In retrospect, I am very happy with my build except for the choice of the second Research Officer. Every card played a major role in the adventure except for him and, as you'll see below, I really could have used the Maintenance Staff.
Below is the narrative written by exodenews over the course of seven posts. I have linked the title of each section to the post that contained it. I am also including some notes as to how other entrants fared.
You laid in a course heading for the solar terminator so you'd stay in an area that's neither too hot nor too cold. As the autopilot started its approach, an energy sphere appeared in the middle of your shuttle, violently screaming in some alien tongue. Khhgrrh! Kzhrbhhrk!! You did not understand a word of it, but it seemed what ever got inside your shuttle wasn't very happy with your approach of the asteroid...
Your Mysterious AI starts interacting with the sphere at once. ...you are... viola... Ptekorian... space! Turn... consequences... and with that the sphere implodes, leaving only a dim glowing red crystal behind. It all happened too fast for you to comprehend, but it seems the Mysterious AI first got it to sever all connections to it's overlord and then self destruct.
Eliza is really looking forward to analyzing the hell out of this new found resource. From what she can tell, the crystal could still be used as some kind of energy source. There's no telling where that sphere came from or who sent it, so you cautiously land on the asteroid and decide to stay in hiding for some time.
Result of Encounter:
No damage taken - well done Captain!
New energy source gained: Colony Health + 5
Colony Health remaining: 105
In good mood because of how your Mysterious AI managed that alien encounter, Eliza is already working on the mysterious red crystal while the rest of the crew is setting up base. Your cargo is filled to the brim with oxygen, food, and water. You do a quick calculation and are pleased to know that you have enough of everything to survive until the Colombus is going to pick you up. She could even be late 10 days and you'd still survive. The only downside is that you don't have any additional habitat, so you'll have to live cramped inside the Baldie for the time being.
But Eliza and her crew are not prepared to sit around for 90 days doing nothing anyway. There already was one hostile alien encounter and you are pretty sure that it won't be the last. You decide to not rush anything, but you are going to prepare a first expedition deeper into the Asteroid.
Result of Check-Up:
You are all set - Well done Captain!
Colony Health remaining: 105
After you finished setting up your shelter, you prepare to start your first Expedition deeper into the asteroid. You don't know what to expect, but after your contact with that alien drone you prefer to be prepared for anything. Lack of gravity is going to make exploration a lot slower than what you'd like to see but there's no helping it. Without any means of scanning the inside of the asteroid, you'll just have to choose and pick one of the tunnels.
You decide which route to take and muster the options available to you...
You have prepared for that exact situation. Because you are not sure what to expect, you decide to send the Little Buddy in alone for the first expedition. He's not really built for zero gravity but there's no helping it. He'll still be able to navigate, albeit at a lower speed. The crew nervously watches his camera feed as he slowly descends into the asteroid. All of sudden, you loose contact to the drone. What ever is blocking the sensors seems to also block communications.
After several agonizing minutes, the feed comes back online. Luckily, the Little Buddy is programmed to return immediately should it ever loose contact with base. Since sending the drone to explore alone is no longer an option, you decide to send your Exploration Officers out there with him. Just to be sure, the Kilbot is coming with your crew as well.
The lack of gravity makes traversing the tunnel really hard and getting anywhere takes your team a long time. After what seems like an eternity, your crew realizes that there's a dim red glow coming from deeper within the tunnel. They approach it with caution and after some more minutes they can finally see the source of the glow: There's a red energy shield covering the whole tunnel. The shield generators seem to have been embedded within the tunnels walls. It seems this asteroid was or still is some sort of alien base.
Full of curiosity, your Exploration Officers slowly approach the shield. There's no way of getting to the generators and there seems to be no control element. With the help of Little Buddy's sensors your officers analyze the shield. It seems to be of a rather low power level, not sure if it will really withstand anything. One of your officers picks one of his flares and throws it into the shield. The second it hits the shield, the flare just disappears into the void. Woah, it's power level went up 10000% in basically no time! Whoever set this up certainly doesn't want visitors!.
