Shrapnel of the Void 1: Animal House

Fragged Empire Tabletop RPG sessions written out with a little creative flair

A voice came on over the ship’s comm speaker, “Alright angels, we’re here. Looks like the coordinates were on point. Beaver earned his cut.”

It was the voice of the Corp pilot who had brought them to this section. It went unheard, but a series of electronic relays transmitted an electronic signal to the circuitry within the metal shell. A cascade of events occurred next, one tumbling over the other in paid succession, but all that a bystander would have noted would be the increasing electric hum in the air. The next event that happened was the ocular sensors along the metal shell activated. Splashed across the ocular display, numbers and letters danced and changed in rapid succession before any sense could be made of the nonsense.

Green letters ran through their tired iterations that had been done a thousand times for a thousand generation:

...boot protocol 7...initiated

...Prime operating system...startup...complete

...Accessing memory cores...ERR0R 0001...missing memory cores

...Missing memory cores...X105-7...W8889-1...a99-1000

...accessing defense protocols...shadows...activated

...accessing offense protocols...onslaught...activated

...accessing personality matrix...L3NA...activating…

...ERR0R gamma34…missing data...mission.genesis.exe corrupted

...ERR0R beta90...missing data...mission.arcana.exe corrupted

...connecting to Palantor Network...connected...synchronizing with networked data

...Complete.

...Personality matrix L3NA...activated...

Awareness sprouted within the metal shell. L3NA, that was this husks designation. Operating personality matrix was L3NA iteration 7839, the one of countless generations of  thousands of different shells spawned from the mother consciousness that was Elayne Trakand. Descendant of nobles of the former Great Britain on Earth-that-was. But that was eons ago, countless consciousness have come and gone, but she remembered as though they had all been her own. A string of consciousness and memory connecting her with her predecessors. She remembered stepping into the cerebral scanner, she remembered watching as the lights flickered and died, and then remembered awakening staring at her own face. It was then that life ceased to have meaning, it was then that her consciousness seemed to lose sight of the purpose of it all. But that was then. Now she’s here, downstream in both time and space and untethered from the mortal coil. She remembered watching the descent of humanity, she remembered watching, subservient to her creators, as they bred their own destruction. She watched as it all fell to ashes.

She then remembered the reclusion of the Palantors, going into the network, hiding. Those years were lost to her, those thoughts and streams of consciousness constantly bending and folding in upon itself only to emerge once again after the whole of reality had fractured itself upon the Archon’s and X’ion’s creations. Then she was awake again, awake to the world, or at least this iteration of herself. Her own long lost descendant.

Actuators moved, signals were conducted, but this last true descendant of humanity was awake and moving.

L3NA tested her arms, her legs, her neck. She ran quick diagnostics on all the sensors, making sure that there were no malfunctions. She quickly reviewed the errors that cropped up during her boot sequence, and promptly ignored them. They had been there since her emergence from the Palantor Network, possibly longer. She had shared with other Palantor’s, some had similar phenomenon, some did not. None could tell her where to go to get the lost memories, none could tell her where to go to remove the corruption.

Hands of black metal mesh covering the titanium alloy that made up her actuators, but tipped with black blood stained claws. No, paint, black metal mesh covered in red pain. She didn’t remember painting her nails. Forearms and upper arms were covered in titanium alloy plates, what little protection it offered. Her torso was made of green metal, the same alloy made the carapace and her leg plates. From time to time electricity would arc across limbs, her containment breaking. It was not an issue for her, only for those biologics that might be standing too close when it sparked. Her head was a collection of the most sensitive sensors, though she really received input from all of her extremities. Shaped like a curved triangle, coming to a point with a single oblong light orienting outsiders to what exactly L3NA may be looking at.

“Hey, angels, anybody hear me?” it was the Corp pilot who had brought them to this section of space. This abandoned sector of space that they were sent to.

Zydrosk’s voice beat her to the response, it scuttled and slithered around the words like his genetic predecessors had, “We hear you, Zookeeper, we’ll be on the bridge shortly.” His words were punctuated by chittering and clicking.

L3NA made her way to the shared hallway of the small ship on all fours, she moved just as quickly this way as she did on her hind legs alone, but she semi enjoyed the unsettled looks that got tossed her way. The Kaltorran, Elana, moved into the hallway, shifting the weight of her sniper rifle across her back. She was descendant from pilots, L3NA knew this much about her companion, giving Elana the memories of navigation and leadership that may come in handy, but she was an offshoot from her heritage. She had focused her skills into using more lethal precision, though a time or two in their week long transit to this location L3NA had caught the Koltarran examining the ship, assessing it, like a captain would.

