August 1998 Official Responses

From:  John Groszkiewicz (Tork)

So much has recently changed that Tork is not sure what he wants to do. He
would really like to sit down with a couple beers and try sorting things out
but I doubt that will happen. Breaking something to releave the fustration
may also work. Well, probably not. Breaking things has only gotten Tork
deeper in trouble in the the past but at least he has felt like he
accomplished something. But I am getting ahead of myself, Tork does not
know about Zane's situation, yet.

Upon finding out about our new allies Tork's first response will be to
inform Taanik and Spider of the situation. He will then go about collecting
(defusing) any charges he set in the life support generator area. If that
is going to take awhile would be a little hesitant but would allow the rest
of the party to get Zane while Tork follows along later.

After finding out about the security bots treatment of the Lost Pointers and
"Streel's" rude manner Tork will be put even more on the defensive with
Metrosphere's leader. In one sense following Streel's orders will get up
into Metrosphere, hopefully still as loyal employees. On the other hand it
could be a trap.

Tork will remain quite about his conserns, unless he is sure that Dakka is
unable to overhear the conversation. Tork is worried about the mistreatment
of the refugees by the security bots and by Captain Ap-Harrow's detention.
Tork will try to contain himself until the moment to strike is right. But
then again, busting up a security bot might just get me stuck in detention
close enough to talk to Captain Ap-Harrow. :) Then again, there would not
be much I could do with the information at that point.... :(

Tork likes the idea of loosing some viruses on Metrosphere's computer system
but would much rather use the 'four-four method'. Basically four kilos of
Kaboomite on four different corners... Solves a lot of different problems.


Looking forward to the next segment,
John

From:  John Whitfield (T'Klkk)

Layne, I'm very grateful for the extension on the deadline. Between
getting back into the groove of the semester and a nasty sinus
infection, I've not been able to keep up. Anyway, here is T'Klkk's
official moves. I'll be sending her XP expenditures in another note in
a day or so. Thanks!

-JWW


T'Klkk immediately goes to retrieve two of the chronocoms that they
discarded after freeing themselves from their shackles. She activates
it and signals Zane, "Teammate-Zane, this is self-T'Klkk. Do you read
me? What is your status?" If Zane responds and gives her the low-down
on what has just transpired, T'Klkk will immediately relay this to the
others. She will instruct Zane to rendez-vous with the rest of the team
and have Kyran accompany him. 

She will then ask Kare to signal Taanik, instructing him to hold his
position until further notice. For security reasons, she'll then want
the radio link to be closed.

She will turn to her comrades, clicking her mandibles together in
frustration. If her helmet were off, the others would see her antennae
quivering with anger. Always before, she has known who was friend and
who was foe. Life in the hive was so straight-forward and so
structured. All the duplicity, chaotic behaviour, and confusion have
left her feeling that no situation is as it seems and no one can be
trusted. She shrugs off her feelings of hopelessness and despair and
focuses on the matter at hand.

"Teammate-Syzygy, not long ago you commented that it is time to think
outside the circle and up the ante. Self-T'Klkk believes that those
were the words used." She nods her head and gives the Vrusk equivalent
of a smile. "Maybe you are right. It is time for a head-on
confrontation with whoever it is that hired us and we assumed was
Streel."

She will turn to Kyran and the other inviso-goons [OOC: damn it, we
need to come up with a better name for them!! :-) ] "This team offers
six degrees of apology for what has happened with the rest of your
people. It was never intended that they be rounded up as they
apparently have been. We pledge to do what we can to rectifiy the
situation. Self-T'Klkk is asking for your assistance. We must work
together as a team."

As a plan starts to take form in her head, she addresses the entire
group. "An all-out assault on First Landing is a hopeless, reckless
strategy which would most certainly get all of us killed. Self-T'Klkk
proposes that one individual--self-T'Klkk--should go. Self-T'Klkk will
meet directly with the person calling himself Streel and will confront
him on all the questions and concerns that we have discussed amongst
ourselves. We will also establish a regular check-in interval and a
password scheme to verify that it is indeed self-T'Klkk reporting and
that all is still okay. If self-T'Klkk does not report in or if the
password is not the correct one, then the rest of you are to wage
strategic strikes on key areas of First Landing and if possible present
the truth to the masses in an attempt to sway popular opinion in our
favour * inciting an uprising if necessary. We know that there are
already those who are sympathetic to the plight of the Lost Pointers. 
The could be potentially powerful allies, and thanks to teammate-Tork
and teammate-Urugg, we have contacts among them. Teammate-Kare has
already proven herself to be a sixth-degree sabboteur, and
teammate-Syzygy's computer skills will be most beneficial. 
Teammate-Taanik may be able to reprogram some of the First Landing
robots to aid us as well, and it is very likely that we will need
teammate-Zane's medical expertise. Teammate-Tork and newteammate-Kyran
will work together to coordinate guerilla raids."