Without any options your crew returns to your makeshift colony. In the following days, additional tunnels are explored but each expedition ends with the same result. Once you get closer to the core, the path is blocked by a red energy shield. After several unsuccessful expeditions, Eliza comes up with an idea. Maybe the energy is shared between these shields? So if one gets hit with something, the others will go down! Because communication won't be possible inside the asteroid, testing this theory will needs to be coordinated perfectly.
You spend the next days picking the best tunnels for this little experiment...
Result of Encounter:
Nothing bad happened - Well done Captain!
Colony Health remaining: 105
Note: Both of the other two crews who landed on the asteroid and all four of the crews landing on the moon didn't bring enough life support. If I'm lucky, half my competition is going to die from lack of preparation. I can't say that I'm sad about that.
Both teams set off at the same time and agreed on an exact moment for the Kilbot to start his work. Once everybody was in position, the Kilbot aimed at the shield and started blasting it. As expected, the power level surged immediately and everything hitting the shield just vanished into the void. At the other shield, something amazing happened. The second the Kilbot was tasked with shooting at his shield, the shield the second team was monitoring all but disappeared. So Eliza's theory was correct. Once one shield is hit, almost all energy is transferred to it, leaving the other shields defenseless. To make sure it really worked, the Exploration Officer picked up another of his flares and threw it through the shield. Nothing happened, the flare just landed on the other site. Highly ecstatic about her find Eliza would have loved to move through the shield right away, but things were not that easy. We now know how to get through, but we don't know how to get back again!.
Obviously, to get back from the core someone or something had to give another shield something to do again. The team had a lot of discussions on how to proceed. There are only 3 human Officers, was it really a good idea to split up? We can't send in the Kilbot alone and nobody knows what the Mysterious Robot would do if he was ever powered up. After some back and forth, their eyes fell on the Maintenance Droid peacefully cleaning the shuttle. This shuttle won't be going anywhere and there's no damage to repair. We can risk sending him! So it was decided. He was tasked with moving through the open shield, going as deep in as possible for an hour, record everything he sees and then come back to the shield exactly 2 hours later. Kilbot would then go for the other shield again and give him a 1 minute window to return.
The very next day, everything was set in motion. The shield opened up just as planned and the Maintenance Droid got through. It took him about 10 minutes to get out of sensor and communications range and up until then there was only more tunnel without anything noteworthy. Then the waiting began. These 2 hours felt like days to your crew. They sat there, waiting, hoping. But the Droid never returned. They waited another hour, hoping he might yet return and work something out but ultimately, they had to accept that he probably wouldn't return.
Back at the shuttle there was yet another heated discussion. We are safe here, there's no need for another expedition! - We are explorers, we don't sit around 2 month doing nothing with such a fascinating thing right in front of us! - And what happened to the droid? What if there are hostiles? What if they know where we are? What if they come for us!? So it was decided. There would be another expedition and this time there would be humans! Kilbot had to come with them on the expedition, leaving only the Little Buddy as a trusted companion. Luckily, he has some small weapons himself. He was sent to the far shield and ordered to shoot at it continuously every three hours so what ever happened, there would always be a way back.
One last check of the weapons, one last check of their suits, and they were ready to move towards the shield. There was no telling what they'd find on the other side of that shield but no matter what, they would find out! In the exact second they anticipated, the shield went down and in they went...
Result of Encounter
You lost your Maintenance Droid - 10 damage
Colony Health remaining: 95
Note: Both my competitors on the asteroid ran out of air and suffocated. I've apparently lost my Maintenance Droid and start second-guessing my choice of a second Research Officer over a Maintenance Staff. On the moon, we were treated to the sight of Captain nockzonk's crew trying to tiptoe through a minefield -- only to find out that some of the mines were mobile and pursuit-ready. Exodenews' narrative of that is worth reading for the visual that inspires alone.
