls to them, they pay them no mind and frolick and relax beyond their reach until another group of their kind appears from the foliage and they swap out silently.
Nora explores the ridgeline near the camp and manages to discover a strange metallic plant growing in an otherwise bare patch. She asks Gremley to retrieve it for her and watches in horror as her robotic companion rips it from the ground, scattering delicate leaves everywhere.
She shows the remnants to Lorne and he suggests that it's an extreme hyperaccumulator and that it probably means there's a rich metal vein in the hills.
Nora sends Gremley to strip the hill until it's exposed and suggests that the plant could potentially be adapted to seed desolate worlds to easily find ore reserves.
By the time they're reunited it's long past dark.
Lorne has discovered that the Lake is rich in natural gasses and so they begin pumping the acidic water, intent on filling one of the shuttles three cargo tanks with a volatile mixture of gasses to be sorted later. They log the lake as a resource, even though it'll be tapped long before they leave, just in case there are others like it to be found; by registering the resource they'll be entitled to a finder's fee if any others are found.
Nora and Gremley exposed a sizable deposit of high quality iron that ended up extending well beyond their ability to harvest with the shuttle.
On the way back Marcus had tripped over a thick vine with envenomed thorns that seemed to react to his presence like a viper, striking at his heat signature with blinding speed. Luckily for him, his reflexes remain as sharp as ever and in a single fluid motion he managed to side step the attack, draw his bulky Magpulse Elite (a handheld gauss weapon) and fire a deafening burst into the trees above, bringing down several limbs thicker than a man along with the base of the strange vine which writhe until G15 steps on its ‘head’ and rips the horned portion off.
Once analyzed the vine was found to harbor a potent paralytic.
Back at camp they fill each other in on the day's activities while warming up travel rations.
Lorne analyzes the sap and discovers it to be a potent and naturally occurring nootropic, capable of increasing mental processes to an absurd degree. Nora suggests they should try it, but nobody wants to be the guinea pig…
They still decide they should head out in the morning and drain the flower of all it has.
First thing in the morning Marcus unloads the Rambler APC from the shuttle and preps it for the long drive. Lord Prospector Edmund and his golden guardian seat themselves in the vehicle and Nero G15 takes a seat on top of the vehicle.
Nora mounts her mech loader and Gremley contorts awkwardly to bring its heavy mining laser to bear. Taking a moment to power up,, Gremley blasts the base of a tree and Nora follows up by knocking it over.
Using Marcus's drones they map a path of least resistance and slowly advance towards the giant flower once more.
Lorne remains in camp to continue monitoring things.
A little more than halfway to the flower there's a horrible racket in the trees tops and roughly a dozen of the strange parrot-apes gather among the branches to shriek and throw debris down at our brave explorers.
“Yeah? **** you too!” Marcus shouts back, angling the Rambler's short cannon towards the trees and unleashing an explosive burst that turns four of the shrieking creatures into a bloody mist that rains down on those unfortunate enough to not be inside the APC.
The remaining beasts leap from their perches in a rage, some scrambling out of the cannon's path and others lunging for the gun itself.
Nora draws a cheap, battered, unbranded laser pistol from a shoulder holster and fires the flickering blue beam from the cockpit of her mech, managing to punch a hole in one critter and singing another's feathers.
Three land on the Rambler, only for G15 to stomp one into a bloody mess and slam another's head into the armored vehicle hard enough to burst it's skull.
Marcus shouts for G to ‘catch one!’ and the homunculus snatches the last by the throat and holds it awkwardly at arm's length as it shrieks in rage, struggling to bite or claw him.
The remaining beasts flee in terror and G leaps off the Rambler as Nora approaches and the cargo door opens to allow Edmund and Marcus to disembark to stare at the panicking creature as it flails uselessly.
“Why did you want this?” G15 asks in confusion.
Marcus shrugs. “I don't know…maybe a pet? Source of protein? I just thought we should keep one alive.”
“Do something with it then.” G15 demands, offering the creature to Marcus who shrinks back.
“We need something to transport it in!” The pilot barks at Nora, who apologetically scrambles to have Gremley assemble a large, heavy wooden cage out of the local wood.
It takes her a moment to remove several unneeded seats and install the cage in their place.
As they go to force the beast inside Edmund holds up a gilded hand and commands “I have no desire to listen to that creature for the rest of the trip; make it be silent.”
The three look at each other and G15 says “Of course Lord Prospector, I will administer a sedative.”
The homunculus subtly blushes as he realizes he has none of the Endless Harvest's stockpile with him…however rather than say anything he simply transitions the creature into a choke hold to render it unconscious.
The creature doesn't like this and before he can get an arm around it's throat it closes it's thick beak on his forearm, causing the normally stoic doctor to bowl in pain and shock.
Nora leaps from her mecy and grabs a stick from the ground swinging it at the creature, striking G15 instead who curses at her. The creature hisses loudly and Marcus dramatically punches it in the head, bringing his wrist and feeling as though he just punched stone.
G manages to get an arm around the creature's throat and more or less lock in, but it's all he can do to hold it still while Marcus and Nora awkwardly beat it until it shuts up.
By the time they finally dump it into the cage they're all bruised, bleeding and exhausted, the now ‘sedated’ parrot-ape most of all.
