Following CappenVarra's plan, we buy 3 Fiber for 1 Fuel on Cathedral.
Next, in order to give a unit of Fiber to our drone for it to buy 2 Culture on Medsun, we must waste an entire phase trading with the drone. Kinda clunky and inefficient, but hey, whatever works.
Meanwhile, let's explore around a bit. First stop: speaking with the Disciple who lives near the spaceport to learn more of the history of Cathedral.
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Josuel leads you to the Disciple's quarters in a repaired ruin on the fringes of the spaceport. The Disciple is seated in the sunlight in front of the structure, writing in a journal. He is dressed in the costume of a Disciple-Acolyte of the Final Church of Man. Surprised to meet a cleric of the Church outside the Boundary, you greet the Disciple and try to ask him questions. He does not respond. You try again, and finally he looks up and says: "I am here by the sanctified authority of the Church, performing a personal penance on the world where the truths of the Final Church of Man were brought to light. Your companion—" he nods to Josuel— "was born here, and remains here as a result of the sins of his ancestors, who chose to stay on this world when the Word of God decreed that men should return to their homeworlds. You, spacefarer, should not be here. The Church cannot stop you from traveling in space, but whatever you seek there you will find damnation instead. And you are not welcome on this holy world."
Josuel shrugs apologetically to you. Clearly the Disciple is not in the mood for conversation.
Welp. I assume this is Laran Darkwatch's questline rather than ours.
Meanwhile, the drone arrives to us from wherever he was and we load 1 Fiber onto it. Next turn we send it flying to Medsun Market while we head off to explore the mysterious spaceship ruins:
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Half a day's walk from the field where you landed is the ruin of another much larger spaceport. Its platforms were well constructed, but they are empty now except for a few ferns that have pushed up through cracks in the thermal plastic surface. In the center of the field is the skeleton of a spaceship of pre-Boundary design. Most of the steel plating has been stripped off, but the name Archangel still shows on her bows.
She was enormous, built in the proportions of the great space liners of her day. Those ships were slower than yours, by a factor of twenty. What they lacked in speed they made up for in size. Some were luxurious, carrying all the comforts and amenities that pre-Plague technology and art could create. Most were pure work horses, fitted out to carry hundreds or even thousands of colonists with their possessions and supplies to the expanding colony worlds. Few, in the days before the Boundary, carried weapons of any sort, and they traveled only established routes mapped out painstakingly by teams of explorers. In those days explorers were established and funded by the planetary governments and the liner companies. Even so, dozens of passenger ships were lost to pirates, hostile aliens, and the hazards of space. Most of their stories will never be told, lost in the upheavals that followed the Plague.
Exploring the ruin does not reveal much about the story or purpose of the Archangel. The great hulk has been stripped clean. A few control panels are intact, but there is no log or manifest—only empty circuit housings where they used to be. The Archangel was a very well-designed ship for the day. The lines of the hull are clean, functional, and, you realize after a bit of examination, designed to hold armaments. The weapons are no longer there. Not a single system is functional or even complete enough for repair. The drive engines are useless sculptures of alloy steel from which even the warp core and crystals have been taken.
You notice one odd thing about the drive housings: there seems to have been room in them for extra equipment. The standard Wamirian hyperdrive in use today is the two-axis drive, which suspends the warp core between two anentropic fields, one for each axis. Back in the flying days of the Archangel, the two-axis drive was only a theory, and all ships had but a single axis. This hull, though, seems to have been modified to mount a second and third anentropic field generator. Clearly there was more to the ship than the stories tell. She must have been modified while in space during the famous voyage, but you wonder why it was necessary.
Ah, the ship of the founding fathers. Intriguing.
The ruins come next.
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You spend several days on foot exploring the ruins of the original human colony cities on Cathedral. They are extensive, indicating that the population was once very high—possibly as many as twenty million, if the settlements were widespread. The largest structures date from about the time of the establishment of the Boundary, being about 300 years old. Much of the construction was light prefab, commonly used in the original colonization period, but obviously unsuitable for longevity here on Cathedral. You suspect that the fabric shelters the inhabitants now make, out of a fibrous material derived from native plants, are more durable.
Cathedral was once the preferred site for religious colonies of many different faiths, and this is evident in the ruins. Rather than one large city, the ruins comprise many smaller settlements in clusters, with a very wide variation in architectural style from cluster to cluster. Many buildings were designed as meeting places or places of worship; clearly they once had ornate windows and spires.
