is he part of the crew or is he an inmate like you?

Chocomaca 2014/02/14(Fri)13:13 No. 562554 ID: 1c677c
File 139241243222.png - (111.56KB , 945x480 , lookout.png )

I don't think he is an inmate. The Utzi don't wear guns. Not guns like that. And that strange tube on his back. This must be one of the aliens. Maybe he got his stuff back, so could I. What should I do with him? I'm sure there's a way out of here.

There's no guarantee that you could subdue this guy for interrogation and even lower chance that you might share any common languages. Charge this guy and aim for the upper part of his back, assuming he's got a spinal column you could sever it to disable his ability to breath and call for help. Sneaking around seems to be impossible in your current suit so press the advantage and charge his ass.

if you can get around get around, if not... improvise

Assume that it is an invading trooper that's standing 'guard' and bored after neutralizing the staff. Sneaking is better than murdering, and murdering is better than getting caught.

Try to find a way around. Where else can you go from here without going through that guy?

Chocomaca 2014/02/15(Sat)08:32 No. 562650 ID: 1c677c
File 139248196695.gif - (1.02MB , 945x480 , improvise.gif )

Animated action scene
•I creep into the intersection.
•Damnit! The bugger sees my reflection!
•Just a little closer…
•There!
I can understand his speech! “You’re no use here, the Morbian took your space vessel.”
I ask him if he’s a Morbian
His answer is as harsh as the threat: “You speak Achalonian and don’t know whose language?”
What should I do with him?

could you take a blood sample for future bioengineering?

Also ask what he knows happened here, what does he mean by space vessel, and what he was hoping to accomplish by standing in the middle of a hallway.

>>562656
>could you take a blood sample for future bioengineering?

I really wouldn't want to risk them noticing this.
Asking what the situation is would be good though.

Chocomaca 2014/02/16(Sun)08:11 No. 562853 ID: 1c677c
File 139256707756.png - (59.86KB , 945x480 , weapon.png )

I ask the alien to explain what happened here in Achalonian. He tells me that water was dumped from the corridors and his squad was able to sneak in through the disposal hatch. They destroyed the security robots, killed every Utzi that was in the facility and meant to take the natives as slaves, when the Morbian was set loose. The Morbian slaughtered his strike squad but left him alive, wounded. Then the Morbian dragged two of his men to the hangar, captured the space vessel and left.

The alien says that he didn’t shoot me, because he realised I must have been held captive in the prison and the only way for me to get out is to wait for his corvette to fly here and pick us up.
•Accept his offer
•Decline his offer
•Decline his offer - Drag the alien around in the grip of a tentacle.
•Decline his offer - Execute the alien and capture dna samples and replenish biomatter from his body

so this guy was part of a group that was going to kill our captors, then sell all the prisoners into slavery... So what I'm get from this guy is that the reason he didn't shot us is because he still thinks there's a chance for him to sell us into slavery. Eh, lets go option B just incase he's right and he is our only way out of here, but I still don't trust this guy so if you could knock him out that would be swell.

I don't like killing this guy in case we need him for something. I also don't like leaving a slaver alive because we aren't one of his friends already--his friends may want to try and enslave us at some point. I don't know if he meant the prisoners instead of 'natives' when talking about capturing slaves, or if that is a fiction he's telling us to convince us not to fight him until his backup arrives.
Ask him about the natives, and if it's worth capturing a few to bring on the corvette that's coming. This is where we pump him for information that either suggests he's lying or gets us a business proposition: Becoming a slaver temporarily is better than becoming a slave certainly, and killing this dude because we know he's a lying asshole is better than leaving him alive or killing him pre-emptively.

Accept, but only if he helps you get your kit back first.

Once you have your bioengineering kit and DNA library we can subvert this guy and his colleagues if needed.

>>563137
Unless I've missed something, What we're missing from our library and our equipment has sailed away from us on our ship. What's still local to acquire we've already got. The feedback we got in >>562524 was, admittedly, terse however.

so our choices are to help out the people who imprisoned you (the natives), help out the people who are planning on enslaving you (the invaders) or dragging the gunman we just knocked out to the ship and see if we can't get the hell out of here... I kinda like the getting the hell out of here plan but if that fails do you think you could convince the natives that your part of there team on not a prisoner? I'd trust them over slavers any day.

Chocomaca 2014/02/27(Thu)10:15 No. 564586 ID: 1c677c
File 139352492102.png - (132.25KB , 925x470 , hangar.png )

I ask about the native race that the Achaloniain is talking about and which isn’t the Utzi overseers of this facility. The native race calls itself the Pandils. They’re good, submissive slaves and have a fascinating biology. The Pandil natives have barricaded premises on the far end of the facility.