And then there were ten!
When you were less than 5 metres away, he turned to you ...welcome to Ptekorian observatory CS-D95!... It seemed like something had taken control of him, but at least he was not hostile. Eliza put out her scanner and started to analyze the Droid. ...Please do not interfere with this unit. The Central Node is now ready to accept your gift of reconciliation... With this, the airlock in front of your crew slowly opened up. Your crew was unsure how to proceed. Something was feeling very wrong here, but you did not make it that far to back down now. With Kilbot leading the way, you moved on through the airlock. You entered what seemed to be a labyrinth of small tunnels and corridors, each with additional airlocks leading to different directions. As you traversed the corridors, the airlocks closed behind you and another one in front of you opened, giving you only one way to follow.
After several more minutes, yet another airlock revealed a huge room which seemed to be some kind of control room. The walls were clustered with big screens showing symbols in a writing your crew has never seen. The center of the room was made up of a large energy sphere, similar looking to what you had encountered back on the Baldie, but at least 10 times its size. For a second Eliza was just standing there, staring at the sphere. ...welcome to Ptekorian observatory CS-D95!... Eliza snapped back in and started to follow federation protocols again. Greetings to you, I am Eliza, I speak on behalf of the Fe... she started, but was interrupted immediately. ...an introduction is not necessary. We learned all we needed to know from the first gift you sent us. In accordance with the Ptekorian accords of Sang'khta we accept your second gift and your guilt is considered to be compensated. Now what was that meant to mean? Eliza and the Exploration Officers were looking at each other, raising there shoulders.
Out of nowhere, the Kilbot turned to your crew ...the Ptekorian Commonwealth thanks you for your gift, go in peace... You did not understand how they managed to do that, but it seemed they turned the Kilbot just like that. If Eliza was a more impulsive person, she might consider fighting this silly Ptekorian Commonwealth, but she was able to restrain her anger. With the Kilbot opposing them, there was nothing they could do but retreat. Maybe a Hacker or another more tech savvy person could do something about it, but with the three of them left, there was no play available to them.
Your crew slowly retreated back the way they came, again with each airlock closing behind them and another one opening in front of them. When they made it back to the last airlock, the Maintenance Droid was still standing there. ...go in peace, we will lower the shield for you...
The Officers made it back to the Baldie, but you lost both your Maintenance Droid and the Kilbot to what ever entity is sitting within this strange sphere. There had to be something you could do about it...
Result of Encounter
Your Kilbot got turned - 25 damage
Colony Health remaining: 70
Notes: OK. Not what I would have preferred but not so bad. The only thing that really concerned me was that last sentence. My crew wasn't going to go and do something stupid, were they?
On the moon, all the parties entered the base and found life support food and water. Unfortunate for my chances of an easy win . . . . Captain veryanprime's Special Infiltration Agent proved her worth when, somehow, she knew the passwords to get into the base. Captain nockzonk, however, died to a poison gas trap due to the lack of a Maintenance Staff or a Tech Expert to find it. I wonder if my Maintenance Droid would have found it.
On the planet, Captains proto26 and apprentice001's crews died from drinking or dying from thirst while refusing to drink the hallucinogenic violence-inducing water.
And then there were seven!
Eliza was still furious about what happened in the asteroids core. If the Federation was around they'd teach that Hegemony a lesson! Who do they think they are!? But whoever they were, in the end Eliza knew that they were at least one thing: Outgunning her crew by a lot. If the Kilbot was still on her side, she might consider to make another move. Maybe if that crazy Hacker was still around she knew from the academy. But between her and the two Exploration Officers, there was nothing they could do to turn things around.
Their first priority was surviving until the Colombus picked them up and Eliza was not willing to risk the success of that mission for some futile acts of revenge. At least it seemed the Ptekorians didn't hold any grudges against her and her crew, so they should be safe in these tunnels.
