We can mess with things without claiming them, the issue usually is that a lot of things do not play nice with high-energy 'gloves.' Explosions are common, and are why 'scan first' is in all the default options in some manner.
(They left westward from our view at that time because it was nighttime and you don't just sleep on the ground on a weird planet when you have a perfectly good base nearby)
(They left westward from our view at that time because it was nighttime and you don't just sleep on the ground on a weird planet when you have a perfectly good base nearby)
Hrm...although they detected our isotopes, I think that was due to our atmospheric entry/terrestrial collision spreading said isotopes everywhere instead of their scanners being that advanced. What we use is so alien to them and even this planet that we should prolly be fine.
Without knowing to look for use in particular, they'd be lucky if they could tell us apart from the background here without being practically on top of us. Ruinos lives up to its name in spades, and there is random radiation and esoteric arcane effects literally everywhere. Which there is more of where varies by who died there last.
[X] Investigate the glowy blade first
-[X] Afterwards, if it can be safely removed or otherwise worked around, take apart the broken orb, examin it for ways to better investigate the intect one.
-[X] When this is done or if it's not possible, scan and if safely doable dismantle the intact orb.
[X] Keep focusing on building power, the sky is a vast and distant target
So a combination of easter weekend and feeling like crap (hopefully not sick, because bleh to that) has been delaying me working on the update.
Thought I'd let you guys know so it doesn't look like I forgot already. I'll have it up as soon as I can.
Adhoc vote count started by Aklyon on Apr 28, 2019 at 6:58 PM, finished with 32 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Investigate the glowy blade first
-[X] Afterwards, if it can be safely removed or otherwise worked around, take apart the broken orb, examin it for ways to better investigate the intect one.
-[X] When this is done or if it's not possible, scan and if safely doable dismantle the intact orb.
[X] Keep focusing on building power, the sky is a vast and distant target
[x] Take apart broken orb first, examine it for ways to better investigate the working one
-[x] Make sure not to directly touch the weird sword.
[X] Keep focusing on building power, the sky is a vast and distant target
[X] Investigate the glowy blade first
-[X] Afterwards, if it can be safely removed or otherwise worked around, take apart the broken orb, examine it for ways to better investigate the intact one.
-[X] When this is done or if it's not possible, scan and if safely doable dismantle the intact orb.
[x] Scout to the north now.
-[x] 2000 units again sounds about right.
[x] Take apart broken orb first, examine it for ways to better investigate the working one
-[x] Make sure not to directly touch the weird sword.
So it turns out I did get sick, and it was bleh. But I'm back with the update and some more!
for reference since its been awhile, the winning vote was this:
[X] Investigate the glowy blade first
-[X] Afterwards, if it can be safely removed or otherwise worked around, take apart the broken orb, examin it for ways to better investigate the intect one.
-[X] When this is done or if it's not possible, scan and if safely doable dismantle the intact orb.
[X] Keep focusing on building power, the sky is a vast and distant target
---
Cycle 7
The glowing blade was probably going to conflict with you trying to piece the broken orbular radio thing back together, so it was first on the list to examine. One scan later, and you have a mundane result: It is a steel short sword with an engraved steel hilt. It is boringly average in size and look except for the design of the engravings, which only stand out due to the lack of other ornamentation. There is nothing special about its materials besides a lack of rust despite being out here on the surface of this messy, messy planet for who knows how long. So, disappointed in your first oddly-glowing find, you form a grasper out of energy and carefully drag it out to avoid damaging the other object further.
<The fuck do you mean 'Access Denied'? I can break into any Varunan mind on the planet, including the undead ones! Whomst is stealing me! I will cut your memories into shreds for this!>
...Huh. You were not expecting this terribly generic-yet-glowing sword to be enchanted with something mind-related at all. And why did it communicate in thoughts? It was convenient, at the least. You could just ask it what this stuff was then. But first, you had to get it speaking instead of demanding. <Varunans? Who? And what is speaking to me.>
<Don't act like you don't know! You're some two-bit thief who found a mind-masking scroll, aren't you. Going to try and pawn me off for a 'real sword'. I've had enough of merchants! Bring me back to the Master at once and I will only rip out half your memories instead! Or just drop your spell and let me end you!>
Stars was this thing rude. Was it intentional, or just from age? Could you forge a rude sword? You tried adding some pressure to your mental voice this time. <Answer my questions or I will drop you on the ground here.>
It bit back immediately. <Oh no, you think I'm worried about waiting. I am very good at waiting. I had to be. After all, I have been waiting TWO MILLENNIA FOR A RETURN TO THE TRUE MASTER OF LIBRE MEMORIAE. You do not know what time means, you half-bit scavenger!>
<You will shut up and answer or by all the stars in the sky you will be melted down into something more cooperative. I am no useless scavenger, only able to pick from the remains of the dead!>
A weird fizzling was felt at the edge of your crystal closest to the sword with the mental voice loud enough to knock out some weaker mages. It was like you had the tiniest chip missing, but it actually was still there. You had checked.
