The Trek to the Orruengoerr

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Mazun, Thaedznou, Aerrak, Rongon and two male vargr (to be named later)
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.4 - 11:01 IST, 9:30 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

The descent through the building goes much easier than the ascent. Once back out on the street, Rongon leads the group through the city. After a while, the group arrives at an ancient stone wall, roughly ten meters high.

"This is the old city wall, erected centuries ago to keep out raiders. It doesn't do much good when machines can fly over them. It was kept as a monument to the city's past, but the city continues on the other side. Roads go through the old gates, and in some places the wall was breached to add more roads. But once things fell apart, all of those gates were closed, barricaded to keep out raiders. We will have to go over the wall and risk being seen from above. There aren't any tunnels big enough that go under the wall."

"So how do we get past it?" Mazun asks.

"We go over it," Rongon replies, pointing upward.

Following his outstretched paw, two slender cables can be seen overhead. The cables are connected to buildings on either side of the wall.

The group enters the building on their side of the wall where the cables are attached. Rongon stops at the room where the lower cable is attached and grabs a bucket. It contains pulleys with handles attached. He hands one to each person.

"What are we supposed to do with these?" Mazun asks.

"Watch me," Rongon replies.

He leads the group up a couple more flights then makes his way to a room where the upper cable is attached. He puts the pulley on the cable, grips both handles, and jumps. Like a poor man's zip line, he flies down the length of the cable to the top of the wall.

One by one, everyone else follows suit. Once the uncertain members of the group are across, Rongon zips down to the building on the far side of the wall. The group makes it over unscathed.

The buildings on the outside of the wall are shorter and geared more to residences and small commercial enterprises. The further the group gets from the wall, the more ordered things get. Paved streets give way to dirt. Apartment buildings give way to huts. Utilities shift from ordered and underground to above ground and haphazard. Small animals and birds flee from the group's approach.

"Does anyone still live out here?" Thaedznou asks.

"Most people died long ago, but it's possible. Survivors tended to move inside the walls where they could at least avoid raiders and predators."

"I thought that you said there were cannibals in the city," Mazun says.

"Yes, but they came later."

As they reach the last of the huts, Rongon and his wolves search the huts. They emerge with blankets. He says, "These will help to conceal us from eyes in the sky and keep the sun off of us." He has his guards demonstrate. They share a blanket, holding it over their heads.

From inside one of the outermost huts, the group scans the landscape for the Orruengoerr. The terrain resembles tropical shrubland.


There isn't much cover. A bit further out, denser clumps of vegetation appear.


In the distance, the terrain gradually starts to rise, making the Orruengoerr more visible to the naked eye. Along with the last small craft.

Observing through binoculars, the group watches as a pair of tracked robots motor their way up a ramp into the small craft. They're followed by two bipeds; their tails betraying them as vargr. They walk stiffly. Parts of their bodies are covered with smooth surfaces.

"Star people," Rongon says in a whisper.

Thaedznou asks, "Joe, you picking up anything?"

"No. I think we're too far away, and they're not broadcasting."

Roughly five minutes after they're all aboard, the ship takes off and rockets into space.

"We go now?" Aerrak asks.

"Not yet," Arthur replies. After a few minutes of observing, he says, "Ahhh, there you are." After a pause, he continues, "There's some kind of sentry posted there. Small bot, hooked up to a solar charging station and a small dish."

Thaedznou asks Rongon, "Any structures or rock formations between here and there?"

"I only know of the Great Road."

"The 'Great Road'?"

"Yes, it was built centuries ago to connect all of the cities around the sea."

"An expressway," Mazun mutters. To the group, he says, "I'm no civil engineer, but expressways, autobahnen, highways, freeways, parkways—whatever you want to call them—are all built higher than the surrounding terrain so that they won't flood with each passing rainstorm. That could provide us with some cover."

"How far is it?" Thaedznou asks Rongon.

"Not far. You can almost see it from here." He points.

"I see it," Arthur says. "Looks about 100 meters. We'll still have at least a click of ground to cover before the ship."

So the group heads out under cover of blankets and swiftly makes it way to the freeway. Once there, they drop to the ground and scan their surroundings.

All things considered, the freeway is in good shape. There has been little weathering and plant life has struggled to find means to establish roothold. Looking to the right (north), there are a few hulks of ground cars in the distance, near what looks like an off ramp. To the left, the freeway is clear as far as one can see before it curves to the southeast and is lost to shrubs growing on the side of the road.

