Echo 3 - Echo's Trail of Misfortunes

Begin a Session Begin a Session(24)Influential character or faction is introduced or given new detail

INT. ILEX-ZED, NEAR CROIFOLS-4 IN SPACE

After sending the report to the Library, Echo felt that she had definitely earned a shower and a bit of rest, and went to clean off the bone dust that still felt attached to her skin as if with glue.
Feeling much lighter and calmer, after, she switched on the small on-board food facilities and helped herself to a warm tea, apparently spiced with a herb mixture coming from plants that their ancestors had brought back in their aquaponics from their galaxy of origin. Hearten(Heart)—3 vs 2|5

Echo smiled as she sipped it, remembering quite well when one of said old-galaxy ancestors had woken up and made a ruckus due to the exact tea she was drinking: someone enterprising had changed the recipe enough that the spirit, Serrah Anova, had staged protests and lively (well, undead-ly) debates all over the ironhome, unsettling most of the inhabitants even as their alive descendants had been arguing right back about changes in the marketability of some flavour profiles over the millennia.
In the end the spirits awoken had been many, five new variations of the recipe had been created, and a few of the already rare Necromancers, Echo included, had been called to settle the spirits after.
It had been one of the first jobs she'd done for her Ironhome after fleeing it, and all-in-all it had been surprisingly fun.

She hummed and sent a text message to Vesper on the wave of that nostalgia, giving him a brief update about the Hourglass situation, as Roman had gone back to being completely dead after their brief information-giving interlude, trusting his descendant to handle the Hourglass.
Will Echo ever forgive Vesper? +1 (1/10)

She then melted back, relaxed for the moment, right in the tiny makeshift kitchen, reclined in the squished chaise-longue (bolted to the floor) that often replaced her bed, eating area, research space... and anything else. Her eyes slipped closed before she could even notice her tiredness catching up to her.

Spirit:3 → 5

A FEW HOURS LATER - INT. ILEX ZED, NEAR CROIFOLS-4 IN SPACE

Her comm beeping woke her with a start. She almost got drenched with the now-cold tea that had miraculously remained in her hand the whole time, but she managed to keep it balanced as she blearily looked first at the scanner, checking for any changes around the Ilex-zed, and then to the messages.

NPC:Aparna Santos

SUBJECT: The Library of Protected Lore is ready to receive you.
MAIN BODY:

JQNQF52GO1,
your request to consult the Lore archives has been conditionally approved, make your way to the attached coordinates and contact Aparna Santos for a security interview.
With thanks for your patience,

The Library of Protected Lore
Safe Travels!
*This is standard procedure and not meant to imply the recipient's untrustfullness on the Library's part. Do not answer to this automated message, it will be deleted immediately.*
ATTACHMENT: coordinates.fpd

Faction:Library of Protected Lore

does Echo already know Santos? Likely(74)Yes I'm thinking they're basically first contact for the freelancers. What's their relationship like? Initial Disposition(178)Commanding why thank you, who would have guessed. Let's add to it Initial Disposition(117)Tit for tat Pronouns? 1-2: he/him, 3-4 they/them, 5-6 she/her, 7-8 variations (eg: he/they) 1d8→1

Echo sighed at her contact's name and downed the rest of her cold tea with a grimace, then went to the cockpit and plugged the coordinates in the Ilex-zed interface, leaving the ship's computer to search for any known passages to Celadon-2 from here even as she thought about something to bargain with the man: Aparna was a good man of course, but always managed to plug his own self-interest in his dealings.

Is there a known passage in the Ilex-zed navcomputer? Gather Information(Wits)—5 vs 6|9
Now, I would roll Pay the Price here, but honestly this was a little low stakes as it was, I only did it this way because travel around the forge is fairly difficult, even with coordinates... so I'm ruling that I'll have Echo do an expedition to get there, instead of setting a course, but the rank is going to be fairly easy.

The Navcomp's unhappy two-toned beep told her what she needed to know before she even read the screen. No known passages, and there wasn't even a market station to buy coordinates close-by, which wasn't surprising: Echo's ship was still floating in space near Croifols-4 and its bony orbital vault, who would want to live close to all of... that, really?

Trailblazing: Croifols-4 to Celadon-2

She examined the readout and angled the ship towards the galactic north-east with the realspace propellers, calculated the straightest direction she could find towards the Library's base while still avoiding the nastiest drift currents, and jumped.

EXT. SPACE - FIRST JUMP TO CELADON-2, IN THE DRIFT

Undertake an Expedition(Edge)—8 vs 2|10 Trailblazing: Croifols-4 to Celadon-2 +1 (3/10) Since I've already basically said it and I like the dramatic irony: is it a nasty drift current? Likely(36)Yes Spaceborne Peril(84)Stellar anomaly emits hazardous energies Stellar Object(99)Black hole

The dull, orange, fake-light of the Drift flashed, blinding Echo right as she was preparing the ship to ease out of the jump, as two relatively nearby black holes rotating around each other released a massive gravitational wave that unseated the magnet rotating in the core of her ship mid-transition into realspace, and fucked with the artificial gravity. Starship / Integrity:5 → 4

ECHO
This is what I get when I go too much off the beaten path, damn you Roman!