I also ask him why he was standing in the middle of an intersection. He says he was looking for lights in the sky in case an unknown ship would approach the facility so he would have to get out. He was also giving himself a break after the bloodshed, in a way. He seems to be amused by the sight of an Utzi brain in one of my grabbing tentacles.

I further pump information from him. He starts talking about his nation, the Gramorce, which now has hidden colonies on different continents. He tells about the military might of the Gramorce and that they are unstoppable. They will drive the Utzi presence from the solar system and enslave all three Pandil civilizations on the planet, then spread to the stars as a local solar superpower, just that they would first make their numbers grow a bit.

He tells about the Gramorce capital city, a former underground penal colony of the Achalonians that the Morbian explorers helped on its feet and freed the humiliated mass of the Gramorcians. He tells about their cybernetic advances, pleasure implants, magnificent artificial caves, gigantic automated factories and robotics and mercury ultraviolet lit underground supertowers of obsidian and steel.

Some of his hissing stories go past my focus and when he stops, I insensitively knock him out. I move on and find a large space filled with octagonal and cube crates. After many moments of furious searching I find a crate buried under others that has a warn sign of biohazard on it. The crate contains my bio-suit when I open it.

The bio-suit still contains the dna datapacket and 5 kg worth of biomatter. Consuming the Utzi brain in my grabbing tentacle to fill my organic biomatter pod. Totalling 6 kg my biomatter capacity is now full. The reunification with a splinter of my biological studies and most crucial dna discoveries immediately calms my feelings of rising psychological pressure.

Not long after fetching the bio-suit from what seems to be a storage adjacent to a hangar for small space ships alarming noises emerge from the hangar. I stalk closer and let Promethea take shelter in a pocket of my bio-suit. There’s no way my science vessel could have fit into this hangar.

However, this new vessel that is landing in the hangar wields more crude technology and cannot be Utzi architecture. It doesn’t have any windows or exterior engines. It’s plated with black tinted titanium or some other strong-looking material. The craft uses some sort of magnetic or gravitational engine. The engine seems to create a violent field of magnetic or gravitational disturbance or a bubble, that makes the hangar panelings clack and wail like under some fierce pressure.

A black hatch opens when the craft stops its landing just before hitting the hangar floor. A black thick battlesuit steps out of the hatch and turns to face gunfire from the other side of the hangar. Projectiles against heavy lasers seems an uneven match and soon creatures that seem to fit to the description of the native race of Pandils retreat to the interiors of the facility. Optical cords on the black battlesuit make scanning rotations to feed picture to whoever occupies the armor. This must be the Achalonian crew of the corvette the knocked out lookout was talking about.

I come to a choice, should I side with the Achalonian slavers or help the Pandil natives who seemed to be enraged of the killings.

I don't like either option. The Pandil types are obviously getting their asses kicked and I don't trust the Achalonian folks as far as I could throw them. Institutionalized slavery proves these folks have a terrible, oppressive socioeconomic hierarchy issue with how they treat foreign contractors.
Do we choose the team least able and likely to screw us over, and join the losers who probably are already doomed to defeat? Do we pretend to believe that Achalonian folks would actually pay us instead of enslave us for our cooperation? I'm tempted to suggest we take the third option of capture this ship, give the Pandil folks as much help as we can do quickly, and get out of here. Perhaps we can earn some penal-credit for reporting what happened to the Utzi base and what we recorded the Achalonian slaver saying to us to the Utzi.

hmm... the problem here is that we have a reason to distrust both sides. One has imprisoned you (even if it was just Utzi overseers but they still see the Utzi as allies so...) and the other side wants to kill or enslave everyone on this ship (they haven't done anything to you as of yet but who's to say they'll help you at all and not just throw you back into a cage?).

Do YOU know anything about either side or just what that one guy just told us? Cause unless you have any other information that you think could help us come to a decision I would say just sit back and watch for a moment and see who has the edge. I mean we don't really owe any side anything so it would be best to side with the victor I think.

>>564620
Contrary proposition: We side with the Achalonian slavers and they enslave us. I suspect that is the outcome of siding with the slavers no matter who is winning, and I doubt our friendly facepunch against one of the Achalonian slaver we were talking to will earn us much credit to buy ourself out of slavery. I don't want to be a slave, I don't want to risk being a slave, and dealing with the sorts of sociopaths who think slavery is worth doing is bad for your health, freedom and reputation even if you don't end up enslaved.

Totally with you on the lack of reason to trust either side aside from not actually knowing whether or not the Pandil have a relationship with the Utzi. Supposing that they do have one do we know whether it was a friendly or antagonistic one? The fact that they're coming to an Utzi base loaded for combat suggests they either don't like or don't trust the Utzi either.

The plan I wish was practical is to kill out the Achalonian landing party and steal their ride. Let's see if we can make it happen.

