Week Six Plotting!

[powersthatbe]

This, dear Programs, is the week the junk data hits the oscillating cooling device.

The secret of the Viral Vectors is out. JORD1 will have announced that one of them attempted to assassinate him, succeeding at murdering his bodyguards before he was de-rezzed. Malik, if questioned, can testify that when he died, those guards were still alive…

Between the assassination attempt and the revelation of the Rebels on the Grid, JORD1 will have announced that this expedition is a failure. Miners and Defenders have twenty millicycles to report for full scan and decontamination at the Partition, after which time, they are leaving. It’s not hard to guess that he’s likely to trigger the Bomb on the way out.

But things won’t go so smooth. A Rebel plot, heavily influenced by automata, will be going up in a log this week - the Rebels intend to disarm the Bomb, stealing a Recognizer as a distraction. The Automata plan to help with this… and make certain the Tower is destroyed. This may or may not work, but anyone - especially anyone answering the recall order - is likely to be nearby when the Partition begins to be plagued by A Recognizer chase, the noise of distant explosions, and a sudden failure of the lights - even if you’re not at all involved in the battle, things will be happening to which you can respond.

Meanwhile, the mysterious black cube in C8 has expanded, swallowing the Games Hex - even in darkness, those familiar with the layout of the arena can probably discover much by exploring it.

And Antimony Station is once again sending and receiving data beams. A solar sailer has been constructed to follow them. That means that from Antimony Station, messages and control panel data may be shared with any square on the grid, and any square is open to exploration - the solar sailer can take them on a low pass over the terrain anywhere in just a few minutes.

Among other things, this means that Arsenic Station in B4 and Alabaster Station in J8 will now be located, although nonfunctional. Like Antimony Station, they’re power collectors and potential travel or information hubs, meaning there are almost certainly other Crypto structures nearby. And it means that explorers will be able to tell, even before any in-depth search, that the entire Sector of G2 is glowing a sinister amethyst hue.

Conflict. Archaeology. Exploration. Expansion. Running for your lives. Everywhere, tensions are coming to a head.

Plotting | Questions | Exploration

Week Six Exploration!

[powersthatbe]

I10 is no longer lit, but in the wake of the gigodaemon attacks, the Automata seem to be less dense in the squares being explored, as if their energy is depleted or they have gone into retreat.

This week, any Program exploring a new square will be able to discover 15% with a week's work.

If a square is explored over 100%, there are two possibilities: more construction or archaeological discovery may take place on that site, OR 1/2 the overflow may be transferred to another, preferably adjacent, square.


EXPLORATION

Archaeology Sites
In A10 are a series of Crypto buildings somewhat similar to G6 and now claimed for the Rebels as a secret base. All are Euclidean solids, which have three basic states: collapsed, active, and submerged. A collapsed building is compressed into two dimensions. A submerged building is expanded to three, but hidden underground. An active building exists in three dimensions, above ground, and may have any standard geometric transformation enacted on it - it can be slid, stretched, rotated, inverted, reflected, expanded, contracted, or in any other way translated by issuing a simple verbal command. The buildings are a sphere, a three-dimensional vescia piscis, a trilateral pyramid, a cube, and a dodecahedron.

The prison in B10 has been largely deactivated, safe paths carved through its security subroutines. Towards the center of the complex, two Automata are still confined, and in some empty stretches of the place, systems are live - explorers beware.

D7 is a plain full of green-lit plinths and monoliths, a Crypto data archive containing the keys to decoding and explaining their codes and technologies elsewhere.

E7 has a unicursal hexagram in green energy on the ground, tracing a seal. Any Program without Priority who crosses the seal will be sucked into the oubliette that has swallowed hundreds upon hundreds of stray Automata over the cycles.

G6, an unstable, swampy square, contains a series of six buried geometric pyramids. Thorough scans reveal that the buildings are capable of rotating or revolving, rising or sinking, expanding or contracting on demand, making them anything from floating meditation refuges to impressive digging tools. Images, writing, and schematics imagined by those within the chambers may be projected on the walls, making the place a useful “Think Tank.”

