Another Sun Rises - A Cypher*Space Campaign - Session 5

Past Session Logs

• Another Sun Rises: Design Notes
• Session 1:  Periapsis 
• Session 2:  Perturbations
• Session 3:  Apoapsis
• Session 4:  Occultation

Ontology

"All the elements in your body were forged many many millions of years ago in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died.  That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space.  After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets.  And on and on it went.  The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.  Until, eventually, they came together to make you.  You are unique in the universe."

- The Doctor, Rings of Akhaten, Doctor Who

*     *     *

Four years.

Having already spent a quarter-million years in a time-dilation augmented stasis, the new command crew of the Argos III figured that another four turns of their old sun was a drop in the bucket.  Reports from GAIA revealed that their starship’s five-hundred meter long engineering module was last seen in the vicinity of "Crimson a", nearest planet to the system’s cool red dwarf star, orbiting at one astronomical unit.  Crimson b, the Argos III’s current location, orbited at over sixteen astronomical units, and it would require a four year maneuver to reach Crimson a.  After waking a skeleton crew to perform the necessary repairs, without letting them know any key details of their predicament yet, the mission commander ordered his team to return to stasis.  The new mission of this command crew was simple: leave the Crimson system as fast as possible.

When the command crew of the Argos III awoke, they had a lot of information to process.  GAIA had the team of four decanted when they were about a month out from Crimson a.

• Dr. Bruce Exeter, Hard-Boiled* Savant who Works Medical Miracles, played by Andy

• Dr. Game Dijkstra, Learned Savant who Talks to Machines, played by Matt

• Karl Travers, Graceful Trooper who Operates Undercover played by Marc

• Evart Crymouth, Stealthy Operative who Adapts to Any Environment played by Jeremy

*Hard-Boiled is out of Wits Alone, by Ryan Chaddock Games

Crimson a, a planet with a mass equivalent to fourteen earths, was orbited by two objects: Crimson a1 and Object X:

• Crimson a1: a rocky moon made of iron and nickel, similar in size and composition to Mercury.
• Object X: a 25 meter wide anomaly with a highly elliptical orbit, with a mass of 80 million kilograms (thus unusually massive).

The Argos III had other craft aboard, besides the Remora, that could be used as reconnaissance drones, including seventy-two Sparrowhawk scouts and eighteen Morgan XL shuttles.  Commander Crymouth had GAIA send all of the Sparrowhawks ahead, so that they would encounter Crimson a and Crimson a1 and hopefully send back information about the missing engineering module.  Cautious of Object X’s peculiar composition and origin, the drones would leave the anomaly alone.

Doctor Exeter and Commander Crymouth arranged a plan to wake the remaining crew of one-hundred and fifty five and give them the "bad news" about the Argos III’s location, and the proper date.  To help offset the crew’s discomfort at hearing the information, the commander ordered that only small groups attend the meetings, and then spend time with the ship’s psychiatrist and comfort dogs if need be.  Each Q&A session started the same, with Commander Crymouth carefully easing the crewmembers into reality:

"Here’s the deal: during the course of our initially planned stasis, our ship came across a singularity, which had the unfortunate effect of throwing us… off course.  So when you look out the window, you’ll have a view of the Milky Way Galaxy that no human has ever seen.  So… upside."

Initially there was a growing discontent between the colonial miners and the Terracorp employees, as well as the disgruntled IAAU staff, but Karl Travers was able to step in and control the roughnecks of the bunch.  For their plan to work, the entire crew needed to remain together.

As the Argos III began its encounter of Crimson a the command crew instructed GAIA to enter into a high orbit around Crimson a1.  This was fortunate for the crew of the Argos III, as the drones would discover the Engineering section in a tight orbit around the planet’s metallic moon.  But two choices lay before the team: bring the Argos III to the engineering section, or using a shuttle craft take a crew to engineering and use its thrusters to bring it back to the Argos III.  Commander Crymouth chose the second option, and picked his elite team (Dr. Exeter, Dr. Dijkstra, and Mr. Travers) to accompany him on this away mission.

When the crew arrived at the engineering section, they found it completely powered down.  After docking, Dr. Exeter did a scan of the craft with his medical gauntlet and found a mass of organic material, twenty by ten by twenty feet inside the engineering command compartment.  Although this gave the commander some pause, he still lit his flashlight an entered the chamber.  On the far side of the long, cylindrical command compartment was a massive stack of dead, frozen humans.  Dr. Dijkstra, Dr. Exeter, and Mr. Travers entered the chamber and started scouting about.  Dr. Dijkstra could get the engineering section of the ship operational in about ninety minutes, while Dr. Exeter could scan the bodies and find out what happened.  The medical doctor guessed (correctly upon examination) that this this the abducted crew of the Argos III, and that each one died of malnourishment before they were stacked and froze.

Karl Travers was just standing around minding his business like any good starship trooper would when he looked over at Dr. Exeter and Dr. Dijkstra.  Dr. Exeter was removing the tongue of one of the dead humans, while Dr. Dijkstra kept joking about "frozen dinners" when Mr. Travers lost it…

… and by "it" we are referring to coffee, orange juice, a single mini-bagel with apple butter, two scrambled eggs, three pieces of turkey-sausage, hashed brown potatoes, and extra ketchup.

Since Mr. Travers was wearing a full soft e-suit, the contents of his stomach filled his helmet, and the trooper had to return to the Morgan XL shuttle to get cleaned up.  It took a few minutes, and a few mints, to get himself back together, but when the trooper looked outside, his nausea faded away, and terror filled his mind.  Object X was now a bright, glowing star off in the distance.

