Nothing Is Alive On Hive 5

EXPLORERS WANTED

The Hive V Observation Station seeks fearless explorers to investigate disturbances exterior to the station. Compensation in kind for assistance will be provided by the Zeitgeist Research Department.

- Short message broadcast across system

Hey - if you’re taking H5OS up on their job, you should know a whooooole bunch of Vyixians on the station have been reporting STRANGE THINGS going on - supernatural stuff, not normal Startouched stuff. Check your fates before you arrive. Just in case.

- Related message passed around channels frequented by Vyixians

• Stellar Glory - Tamsin
• Delicate Harmony - Mike

• - The party arrives at Hive 5 Observation Station (henceforth H5OS because it’s much easier to say) and meet with Neatly Birch. They are briefed on what has been happening - damage to the external cameras and systems, loud knocks on the airlock doors without any apparent cause, etc.
• - They are introduced to Ninth Satellite, who confirms these stories and introduces their conviction that they are being haunted by Vyixian Impressions - something like ghosts - and believes they have been hearing voices around the base.
• - Satellite has been trying to reassure the impressions that they can pass on and please leave them alone, please.
• - In the background, many ships are disturbing the thin atmosphere and thick surface dust, as supplies are being delivered to H5OS , thanks to it ramping up to a fully operational base from a fairly empty observation station of an unchanging planet, since the discovery of the pentapod civilisation gates on Kylal leading to Hive 4.
• - The discussion is interrupted by an alarm, and some knocking on the airlock. The party heads out to check out the situation, and discovers no evidence of anything currently present, but the life support systems seem to have been clawed up, and the breakers have flipped as a result. Delicate Harmony attempts to re-set the breakers, but is given a mighty shock in the process. When brought back around he instead decides that talking to the breakers might be more useful. The breakers helpfully confirm the order in which they should be flipped in order not to electrocute the flipper
• - The party notice a trail leading away from the station into the barren planet. Along the way they find some areas in which the dust is substantially deeper and with slow, careful probing using Harmony’s long staff, they are able to determine a route through without dropping into the thin, light dust to potentially problematic consequences. This would have been made easier if the shuttles hadn’t kept blowing the dust around.
• - They reach what seems to be a ruined settlement of some kind, perhaps recently exposed by the movement of the shuttles. Of course, being out of ship heart range, the settlement has decayed, as the weird ball Glory recently found demonstrates by attempting to claw up her leg. Beating back the attacking Decayed creatures, Harmony and Glory are able to search the settlement, finding several pieces of evidence that suggest it was set up as a rival to Ace’s World, possibly by disgruntled former Ace residents.
• - As the decayed creatures continue to threaten, the party is beckoned further into the settlement by someone whose face they recognise from a photo they discovered during their search of the settlement - Obscure Plan. Plan leads them into range of a new ship heart, and to a bunker-like entrance leading down to an underground settlement. Harmony and Glory are both able to meld with their environments, preventing them from being unduly inconvenienced by assorted collapsing walls, missing steps, and tight passages.
• - The party meet a number of other members of the community whose photo - very old - they found on the surface, and talk to them about who they are. Subtle Splatterbeast is the chef, Genetic Lifeform the leader, Obscure Plan the security chief, and All-Trades Jack, another member of the community.
• - They discover that this was (the inhabitant insist, is) a tourist resort to rival Ace’s World, relying on state of the art holotech to deliver immersive experiences of sights both from around Keter and around the wider co-operation.
• - The inhabitants have no idea what could be attacking the station - they didn’t even know there was a station - and are generally difficult to convince that they are anything other than the inhabitants of a cool tourist resort.
• - It is at this point that Stellar Glory calls an Intervention to show things as they really are. The party is largely unaffected, but the inhabitants are confronted with irrefutable evidence that they are, in fact, small floating drones projecting hologram versions fo themselves. This triggers a cascading existential crisis which turns the drones violent, and they start disappearing from view and attacking the party.
• - Harmony and Glory are quick to put the robots down. Upon waking one up, they try to interrogate it, but receive only angry error messages, so they quickly knock it out again. Harmony communes with the robot and receives similar error messages, but is able to confirm that the robots are independent single entities, believed themselves to be people, and believe that people at the station, in particular Ninth Satellite, can help them leave the simulation.
• - Harmony attempts to tinker with one of the drones to use it for his own drone, but fails, and is left with a lingering impression that he isn’t entirely real either.
• - They explore the area but are unable to find an easy route deeper into the planet to find the new ship heart, so they resolve to return to base, report on what they found, and return to find the heart with a more suitable expedition.
• - On the trip back a helpful explorer, Versatile Ascent, shows up to give them a hand and a lift. Ascent is very enthusiastic but clearly hasn’t thought this through and their ship decays. FIghting THAT off, the party return to the station.
• - They find Ninth Satellite outside, working to repair the damaged life support systems, but being harried by invisible robots who are trying to get Satellite’s help with their existential crisis.
• - Harmony triggers a MASS BURN by mis-firing his flamethrower which reveals the robots, and whilst holding off several waves of them, Glory knocks on the airlock - and there actually being someone there when it opens, Glory is able to persuade the H5OS staff that there are invisible robots, and they sally forth together to beat back the last waves.
• - Closing the airlock behind them, Harmony and Glory go to report, but there are three knocks on the door. They open it, but nothing is there…

• Glory allows Harmony to investigate the orb which was discovered on Hive 4 recently. He discovers [TBC in person next time Mike can discuss with GMs]
• Glory visits the Sects of the Divine and discusses the ship heart they discovered, and the ship heart Glory is looking for. She makes some progress through the assorted clergy in the system, but isn’t able to discover anything concrete (GMs to confirm please?)
• Harmony sells the maps he made to the highest bidder, and the maps of the settlement to Ace’s World. Ace provides Harmony some chips but is not really interested until discussion reveals the presence of invisible drones, at which point she perks up and offers the balance of chips to reach the noted reward.
• Harmony visits the Gate organisation and suggests that they should probably be helping out their support station with their issues - they are generally in agreement, and given that Harmony is also aware that the robots can be made visible with area effects, conspire to rig up some temporary flame projectors on the outside of the station which will render and robots attempting to get in, visible, so that the security teams can deal with them.

• The system at large is aware, thanks to Harmony taking bids about it, of the presence of a previously-unknown ship heart on Hive 5, though only the winning faction, Harmony, and Glory know the location of the settlement. Though, it probably wouldn't be TOO hard to find.
• Aces High is aware of both the settlement, and the invisible murder bots.
• H5OS goes back to a relatively undisturbed existence for now.

• All characters - +3 Clout with Zeitgeist, or +1 Clout with any other faction

• +1 Clout with Ace's Organisation for selling them information about the settlement
• +1 Clout with a faction of Mike's choice representing the sale of the map to whomever bid highest for it.
• Information TBC in person regarding the nature of the Hive 4 Orb.

• +1 Clout with the Sects of the Divine in system as you move towards findout out more about The Client (or more than that, if the GM team thinks it is reasonable and can explain more about where this quest might lead!)