The Cloudbank Mystery

Re-cap of sessions 94, 95, 96, and 97 played on 10 April, 8 May, 15 May, and 22 May.

Location: Natar (Far Home 0515)

Dates: 252-5601 to 255-5601

You've trailed your friend Jarumi – that is to say, the biological android who appears to be a perfect copy of Nika Jarumi – to a gas giant orbiting a swollen red star. You find the planet blockaded by four mercenary cruisers. It's not difficult to bribe your way past them – only Cr20,000 – and you soon find out why: their real job is to preventing anything from leaving. They shoot to kill, no questions asked.

Hidden in the upper atmosphere is the Cloudbank Synthetic Production Facility, a massive industrial space station nearly 2km in length. Nearby is an ancient retrofitted rocket thruster (the "Bell") that serves as a base for Divers: desperate treasure-seekers who enter Cloudbank in the hopes of retrieving some advanced tech that they can sell. Arkady, who runs the place, fills you in on the situation. Cloudbank ("the Deep," to veteran Divers) has for about twenty years been under the control of a sentient AI named Monarch. The human scientists and corpos who staffed the facility fled once Monarch took over. Cloudbank was built to produce anthropomorphic robots, pushing the boundaries of the ancient taboo against building human-like machines; you recall having encountered an older model on the desert moon of Karth (Dr Fayed). For reasons unknown, the corporation has been unable to disable or destroy Monarch; it thus pays to maintain the blockade to prevent anything from leaving the facility. Morever, squads of mercenaries periodically enter the Deep and kill anything that moves, even if it looks human. Especially if it looks human. 

Jarumi's mysterious destination

Nonetheless, Divers have learned that scoring precious bleeding-edge tech – either stuff that Cloudbank was working on prior to Monarch's coup or devices that Monarch itself has since produced – can allow them buy their way past the blockade and turn them into instant millionaires. To do so, they risk the violence of the mercs and the myriad dangers within, which include Monarch's own security androids (sometimes dangerous but reassuringly robotic). 

Although there's more to learn from other Divers and the rag-tag occupants of the Bell, you're in a hurry to follow Jarumi, so you press Arkady to ferry you over in his space buggy. You spend several hours navigating the interior, trying to hone in on the signal from the tracking device you planted on Jarumi back when you crossed paths with her on Galaton 9. You meet a wounded Diver, Sangah, who was abandoned by his double-crossing partner, Hassian. You venture into a suite of laboratories where Monarch subjects uncannily humanlike androids to endless testing and meet two who decided to flee that monotony. You name them Dante and Persephone and, eager to support their self-emancipation, guide them to a set of escape pods, only to discover that strapping them into the seats allows Monarch to wipe their minds. Adieu, Dante and Persephone.

Eventually, you receive a radio communication from Jarumi herself: she has met with Monarch and has received her instructions. She's leaving: she advises you to do so as well. To do that, you'll need an artifact from Cloudbank: happily (?), you can use one of the cybernetic eyes that Dante and Persephone discovered during their flight. Lastly, she lets you know that the original Jarumi is being held somewhere in the Deep. (You guess she's one of many hundreds of such "originals" being stored in cryosleep somewhere.)

This bombshell gives you pause. Do you try to rescue original Jarumi or try to help android Jarumi somehow, either to free her from Monarch's grip or support her mission somehow? On the one hand, you are complete strangers to original Jarumi; she would have no memory of you and no history with you. On the other hand, android Jarumi, as biologically human and complex and autonomous as she may be, is undeniably a manufactured creature programmed to obey the wishes of her AI creator. You decide to continue your pursuit of android Jarumi for the time being. 

After another short stop at the Bell, you're back in your interplanetary "taxi": you pay off the mercs with the cybernetic eye and set course for Galaton 9.