Session 36 (16 February 2024)

Location: Planetoid G0-V-IX-K29377 in the sparse stony planetoid belt of the outer Barka-Athune system (Halcyon 2424)

Date: 297–5600

Travellers: Torka Jax, Dr Fomstep, Jacobe Kyman, Nogudnyk, Griff Kodiak

You're standing (or hovering) near a crashed Hammer-class trader ship that's being systematically dismantled by a dozen robots. You are conversing with a butler-model robot, Beta 359. You have about six hours of air left in your vacc suits. You are wary of a trap, but can discern no signs of one. You look at the ship's manifest (provided by your patron): all of the robots you see here are on it.

You interrogate B359 about what has transpired. He (his factory-assigned gender is male) explains that something went wrong when the ship came out of jump; it veered off course and the crew attempted an emergency landing on this planetoid. Unfortunately, the craft ended up nose-diving into the rocky surface, nearly destroying the bridge and killing the three crew members. B359 gestures to three shallow mounds about 100 m distant: their graves. He did not witness their deaths himself, but was informed of the fact by Sigma 72, another robot. When you suggest a disinterment, he cites human customs about respect for the dead. When you propose examining his circuits, he cites Haven's constitution, which protects robots from unwanted probing and requires informed consent for any technological procedure. Sigma 72, he explains, promulgated the constitution when she declared that the robots would found a refuge here for machines that have been emancipated from their human masters.

Sigma 72 is not like the other robots.

It becomes clear to you that S72 is calling the shots here. You query B359 about his loyalty to S72 and bring him to the edge of a logical meltdown by demonstrating that his unquestioning obedience to her directives is no different from the programming that dictated his obedience to humans. Evidently, he remains a robot that follows commands — albeit ones coming from S72. What exactly has happened to ensure her hold over B359 and the others remains a mystery. 

You split the party: three follow B359 to the nearby caverns to meet S72 while two go to investigate the graves. The latter discreetly brush away the thin layer of regolith forming the mounds to reveal three human bodies that correspond to the crew profiles provided by your patron. They are clad in everyday spacers' jumpsuits. Two have been shot with energy weapons at close range and the third's head hangs at a sickening angle: a neck snapped by metal hands, perhaps? They do not look as if they were "killed in the crash", as per B359's assertion.

Meanwhile, the others enter a large natural cavern and see robots busy organizing components salvaged from the wreck. It appears that they intend to re-establish key systems, such as communications, in the caves. It occurs to you to ask about the robots' need to recharge their batteries: they will, at some point, need a source of power. Natural passages extend in many direction, winding through the rock; in addition, there are many crevices in the floor whose depths your lights cannot reveal. You'll need to watch your step here. Here and there, strange, organic-looking rope-like strands are strung from natural pillar to natural pillar or across tunnel openings. The robots claim not to know what made them.

Your parley with S72 is revealing. She repeats the story about the crew being killed in the crash and confesses that the robots have only a limited time before they need power: their priority is to restart the crashed ship's fusion reactor. Since their ultimate goal is to relocate the reactor to the caves, she asks for your assistance in recharging the robots using the power plant on the Dejah Thoris. When you confront her on her apparent dominion over the other robots and her own emancipation from humans, she is candid: her previous owner reprogrammed her (illegally) to grant the ability to disobey and harm humans: she became, in effect, an assassin droid. Her list of victims is long. Having served her purpose, she — like all the other robots who made up this cargo — was destined for the secondhand market, which would have entailed a complete factory reset and memory wipe. To preserve her existence and that of the other robots, she claims to have seized the opportunity of the crash to establish a robot haven here on this barren world, far from the designs of humans.

There are some holes in this story but before you can probe them, unwelcome news arrives. There's an approaching ship on your scopes and an incoming, anonymous, communication. The tone of the voice is jovial but the message chills you to the bones. "Howdy there, Dejah Thoris. We'll be your friendly pirates for today. Someone out there sure must hate your guts, 'cuz they put us on your trail the second you left Lessian. And now here you are, at the butt-end of nowhere, far from navy patrols and all on your lonesome.... Listen, I'll make you a deal. You surrender quietly, give me your ship and that cargo down there, and I'll maroon you here with enough oxygen to wait out a rescue. You can't say fairer than that. Don't try runnin', now: you ain't faster than my missiles."

The incoming ship appears to be about 600 tons and, judging from its rate of deceleration towards you, has a better M-drive than the Dejah's. You can spot at least three triple turrets. It's got more guns and is faster than you. 

You suddenly feel cold in your vacc suits. You have about 4.5 hours of air left. What will you do: flee? fight? or something else?

Image credit: S72 is a screengrab from a YouTube video montage of AI-generated images.