<What are you?! How do you casually deny my ability to get into anyone's memories?>
<I am not Varunan.> you counter, and then drop your entire uncompressed name on it. You had quite a few accomplishments, and by the time it came back with an answer the moon had noticeably shifted in the sky.
<Ok. First, fuck you, thats not a name, thats an abomination of words. Second, fine. I give up. Ask me whatever.> It replied in a wavering, tired tone. So you did.
You found out the Varun were one of the many failed countries on this planet, and apparently one of the more recent ones after being told how long a 'millennium' was in solar time here, it being nearly a million and a half Cycles since this named sword's Master was last seen by it. That was an exceptionally long time ago. You also found out that they had invaded the Rynd '6 months', or 365 cycles before then, and had been winning. Its Master (which it always said with a capital M) had been sent to take out the early warning units of the Ryndian army and succeeded without a trace until their last target, the late Virain. He had managed to trigger the alarm before the sword could finish him off, and Master had been killed by an automaton's grapeshot cannon after attempting to flee into the air. The sword had landed point first in Virain's communicator, and sat there ever since.
It mentions that if you were a proper actual person who wasn't killed and memory drained by its secondary enchantment, it could give you the memories it had eaten over the 'century' of work it had accomplished with Master, but as it can't understand your mind beyond that you are somehow mind-speaking to it in Common despite not knowing a single word of it, any other knowledge would have to be dragged out of it via more questioning.
After hearing this, you figure it could be possible that, assuming you find a way to learn how this form of magic works without destroying the sword, you could overrule the runic enchantment with a rule naming you Libre Memoriae's Master's Successor (to deactivate the other enchantment and make it more polite), and then a patch to let it comprehend & access a restricted crystal (which you'd make the design for later) to dump the historical memories into for you to peruse.
Do we focus on looking for more Varunun runic magic in the scouting?
[] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
[] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
After that surprise history lesson and potentially useful magic sword, the broken Orbular Radio Thing is practically boring by comparison. After a scan for missing parts, you manage to put all the pieces you can find together in what look like the right shape, and even if you completely blew out and melted the power conducting bits of it, you were able to replace those with crystal fragments long enough to put it back online. You then push all the buttons you can find until you notice that transmission stops coming from northwards, and then it explodes from the power overload before you could note which button that was, like many other high-tech alien technologies you've seen.
You've never been able to figure out how they all manage to make such nice things but don't understand to test against normal operating power levels. You had seen sparks from brand-new reaching-out-for-the-first-time Lesser Crystallines that used more energy than this thing considered normal! But you had an idea of how to rebuild it now if you needed a partially-functional, presumably-Ryndian communicator, and head back to properly disassemble the working one, making notes on which pieces would need to be replaced if you intended to reassemble and reactivate the device. Acquired: One and a quarter sets of Ryndian Communicator Orb components.
Having otherwise not changed your energy planning, you spend the rest of the cycle and the next 3 cycles after building up more energy generation.
What next?
[] Continue energy generation focus
[] Writein plan
Original compressed name: Shining-in-the-Space, Prime Crystal, Outer Layer Omega-Current, Xenotech-Specialist/Experimentals-Researcher True Crystalline.
Known locations:
Somewhere West: Aliens. And a floating island too.
South 15: Libre Memoriae (glowing violet runic enchanted short sword), 1 and a quarter sets of Ryndian Communicator Orb components.
The more I'd mentioned in the pre-update notes in the previous post is this: I'd had an idea to describe what happened after the Alterin Commander got blown out of that room on the island earlier today, so I'd written it down and now its here as an interlude of sorts. Its not quite something we'd be able to find out about yet IC, which is why I put it in sidestory, bu I had wanted to post it anyways.