There is no evidence that mass destruction ever took place here. The deterioration has been caused by time and neglect. The ruins have been well scavenged; they are bare not only of small items like tools, utensils, and canned food but also of workable metal fixtures and window glass. One ruin that you explore seems to be a shanty-town built of parts "borrowed" from the other sites, but it too has long since been picked clean.
On the third day of exploration you realize that you are being stalked. Because there is no native animal life on Cathedral, you are not really alert to the possibility of meeting dangerous creatures, so whatever it is is quite close to you by the time you become aware of it. Noticing its movements in the brush nearby, you wonder at first whether it might be a human being. You try to avoid it but it comes closer, and you see that it is a very large and hungry-looking dog. This particular canine has long since forgotten whose best friend it is. Somehow it has survived, as did its ancestors, on this abandoned world with no native animal life. You don't know how, but you can bet it hasn't done it by being weak or afraid of humans.
Good doggy?
Bad doggy!
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You send the dog away yelping and licking its wounds. Only after its claws and fangs are far away from your throat do you begin to feel a bit of sympathy for the creature. You reject the idea of capturing it and trying to domesticate it; you'd do better with a pure-bred wolf from the preserves of Monument than with that wilderness-bred beast. You set some of your spare provisions on the ground for it to find later. At least, you figure, if it isn't hungry and desperate it's less likely to try to attack you again. Then, with a slightly more wary eye, you return to your explorations.
You find one other site of interest before returning to your ship. It was a settlement of an order of devotees who engraved accounts of important events on large steel plaques inside their temple. Most of the plaques have been removed, but the oldest and newest remain. The oldest tell of the founding of the colony eighty years before the establishment of the Boundary. The order was devoted to prayer and worship to find the spirit of God "on a new world, far from the sins of the old". The last plaque describes the mission of the starship Archangel seventy-five years later. Reverend Eric, the leader of their order, and dozens of other religious leaders from Earth, Leucothea, and Cathedral voyaged on the Archangel in search of incontrovertible answers to the mysteries of the nature of God.
The return of the Archangel was an event that is well-remembered on the Nine Worlds. The ship landed on Cathedral bearing the Holy Text Files written by its crew of clerics. The crew members never again spoke directly of what they had seen or experienced on their voyage, but their Holy Text Files became the basis of a new faith, the Final Church of Man. The Church taught that mankind was wrong to look for answers in the stars, and instead should return to the home worlds and seek a way to remove sin from the human soul. Only then would humans be able to seek their way in the stars. The last inscription describes the dismantling of the colony as the devotees prepared to return to the Nine Worlds, inside the soon-to-be-formed Boundary.
You know the rest of the story. Several years later the Plague decimated humanity. When the cause of the Plague was proven to be a unique disease organism originating in outer space, the new Church became the greatest religious power in history.
The occupants of the settlement seem to have had a penchant for writing on walls, for in addition to the plaques there is graffiti scrawled on almost every remaining wall. Most of it is indecipherable. As you leave the ruins, your last sight is a line of graffiti: "The Final Church of Man", in huge faded letters across the last standing wall of a decaying cathedral.
The drone trades whatever it has to trade on Medsun. We meanwhile go into the jungles where most of the people live and talk with them, hiring Josuel as interpreter.
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Reluctantly taking Josuel as your guide, you journey into the forests where most of the remaining human population live. The conditions there are a bit of a shock. You expected to see a low-technology society like that of the spaceport town. Instead you see utter squalor of a kind not seen inside the Boundary for centuries. The people are barely articulate and have no technology at all. They shrink in primitive fear from your clothing and Josuel's weapon. Josuel points out the elaborate cloth shelters in which they live, the few scraps of iron they use for cooking utensils, the open fires, the game pens filled with pigs.
"Boundary good them no, hay?" says Josuel. "Better is here than—" he gestures to the sky— "Cathedral, no one lives, but other worlds, no no one at all. Who knows?" It seems that Josuel has learned quite a bit from other spacefarers. He is saying that, if a world Cathedral's size could be reduced to this, how many smaller colonies have died completely? Yet Josuel speaks as if to recite simple fact, without bitterness or accusation.
There does not seem to be much to learn here for your purposes, however. You manage to communicate to Josuel that you wish to learn more about what happened on Cathedral at the time of the establishment of the Boundary. He leads you to the home of a woman known locally as the Prophet.
The Prophet is in fact a young woman who lives, not in isolation, but on the very edge of the populated region. You find her outside a small wooden hut which unlike the others has been painted white. You tell Josuel to greet her according to local custom, but before he can say a word the Prophet addresses you directly.