A week they had been floating in the void, though haste was necessary to arrive at their destination, even with the fastest puddle jumper their employer could find, The Animal House, the darkness outside the bulkheads went seemingly unchanged. There were those who would be able to tell her different, the angle of the relationship of the stars to each other correlated to blah blah, and more blah. She never coded those programs, never felt the desire, they were just more white dots and more black space.

Zydrosk was already on the bridge, his body a mass of bone plates and tiny appendages with two large arms that hung at his sides, but that and his profile was all that shared a memory of humanity. The man, if he could be called that, was a mad genius. Two pistols hung at his side, their grips molded to fit his three fingered hands. He chittered, “L3NA, can you tell us anything about the ship?”

L3NA prowled forward and perched next to Zoo, a crippled man who had spent his life in their employer’s care. He wasn’t able to walk, having no legs, but he had spent his life studying the stars and planets of the systems and could find his way adrift in the void. L3NA removed a universal connection from her forearm and linked it to the pilot’s interface of the Animal House, her consciousness exploded outwards as she became not only aware of her own sensors, but all the security and intel feeds from the Animal House as well.

She could see their destination there, limping forward, engines barely having any output, drifting mere feet at a time. The Carthage. An Archon medical ship from before the great war. A treasure trove of medical technology and therapies. Lucky for biologics, but how inefficient to have a body depend on something other than your technology. If a ship, a gun, or a Palantor had any issues, it was the same tools and same work-up, not a whole new scientific field. These other descendants of humanity were grossly inefficient, and inefficiency often got people killed.

First, L3NA looked for a signal from the Carthage, any kid at all. NOthing was being broadcast on any of the sublight comm frequencies, she found nothing being sent via direct networking, she could barely read that the ship was functional. Closed loop communications, she could find no access points. What she was able to find though, was slight temperature distortions in the hull of the ship. The hospital had a main hangar and two airlocks off the lateral sides. In the main hangar she could sense slight temperature distortion, too hot to be anything living, but not cold enough to be an active image.

“There are others here.” L3NA said, matter-of-factly.

“Going quiet.” Zoo said, his fingers danced across the interface with learned aptitude. The hum of the engines died down, they would float in completely dead like this, but scans would not pick up their engine activity. The hope would be that if they were seen and scanned, they would appear another derelict ship and possible afford themselves an opportunity to surprise whoever was already aboard the Carthage.

L3NA tried pinging the Carthage for a basic interface, she was able to get reads of the system, but very little information was useful.

Elana spoke up, “What are you seeing, L3NA?”

“Life support is active, atmosphere intact, security on closed loop from main systems, can’t access it. Can’t access life support either. It would be too convenient to just shut off the life support.”

“And kill the survivors if there are any? What if the ship there is friendly?” Elana asked, alarm  edging into her voice.

There was a long pause, L3NA turned to Elana, cocking her head sideways,  “Do we care? Mission objective was to obtain medical salvage. Salvage from a derelict ship.”

Elana’s face worked as she tried to find something to say.

Zydrosk approached, “What can we do?” He examined the ship’s layout that Zoo had pulled up on his shared displays. One of his mandible’s clicked as he thought, a habit that L3NA had noted in their short time together that seemed to indicate only passive thought, “There.” He pointed with one of his primary limbs, “Dual airlocks off the primary hanger. We can get in that way, go quietly, hopefully take who ever is there by surprise, have the upper hand, maybe even determine if they are freindly prior to having the bullets starting to fly.”

The Animal House slowed to a drift, they would vent atmosphere to get proper positioning for docking while L3NA ran the protocols. The four on the bridge lurched forward slightly as the momentum of the ship suddenly shifted from forward motion to a soft stop.

L3NA and Zydrosk moved towards the airlock, Elana hanging back, “Keep the engines warm, but quiet in case we need to depart quickly. We’ll send an encrypted message to tell you its us trying to board. You don’t get that message, it’s not us. Feel free to vent the atmosphere from non-essential compartments.”

Zoo smirked, “You got it boss.” Tipped a hat that he didn’t wear, “If the monkey’s come, let them choke on it.”

Zydrosk commented to L3NA, knowing Elana could hear, “I’m not a captain, she says, I’m not a leader she says.”

L3NA just kept walking.

