Richard's Index

Cool Regime Change -- Session Log 08/17/03

"Found in Translation"

Game Master: Richard McCluney

The gray aliens in the floating cars seem to be ignoring the Operatives for the most part. Some are pointing, but none go out of their way to meet the humans. Hojo tries to follow one of the cars. One goes to the large central dome and stops there, and the aliens get out. They go over to some panels that seem to be projecting holographic displays -- geometric shapes in odd colors. There seem to be two kinds of writing, one alphabetic, one consisting of little pictures like hieroglyphics.

Harmony tries to talk to the aliens, but they seem to ignore her. Hojo starts messing with the holographic panels. Sometimes, hitting the panel under one of the shapes causes the display to change, but most shapes do nothing that Hojo can see. One of the aliens tries to shoo him away, but Hojo persists. The alien says something in his own language -- none of the operatives understand him. Jerry turns on his tape recorder.

Hojo offers the alien a box of Tic-Tacs. The alien sniffs them, then dumps the whole box in his mouth. He seems to like them and gestures for more. Hojo gives him 2 more from another box.

The Operatives discuss their goals. They'll try to get hold of artifacts to study. They'll try interacting with the aliens, and try to learn some of their language. Hojo tries introducing himself to the alien who ate the Tic-Tacs. The alien points to himself and says "Ruck."

The aliens brought tool kits with them, now sitting around on the floor. Jerry pokes into one. It's hard to tell what the tools do. Some look like probes or meters. [GM: I'm not sure if I mentioned it at the time but some of the tools would look like medical/surgical gear, because the aliens' machines are semi-organic.] Jerry takes one of the tool kits. The aliens don't object. Hojo tries to teach Ruck some basic English words.

The linguist Harmony takes over for Hojo. Ruck seems to have an excellent memory. Jerry shows Hojo the tool kit. Hojo figures they're for working on the machines -- whatever the control panels are connected to.

The other aliens continue messing with their machines. The Operatives figure these are technicians. They have packs of what appear to be food in water packed in containers that look ceramic but are flexible. Jerry takes some of these for analysis. Again, the aliens don't object. They don't seem very possessive at all.

They discuss the fact that the aliens don't seem very interested in humans. They might not have known the Earth was occupied. Harmony makes an analogy to World War II, when the US built bases on islands for strategic reasons having nothing to do with the natives of the islands. They still don't know why the aliens are here; they can only speculate.

Jerry leaves the tape recorder with Harmony and Ruck. The Operatives notice that not all the aliens are using flying cars. Some are shooting overhead in semi-transparent tubes. [Amber compared these to the ones on Futurama. That's the general idea, except you don't go headfirst.] There are now a large number of aliens in the large central dome. Hojo and Jerry find one of the cars and check it out. More like a roofless bus for about 10 aliens. No identifiable propulsion system.

A female alien comes up to Hojo and asks for a Tic-Tac. She gives her name as Tisa. She starts asking for the names of things in English. Harmony sees this and comes over. After talking with the female, Harmony says she thinks this one is another linguist. Like Ruck, Tisa picks up the words fast.

Hojo and Jerry examine the furnishings and equipment. Some of the holographic panels seems to serve as a desks. There is a device that looks like a printer, but there isn't any paper. Instead it has a slot at the bottom like a vending machine. [Somebody] photographs it. They note that all the furniture is attached to the floor. Several of the desks each have small box with a door, like a miniature microwave oven. Jerry takes one.

They rejoin Harmony and Tisa. Tisa is already starting to put words and phrases together. They make a comment about the "microwave oven." Tisa repeats the words "microwave oven" as if she thinks that's the English name for the thing, but she seems a bit puzzled. Harmony says she wants to stay behind to work on the aliens' language.