>>564637
I kinda figured that but I'm kinda worried that the if we side with the Pandil they'll lock us back up cause we were a prisoner from the beginning. But thinking on it they seem to be pissed that the slavers are attacking them and seem to be a bit on the losing side even with better weapons so even if they know who we are I don't think they'll care to much since we are no longer carrying the brain around and they seem to have enough problems with the slaver attack that they'd probably let us go by unmolested as long as we don't cause any more problems for them. Actually thinking about it I think siding with the crew is our best bet but I still think we should try and get the hell out of here before the fighting ends because even if we're on the winning side they still might throw us back into a cell no matter what side we chose so if you see an opportunity to get the hell out do so, hopefully before the fighting is down so we're less likely to be noticed escaping.

>>564643
>I kinda figured that but I'm kinda worried that the if we side with the Pandil they'll lock us back up cause we were a prisoner from the beginning.

You're being paranoid of primitives doing things they could only do if they had higher conceptual and hardware development levels than they do. If they were capable of that they'd be better armed for one thing. I'm more worried they're angry with the sneaky sky demons that bought their land with a few strings of beads and came back bringing their crudely-sharpened sticks because they have second thoughts about the deal.

Chocomaca 2014/02/28(Fri)05:38 No. 564674 ID: 1c677c
File 139359470220.png - (120.40KB , 945x480 , map_marked.png )

I don't know much about either side. I already burn with desire to study both Achalonians and Pandils when I get a grip of this situation. I must have learned Achalonian in a past life... I also know little about Achalonians from the ship records of the Utzi history, but I never really had time to read much history. The Utzi are a boring race. The Achalonians were the only spacefaring race that the Utzi met after we spread out from our homeworld. I must have learned the Achalonian language before my last psychogenesis, a psychological rebirth process typical for the Utzi. A life cycle lasts for... I don't remember how long, but the psychogenesis basically wipes out most of the common memory and gives way to new fast learning and role in the Utzi society. I can explain this more in further detail when I'm off this prison.

Studying myself has given me some knowledge of my own species, but I haven't dared to go too far in the fear of triggering a premature psychogenesis. It's just that I've created all my bioengineering tools myself in a couple of years with the help of my ship's science database. It wasn't too hard, although it was clearly stated that such advances were plain illegal among the Utzi, but I wasn't in dealings with anyone of my species for a long until now. I cannot imagine any more rewarding life career than exploring the border worlds, discovering and creating new life.

For now, I'm free again. I don't want to risk becoming an Achalonian slave, or worse, a test subject. The Pandils were too far for me to get a glimpse of their accessories and guns. They maybe made them themselves, but then, I can't be sure if the weapons were dropped by the Achalonian scouts that were killed by what the Achalonian said was the Morbian prisoner.

This or that, here's what I recall of the HUD map in my previous suit from this Utzi facility. I wonder if there is something I could use to travel off this place in the garage. The Utzi AI didn't communicate in the comm-link of the personnel suit, maybe I should check it out to get a better information of the events. There has to be a data center linked to the AI.

There are also rooms that I don't recall had any tag on them. Such as other prison cells. Maybe I will be able to find the controls that Promethea seems to have messed with.

well unless you think you could sneak through the hanger without getting spotted to the garbage area you may what to backtrack and come through the lobby to garbage. If so you'll go past the AI room again so you might as well hit that up as well and if I had to guess I'm sure the AI room would also have something for us to view the rest of this station with so we can get a clear idea of what's going on.

The safest places to go for now within the base seem to be engineering, the AI, and back to the general prison and unmarked area we came from. We perhaps could also try our luck with sweet-talking the natives. I don't know what we'll find in engineering, at all, so if I had to suggest a first place to go it would probably be the AI. It probably won't be that happy to see us if it's fully sentient itself, but perhaps it will be desperate enough to offer us a deal or damaged/insecure enough it won't stop us from doing as we like. It's also probably our best stop for discovering something worth knowing about the locals and environment of this planet--perhaps fleeing outside of the base locally is a worthwhile short or medium-term plan.

How about you just try to ally with the Pandils? You might be able to help them out with your biotech.

ChocoMaca 2014/03/11(Tue)13:33 No. 565987 ID: 1c677c
File 139457003394.png - (574.49KB , 1890x960 , hangar_utzi.png )

Avoiding the slaver battlesuit, escaping potential death, I sneak into the AI room. The room is destroyed by mechanical force. There are spills of white, blue and reddish liquids on the floor. The recording black box has been stolen.

The hangar is now silent. I sneak there unnoticed with help from Promethea. The Achalonian craft is gone. A few Pandil corpses lie at a doorway. Some Pandils come to care of their fallen and I try to start a conversation with them, but I don’t know their language. The interaction with them is one-sided. The Pandils try to talk to me most of them overrun by emotions. I would kill to get to study them in a lab environment.