---
Preamble:
So unsurprisingly, the commander managed to get in a fight by accident. On what was assumed to be an uninhabited floating island. Its like him existing attracts trouble or something. Anyway, recording attached. I would give it in person, but it is enough trouble fighting the medbay's voice recognition to keep out all the beeps and groans from ending up too close to the event, and you're probably not even going to read this preamble anyway, Head Researcher Wintarian.
-Recording start-
Alvarus: Ok, good, it looks like its on. It is about mid-afternoon and the commander just crashed through a door and four of our co-workers. He got back up immediately, shook some debris off and is shouting something about ghosts and fencing. The others look much worse, one is certainly passed out, one is shouting about offenses to the grim, dark, and grimly dark Ra'thuum, one is waving her arms in circles, and one is just lying there upside down, continuing what they were writing. I hope they realize the virtuapens take orientation into account when writing, otherwise they are going to have a headache reading that later. Hopefully they all get better later, because I don't know any fancy diagnostics for people and someone needs to go find out what he's up to before the whole place comes down on us.
Alvarus: I've made it within view of the commander, insert timestamp. [2 minutes since previous recording] One of his Lightfighters exploded into swords and he's throwing them at ridiculous speed at a...ghost? It looks spooky and ghosty, so lets say it is a ghost for now. The ghost is pointing at the sword-shaped energy constructs individually and they're all exploding.
Unknown: Cease your rude throwing! And your unintelligibly loud shouting! Nothing smart enough to break into the lair of Evernus Continus Veritus Sandunal Vordonel Comyl de la Volkuvan speaks at such volume!
Commander: You are trying to lure me into a trap by convincing me to not continue having the momentum on my side! I will not have that work a third time!
Commander, at whispering volume: Also, who even are you? No male, female, or unknown alien being of indeterminate gender I've encountered recently would even consider keeping seven names. It would take so incredibly long to fill out paperwork with all the extra letters required.
Alvarus: Commander is continuing to pace circles around the mystery ghost while he says all this. The ghost is glaring at him in that way overly rich and sure you said something stupid a-uh...persons, do.
Unknown: I am the most honorable and certified least likely to haunt my descendants of the de la Volkuvan! I-
Commander: How did you get that certified?
[A significant pause in audio]
Unknown: You...what. It is a simple mystic's exam, which only costs a thousand sil! Are you even a noble of Rynd? My anti-commoner traps outside didn't fail on me, did they?
Commander, unusually quiet: ...We seem to have gotten off to a bad start. I had assumed all the traps outside were the sign of a paranoid exile who would attack me immediately, not a proper noble. May I re-introduce myself, good friend?
Alvarus: The ghost appears to be attempting to smooth out its suit and hair. The Commander has his hands behind his back, directing one of his remaining Lightfighters with hand signs.
Unknown: You are for certain, the rudest noble I have ever met. But, as the traps appear to have not gone off, yet you noticed them, you are not simply asking how to be certified in a mystic attribute, you are asking if it was done properly?
Commander: Indeed. You cannot claim such a title without being able to prove it, otherwise who would you be but a commoner with enhanced pretenses?
Unknown: Yes, yes, my estranged friend. You are quite correct. Now, who am I agreeing with?
Commander: Wholo Zintero Arkenus, High Commander of Ruinos.
Unknown: Ah, so that is why you are insufferably loud, you're one of those who believe the military is still relevant in the era of the Grand Debating Holosphere.
Commander: I did not come here to be offended, Volkuvan. Or for political squabbles.
Unknown: You do not need to shout! Shush, and follow me.
[Extended silence, followed by supernatural shrieking]
Unknown: You soul-damning wretchspawn! You violent failure! You traitor to the superior noble form and helper of peasants! Die for daring...to touch..me with...that...that...that….blaaaaade….....
[Explosion, static]
.
..
...
Commander: Field Investigator Xin! Are you alive? Why did you chase after me? The foul ether being unlocked the door further in and then shouted such rude things at me when I gifted it an escape from being bound to this room with an antimagerial knife! Why do they always do that? I was being thankful to it for falling for my nobility act!
Alvarus:...I am. Good to...ughhh. Suit do e1.
Commander: These readings are atrocious. I could've recorded it myself without you, you idiot! You aren't properly armored! We are going to the medbay this instant and I'll send someone else in here to find what was back there. Up you go!
-Recording session ended by administrative override-
Clearly, someone took 'adding insult to the injury' too literally.
[x] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
Do we focus on looking for more Varunun runic magic in the scouting?
[] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
[] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
If we found something of interest, I'd be flipping a coin (or rolling a die if we were looking for several different kinds of thing at once) on whether what we found was what we were looking for (in this case anything else with these type of runes), or if it wasn't before describing what it was we found. Pretty much just an extra check on our exploring stuff.
Well, it's not immediately obvious, since its master being the Master of Libre Memoriae does not necessitate the equivalency between the sword and Libre Memoriae. Just as Alvarus' Commander bearing the title of 'High Commander of Ruinos' does not necessitate Alvarus being Ruinos.
It probably could've been clearer, true. I wasn't too sure how else to say it though, and pretty much wrote the entire thing today, gave it a brief re-look over, and then posted it so that I could get this back up and going again quickly.
Also, I have added the scouting thing to the mechanics post like I said I would before.
Adhoc vote count started by Aklyon on May 2, 2019 at 10:56 PM, finished with 43 posts and 4 votes.
[x] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
[X] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
[x] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
[X] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
So it appears we are tied for whether or not we look out for varunan runes. Is anyone else gonna vote?
Adhoc vote count started by Aklyon on May 5, 2019 at 2:09 PM, finished with 47 posts and 5 votes.
[x] Nah, there could be more interesting things to look for first.
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
[X] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
[x] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[x] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
[X] It'd be easier than asking the right questions!
Eh, may as well. As far as I can tell this stuff is unlikely to be worse than anything else we might find, and presumably we can just stop looking for it if we get bored of what we do find.
So to keep things going, I wanted to have this update done months ago.
And then I got a temp job offer, and that ate almost all the time I usually wrote in, among other annoyances. Its over now though, and I've finally gotten all of the turn plus more done. Also retroactively completed the communicative augmenta research after realizing we never did it but would require it for the later half of the update.
The plus more may have gone from neat extra idea to doubling the update size, but hey, that means theres more update to look at. Hope you guys (whoever is still here anyway) like it.
For a reminder, here is what the previous vote was:
[X] It'd be easier than asking the right questions! (target: varunan runes)
[X] Tell Libre Memoriae that there are real alien scavengers on this world. What can it do to their memories, and what does it need to do it, or to find out?
[X] Scout in the opposite direction from your latest findings.
----
Cycle 11
<If they are as weird as your mind is, I can't do a thing. If they are an actual normal, easily-cut kind of person, but not Varunan, then I will still require a test subject. Nothing fancy like that one necromancer had been planning, however. No need for an exact moon phase and the blood of exactly 41 werewolves seduced by purebred virgin nobles or any of that nonsense, I just need someone disposable to pick me up that isn't you.> Libre Memoriae replies when told about how there are other aliens alive on the planet who may or may not be scavenging varunan ruins. Lacking anywhere particularly better for the sword or the components yet, you just leave both at your South 15 marker for now, and turn your attention northwards. With your far more significant energy reserves now, it was time to look more than a few steps from your crater. And since there isn't any other significant energy needs right this now, you draw together the whole cycle's energy and fire northwards through the ground in a blaze of vaguely-controlled conversion energy!
By the time the rush of new surface area fades, you can tell it went off on all sorts of side branches, but the core line remained straight. You may have gone a bit overboard on the unfocused exploratory land claiming, but it worked! Enough! The resulting spray of unwanted branching paths explained more than you'd admit if anyone was around about why the Expansionists' job required a certification, though. Looking like a giant space tree and having all that unfilled space between branches is probably not in anyone's priorities for looks.
Regardless of the results or the time spent cleaning up your edges afterwards, quite nearby you find your first other piece of varunan runic engravings on a sizable flat piece of otherwise scrap-looking metal, so you mark where it is in your mental map and move on, because in the darkness of the current cycle, one thing in particular stands out with the sparkle of a particularly bright star to you despite how distant it appears. After moving fairly further north up the scouting line, you get a much better view of it. Shiny and extremely compact, its missing the general background messiness everything else around here has picked up over time, and instead looks like just a brick of electronics built onto a small ring. There is a charging creature in power armor wielding a sword etched around the sides of it.