G15 irritably drains his handheld Medical Reconstructor replacing a couple of his own lost fingers and ensuring the beast doesn't die from its injuries.
Edmund sighs, declaring it “Good enough.” and they continue along.
Finally they arrive at the base of the flower and Nora takes a good long moment to gawk up at it appreciatively before everyone begins yelling at her to tap the damned flower already.
Grumbling under her breath, Nora has Gremley cut a hole in the base of the flower and hold a hose inside while she activates the pump which begins draining the golden sap directly into the Rambler's cargo tank.
The vague humming sound increases in intensity during all of this until it becomes an almost physical pressure bearing down on them.
“Should I stop?” Nora shouts over the noise.
“Not until it's dry!” Marcus barks in response, casting a glance at the Rambler in case the Lord Prospector resting inside disagrees.
The hum continues increasing in pitch until it becomes something painful. The forest begins to fill with sound.
A crashing sound preludes the arrival of four of the massive bush-bison and the tree tops erupt as a swarm of the parrot-apes begin circling them from above. A pair of the strange viper like vines drop from above and a group of 8 of the childlike plant creatures waddle from the brush to see what's going on.
Nora leaps into her mech loader and Marcus dives back into the Rambler as the bush-bison make contact. Nora grabs a beast by its amorphous head with the mech and is driven back several yards easily, she manages to fire her laser pistol from the cockpit but only singes the great beast trying to maul her.
Two of the bison slam into the Rambler far faster than it seems they should be able to move; their bulk nearly tips the thing over and the impact causes something to begin smoking inside. Marcus wheels the Cannon around to fire point blank at his attackers and the explosion shreds both, scorching the Rambler in the process.
G15 roars defiantly at the heavens and leaps into the air to meet their foes. He lands directly on one of the plant people, bursting it like an overcooked sausage. The others hold their hands before themselves pitifully, emitting faint hums of their own.
G15 responds to this act of blatant aggression by soccer kicking the closest one into a tree several yards away, grabbing a second by the ankle and wielding it like a club to batter its fellows into paste as they feebly drum against his shins.
The parrot-apes begin descending from above until Marcus swings the cannon up to blow a burning hole through half a dozen of them and the canopy itself.
The parrot-apes flee screeching.
Nora brings the arms of mech together against the sides of the bison's head and jerks to break the neck. She fires into the face of the last one as it charges her and winces as her weapon sets the creature on fire.
It thrashes and flails, forgetting Nora entirely in its distress. She walks past it to step on one of the viper vines while it blindly tries to attack the overheated Rambler.
G15, covered in gore from his rampage, grabs the remaining vine as it lunges for him and, with a grunt of effort, rips it out of the tree as the burning bison finally collapses silently.
Nora wipes the sweat from her brow. “I guess they bit off more than they could ch-”
“The tank's overflowing Nora!” Marcus shouts, pointing at the golden sap dribbling gently out of the tank intake valve.
“Swap the tank Nora!” G15 shouts.
“What are you doing?! Swap the tank!” Marcus agrees.
“Pay attention to your job woman!” Edmund barks as he and his golden guardian disembark.
“Why do you think we're out here?!”
Nora scowls and grabs the hose.
Marcus hiked back far enough to remotely access and fly the shuttle on order to bring it on to recover the Rambler. By the time it arrives the flower is dead and silent, and the forest surrounding it has been cleared to allow easy access.
They load it up and return to camp to rest and repair. It takes two days to fix the Rambler and they accomplish very little else in that time.
With the clock ticking they decide to at least investigate the hole in the ground that G15 noticed on the way in.
They load up the shuttle with everyone but Lorne and leave the Rambler behind so that he can continue to load its tanks with the lake's gas mixture.
The trip takes almost no time in the shuttle and Marcus hovers over the mouth of the immense flower filled hole; he lowers a rappelling line and tells everyone that he's going to stay with the ship and monitor things remotely.
A pair of dinner plate sized, armored drones drift down to observe the hole and G15 effortlessly slides down behind them. Nora has slightly more trouble, struggling to wiggle down the line and relying almost exclusively on the strength of her false arm to keep her in check.
Once Nora's on the ground she calls for Gremley, who clumsily reaches for the line and falls out of the shuttle. The golem slams into the brach of a tree, bounces off and lands with a thump among the flowers and weeds. It twists itself into a quadrapedal sitting position and looks up at her as a second thud signals the arrival of Edmund's golden guardian, which simply leapt down to meet them.
“Have fun!” Edmund calls from above.
Slowly the crew pick their way down into the soil until G15 holds up a hand. He reaches above their heads and grabs hold of a piece of wood, which comes loose as he pulls to reveal a lattice of sharpened stakes which fall heavily to the ground, embedding itself into the soil.
“A trap!” Nora gasps.
“First sign of intelligence on this rock…” Marcus muses, sipping at a drink back at the ship.
“Primitive.”” G15 says with a shrug. “Not worth noting.”
“We'll see…” Nora mutters, drawing her cheap laser pistol nervously.
They continue into the dark tunnels below, finding a world of mighty roots shaped into countless twisting passageways. They immediately begin noticing fleeting shapes darting among the passages around them, but try to avoid letting them know they've been seen.