Then two grim realizations occur. The Pandils actually outgun me. I have a few defensive poison-tipped blades against hostile life forms installed in my bio-suit, but I know better. There are four of them and I don’t have a lab by the way… I want my science vessel back.

The second grim realization tells of its self behind me. An Utzi space vessel lands in a rapid fashion and launches AI driven drones to the facility at an aggressive and incredibly fast pace. This all takes at most a couple of seconds. The Utzi intertial nullfiers allow them to figuratively teleport to the hangar.

After all this mess I’ve caused I will surely be contained for a lot more than just one psychogenesis I believe. I cannot escape. Coming here to talk with the Pandils was an appalling idea not considering that the Utzi might get the distress signal to their mothership as an alert was displayed on the personnel suit interface.

The Utzi contact me, “You there, identify yourself. Are you in need of immediate protection?”

The fact remains that the black box is gone. A sudden rush of Utzi bliss fills me after those two grim realizations, also typical for my emotional scale. The Pandils uncomfortably rush to embrace my bio-suit and staring at the landing craft they babble in their obscure language half of them in tears.

“I don’t need your immediate protection nor do my allies. I am…”

... trying to leave this vessel."

well if these guys don't have a black box they really wouldn't know who you are right? so if they ask only give them half truths, just say you were aboard this vessel when you didn't hear from anyone in a while, when you went to check as to why you found that this vessel was under attack by (whatever the hell the attackers where called) and maybe mention the AI room should they ask about it. I mean as long as we answer there questions and don't let anything slip that we're a criminal they shouldn't really expect us of anything or really even bother with us with the attackers still ransacking the station.

A researcher that recently arrived, your plan was to investigate the native culture and monitor their contact with other non-local species. Your equipment was captured or destroyed in the Achalonian raid and you're currently making use of salvage from this base. You are not in immediate danger besides the likely possibility of further Achalonian raids or other operations.
You could plausibly support yourself here indefinitely but your vehicle, AI, supplies and equipment are irrecoverable. That leaves you stranded and minimally capable of your research duties at best.

Chocomaca 2014/03/12(Wed)13:31 No. 566081 ID: 1c677c
File 139465629118.png - (173.14KB , 945x480 , Pearl.png )

“I am a researcher. This facility was attacked by Achalonian raiders. The attack made my research data null and void. I was researching the native life, the Pandils. These people around me.”

“According to our operational information the purpose of this facility has been highly classified. I cannot request further information about your operations. However, tell us about the Achalonians, I recall they are a noble species not capable of this. Wait… I see an unconsicous Achalonian in a weird outfit being surrounded by our drones. His tech is crude. Tell us, where is the planetary ferry?”

“The Achalonians killed everyone except us. The ferry was hijacked.”

“You said the data center was destroyed in the attack with all your research in it. Was anything else captured, but the ferry?”

“They took the black box. I believe else is classified information.”

“Your facility has been secured, but proven compromised. It will be demolished shortly. Recover all the research progress you can and leave this place with us. The protocol requires us to lift you and your allies and all the remaining captives to the unacknowledge program coordination center in the crust. We have nothing else to do with this mess.”

I walk the Pandils with their dead to the Utzi vessel not making a sign to recover any physical data or information. The vessel airlifts us to a secret underground base and leaves. I meet with a black project director in a meeting space. She interrogates me and I give her half truths, but she always wants more, and I don’t have much details to provide her with. I tell her that I was a fresh member of the research group assigned to black studies, but was giving signs of a coming psychogenesis and was locked into a psychometric chamber for the mind storms to pass. I tell her that this is how I survived. I explain the symptoms did pass and I was still able to recall my black science. I tell her that I might have just a few years before the psychogenesis takes a full root in me and that to recreate my outstanding scientific results I need to be leveraged to a fast, mobile, shielded biology vessel.

The director ponders deep and endows me a negative gravity science vessel that won’t be able to leave the gravity of the planet. She assigns a female Utzi assistant onboard the ship with all the practical skills so I can concentrate on my studies. I wonder if the director found out that I was the prisoner and just wanted to further utilize my knowledge. These ships are almost affordable to any distinguished Utzi with inspiration. Maybe they had taken a closer look at the studies that were downloaded from my data storage and found them groundbreaking as they should have. It maybe that I found a like-minded person in the director. I don’t exactly know what except good luck happened. The assistant might be a spy to track my actions or an agent to keep me from getting into harm’s way. I meal with my assistant and then board the ship with her like a fire was burning my tentacles. The ship is a glowing orb when it’s not a huge black pearl. It floats solid on the gravity well of the planet like it was part of it. We enter it from the round bottom hatch that retracts seemlessly like the ship was a large living organism which excites me. It seems to know we own it. I believe there are illegal genetic recognizers on its black bottom surface. The inside of the ship is a large spheric space with all the equipment laid on its inner surface and the middle being a waste of space. There are no windows, but there are piloting chambers around the inner surface of the ship that are virtual reality caves showing sphericly outside of the craft in 3D.

