Mytholder ([info]mytholder) wrote,
@ 2008-04-25 02:00:00
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Entry tags:now we are here

Now We Are Here, General Transmission #30
Following on from this...

One of the security team leans out the shuttle's door and aims a microgrenade launcher into the wind. You all feel a slight twitch as his c/link uses the shared capacity of the network to augment his aim - and the little grenade flies neatly into the open hatch of the crashed ship. A cloud of pungent gas billows out.

A moment later, a figure staggers out and blindly sprays a hail of inaccurate fire from an automatic pistol before collapsing to the deck, unconscious. The security team quickly seize the crashed pod and secure the prisoner. A quick scan of his face reveals that he is Mattas, one of the Flight Crew. He's got more guns strapped to him than he can carry, and the pod appears to be filled with weapons of various kinds, along with the bodies of two more Flighters, who were killed by the impact. The pod appears to have been hastily packed with equipment, and is beginning to sink. The security team salvage what they can before bringing Mattas back to the shuttle.

The triped alien got a lungful (or lung-analogue-full) of the gas, and toppled into the water. It landed on top of a trio of what look like wormballs, but there are vegetable-fibre fastenings wrapped around them. The alien walked across the water from the catamaran by strapping wormballs to its three feet.

The catamaran is sailing north-west towards an archipelago of islands, and has abandoned this triped to your mercy. What do you do?

Poll #1176632
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Unexpected Guests

View Answers

Bring both back to the Core Lander Module
7 (23.3%)

Bring the alien to dry land
6 (20.0%)

Bring the alien to the fleeing catamaran
10 (33.3%)

Bring the alien to dry land, but leave a team with him
7 (23.3%)



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[info]allandaros
2008-04-25 01:48 am UTC (link)
Let's get the poor fellow back to the catamaran. He's had a rough enough day.

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[info]inannajones
2008-04-25 08:31 am UTC (link)
Is it not likely that the other aliens in the catamaran are going to raise an almighty hell if we try to approach them in order to bring their fellow back, after all that happened? Furthermore, they abandoned him - whether they thought he was as good as a goner or he had become "impure" or whatever - and they don't seem to be keen on the idea of having more contact with here. If we bring him to the land and leave a team with him (armed, of course, in case something happens), we might see if there is anything we can do for him and if there is a possibility we can communicate with him.

Or her. Or it. Using the pronoun as a convenience.

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[info]cerandor
2008-04-25 09:24 am UTC (link)
Agreed - trying to rendezvous with the Catamaran could provoke them into a deadly (if presumably futile) response. As a preference, I'd leave him on dry land with a set of those wormball slippers so he can make his way to wherever he needs to go. Certainly leave a team with him if necessary, but he's unlikely to be too communicative. Panic will do that to you. As I argued before, minimizing contact at the moment could be wise.

That's assuming the gas hasn't done him severe and lasting damage. Is there any way we can check?

Also, I'm fascinated by the properties of those wormball slippers. Can we retrieve the set worn by the dead triped and take them apart to see how they work? Obviously, the tripeds know how to deal with the wormballs. Given our current base site, those are lessons we could do with learning.

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[info]mytholder
2008-04-25 09:35 am UTC (link)
The triped appears healthy, just groggy.

And yes, you can grab the spare wormball slippers.

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(Anonymous)
2008-04-25 11:25 am UTC (link)
In-ter-esting. Mattas, eh? Well, we can deal within him later. As it wasn't answered before - what sort of system of justice are we operating under? Does Mattas have rights? Is there due process? Or can we just waterboard him to our heart's content? (Note I'm not advocating doing that, just asking what the prevailing legal ethos is.)

As for the triped - let's see where the catamaran goes and try to drop him somewhere near his pals. Let's observe first contact sterile protocols though. We don't want to sneeze on him and end up wiping out his people (or vice versa). Ditto with the dead 'un, who we should try to examine as best we can (which hopefully won't piss off the live one too much). Sedating the live one would be nice, but probably too risky, given that we know squat about its biology.

P.

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