Commander Crymouth, Dr. Exeter, and Dr. Dijkstra all returned to the shuttle and took a look at the display.  Object X left its orbit around Crimson a, and was bound for Crimson a1, steaming ahead at a fraction of the speed of light.  With only thirty minutes until Object X would encounter the engineering section, Commander Crymouth ordered his nearby Sparrowhawks to "intercept and harry" the anomaly, but not to discharge any weapons.

"I’m not interested in declaring a war on something that can ignite a sun."

When the Sparrowhawks did little to disturb the Object’s trajectory, the command crew started to brainstorm a way to communicate.  Radio signals had no effect, so the crew aimed flashes of light in the direction of Object X, in the sequence of prime numbers.  Initially this seemed to have no effect on the miniature star, and the team was about to try something else when Mr. Travers came up with the idea to have GAIA interpret the object’s own light emissions for incredibly small variances.

Brilliant!

The object was indeed returning the flashes, but in incredibly rapid pulses that could never be distinguished by the human eye.  When the object arrived, it shone brighter than the sun, and would’ve blinded the crew if not for the filters on the cockpit windows.  Mr. Travers had undocked from engineering, and now the shuttle was "face-to-face" with the anomaly, which was now mimicking all of the human vessel’s movements.  Dr. Dijkstra then instructed more and more advanced patterns to be "flashed" back to the anomaly, and a dialogue of mathematics began.

It was now clear that Object X was some kind of extra-terrestrial craft, but the "biology" of these "extra-terrestrial biological entities" (EBE’s) was an absolute mystery.  The creatures, and their vessels, were just energy, and as they moved, they burned their own "mass".  Using the patterns of light, Dr. Dijkstra was able to work out a "Rosetta Stone."  To determine distance, Dr. Dijkstra compared the Crimson star system’s stellar and planetary radii.  To determine objects, the EBE’s used the masses of the same, as well as those of the humans aboard the shuttle to denote members of the crew.  It seemed like the EBE’s believed all human crew to be returned, and considered the dead crew in the engineering section to "count."  There was no way for the command crew to explain life or death to these EBE’s, the concept was not only alien, but there was no way to discuss it by using just mass and distance.  The EBE's must have been curious about the new life forms they encountered, but their inability to communicate with the abductees caused the accidental deaths. 

It was like a child trying to care for his first ant-colony.  

The EBE's began giving instructions to the crew of the shuttle.  Coordinates were relayed for a high orbit around Crimson a, and given their near godlike power, Commander Crymouth made it so.  Taking the shuttle back to the Argos III, the commander had GAIA follow the EBE's direction.  The command crew noted that the EBE's "vessel" was towing the engineering section out towards the same position, so Commander Crymouth instructed his crew to perform docking maneuvers.  While the two parts of the ship connected, however, something incredibly luminous and brilliant appeared.  Crimson a1 "ignited", turning into a small, white star that lit up space around the large planet.  It was no moon at all, but instead an incredibly massive EBE command vessel.  

Communication continued, as it became more and more apparent that these incredibly advanced entities wanted to atone for what they had done.  

Hoping to somehow return to Earth, Dr. Dijkstra tried relaying his team's intent.  The projected location of Earth was transmitted back to the EBE’s, as well as measurements that showed a plotted trajectory.  The command crew was not entirely excited at the prospect of travelling nearly a quarter-million light years at a third the speed of light, since time dilation at .3c was a mere 6%, and their own stasis pods would probably not last that long.  Dr. Exeter thought up the idea of sharing the masses of elements that would make up organic materials, with the idea that maybe anther suitable world could be found.  The EBE’s shared locations in the Large Magellanic Cloud that could be a possible destination, as well as the necessary trajectory around Crimson for a gravity assist.

The EBE’s then made their own offer.  They began referring to the mass of the Shkadov thruster, and the trajectory to Earth.  For whatever reasons these entities could possess, they were willing to spend countless years in space moving the entire star system closer to Earth.  Commander Crymouth agreed to this plan, with his team’s consent, and began instructing the rest of the crew.

Using the amazing technologies of the EBE’s, Crimson b was relocated closer to Crimson, so that the heat from the star could warm the planet and create an environment more suitable for habitation.  Commander Crymouth gave everyone in the crew an option: use the Argos III and Crimson a as ark-ships while the vessels travelled across the stars for countless years, or enter the stasis pods, and hope that the EBE’s could sustain the hibernation for a long period of time.  Most of the crew chose the former, but for Commander Crymouth, Dr. Exeter, Dr. Dijkstra, and Mr. Travers, Earth was their hearts’ desire.  Closing their eyes, the four men went into a deep, deep sleep, as the Shkadov Thruster slowly propelled the Crimson star system across the void between the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way towards home.

*     *     *

Glyquorg was sitting alone on a hill near the great, multi-legged city of Nihliesh, at the very edge of civilization where the Steadfast met the Beyond.  The Exiled Jack had lost a dear, dear companion recently, and to put his mind at ease the now severely mutated man would walk out towards the snowy dunes and just look up into the sky.  Glyquorg was sure that each shining gem above his head told its own story, and this was a comfort.  No matter what would happen in his life, the universe would still move on, an ever changing constant.  Except for the planets that the Jack’s eyes could see, very little in the night sky would change night after night.  But on this particular night, there was… something… that seemed out of place.

In an old and familiar constellation, a new star now shined.  Although faint and barely visible to the unaided human eye, Glyquorg knew that this strange red jewel was not there on previous nights.  The Exiled Jack leaned back and sighed…

"I wonder what stories you have to share, little star."

Quotes

"So you're proposing that we invent the GAIA positioning system?" - Marc liked the Sparrowhawk Drone Relay idea.

Marc - "Don't you get nerd on me!" 
Matt - "That's Doctor Dijkstra's job!" 

"Because A1 is how orbits are done!" - Marc knows hid cosmos-diments.

