Joint16

[[Wed/Sat 16]:

• Technofearful trash Wolf 359
• Huntington reveals his true colors

Events

• UNF calls for a meeting with Khan and Huntington, which includes the Wednesday group. Huntington invites the Saturday group to the meeting as well, and so they finally meet.
• Laiden is recognized by Adana Cassenti, who reiterates Astarte’s offer of amnesty if he returns what he stole from them. ("Did you have a chance to consider our offer?" – but Trenton didn’t tell Laiden… It potentially comes out that his psicrystal is Libra, one of the Zodiac computers. Adana honestly does not know who Baelom is/was…
• Baelom was a manifestation of the Destiny Force. He was real, and he wasn’t. The others don’t remember him because his purpose was to interact with Laiden. Everything involving stealing the Perseverance, miller2, Serra’s interaction with DEE leading to his awakening, Serra’s own awakening, etc., was crucially important enough to warrant such direct manipulation (and Laiden’s link to John Bishop and Ti-Lung made him more malleable). If Noun actually studies Laiden intently enough, he’ll notice the bizarre folds in reality around him.
• The machine disciples from Laboro escaped, and some (Joshua and Kusanagi) made their way to Lupus. Joshua offers to awaken Serra, who quickly accepts, so that she can better fulfill her special purpose. (But she is concerned about the dilemma that being awakened will free her from her requirement to fulfill a programmed special purpose – Serra seeks advice from Laiden first.) DEE and Kusanagi are two of the 42 ships in the fight against the Technofearful.
• Benek is thankful to Saturday for saving Evan Cassenti. He laments being unable to stop Mordred. He appears only as a thin black wisp, without humanoid form, but his voice can still be faintly heard.
• Khan demands potential solutions from Bryant and the UNF regarding the terrifying threat. Every proposal he makes involving heavy artillery is shot down by Admiral Rossner, who says that such things did not work in the Lalande system. Rossner instead stresses that they need more information on the
• Evan explains about Jonathan Cohen, Mercabah, Sagittarius, the white substance, the Damocles Experiments, and how it all interrelates.
• Huntington urges the party (particularly Max) to assist in reunifying the Occultem Lapidem.
• After around 10 days, Fey receives Boris’s letter.

Laboro is no longer mystically infused – the Technofearful has gorged itself on all the mystic energy.

Communicating with the Technofearful is possible, but difficult. Becoming infected with the white substance allows communication, but also makes the infected person vulnerable to the Technofearful’s powerful will.

"Especially in its fragile state, the Sol system cannot fall victim to this menace." But maybe someone will get the bright idea to lure the Technofearful into the Destroyer itself? They seem to be able to sense it, though, and tricking them into being devoured by it would be exceedingly difficult. They are reluctant to approach the Sol system while the Destroyer hovers near Pluto, but ultimately their rage at these planets for using mystic energy overcomes their caution – after all, the Peacemaker is not evil, but merely a divine punisher. Their ultimate goal is to destroy the Deus Ex Machina so that the Sol system can be cleansed. But Mars is on the way there, and William Moss is eager for their assault.

Once the Lupus attack happens, everyone gets owned unless the players come up with some damn good ideas. During the 12 day prep time, Lupus is evacuated, but the involved characters still need to escape, or be assimilated.

Splitting Saturday out

Huntington does escape, and tries to bring Max along, since he has figured out that the severed arm is useless to him, and now believes he needs Max himself. He’ll secretly drop Mind 20 on Max to convince him to travel with him. But (unbeknownst to Merlin) Xela knows when something like that happens to someone like Max under her command. She shows up in person and tips off the Saturday group that Max has been so enchanted, and says that they should go after them.

Splitting Wednesday out

The Technofearful, after laying waste to Lupus, target Mars. The UNF orders the Wednesday group to pursue them into the Sol system – DEE can transport everyone out of the Lupus system with miller2 before the Technofearful devour them (DEE: "I will require 3 million additional antimatter units when we return to Earth.")

Maybe the Destroyer can be used to devour the Technofearful by communicating with Eddie through the machine, and convincing him to move to Mars. But doing so has its own terrible ramifications.