After an hour or so of traversing the tunnels they find themselves in a large chamber and realize the creatures are beginning to gather.
Several dozen lanky humanoids with too many joints and not enough fingers spread out across the chamber quietly in an attempt to surround them, most are unarmed but many wield jagged spears and hatchets.
“Do…they think they're hidden?” Nora asks. Although they carry no light they're far from blind. Nora and the automata have an array of cybernetic enhancements that allow them to see in complete darkness and G15's exhaustive genetic tinkering has made his own enhanced vision pitifully redundant.
“Probably…” Marcus says with a chuckle before one of his drones shines a painfully bright spotlight into the chamber causing the moist, grey skinned creatures to recoil in horror.
The aliens have no eyes but a mouth that takes up the majority of their head. Their skin quivers in the light and they seem to recoil at the sensation.
One of the aliens stands up to a height similar to G15 and shakes a spear above its head with a defiant, guttural roar.
Marcus's second drone fires its internal gauss cannon and the creature disappears into a sticky mist.
The others screech in response and Nora fires a burst from her laser pistol, catching several of the savages in the opening volley.
The remaining aliens decide to rush them and the golden guardian extends its halberd in a group's direction. There is no sound, no flash of light or indication that the weapon has done anything save the fact that half a dozen of the creatures in its path blacken, shrivel and burst.
The aliens call out in alarm and G15 boots forward, grabbing one by its spindly shoulder blades and tearing it apart like he was tearing a phone book.
This breaks the survivors, which scatter in every direction.
Nora tries to catch her breath as Marcus's drones split up to follow the two largest groups. G15 bolts after the larger group and Nora runs after him to avoid being left alone.
G15 discovers several more crude traps along the way, but they're no real threat.
Eventually the passageway leads into another large chamber, this one roughly hewn from stone and decorated by what seem to be primitive attempts at art, mud and clay fashioned into the shapes of the aliens and other creatures.
The crew can't help but smirk as they push on.
Further into the stone chamber they begin encountering more of the aliens. Some young or decorated with flower chains. These flee as larger specimens rush in to defend the place.
This doesn't go well for any of them
“Seems like a temple…” Nora muses.
“Temples are supposed to have valuables. This is just a hole in the ground.” Marcus replies through a drone.
The aliens flee before them as they ransack the place for anything to make this excursion worthwhile. It seems pointless until they find a chamber of polished stone at the center of which sits an alien spaceship.
It's rusted and ruined beyond salvage, no real way to study its technology or even find out where it's from…but it's still an alien ship.
And it's old…
Back within the border this could be a collector's item!
Deciding to call the expedition here Nora has Gremley begin the excavation process. Within ten hours the chamber, the temple, a good portion of the root tunnels and the surrounding forest have been replaced by a gaping wound in the jungle floor large enough to bring the shuttle in to grab the ship.
When they leave, they can still hear the aliens wailing.
They return to base for only a moment to find that Lorne had finally managed to make contact with the plant people. The science officer approaches the shuttle as it lands, his body twisted and movements jerky as though being puppeted by the creature now blooming out the side of his neck, apparently now attached to his nervous system.
Marcus sighs as Lorne stumbles towards them groaning, the pilot whips his pistol out and fires a burst at his former colleague. Lorne pops as the supercharged rounds makes contact, surreptitiously leaving behind little more than his head sporting a horrified grimace.
“Will somebody grab that idiot's head in case the Captain wants it?” Marcus shouts as he walks towards the Rambler.
Captain Deaumont was pleased with the discoveries made on the planet, if not exactly impressed. When they present Lorne's severed head however, his mood immediately sours and he chews them out extensively for allowing such a thing to happen.
“What if it was someone important?!” Deaumont reminds them. “I send you to escort someone, you ****ing escort them!”
Eventually he calms down.
“Well we just left an Ark…we aren't going back. You! You're the new science guy!” Deaumont shouts, pointing at Nora.
“I…really?” She stammers and then salutes smartly. “Thank you sir!”
Deaumont looks at her like she's crazy.
Nora slowly lowers the salute. “I….umm….assume I've been promoted to reflect my new responsibilities….?”
Deaumont shakew his head slowly. “No….”
She frowns and her shoulders slump a little.
“Oh…but there's a pay bump at least?” She asks sullenly.
Deaumont glares at her. “No.”
Nora's jaw goes slack and she fights the urge to complain. “Well….can I at least have Lorne's old room? Mine is right over the engine and the noise keeps me up all night and I always wake up with my teeth tingling!”
Deaumont inclines his head and strokes his chin contemplatively.
“No.” he replies softly, smiling and walking past her, obviously thinking of something else now.
“Oh well it's still a great honor sir!” She calls after him weakly as the rest of the crew head to the mess hal to celebratel.
She starts to join them when G15 shouts “Aren't you supposed to be unloading the tanks?”
Marcus follows up with “Stop goldbricking Bray! We need to be ready to go!”
Cursing under her breath she heads to the shuttle with Gremley in tow.
The year is 3408.
Humanity is as fractured as ever, in many ways even more so. Countless factions exist over countless worlds, each existing in isolation from the others; an unsteady peace enforced through a doctrine of mutual apathy.
