[Event] Problems With Portals (Part One) - The Breakdown Job

[trpmods]

All good things must come to an end, and that is just as true of the He Row’s visit with the Agrii as it is with anything else. What was that? It wasn’t a good thing to spend so much time with the Agrii? They’re your hosts and love you very much, so clearly it WAS a good thing. But at last Ga Re’s voice comes over the intercomm of all three ships and announces something important. It is time for the He Rows to go back to Agra-10.

Some time is needed to get He Rows onto shuttles and back to their ships, and then for pilot teams to reach the bridge to handle navigation through the pending portal, to get them home. Except as everyone waits for the announcement to brace for transit… Nothing comes. Any He Rows lingering on the bridge of their ship, or watching the Agrii ship through the forcefield in the hangars will notice time pass and no sign of the portal opening. Then it happens.

A small explosion near the underside of the aft of the Agrii ship. Near the engine room. Fire doesn’t last long in space, but the brief plume of it cannot be good. What’s happening?

Then comes Ga Re’s voice, quick and frantic over the intercomms of the Peanut Party and the Glitter Food.

He Rows quick come! Back come quick! Is big pro blame happen! Can no make port hole back. Much bad. Please come.

From what the He Rows may have witnessed, she’s probably right. It’s a pretty big problem if you’re all going to be stranded here with no portal to get you anywhere at high speeds. How long could you reasonably get by in space without going back home? That’s a good question. The food and drink dispensers seem almost limitless in their use, so you won’t starve. But do you really want to take the extremely slow path back to Agra-10? No, perhaps it is better to figure out what is wrong.

Another shuttle ride later and He Rows are met with a panicking group of Agrii. While Ga Re is not present herself, no doubt on the bridge where she had been communicating from in the moment, there are others that will quickly reach out to try and herd the He Rows along. Many He Rows will be rushed toward the Engineering, though those with medical expertise might be pulled aside toward the Medical Wing to give assistance there.

To say the Agrii in Engineering are distressed would be an understatement. There are some already working together with the fire suppression systems to put out lingering conflagrations. Others are clearly busy trying to help injured Agrii out of the area, these injured individuals mostly seeming to be dealing with minor cuts and abrasions but others with a variety of burns.

The door to the core room itself has been sealed, perhaps an automated defensive measure, and there are Agrii there trying desperately to haul it open. They do not seem to know how to override the security lock down, and seem intent on hauling the door open, as perhaps there are some Agrii on the other side who need rescuing.

And then there is the hole. It takes up one entire corner of the main room of Engineering, the metal floor blown open down toward the ‘cooling pipes’ area the maps list as on a support level below this deck. The metal of the floor is twisted up and away from the hole, indicating there was some explosion below that busted it open. There are enough char marks to reinforce that conclusion. It seems there is now a new method to access what would have been very hard, if not impossible, to reach before.

All told it’s quite a mess and clearly the Agrii are not prepared to handle this sort of emergency. Perhaps it’s time for the He Rows to take over and figure out how to deal with the problems at hand. Which might be a bit more numerous than first glance alone may imply.

FAQ
What are the dates for this event?

This is actually a multi-part event, with this being part one of three. All told Problems With Portals will occur in three parts, starting with this, The Breakdown Job. This part starts on February 12th and will ‘run’ until February 26th where a new burst of information will be released for the second (and longest) part.

Please note that while the first part of this event will be the focus for about two weeks, it will technically only cover about five days. This is to allow players time to work through this initial phase before facing the second one. If the community feels that they need more time for this or any subsequent portions of the event, please let us know. If we have enough feedback to that end, we can discuss extension.

Can we opt out of this event?

He Rows can hiatus, choose to stay on the He Row ships, or just bum around on the Agrii ship in this part. In future parts they will go with the ships and can get up to their own things, but they will be limited to where the story takes everyone.

Is it possible to know the whole shape of this event now?

Not in heavy detail, but yes, in a very limited one. Part One is an investigation and initial repairs phase, where He Rows will assist with the current crisis aboard the Agrii ship, which will involve figuring out what happened, how to fix it, and helping deal with the general Agrii populace whether injured or stressed out. Part Two is something like a fetch quest, where He Rows will travel to another location and work on acquiring what is needed to solve the problems on the Agrii ship. Part Three will be the final repair phase, but will also potentially involve some elements of investigation and application of new information gained during Part Two.

