Traveller: Research and Rescue [Part 3]

The following are GameDoc's session notes for the last session of our exploration of the ziggurats...

** Welcome, Traveller... **

After stuffing another shootout with the strange humanoid soldiers, the Travellers continue their exploration of the alien ruin and discover one last survivor of the previous scientific exposition, a man named Aldred Giles.

Giles tells them that they were ambushed while unloading their equipment. Half the team were killed. He and the research assistant that the Travellers previously encountered were held here while the other survivors were taken away (where he doesn’t know). 

Giles and his colleague were made to attempt to sort out the dormant computer banks but all they managed to to was turn the power on by randomly pushing buttons. He really has no idea how anything works. At some point, they did “something” that caused the lights to go out for a moment. The Travellers deduce it was the gravitic pulse that downed their transport. 

He was also able to deduce that his captors were some sort of organic automaton with only rudimentary intelligence. They could only seem to operate within a narrow range of operating parameters.

This looks like a good spot to leave.

Using the Artefact Module, Hernando learns that this facility is powered by tapping the planet core but that the exact science behind this is unclear. It served as a defense station for the now long-extinct civilization that one inhabited the planet.

Having explored the ruins and discovered the fate of the missing research team, the Travellers decide its time to head home. Giles directs them to a working lift that emerges at the top of the second ziggurat, directly across from the one they entered through. Unfortunately, the plaza between them is patrolled by more of the automatons. 

Protip:  Always know where the proverbial back door is.

J.C., having repaired their vehicle, slowly circles around through the forest and hovers at the back of the ziggurat. But with an injured Giles in tow, they Travellers aren’t able to be stealth enough to avoid notice. Amadeus drops a pair of frag greases on the advancing automatons to cover their escape and they all safely board the transport.

Back in the city of Serson, the Kingfisher is within a few days of full repair. Baroness Edda is grateful for the return of the surviving researcher and curious to know the nature of the automatons who assaulted the expedition. Hernando performs a study on the creatures DNA only to make a horrific discovery - it’s genetic code has been derived from human DNA. Once again, the Travellers are confronted with a type of unknown, advanced science.

More questions remain: If their enemies are barely-intelligent automatons, who created them and sent them to the ruins? What were they after? Where did the human DNA come from? Who will ultimately control the gravitic alien tech?

Of course I can provide credentials.

Meanwhile, J.C. remains highly suspicious of the Baroness and wants to steer clear of getting drawn back into the politics of the nobility. When the Kingfisher is repaired, he and Riley are determined to head back to space.