Each world is governed to its own taste, but tithes a portion of its men and resources to the Confederation of Man which exists solely to patrol the borders of humanity and allow humanity to exist unmolested by the wider universe.
The stories of interplanetary politics and cold war are undoubtedly numerous and compelling, but we aren't hear for that.
Humanity is voracious and their needs grow each day. They've sent out in every direction from the borders fleets of ships, each in service to a mighty Ark. Their job is to expand the borders of humanity, to find new planets, resources and alien life to colonize, exploit and (if convenient) enslave.
We start aboard The Endless Harvest, a Pathfinder class ship with a max crew capacity of roughly 20, plus 10 times that in automation; but which finds itself severely understaffed and captained by a man named Deaumont(NPC), a solidly built man in his mid 60's with long, luxurious black hair and a beautifully groomed mustache with a glint of madness in his eye who always wears a gilded scabbard and holster at his waist, each containing a martial masterpiece. The Endless Harvest has been his ship for some years, but for reasons he doesn't care to share he's recently brought on an entire new crew.
Lord Prospector Edmund Crass(NPC) is a portly man dressed in layer upon layer of silks and furs with such a painfully pleasant voice that it verges on hypnotic, his golden hands clasped before him and a smiling porcelain mask on his face. It's whispered that he is well over 400 years old and is quite self conscious of the invasive augmentations which allow him to survive for so long, perform his complicated assessments and easily converse with the filthy aliens found beyond Humanity's border. He is accompanied by a tall golden golem shaped into the form of a Greek warrior, wielding a weapon that looks like a halberd and wearing a scowling porcelain mask of its own.
While Captain Deaumont technically owns and commands the ship, Lord Prospector Edmund's connections ensure their profitability and thus he gets the large state room and deferential treatment.
Mystic Navigator Jasper Grey (NPC) is a man in his mid 50's with long wiry grey hair and a ragger, unkempt beard. His expression is pleasantly detached and he appears focused on events far away. He reeks from the incense and ‘herbs’ used in the long and complicated rituals necessary to allow the ship to instantly appear at precise locations anywhere in the universe.
Jasper Grey is not his given name, but so little remains of those who manage to ‘See Beyond What Is And Into What May Be’ that they usually assume a new identity.
Science Officer Lorne Sully (NPC) is a scrawny young man with blonde hair and blue eyes with no real experience, but an abundance of zeal.
Dr Nero (NPC) is a brilliant medical doctor, chemist and geneticist. He considers himself to be the greatest example of his life’s work and has rendered himself into something truly transhuman. He stands at 10ft tall with blue black skin that feels cold and metallic to the touch, with four arms each bulging with muscle. His eyes shine golden both in the dark and the light. He has several small, grotesque homonculi of questionable intelligence which respond to unspoken commands as though physical extensions of his will.
Dr Nero G15 or ‘G’ (Player) is Nero's most successful attempt at cloning himself. He stands 6’8” and is roughly 400lbs of pure muscle with long blonde hair and yellow eyes that shine at night. He has Nero's memories pertinent to their profession (albeit roughly 20 years out of date) implanted and functions as Dr Nero's aide and protege. Once a week Nero Prime downloads the important memories of G15 to passively add to his own genius.
Perfect clones are unpopular among humanity because of the inability to actually transfer your consciousness into them, so G15 is intended as more of a vanity project to ensure Nero’s projects continue indefinitely than a true heir or attempt to extend himself. (Played by my 13 year old niece.)
Engineer Nora Bray (Player) is a 5ft bundle of overworked nerves and freckles. She has bright red hair, a gently glowing cybernetic eye and a single bulky mechanical arm filled with tools and gadgets. She has at her disposal an autonomous Dog class golem called Gremley that resembles a thick black skeleton that crawls awkwardly on all fours but can lumber about like a humanoid if need be and a large partially enclosed mech loader.
Nora is responsible for keeping the ship and everything on it in working order, as well as assembling and maintaining necessary structures and equipment and pretty much doing anything else the others don't want to do. (Played by my wife.)
Helmsman Marcus Aliato Nimbus XIV (Player) is a young man standing at 6’2” with dark hair and a lean build. He comes from a family of militant aristocrats who pride themselves on centuries of faultless service and glorious deeds.
Genecrafted in the womb to be the pinnacle of humanity and drilled in marksmanship, dueling and the operation of various vehicles since he was old enough to walk. He’s been sent out to the frontier to acquire some actual life skills (where failure doesn't count) before receiving his own command among the ever expanding human border.
Owns a personal shuttle with a sizable cargo bay, enough room for a Rambler class APC (which he also has aboard) and enough room to seat 20 passengers plus a weeks rations. Has a pair of dinner plate sized hover drones with state of the art weaponry and a visor that links directly with his nervous system which allows him to operate any owned piece of equipment from several miles away.) (Played by an old friend that played Roger McCrow in my old Mutants and Masterminds campaign, "Let's Get This Straight, You're The Sidekick!, back in the day.)
The crew has been together for only a few days when Science Officer Lorne Sully gathers them in the briefing room inform them that one of their many probes has relayed the coordinates of a large verdant planet orbiting a dying sun. They have no other leads, so Captain Deaumont's had them brought into range.