We will be giving the longest ‘in game’ time to Part Two due to its complexity and all of the opportunities He Rows will have to work on off-mission goals. Part Three could be relatively short, or prompt a bit more involvement depending upon the choices made by players in Parts One and Two. To this end there will be comment threads in Parts One and Two to report actions He Rows have taken (both for Mod knowledge in shaping events as well as for keeping your fellows briefed), and we will be heavily encouraging players to make a lot of use of asking OOC questions to help make their plans up for the whole event. And yes, your decisions will shape not only the course of this event, but possibly some of the near future of the whole game.

Because of this we highly encourage players to make use of this post and other OOC posts to plot out their decisions, and even form teams to solve different sections of problems. If you wish mod help in creating small teams to do the work, we’ll do our best to provide, and this may be especially useful in Part Two.

Finally, we’re telling you now that this event will conclude with He Rows ultimately returning to Agra-10 and having a ‘free’ month. We will give you a few small things to work with for your return as idea hooks, but know that April will be a pass, both to let you continue any lingering threads in this larger event, and to give He Rows a bit of R&R time.

What happened to the Agrii ship?

An explosion located below Engineering, in an area that your Agrii provided ship map indicates as ‘cooling pipes’. We have been asked some about this area before, and while we don’t know if anyone pulled the trigger to actually try and explore, this time you’ll get the chance. But that’s only one part of what is going on. What ultimately matters is that part of the Agrii engines that make the portals which allow for quick transit to certain locations seems to have broken down rather spectacularly and repairs will be needed in two phases: first to restore the portal enough for the smaller He Row ships to travel to get additional parts, second to restore the portal making device fully.

That explosion visible from the He Row ships would seem to imply some level of decompression in parts of the Agrii ship. Is this true?

You’re such smart cookies. Yes, it is true. Luckily the external holes seem to be localized to the cooling pipes areas and He Rows will find that powerful force fields quickly kicked in to prevent full explosive decompression throughout the ship. This means the area will be relatively safe to explore.

Wasn’t this area previously blocked off by some sort of force fields? I read it in the link above

You’re completely correct. And whatever that explosion was seems to have taken some of them out. He Rows can now explore a limited part of this area. When dropping down into the newly accessible region of the ship they will eventually run into some other red, migraine inducing force fields.

What will we encounter when entering the lower level?

As they explore they will confirm that this area is most definitely not ‘cooling pipes’ but what seems to be a secondary and far more extensive engineering deck. Here are the real systems that keep the ship moving. Your air scrubbers, your matter recycling units, your water purifiers. Most everything seems to run automatically, and the terminals you can access indicate that they were managed by what seems to be a very talented, if limited in scope, dumb-AI. Unfortunately this program has been damaged, as well as some of the systems on the ship.

There are a lot of signs of both physical damage to parts of the systems and to the computer parts that are part of their control systems. Near the core of the area there is also a rather expansive mainframe area. With some work one can get into the system and find that there is a dumb-AI (that seems programmed in the same language as is written in the corridors of the ship) trying very hard to do damage control on everything around it. It seems to be programmed to manage the major systems here, and some of its connections are broken. Attempting to talk to it would have the system reassure them that with sufficient repairs it can sustain the damaged life support systems long enough to allow for more repairs.

Further exploration beyond this point will get He Rows to a section more toward the middle of the ship, where they will run into some side rooms with more support systems that are accessible. Near here another two red force fields are visible, and approaching them means exposing yourself to a sound so bad it induces migraines. Beyond the smaller one leading into a side room is a series of what looks like sealed tubes. For those who have been around since the first Agrii Ship visit, they almost look like the stasis systems that held the kidnapped Agrii (and two He Rows) captive on the ‘Graq ships’. They will give certain He Rows an eerie feeling of familiarity. Behind the other, larger force field, a large structure is visible, pulsing with light. Anyone with Engineering will immediately know it’s got to be the relevant portal generator.

If the portal generator is behind a force field, how are we supposed to repair it?