The 100 meters hasn't improved the view of the Orruengoerr much. You'll have to get closer. Fortunately, the terrain on the far side of the freeway offers a lot of cover from ground-based observers. The shrubs growing in the dry soil are often up to two meters in height.

The group moves to within 100 meters of the crash site. The ground cover starts to taper off here, and the terrain starts to rise. There's a furrow in the earth delineating where the ship came down and plowed the vegetation aside.

The small bot comes into focus. Mazun identifies it as a GSbAG-1000XSM, a smaller version of the GSbAG-1000, a cargo bot. It maneuvers on treads, has a pair of manipulator arms, and a triangular turret on top which houses its sensor array. It is unarmed.

Thaedznou asks, "You picking anything up, Joe?"

"No. It's not transmitting. Probably in stand-by mode waiting for one of its sensors to be activated."

Darrurz taps on his laser rifle and asks Joe and Mazun, "Is there anything I can take out with this that will disable the bot?"

Mazun replies, "Yes. Have a look through the sight. On the top of the robot's...head, you're going to see a small antenna."

Darrurz aims the laser rife while prone and identifies the antenna. "I see it."

"Take that out and it can't connect with the big dish, which means it won't be able to let the ships in orbit know that we're at the crash site."

Thaedznou says, "In essence, it'll be muzzled."

"Exactly."

"Go for it, Darrurz," affirms Joe. "Arthur and I will take it out if it attacks." Joe then lies prone, ready to shoot the bot if it reacts hostile to the group.

Darrurz continues to stare at the bot through his scope. After a few seconds he raises his head to the group. "Ok, so say I take the antenna out. Then what?" Thaedznou says, "We move in and secure the crash site."

Mazun nods. "Maybe Joe can talk to it. Convince it that we're friends."

Thaedznou snorts. Aerrak laughs.

"Ok," Mazun frowns. "I'll find out if it has to report in periodically. If so, we can wipe its memory of us being there. If not, we take it apart for salvage."

Rongon and his guards eagerly listen in to the pack's conversation. Rongon says, "If you need a diversion, we can approach it from the north. Better for it to see us than you. If it knows that there are survivors from your pack, the Star People will look for you. Us," he indicates himself and his guards, "they will not care."

"No, I've got this," Darrurz says with confidence. And just like that, the robot's antenna is gone. The robot's head spins around and around, looking for the source of the shot.

"You hit it?" Rongon asks.

"He sure did," Thaedznou replies with a smile.

"But I didn't hear it. I didn't see it."

"That's the advantage of a laser. Now let's go make sure that robot doesn't have the capacity to directly interface with the satellite transmitter."

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, Rongon, and two vargr to be named later
Location: The wreck of the Orruengoerr
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.4 - 14:01 IST, 12:30 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

The pack approach the crash site rapidly with the locals in the lead. By the time the robot spots them, it's too late. Rongon's two guards swoop in and wrap it up in a blanket. Rongon follows up and tips the robot over. The trio quickly tie up the ends of the blanket. The robot can't seem to find purchase against its makeshift net. Even after it rights itself, it is unable to free itself from the blanket.

Thaedznou complements Rongon and his wolves on their snaring of the robot. He then says, "So long as it doesn't have a knife or a saw, that should hold it for a while." He turns to look at the ship and sniffs the air.

There are numerous scorch marks and holes in the hull. The nose of the ship is buried in the ground. The cargo bay hatches, barely visible out from the ground, are crumpled inward. A fissure runs along the seam where the cargo bay ends and the ship's boat bay begins. The ship's boat bay hatch is gone, providing the easiest means of entry.

Thaedznou wrinkles his nose. "Better get on with it."

While the locals wait outside with Aerrak, the rest of the landing pack enter the Orruengoerr.

Thaedznou reports that Vuksaerz was in a turret when he died. That whole compartment is a crumpled mess of melted metal and extends into the cargo hold on the lower deck.

Arthur reports that gear and supplies in the upper cargo bay are largely unscathed and salvageable. "Not sure why the vakh let it alone though."

Darrurz asks, "What do the gear and supplies look like? Did they search them? Or did they just look in the room and not touch them? Also what's there? An inventory would be good, but I'm not going to try and fire up the computer to find out."