The Captain seems surprisingly disinterested and explains that Pathfinding is a competitive environment and other probes will be reporting in at any time, so unless there's something truly compelling on the planet below they have one week to tag anything worth exploiting and then it's time to turn the planet over to someone else and go.
The Captain orders Lorne to take samples of anything that seems promising on the planet below. Engineer Nora is expected to accompany him in order to carry and set up the necessary equipment and Helmsman Nimbus will of course provide transportation. To everyone's surprise Lord Prospector Edmund offers to lend his own expertise and so the Captain commands Dr Nero to accompany the team to ensure the Lord Prospector's safety. Dr Nero simply doesn't want to, so sends his junior clone, the Homunculus Nero G15, in his place.
The five crew members, along with Edmund's golden guardian golem; Nora's utility golem and Marcus's drones, load onto Marcus's shuttle and deploy to the planet below.
As they enter the atmosphere they take stock of their surroundings, noting the thick tree canopy that seems to cover the entire planet and the thick pollen clouds that immediately begin to cloud their sensors. Even though they took care to enter on the day side the faint red sun coupled with the oppressive pollen ensures that even at its brightest the world seems to be trapped in an eternal twilight.
“Looks like a lake in that depression in the hills.” Marcus says, adjusting course. “Probably our best hope at an LZ.”
Nora stares out the viewport in childlike wonder and excitedly points at the blooms of a massive flower that towers even above the tree line. “Look at that thing! Can we check that out?!”
G15's inhumanly sharp eyes notices a small depression among the trees, taking note of a flower lined hole leading into the earth itself. He stoically notes it as another potential point of interest.
Edmund simply relaxes in his seat passively while Lorne reads something off a tablet and confirms that the Lake should be their target.
Marcus brings the shuttle low and approaches the lake, noting the strange silver hue of the mirror like water. He chooses a flat spot roughly 100ft from the water and near the sharply angled stone face that surrounds the lake on all sides, stretching a couple hundred feet up and away.
After Marcus settles the shuttle in the team begins to disembark only to fall into complaining instantly. The atmosphere is oxygen rich and technically safe, but the thick haze of pollen threatens to choke them with each breath. The temperature and humidity are oppressive and the increased gravity makes every step a chore.
Only Nero G15 seems unimpressed.
Lorne immediately begins sweating through his armored uniform and panting as he directs Nora where to begin setting up camp and their equipment.
Edmund suggests that Marcus and G accompany him as he pokes around the surrounding jungle. He suggests they investigate the flower which Nora saw from the sky.
Marcus points out that the flower is a good 12 miles out and the foliage is far too dense for a vehicle to get through. Edmund simply claps him on the back and assures him it'll do them good to stretch their legs.
Nora asks if she can go too, but is reminded by a chiding chorus of her crew mates that she has work to do. Blushing while cursing under her breath as she continues unloading the ship.
The walk to the flower takes several hours and although it can be said that Marcus is the best humanity has to offer it's also worth noting that he seems to be the only one bothered by it. G15 is well beyond anything that can be considered pure human and Edmund seems to simply glide through the forest without actually touching the ground.
Marcus tries to take in the sights to push through his burning muscles. The strange black and red foliage beautiful in it's own right, but the sight of moving bushes resembling beasts, standing 6ft at the shoulder and resting on 3 sets of root like limbs was the highlight.
These massive creatures lumber slowly through the forest, seemingly looking for nutrient rich soil to plant themselves in for a time. They're dubbed Bush-Bison.
The beasts seemed uninterested in their party and none of them could see any profit in molesting the local wildlife at this time, so they each continued their separate ways.
They eventually reach the base of the flower, a thick rubbery stem wider than most houses that stretches up to be supported by the canopy above. A faint hum seems to fill the air nearby.
G15 comments on the thick vegetation despite the almost total darkness of the jungle floor and Edmund begins fiddling with local plant and soil samples, chuckling happily as he mentions that the soil microbes are far beyond most agricultural worlds.
G15 doesn't bother asking about it any further and Marcus is too busy catching his breath to concern himself with dirt quality. They both do notice however that the flower’s stem has small cracks all over its surface, out of which a shimmering golden sap oozes gently.
As G15 watches a squat creature that can best be described as a mix between an ape and a parrot scurries among the upper portion of the stem to jealously lap at the golden sap.
G points this out to Marcus, who flips through several of his visors vision modes to determine that there is a sizeable stockpile of this sap within the flower and suggests Edmund should take a sample back for Lorne to examine.
They wrap up and begin the long trek back.
Back at base camp Nora sets up Lorne's survey equipment and then orders Gremley to build camp. The strange golem runs part up the stone embankment and assumes a position in all fours, releasing a laser grid that ensures the surrounding area is level before opening the bay of its internal nano-hive and releasing a cloud of nanobots that make up just over half it's overall bodyweight.
Within moments the swarm has reshaped the very stone into 5 small cabins built directly into the hillside. As it crawls back into Gremley to recharge the golem returns to a bipedal state and rushes back to Nora's side like a loyal pet.