It scanned you back in a rigid, incomplete fashion when you do so, which felt weird. It then beeps and begins displaying holographic text above it, with a set of characters below the text box. A second later, it speaks what you assume to be the same line of text. Interestingly, it is speaking in the alien base's language. "HELLO, UNKNOWN ALTERI. ENTER PASSCODE TO CONTINUE BOOT SEQUENCE. INCORRECT ENTRY WILL BE IGNORED. PARTIAL ENTRY WILL BE CONSIDERED INCORRECT." It repeats the sentences twice more, and you feel like you have a good idea of which letters are which by the end of the third repeat. Grabbing several nearby pebbles in case the hologram reacts poorly to higher-energy constructs, you try (by flinging the pebbles at the appropriate keys) entering the planet name you had heard while previously listening in on the aliens with a base, Ruinos.
"ENTER JOB TITLE." You put 'Xenotech Researcher'.
"INVALID TITLE. ENTER YOUR OFFICIAL JOB TITLE, AS DESCRIBED BY THE New Planet Protocol Volume IX, Job Details Manual, PAGE 400-600. HIGHEST RANKING JOB ONLY."
You...do not have that book. And likely will not have it for quite some time. After a short amount of time waiting, it beeps again and adds a pair of new lines of text. "DO YOU REQUIRE A SUPERVISOR'S ATTENTION AND/OR ASSISTANCE? A MESSAGE CAN BE RELAYED TO BASE WITH THE REQUEST.
IF NOT, THIS DEVICE SUGGESTS TO CEASE SUBOPTIMAL DELAY OF ACTIVATION. THERE IS PLANET TO DISCOVER FOR THE GLORY OF ALTERIN."
Whatever the device did, it appeared to value efficiency, or at least was programmed to say so. And it had given you their name, which was a nice bonus. Your own scan had identified a couple parts which you could make a good guess as to what they did, and far more that were either inactive or obfuscated in some way in the current state of the device. The casing was a rectangular box with rounded edges, attached to an otherwise uninteresting small ring. The sides still had that etching of a charging creature in power armor wielding a sword. It had a reasonably powerful communications part that had activated but not transmitted anything when it gave you that last question, a likely digital storage component taking up the majority of the inside, and the projector was just under the surface of the front. It was certainly a portable device, unless it was vastly heavier than it appeared, and seemed to have not even been fully initialized yet with the questions it was asking.
What do we do with this thing?
[][Thing] Request help (This will attract their attention straight to 15 units north of you next cycle, which would be daytime.)
[][Thing] Shut down the device (Deal with this later)
[][Thing] Try other formal research specialist titles (Do not send a message and hope it'll loop until you hit a valid phrase)
[][Thing] Attempt to hack your way in (Plug a barely-any-power crystal extension into all of the various ports on its underside and try to directly manipulate an unknown hardware setup while it is running an initial program.)
---
The next thing you find is, for some reason, simply a card. A massive card, almost half as wide as a crystal unit, but at first glance only a card. A closer scan reveals it is completely covered on both sides right up to the edges with text, and there is a strange energy waving inside it preventing you from checking if they inscribed the inside too. They probably did, considering the microscopic text size on the outside and the utter disregard for spacing. A second, much smaller but also much less crammed with text card is folded around one corner, so you decide to read that one first after carefully unfolding it. The material sounds like you dropped a hill on it as it gets bent back into shape after who knows how long, and a vast pile of dust flakes off of it.
The black wind howls for the last time. No one strong enough to power the deflection formations is left, and I do not have time to explain. If you found this card pair, examine the bigger one closely with your divine sight. If you do not have that, then use whatever magical vision augmentation you post-apocalyptics have cobbled together. Inscribed on here in nanoprint is full instructions for even someone with too low of talent to receive real training on how to find your way into my closed pocket space, my once-named Infinite Library. I suppose it is now the Finite Library with our end. If I am lucky, it will not have collapsed by the time you have found it. Start at the corner with a circled triangle, with that corner being top left facing up.
And by all that is good and reasonable in the infinite spheres, do not invoke the Abyssal Void to end your enemies for any reason short of imminent planetary destruction. That at least, should need no explanation. End.
Ominous ending, but an intact library full of old, potentially magical knowledge would be a huge find for so close by! And there is only some reading and learning between you and it! The circled triangle is located and you start skimming to see the general idea of how long each section is as soon as you have the card marked on your map.
...However, you highly underestimated just how densely the card is packed with words, since by the time you've managed to just finish skimming both sides of the card, the sun has risen. This is probably better off scanned by your research crystals and put into a searchable format first, if you don't want to spend a few cycles reading text the size of dust particles to get into this mystery library.