Marc - "We need to warm up a fresh batch of redshirts first." 
Jim - "Break out the 'dies' focus." 

"Yeah… stasis pods have a lifespan of… forever." - Dr. Exeter had a lot of fake faith in technology.

"I'm glad we didn't heat this room up." - Matt referring to the giant block of frozen humans.  

"You guys, we don't have a food problem anymore." - Matt referring to the giant block of frozen humans.  

"So you're saying its 'Chinese'?  It's one big block of lo mein.  The most advanced lo mein ever created." - I don't remember when I said this last night… but I did.  I think I was referring to the "great-EBE"

Oh My Stars!

In addition to my usual "thank you's", I again want to thank my amazing cast of players for this game.  Marc, Matt, Andy, Jeremy, I'm so happy we were able to try doing this series of adventures.  Thanks for putting up with the twists, turns, and twisty-turns, as I spun a yarn that started out survival-horror, transitioned to sci-fi mystery, and ended with a plausible interaction with a hyper-advanced civilization!

*     *     *

The rules for Another Sun Rises are based on Monte Cook Games' Numenera and The Strange, incredible RPG's in their own right, both of which I am absolutely in love with. 

I will continue to share a link back to 0-hr art & technology.  Ryan Wolfe is a terrific artist, and I used his designs for the Remora, Argos III, and a few more.  All of his ships are available at DriveThruRPG, so I'd suggest you take a look if you are starting your own campaign in space!  

To build the Crimson star system, I used Universe Sandbox, a space simulator that allows you to create entire planetary systems and toy with everything from mass to orbital velocity.  You can pick up this amazing program on Steam, or check them out on their own website here.

Another Sun Rises - A Cypher*Space Campaign - Session 3

Crimson b, viewed from apoapsis.  Image created with Universe Sandbox

Past Session Logs

• Another Sun Rises: Design Notes
• Session 1:  Periapsis 
• Session 2:  Perturbations

Apoapsis

"She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me.  I ought never to have run away from her… I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems.  Flowers are so inconsistent!  But I was too young to know how to love her..."

- The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Given that the last few hours were beginning to look rather bleak, for the crew of the Argos III's last remaining Remora, the sight of a full cargo bay was quite welcome.  One-hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet deep, the forward cargo bay was stacked with boxes, crates, and usable goods that lifted the spirits.  Since this chamber was only designed to outfit the utility craft for repair and rescue runs, the crew found vast quantities of the gear already discovered on board their Remora.  Of course this included thousands upon thousands of sealed MRE's - meals ready-to-eat.  Taking a brief break to satisfy their agonizing hunger, the four crewmembers discussed their next course of action.

• Dr. Bruce Exeter, Hard-Boiled* Savant who Works Medical Miracles, played by Andy

• Dr. Game Dijkstra, Learned Savant who Talks to Machines, played by Matt

• Karl Travers, Graceful Trooper who Blanks** played by Marc***

• Evart Crymouth, Stealthy Operative who Adapts to Any Environment played by Jeremy

*Hard-Boiled is out of Wits Alone, by Ryan Chaddock Games

**The player has chosen not to share his Focus with the party at this time

*** Karl Travers was NPC'd for this session

While nibbling on frozen fruit pockets and semi-heated soy-gel, Dr. Dijkstra took a look at some of the more technical pieces of equipment salvaged from the forward hold.  One piece of equipment, a portable orbital uplink unit, could facilitate communication between planets in a system, but Dr. Dijkstra had another plan.  With just a few modifications it could be redesigned to remotely hack into other parts of the Argos III, potentially bypassing GAIA.  So far the General Artificial Intelligence Assistant had been quite a thorn in the crew's side, sending defense drones to intercept the Remora and manually depressurize the craft's compartments.  GAIA interpreted the Remora as an EBE, an "Extraterrestrial Biological Entity", and was handling the crew and their ship as if they were dangerous boarders.  Dr. Dijkstra was the first to formulate that there was possibly an EBE on board the Remora, and took a look at his crew members.  Could it be one of them? The savant pushed it from his mind… 

...for now.

From inside the cargo bay Evart could look out onto Crimson b itself, the tiny ice dwarf that the Argos III was orbiting.  The miniature world appeared to have a reddish glow, as the light from the dwarf star Crimson weakly bathed the orb.  The Argos III's forward docking bay initially held three Remora craft, and although there were several guesses as to what had happened to the other two vessels, Evart wanted to know for sure.  The operative examined the rest of the forward cargo bay and got a good look at the other two Remora docking stations.  One was completely vacant, although  a long broken tether could be traced from the port out into space.  The other had the broken remnants of Remora 2 (the party's vessel was Remora 3).  Given the status of the rest of the bay, and Evart's understanding of shipboard operations, it looked like someone, or something, opened the forward cargo bay door while it was still completely pressurized.  This forced everything in the cargo bay out into space at an explosive rate of velocity.  Luckily for this particular crew, their tether held, and the Remora craft simply dangled out and away from the Argos III.

But the question remained: how did they get on the Remora?

All four crew members remembered going into stasis nearly a quarter-millennia ago, but their pods were located in a cargo chamber in one of the rotating wheels of the Argos III.  To create gravity, the Argos III spun three individual wheels, a main cargo wheel, a habitation wheel, and a hanger wheel.  Actually all three sections of the craft seemed to have power and were currently active.  But someone would have had to take the stasis pods out of one of the three rotating wheels and brought them to the Remora.