Addressing Syzygy, T'Klkk says, "As for the password and interval, for
the first six hours self-T'Klkk will report every 30 minutes. After
that, on an hourly basis. The password will be different each time." 
She then goes into a complicted formula involving the Vrusk calendar,
names for social castes, and a complex 3-dimensional Vrusk game of
strategy which, when combined, is hopelessly impossible for any but
Syzygy to even follow much less decipher. 

"Self-T'Klkk will keep the chronocom channel open so that you can
monitor what is transpiring. Self-T'Klkk will also leave all equipment
and ammo except my stunstick and pistol, just in case you need it." 
She'll also keep the knife which is strapped to her hind leg, but she
won't mention it. "At no point is self-T'Klkk's safety to be used as a
bargaining chip if self-T'Klkk is taken hostage. The success of this
mission and the well-being of this team takes precedent over
self-T'Klkk's life. Is that understood?"

Unless others object or come up with a better plan, she'll unload all
of her equipment and head toward First Landing. When she gets to the
monorail, she'll activate the chronocom (waiting until then in case
Streel is able to track her use of it) and say something to let the team
know where she is but doing so as if she is simply talking to herself. 
She'll insist on an immediate meeting with Streel, and she'll pin him to
the wall on everything that we've been wondering about. I guess from
there we'll just have to see how it plays out.

What have we gotten ourselves in to?????????? :-)

-JWW

From:  Albin Johnson (Syzygy)

Syzygy listens to T'Klkk as she lays out the plan for the team. He can't
help but admire the commanding tone to her voice. She was a good leader
and a clear thinker. Not a reason to be intimidated from a male Vrusk's
point of view. Vrusk don't hold the same fragile egos when engaging in
courtship that Humans and some Yazirians do. When a Vrusk evaluates a
potential mate, it is in the objective light of what traits that mate can
bring to his or her hive. And T'Klkk had a lot to offer.

'Besides', Syzygy thinks as he segues out of normal channels of Vruskan
contemplation, 'she's got ovipositors stacked like a brick edifice!'

No one seems to notice the wry smile behind Syzygy's faceplate.

Syzygy is quite taken aback at being the sole keeper of the codes with
which T'Klkk plans to relay her situation once inside First Landing.

"Um...four degrees of honor felt by myself at your trusting me with your
safety, team mate T'Klkk."

They are all the words he can muster. The plan she was laying out was
shocking, rash, even foolhardy considering the risks placed upon her. He
can't imagine losing the female before they've even had a chance to get
better acquainted.

"Now wait a sec, T'Klkk. That's all fine and good, but why not hear the
guardians out and see if they have a secret way into Metrosphere? I mean,
they've been pulling that off for a long time with the authorities after
them - nothing's changed."

Syzygy asks one of the guardians to show him to a working computer
terminal. There, he will try to hack into the Spire and call up schematics
on the city's sewage and maintenance tunnels. Knowing there foe could well
be the notorious hacker Syte, he is careful to mask his trail by cloaking
the id number of his network connection and his user profile, switching
that to the cover i.d. he fabricated earlier.

Syzygy scans the screen as he looks the plans over (assuming he's successful)

"Now if I know my hi-tech, overly-complicated, fast-growing complexes (and
I do) then there's gotta be a zillion ways to sneak in under the wire.
Once in, it's just a matter of deciding what tactical objectives we want to
hit. I second the earlier suggestion of knocking out or taking over the
holo-units. We cut their communications and we have an advantage."

"Another idea that someone mentioned is the panic-button option. I can try
to make just one dial in the power plant go into the red and have everyone
screaming fallout shelter! That'd put a big stumbling block in the way of
the tyrant-boy sitting in Streel's office. If you don't like that, let's
talk fiddling with life support to show a radon leak, or futzing with the
transportation program to shut down the belts or lights or whatever you
like. Hee hee - this is great!"

Syzygy is eager to take on the Spire to see if he can outwit its security
measures. He is partial to their assaulting Metrosphere by stealth, using
the network's intricate layout to their advantage.

Another of Syzygy's objectives while surfing the Spire's network is to
detect if another 'hacker presence' is shadowing his command trail. He
will attempt to write and run a program so that at each node he links to
remotely, it will command that node to call him when next accessed.
Hopefully, the tripwire will signal him that someone is fast on his heels.
Syzygy is eager to lure Syte out into the open ethernet so that he can take
him on one-on-one. When he is sure Syte or some other presence is dogging
him, Syzygy will resort to hit and run tactics to take out key systems,
putting them in diagnostic mode or powering down, all in an attempt to box
his foe in.

Syzygy will also retrieve all his unused explosives and rewire his harness
to ensure his 'deathwish contingency' is still in place.

