NationStates Jolt Archive

”Another generator just went out. We’re down to 30% coverage.”
The Rivek looked down with a sigh. ”Pull the remaining citizens into the citadels.” He paused and wiped his brow. ”Send out a general distress signal and explain the situation. We need to save our people.”

Distress Signal: Audio Only
Origin: Riven System, Midnight Sector
’We need assistance. Our civilization is contained in underground cities in the desolate Riven system. Our air generators have been cataclysmically failing, and only a few million of our race survive. We need engineers with the knowledge and tools to work with air generators. Time is of the essence, as entire cities have been wiped out from failures. Please help us. We will be in debt to you all.’
-Maharajah Nahum

"Sir, we're receiving an incoming transmission!"

"Well, what are you waiting for? Patch it in!"

[Message]

The Under-Commander thought for a moment, and then lowered his head to his hands. "It appear we have a situation. We have a single engineer that was basic knowledge of such things, but otherwise..."

His aide smiled warmly, and went to order the ship to move in to Riven. It would be nearly a day until they arrived, even at maximum speed. However, as the closest Realm ship available, they had little choice.

Message - Audio Only, badly translated dialect of Rivenese
"We have come help. Will arrive much soon! One of days your. Generators air of we knowledge have some. Day one? You hold can on?
End Message

The PSN Angel's Keep was passing through the Riven System when the signal was picked up.
"Ma'am we have a distress signal on the standard carrier wave. It's comeing from one of the planets in the system," he eignsin manning the com station caled out across the E type carrier's bridge.
"I see... Prepare the com array for a response," she replied as she quickly typed up a reply.


This is the PSN Angel's Keep of the Shadow Realm. We have picked up your distress signal and are already in he system on a mapping mission. As it stands we can reach your planet in the next hour via sublight or preform a risky ultra-short range space fold and be their in just a few minutes. Depending on how long you can survive we are letting you decide between the to choices.
Respond as soon as you can.

The transmission beamed through the thick ionic atmosphere of Riven. All that came across the speakers in the Maharajah's Citadel was, '[static]...come help...[static]...arrive much...[static]...of days...Generators...[static]...knowledge have some. Day one? You hold...[static]'

The aids looked to the Maharajah with hopeful eyes. He staired ahead, contemplating the arrival of a strange ship. Of course, he sent no return message due to the degredation of the message.

The Penthouse, a cruiser of the Theao navy, as well as the corvette escort, had been preforming a study of a rare stellar phenomena when they recived the distress signal.

The captain sent a message to the TMF, ordering them to deliver four class 119 pods to the system, as they proceeded to the distressed system.

As the four ships entered the system, they sent a message to the Rivan,

"We have skilled technicians, capable of either repairing or installing new generators. In addition there shall shortly arrive a number of hyper-compression tanks containing oxygen."

The PSN Angel's Keep was passing through the Riven System when the signal was picked up.
"Ma'am we have a distress signal on the standard carrier wave. It's comeing from one of the planets in the system," he eignsin manning the com station caled out across the E type carrier's bridge.
"I see... Prepare the com array for a response," she replied as she quickly typed up a reply.

"We can last for another year, but if more generators fail many more will die. Our engineers cannot fix the generators, and we have been cut off from our interstellar ships due to the technological failures."
-Maharajah Nahum


OOC:
Riven is a lot like Earth in 'The Matrix' but there are many Zionesque cities.

The Penthouse, a cruiser of the Theao navy, as well as the corvette escort, had been preforming a study of a rare stellar phenomena when they recived the distress signal.

The captain sent a message to the TMF, ordering them to deliver four class 119 pods to the system, as they proceeded to the distressed system.

As the four ships entered the system, they sent a message to the Rivan,

"We have skilled technicians, capable of either repairing or installing new generators. In addition there shall shortly arrive a number of hyper-compression tanks containing oxygen."

"Thank you kind strangers. There are other unknown ships on the way as well. I do not know when more systems will fail in the cities, but billions have died."
-Maharajah Nahum

OOC: Argh! It's the "OMGZ A ROCK I MUST BE THAR B4 EVERY1 ELSE OMG OMG FLEETZ!" syndrome. I'll pull out of this one, methinks.

The four ships arrived in orbit, where they transmitted an additional message, "Where are the landing platforms for the cities that are at greatest risk?"

