*I am tired*

*To the Septre*

"Those are the ones that need to be fixed, have the bots try to get themselves in order, there are three missing, and we will try to find them. Is there a Jarl's quarters? I am tired, I can use a shower and some food, I hope those things are here? Either way, I need to rest, there should be enough bots here now that repairs on both you and the ships can go forward once they sort themselves out."

Jhiaxus

Sceptre guides you to the Jarl's quarters.  Its filled with items out of seventeen hundreds including a mattress frame with leather straps to hold up the mattress bag filled with goosedown.

There is a cabinet with china plates, and a 'treasure' like chest with horse pistols and a sabre and a 'Captain's Log'.

The shower is a sonicshower.

Outside, the process of repair continues on as you drift off to sleep.

The next morning, you still find the sparker sparking, a robot has been found, the Pinta shuttle is much further toward being fixed, and ten bots are arguing about which one gets which part to use in the Pinta.

"I tried to tell them to just get another part, but they are too focused on short term efficiency, so they've been arguing for the last four hours." Sceptre says.  None of the fully sane bots are arguing and tugging at the same parts.

In reply to Tadeusz (msg # 39):

*I look around and start reading the journal until I drift off, after taking a shower*

*When I wake up*

"Is there any food here?" *To Sceptre*

*When I see the bots situation*

"Ok one at a time, time to fix your subroutines, so that this doesn't happen again, and let you cycle down a list of options. I will also add an if/then if another bot is working on a repair/part/task, to goto the next one"

*I sigh*

"At least we are making progress"

Jhiaxus

Translated from Spanish, the highlights are...

"I have the honor to be Raoul De Soto, younger brother of the famed Hernando.  By the will of the Monarch of Spain, for the spread of the True Faith, and the enlargement of the Spanish domain, I set forth on the Fair Winds to explore the New World."

"On the twenty-seventh day of my voyage, my first mate revealed his treacherous plan to follow the Master Thief of the Unknown World, Raleigh the English dog into piracy. I objected forcefully, and was restrained and placed in a rowboat."

"Seventeen days, and my water is gone. I strive to forgive the treasonous curs, and on some days, I see angels, whether a Visitation or a delusion, I cannot know, but they comfort me here alone on the wide sea."

"I thought it was one of Ezekiel's angels, but the Voice says it is a creation of Men who fled the Earth from before Noah's Flood."

"I am apparently now the Duke of Earth. These Grays, I know not if they are material beings with souls, or demons incarnate, but their every action leads me to believe them diabolical.  They subject good Christian men, and honest heathens to tortures such as I would not wish on Raleigh."

"They have a shield of light about them, but with sufficient force they can be made to feel good steel. I have killed a Gray and sent his companions fleeing. It is a good day."

You're only about a fourth of the way thru the log, and sleep presses hard on you, so you set the log aside.

"There is stasis locked food of the former jarl. Hardtack, apples, beef jerky.  And there is vitamin-protein pills." Sceptre answers.

You fix the bots, and gain another plus to computing as you examine the well thought out programming language of the Lost Human Empire of NewHome Galaxy.  They had a lot of time to get the bugs out, and its a solid piece of work.

As you finish, you hear a thrum, and then your ears pop.  To your right, you see six beings step out of the Door.

Four are Gorillas holding a sheet like an awning over the head of a Gray, and in front of the Gray is a man shape in bright red plastic armor that covers all his body.

*To SCEPTRE*

"Looks like we have guests, we should greet them appropriately"

*I am hoping since the program was able to deduce facial features and skepticism, that the program will also deduce that it should defend itself and me as much as it can*

*I will use the bot I was fixing as cover, making it look like I am still fixing him*

"I am sorry this facility is not conducting tours at this hour, please come back during our normal business hours"

*I will likely have one of my pistols on my belt, and a katana over my shoulder, but I wasn't prepared to be invaded like this, so most of my heavier stuff would be in my room, where I would have thought to be able to get to if something happened*

*I am curious to see how this goes*

Jhiaxus

SCEPTRE....pause...."Understood, Jarl Jhiaxus."

Several other bots wander over in front of you forming a line as if waiting to be fixed. You hear a slight rumbling in the floor, and ten feet to your left there is an inch wide crack in the metal floor that wasn't there before.

"Well, that is the very thing I meant to discuss. Previously, on the DOOR charts, this facility was listed as not in operation. Now it is listed as operational.  I suspect your birdbrain is malfunctioning, and I would like to modify it so that it will be fixed."

"Then we can go back to how things were before you arrived. Fact is, I can give you a lift to the near planet, and set you up with a dozen or so pounds of gold to recompense you for any inconvenience you may have suffered. By the way, just how did you get here, anyways?"

The voice of the Gray is pleasant, but the emotional undertones are odd and off-putting.