Dr. Exeter had a hunch that the dead body the crew found floating in the Remora would yield a few clues.  Although he only had rudimentary medical equipment, the good doctor was a skilled surgeon and was able to determine the cause of death.  Upon noticing the last name imprinted on the crumpled remains of the man's jumpsuit, Dr. Exeter remembered that the gentleman's full name was Blake McGavin, a member of the medical team who was a nurse.  McGavin died due to improper orthotic connections, drowning when his stasis pod filled with Bio Ice since he was unable to swallow the tube that would go down into his throat.  It seems like McGavin was rushed when trying to connect the devices.  Dr. Exeter further deduced that McGavin did not enter the stasis pod until it was moved to the Remora, and that the nurse probably was responsible for getting the crew on board the craft.

With full stomachs, Evart, Dr. Dijkstra, and Dr. Exeter continued to investigate the Argos III's forward cargo bay.  At the center of the bay was a transit tube station, a trio of shafts that ran the entire length of the Argos III.  Earlier Dr. Dijkstra noticed that the tubes were sealed off, most likely by GAIA, but there were three access panels that could easily be opened with a crowbar.  The pods that traveled in the transit tubes used mag-lev rails to move about, and there was a man sized gap on either side of each rail that could be accessed for maintenance and repair.  The only downside was that the rails would cause havoc for anyone carrying metal equipment - or like Dr. Dijkstra possessing cybernetic implants - who entered the tube.  Dr. Dijkstra was fairly certain that he could interfere with GAIA's connection to the tubes long enough for another member of the crew to crawl to the next section of the craft, the Main Hanger compartments in the forward most wheel.

Image courtesy of 0-hr art & technology

The trip was only 250 feet, but it would be done in the dark in cold conditions.  Evart volunteered and decided to keep his soft e-suit on for the journey.  As the operative worked his way towards the hanger, at the halfway mark the adjacent rail started to hum with power.  Dr. Dijkstra noticed that GAIA was trying to access the rail and possibly reenergize it, but the savant was able to slow GAIA's process.  It seemed like the AI unit had a complete awareness of everything happening within the Argos III at all times!  Evart moved faster, knowing that time was short, and eventually kicked his way out of the tube when he made it to the Hanger section.  It was unsettling to feel gravity on his legs and body again, but Evart didn't have time to remain uneasy.  As soon as the operative engaged the transit tube so that his fellow crewmembers could join him, Evart heard a hissing.

Something was coming!

The room into which Evart entered was a dark transit tube lobby.  Despite the lack of light, Evart's wetware enabled eyes easily navigated the compartment, and the operative got his bearings. To his left were exercise rooms and an auditorium for service personnel.  To his right were crew compartments, mostly for colonials and repair technicians.  If he moved forward, counter-clockwise through the Hanger wheel he would get to the exploration craft... but that direction was now blocked.  The sound, and smell, of burning filled the chamber, as a large hulking metal machine cut a hole through the doorway ahead.  It was a TC Magmid Unit, a mining robot designed to cut long paths into asteroids, moons, and rocky planets.  Careful to keep out of sight, and having little faith that his lowly crowbar would be of any use against the Magmid, Evart ran to the left towards the auditorium and waited for backup.

Aware of their teammates challenge via comm watch, both Dr. Dijkstra and Dr. Exeter were traveling in the transit pod towards the section of the Hanger where Evart was being hunted.  Although both savants wanted to help, they weren’t sure what they could actually use against a dangerous tunneling robot... their weapons consisted of small tools and a cutting torch.  When they got off the elevator, Dr. Exeter immediately ducked down and circled the transit tube shaft to flank the massive robot.  Dr. Exeter appeared right behind the machine, grabbed the base of the unit's neck and cut a wire that would erase the Magmid's most recent data input (memories).  The magmid shut down for a few minutes while GAIA tried to reestablish the connection.  Dr. Dijkstra pulled out his own tools and started to work on the "head' of the magmid, pulling the cutting beam off and saving it for later.  Evart joined his fellow crewmembers with his trusty crowbar and bashed the servos in both legs so that they were not functional.  The magmid would only be able to crawl, but the claws were still dangerous.

A few blasts from Dr. Dijkstra's electromagnetic onslaught unit ended the Magmid's artificial career permanently.  But the party groaned when the machine tipped over.  It was registered as TC Magmid "7".  There were at least six more units, possibly more, on board and at GAIA's disposal.  Dr. Dijkstra realized that he needed to cut GAIA's access to the the subsector of the Hanger wheel so that the team could get at least a short break.  Moving to one of the control panels, the savant started to hack GAIA's connection.  

Success! 

All cameras and sensors connecting the Argos III GAIA unit to that particular subsector were cut off.  The team moved into a lounge, gathered some Twinkies out of a vending machine, filled some water bottles and took a much needed break.

But Dr. Exeter's eyes caught something strange outside.  The dull reddish sun at the center of the system, Crimson, was starting to fade out.  Even though Crimson b's moon facing the opposite side of the craft, something was eclipsing the star.

Something.

Quotes

Exeter:  "Does that mean our being sent out in space wasn't intentional?"
Evart:  "I think it was very intentional, just not intentional in favor of us…" 

"Considering she made our GAIA snarky, I'm not sure how she'd respond." - Matt didn't know if he could charm the Argos III's AI unit.

"If we can pull you faster than the thing that is trying to eat you on the other side, it'll all be alright!" - Andy has this whole sci-fi campaign thing mastered.

"I gotta say, those first couple weeks were the best campaign in a ten-foot cube that I ever had!" - Andy being snarky… maybe he caught it from GAIA?

Thanks 

The rules for Another Sun Rises are based on Monte Cook Games' Numenera and The Strange, incredible RPG's in their own right, both of which I am absolutely in love with.  The Magmid can be found in the Numenera Bestiary, available right here either in print or as a PDF!