The four ships arrived in orbit, where they transmitted an additional message, "Where are the landing platforms for the cities that are at greatest risk?"

Giant doors opened on the surface amidst the blackened, jagged mountains. The large chutes went down for miles into the planet and hardened mantle.
"Descend Slowly. Welcome to the Maharajah's Citadel." a text message flashed to the ships.

The Maharajah with his personal guard moved to the landing area to great their rescuers.

"Alright. Looks like we'll be taking that risk," the captian said as she began to type on her console. "Alex pepare a ultra short range jump to the planet that the distress signal orginated from. Compinsate for anything that you feel is needed."
The ship board AI didn't need a second for finish the calculation for the jump and warm the spacail fold drives in the ship. "Done and the drives are warming up and within a thirty seconds they will be hot and the fold will commence.
To Alex thirty seconds felt like eternity but to the crew it was just a heart beat as the ship vanished in a flash of green light and reappeared above the planet in a brilliant green flash.
Everyone on board felt the shudder of the ship as the enertial dampeners didn't have time to compinsate fomr the ultra-short jump.
"Send out a message now saying we are in orbit and need a location to send engineers down. Also prep several Mk. 7 HEVC suits for the engineers as well as some for escort troopers," the capitan said as she sighed slightly after the risky jump.

We are in orbit as we speak and need the location of any port or landing area that we might enter to bring in our engineers.

The Maharajah wasn't available to answer, but a pre-recorded message was sent.
"Surface Gates for the Maharajah's Citadel are open. Please descend slowly."


OOC:
I'm off for tonight.

The IARV Verner, a research vessel licensed to the Imperial Academy of Science and Technology, was perform a routine astrography mapping mission in the largely unclaimed and unsettled space lying between Alpha Centauri and the sector of space home to the Xanthalian worlds. Reestablished relations with a new central Xanthalian government had once again attracted the eyes of the Star Empire back to this region. And, as usual, both private and public interests were demanding updates to the star charts.

And they are perfectly justified with their demands, Captain Aaron Mota thinks to himself as he looks up from the projection. He momentarily wonders about the status of his title, the compliment of a research vessel performing astrography mapping duties is generally no more than six, plus the ships AI-a standardized "resident intelligence" whose designation was Gene.

"Aaron," says Sara his communications specialist, "I am getting signal activity from the inner system. It appears to be a beacon call across all frequencies. It is a distress call."

"Send it to my link, please."

Mota takes a few moments to consult the message when it is uploaded to his n-plant.

"Gene, do we have any records showing a prior claim or civilization present in GXS-334?"

"No, Aaron," comes the RIs response. "The last mapping mission to GXS-334 was a probe sent from a Kriegsmarine vessel which did a general region mapping based from GXS-328. It detected no apparent native inhabitants, although it merely did a general system scan from the mid-system region."

"Oversight?"

"That is a distinct probability."

Mota leans back at his station and clears away the remains of his pastry-centered breakfast.

"Gene, summon the rest of the crew. We will have a staff meeting at 0900. Sara, prepare to record a reply."

"Dr. Dorthman is not currently awake, shall I page him anyway."

"Mr. Dorthman," Mota says, rolling his eyes at the mention of the missions aging planetologist, "sleeps entirely too often, Gene. You and I both know that."

"Yes, yes that is true. I shall page him."

"Thanks, Gene. Sara, ready to record for tranmission?"

"Yes."

"Maharajah Nahum, this is Captain Aaron Mota, commanding the Imperial Academy Research Vessel Verner registered with the United Star Empire of Valinon. We have registered your distress beacon and request permission to enter your planetary system to render what assistance we can. We also wish to know if you would like us to relay this crisis to Alpha Centauri so that a more dedicated effort can possibly be organized by Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Friedelinde Alderman I, and Her Majesty's Government."

IARV Verner (http://www.mst3kinfo.com/darkstar/images/DS%20Explorer.jpg)

Each of the corvettes launched a shuttle, while the cruiser launched two. The five shuttles entered the entrance and decended down to land. From each shuttle, eight techies, and four grunts exited. From the first cruiser shuttle, the MoCo exited as well. With a tap to the suit command, the faceplate became verbal and visual permeable, while the grunts began unloading the supplies and gear for the techies.