I have my science bio-suit with 6 kg worth of biomass and a portable dna library on me the whole time. I need probably 50 to 100 kg worth of biomass to create an artificial, programmed Pandil. That would require me to find a place where to refit my vessel lab to handle more than just the few kilos of biomass at a time my bio-suit currently handles. I could also research new lines of my science with a custom AI and proper quantum or positronic computation. I don’t think more about it, I refit all to my Pearl while staying in the underground base. Of course, I can’t recreate my earlier studies or the imaginary studies that the director might think I can recreate for her. Or more likely I won’t. Science is all an adventure to me, not something to figure out from memories and senseless frustrations. I’m still at the base, but I think they want me to leave as soon as possible and not figure things out. That’s my feeling. Is there something I require from the base except a year worth of supplies, a custom-fitted biology lab with all the biomatter tanks I need, proper high end computers and a collegue to subject?

I can conduct some of these in the future

Carbon-based life form studies
•unknown mythical level carbon-based life forms
•Utzi biology
•Pandil biology
•Achalonian biology
•Morbian biology
•common micro-organism
•common small life
•common artificial life

Silicon-based life form studies
•magmatic life forms
•cold silicon life forms
•computer intelligence
•deep space silicon-based life forms

More Mysterious Life Form studies
•unknown

AI configuration
•mimic Utzi thinking
•multiple sample collection
•reconstruct biological entities in computer models
•further construct digital biology with mental simulations
•out of study functions

Is there something I still need from the coordination base before moving onto the field? This is absolutely crazy! The Utzi must figured out they already know everything except that which they have forbidden to study.

What should I do on this planet?

ok then on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) how sure are you that these guys know who you really are? Because if you feel that they're is a reasonable chance that they actually think you're part of that stations crew it would probably be better for you to do your more "unethical" (as they put it) research out of view. Just saying, unless they think that your work was the classified work the station was doing.

>deep space silicon-based life forms
This has the benefit of possibly giving you an independent route off of the planet that your gravship cannot.

This is an Utzi like us that is no doubt specialized in what they do. Experience and their political-specialty psychogenesis probably left who and what we are an open book to the adept social skills and available evidence they had at hand. They obviously didn't believe our cover story because if they did they would not have assigned us a jailor and a limit of this planet's gravity well as a prison.

Proceeding from that analysis, I'd say it's pretty obvious we have been unofficially and deniably tasked with understanding Pandil biology and anything else particular to this planet or relevant to the Achalonians within our specialty. Open aggression by Achalonians acting as slavers and raiders here probably gave this commander a lot of authority they otherwise wouldn't have to 'do things' to 'solve the political problem.' Understanding everything that the Achalonians may find noteworthy here would be a pragmatic move to achieve that end, particularly so if you have someone at hand to do the questionable research you can disappear or disavow after they're done because they're already a criminal with no social support and poor records. I don't know how far this authority extends however, and the fact that this commander did not tell us to perform those biological studies means they're planning to either blame us for violation of research prohibitions or dispose of us when the research is done and sufficiently applied.

So arguably you did luck out, but we're also imprisoned and acting under a death/forced psychogenesis threat. I bet that this assistant was specifically chosen for thuggishness and loyalty in the face of being asked to perform questionable actions like pretending not to notice you doing forbidden research 'until it is too late.' Then they will carry out whatever the commander's disposal plans for you are.

With this knowledge it becomes obvious what we need to research: Look like we're doing the work we've been shanghaied to do (probably by doing enough of that research to show regular progress) and seriously work on ways of escaping our prison.

Ask if they can provide a technician with matching skills. Someone who is good at tool design and small scale engineering. Also if you could get a loyal android or robot then that would be good. Something to protect you if biological experiments go wrong.

Can you keep a pandil for fun?

Otherwise I think you should try to track down some surviving biological experiments others have done in the past. You're just starting out on a forbidden technology, right? Others must have tried this before. See if you can track down their creations and discover some of their techniques.

Otherwise look into the silicon life forms. They seem interesting. Can you make a carbon/silicon hybrid creature? That would be awesome.

Deep space silicon-based life forms sounds like a promising long term project in terms of growing your own ship to get off planet. You could try recruiting the local population to locate silicone deposits on the planet but you might need a geologist to actually identify the deposits. For now salvage any leftover research at the facility and exaggerate your role in ensuring the Pandil's safety.

Is there any way to subvert your assistant with microbes so that they can send false reports on your status?

Chocomaca 2014/03/17(Mon)10:31 No. 566739 ID: 1c677c
File 139507750627.png - (170.46KB , 945x480 , update15.png )

On a scale of 1 to 10 I’m 6 sure that they know my true identity.