Jerry, Hojo, Ginger and Charles return to the branch office with the objects they've collected. They check the Internet for news. All the spaceships from the ring that were headed to Earth have landed. All have constructed bases nearly identical to the one the Operatives explored. All the bases are now occupied by aliens like the ones the Operatives met. The bad news is that humans have attacked the aliens on some of the bases. In these cases the aliens defended themselves and all the attackers were destroyed. The weapons are nothing like humans use. They just seem to tear things apart -- some kind of force projection, perhaps. Human forces that retreated before engaging the aliens were spared, and the aliens don't seem to be preparing for any kind of counterattack. When not being attacked they mostly ignore the humans.

Jerry starts typing up a report for the Company, and a news report to turn into to the tabloid paper where he works at his "day job." The latter is skimpy on details about the aliens' technology, but gives a good description of what the aliens look like. He emails this to his editor. The editor is pleased -- this is the first detailed report on the aliens themselves. Jerry's paper will scoop the competition.

They get the results of the "floating spider" exams. It is an artificial intelligence designed to interface with data and communication devices. [GM: should have mentioned here -- there were lots of these sighted during the blackout.] When the Science Department threatened to dissect it, it started cooperating.

The "dust" Hojo recovered from the construction site is actually a swarm of "microrobots" programmed to construct buildings using locally-available materials. Some of the microrobots got loose in the lab and tried to make building parts out of the lab equipment. Fortunately, they seem to be programmed to avoid harming living things.

In the rest of the world, all the power outages have ended. The initial panic is dying down, especially since the aliens don't seem to be doing anything bad. Regarding the attacks by humans on the aliens, world opinion is mostly against the humans who started it, and not much against the aliens who defended themselves, but haven't otherwise tried to harm anyone. The fact that most of the attackers were known rebels, insurgents, terrorists, in the drug trade, or small nations considered to be rogues by the rest of the world, doesn't get any sympathy for the attackers either.

Jerry's supervisor Drachir asks if he could return to the alien base tomorrow. Intelligence wants to get hold of some alien data recording units. The "spider" artifact reported there should be some. Jerry says they didn't see anything like that, but aliens they've seen so far might just be the first wave. Hojo and Jerry get candy for the aliens -- more Tic-Tacs, candy bars, and of course, Recee's Pieces. Jerry gets some books, including a few audio books. Both modern history and classics, and one childrens' story.

The Operatives take time to shower, sleep and eat. The next day they fly back to the base. There are now guards at the gate, probably due to the attacks on the other bases. The guards don't try to stop them. Soon they find Harmony and Tisa. Harmony turns down the offer of candy. Charles brought food and drink for Harmony. She's grateful because she hasn't had anything to eat. The aliens won't let her eat their food. They say it's dangerous for humans. The aliens seem to be able to eat human food just fine.

Jerry shows Tisa the books and CDs. She seems quite interested. She offers them some things that look like glass crystals. The crystals are activated by pressing the corners. This gets them a holograph that looks like pictures of landscapes. It's not Earth. The vegetation is bluish and strange-looking.

Harmony says she's found out what the "microwave ovens" are. They're mail boxes. They act like small teleporters used to send crystals. The "printer" actually manufactures small objects, including food. On the wall is the aliens' version of a video screen. It's hard to make out what it's showing. It seems to be tuned to wavelengths humans can't see. The outlines of the aliens are surrounded by heat waves, and their skeletons and internal organs are visible, all in strange colors. Antennas shown on the screen appear to glow. Hojo thinks the aliens can see wavelengths that humans can't, possibly including X-rays, infrared, and radio waves.

Harmony says she's seen the bathroom facilities. They're pretty similar in basic function, but with lots of odd accessories, most of which she was afraid to try out. Harmony suspects the aliens have a strong sense of smell. She was asked to wash her hands twice after using the bathroom. She says aliens bathe in public bath houses. She was invited to join Tisa and Ruck last night. They seem to have no nudity taboo.

Jerry asks Harmony if there's any clues as to why the aliens are here. Harmony says they hadn't gotten that far yet.

Paths to this document:

Richard's Index > Cool Regime Change > Session Logs > 8/17/03