Aslan Route 28: The Second Most Valuable Thing

Previously, on the Aslan Route... The crew of the Macavity are breaking into a centuries-old survival bunker for the ultra-wealthy on Ergo. The defensive robots would rather they didn’t...

Ergo, 1107 Week 10

Before the swarms of metal spiders can reach Our Heroes, Mazun blows one group away with his shotgun and Dr Matauranga deploys his “Wide Area Cauteriser” (i.e. flamethrower) to burn the second group. When the mech attached to the spiders emerges cautiously from a side room, Rex lets rip with his laser SMGs and cuts it down. Vila is still scrambling up the slope through the crevasse and back to the ship, where Troisei is awaiting developments; she has people for this sort of thing, namely the crew.

Moving forward brings them to the central common area, obviously used as a canteen, meeting hall and so on. Three other exits lead to accommodation suites, but they are bent on reaching the central computer and deactivating the robot guards. Matauranga points out the various robots, Mazun comes up with a cunning tactical plan... and then Rex shoots everything that moves.

Slightly off to one side, a lift shaft descends into the gloom. Not trusting the lift, which is probably controlled by the same computer sending robots after them, the crew descends using the handholds set in the side of the shaft, Mazun in the lead. One of the ancient handholds gives way under his weight, and he falls the rest of the way, fortunately suffering no more than bruises. Conscious now of the risk, Dr Matauranga and Rex descend more cautiously, reach the bottom without further incident, and help Mazun dust himself off.

Making their way from the lift shaft deeper into the complex, Dr Matauranga calls to mind his earlier research on the Ergosian nuclear war and the plans of the wealthy to survive it, and advises Mazun on the likely verbal codes to gain access through the blastproof doors. This takes several attempts, as the computer finds it hard to make out what Mazun is saying over the gunfire and snarls behind him as Rex deals with the next wave of robot spiders.

Entering the main control room, they quickly close the door again behind them, and survey the dusty chamber. A mech is wired into the largest console, wearing an odd headpiece.

“Please stop shooting,” it says, “For I am the Second Most Valuable Thing.” It goes on to explain that it spent an indefinite period deactivated and buried, was woken up by bunker construction, went back to sleep until the nuclear exchange cracked open the bunker, and then took over the defence robots, which it has been using to build itself a spaceship to leave the planet in search of its colleagues.

Leaving the Matauranga Collective and the Second and Third Most Valuable Things to catch up on history since the days of the Ancients, Rex and Mazun search the lowest level of the complex and quickly find the treasure vault. This proves to have a two-man access mechanism, operated by turning two widely-separated manual keys simultaneously; one key is in a nearby office, and they realise the other keys must be held by the bunker’s clientele. Said clientele prove to be dead from various causes in the accommodation suites, but none of the team have much in the way of scruples and the remaining keys are quickly recovered from crumbling skeletons and dusty rooms.

Now that the fighting is over, Vila scampers back down to join in looting the place. They recover a wide range of objets d’art, recreational drugs, paintings, a stamp collection, precious metals and so forth and ferry it up to the ship in a number of trips.

Meanwhile, the Matauranga Collective and the Second Most Valuable Thing have reached an agreement; it will join them on their travels, and the robots will help the crew load up the supplies and parts it has been collecting. It hasn’t got very far on building its own ship and is happy to commandeer – errm, sorry, take passage on – the Macavity. It considers its new home very primitive, and discusses potential improvements with the Collective; clearly, a science bay focused on genetic research is the place to start, and it starts work on a swarm of robots to help it convert a couple of staterooms into a laboratory.

Troisei, who is currently chartering the Macavity, asks to be taken to Cordan, which suits the rest of the crew, especially Mazun, who needs to report in to his handler – sorry, local factor – Prasad.

Fast Travel, 1107 Weeks 11-16

The Macavity stops at Sperle long enough to sell off the artworks and specie, then moves on to Exe where it sells the recreational drugs. While in the Exe system, Mazun persuades the Android Liberation Front to get Captain Cash to relocate them to the bunker on Ergo and fix it up – Dr Matauranga has eyes on it for his obligatory secret base.

On Cordan, Mazun introduces Prasad and Troisei to each other, and since each of them, for their own purposes, wants to establish a good trade connection, that goes well. Vila remains on board to avoid unwanted entanglements with the local underworld and supervise the stateroom conversion. Unknown to Dr Matauranga, he installs simple mechanically-triggered bombs on the robot swarm the Second Most Valuable Thing is using for the work, while in parallel Mazun upgrades the anti-intrusion protocols on the ship’s computer, in case the SMVT decides to take control.

Mazun then sidles off to a secret meeting with Prasad, who is in reality his IISS handler. Mazun explains that Dr Matauranga now has in his possession two Ancient devices, and he intends to gradually adjust the Macavity’s course to take them towards his cover ID’s homeworld of Batav, where he will hand over the devices to Imperial researchers as per standing orders. However, this may take some time, as all the members of the Matauranga Collective are smarter than him, and he will have to move carefully. Prasad agrees this is the right move; having spent two years embedding Mazun as an asset in the Hierate, he doesn’t want to risk blowing Mazun’s cover for the sake of two artefacts of unknown purpose and value.

The crew is now on Cordan and considering moving towards Torpol along the Florian Route, since Prasad earlier asked them to ensure that Prince Hteleitoirl’s clan takes over garrison duty there to guard against a resurgence of the Fury; they have persuaded Troisei that unless someone specifically asks about her relationship to Prince Hteleitoirl, who tried to overthrow the government a few years back and later married her sister, there is no need to draw it to anyone’s attention.

None of their current tasks are especially urgent, so the crew are taking a few days on Cordan to relax and shop, while Troisei discusses trading options with Prasad.

GM Notes

I thought that a running battle against robots would become boring quite quickly, so we shifted to a Dramatic Task to get them down into the computer room before the robot swarms overran them. That worked pretty well, although I'm now considering adding a Dangerous Dramatic Task where failures result in Bumps & Bruises or even Wounds, as Mazun falling down a lift shaft (Athletics Critical Failure) should really have injured him.

I suppose I'll have to decide what the Most Valuable Things want soon. I got the idea from a Challenge or Travellers' Digest magazine in the 1980s, or maybe 1990s; I can't remember which one or what it was they did.

I’m running out of adventures along the Aslan Route, so I’ll start expanding the area of operations shortly, to make use of the worthwhile adventures in the Trojan Reach sector which we haven’t played through yet.

Mazun's player pointed out that what lies beyond Torpol could be anything I want, and doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with Charted Space. I'm considering that.