>This is an Utzi like us that is no doubt specialized in what they do. Experience and their political-specialty psychogenesis probably left who and what we are an open book to the adept social skills and available evidence they had at hand. They obviously didn't believe our cover story because if they did they would not have assigned us a jailor and a limit of this planet's gravity well as a prison.

I’m now even more sure that they didn’t believe the cover story. 80% sure.

Deep space silicon-based life forms yes. I never found any, but maybe I’ll be able to fabricate them, if I figure out more secrets of life. As thought food I could secretly break down and bionize the pearl ship into a space vessel or craft a smaller ship and assemble it outside Pearl. I think my first clue to silicon-based life could have something to do with the Morbian. Just a hunch. I mean, look it this way, I think he didn’t just destroy the data center, he or she had some sort of “sex” there. It was a quick process of downloading Utzi knowledge to hijack the ferry directly into what he had, only his body. Those ferries are secured pieces of Utzi technology and they didn’t mean it to get captured and studied by any rogue faction. The fluids did not come from the computers.

>Proceeding from that analysis, I'd say it's pretty obvious we have been unofficially and deniably tasked with understanding Pandil biology and anything else particular to this planet or relevant to the Achalonians within our specialty. Open aggression by Achalonians acting as slavers and raiders here probably gave this commander a lot of authority they otherwise wouldn't have to 'do things' to 'solve the political problem.' Understanding everything that the Achalonians may find noteworthy here would be a pragmatic move to achieve that end, particularly so if you have someone at hand to do the questionable research you can disappear or disavow after they're done because they're already a criminal with no social support and poor records. I don't know how far this authority extends however, and the fact that this commander did not tell us to perform those biological studies means they're planning to either blame us for violation of research prohibitions or dispose of us when the research is done and sufficiently applied.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I’m 10 score sure that they really are going to double strip me of my work once I’m done. They did it before and I was jailed in that station hmmm… It raises a question about my past! I never met another Utzi while exploring the fringe of Utzi space before now. Was I consciously planted as a criminal biologist there during my last psychogenesis? Is this a self repeating plot against my civil rights? Oh sucker. I’m so agonized by these thoughts of consipiracy. I did have luck earlier and now. I can’t go further down the fishhole in my head. I would get psychotic symptoms. Maybe I’ll dig this case more later with less mania and more mental balance. I could make guesses what they want. They want their ferry back as much as I want my spaceship back. If they don’t get the ferry back, they want to use an option B, which could be based on knowing the enemy first. I could be a part of that option, secret operations - Ah, I see the slynessishness of this.

>So arguably you did luck out, but we're also imprisoned and acting under a death/forced psychogenesis threat. I bet that this assistant was specifically chosen for thuggishness and loyalty in the face of being asked to perform questionable actions like pretending not to notice you doing forbidden research 'until it is too late.' Then they will carry out whatever the commander's disposal plans for you are.

The assistant seems to just sit in the back seat for now. I imagine she would be part of the plot. But how to fight against the mental pressure of plotting. The last thing I want triggered is a premature psychogenesis. I think I could fight the tedency or even eliminate the possibility, or even the fate by studying Utzi biology, although neurosurgery is strictly forbidden.

>With this knowledge it becomes obvious what we need to research: Look like we're doing the work we've been shanghaied to do (probably by doing enough of that research to show regular progress) and seriously work on ways of escaping our prison.

This is my plot. I’ll quickly rip some Pandils of their genetic material, do a major breakthrough in my studies and sprinkle some interesting, but regular results for the observers to see while working secretly on deep space projects. I believe I can quickly proceed from my base knowledge and Pandil studies to a theory of sentience and consciousness in living organisms. From there I can claim computer sentience, which in way is a god-phase for silicon-based lifeforms. I think a sentient silicon computer is a shortcut. Then there will be a silicon genesis to produce silicon hyperevolution and at last intelligent ship parts. This silicon evolution has to take place in the fringe of space and I need to invent a proper excuse to take Pearl that high or create artificial space vacuums in proper laboratory conditions.

I could approach this masterplan by allying with my crewmembers, hiding code in the computers, or finding excuses to stay absent from the ship while working in a secret laboratory or by subverting my crewmembers with zombie diseases or parasites. This process requires me to study Utzi biology first. I would need to do experimentation on a living Utzi, rather with someone who isn’t essential for the process of discovery like me. I could also scan an Utzi and make slower computer simulations of the Utzi biology, but this requires quite an amazing hardware. I could also play the Achalonian card. They said they had bases around the planet. Becoming a turncoat has it’s own advantages and risks, but I believe the Utzi are better equipped anyways than the Achalonian colonists on this planet.