She sighs in boredom and begins surveying the lake itself. The water is deathly still and stinks horribly; the only apparent wildlife are toddler sized bipedal plants that appear from the foliage on the opposite side of the lake to rest what she takes to be their feet in the still water.
No matter how she or Lorne shouts or calls to them, they pay them no mind and frolick and relax beyond their reach until another group of their kind appears from the foliage and they swap out silently.
Nora explores the ridgeline near the camp and manages to discover a strange metallic plant growing in an otherwise bare patch. She asks Gremley to retrieve it for her and watches in horror as her robotic companion rips it from the ground, scattering delicate leaves everywhere.
She shows the remnants to Lorne and he suggests that it's an extreme hyperaccumulator and that it probably means there's a rich metal vein in the hills.
Nora sends Gremley to strip the hill until it's exposed and suggests that the plant could potentially be adapted to seed desolate worlds to easily find ore reserves.
By the time they're reunited it's long past dark.
Lorne has discovered that the Lake is rich in natural gasses and so they begin pumping the acidic water, intent on filling one of the shuttles three cargo tanks with a volatile mixture of gasses to be sorted later. They log the lake as a resource, even though it'll be tapped long before they leave, just in case there are others like it to be found; by registering the resource they'll be entitled to a finder's fee if any others are found.
Nora and Gremley exposed a sizable deposit of high quality iron that ended up extending well beyond their ability to harvest with the shuttle.
On the way back Marcus had tripped over a thick vine with envenomed thorns that seemed to react to his presence like a viper, striking at his heat signature with blinding speed. Luckily for him, his reflexes remain as sharp as ever and in a single fluid motion he managed to side step the attack, draw his bulky Magpulse Elite (a handheld gauss weapon) and fire a deafening burst into the trees above, bringing down several limbs thicker than a man along with the base of the strange vine which writhe until G15 steps on its ‘head’ and rips the horned portion off.
Once analyzed the vine was found to harbor a potent paralytic.
Back at camp they fill each other in on the day's activities while warming up travel rations.
Lorne analyzes the sap and discovers it to be a potent and naturally occurring nootropic, capable of increasing mental processes to an absurd degree. Nora suggests they should try it, but nobody wants to be the guinea pig…
They still decide they should head out in the morning and drain the flower of all it has.
First thing in the morning Marcus unloads the Rambler APC from the shuttle and preps it for the long drive. Lord Prospector Edmund and his golden guardian seat themselves in the vehicle and Nero G15 takes a seat on top of the vehicle.
Nora mounts her mech loader and Gremley contorts awkwardly to bring its heavy mining laser to bear. Taking a moment to power up,, Gremley blasts the base of a tree and Nora follows up by knocking it over.
Using Marcus's drones they map a path of least resistance and slowly advance towards the giant flower once more.
Lorne remains in camp to continue monitoring things.
A little more than halfway to the flower there's a horrible racket in the trees tops and roughly a dozen of the strange parrot-apes gather among the branches to shriek and throw debris down at our brave explorers.
“Yeah? **** you too!” Marcus shouts back, angling the Rambler's short cannon towards the trees and unleashing an explosive burst that turns four of the shrieking creatures into a bloody mist that rains down on those unfortunate enough to not be inside the APC.
The remaining beasts leap from their perches in a rage, some scrambling out of the cannon's path and others lunging for the gun itself.
Nora draws a cheap, battered, unbranded laser pistol from a shoulder holster and fires the flickering blue beam from the cockpit of her mech, managing to punch a hole in one critter and singing another's feathers.
Three land on the Rambler, only for G15 to stomp one into a bloody mess and slam another's head into the armored vehicle hard enough to burst it's skull.
Marcus shouts for G to ‘catch one!’ and the homunculus snatches the last by the throat and holds it awkwardly at arm's length as it shrieks in rage, struggling to bite or claw him.
The remaining beasts flee in terror and G leaps off the Rambler as Nora approaches and the cargo door opens to allow Edmund and Marcus to disembark to stare at the panicking creature as it flails uselessly.
“Why did you want this?” G15 asks in confusion.
Marcus shrugs. “I don't know…maybe a pet? Source of protein? I just thought we should keep one alive.”
“Do something with it then.” G15 demands, offering the creature to Marcus who shrinks back.
“We need something to transport it in!” The pilot barks at Nora, who apologetically scrambles to have Gremley assemble a large, heavy wooden cage out of the local wood.
It takes her a moment to remove several unneeded seats and install the cage in their place.
As they go to force the beast inside Edmund holds up a gilded hand and commands “I have no desire to listen to that creature for the rest of the trip; make it be silent.”
The three look at each other and G15 says “Of course Lord Prospector, I will administer a sedative.”
The homunculus subtly blushes as he realizes he has none of the Endless Harvest's stockpile with him…however rather than say anything he simply transitions the creature into a choke hold to render it unconscious.
The creature doesn't like this and before he can get an arm around it's throat it closes it's thick beak on his forearm, causing the normally stoic doctor to bowl in pain and shock.
Nora leaps from her mecy and grabs a stick from the ground swinging it at the creature, striking G15 instead who curses at her. The creature hisses loudly and Marcus dramatically punches it in the head, bringing his wrist and feeling as though he just punched stone.