Just before the force field there are small rooms. In one of them there is some clear and accessible damage. He Rows will need to start portal repairs in this area, which will stabilize the system for small scale use for now. A nearby terminal will provide access to the dumb-AI if it has been repaired that will help guide He Rows through repairs.

Where do we find parts for all these repairs?

A lot of them will require people going through the cargo holds and hangar of the Agrii ship, going through crates to find suitable parts for most of the short term repairs and patches. Some will also be available in Engineering itself, or by cannibalizing more heavily destroyed systems. But it is very clear that there is not nearly enough here to repair everything that needs fixed, not for the long term. He Rows are going to need a shopping list, because they’re going seeking more parts in the near future.

The good news is that much of the dumb-AI’s systems can be repaired with what you have, and it will be useful in helping determine what more is needed for long term fixes. The bad news is that talking to it will require a combination of work from Engineers and Communications specialists in most cases because of the fact that it functions on the presumably Atroma language.

For those of us who aren’t really computer repair people, what can we do?

There are a few other tasks that are important to approach but not mandatory. People can help deal with the injuries to the Agrii, help open the core room to get to the trapped Agrii, deal with the stressed Agrii populous, and other things like exploring or being additional hands to the repair crews by finding parts or carrying things around. Toward the end of the period they’ll also need to start looking for trade goods.

Trade goods? Why do we need those?

The simple truth is that there are not enough parts on the three ships to complete all the necessary repairs. By the end of this part Ga Re and other Agrii leaders will finally realize the only option is to send the He Rows to a place to try and get more supplies and parts to help. But as they will not be able to scout the location first, they will have to send the He Rows and will not know what money to acquire for them. Therefore He Rows will need to do their best to gather things that might be valuable in terms of trade/barter to help.

They will mention a space station they have heard of but have not been to that may help. He Rows will need to gather goods into the cargo holds of their own ships to use for trade. Things like precious metals, spare computer parts, fresh foods and plants, and other odds and ends may be valuable. He Rows should gather whatever they can, including perhaps asking Agrii to donate some degree of small personal items that are particularly nice so they can use them as trade goods. You’ll see how this will work out later.

Okay, to summarize, what general tasks are there to do to repair the Agrii ship?

For that we direct you to this comment thread below. It has a list of the general goals, ranked in order of importance. Also noted will be what expertises (as well as background He Row skills) will be most useful to assist on the various problems. Those expertises which are most helpful will be listed first and in bold. These lists will not be exhausted in relation to skills. If you think something your character is good at can apply, then we believe you. There is also a thread of potential secondary/optional tasks that He Rows can engage with. These lists might be expanded as you ask questions and He Rows determine new points of interest.

While these objectives are ranked in order of importance, many of them can be performed at the same time by various teams. Also, if you have any questions related to a specific task, please ask it in reply to the task itself.

Okay, but what about ____?

And here we come to the point of asking you, did we miss something you’re interested in? If so, please ask them below. We also highly encourage players to use this post for their plotting for the event, so that they can potentially form teams to tackle different objectives together at the same time. So please, take some time to think, take some time to plot, and absolutely ask us tons of questions. There’s going to be a lot going on with this whole three-part event that may only come up if you seek them out.

Comments

Plotting with Tony!

[in_extremis]

Keeping this brief for now to feel out who might want to do what, because Tony has the kind of skillset that can apply pretty broadly here. Just about all of the repair tasks obviously, but most relevantly the Repair Support AI one since he has the comms datapoint! He'd also be useful at attempting the access the Core Room by hacking through, OR he's experienced a hiatus and is a masochist so he could brute his way through that Secondary forcefield.

He's going to be quite focused on not just treating the symptoms, but diagnosing the actual cause here, so anyone who wants to interrogate explosive suspects should throw some ideas at me!

Also, it would really help his suicidal crisis if he could actually help for once, so while I am happy to plot chaos and help your characters be more disruptive, I'd rather someone else make that tension happen this time.

[trpmods]

Please forgive us for the confusion. We feel we should make something very clear regarding the Secondary Force Field. While characters can investigate it and study the area, they will not be bypassing it at this moment. The pain tolerance/hiatus ties are important for the information that can be gleaned in the situation they are in, but no one will be brute forcing through it at this time.