It was only one more month to go. For now, the crew just had to wait...
Result of Encounter
Nothing bad happened: Good job Captain!
Colony Health remaining: 70
Notes: Phew. Eliza didn't go stupid -- but I'm sure that there are more encounters coming before I'm home free. Meanwhile, on the moon, Captain slabakbg's crew died to an invasion force delivered by a Myrmidon Attack Transport. Captain palasatenea's crew managed to bring the Myrmidon down but not to destroy it. Captain veryanprime's Special Infiltration Agent knew the Captain of the Myrmidon and left with him, leaving behind the party she played which was subsequently destroyed by a Myrmidon missile.
And then there were five!
The days were growing longer and longer for your crew. Without anything to do (other than sit around and wait for the Colombus to finally come and pick you up), Eliza grew increasingly frustrated. There's a marvel of science waiting inside this asteroid and I'm stuck sitting here drawing space lions. Just as she was having an internal debate on whether to bring the topic of doing another expedition up again or not, one of the Exploration Officers brought her back to reality. There's a spaceship in the system, I think it's heading for the Moon! Could it be the Colombus already? Scanning it now... it's a human design... this has to be our rescue mission!
Happy to be finally taken of that rock, your crew started to broadcast on the agreed on frequency. The ship did not react to their calls and soon later it landed on the moon. Maybe they did not notice us and are searching on the moon first Eliza speculated Keep the broadcast going, they'll get to us eventually. And indeed, they did. After almost a day the ship left the moon and was heading towards the ocean world when they seemingly finally noticed your crews broadcast. They are hailing us, Eliza! - Put them on screen.
Your crew expected to be greeted by one of your fellow officers from the Colombus, but instead they were looking at a man in his forties wearing a uniform Eliza had never seen before. Who are you and what do you want from us? Eliza was still a little baffled by the fact that there were other humans in this sector not belonging to her expedition, but she quickly regained focus. Greetings to you, I am Eliza, I speak on behalf of the Federation and I... the face of the man turned from confusion into anger within seconds You have quite the nerve, federation scum! and with that he severs the connection. Is anybody ever going to at least allow Eliza to finish her sentence?
I don't think they are happy with your introduction, Eliza the Exploration Officer noted. They are changing direction and are powering up their weapons. That was not good. The Baldie was sitting like a dead duck in that asteroid. We should get deeper into the asteroid, everybody come with me, fast! Eliza shouted but there was not much she could do here. It didn't take the Myrmidon long to move towards the asteroid and without gravity they simply were not fast enough to move away from the shuttle.
They are launching missiles! The Exploration Officer kept track of the situation. Prepare for impact! The first missile exploded against one of the tunnels a bit away from the Baldie. It would take them a while to land a direct hit, but it didn't seem like they were prepared to stop anytime soon. A second and a third missile hit the asteroid. Out of nowhere, the whole asteroid started shaking. I... I don't think these are missile hits...? Eliza was not sure what was happening. A few seconds later, a focused laser beam emerged from the asteroid and evaporated the Myrmidon on hit. Looks like the Hegemony is not too fond of aliens attacking their installations.
Your crew slowly got back to the Baldie. The nearby explosions had caused some damage to the shuttle but without your Maintenance Droid there was nothing you could do about it. It should hold until the Colombus arrives Eliza analyzed. But there was another, much larger issue. How were the Ptekorians to know that the Colombus was friendly after what just happened with that battleship? Your crew had to get in contact with them again before they'd destroy the Colombus!
Result of Encounter:
Your Baldie suffered some damage - 10 damage
Colony Health remaining: 60
Notes: About what I expected. I'm not in a bad position for surviving but there Captain raudell is 25 points ahead of me (10 that would be fixed if I had a Maintenance Staff). Meanwhile, the last survivors on the moon, Captain palasatenea's crew were wiped out by attacker's from the downed Myrmidon.
