Gradient Descent - Session 004 [+]

28/08/2025

The crew return to the Deep on a mission from Cmdr Kilroy. This post also covers the "downtime" mini-session we had in July.

Biometrics

What happened

For reasons, I didn't run a session of Mothership during our July games evening, but we did take a few minutes to chat about what the crew wanted to do next. I offered a few options, including taking leave at Prospero's Dream or investigating the smuggling of artefacts connected in some way with the Bell.

As a group, they decided to undertake the first phase of Cmdr Kilroy's mission to neutralise Monarch: installing encrypted radio transmitters at various locations throughout the Deep. A side benefit to accepting the mission is that all participating crew members may sign out any reasonable equipment and supplies from the Zhuangzi (that's the name of the lead ship of the blockade, pronounced SHUNG-zee) they can carry, though they'll have to pay for anything they don't return. They may also leave any personal items in lockers on the ship.

PVT Minerva went all-in, kitting herself out in Advanced Battle Dress, mag-boots, a smart-link, and a thermal vision body cam; she also signed out a pulse rifle and a vibechete. PVT Louis augmented his ABD with mag-boots, a smart-link, and a night vision body cam; he also nabbed some frag grenades, a crowbar, and some extra ammo for his GPMG.

Dr Zahir traded in his bioscanner for a cybernetic diagnostic scanner and his tranq pistol for a stun baton and a flare gun; he also grabbed some mag-boots. EGLÉ-2 put his heavy bolt driver and industrial vaccsuit in storage and signed out an electronic tool set, a foam gun, a portable computer terminal, and mag-boots.

As K3-V1N's player couldn't make the August session, the erstwhile security android experiences a critical error and shuts down in a corner of the med bay. EGLÉ-2 is "volunteered" to carry the heavy, backpack-sized encrypted radio transmitter instead.

Sal and Dr Zahir awake in the troopship’s medbay, battered and bruised but none the worse for wear. The last thing Sal remembers is being pulled into a service tube by a mechanical arm. She thinks that she or a close family member has gambling debts, but the details just won't come to mind. Dr Zahir vaguely recalls something about "artificial omniscience" (one of those fringe ideas in the field of cybernetics that no true scientist takes seriously) before he lost consciousness but it's probably not important.

PVT Louis spends some time in a med pod, recovering 1 Wound, though restoring his Strength to its pre-explosion rating will require more specialist treatment. During the procedure, memories of his sadistic drill instructor SGM Bougus (pronounced BOH-jus) from basic training surface. Irritatingly, he cannot remember any friends or family members, but the recollection of his hatred for this man is crystal clear.

The players filled each other in on what they missed, more or less. As previously established, Dr Zahir was embedded with the marines before they lost their memories. Sal is an anomaly but, as a Teamster, they think she may have knowledge of the industrial workings of the Deep, so she’s allowed to accompany them.

New security protocols require all crew members to complete a survey designed to unmask infiltrator androids. (I actually created a Google Forms questionnaire loosely based on the Voight-Kampff test from Bladerunner for the players to complete in-character.) Failure to comply has in-game consequences!

In what I hope sounded like an innocent observation, I mentioned that on each occasion where violence had ensued, the inciting incident had always been the direct result of the crew's actions. This gave PVT Minerva's player in particular pause for thought.

The August session begins with some good news: each crew member receives 3 month's back pay! (Less expenses and late fees, of course.) Unfortunately, PVT Louis repeatedly failed to complete the security screening survey and incurred a total of 400␍ in fines.

Several Troubleshooter squads raid the Deep in the weeks following the crew's escape to the Zhuangzi. One squad experienced heavy casualties; another never came back at all. A small reconnaissance team returned without incident a few days ago, reporting no apparent activity in the upper floors of the complex.

PVT Pryderi transports them to the Deep for their first official dive. They can radio for extraction on their SR comms and the shuttle will return 10 real-time minutes later, but it will leave 10 real-time minutes after that. They cross the umbilical to the visitors dock (22A), open the hand-cranked airlock, and descend the winding stairwell to the reception area (22B).