H4 has a domelike structure with truncated sides: a hangar bay and aircraft workshop, full of disabled craft, from which VINCI & friends have just launched a solar sailer onto Antimony Station’s data beams. Some areas are still secure and sealed, but the Cryptos seem confident those areas were living quarters, containing nothing useful. Pixellated ashfalls still rain from the skies, but there’s at least one parasol-covered pathway from the edge of the square.

H5 contains complex geometric patterns of standing plinths and obelisks, all of them scrolling with encrypted patterns of green light. Those who have spent time studying in D7 can easily begin decoding and translating this information, however.

H6 is Antimony Station, a power collection facility in the shape of a squat cylinder topped with complex radial scaffolding. An energy reservoir has been refilled within it, and Programs are now able to use it to emit data-beams that function as long-range communication, or to send control panel data to other control panels. It is currently supporting one Solar Sailer vessel that can travel rapidly to distant points across the Grid.

I10’s bladelike input-output tower is a sort of temple, the place where one goes to receive divine inspiration from Users. When activated, it sends a beam up to pierce the heavens, a beacon visible from any square of the Grid. However, it has been shut down again, and is missing components needed to activate.


Squares Cleared:
A9, a perfectly empty black glass plain, has no Automata presence or sign of Crypto artifacts, & was quickly cleared and searched without significant effort. It is now part of the Frontier.

B9 is a lake of slush data, now cleansed.

C7 is rough terrain but relatively level, criss-crossed by lightcycle and lightsphere tracks. Nothing of interest remains here.

C10 is a craggy, barren Sector with little of interest save the lair and pixellated remains of a digital chimaera.

G7, a perfectly empty black glass plain, has no Automata presence or sign of Crypto artifacts, & was quickly cleared and searched without significant effort. It is now part of the Frontier.

H7 is a rugged Sector full of caverns and sudden shifts in elevation. However, there are no Crypto relics in evidence here.

H9, a perfectly empty black glass plain, has no Automata presence or sign of Crypto artifacts, & was quickly cleared and searched without significant effort. It is now part of the Frontier.

H10 is an empty plain containing a few shallow caves and rough scraped-out structures formerly used for shelter by humanoid Automata.

I3, a perfectly empty black glass plain, has no Automata presence or sign of Crypto artifacts, & was quickly cleared and searched without significant effort. It is now part of the Frontier.


Dangerous Mysteries
C8, C9, D8, D9

D9, the former Games Hex, has all its structures intact and recognizable, but is now shrouded in darkness. The Defenders have retracted all bridges connecting it to the Partition and posted guards on the bordering wall. Guards report hearing occasional bursts of static from within the darkness.


Squares Available:
ALL OF THEM.


Searches in Progress:
A8: 15% complete.
B4: 15% complete. (TR3Y)
C8: 150% complete. (Remy, Kain, Ravit, IOUHEI, Dorian, AMBROSE)
The higher the percentage C8 is, the sooner in the week its secrets will be revealed
C9: 45% complete. (SERA)
F7: 40% complete.
G2: 150% complete. (ROSE, Maniac Eight, Joscelin, VINCI, ISA, R1DK, PHLP, ADM, LIARA, KAN-3)
The higher the percentage G2 is, the sooner in the week its secrets will be revealed
G3: 75% complete. (KALI, BAT-3, Lyall, Nick, Hitsugaya)
G5: 40% complete.
H3: 57.5% complete. (BAT-3)
H8: 20% complete.
I8: 20% complete.
J2: 60% complete.


Search Results:
A8: swarming with primitive, corrupt functions, like oversized scarab beetles and laser scorpions, meant to scavenge junk data.
F7: swarms of Automata Bits.
G2: A violet-glowing range of hills full of sinkholes and narrow tunnels, where animate stasis-coffins lunge upward from the ground like evil venus flytraps.
G3: A square with a snowflake-shaped structure in it, the primary danger here seems to be scrambled transmissions - thoughts and speech come out garbled, and maddening screams or suggestions are transmitted directly into Program’s heads from the empty air.
G5: volatile chasms and pillars moving on their own.
H3: this square flashes with ghostly data-images of screaming and fleeing Cryptos, always in groups, never alone; pursued by packs of Automata. All these threats appear to be illusory, but the visions are deeply disturbing.
H8: digital mist and a grue.
I8: a plateau full of viral geysers.
J2: A pebbled plain full of Automata radiation surrounding a shallow lake.