*I smile*

"Wow you are much nicer than that other guy who dropped me off here by force. He told me to stay here and wait, while he hid in the reactor room to mask his presence, it didn't make much sense to me at the time, but I think he wanted you here for some reason. I do like gold, sounds like a good offer to me."

*We will see if Divide and conquer works here*

Jhiaxus

OOC: Heh.

He touches something on the golden armband on his left arm, and a glitter in the air surrounds him.

"I'll go talk to him. Wait here." he orders the apes, and he and Red Plastic Armor walk off to the reactor room, and enter it.

The apes sit down, and one pulls some food out of a pack for everyone, and they all act like they're on break.  If one started smoking a cigarrette it could not be more obvious that 'break, boys!' has been called.

*I tell SCEPTRE*

"You are going to need to do something to distract them in there so I can come in from behind"

*I figure I will need to come at them from behind, and take out the Grey with my katana, and hopefully the red armored person is an automaton at this point. Either way, I will have 4 of the bots peel off to protect me and the apes are happy to follow their orders to stay there*

*So I guess me and 4 of the bots will slip in right after, unless SCEPTRE tells me he can do something to them inside, but I am going to guess I will need to deal with this myself*

Jhiaxus

"Make it quick. The reactor room has high rad levels."

You walk up behind them with your bots, and SCEPTRE says 'close your eyes on the count of three'.

You do and there is a bright flash in the reactor room, and the alarms start shrilling.

"Reactor Leak. Reactor Leak." Booms out very loudly.

You charge with the bots taking up a line between you and Red.  Your katana hammers in, and overrides the glitter field.  But a strike that would have cut the Gray in half only breaks his left arm.

"Kill him." The Gray shrieks.  Red begins to leap forward and the four bots cluster on him, tangling his legs.  He punches through an eighth of an inch of steel, and one bot goes down, tipping over sideways.

Edit. OOC: Add plus 2 skill for Hammerstrike which does rank plus one damage, and plus one to Ambush.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:32, Sun 18 Sept 2016.

*I keep hamming the grey until he doesn't move and drag him out of the reactor room, I hope the bots keep Red off me until the grey is dead, and he calms down, my goal is to get out of here in under 15 seconds, I don't want to be irradiated*

"SEPTRE tell your bots to drag the Red out of here and use their weight and bulk to keep him pacified, and to drag their fallen friends out, I will repair them later."

*Continues on the plan above*

Jhiaxus

One more strike, and the Gray is dead. Another strike, and he's not moving. Smoke is pouring out of the Gray's nostrils.

Red stops moving, and the two remaining bots are shoving him, and the other two damaged bots out the door.

You're out in twelve seconds.

"Go to the shower, take off your clothes, push them into the red panel near your feet." SCEPTRE instructs you firmly.

*I strip down before SCEPTRE even finishes and kick them into the red panel, only stripping off my pistol and holster and kicking them away, I am not going to play with radiation*

*To SCEPTRE*

"Keep them under control until I am back*

*I push the clothes and run to the shower and begin to scrub down as much as possible*

*When I come out, I think I may have iodine pills from my bug out bag, and I take a couple as I change into a new set of clothes*

*I survey the situation when I come out, I am curious as to the shield of the Grey, the Red, and how the others of their party handle the situation*

*To SCEPTRE*

"Status report please"

Jhiaxus

The shower is ordinarily sonic, but this time a pale green foam oozes out of a nozzle that appears from behind a panel.  It smells harsh, and makes your skin itch.  After that, a sonic shower, and you're smelling medicine like.

The golden armband of the Gray is melted.  The Gray's head is still smoking a bit.  The Red is standing, unmoving.  The Apes are sleeping, and are not aware that anything happened.  The damaged bots are ready for your fixing.

One bot is standing guard over the body and the Red.

"As you can see. The Red is immobile.  The Gray are atheists so they fear no afterlife vengeance, but they do fear that someone will capture them, and hold them alive, and punish them greatly, so every Gray has a small combustion source in its brain when it dies that burns up the brain.

The Red is texting me.

'My name is Mike Leary, can you tell Amanda Leary of 128 Williamport Road, Chicago that I loved her?'

*Is disappointed about the armband*

*To SCEPTRE*

"Can you build or make anything here? I am curious as to the technology here?"

*I look at the Red, and then listen to SCEPTRE*

"So he still has conscious thought, is there anyway to return him to well like me? Engage him in conversation, find out what can be done to help him? Assure him we will do so, and I am going to need to get more knowledge on what is going on here."

*I will start fixing as we engage Mike in "conversation"*

Jhiaxus

"The Grays stole all my Specified Makers.  These are ring sized devices that can with nanotech rebuild themselves larger, and then make certain 'Specified' items.  At most three or four items.

I don't have other equipment, but I am quite durable. Without repair, I should last at least another three thousand years.  With repair, its ten thousand.