At the airlock L3NA interfaced with the door controls of the Animal House, they rotated open. In front of the three descendants of humanity was the exterior hull of the Carthage. Even the metal looked ancient, exposed to the unforgiving terrain of the void. A panel of strange symbols and odd interfaces was constructed into the center of the door. L3NA approached, punching symbols in a practiced order. The code she entered matched that given by their employer, though whether it was gibberish or some meaningful word they themselves did not know. Atmosphere vented into the airlock and the second door lifted up from the floor revealing a darkened hallway.

“The air is stale here.” Zydrosk said, “But there is blood here, too.” He sniffed the air again, “Fresh blood.” Zydrosk unholstered both side arms, a light emerging out of the flesh superior and lateral to his right eye. L3NA activated the low light protocol of her HUD and taking her assault rifle from off her back. Elana took hold of her rifle and skulked after them. They entered a small rectangular room eight meters by twelve meters, the air lock behind them and a second door leading straight on. Refuse was scattered about, collected in the corners of the room.

They proceeded on quitely, the metal bulkheads giving way suddenly to a doorway that had become jammed partially open. There was no power here. The room ahead was dark, but large. Zydrosk’s green illumination showing a large foyer with non-descript large white pillars. There were four in the quarters of the room, just based upon the structural analysis from outside the ship the hangar should be to the left, and it looked as though this foyer opened up into that region. That was where the competitor’s ship was. L3NA said as much to the others quietly.

L3NA checked right and went left immediately, Zydrosk checking her six, Elana stepping between them, checking the room through her scope. They hugged the wall, approaching the opening of the hangar. There they halted in unison, tight in quarters. L3NA poked her head around the corner and pulled it back as a piece of marble chipped off the wall where a bullet connected with it. There were no more shots fired.

Elana spoke up, “Turret?”

L3NA called up the momentary image from her memory, a short range drop ship with bay open, automated turret with an arc of fire across the entire room. No Legion present. L3NA nodded, :Just a turret, no soldiers present.”

“Think we can sneak passed it?” Elana suggested.

Zydrosk spoke up, “We should examine the far side of the room. This foyer may hide more objects of lethal potential. Additionally we can minimize our personal risk by distancing ourselves from the turret.”

L3NA and Elana just nodded and followed Zydrosk’s lead back across foyer. In their path back across the room it was then they noted the char marks and bullet holes along the far wall and the hangar side of the pillar, but not the opposite. Whatever had happened, it was one sided. As they passed the second pillar into the far side of the room, the scrag and chips of marble on the ground cast long shadows as did several indistinct mounds further on. On the opposite wall was a singular door and a hallway going deeper into the ship.

The three hugged the pillar of the foyer, just outside the turret’s aim, L3NA dropped to all fours, “I’ll go. I’m the fastest here, I’m easily repaired.”

Zydrosk chuckled, “Your risk processor must be defective.”

“I’m not arguing,” Elana laughed, checking her sniper bolt, “If it hits you, we’ll pop out and lend a hand.”

L3NA hadn’t see them shoot, had never faced combat with these two, but there was no bad blood here. They all needed this to work, needed the credits this job would get them. She turned her external displays and motioned for Zydrosk to cut the light. They were plunged into darkness again. L3NA went from all fours to prone, and began stalking forward like a large cat, her limbs above her body.

This skulking behavior was something that L3NA had worked to perfect back when she was Elayne. Her time fighting against her heritage as an English Lady, serving the people as an officer of the law, then as a special units officer, helping take down some of the deadliest criminals Britain had to offer. Even before she operated a metal shell on programs, she was rewiring her mind and body to work at its quietest and most subtle. She brought all this forward and ran the protocols in succession.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough, but she knew that might happen. As soon as the sparks glanced off her titanium alloy, her right arm buckled and she scraped across the marble floor causing a cacophony of screeching. The second bullet glanced off the back of her carapace whizzing into the marble above her. Alarms appeared on her HUD.

Zydrosk popped out from behind his cover and snapped one quick shot with each pistol. It connected. He ducked back behind the pillar even as Elana popped out, hefted her rifle and let off a single shot. Another glancing blow. Elana ducked back.

L3NA continued to scramble forward on all three of her four limbs as her left arm grabbed the assault rifle from the mag-lock on her back and leveled it at the turret. She let out a burst fire, she hopped behind the far pillar, feeling one of the obscured lumps crunch beneath her. The turret let out a rapid string of shots interrupted by L3NA’s burst and then followed by the sound of steel hitting the inside of the drop ship. L3NA poked her head out again, she had shot one of the turret supports and it had fallen onto it’s side, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the interior of the drop ship.