I will continue to share a link back to 0-hr art & technology.  Ryan Wolfe is a terrific artist, and I used his designs for the Remora, Argos III, and a few more.  All of his ships are available at DriveThruRPG, so I'd suggest you take a look if you are starting your own campaign in space!  

To build the Crimson star system, I used Universe Sandbox, a space simulator that allows you to create entire planetary systems and toy with everything from mass to orbital velocity.  You can pick up this amazing program on Steam, or check them out on their own website here.

Another Sun Rises - A Cypher*Space Campaign - Session 2

Remora by Ryan Wolfe, 0-hr art & technology

Past Session Logs

• Another Sun Rises: Design Notes
• Session 1:  Periapsis 

Perturbations

"To course across more kindly waters now

my talent's little vessel lifts her sails,

leaving behind herself a sea so cruel;

and what I sing will be that second kingdom,

in which the human soul is cleansed of sin,

becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven."

- Canto I: Lines 1-6 of The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri.  English Translation by Allen Mandelbaum. 

The Remora was completely powered down and the crew did not fully understand why.  Four hours had passed since awakening in their stasis pods, half-drowned in Bio Ice and voraciously hungry.  Only moments before, the crew's security officer completed a docking maneuver, connecting the Remora craft with the Argos III.  But once the connection was made everything onboard the Remora shut down, from life support to GAIA (General Artificial Intelligence Assistant).  Amidst the stillness and isolation, the crew looked at each other and stoically started working the problem. 

• Dr. Bruce Exeter, Hard-Boiled* Savant who Works Medical Miracles, played by Andy

• Dr. Game Dijkstra, Learned Savant who Talks to Machines, played by Matt

• Karl Travers, Graceful Trooper who Blanks** played by Marc***

• Evart Crymouth, Stealthy Operative who Adapts to Any Environment played by Jeremy

*Hard-Boiled is out of Wits Alone, by Ryan Chaddock Games

**The player has chosen not to share his Focus with the party at this time

*** Karl Travers was NPC'd for this session

Engineer and tech-head Dr. Dijkstra floated back to the hatch connecting the cargo deck with the ship's power source - a single Micro-Fusion Drive.  Strangely enough, it appeared that the lights and power were still operational in engineering, but the hatch leading to to the drive was completely sealed.  Since the Micro-Fusion Drive was most definitely operational it means that someone... or something... was manually cutting off the Remora's shipboard operations.  Evart brought the team into a huddle and they started divvying up some of the gear.  Dr. Dijkstra took the tool kit to begin work on the docking mechanism, but refrained from donning the light e-suit that both Dr. Exeter and Evart zipped into.  Both Dr. Dijkstra and Evart took the only pair of comm watches, devices that were a combination micro-computer and stylish time piece.

Dr. Dijkstra secured himself next to the Remora's "boring lock".  This system could either be used as a traditional docking collar, or it could invasively tear into the side of a vessel to create a seal, much to the detriment of the other craft.  A quick scan revealed that the ship was connected to the Argos III via the boring lock, and that there was an active data stream entering the Remora.  Something on board the Argos III was now in command of the Remora.  Evart was trying to follow Dr. Dijkstra's work when he heard a strange sound of tapping in a compartment above.  Hovering to the command deck, Evart thought the sound had come from the cockpit.  But when the Operative took a look outside of the craft all he could see was the cold and dark hanger bay.  It was getting cold on board the Remora, perhaps it was the temperature dropping that was causing contractions within the vessel's interior structure. 

Perhaps.

Evart called down to Dr. Dijkstra to check on the progress of his diagnostics.  The boring lock had interior and exterior airlock doors; both were closed.  To open either, they would have to be manipulated manually, in sequence.  The crew continued to discuss the decision when Evart heard the tapping again. 

"Son of a whore," Evart exclaimed just as he was floating by Dr. Exeter.

Not hearing the tapping that his Operative crewmate heard, the good doctor believed that Evart, a company man with an assumed loyalty to Terracorp, had made the comment as a remark against Dr. Exeter's colonial mother.  There was already significant tension in the compartment, and this didn't help.  Neither took the incident any further, nor did they speak again for a significant period of time.  Evart affixed a flashlight to the front portal in the cockpit, so that anything moving by the craft could be spotted.  When the Operative left, Dr. Exeter took a look for himself, but all he could make out was a long, thin streak on the window where something sharp and possibly metallic may have scraped past. 

Just random debris, thought Dr. Exeter, hopefully. 

While the medical doctor was keeping an eye out for something at the front of the vessel, Dr. Dijkstra and Evart worked together to open the inner bore lock door manually.  Dr. Dijkstra moved into the compartment and took another reading with his tools and comm watch.  The Remora's GAIA was dormant, but the Argos III's GAIA system was fully operational, most likely with access to the crew's vessel.  Dr. Dijkstra hovered out of the airlock to ponder the situation when Evart heard the tapping again.  This time, however, it was more pronounced, and seemed to be coming from the boring lock.  Floating forward, Evart didn't even make it to the airlock before the Remora's remaining atmosphere started to vent.  Quickly Evart made it to the boring lock and took a look over the edge.  Below it appeared that the outer airlock door had been opened, and the boring screw was being retracted manually.  Small, metallic legs protruded through the gap, and Evart's time spent as a ship's custodian told him that these were defense drones. 

Pulling out an Attraction Cypher, Evart pointed it into the hatch and depressed the jury-rigged trigger.  One of the drones was pulled through the gap, it's crablike metallic carapace ripping away as the remains landed in Evart's arms.  The shell of the drone plugged some of the gap, and the loss of atmosphere was temporarily stiffled.  Evart then used a crowbar to hastily close the inner boring lock door. 