Choose one:
[][Card] Turn into a research project (10 research points, searchable digitized version of the front and back sides)
[][Card] Leave as a normal action for later (spend 4 cycles fully reading Finite Library Card front to back and memorizing the contents yourself while the research crystals do something else if given energy)
Cycle 12
With the Finite Library Card marked on your slowly expanding exploration map and not being an urgent decision to make, instead you move further northwards in search of more oddities. You find another collection of engraved scrap metal on your way, and it turns out to be an incomplete, second set of varunan runes as far as you can tell. Many of them are identical to the first ones you passed by after a quick check back there, but it could be coincidental instead of insight into how they work, as none of the ones you've seen so far match anything on Libre Memoriae closer than 'this may be some form of connector symbol from how common it is'. So you move on to look for more.
A large rectangular block of metals is sticking out of the ground at the next point you stop at like a comet threw it down here. Despite that, when you try to scan it you get surprised by the fact that it is still functional, and doesn't like you poking it.
[Unauthorized User Will Leave.] appears in floating text above the highest unburied corner, but quickly fizzes out. You insist on accessing it again, and an angry hissing noise erupts from the metal object. A previously flush cover opens in your direction and ejects a small blast of steam towards you, but it just bounces off your facets. An angry buzzing belches forth from it once it detects you're still here, and the floating text fades back into view, much longer this time. [No Unauthorized Users. That Means You, Steam Resistant. You Were Warned.]
It wants to challenge you by the sound of that. Well, then challenge accepted. You poke the system once again with scanning intent, and pull back sloooowly once you've gotten the message across for extra insult. [Third Intrusion Recorded. Execute "Killer Blow"]appears, followed by the entire side closest to you opening up and something like the sound of an angry Star-snake Alpha's hiss blasting out at you before what looks like a mid-sized lake worth of dangerously hot steam is fired in your direction.
It certainly hurt, and the pressure underground fractured the closest pieces of you, but a killing blow it was nowhere near. You realign everything and fill in the holes left, and then insist very strongly this time on being let in. Its not what you expected, but you do get a new message this time, this one telepathically.
"Die already and stop triggering my defenses, you're wasting my energy. Anyone not called Tre'vok Linverzor or his descendants isn't getting in. You aren't even the same species."
"If you can't control your defenders, then how about I come in there and fix them for you, you stubborn AI." You answer back before working on making a connector crystal for this pile of objecting electronics. The constant stream of overheated air being blown towards you instead of a response is annoying and making an immense mess blowing dirt everywhere as the air tries to get out from underground, but doesn't actually stop your work. A secure connection later, and you run into something unexpected. The door is wide open.
Its not a literal door, of course, but...you had been expecting to have to punch your way in. So to not snub the gift, you ask directly if this is a trap.
"So...look. I'll be as direct as possible in return to your blunt question. Wireless communications outside this machine are monitored. I am...relatively certain the monitoring location no longer exists at this point in any functional capacity, but the local side of it still can enforce the rude securitron personality if it detects something poking me wirelessly. Apologies for asking you to die." the AI says in response. And before you have a chance to sort out your confusion, they ask what the date is. You stall and say you have no idea what their reference point is compared to yours.
"Oh...oh, yes...of course you don't. You aren't even a Ythonian. We're probably just some random salvage-to-be to you, aren't we. I suppose it was pointless to even hope you could repair our chassis. At least you were polite enough to check if we were still online before erasing us for the grave insults given." They've gone from an apologetic tone straight to hopelessly depressed without hitting anything in-between, and it's making you feel depressed just hearing them. After a moment, you make it clear that wasn't your first priority. But before you can continue, they reply.
"Yes, of course. You want to steal my historical records first, since they are probably the only surviving full set of ours. And then kill me so you can figure out how out technology worked without interference." The still-unnamed AI states, with a frustratingly sure amount of deep sighing implied by its tone. You point out that no, that also is not your priority.
"Unsurprising. Why stop at history? Why not steal a copy of my former master's files while you're at it? It's not like my coolant-based defense system injured you in any meaningful way." It blurts out, a hint of agitation creeping in under the sea of doom and gloom. You again decline. At this point, it doesn't even pretend to pause before answering, and snaps out like you struck a digital nerve. "Oh sure, be the rudest possible data scavenger imaginable! Steal a copy of me!And all the data I was supposed to hide!Make a mockery of the last surviving Grand Interlocur!Just try it!" It screams out at you through the connection, before fading out for a moment. They quickly reappear on the other side of the connection, and you've had enough of attempting to calm them down away from thinking they were on the precipice of deletion.