G manages to get an arm around the creature's throat and more or less lock in, but it's all he can do to hold it still while Marcus and Nora awkwardly beat it until it shuts up.
By the time they finally dump it into the cage they're all bruised, bleeding and exhausted, the now ‘sedated’ parrot-ape most of all.
G15 irritably drains his handheld Medical Reconstructor replacing a couple of his own lost fingers and ensuring the beast doesn't die from its injuries.
Edmund sighs, declaring it “Good enough.” and they continue along.
Finally they arrive at the base of the flower and Nora takes a good long moment to gawk up at it appreciatively before everyone begins yelling at her to tap the damned flower already.
Grumbling under her breath, Nora has Gremley cut a hole in the base of the flower and hold a hose inside while she activates the pump which begins draining the golden sap directly into the Rambler's cargo tank.
The vague humming sound increases in intensity during all of this until it becomes an almost physical pressure bearing down on them.
“Should I stop?” Nora shouts over the noise.
“Not until it's dry!” Marcus barks in response, casting a glance at the Rambler in case the Lord Prospector resting inside disagrees.
The hum continues increasing in pitch until it becomes something painful. The forest begins to fill with sound.
A crashing sound preludes the arrival of four of the massive bush-bison and the tree tops erupt as a swarm of the parrot-apes begin circling them from above. A pair of the strange viper like vines drop from above and a group of 8 of the childlike plant creatures waddle from the brush to see what's going on.
Nora leaps into her mech loader and Marcus dives back into the Rambler as the bush-bison make contact. Nora grabs a beast by its amorphous head with the mech and is driven back several yards easily, she manages to fire her laser pistol from the cockpit but only singes the great beast trying to maul her.
Two of the bison slam into the Rambler far faster than it seems they should be able to move; their bulk nearly tips the thing over and the impact causes something to begin smoking inside. Marcus wheels the Cannon around to fire point blank at his attackers and the explosion shreds both, scorching the Rambler in the process.
G15 roars defiantly at the heavens and leaps into the air to meet their foes. He lands directly on one of the plant people, bursting it like an overcooked sausage. The others hold their hands before themselves pitifully, emitting faint hums of their own.
G15 responds to this act of blatant aggression by soccer kicking the closest one into a tree several yards away, grabbing a second by the ankle and wielding it like a club to batter its fellows into paste as they feebly drum against his shins.
The parrot-apes begin descending from above until Marcus swings the cannon up to blow a burning hole through half a dozen of them and the canopy itself.
The parrot-apes flee screeching.
Nora brings the arms of mech together against the sides of the bison's head and jerks to break the neck. She fires into the face of the last one as it charges her and winces as her weapon sets the creature on fire.
It thrashes and flails, forgetting Nora entirely in its distress. She walks past it to step on one of the viper vines while it blindly tries to attack the overheated Rambler.
G15, covered in gore from his rampage, grabs the remaining vine as it lunges for him and, with a grunt of effort, rips it out of the tree as the burning bison finally collapses silently.
Nora wipes the sweat from her brow. “I guess they bit off more than they could ch-”
“The tank's overflowing Nora!” Marcus shouts, pointing at the golden sap dribbling gently out of the tank intake valve.
“Swap the tank Nora!” G15 shouts.
“What are you doing?! Swap the tank!” Marcus agrees.
“Pay attention to your job woman!” Edmund barks as he and his golden guardian disembark.
“Why do you think we're out here?!”
Nora scowls and grabs the hose.
Marcus hiked back far enough to remotely access and fly the shuttle on order to bring it on to recover the Rambler. By the time it arrives the flower is dead and silent, and the forest surrounding it has been cleared to allow easy access.
They load it up and return to camp to rest and repair. It takes two days to fix the Rambler and they accomplish very little else in that time.
With the clock ticking they decide to at least investigate the hole in the ground that G15 noticed on the way in.
They load up the shuttle with everyone but Lorne and leave the Rambler behind so that he can continue to load its tanks with the lake's gas mixture.
The trip takes almost no time in the shuttle and Marcus hovers over the mouth of the immense flower filled hole; he lowers a rappelling line and tells everyone that he's going to stay with the ship and monitor things remotely.
A pair of dinner plate sized, armored drones drift down to observe the hole and G15 effortlessly slides down behind them. Nora has slightly more trouble, struggling to wiggle down the line and relying almost exclusively on the strength of her false arm to keep her in check.
Once Nora's on the ground she calls for Gremley, who clumsily reaches for the line and falls out of the shuttle. The golem slams into the brach of a tree, bounces off and lands with a thump among the flowers and weeds. It twists itself into a quadrapedal sitting position and looks up at her as a second thud signals the arrival of Edmund's golden guardian, which simply leapt down to meet them.
“Have fun!” Edmund calls from above.
Slowly the crew pick their way down into the soil until G15 holds up a hand. He reaches above their heads and grabs hold of a piece of wood, which comes loose as he pulls to reveal a lattice of sharpened stakes which fall heavily to the ground, embedding itself into the soil.
“A trap!” Nora gasps.
“First sign of intelligence on this rock…” Marcus muses, sipping at a drink back at the ship.
“Primitive.”” G15 says with a shrug. “Not worth noting.”
“We'll see…” Nora mutters, drawing her cheap laser pistol nervously.