On the command deck Dr. Exeter was dealing with a minor medical emergency.  When Dr. Dijkstra put his vacuum mask on, he failed to notice that the expiration date for the Terracorp piece of equipment was 2014!  The engineer was breathing canned air from the classic days of Nicki Minaj!  But Dr. Exeter was ready for any kind of medical emergency, and he quickly made a few modifications to the mask to make the air more breathable.  Dr. Dijkstra saw that Evart was wasting no time preparing for an EVA, so he started donning his own soft e-suit.   

Evart passed through the command deck's airlock out into the expansive hanger.  There were only a few tools that would pass as suitable weapons against the defense drones, including some screwdrivers and spanners, a crowbar, and a lone cutting torch.  But the ship's Operative had another plan involving magnetic clamps.  The clamps could be connected to cords and tethers, or used on their own to neutralize magnetic robots possibly.  First, Evart stealthily crept to the Remora's belly and secured the craft to the hanger floor with some of the magnetic clamps.  This would keep the Remora from drifting out into space if the drones succeeded in completely removing the boring lock. 

Evart then floated to the area adjacent to the lock and found the manual control panel on the outside of the hanger.  The two remaining drones had made their way inside of the boring lock, but when Evart used the manual override to reverse the damage and reseal the collar, the two drones reappeared.  Evart was able to destroy the first drone when the docking screw re-engaged, but the second remained a significant threat as it tried to remove the Operative's e-suit helmet.  Using the magnetic clamp, Evart was able to grapple the remaining drone, and when Dr. Dijkstra appeared, it only took a couple blasts from his electromagnetic onslaught ability to shut the robot down.

With the docking collar connection restored, the two astronaut's reentered the Remora.  Dr. Dijkstra was eager to restore the Remora's shipboard systems, and attempted a second hack of the datastream.  This time the Learned Savant was successful!  The Argos III's GAIA was expelled from the Remora, and all systems came back online, including the precious life-support.  But communicating with the Remora's GAIA was strange and unusual, as it had become corrupted in some way.  Fortunately Dr. Dijkstra had a way with machine intelligence, and convinced the unit to let the party know about the Argos III's GAIA.  According to GAIAr3 (the Remora's GAIA system), the main GAIA unit on board the Argos III had been given a command by the captain to expel all EBE's:  Extraterrestrial Biological Entitites.  GAIA considered the crew of the Remora to be EBE's, and therefore tried to "space" them rather than allow them onto the craft.  The crew feared that their vessel was harboring some kind of disease or infection, and came up with the idea to create a bio scanner.  Using the data slate from one of the stasis pods, and a stasis pod fuel cell, Dr. Exeter connected the micro-organism scanner from the Waste Reclamation Unit to the jury-rigged ARTIFACT.  Despite being the engineer and tech-specialist, Dr. Dijkstra looked on in wonder as the ship's doctor constructed the device with almost surgical precision.  

Hoisting the new toy, Dr. Exeter scanned the Remora but saw nothing unusual.  The same went for anything on the opposite side of the airlock door.  It then dawned on the team - the scanner could only detect terrestrial biological components, not material from an extra- terrestrial origin.  Since mankind had still not made contact with any other life in the Solar System or neighboring star systems by this time, there was nothing else to work with.  The bio scanner could possibly be upgraded, but not with the limited materials on board the Remora.  So with a deep breath Dr. Dijkstra opened the outer airlock door, revealing the forward cargo bay of the Argos III.  

It was dark, chilly, and completely devoid of life. 

Quotes

"I think the proper quote is 'you're afraid you are going to die gasping…'" - Matt recites from the Firefly episode "Out of Gas."  

"I head back down to the second level, and explain what occurred to the doctor… and the doctor." - Jeremy got a kick out of there being two Docs on board. 

"It's like when you make a perception roll and the GM says 'you don't see anything'.  He doesn't say 'there's nothing there.'" - Jeremy was carefully listening to the GM's wording.  

Evart: "There's something outside the ship taunting me." 
Dr. Exeter:  "There's something inside the ship taunting me!" 

Jim:  "There are no seal issues on the other side, not even a gap." 
Matt:  "Good, I don't want to club a seal anyway."

"Deliiiicious." - Evart after drinking reclaimed water.

Thanks 

The rules for Another Sun Rises are based on Monte Cook Games' Numenera and The Strange, incredible RPG's in their own right, both of which I am absolutely in love with.  

I will continue to share a link back to 0-hr art & technology.  Ryan Wolfe is a terrific artist, and I used his designs for the Remora, Argos III, and a few more.  All of his ships are available at DriveThruRPG, so I'd suggest you take a look if you are starting your own campaign in space!  

To build the Crimson star system, I used Universe Sandbox, a space simulator that allows you to create entire planetary systems and toy with everything from mass to orbital velocity.  You can pick up this amazing program on Steam, or check them out on their own website here.

Another Sun Rises - A Cypher*Space Campaign - Session 1

Image generated with Universe Sandbox, http://universesandbox.com/

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony.

- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Periapsis

Upon regaining consciousness the four individuals felt as if they were drowning.  More than that, they had already drowned, and were coming to terms with this strange condition.  There was no light around them, and very little sensation against their skin, but as they reached out with their hands and feet they touched glass.  Not only had they drowned, but they were also entombed.  Some of the individuals began kicking at the glass, trying desperately to break free of the confines of this "coffin."  Another individual was able to use innate "evolutions", granted by his corporate scientists, to simply hold his breath and remain calm.  Yet another, a medical doctor, became aware of a control panel that he was able to manipulate to drain the capsule.

Memories began to trigger. 

They were not in coffins, or tombs, but rather stasis pods - devices designed to keep an individual in a perpetual state of slumber for years upon end.  A necessity for a long voyage that could take decades as travelers from Earth departed the Solar System.  But the pods' usefulness during long-term travel didn't negate the fact that the Bio-Ice, the strange viscous fluid contained within, was slowly killing these four souls.  For one poor individual, who's bloated carcass floated about in the chamber outside the stasis pods, it was already too late.