"Tell the story to all who will listen, is how it begins," she begins, staring upward and reciting from memory. "For the fathers of my mothers and the mothers of my fathers were there, they saw, and they wish it to be told, though their writings are destroyed and their lives hunted. There was a ship that sailed in search of God, a ship full of men who wanted to find God and bring God back home so that they could worship Him. It was from this cathedral the archangel ship went out, and promised to return. But it returned bearing lies and a ship full of liars, who said God is not there, look for Him elsewhere. For the fathers of my grandmothers were on the ship, and they met the Gods. The ship met the Gods on man's farthest outpost. God gave them the truth, which they hid in a place unknown, and returned with lies instead. There, where the archangel fell, the truth they hid. Their shame diminishes us all."
As the woman completes her recitation, you notice that a knot of locals has gathered in a circle around you. The woman retreats into her hut. You step forward to ask questions, but Josuel holds you back. "Her's not even know what are saying," he tells you. "Family hers tells the song parent to child, they remember and say." Josuel says a few words in Cathedral dialect, and the people part to let you by. They do not follow you as you return to the spaceport.
You ask Josuel, "Do all the groups live like that? In tents, with no power or running water?"
"Many better, some worse," he replies. "When astronauts come trade, it's better for all. When the stars are empty, it's hard. Some folks have pipes for water and wires for lights. These have piggies for meat, more useful."
Fascinating. Yet hardly useful to us.
As we fly to Crater, a random event pops up. ...Or does it?
In an alternate universe...
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"Boss," your computer calls to you, interrupting your reading.
"Yes, what is it?" you ask, looking up from your book.
"I have a ship on my screen coming toward us at a very dangerous velocity. I highly recommend that evasive action be taken immediately, if not sooner."
Your computer certainly has a way of getting your attention.
You leap up from your chair, barking orders and making ready for battle.
"Er, Boss?" the computer asks, interrupting a particularly long and efficient-sounding string of commands of which you were, quite frankly, rather proud.
"...load the cannons... What is it now?" you snap.
"The ship has come to a halt alongside us and the captain wants to speak with you."
"Oh, well go ahead, I guess."
Your communication screen comes to life, revealing an elegantly dressed human male with silver hair and a neatly trimmed goatee.
"Greetings. I am the Captain of the ship which is now alongside yours. My ship is, I fear, in urgent need of resupply."
"Resupply?"
"That's correct. Some of my cargo bays have fallen empty. I was hoping you could lend me some assistance."
"What sort of assistance did you have in mind?" you ask suspiciously. You are beginning to get a bad feeling about this...
"Oh, I think three units of whatever commodities you have handy. Your choice, of course."
"Look, I don't mind lending you a hand if you need help but I don't think there's anything else I can do for you."
"It is I who am sorry. I have not explained myself very well, I'm afraid. You see, either you voluntarily give me the cargo or I shall be forced to take it from you—which would be a most regrettable turn of events."
"But that's piracy!" you sputter indignantly.
"Tsk, tsk, such nasty language," the stranger chides. "And yet so true; allow me to introduce myself. I am called Silverbeard the Pirate."
He patiently waits for you to decide what you will do—fight or make a "donation".
Fight!!!
Uh-oh...
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Silverbeard must have already heard of attack sequence two, because he has no difficulty in evading your shots. He returns fire with a much better success rate and manages to cripple all of your outer weaponry.
"Har, har, har," he chortles evilly, as he grapples with you and boards your vessel. It's all over in a matter of minutes. He takes all your cargo as you stand helplessly by, watching your hard-earned commodities disappear while Silverbeard holds you at bay with an enormous blaster.
He bows graciously when he leaves, and his ship soon disappears from view.
"Boss," your computer begins, "I've been examining Silverbeard's ship readouts. I think we can defeat him when we have made some of our own ship improvements."
You ask what would be required, but all your computer can tell you is that you will need more speed and better armaments. There may be other improvements it is not presently aware of that would be helpful as well. That is something you plan to keep an eye out for while you are exploring the planets in the Fringe.
You ask for the bad news in regard to the ship's damages and find it will take four phases to put things in order. Sighing, you turn to the task at hand and begin repairs.
Oh my.
Luckily, all that didn't happen (because I backed up the game files). Fuck this shit.
Ahem, yeah. Here's the random event that actually happened:
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"Whee!"
You nearly jump out of your chair in surprise. "What in tarnation was that?" you demand to know.
"We seem to be picking up an alien transmission from somewhere, Boss. Would you like to me to locate and track the signal?"
"Sure, I'd like to know what that awful sound was. It sounded like someone was in agony." You wait nervously while the computer tries to reestablish contact.