"They searched the bay, opened crates and containers. Looks like all our gear is here. You should check the ship's locker for our extra weapons while you're up there."

"Ok, I'll take a look."

Mazun reports that engineering has been reduced to slag. Nothing salvageable there except for maybe the odd part here and there.

Darrurz says, "Inventory the parts that are salvageable from engineering in case we need them in future."

Mazun replies, "Yeah, I'm already doing that."

Darrurz and Joe find Captain Azafaghur's body on the bridge, still strapped into the pilot's chair with multiple puncture wounds. The place is lit by light streaming in through holes in the hull.

Off to the side, the computer access terminals have been cleared of debris. Panels have been removed; severed cables lead out onto the floor. Joe and Darrurz aren't really familiar with the components of computers, but it's clearly evident that large chunks of it have been removed.

Joe shines an electric torch inside the cabinet. The light reveals that more is missing than they thought.

Joe goes internal, "Hey Edd, can you identify the missing parts? Did they just take spare parts or stored data? Could they have left an egg?"

Edd replies, "There isn't enough left to have an egg. They took drives, memory, interface translator cards, processors. They took just about everything of value."

Out loud Joe says, "It looks like they took drives, processors, interface translator cards, memory blocks. Just about everything of value. There isn't enough here for even an egg."

"Does that include nav and comm systems?" Thaedznou asks.

"Yeah."

"That's not good," Thaedznou replies. "Now they'll know who we are, where we're from, where we've been, and who we've been in contact with."

Joe runs it by Edd. "Edd?" He queries, "You said memory. Does that include memories of where we've been and the people we talked to?"

"Yes."

Darrurz pipes up. "It might not be that bad. Azafaghur might have wiped the data on the way down. The who we've been in contact with isn't too much of a concern; they will know this area of space anyway. Where the Orruengoerr was from might be news to them."

Joe says, "We'll have to hope that the captain was able to do that. Although…" He drifts off and looks at the mangled corpse of Azafaghur.

More up beat, he adds, "Not much we can do here. We should join Arthur and see if we can lend a hand."

"After we check out the ship's locker," Darrurz replies.

The ship's locker is open. It looks like it's been rummaged through, but oddly enough, very little appears to be missing. For example, all of the hand computers are gone.

With Thaedznou's help, they form a supply chain, removing gear from the ship's locker and bringing it to the cargo bay near near Arthur. Once they have it all piled up, they assess what they have, what they need, and what to leave behind. With the help of the locals, they carry everything they can and exit the ship.

Before the group heads back to the city, Mazun asks, "Are we going to do anything about that robot?"

Joe replies, "Yeah, if we can't find a way to wipe its memory of us we need to find a convincing accident for it." Joe looks around the crash scene. "Perhaps we can make that broken stabilizer look like it snapped and crushed it?"

Thaedznou says, "Let's try to wipe its memory first. If it fails to report in, its masters will likely send a patrol to investigate."

Mazun nods. "Ok, you guys restrain it while I access the power source."

It requires a group effort to restrain the robot so that Mazun can open the access panel and disconnect the power. Once its immobile, he disconnects the power cords to everything save the internal computer. As it reboots, Mazun puts it in diagnostic mode, granting him access to all of the robot's functions. He copies the sensor readings from the previous day over on top of the current day, then sets the internal clock to "wake up" three hours from now.

"Well, that should do it," Mazun says, putting his tools away. "It won't stand up to scrutiny if anyone does any forensic analysis, but maybe no one will."

With the task complete and the sun sinking in the sky, the group collects their things and heads back towards the city.

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, Rongon, and two vargr to be named later
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.4 - 15:31 IST, 14:00 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

The group heads back to the city. With only a couple of hours of daylight left, the transit is made with speed in mind over stealth. Blanket camouflage is still employed out in the open. Rongon's wolves scout ahead to make sure there are no surprises.

16:31 IST, 15:00 Local Time

The group ditches the blankets in the hut they used to spy on the wreck. At this point, they'll have to rely on the city's structures to obscure their presence to prying eyes in orbit as they need unobstructed senses and freedom of movement for this part.

One of Rongon's wolves spots a uerroksafuekhskhuez recently woken from its daily slumber, forcing the group to take a different route back to the zip line tower.