We have no Commodity Autofactories here."

"Mike says that each of the cyborgs has a control system deeply built into his central nervous system, and it is boobytrapped.  He also warns that if another Gray arrives, he will serve ....that despicable, vile scumsucker."

*I consider*

"I am sure the slavers ships have those Specified Makers, so now capturing the slave ships is a double must."

*Texting to Mike*

"Ok what is the boobytrap? Does it just affect you? Is it a bomb? If another Grey comes in, we are likely not going to get another surprise attack. So if we can give you back freedom, or at least, grant me control, it is better than serving them? I leave it up to you."

*I look around*

"We need to setup a trap in case anyone else comes through that door, and see if the guards will help us."

Jhiaxus

....Increasing levels of pain which makes it difficult to stay still followed by .1 kt explosion if last boobytrap triggered....Mike texts.

....You ask. That makes it a thousand times better....

The robots begin setting up a tripwire and a heavy weight to drop near the door.

The apes stare at you as you walk toward them.

In reply to Tadeusz (msg # 55):

*I text to Mike*

"The Apes, will they understand me? Will they be happy to be free? Can they go or are they stuck? I need to know these answers before I approach."

*If they can understand me, and they are likely to listen instead of attack*

"Your grey master stood too long in the reactor room, he didn't make it and he blew himself up, I don't know the protocol here, but if we can keep you guys happy, and hopefully prevent anymore Greys from coming. You are welcome to stay or leave as you desire. I believe you would have the gold?"

-----------------------------------------

*To Mike in text*

"Well if you help guide me, I can probably work through the boobytraps. I would say if we weren't worried about another Grey walking in that it would be best to leave things as they are. I don't think the same ruse will work twice. So well we should try to get you back out of their control for at least that. So what measures can I take to prevent the pain. I am going to assume SCEPTRE is watching the texts, and any suggestions are welcomed at this time"

*Once I get the other robots fixed, and onto fixing the shuttles and SCEPTRE's reactor room, then I can work on Mike*

Jhiaxus

....Keep it simple and concrete...they understand little abstract except for hate and love....

.....I'm not sure....

One of the Apes pulls out a bag and hands it to you.  Its heavy and it clinks.

Then he pulls out a sheet of something like paper.

Across the top it says.

"Terms of Job."

1. Herd stay as one.
2. Boss feed Herd.
3. One hour work, one hour rest.
4. No hurt herd.
5. Herd cannot attack Smarties(like Boss). Space God Law.
6. Herd quit if Boss cheap or mean.

Bob, Jim, Joe, Mac (Herd).

*I look over the list, and nod to them as I check out how much food they have with them, and do some figuring*

"SCEPTRE is the food paste supply here replenishable? How much is there, and can Bob, Jim, Joe and Mac use it for sustenance? That is going to make a trip to a sooner or later answer."

__________________________________

*To Them*

"Your old Boss is dead, I will abide by this *points to paper*, why don't you setup over here away from the door, so we can do the work here we need."

___________________________________

*If that goes alright, repair the robots, have them work in SCEPTRE and the shuttles, and then start on Mike*

Jhiaxus

In reply to Jhiaxus (msg # 58):

They have three days of food.

"They should be able to eat it, unless they have some rare mods.  Its not replenishable.  Two weeks supply for all five of you.  Mike, in shut down mode, can last without food for several months he tells me.  In full op mode tho' he will eat as much as the five of you, and even more."

===========

They do charades which readily translate to 'short, mean guy dead. do happy dance. love new boss.'

=========

You open up Mike's back.  There is flesh, muscle, tubes with liquid of varying colors, I/o ports, wires, black carbon balls, metal boxes, and things you don't recognize, all connected to each other.  And there is the spine which is connected to all this.

And the stink level would kill a skunk.

In reply to Tadeusz (msg # 59):

*I sigh*

"We need more food, so we need to get mobile."

__________________________________________________________

*I nod to them and smile*


__________________________________________________________

*To Mike and SCEPTRE*

"I am going to need your help to make heads or tails of this. We don't have much time, but we need to do something. Anything you can do or help with, is greatly appreciated."

Jhiaxus

Mike knows a few basic things for maintenance, but his owners kept most of the data to themselves to help control him better.  SCEPTRE knows some general principles, and a few facts, but a lot of this is beyond him.

The examination gives you 1@2 Cyborgization Knowledge, and a sinking realization that you're a New Guinea headhunter looking at a fusion Tokamak reactor.

*I shrug*

"To Mike and SCEPTRE"

"Can't leave him like this, so I have to try, I am ordering all your bots to fix the shuttles and your reactor, so you aren't left in a lurch if the worst happens. I need to find a place to work where if the booby traps go off, they won't do damage to people"

*Once I have a place, I will start with the universal adapter and ports and see if I can get more information before trying to reprogram or deprogram him*

Jhiaxus