[doubled_speed]

/chin stroking/

I really want Tommy to see 'hiatus relevant' thing, and probably bounce off the force field. That could be hilarious. If you're down for it, I can do the question about what is found?

Also I would be quite amused if Reeve has to be the one to come to Tony while he's slaving over work and just be like 'okay man, we're going back to our boyfriends now to get a solid three hours of sleep before we work ourselves further to the bone'

[in_extremis]

Sure, they can do the forcefield thing! I can assume it's something like 'thomas you must do as much recon as possible, report back', so they might cover a lot of exploration in the same thread!

Reeve: this will baffle Tony lmao ARE YOU SICK, REEVE? ARE YOU POSSESSED? This might come more naturally if they're already working at something together and have been making no progress for a while, like neither of them have Piloting so if they're working on the engines they're going to hit a wall.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy is good recon drone. But he talks back more.


LISTEN. Reeve's boyfriend(?) and Mini and York have been on him about it a lot more lately. But yeah, them hitting a wall sounds really good. They are stubborn men.

[in_extremis]

That's not going to help Tony understand Reeve, that's going to baffle him even more

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, it baffles Reeve too.

Re: Plotting with Tony!

[cactusy]

Shaw's going to be like "FINALLY, SOMETHING CONCRETE TO DO", and she's also going to be very interested in sussing out the cause of all this so I'd love her and Tony to work together a bit! She's a big fan of working herself to the bone, so they could probably jive there. If that sounds potentially interesting to you, I can toss a wildcard at his log?

[in_extremis]

yessss let's see her in a crisis
investigation buddies! Getting delirious from going too hard and starting to say and do really weird shit buddies! I'm not sure Tony can actually help her get much further since he doesn't have the Engineering datapoint, but he will sure try. I'll ask if there's any wiggle room there.

Also, re: shaw's order-taker surprise, Tony has a kind of similar thing where some might assume he has to be in charge, but really he just doesn't like being told what to do, not necessarily be the one doing the telling, either. They should have a super awkward stand off where they are expecting the other one to start bossing around and it's like crickets until they figure each other out.

ANYWAY YES, you can start something in that post, or I can put another starter up if you're not sure what direction to go yet, just let me know!!

[cactusy]

This all sounds excellent to me! Re: the starter, let's just go with whoever gets to it first? I'm heading out in an hour or so and probably won't have time to write one up before then, but I should have some time this evening to either do a tag-in or respond to a starter you've put up.

[in_extremis]

That makes sense! We ping each other in Discord if we start something so we don't overlap each other.

I may have just invited Jan onto the investigation team, too. She may or may not also appear.

[cactusy]

Excellent, the more the merrier!

(brain is still fuzzy, so these aren't great but I wanted to get something down)

[wearingthestars]

I am happy to volunteer any of mine to be a chaos that lets Tony help <3
Billy will mostly be healing, but he has been through hiatus and may spend time with Tony trying to figure out wtf is going on with the secondary forcefield/why it is so extra bad for Soldier. He may need hugs about that.

Peter can definitely be smart bro with you in terms of hacking or repair, as long as I don't actually have to be smart personally (lol)

And Jan is going to be Jan and might need someone to tell her to sleep or to stop trying to run through the barrier.

[in_extremis]

The medical stuff is definitely nawt an area that Tony's going near, but he and Billy can connect after they've each experienced the weird forcefield thing and maybe by their powers combined figure it out. And hug about it. That's probably about the timeframe that Tony would figure out Jon's gone, so that might be...that as well.

Does Peter have engineering? I haven't actually specifically tackled the AI with anyone else yet, just started assuming it was Tony's job and he'd figure it out, so they can be doing that. Maybe Peter doesn't get along with AI as well and it starts to act out...

Tony will not be super helpful about telling people to sleep, probably, so Jan will need a better supportive friend. Not to tell you what to do, but Jan's actual base instinct here would be to go all Noir Detective PI.....maybe she joins Shaw and Tony in investigating?

[winsomelosesome]

Hug it out! They can both be upset over their boyfriends <3

Yes! He does have engineering, and I assume he would have some fun errors. I like this.

...oh shit, yeah. I fully forgot that side of her for a minute. That is true. Very helpful! I need to re some avengers inc. She can def join as long as Shaw is okay with that.