About a block from the tower, the group catches up to the other one of Rongon's wolves.

"What's wrong," he asks him.

"Raiders," he says with a nod forward.

The group looks to the street ahead in the fading light. There's a pack of about a dozen wolves milling about the base of the tower. They're wearing ragged bits of leather and mesh armor and appear to be armed with pipes and hand axes. The scout gestures up to buildings near the tower, indicating the presence of crossbow snipers.

Thaedznou says, "They don't look friendly."

"They're not," Rongon replies. "They will demand a toll to cross the wall."

"Is there another way across?"

"There's the gate to the north, but we'll have to hope the uerroksafuekhskhuez aren't hungry."

Mazun mutters, "Should've brought a crate of fish from Gvoksaedo."

Aerrak has to stifle a laugh.

Thaedznou asks, "Can these raiders be reasoned with?"

Rongon replies, "Only if they sense strength. If they sense weakness, they bite."

Thaedznou turns to the others. "I think dealing with these ruffians will be better than taking our chances with giant hungry lizards. What do you think?"

Mazun eagerly replies, "I vote for ruffians."

Joe agrees with tackling the ruffians.

Darrurz is not impressed. "Are we going to kill them? Or confront them? It's bad enough that we have to deal with the Vakh. Llallaeknuez help me, but I hate corsairs."

Joe replies, "There's no problem with taking them out if we need to, but I'd rather save my ammo for the Vakh." He unslings his sword. "Perhaps this can be just as persuasive as my rifle." He flaps an arm behind him emulating a tail.

Arthur chuckles. "I've got one of those, too."

Thaedznou cocks his head to the side, studying Joe's actions. He shakes his head, as if coming out of a trance, and says to Darrurz, "I'm not surrendering anything, and I want to save my ammo, but I'd rather not get into a close quarters fight being outnumbered. However, if they need convincing..."

Darrurz asks the scout, "Can you get me into a position that I have a shot at the snipers?"

"Yes."

Thaedznou nods with a smile. "I'll leave my comm open. We'll wait here until you're in position."

Rongon gives a curt nod to his scout to indicate they should leave now, which they do.

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, Rongon, and two vargr to be named later
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.4 - 16:46 IST, 15:15 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

Once Darrurz and the scout are in position, Thaedznou confidently leads the group down to the tower with the pack of raiders at the base. One of the raiders holds up a paw. Once the group stops, the raiders casually surround the group.

"What we here?" the leader asks.

Thaedznou answers, "A group of travelers, looking to cross over the wall and return to our pack."

The leader sizes the group up and down. "You're not from around here, not dressed like that anyway." Chuckles ripple through the raiders. "Well, these two," he gestures to Rongon and his other guard, "are local. But you're not. So I'm gonna explain the rules to you real simple: If you want to get over the wall here, you're gonna have to pay a toll. And I'm thinking that it's gonna be half your stuff. And we pick the half."

"That's not going to happen," Thaedznou answers.

"Ooooo," the leader howls in mock fear. "We have ourselves an alpha wolf who thinks he and his little pack of pups and pinkies..." It must've finally dawned on him in the fading light that almost half the group are humans, for he says, "Hoooo ahh. When was the last time there was a pinky on this planet? Am I right, wolves?" He's answered by a round of "yeahs" and barks. "You must've been in that spaceship that crashed last night."

Thaedznou doesn't respond, merely keeping his eyes focused on him.

The leader gets close to Thaedznou. "I'm guessing the Star People would be pretty interested in you."

The two vargr are now about 30 cm (~a foot) apart. Eyes locked on one another.

"My price just went up. If you want over that wall and us to forget we saw you, we're gonna need all of your stuff."

The leader's demands are met with yips of assent from his pack of raiders.

Thaedznou takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Here's my counteroffer: You're going to back away from me and my pack, let us cross the wall, and forget you ever saw us. In return, we'll let you live."

The leader laughs, but there's no mirth in it. He backs away as his pack joins in.

It takes the leader a moment to compose himself, then he says, "Oh dog, that's funny. But if you don't start dumping your gear on the ground by the time I count down from five, we're gonna tear into you." For emphasis, he pulls out a pistol and aims it at Thaedznou. His wolves take a fighting stance. The two archers in the buildings come out from their hiding places to emphasize their perceived advantage.

"Five..."