From:  Clark Valentine (Taanik)

Upon ids arrival at First Landing, Taanik will revert to ids guise as an 
Ixiol junkie (using ids fake ID), and will encourage Spider to do the 
same (sans the fake ID). Hopefully this way id can avoid Syte's 
stranglehold on the city infrastructure. Id will try to contact Star 
Law somehow on a covert basis - preferably using ids computer 
skills to send an encrypted message (is there PGP in Star Frontiers? 
But how to get Star Law ids key file...) If necessary id will concoct 
a story that Start Law can't ignore, such as "Sathar spotted! 
Administrator of First Landing is Sathar agent! Send help immediately!!!"

It's Taanik's guess that Streel's computer system is completely infiltrated by 
Syte, so Star Law is our only hope of objective uncorrupted help. 
"I suppose we could call Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and the 
rest of the Untouchables, but..." *snicker* 

What do you guys think?

Also - how far should spider be trusted?

From:  John Groszkiewicz (Tork)

Gotta check my notes but IIRC Taanik also set up Tork with a fake ID. I
don't like the idea of T'Klikk "going in alone" but I also don't want Tork
posing as a refugee and getting both our combat specialists captured.

Taanik will hold position if ordered by T'klkk, but offers ids services 
a backup. Remember, id has a semi-established cover as an Ixiol junkie
(and should be able to pull it off rather convincingly) and should be able 
to hide from the authorities until needed.

Taanik also relays ids idea of contacting Star Law back to the team.

From:  Albin Johnson (Syzygy)

Syzygy grows increasingly concerned with the course of action T'Klkk
seems determined to pursue. The group as a whole had a bevy of
resources to work with, but no plan of attack. 

"I still think we should consult the guardians as to what plan of action
they'd take, then modify it to our ends." 

Turning to the guardians that escorted them from the power plant, "So
what do you guys think? Let's take the battle to the enemy. You get us
in and let us take it from there. By the way, you got any extra spiffy
inviso-suits?"

- your pal AL (Syzygy)

From:  Andy Campbell (Urugg)

Hi all... Been offline for most of the last two weeks in the aftermath of
Worldcon and moving, hence quiet. Just spent my XP's, reread the last episode
and the posts so far. And now for my stuff:

Note: after Urugg and the team negotiate a truce, he will make sure he does a
decent job of cleaning any water out of his helmet and weapons from the
incident in the water-filled hallway. The weapons shouldn't be too hard if
(as they say in KH) they are airtight and have O2 reservoirs for vaccuum use.

After rejoining Kare and Tork, we won't know about the bots herding the
Pointers onto the train unless Kyran radios his buddies. In any case, we'll
find out after we rendesvouz with the pair in the terminal; I'm guessing by
then that the train will have left for First Landing (unless Streel holds the
train pending our arrival). If there is any chance to sneak onto the train
with the refugees, I think it may be worth it.

If the train is gone, Urugg will listen to T'Klkk's, Syzygy's and Kare's plans
carefully. After consideration, I'd say T'Klkk going it alone is a bold but
unwise idea. If we lose her, it would cripple us both from a combat
perspective and the fact that she's the closest thing we have to a leader.
Also, her vrusk social comprehension may be vital in figuring out what's going
on in First Landing if we get in.

My advice would be to split into two teams and sneak into First Landing. One
team will be tasked with finding & freeing Capt. Ap-Harrow - if we can get her
out, she might be able to tell us what's really going on and maybe get us the
support of First landing's police department (this would be a huge coup);
heck, even if the cops're bottlenecked by the Streel 'bots and automated
systems, they might be able to radio Star Law as was suggested earlier. Urugg
would volunteer for this bunch since he'd been to the cop station before and
due to his ability (hopefully) to talk his way into the place.

The second team would be the diversion team - probably including Syzygy and
Kare plus others (possibly Zane if we try the Laconian Red Eye angle I
mentioned earlier). They will try to cause as much confusion (computer and
otherwise) as possible to distract "Mr. Streel."

It might make sense to let Taanik and Spider keep going in the bot as a "ace
in the hole" - that way even if we all get picked off, they'd have a chance at
getting the word out to UPF authorities and (being only 2 sentients) getting
off the moon alive. If things go well, we can meet up with them in First
Landing (in those cargo pods we investigated ealrier, or in a secluded spot in
the park domes).

Its unclear how willing to help us the Pointer soldiers are; I'm guessing
that after Streel deports their people on the train, they will help us sneak
into First landing, but you never know.


Urugg will put forth these ideas and see what happens. If we go into First
landing, he will try to be as stealthy as possible, stashing his suit in the
monorail terminal (or wherever we enter First Landing) somewhere out of the
way and trying to blend into the crowds. 

