[Begin a Session - (99) Unforeseen aid is on the way or within reach. +1 Momentum (2)]
Breaker's Log - Day Three
I woke up to another bright, sunny day... not a cloud in the sky. That's basically every day on Mirage, because the average daily precipitation is an average slightly above zero. While the bot finished charging, I double-checked all the buggy's systems and loaded up the essentials. This wasn't going to be strictly a salvage run, but if I found something really useful I sure wouldn't leave it behind.
In case I found a really useful lead, I packed some camping equipment. I wasn't keen on staying overnight in the Wastes, but if I found a lead a half-day's drive from the shuttle, it would be foolish to waste the time driving back to Ramshackle instead of pushing on. Old Jin said she would look after Fran while I was gone.
The bot was fully charged by mid-day, so I disconnected it from the solar collector and powered it on. It rose up on its tracks, stretched out its "neck" and panned its sensors to take in its surroundings. I set it to run a self-diagnostic, and after a few minutes, everything came back nominal.
"My name is Blake," I told the bot, "but you can refer to me as Breaker. I am your new owner, Jonny Five." The bot tilted its head a bit and responded.
"Negative, Breaker," it corrected me. "My designation is JONES - Job-Oriented Nodal Expert System. I am a NOVA Laboratories Utility Bot. But you can call me 'Jonny Five' if you wish." So that was an 'S', not a "5"... Okay.
"Either way is fine with me, JONES. I found you in pieces by a crashed shuttle. Can you tell me what happened to you?" I asked it.
[Gather Information: +Wits, 5+4 vs 2/6. Strong. +2 Momentum (4)]
JONES paused, and tilted its head the other way. Its mannerisms and speech seemed a bit unusual for a task-specific machine. "Accessing... file not found. Apologies. I do not remember before you turned me on."
Well, that wasn't going to give me any leads. Perhaps if I got it back to the shuttle, I might be able to hook it up to something and see if I could get some answers. "Get in the buggy, JONES. We're going back to the crash site to see what you can help me find out."
* * *
[Set a Course: +Supply, 6+5 vs 8/10. Weak. Complication (53)(05) : "Hold Balance"]
The trip to the shuttle went better than yesterday's journey - we didn't encounter any hostile wildlife on the way. When we arrived, I noticed that something looked different. The shuttle seemed to be in a different position. Climbing around inside and taking parts out must have caused it to shift. We'd have to be careful - I didn't need it falling over while we were inside - or underneath it.
[Secure an Advantage: +Wits, 3+4 vs 1/5. Strong. +1 Forward, +2 Momentum (6)]
I walked around the shuttle, making sure there were no obvious hazards. JONES followed close by, looking around the site. It scrutinized one of the engine nacelles, and then the area around it.
"Discovery, Breaker," it told me, "Power surge in damaged nacelle caused energy discharge..." It trundled over to a nearby spot. The ground was scorched and there was some debris scattered around. The spot where I had found the damaged bot yesterday.
"Conclusion," JONES continued. "Evidence indicates a utility robot was damaged while attempting to repair system. Possibly destroyed."
"That was you, JONES," I told it. "That might explain the corruption of your file system and other... peculiarities. Let's have a look around inside. Be careful."
* * *
I realized we might have some issues accessing the onboard computer. Yesterday, I had salvaged the shuttle's batteries... and its ability to generate electrical power from the engines. From what JONES had discovered, it would have been dangerous to try to start the engines anyway.
[Repair: +Wits, 6+4 vs 4/7. +2 Momentum (10)]
With the help of JONES, I was able to disconnect the onboard computer and memory storage, as well as the flight recorder. We removed the systems from the shuttle and carried them over to the buggy. We hooked it all up to the buggy's batteries and booted it up.
[Gather Information: +Wits, +1 Scavenger, +1 Forward. 6+4+2 vs 1/9. Strong. +2 Momentum (8)]
JONES plugged into the system while I entered some commands with the keyboard. We accessed the flight recorder and reviewed the log of its final flight. Pearson, Winter, Finn, Hunter... the names of the crew members that evacuated on this shuttle were familiar to me. They were the founders of Ramshackle. Each of us claimed at least one of them as an ancestor. Some of the parts that were stripped from the craft were probably part of Ramshackle now.
As I further reviewed the logs, I realized that my initial assumptions were incorrect. I had believed that this shuttle had escaped from the doomed Ironhome as it crashed to the surface. But this wasn't an auxiliary craft of the Ironhome itself... this was a ship's boat. It belonged to a salvage vessel that had landed to evaluate potential colony sites. The shuttle was being used for flyovers while its parent craft was used as a base camp, but it crashed during a sand storm.
Once the survey parties determined the best location for establishing the colony, these ships would begin to break down the great Ark to bring components and materials to the surface. I wasn't able to determine how many other craft would have been conducting similar surveys elsewhere on the planet, or whether any of them had been deployed when Dead Reckoning crashed. But if I learned nothing else from the black box, I had made one incredible discovery. A find unlike anything that any grub in the history of Ramshackle had ever made.
I knew where they landed that salvage ship.
[Milestone on Vow "Recover the Wreckage of Ironhome Dead Reckoning": +1 tick.]
[End a Session: Breaker and JONES must set out to find the abandoned starship. +1 Momentum (9)]