And then there were four!
According to the Exploration officer, there was a choice to make indeed. He came up with a slightly different plan. The Mysterious AI was obviously capable of hacking that first drone the Ptekorians had sent to the Baldie, so maybe it would be able to hack the asteroid's core as well? The idea was pretty simple really - upload the AI to the Mysterious Robot, have them try to turn him and once they connect to him, the AI takes over the whole asteroid. The plan sounded good and there was a real chance of it succeeding. But what if it failed? They'd lose the Mysterious AI as well. Or even worse, what if the Ptekorians see through their deception? They still had that Kilbot standing there, it would most likely get them killed.
In the end, Eliza decided against the plan. They protected us from that attack and it is apparent that they are not hostile towards us. We might not understand their reasoning but the Ptekorians clearly are not our enemy and there is no need to change that. So it was decided. The Little Buddy got sent to shield blasting duty again and the three Officers moved to the shield they had already traversed previously. As they approached the shield, it deactivated itself several minutes before the Little Buddy was tasked with shooting at it. Seems like they are expecting us this time.
Your crew moved further through the tunnels and finally got to feel gravity again. This time there was no Droid waiting at the entrance, but the airlock was already open. They followed the same corridors back to the center of the asteroid. The control room itself hadn't changed at all, but the Kilbot as well as several energy spheres were standing close by. It seemed like they didn't fully trust your intentions.
...Bio-unit Eliza, you have returned. What do you require...? Eliza was not really sure how to best address or describe the issue, so she just started to explain the whole situation, how they landed on that asteroid, how the Colombus should come pick you up, and how you had mistaken the attackers for the rescue party. When she was finished, there was a moment of silence before she got a reaction from the central node. ...Explanation incohesive.
Bio-unit Eliza. Affiliation: Federation. Relation: Friendly.
Spaceship Myrmidon. Affiliation: Federation. Relation: Hostile
Spaceship Colombus. Affiliation: Federation. Relation: Unknown...
It seemed like the Ptekorians were mistaking any human ship to be a member of the Federation, so Eliza tried to explain how the attackers were human but not affiliated with the Federation. But no matter what she tried, the central node kept insisting. ...Spaceship Myrmidon. Affiliation: Federation. Relation: Hostile... When she once again started to explain the difference, a hologram of the Myrmidon got projected into the room. Alongside it was a long list with specifications and additional information. Wait a minute... one of the Exploration Officers seemed to recognize the ship. I know that ship! It's the Ignotus. One of the test ships for the Neuter-field technology! It was reported to be destroyed during a testing accident almost three years ago. It is a Federation ship indeed!
To Eliza this could only mean one thing: The ship was captured by rebels or pirates or what ever evil was hiding out there in space. Never would a Federation Captain attack a fellow Federation ship! She did her best to explain what must have happened to the central node and finally, the Mysterious Robot turned to her. ...Explanation approved. Spaceship Colombus. Affiliation: Federation. Relation: Friendly... That was all she needed to hear. She nodded and seconds later, the airlock behind the crew opened up again. The conversation was over.
Eliza and the Exploration Officers headed back, constantly thinking about the Inotus. What did really happen back then? How did they end up here? Why did they attack? Once back on the Colombus, there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered.
Another 10 days passed until the day finally came. The Colombus entered the system and was able to pick up your crew without any further incidents. You had made it - but it was only going to be the start of your adventure...
Result of Encounter:
You have lost the Mysterious Robot - 25 damage
You left the Asteroid on good terms with the Ptekorian Hegemony - Colony Health + 25
Colony Health remaining: 60
You have made it to the end of the challenge! Congratulations Captain!
Notes: I can't be unhappy with these results and it was an awesome story. Meanwhile, Captain blockmonster's crew died after their water supplies were destroyed by missiles from the same pesky Myrmidon that had harassed the moon and asteroid crews.
And then there were three!