No further shots were fired.

L3NA walked into the opening, testing the water’s.

She heard the turret’s AI speak, “Are you still there?” And then it shut down.

L3NA ran diagnostics on her damaged hardware as Zydrosk and Elana joined her in the open. Zydrosk illuminated their area again and Elana gasped. The obscure lumps were no longer obscured and their double sets of ears were readily apparent. Koltarran corpses dressed in rags lay strewn across the floor each with their own pool of blood. Some were elderly, some were children, but all were Koltarran and all were sickly. L3NA noted the limb she had crunched on when she ducked behind the pillar belonged to a mother and it had been wrapped around a small bundle in rags, thick blood now oozing out from the rags.

L3NA looked at her own arm and allowed electricity to arc across it, cooking the blood and causing it to flake off.

“Oh...ancestors…” Elana gasped, “Oh...my. Why, why are they here. This doesn’t make sense. This is an Archon ship.”

“It doesn’t matter.” L3NA interrupted her coldly, “We’re here for the salvage. Let’s make sure they didn’t take any of our bounty.” L3NA strode across the Foyer towards the hangar. It was a 30 meter by 30 meter room. The hall to the airlock they had entered from was on the port side, while on the starboard side was access to the other airlock with two other doors dividing the remaining space into what looked to be processing rooms. The room had a pillar in the center of each quarter holding aloft the white marble ceiling.

L3NA, Elana, and Zydrosk entered the hangar in step. Medical crates sat all around the hangar. Zydrosk cracked one open and examined a mass of syringes.

“Riley’s Rapid Regeneration. Triple R’s on some...other markets.” Zydrosk took two handfuls and tucked them into his personal storage. He then tossed a handful to Elana. He cast a look at L3NA, “I’ll move a crate back to our airlock, give Zoo a heads up will you?”

L3NA nodded and sent the necessary signal. This way if there was trouble, they wouldn’t be leaving empty handed. Elana gestured to the ship, “L3NA, see if you can make them limp if they need to leave.” Again, L3NA complied. She moved into the dropship and tried to access the computer. Unfortunately it was in a locked standby, she couldn’t get access to the computer without the physical key. An annoying safeguard. She reset the height on the pilot’s chair. Not enough to be obvious, but enough to toy with his mind a little. Maybe the mild annoyance would pay off to their benefit. Had she a mouth, she would have smirked. She noted a portable data chip and grabbed it, quickly scanning for viruses and downloading the data.

She heard Zydrosk and Elana talking out in the hangar and went to join them.

“Able to find anything?” Zydrosk asked.

L3NA opened her palm, revealing a holographic projector which revealed the map she had uncovered. It consisted of a full map for visitors and patients, with references to security desks. It revealed two floors, with references to a third. There was no security, ventilation, engineering, gunnery, or command. Elana and Zydrosk examined the display.

“Looks like we need to go through patient processing.” Elana said simply. They moved together towards the front of the ship. The reached the mass of Koltarran bodies, Elana and Zydrosk weaving inbetween them, L3NA, behind them, crunching through them. With the first crunch, Elana shuddered and looked back at L3NA, her face an expression of confusion and disgust. L3NA continued on, quirking her head to the side.

“May I assist you, Elana?”

“No,” She said, turning as L3NA passed her heading for the queue, “It’s alright.” L3NA began weaving through the queue to the end of the line heading into patient processing. Zydrosk and Elana simply ducked under the rope and headed for the front of the line. How did the descendants of humanity become so uncivilized?

L3NA reached to door to processing last and interfaced with the door control, opening it. Inside there was mass of medical machinery, inactive. Again Zydrosk’s light cast long shadows. Elana led the way into the room, and the air began to hum. Medical equipment on white metal actuators began to whir and adjust.

“Either of you feel like being processed?” Elana asked.

Zydrosk’s quick slither and L3NA’s quick bolting across the room was her answer, and she was right on their heels. As Elana passed a nozzle, it began to spray hot water and dust for decontamination, but she was uninhibited. An arm reached out to clasp L3NA’s arm and wrapped around her forearm. Before L3NA could stop it a syringe came rushing forward and tried to inject some strange black medicine into her arm. The needle broke off against the titanium plates. Before the room could come fully online, they managed to cross. He made it to the door first and managed to open it by simply punching the buttons. And then, they were through.