They continue into the dark tunnels below, finding a world of mighty roots shaped into countless twisting passageways. They immediately begin noticing fleeting shapes darting among the passages around them, but try to avoid letting them know they've been seen.
After an hour or so of traversing the tunnels they find themselves in a large chamber and realize the creatures are beginning to gather.
Several dozen lanky humanoids with too many joints and not enough fingers spread out across the chamber quietly in an attempt to surround them, most are unarmed but many wield jagged spears and hatchets.
“Do…they think they're hidden?” Nora asks. Although they carry no light they're far from blind. Nora and the automata have an array of cybernetic enhancements that allow them to see in complete darkness and G15's exhaustive genetic tinkering has made his own enhanced vision pitifully redundant.
“Probably…” Marcus says with a chuckle before one of his drones shines a painfully bright spotlight into the chamber causing the moist, grey skinned creatures to recoil in horror.
The aliens have no eyes but a mouth that takes up the majority of their head. Their skin quivers in the light and they seem to recoil at the sensation.
One of the aliens stands up to a height similar to G15 and shakes a spear above its head with a defiant, guttural roar.
Marcus's second drone fires its internal gauss cannon and the creature disappears into a sticky mist.
The others screech in response and Nora fires a burst from her laser pistol, catching several of the savages in the opening volley.
The remaining aliens decide to rush them and the golden guardian extends its halberd in a group's direction. There is no sound, no flash of light or indication that the weapon has done anything save the fact that half a dozen of the creatures in its path blacken, shrivel and burst.
The aliens call out in alarm and G15 boots forward, grabbing one by its spindly shoulder blades and tearing it apart like he was tearing a phone book.
This breaks the survivors, which scatter in every direction.
Nora tries to catch her breath as Marcus's drones split up to follow the two largest groups. G15 bolts after the larger group and Nora runs after him to avoid being left alone.
G15 discovers several more crude traps along the way, but they're no real threat.
Eventually the passageway leads into another large chamber, this one roughly hewn from stone and decorated by what seem to be primitive attempts at art, mud and clay fashioned into the shapes of the aliens and other creatures.
The crew can't help but smirk as they push on.
Further into the stone chamber they begin encountering more of the aliens. Some young or decorated with flower chains. These flee as larger specimens rush in to defend the place.
This doesn't go well for any of them
“Seems like a temple…” Nora muses.
“Temples are supposed to have valuables. This is just a hole in the ground.” Marcus replies through a drone.
The aliens flee before them as they ransack the place for anything to make this excursion worthwhile. It seems pointless until they find a chamber of polished stone at the center of which sits an alien spaceship.
It's rusted and ruined beyond salvage, no real way to study its technology or even find out where it's from…but it's still an alien ship.
And it's old…
Back within the border this could be a collector's item!
Deciding to call the expedition here Nora has Gremley begin the excavation process. Within ten hours the chamber, the temple, a good portion of the root tunnels and the surrounding forest have been replaced by a gaping wound in the jungle floor large enough to bring the shuttle in to grab the ship.
When they leave, they can still hear the aliens wailing.
They return to base for only a moment to find that Lorne had finally managed to make contact with the plant people. The science officer approaches the shuttle as it lands, his body twisted and movements jerky as though being puppeted by the creature now blooming out the side of his neck, apparently now attached to his nervous system.
Marcus sighs as Lorne stumbles towards them groaning, the pilot whips his pistol out and fires a burst at his former colleague. Lorne pops as the supercharged rounds makes contact, surreptitiously leaving behind little more than his head sporting a horrified grimace.
“Will somebody grab that idiot's head in case the Captain wants it?” Marcus shouts as he walks towards the Rambler.
Captain Deaumont was pleased with the discoveries made on the planet, if not exactly impressed. When they present Lorne's severed head however, his mood immediately sours and he chews them out extensively for allowing such a thing to happen.
“What if it was someone important?!” Deaumont reminds them. “I send you to escort someone, you ****ing escort them!”
Eventually he calms down.
“Well we just left an Ark…we aren't going back. You! You're the new science guy!” Deaumont shouts, pointing at Nora.
“I…really?” She stammers and then salutes smartly. “Thank you sir!”
Deaumont looks at her like she's crazy.
Nora slowly lowers the salute. “I….umm….assume I've been promoted to reflect my new responsibilities….?”
Deaumont shakew his head slowly. “No….”
She frowns and her shoulders slump a little.
“Oh…but there's a pay bump at least?” She asks sullenly.
Deaumont glares at her. “No.”
Nora's jaw goes slack and she fights the urge to complain. “Well….can I at least have Lorne's old room? Mine is right over the engine and the noise keeps me up all night and I always wake up with my teeth tingling!”
Deaumont inclines his head and strokes his chin contemplatively.
“No.” he replies softly, smiling and walking past her, obviously thinking of something else now.
“Oh well it's still a great honor sir!” She calls after him weakly as the rest of the crew head to the mess hal to celebratel.
She starts to join them when G15 shouts “Aren't you supposed to be unloading the tanks?”
Marcus follows up with “Stop goldbricking Bray! We need to be ready to go!”
Cursing under her breath she heads to the shuttle with Gremley in tow.