Any down time he has will be spent using his Psycho-Social skill to try and
puzzle out just what is going on with Spider and "Streel"; if Spider and
Taanik skip the bot plan and rejoin us, he will question Spider further on how
he got here, what he hoped to accomplish, etc. 

Urugg will also suggest we take the monorail tube back, but walk not take the
train. That will conserve life support in our suits and still give us the
option of bailing out the emergency airlocks if things get hairy. When we get
close (a few km away) to First Landing, we can exit the tube through an
emergency airlock and sneak in through a service entrance and proceed from
there. Either the Pointers or the computer net should be able to furnish
suitable points where we can get into the colony.

Other things we should try are monitoring First Landing's media broadcasts
(local news holos, public service announcements, etc.) to get a handle on
whether Ap-Harrow's arrest and detainment were part of a widespread lockdown
by Streel or she was "disappeared" by his android goons. Also, I think (since
she did it before with the fake guards) Kare should definitely try to recreate
holos of us (I've got a camera - could it be used to take 3D photos, then
download the images into her portacomp?) and have them appear at multiple
locations in Metrosphere.

Since we don't have a specific threat / course of action this time, these are
my suggestions. Time to cross the Rubicon and see what happens...

From:  Clark Valentine (Taanik)

Taanik will attempt to get into first landing, (if necessary, as a last resort, 
will try to slip in with the mining 'bots).

Once inside id will go under cover as an Ixiol addict and become a 
"sleeper" agent, waiting to be activated by the team.

What to do with "Spider"? Taanik doesn't completely trust him, but 
will try to get him set up with some smack. The two will be buddy 
junkies until called upon. (Layne - if necessary Taanik will actually take a 
small dose of the stuff, but will try to avoid it givin ids past...)

If ordered to or the situation looks dire enough, Taanik will try to get 
word out to Star Law and/or UPF, and if absolutely necessary will 
attempt to get transport offworld - but will only do this if ordered to 
or if tragedy renders id the only one left of the group; id will not 
willingly leave ids comrades behind.

Taanik will follow T'Klkk's orders without question, and will very much 
want to go to Syzygy's aid if ever it is needed.

Layne please post


Kare explains herself,

Kare will always follow the majority, even if she believes the move may
be poor.

First, Kare doesn't believe Ladybug should leave the group. With blob
boy out and doctor boy missing, it would be wise not to split up. 

Number two, Kare wasn't planning a frontal assault. Its not Kares
style. She was suggesting a diversion, which at the same time may
remove the some of the false streels assets. IE. make it appear that
the entire team is moving down the monorail. Thus when the robotic
police meet up with us...BOOM! No more robotic police. Who knows,
maybe we could piece some robos together and reprogram them. Or insert
a robotic virus into robotic police (making them ours!!!). At the same
time Kare and one of the inviso goons sneak into "Mr. Streel's" office
and spike (super sleeping spikes) the jerk. 

Kare would of course wait till "Mr. Streel" is alone with his computer
(password plugged in, of course). Kare knows were up against a tought
foe, But we must remember that hes a computer geek. All we have to do
is to remove his advantage. Presently, we have two computer geeks, bug
boy and the real Streel.

Advantage US!!!

Ruben

Hi everyone, Sorry that this is late. I haven't signed online
since my last post. I've been spending all my spare time painting
a miniature army for some events at SHORECON 5. Well here is
Zane's official move. I hope that you accept it a day late, Layne.
Thanks, Ken.

With an overwhelming anger building up inside him, Zane puts his 
environment suit back on. He thinks to himself how could Streel know
about these people and leave them here in this condition. Maybe he
was unaware of there condition. I doubt that. He seems to know 
everything before anyone else does anyway. He could of at least made
the environment more livable for them. Quickly he gets Kyran over to the
side. He quickly and quietly tells him that something seems wrong,
"I don't like this at all. Don't tell anyone about Cimmy. Are you coming
back in with me or going with your people. They may need you, but I
doubt that you'd be able to do anything. If your going with me, put your
helmet back on and turn invisible and haul ass back in. I'll catch up with
you in a minute." With that Zane turns and goes over to where the image
of Streel is/was. If it is gone then he will raise Streel on his chronocom.
The anger has built up until he can't control it anymore! His words to Streel,
"I work for the team and for you, but foremost I am a doctor! If you knew
about these people already, why did you not help them sooner? Some of 
them are in critical condition!" Whatever reply Streel gives him he will
storm off back into Lost Point (with a click of the off button if the 
communication was via chronocom). Zane will call for Kyran once safely
inside with the door closed behind them. How much medical supplies are
left? Is the powere back on? Do I find Kyran? Zane will proceed to look
for his teammates. If he doesn't find Kyran, he'll worry about what happens
when he finds the other invisible goons or they find him.