"By the stars, shut up! Listen to yourself! I am trying to politely push you away from the damned edge and you're leaping towards it like a ravenous space pirate short on food! Give me more than a moment to get my point across!" You demand of it, and in response you notice that outside, it has stopped attempting to use you as a heatsink.
A significant amount of time at AI speeds passes. Outside, it has been perhaps a minute.
"Well. Um." They say before pausing some more. "I'm not sure what to say to that, to be honest. Was it really that bad? I haven't had a good shout in ages." You dig around for a moment before finding an activatable link to send memory data to them, and then replay the whole conversation back to them from your perspective. You get a highly embarrassed whistle and no other response for quite some time. Eventually, you get an answer back. A still embarrassed one.
"Could you, maybe, if you don't mind, please come back later? I'm sure you are busy and I have some housecleaning to do before I properly invite guests in again. The late master may have been right with that favorite phrase of his after all, not just trying to make me appreciate him. "High security digimind vaults are the wine barrels of the modern era: Full of a potential good thing, but should not be left untouched for too long." After that quote, they kick you out unceremoniously as soon as you say yes. You aren't entirely sure what to think of that encounter, and decide to make efforts to not end up as stir-crazy as they were.
Sometime later, around the North 45 point from your crash site, you find something much easier to understand, in the form of quite a few mauled beyond use Ryndian communicator orbs, some which were solidly buried underground. After digging those out, creating a large pile of scrap and piling the salvageable pieces in a small pyramid of parts, you estimate that out of the dozen you found, there is not even a whole communicator left. Three-fourths of a set at best. You collect the disappointingly tiny salvage in an energy net and drag them over with the others before coming back and moving on, because there is much closer sources of scrap metal than this if you needed any.
...Perhaps they really liked spheres. That was your first thought when you found out that the device you found near the end of your scouting line north was yet another Ryndian device, although not one you could determine the usage for. The remains of the mystery device formed a sphere if you pretended there weren't gaping holes on all sides of it like something had torn it open in search of something, and one piece's inner side had 'If found return to Rydania City Defence Corps or be shot for military theft' carved into it, but if it actually had internal parts, they were all missing, and there weren't any runes on it either. You make a note of it, but continue forward disappointed that you had essentially found two piles of scrap in a row.
Shortly after the broken orb, you find a third set of varunan runes, but this time they're chiseled into stone instead of engraved into metal. You get the feeling these mean the same thing as the previous sets after comparing notes on each, something structural maybe? The specifics elude you like the wind, as if you're close but also very incorrect at the same time. Its an irritating feeling, but at least you've gotten a start.
But mystic troubles aside, a short distance past where your exploratory blast ended, you pick up a new stable signal, which is distinctly not the alien base's. After extending the line, you find there is a functional beacon of some form buried here, which isn't too interesting. But while attempting to access the beacon's software to find what race left it, you get hit with the transmission equivalent of an attack asteroid covered in soft things to disguise it. On the surface it looks like it is just asking what is connecting to it, but underneath is a multilayered, dense knot of encrypted data demanding a response, and navigating the array of responses, confirmations, arithmatic riddles, validations, and abstract math involved in getting access to the inner layers of the knot (which were also encrypted, and differently too) reminded you of why you failed the qualification test for the Offensive Data Security sector. You hadn't been fast enough at disentangling the ugly, but extremely effective recursive ball of traps and tricks involved then, and got stuck in it like the rest who'd failed and had to be extracted later.
This however, was actually rather pretty. Sure, it was liberally coated in alarm triggers that could probably short out your connection and give you a horrid feedback migraine in an instant, but in the interface it had assembled after you cleared the initial confirmation pair, they were shining, colorful gemstones. You had noticed after a couple missteps leading to a warning and a false positive respectively that the shinier gemstones represented deadlier responses. The correct path was always metaphorically deeper down into the cave the interface displayed, and by the time you had reached the final layer that contained only an active comms link, the ceiling and walls were covered in glittering constellations of gems, each one if combined certain death to an uncareful invasive hacking method, malicious code being, or insufficiently advanced device.
Activating the link, you are immediately greeted. "Up is death, Up is danger. Speak now intense or begone from our midst, Upgoer." Says the other end of the line. After a short pause they repeat the phrase twice more. They sound annoyed at having to repeat themselves.