The medical doctor was able to drain his pod completely and escape.  Two more spacefarers exited their own tombs, one shattering the glass and the other kicking the base off of the pod.  A thumping from a fourth pod drew the attention of the doctor, who disengaged the evolved traveler.  One of the individuals, an engineer found a control panel and engaged the emergency lighting.

The four spacefarers looked at each other and began formal introductions.  Doctor Bruce Exeter, a pure-blooded human, was a medical doctor, who only gave the rest of the team the briefest of attention while he monitored a fifth pod that still contained a hibernating woman.  Doctor Game (pronounced "Gah-meh") Dijkstra, the cyborged engineer, was in charge of handling shipboard automation and troubleshooting. Karl Travers, of Martian descent, was part of Colonial Security and very protective of his own personal information.  Evart Crymouth, the evolved human, was a field researcher for Terracorp, the company overseeing the Argos III mission. 

• Dr. Bruce Exeter, Hard-Boiled* Savant who Works Medical Miracles, played by Andy
• Dr. Game Dijkstra, Learned Savant who Talks to Machines, played by Matt
• Karl Travers, Graceful Trooper who Blanks** played by Marc
• Evart Crymouth, Stealthy Operative who Adapts to Any Environment played by Jeremy

*Hard-Boiled is out of Wits Alone, by Ryan Chaddock Games
**The player has chosen not to share his Focus with the party at this time



The Argos III, image shared with permission of 0-hr art & technology
http://0-hr.com/

The Argos III - a kilometer and a half long vessel, departed Jupiter's orbit on August 17th, 2199.  The program was funded by the megacorporation Terracorp and the Indo-Anglo-American Union, with the assistance of the Confederated Colonies of Sol.  The goal was an interstellar mission to Tau Ceti, an orange main-sequence star 12 light years from Earth.  Tau Ceti was of great interest to mankind as two of its planets, Tau Ceti e and Tau Ceti f were both located within the star's habitable zone.  Six hundred scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff had been carried aboard the Argos III for what was expected to be a 37 year trip, one-way.  The Argos III was to be the team's home for their entire mission.  But as Dr. Dijkstra, Dr. Exeter, Karl, and Evart were slowly realizing, they were not aboard the Argos III.  They were aboard a Remora, a utility vessel carried aboard the Argos III, and the Remora appeared to be adrift in space. 



The Remora Craft exterior, image shared with permission of 0-hr art & technology
http://0-hr.com/

Dr. Exeter informed the rest of the team that the woman in the fifth stasis pod was still alive, however she had suffered complications due to the stasis and could not be roused without proper medical equipment.  Evart peered into the woman's pod and revealed that her name was Ella Finnigan, a Terracorp vice president, and the assigned first contact consular for the Argos III mission.  No one knew the identity of the sixth pod's victim, who had managed to escape only to die on the outside.  With emergency power barely trickling into the room, and the Bio-Ice in the atmosphere starting to interfere with breathing, the team started working on getting the craft functioning.



The Remora Craft interior, image shared with permission of 0-hr art & technology
http://0-hr.com/

Dr. Dijkstra immediately scanned and then entered the engineering compartment and ran through some simple diagnostics.  The Remora's Microfusion Drive was inoperative, and would require several hours to repair with the right tools.  Of the craft's two RTG's (Radioisotope Thermal Generators), only one was trickling power into the craft, and neither of the emergency solar panels were deployed.  Propulsion was also limited, as the Remora's two nuclear engines were inoperative, and the thrusters were out of the proper propellant.  At least the two Ion Drives were capable of standard operation, so long as the Microfusion Drive could be engaged.  While Dr. Dijkstra was in engineering, Evart and Karl were moving about the ship looking for gear.  Some of the tools found allowed the engineer to coax a bit more power from the ship's functional RTG, thus powering up the Remora's atmospheric processors, removing all traces of Bio-Ice from the air supply.

Evart and Karl continued to go through the craft's gear, slowly realizing that while the ship was full of tools and devices it was short on food and water.  Hunger and thirst were setting in fast, and Dr. Exeter warned the team that following a long term stasis the party would be incredibly hungry, to the point of being uncontrollably ravenous.  The Operative and Trooper were able to find 5 meals-ready-to-eat, and five thirst-quenching juice boxes.  A water reclamation unit aboard the craft was nonfunctional, and only contained 2 liters of contaminated water. 

Moving to the ship's cockpit, Evart and Karl peered out into the vastness of space.  The expected starfield was blocked by a massive black void in front of the craft.  Most likely a planetoid of some kind, this spherical body filled most of the window, but to the starboard Evart saw a long tether stretch out from the craft.  Not sure where this was attached, the two spacers donned the soft e-suits and headed out to investigate.  Latched on to the belly of the spacecraft was a six-inch wide tether that stretched out for kilometers beyond even the Operative's enhanced field of vision.  

Back on board, Evart and Karl found Dr. Dijkstra working on the Microfusion Drive, and despite an initial prognosis of 3-4 hours to repair, the Learned Savant was able to get the device up in running in far less time.  As the power-source spun up, the rest of the ship’s systems came online… including GAIA.  A General Artificial Intelligence Assistant was installed on every craft participating in the Argos III mission, and despite being a smaller vessel the Remora’s GAIA was still a high capable, and incredibly useful AI.  The party began to query GAIA as to the status of the mission, and as the artificial intelligence started to divulge information, an ominous sunrise appeared outside of the Remora’s cockpit window.
　
A very dull red sun crested the horizon of the unknown planetoid… not the orange main sequence star that the team expected.
　