I ask if I could have a Pandil as a translator on my craft, but any Pandil doesn’t want to be parted from the other Pandils that were brought with us and there aren’t other Pandils in the base they say. My assistant says that she knows some Pandil, but wonders why don’t we just take modalar language translators with us. I try to get access to the base forbidden biology research data, but I’m denied access. This has to prove that I’m not supposed to ask questions, just do the illegal things and bear responsibility. There’s no freedom without responsibility. This has to be the cost I pay for my pleasure in the field, if I pay. I don’t want to ask for another biologist on my craft, it would get tight in there.

However, I can’t do all the engineering on this craft myself. I don’t know its functions and I don’t plan to spend my precious time figuring it out like I did on my own ship in the boredom they call space travel. I’ll hire a technician. I’m introduced to three vacant technicians in the base. One has an average skill in mostly everything to do with engineering, he’s a generalist. He’s an older dark grey guy going to be replaced in the next resupply. The other two are specialists. The first of them knows gravity physics and engines, she’s midway to her psychogenesis and has merit in her field. The second specialist is a fresh second tier female Utzi with 17 years age, who has studied AI programming, alloy bending, metallurgy, creative manufacturing and drone technology for one year in total. She’s the one on the left. But then, do I need a third crewmember if I’m going to subvert aggressively my assistant/jailor?

ok so what I gathered from all of that is we're still a prisoner but now we're given the illusion of freedom and are more then likely going to be thrown to the sharks, or flat out just shot in the back by our superior officers once we give them what they want. So our plan is to build an organic/machine hybrid ship to get the hell out of here before the noose closes around us completely. Did I get that right?

So on our things to do we have to we not only need to find a way to escape but also have to research pandil biology to at least make it look like we're doing our job. As for the escape thing, yes to the code and yes to making friends of the crew no to everything else. The zombie thing could would require us to waste even more time on risky research when we already have enough on our plate, the turncoat thing probably wouldn't work at all since they're more then likely watching our every move already, and as for the secrete lab idea, how would we pull that off? I mean if we could It would be amazingly helpful for our cause but where would we get the material to build it and where could we hide it? And as for the Pandil research, how would you go about researching them? Something as simple as a blood sample or would it be as extreme as taring one limb from limb? Cause I vote we go for the more time consuming method here as we're trying to buy time for us to escape.

And as for hiring someone to help with engineering go with the generalist since he's going to be leaving soon anyways so he can help us and then leaves making it easier for us to escape.

If we need excuses to spend time in orbit we should legitimately be placing monitoring satellites with a broad variety of sensors just to do our xeno-sociologist/archaeologist 'cover' research, as well as gathering data to track and model Achalonian involvement. (Also data for studying and modeling the ecology and conditions of the planet.) As a 'xeno-sociologist' it is also reasonable for us to ask what sorts of Utzi and automated interdiction the commander is leaving to deal with the Achalonians because we would be studying the Achalonian presence and reporting on that as well, "I have to know, they're interfering here. It'll save a lot of time if I do the effectiveness-analysis myself and you can use those reports to figure out what else to do about them."

I think we'll need a very broad array of engineering talents unless the AI-builder can supplement their own skills with engineering (AI use?) to do what she can't. We ideally want fewer people involved in our schemes because that's more people who could raise the alarm about our research--accidentally or otherwise. That would step up the disposal timetable but there's a flipside to that: Can AI be given nominal responsibility for the forbidden research without breaking the prohibitions, or help us with it to speed up our timetable of discovery and development?

Viable escape plans have to factor in that the ship we're in will be tracked, our jailor will be tracked and expected to make regular reports, we're probably tracked in at least one way we don't know about, and whoever is left in charge locally will know that we need to be watched (if not why). The obvious solution to most of these problems, and your Pandil access problem, is to genuinely be a xeno-sociologist and study the native culture on site (among them). Training our 'assistant' to expect separation from us without being suspicious will help with almost any other plan.

The AI specialist's skills already parallel those needed to create silicon lifeforms, they are young and likely impressionable, and we can both trick them into acquiring the tools and resources needed for our research under the guise of them being needed for their research, and even get them to take the blame if our research is discovered. Heck, let them take the credit for advances as long as we can reap the reward of a ticket off this rock.

>>566739
Spectopus 2 seems promising. Someone young and ambitious could lead to scientific breakthroughs if you can keep her on your side. Plus, she can build AI drones and it wouldn't hurt to have one or two of those for defense/research/snooping. Be sure to create sufficient incentives for her to maximize her cooperation. Make her want to follow you to the ends of the galaxy.

Chocomaca 2014/04/06(Sun)08:18 No. 569397 ID: 1c677c
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After some consideration I pick up the AI specialist. Her abilities in silicon-based systems and drones thrill me as a function to gain eventual freedom.

Her name is Cybhira and she seems to be quite shy unless you bring up her praticular fields of expertise. She also seems impressionable and can help me make secret research.