I now ask the players to roll 1d10 and reveal The Bends stat to them. Dr Zahir's player is slightly confused by the fact that his is 7 when he only rolled a 2…

Much has changed since they were last in the Deep. The reception area is clearly the site of a gun battle, the luxury rug now filthy and soft white lighting replace by dim red emergency lighting. Grafitti is scrawled over the walls. An android corpse, hands missing and stripped of its epidermis pseudoskin layer, hangs by an electrical cord from the ceiling. It's logic core has been ripped out… only its feedt remain intact. Dr Zahir examines the remains, noting the weirdly realistic feet, and takes some samples.

EGLÉ-2 restores power to the reception desk terminal and accesses a video feed from security checkpoint Bravo (23A). The crew note the android fused to a machine gun, clearly still active, and a "Cafeteria" sign on a door in view of the camera.

PVT Minerva hears a groan from the stairs leading down from the reception area. Peering around the corner, she finds a wounded Troubleshooter collapsed on the staircase. Rigging her shotgun to cover the rest of the stairwell via her smart link, she and Dr Zahir help the fallen marine up the steps. He's malnourished, badly dehydrated, and babbling incoherently; they radio PVT Pryderi and help the Troubleshooter to the shuttle (after zip tying his hands) before it undocks and returns to the Zhuangzi.

Leaving the terminal, EGLÉ-2 peeks through the door to the cafeteria (22F), noting the flickering lights, overturned desks and chairs, and some kind of material hanging from the ceiling. Meanwhile, Sal and PVT Louis investigate meeting rooms A and B (22D and 22E). Sal seems to have a sixth sense for nearby artefacts, and it leads her to something buried under the piles of torn books in meeting room B. PVT Louis notices a flickering red LED under it and just manages to stop her in time. He tries to defuse the mine but accidentally triggers it himself. Hearing the high-pitched whine of the capacitor charging, he and EGLÉ-2 flee back to the reception area just in time to avoid the EMP blast. Sal trips and falls, but only loses her flashlight to the pulse.

Gingerly, Sal pockets the artefact: some sort of memory disc. It will need a special device to determine its contents. The trio decide not to tell PVT Minerva and Dr Zahir about what they found.

Regrouping in the reception area, the crew decide to explore the concrete ste[s leading down. Cautiously, they descend the stairs to the carnage of security checkpoint alpha (23E). The machine gun emplacement and attendant android are so badly destroyed there seems little point sifting through the wreckage.

Nevertheless, Sal discovers a chibi figurine in the corner of the room that turns out to be a data stick that can be read by EGLÉ-2's portable computer terminal. The crew gather around to view the single video file it contains… grainy footage of an unknown part of the complex… and they all make panic checks a the sight of a hideous abomination of teeth, eys, and pale quivering meat! PVT Louis experiences a Loss of Confidence in his Athletics skills, whilst PVT Minerva will suffer Nightmares from now on.

Wrenching open the gate at the other end of the checkpoint, the crew advance along the corridor to where two doors face each at about the halfway point. They investigate the one on the left (23F) labelled "Storage" first, noting the conspicuous jury-rigged retina scanner on the far wall. Cavalierly, EGLÉ-2 puts his eye to the scanner…

Something… VAST… gazes into the deepest recesses of his very being, uncovering every secret, exposing every dark thought, gauging with impossible precision the very weight of his robotic soul… and, insultingly, it only took a fraction of a second.

Otherwise, he's fine… apparently.

Dr Zahir examines the define and determines that the cable to which it's attached has far too much bandwidth for a mere retina scanner. The crew decide to leave it alone and cross the hall to the door labelled "Employee Rec Centre" (23G) instead. Inside, wedged in one of the equipment lockers, they find an unconscious person wearing a heavily patched, helmet-less vaccsuit.

It was getting late, so we decided to wrap things up. The crew radio for the shuttle to return and carry the unconscious astronaut back up the stairs to the visitors dock. En route, PVT Minerva decides to take a larger "sample" of the hanged android by severing one entire foot using her vibechete. The shuttle arrives and they all return to the Zhuangzi with no further incident.

End-of-session vitals

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