Echo's arm twisted, jarred out of position by the sudden sling-shotting of the ship out of the Drift as she tried to control the Ilex-zed vector. She felt something in her shoulder pop as the pull of the artificial gravity became suddenly heavier and grit her teeth: she'd have to assess the damage later.
Health:4 → 3 Endure Harm(Health)—5 vs 3|9
She spat the voice-activated codes quickly and the ship spun wildy around its axis as the computer went from assisted mode to completely manual. Echo ignored her pain and grabbed the controls, swerving around the debris.
Space Sightings (Expanse)(73)Fiery energy storm
It was on fire, a chemical burn that had been probably triggered by her own exit from the Drift current, or maybe the gravitational wave itself. Echo twisted the Ilex-zed up, relative to the ship, and quickly spun out of the way of a mineral-heavy asteroid on fire - feeling something screech in the engine room and then a deafening thump.

Withstand Damage(Starship / Integrity)—10 vs 9|7

She managed to adjust the vector of the ship with some quick maneuvers that, had she been less in pian, she would have been proud of, and avoided the energy storm entirely, then laid back on her seat panting heavily, checking the ship readouts with a critical eye.

ECHO
Well, at least the manget is back in place, now if that'd worked for the arm too that'd be swell.

Echo caught her breath looking at the firestorm for a while, then sighed and activated the vocal interface of the Ilex-zed, trying to avoiding using her arm as much as possible. It answered her with its dry voice, completely personality-free, since Echo hadn't installed any personality modules whatsoever, and in fact used the feature only in emergencies: she heard too many disembodied voices as it was.
She instructed the ship to find their coordinates and search their database, to see if they knew of somewhere populated close-by.

Secure an Advantage(Wits)—6 vs 6|4

The ship projected a 3D sphere in front of her, turning it around to show her the surrounding space in all directions. How many is that? Is there just one settlement-or-similar close-by? Likely(67)Yes
One single dot was lit up in green, the path to get there was already highlighted and it was close enough that it would only require her realspace propulsion to get there, her Eidolon drive would have time to recharge.

ECHO
Autopilot, activate. Stop the engines before we enter LiDAR range so that we can get a closer look at what we're landing into. Got it?

Explore a Waypoint(Wits)—5 vs 9|4 Momentum:2 → 3
is it a settlement already known? 50/50(72)No Location(209)Asteroid First Look(297)Restricted, Ring World Name(129)Eos
Descriptor(259)Haphazard Focus(100)Wreckage And what does Echo encounter here, what's the problem? Type(91)[Sacred](starforged/oracles/location_theme/sacred) Peril(49)Prophecies portend a dire threat

The Ilex-zed drifted close enough to the settlement to give a look to the place, but not enough to be scanned, and a second later another 3D projection made itself known in front of Echo's eyes. The settlement was... well, she had seen stranger, but not by much: it was built on a mixture of enormous pieces of what had once clearly been a planet, and the wreckage of very old star-ships, all held together by walkways and, apparently, gravitational magnets, in a loosely-shaped ring.
Looking back at what Echo had encountered before, it became immediately obvious that there had been a huge battle of some kind, here, and the vast asteroid field she'd seen before had been planets, once.

GROUND CONTROL
May the grace of the Ones illuminate your spirit. Ilex-zed, our systems warned us of your scan: state your intentions with our Holy Ground or be ready for retailation.

does Echo know of this place? Unlikely(79)No

Echo signalled the ship to immediately stop scanning and promptly opened the channel two-ways. She didn't know a thing about Eos, if not that it was in the ship's database, so she'd have to proceed with caution.

ECHO
Ilex-zed here, Echo speaking. I turned the LiDAR off! I'm here in need of medical assistance.

GROUND CONTROL
And an invasive scan of our community seemed a good idea to you... why?

ECHO
There have been pirate attacks all over the place, recently, so I've been more cautious, that's all there is to it. Now, I'm requesting permission to land, is that possible?

Secure an Advantage(Heart)—7 vs 4|8

The voice from Ground Control didn't seem too enthused about her request and she received a list of things forbidden on their sacred land (which included something about spirits and desecration, so she'd have to thread carefully with her powers and hope to avoid attracting attention), but her explanation was accepted without any fuss and soon she received the landing bay number and a secure vector of approach.

Momentum:3 → 5

INT. EOS SPACEPORT

Is there an information desk of any kind at the spaceport? 50/50(27)Yes
Expanse(39)Dozens

Echo followed the signage to the information desk, surprised enough to find one in a settlement as sparsely populated as this.
Of course, when she opened the door to the small cubicle, it became clear that this was a mix between a tourist shop and a temple library of some kind, more than a real information desk.
Her eyes caught on a few of the book (real, paper books, even) titles present, the most prominent one being about an apparently new, prophesied threat.

DESK ATTENDANT
May the Ones bring you peace! Are you here for the prophecy?

ECHO
What? Oh, you too! No, I'm just passing by, can you tell me where the medics are?

Are there any advanced facilities? 50/50(39)Yes