"Darrurz," Thaedznou interrupts, "I'm tired of this shit."

Darrurz fires his first shot, catching the first sniper by surprise. He falls, drawing the attention of the other sniper and the raiders on the ground. Darrurz attempts to take out the second sniper, but he has ducked back inside the balcony of the window he was at and is now out of sight.

Meanwhile on the ground, Thaedznou takes advantage of the raiders' surprise. He catches the leader off guard and plunges his dagger into his throat. The leader drops his pistol and clutches at his throat, attempting to stop the fountain of blood streaming through his fingers. Thaedznou grabs the pistol and whirls around to face a raider rushing to his leader's aid.

Mazun draws his pistol and gets off two quick shots in the raider closest to him.

Aerrak catches the raider closest to him by surprise and takes him down with a knife to the chest.

While looking for the sniper, Darrurz says to the scout next to him, "Spot the ground for me, and if they need help then let me know. I'm looking for their sniper because he will likely be looking for us."

The scout gives a quick yip of assent.

Joe is caught off guard by Thaedznou's sudden killing stroke on the leader. The large volume of blood distracts him long enough that the first swing of his sword is wildly off. That gives his target a chance to recover from his own shock and prepare himself for Joe's next swings. But he doesn't have anything to properly parry with and takes a hit to his left arm. As he raises his hand axe to strike, Joe buries his sword through the vargr's belly. The raider slumps to the ground.

Meanwhile, Arthur is a bit rusty on his sword work. He misses his intended target who jabs him with a spear. Fortunately, it doesn't get through his inserts. Arthur then grabs the spear to pull his target forward. But rather than let go of the spear, the raider allows himself to be pulled forward into Arthur's blade. Once he's been run through, he lets go.

Rongon makes short work of the raider closest to him while the guard with him exchanges blows with another raider.

With half their numbers dead so quick, including their leader, the raiders' morale is broken. They break off their attack and flee.

The scout with Darrurz relays this news to him. Darrurz tells him to rejoin the others as he wants to wait a while longer to make sure the sniper isn't still lurking.

The group takes a few minutes to make sure everyone is ok.

Thaedznou picks up the dead leader's gun, searches him for ammo, and hands it over to Rongon. "Here. We'll show you how it works later. It could come in handy if you're desperate."

Rongon takes the weapon and thanks Thaedznou.

Rongon's scouts look through the bodies for useful weapons and Joe joins in while Arthur and Thaedznou keep watch. Aerrak watches over Mazun as he tries to catch his breath.

Darrurz pipes up over the comm, "Take their belts, their shoes, packs, pouches, food, equipment. Anything that will aid Rongon's pack that we can easily carry. They have done us a favour let's re-pay the kindness."

Mazun nods to Aerrak that he's ok, and the two set to rummaging through the pockets of the raiders. Thaedznou crouches down and searches the leader.

Suddenly, screams are heard in one of the directions that the raiders ran.

Rongon says, "We'd better be going. I think the raiders found the uerroksafuekhskhuez."

Thaedznou contacts Darrurz, requesting him to re-join the group.

Darrurz replies, "Ok coming down, be there in bit." After clearing the position, he works his way back the way he came. Upon re-joining the group, a raider returns to the intersection. The group raise their weapons and point them at him.

"Wait," he pauses to catch his breath. "Don't...shoot." He gestures down the street from whence he came. "There's a pack of—"

A large lizard-looking thing pounces on his back and pins him to the ground. He screams as the beast tears into his back.

Rongon yells, "Up the stairs now! RUN!"

Once everyone is inside the building, Rongon shuts the door and throws the bolt. The group races up the stairs to the zip line room. Rongon's scouts are the first across to make sure the other side is secure.

"We're safe from them up here," Rongon assures the group. Uerroksafuekhskhuez aren't good with stairs or doors."

Looking down through the street facing window, two more uerroksafuekhskhuez have joined the first. Although it's difficult to make out the details—probably a good thing—their large size is hard to miss.

One by one, the group zips across to the walled city side. One of the uerroksafuekhskhuez starts sniffing around the building and looks up when it hears someone cross, but it doesn't seem to know how to get to the group. Rongon is the last across and then commences to lead the group back to his home along the route they took this morning.

There are no further incidents on the way back to Rongon's pack.

Next: Night in Rongon's Den