Well then, shouldn't we set her to work on bootstrapping a local supply infrastructure and the things we know we need then? Top of the list is monitoring satellites, whatever lab equipment you haven't got yet that isn't obviously used for 'forbidden' research, and expert systems to help us communicate with the natives. We probably want a set of defense drones for when the Achalonians come back too, if we're allowed to have those.

Chocomaca 2014/04/07(Mon)04:03 No. 569523 ID: 1c677c
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So I have been given a special purpose ship incapable of leaving this planet, a jailor pilot, a quirky assistant and a range of drones, expert systems, scientific and engineering tools. Properly speaking this world is a top priority to my own research so why not to make it worthwhile? I feel bad about being manipulated by some Utzi consortium intending to steal my work for their own ends.

I choose to first research the Pandils. Some blood samples should do. I give a command and the ship smoothly sweeps through the skies at high speeds.

“If you had given me time to refit Eweroun for underwater journey, kinetic vortex and all, we could go under their radar. My operator warned me about sky rogues.”

“This is a research vessel and we go for Pandils, not alien fish, and I saw this craft encased in a plasma shield. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Tell me your name, a male could be that sociable?”

"I'm not sure I have one yet, I certainly don't remember gaining one since my last regeneration. Considering that we are colleagues in the outer fringes here my naming may affect you more than me; do you have any suggestions?"

Why don't you create a living laboratory creature to hide your silicon life form research inside? Some huge, strong, misshaped and very intimidating guard beast with silicon shaping organs inside it. Tell your companions that it's just there to guard you and your ship. Make it a bit modular so you have an excuse to meddle with it constantly and make it so scary that your jailor will stay away from it. Make sure you put a self-destruct device in it just in case... Ask Cybhira if she can try to come up with any self-replicating computers or self-evolving AIs.

I think you should try to start some kind of Pandil cult to further your research. Land in secrecy and get Cybhira to start building a laboratory temple using drones. Then you just need to approach dying and terminally ill Pandils and offer them salvation if they agree to worship and obey you. Then you have a group of (happy?) test subjects who are also willing to collect information and materials. If there aren't enough sick pandils then you could always design a plague or custom disease.

I think a suitably godlike name is in order. We are playing god after all! How about 'Numina'?

Chocomaca 2014/04/08(Tue)05:39 No. 569697 ID: 1c677c
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“Numina.”

The jailor replies, “I am Pililly.”

We arrive at an area know as the Iridium Planetary. There is a group of Utzi allied Pandil city-states around. Their technology level still hasn’t reached gunpowder, but their societies are democratic, free and just. They are meant to be nonconfrontational and their spirits are always lifted by the presence of godly visitors, the Utzi. It should be easy to perform biological experiments here.

Oh what the fuck? The Pandil city is firing energy weapons at us! How is this even possible?! They shouldn’t have anything more advanced than bows and arrows!

A shadow shoots out in the lower corner of my vision.

I spy with my little eye some cultural contamination. Either those are Achalonians firing at you or the Achalonians have been making with the gift baskets full of goodies when they visited.
If it's the second one expect the natives to have heard tales of just how terrible your kind is.

Oh right, you're a labrat who doesn't know what to do with that analysis, hold on. You have two main options I figure:

--Report this. The Utzi command needs to know this stuff since it looks like Pandil society is being annexed and uplifted by the Achalonians. That means the muckety-muck who wants to keep all this quiet will either hide your report or hit their panic button, and that may be wired to your neck unfortunately. If your report gets out to the people who should pay attention to it that's still dangerously interesting in itself; we don't know nearly enough about the program that sent you out to do forbidden research. You may not survive greater contact with Utzi society since your specialty is forbidden and you're short on social skills. On the other hand, learning more about Utzi politics directly by trying this could be *really* informative. Do this if you're feeling gutsy, daring and at least a little bit suicidal.

--Assume that anybody who wants to know about this Achalonian technology being in the hands of the Pandil already does and keep your head down.
It might be a good idea to slot in, "Build drone military capable of repulsing all possible Achalonian military technologies and efforts," on Cybhira's to-do list if you choose this option.

Chocomaca 2014/04/09(Wed)06:46 No. 569856 ID: 1c677c
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Pililly makes a panicked noise. The shadow that shot out from the sleeve of my bio-suit is Promethea. Alarmed by the noise Promethea lands on the controls presses half the buttons there are before I’m able to catch the scared amphibian. The ship makes violent turns and twists crashing to the Pandil settlement. Pililly has a second of time to activate the plasma shield making the outside a raging fireball.

Chocomaca 2014/04/10(Thu)10:02 No. 570003 ID: 1c677c
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I am acolyte Lassa, a pandil seeking the artifacts of the gods to become godly.
I am Korenin, consuming godblood, I eagerly end WORLDS.
I’m lieutenant Ricote, a jet glider trooper captured by the Utzi tormentors.