Prologue: Secrets and Lies

[Trogdor]

OOC

My understanding is that we're a remote outpost on this world, but not the only people here by a long shot. There are others trying to either study the world or harvest its resources - just none near us.

Selena ushers the three survivors to the truck, and gathers what few personal belongings she can salvage. One thing about her long lifespan was that it had taught her not to obsess over material objects. Things would come and go. It was no use worrying too much over any one in particular.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she replies once the truck is fully loaded. We have all the food we could salvage. It should be more than enough for us to get to the spaceport now that we have a truck to drive."

[thehitcat]

Anar is not sorry to see the back of this place. He moves the batarian to the back as far away from the survivors as possible. "Bata'vek is right we need to take care of the boom trap. I might wait to send a message in case they take another pass in that bomber you keep referring to."

[Hayabusa]

"Well. Blow it up. That'll seal the place and if ExoGeni or the Systems Alliance wants to investigate then the place will be still secure because no damn scavenger can get in the place where they found the artifact," Kinney says calmly. Adding a duffel bag to the loaded gear in the transport. "The comm system. Do you want to fix it up and send a transmission before we head out? The turian might be jamming it but if we put a periodic signal out then it'll be sent sometime."

[Vardaen]

GM

If you didn't read this OOC thread before, you may want to now. It explains your place in the universe.

https://brennor.dyndns.org/rpg/Forums/v ... =6032.html

Or just this post if you don't have time. And the info on Aite right above it.

https://brennor.dyndns.org/rpg/Forums/v ... tml#208488

Base Camp Beta-36

Located several hundred kilometers from Aite's capital Adrasteia a small ExoGeni mining facility has been in operation for about ten years now. A rich vein of Palladium has provided a steady supply of wealth, and a small mining community of nearly a hundred people (all ExoGeni Employees) has sprung up around it. The colonists include the miners, support staff, security personnel, a science team, and several merchants.

The Ant Eater is loaded up, Kinney tosses a bag on the truck, amazingly most her personal items were still in tack -- soot covered and scorched, but not bad considering. The talk is about blowing the mine, and then heading to the comm tower to send out a distress call. Not a bad idea as the 100 mile drive to the nearest city Adrasteia is going to be hard going and long.

Just then you hear the sound of engines in the air and turn you head south over the mountains. You watch as a shuttle appears over the ridge and rockets skywards heading for a ship in orbit over the planet. There goes Saren and your Prothean Relic and all your answers.

[Hayabusa]

"Anyone else wishing we had a SAM right now?" Kinney says looking after the escaping turian and wonders if the Prothean artifact would be destroy by an explosion that ripped apart that shuttle. "The problem is that we cannot just drive up to the comm tower because the path is far too narrow for a vehilce. Otherwise that trip wouldn't have taken us so long." She thinks back about the time when Bata'Vek and she were heading up there, oblivious of what would happen afterwards. The idea that only a handful of the employees would be alive before the day was over certainly never crossed her mind back then. The human looks away from the sky, to Geno and the other ExoGeni employees and finally the quarian.

[Trogdor]

"Might as well wish for an armed assault shuttle," Selena muses. "But even so, I think we did well today, given what we started with. We've got six of us out alive, and we can bring word of what went on. That's a lot more than the mercs intended."

[ManWithDoor]

Bata'Vek nods, his eyes staying on the escaping shuttle. "Blowing tunnels is moot now. But I'd recommend waiting until that ship is far gone before sending out a distress signal. I don't want that bastard dropping something on us from orbit. He doesn't exactly have to be accurate." He waits at least a good half-hour before typing away on his omni-tool, disarming the explosives he set not long ago. At least someone will have to be purposefully stupid now to blow themselves up. "So, do we want to drive 100 miles, or call for a pickup? I like the idea of someone coming to get us, personally. I can send a message from here via the relay tower. I've got command of it now."

[Hayabusa]

"No it isn't. I just wanted to see the dead buried and not picked off by scavengers or gasbags," Kinney shrugs at the thought of the dead Petrosky and his mercenaries. "You have control now? I thought you had to wipe the system clean and we needed the backup from the base camp to get it up and running again. I don't like calling for help, at least not planetside. You never know what kind of idiot thinks we're an easy target and packs guns and friends to loot the place. Maybe we should keep silent about this until we know that ExoGeni can secure the place and recover the dead to send them to their families," the human says and involuntarily thinks of her own with a frown on her face.

OOC

I thought we needed the backups to get the relay running again?

[thehitcat]

"I'm assuming Exogeni has some corporate code we can use or channels just for them. We should broadcast the distress call

OOC

insert the words "here" or "at the tower"

to them and then hit the road. We can even tell them we'll meet the team at the spaceport...that said I'd like to meet this Volus and find out who he was dealing with other than Petrosky. Seems like this Saren character had to find out about what was happening through someone and the Volus seems a likely candidate."

[Vardaen]

GM

You have to go back to the Comm Tower to reload the software to reboot the tower. Haya is right, you had to come back to camp to get what you needed to do that. So assuming you want to hit the thing closer than the 100 mile away settlement....

The Ant Eater is loaded and the explosives are disarmed from afar leaving the place safe for when ExoGeni returns to claim it you head out. The rile to the come tower base isn't long, and the climb up the hill is only a few miles, and thankfully the Ant Eater can make the drive about half of the way. So the last mile you take on foot leaving the others behind the four of your approach with caution. Last time you visited there were Batarians here, and you don't want to run into more of them unprepared. The worry however is unnecessary as you arrive to find it like you left it, except that some local scavengers have taken to sniffing out the dead bodies.

The Comm Tower awaits.