Valinor Ship:
"The Maharajah is unavailable to answer, but I would assume more help would be welcome. A foreign engineer team is already on Riven, but they are few in number. Thank you for your generosity."

Each of the corvettes launched a shuttle, while the cruiser launched two. The five shuttles entered the entrance and decended down to land. From each shuttle, eight techies, and four grunts exited. From the first cruiser shuttle, the MoCo exited as well. With a tap to the suit command, the faceplate became verbal and visual permeable, while the grunts began unloading the supplies and gear for the techies.

The Rivek (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/ALown/Nationstates/RivenVSoldier.jpg) guards stepped forwards, watching the foreigners with their piercing yellow eyes. A large door slid open with a hiss and the Maharajah (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/ALown/Nationstates/RivenV.jpg) stepped forwards. He wore a dark longcoat with embroidered runes along the sleeves.

"I apologize for my less-than-regal dress, but I feel it is of no consequence at this time. I am Nahum, Maharajah of Riven. I hope you pardon my abruptness, but I fear time is of the essence. Riven is an ancient world, though it is mostly dead now. I'm sure you noticed how long the descent was. We have to live close to the core where it is still warm. Life died on our world many years ago in a forgotten war. We are sustained by the technology left over from that era. There are many cities spread throughout the planet's mantle, each is preserved by air generators which our engineers have a basicunderstanding of. Recently, the systems have begun to fail. Entire cities have been annihilated. Billions have died."
He glanced at the strangers in their suits. "You are quite safe here, the Citadel is preserved by many generators, and we harbor many refugees. You passed through a forcefeild of sorts on your way down. It keeps the air inside. Ahh, this is the Master of the Engineers' Guild for the city east of the citadel, he can explain the situation much better than I."

The engineer stepped up, bowing to the Maharajah, and explained the unknown nature of the failures. "One of the Citadel's generators has failed in the same manner as the others, perhaps your men will look at it, and I pray have some understanding we do not."

The MoCo nodded, and gestured to one of the techie teams. "This man will take you to one of the generators, see what you can find out and whether we can fix it." He said on a comm channel.

"I have assigned a team to do diagnostics and see if they can find the problems with the generators." The MoCo informed the Maharajah.

The MoCo nodded, and gestured to one of the techie teams. "This man will take you to one of the generators, see what you can find out and whether we can fix it." He said on a comm channel.

"I have assigned a team to do diagnostics and see if they can find the problems with the generators." The MoCo informed the Maharajah.

"Thank you, I hope your men have good fortune. You are welcome to the Citadel to rest and eat, though I don't know how our foods would taste to you. They are imported from Thessalonika, the other system I rule, though we have been cut off from them and our interstellar ships since the systems began failing here."

"We thank you for your offer, but it would probably help the the techies focus if they weren't distracted." The MoCo replied, "So the generators are remenants of technology from previous in your history?"

The tech team followed the guide to the falied generator.

"Yes. Our civilization is ancient, and long ago our people were driven underground. Now, our cities are near the core. Over time, the knowledge of some technology was lost. Our engineers only know the basic principles and cannot repair the machines without years of more research. And that is time we do not have."

"Why didn't you simply preform an exodus to a new world that could sustain your peoples when the first generators began to fail?" He asked

The Tech Team had arrived at the generator.

ooc: Description of the generators please.

"Why didn't you simply preform an exodus to a new world that could sustain your peoples when the first generators began to fail?" He asked

The Tech Team had arrived at the generator.

ooc: Description of the generators please.

"Moving billions of Rivek would have been impossible, and the generators would fail rarely in the past. Although recently, they have begun to fail rapidly and there was nothing to be done. We could not evacuate cities because we did not know which city would fall. You must understand, that billions have died and it has only been five years. Thessalonika cannot support our people and Riven is our home. We cannot abandon our home."


OOC:
I don't know details on how they would work. But they are very large machines with control stations and rooms inside. They are also very old, so expect some nonessential things like lights and automatic doors not to work.

The Techies entered the generator, forceing a door that had stuck open. Once inside they split up into four teams of two. Two teams checking the control panels, while the other two going deeper in to find the power generation sections.

ooc: What are the problems?