"Got it, Boss. I'm opening channels now."
"Whee!" you hear again.
"Hello?" you ask tentatively. "Is there someone there? Do you need assistance?"
You wait in silence, biting your fingernails nervously.
"Whee. We cannot speak now. We are playing with our new toy. Get your own and have some fun. Go to Corbis and look for Super Slip. With this stuff, you can slide anywhere, no friction. Whee!"
"That's all, Boss. I've lost the transmission or they've stopped sending."
You thank your computer and think about what you have just learned.
Hmm, duly noted.
On Crater, we buy a Stunner and some Entanglement mines.
Stunner: A common hand weapon that delivers an electric shock when it touches your enemy. (Hand-to-Hand Attack Contact.)
Entanglement mines: Space buoys that, when triggered, project strong hypermagnetic forces, making it difficult for a spaceship to fly past. (Ship-to-Ship Attack Special.)
As we fly to Supa, yet another random event occurs.
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You are "resting" your eyes when you hear a strange but decidedly human-sounding voice call to you from your radio.
"Hello, is there anyone out there?" the voice wants to know.
You instruct the computer to open the transmitting channel and you reply, "Hello, I read you loud and clear."
For the next few minutes you find yourself exchanging pleasantries with an Ensign Grey from the Institute for Space Exploration. She is very friendly and is interested in trading information with you.
You decide that this is a reasonable offer and you accept.
For what little you feel free to tell her (you don't want to give everything away), you receive the following data:
On the planet Gnarsh you will be able to obtain Fluids should you so desire.
That's all you learn. It would seem that you aren't the only one who knows how to play it close to the vest.
Alright, it's only fair, I guess.
Finally, on Supa, we buy a Stealth System for our ship. Hell yeah. Off to O-283 we fly!
Along the way...
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You are feeling very restless, but are not sure why. You are holding your own out here beyond the Boundary, and have even gotten one of the three alien abilities you need to find before you can return to Harvard.
Maybe that is the problem. You only have one of the abilities so far. You need to start seriously thinking about getting the other two abilities, or you may lose the golden opportunity you have to do anything about the intolerable research conditions back on Harvard.
The game tries to scare us into hurrying up, but as far as I know there is no time limit on our mission.
Meanwhile, we arrive.
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You know there's a planet here somewhere.
Your map shows a dot in this sector, and a label—Jaquar. So why can't you find anything?
You check your position again, on the Deep-space Navigator, but you're still right where you thought you were, right where there's supposed to be a planet. But there's nothing in sight on your screen except a sun, a few orbiting comets, and an extensive asteroid belt. If there ever was a planet here it must have blown up, thereby creating all the asteroids. You don't know a whole lot about astrophysics (just enough to fly your ship), but even so, the idea seems a little farfetched. Frustrated, you do the only thing possible—take it out on your ship's computer.
"Do you see a planet anywhere around here?"
"Negative."
"Why not?" you demand hotly.
"Because there's no planet here to be seen."
"Then why's it labeled on the map, smarty?"
"The map shows important galactic features, inhabited planets, valuable sources of certain commodities, and the colonies of any spacefaring races. Jaquar must therefore be one of those things."
"So why haven't we found the planet?"
"We have."
"What? Where?"
"Somewhere in this asteroid belt is the logical assumption."
"Oh, I give up. Just let me know when you find something."
"Affirmative, Boss."
You keep yourself busy for the next few hours when you hear your computer say, "Jaquar, ahoy!"
"Where?" you ask, rushing toward the screen. "I don't see anything."
"The asteroids, Boss. Analysis of internal communications indicates a Darscian colony of advanced technical level is located throughout the belt. I've located what appears to be a major spaceport. Would you like me to begin a landing approach?"
Several hours later your ship is safely berthed in an artificial hold, cut into the interior of a small asteroid. The inhabitants appear to be members of an alien race known as Darscians and have the characteristic four arms, two legs, broad, flattened head, and golden fur of their people.
Since you do not yet speak High Darscian (the prevailing language here), your first action after landing is to look into ways to learn it. Only one clear choice presents itself:
- EOMFNI (14 phases, or 7 phases with Telepathy or a Universal Translator) Hire a local instructor and have him teach you High Darscian. This option will cost you one cargo unit of your choice.
Well, this could take a while. On the other hand, there is no time limit, and hey, maybe these aliens can teach us a new ability? So what do we do?
Do we
learn High Darscian, and if we do,
what commodity do we trade for it? (Current cargo: 1 Fiber, 1 Food, 1 Crystals, 1 Fuel, 1 Primordial Soup)