Crimson Rises

Between the strange star and the mission log, the party was stunned.  The Remora craft was attached to a 47 kilometers long tether, with the Argos III on the other end.  The Remora and the Argos III were in a highly elliptical orbit around an icy dwarf planet designated "Crimson b", which in turn orbited a dull low-mass red dwarf star designated "Crimson" at a distance of 16 AU (astronomical units.)  GAIA informed the party that four years ago, on SMD 268.347 (subjective mission date, taking account of time dilation), the Remora was forcefully expelled from the bow hanger of the Argos III.  The shock was becoming too much to take: 238 subjective years had passed since the Argos III was supposed to reach Tau Ceti. 

GAIA also informed the team that the stasis pods had been reactivated by the Remora’s life-support system when onboard sensors detected orbital irregularities.  While the Remora and Argos III were connected by the 47 kilometer tether, the periapsis of the two crafts’ orbit was a mere 32 kilometers.  With an apoapsis of 18500 kilometers, between the interactions of the tethered craft and the gravity of a nearby moon (designated Crimson b1), there was a high likelihood of the orbit completely destabilizing.
　
Although food and water were still a significant priority, the team decided that returning to the Argos III was now a necessity.  With the Microfusion Drive operational, Karl regained his composure and sat down in the pilot’s seat.  Just a few moments earlier the Graceful Trooper was about to lose his MRE, but a quick syringe from Dr. Exeter’s kit kept Karl from wasting any of his stomach contents.  Karl asked the remaining three crewmembers to strap in while he engaged the Ion Drive for a full thrust…
　
… which, at 0.005 meters per second per second, is a bit of a let-down.

It would take a full ten minutes to reach a comfortable 3 meter per second relative to the Argos III, and then four and a half hours before rendezvous.  Without thruster propellant docking maneuvers would be next to impossible, however the team figured out that the Bio-Ice could be used as an inefficient monopropellant. During the trip to the Argos III Dr. Dijkstra transferred the Bio-Ice from two of the stasis pods to the thruster tanks.  Meanwhile, Dr. Exeter and Evart continued to raid the craft for useful items. Some of the used components of the ship, such as broken terminals, pieces of the stasis pods, and extra chemicals could still be salvaged and possibly re-imagined into other useful one-off devices.
　
As these jury-rigged resources were gathered, the party started referring to them as Cyphers.
　
After the leisurely cruise to the Argos III it was time to dock.  The interstellar craft appeared to be operational, with the habitation wheel spinning to provide gravity for anyone inside, and a few lights illuminating the ship’s exterior.  Missing from the Argos III, however, were the ship’s astrobrake (aerobrake/sub-light deflector shield) and primary engineering compartments.  All that remained was the "operations" portion of the craft, with no sign of the other two.  Karl carefully positioned the Remora towards the bow of the Argos III and the crew took a look at the interior of the hanger.  Of the three Remora docking points, it appeared that all three craft must have been jettisoned.  A broken tether was dangling out of the hanger near one docking point, and another docking point still had a piece of a Remora attached, which would’ve meant explosive decompression for anyone onboard the smaller ship.  Karl maneuvered the crew’s Remora towards the clear docking point and made contact.
　
Immediately the ship powered down, and GAIA’s guiding voice disappeared. Again, the crew was surrounded by darkness.

Quotes

"This is the Doctor… please if you are alive, respond!" - Dr. Exeter announces himself to the rest of the crew, in darkness.  

"I'm giving you each 1 XP to start, but it was dark in your pod and you couldn't see it!" - Jim (the GM) forgot to award the extra XP to every player at the start of the game.

"I'll go with you… if you're gonna start floating off into space, its better to have someone wave goodbye." - Jeremy to Marc before Evart and Karl went out for an EVA

Thanks

Last week I posted a short rant about my intentions for Another Sun Rises, specifically my take on plausible Science Fiction - specifically space travel.  Space is massive, majestic, and completely awe inspiring in its vast complexity, and yet most science fiction is nothing more than complete fantasy.  Starships in Star Wars, Star Trek, and most sci-fi operate as if Space is just a big, black ocean which is nowhere near reality.  I contest that using real orbital mechanics is far more interesting and exciting than any spacecraft in a movie that appears to be flying about as if in atmospheric flight.  

So my first thanks goes out to my players: Andy, Jeremy, Matt, and Marc.  Thanks for joining me on this little "trip", and I hope you have a great time!

The rules for Another Sun Rises are based on Monte Cook Games' Numenera and The Strange, incredible RPG's in their own right, both of which I am absolutely in love with.  

I wanted to share a link back to 0-hr art & technology.  Ryan Wolfe is a terrific artist, and I'll be using his designs for the Remora, Argos III, and a few more.  All of his ships are available at DriveThruRPG, so I'd suggest you take a look if you are starting your own campaign in space!  

I'll be doing a review of Ryan Chaddock Games' "Wits Alone" sourcebook for Numenera, but since Andy used "Hard Boiled" as a descriptor for this game, I wanted to give them a little shout out as well.  

To build the Crimson star system, I used Universe Sandbox, a space simulator that allows you to create entire planetary systems and toy with everything from mass to orbital velocity.  You can pick up this amazing program on Steam, or check them out on their own website here.

Finally, I have to share my love for Kerbal Space Program one more time.  This absolutely magnificent game by Squad, and available on Steam has completely taken over my every waking minute that isn't spent playing tabletop RPG's.  If you have any interest in experiencing a light version of realistic orbital mechanics and spaceflight, you owe it to yourself to download this game.  Even at full price, which I happily paid, it's worth every penny.  

Without this game reigniting my love or space exploration this past year, we'd never see a Crimson Sunrise.

Picture generated within Kerbal Space Program