"The Maharajah is unavailable to answer, but I would assume more help would be welcome. A foreign engineer team is already on Riven, but they are few in number. Thank you for your generosity."


Aaron Mota takes one last look at the assembled members of his "relief team" drawn from the Verner's small crew. After meeting with the entire crew, and finding no hostility toward his decision to aid the mysterious Maharajah, he had drawn the teams membership liberally. Stephen Baxter was the Verner's engineer and had immediately volunteered for the mission, Kevan Scholes was a physicist (who had said he had minored in electrical engineering at the Imperial University) originally on the Verner to study the remnants of a nova in GXS-233, and finally Dr. Neil Dorthman, the missions ancient planetologist who was coming for the sake of curiousity over the new world.

Mota nods to them all as he stands in front of one of the Verner's two shuttles.

"I want it to be understood again that we are to employ Flickingers and recyclers at all times. I wish I could say we have learned more from being in contact with the Maharajah for three hours, but it appears a general panic has set in across their world. We still do not know what drove them underground, or what sort of environment they inhabit. I will contain to operate under the assumption that it was a severe climatic change, created by either natural or artifical means, or a possible fallout situation from the use of some form of weapon."

"Sara has already sent a courier drone to the edge of the ansible network in GXS-211. Our best estimate is that Alpha Centauri will receive our situation report in forty-six hours. So it will be at least four days before a return courier could reach us. During that time we will render the Maharajah whatever assistance we can, but if their are any signs of hostility we will pull out immediately. Understood?"

There are nods and verbal acknowledgements.

"Good. Let's get going then."

Mota slides into the pilot's station in the shuttle, Baxter takes the co-pilot's station, and the others settle into the passenger section immediately behind the cockpit.

"Comm check."

"Loud and clear, Aaron," Sara's voice returns.

"Good. We will report every two hours, Sara. If we fail to report pull out of immediate orbit and start hailing the local controllers. If they can't give you a reasonable excuse, head out and report the situation to the Academy and the Kriegsmarine. And deploy two of our Feather-class satellites, that way we can get additional localized ansible coverage."

"Will do."

"Gene?"

"Yes, Aaron?"

"You with me on this one?"

"I have established full integration with the shuttle and your n-plant. If anything is amiss I will know about it."

"Any idea what kind of technology we are going to be dealing with?"

"Energy readouts across the surface demonstrate these generators require a large amount of power, but the signature has no comparison in the Academy records. But I will be able to tell more when I can see first-hand the equipment the Maharajah is referring to."

"First hand, eh?"

"Well, from my perspective, yes."

"Coward."

"I prefer the term prudent."

Aaron smiles, "To each his own. Sara, open the bay please."

"Done."

A few minutes later the shuttle departs the Verner. Mota puts the ship on a course that will allow for an orbital insertion before they arrive over the Rivek city that is home to the system communications office. He brings up a general broadcast channel.

"Rivek Traffic Control, this is shuttle Verner-Alpha requesting an approach vector and a landing pattern. We will be completing an orbital insertion in four minutes, and will be seeing the transport of the relief team to assist in your emergency repair efforts. Repeat, this is Verner-Alpha requesting..."

"I believe more strangers have arrived to help. Please, let us return to the docking bay, my engineers will stay with you're men. Our translator technology does appear to be working extremely well with your language. I do believe I made a mistake earlier when I was unsure if translations would go smoothly. My title should be... Emir. Yes, that is better. I do apologise."
The group returned to the docking bay to await the Valinor.

Back at the broken generator, the Master of the Guild stepped towards the Theaosian Chief. "Our technology is primarily based on Ions and Fusion, but these generators are completely differant. They are much older. My engineer's cannot find if the problem stems from the mechanical or the computer. Nor can we find the problem to begin with. I'm afraid we may know to much about our own technology to understand the technology of our ancestors."

OOC:
Emir b/c I changed my mind. And as for the problem, you get to decide if its a physical failure or computer failure/virus.

"Alright." The MoCo replied as he followed the Emir back to the landing bay.

"Alright, we will keep that in mind." The Tech chief replied, meanwhile, the Techie teams continued to check out the generator, following conduits, inspecting control patterns and other typical techie activity.

ooc: So keeping with the mid-east theme, and will 'find' the problem next post.
Also for future reference, it's simply Theao, not Theaosian