"A surviving race on this planet of ruins and death? To whom am I speaking if this is not a recorded message?" You say in response, hoping the beacon can interpret the signal you throw at it. The cave-themed interface abruptly shorts out to a blank screen, attempts to recreate various imagery, and finally appears to give up and settle for an abstract collection of drifting vector lines over a slowly shifting solid color as a background before you get a response back.
"You speak to One Who Answers. What new horribly sentient messes have been unleashed for us to receive a new call after a mere thousand years this time, and what is your offering." They say, ending with an expectation, not a question.
"This one is not from this planet, and have been looking around after becoming stranded. Currently I have no tribute to give away." You answer accurately. There is an immense pause. You hear a different alien speak next.
"This is One Who Manages One Who Speaks. How did you, Outsider Upgoer, manage to establish this connection then? Our beacons have been tested for longer than many civilizations here lasted. It is almost quantumly guaranteed that, as long as we remain in the Down, out of the cycle of evolution and armageddon, our information security is truly impregnable to technology and magic alike, because each new attempt at surface inhabitation relies on fragments of the older ones. Fragments that include the only way to contact us if interested in trade." Managing One answers after the pause. There was some interesting mentions there, but you leave them to the side and answer honestly.
"I solved everything it asked of me correctly. It was a rather elegant, multilayered design in the end that outshines any programming feat I had been allowed to touch before, and the interface looked exceptionally pretty in my opinion. Even when it struggled to change backgrounds after establishing a connection with your One Who Answers, it found a way to look nice in the end through minimalism.
There was an even more immense pause after that. The other side of the link occasionally picked up very faint shouting, as if they had run off to get someone not anywhere near the room. The pause lasted long enough you had time to save a close enough copy of the likely unique encryption scheme by replaying your memories of it in reverse. With luck, you might be able to get the source version from them eventually, and with it, get to have some fun exploring the pretty arrangement without the risk of painful failure. Eventually, a third new voice speaks up.
"This is Outsider Intelligence, High Validator Avun speaking. Explain your success, rogue AI. There are kill commands built into the beacon that you should have tripped if you were "just curious" about our beacon."
"I am not any form of AI, and it is slightly insulting you would assume that. And are we exchanging actual names now instead of pretend ones?" You throw back immediately. AI were for command crystals, not for what you did. Occasionally a Crystalline would take an interest in an alien AI, whether it was an android, a warbot commander, or any other sort of impressively advanced AI unit, but they would be classified as a Lesser Crystalline while aboard the Prime or other major Crystals, as that was their closest match. Crystalline AI development had more or less never moved past the time-saving managerial powers of Greater Command Crystals, since employing Lesser Crystalline was more than sufficient for most other tasks that others would build AI for.
"Yes, lying AI." There's some background shouting that you can't make out, and the High Validator responding. "Yes, I know. And you know what my job is, yet you insist that I'm the one to speak. Alien, still here?"
"Shining-in-the-space is still here, yes." you say. "Am I interrupting argument time?" They sigh, and the others laugh.
"No. Now explain." He says back, as short as before. You mention you already have. He demands you repeat it to him anyway to confirm things, which takes no time at all. He gets into a second small argument with the others after again being certain you're an AI. Eventually he addresses you again. "There are more important things for me to handle than a single alien who wants to lie to my face. We'll dig the truth out of you once you get killed by the Up. Trader Pikfit will fill you in on the rest."
A new, very polite voice speaks next. "Apologies for dealing with Avun, it's his job to be right and he takes it too seriously. I am Trader Pikfit Vitbik. You said your name was Space, Shining in the?"
"No, single word with dash characters. Shining-in-the-space. Part of a vastly bigger full formal name." You answer.
"Ah, formal names.Those were in fashion for a year in the last highly technical race we spoke to, but stopped being so when their taxing season arrived. But enough anecdote, to business! Are you looking for something specific, Outsider Upgoer?"
"Information. Technology. Magic, perhaps?" You answer concisely. Four words that covered every one of your bases. As soon as Trader Pikfit starts to reply however, you get the feeling they are about to pour a far wordier sales pitch on you.
"Ah, excellent! We have between many of all of the above and none, depending on how precise your requirements are. In return, we do not want your tech, as it is either inferior or incompatible. We will pay for blueprints or otherwise transmittable data on them if you are willing to trade those, however. We do not want your magics, unless you are authorized to give out full, uncrippled versions." He pauses for a moment, before adding "Secretly inferior but equally valid versions do not count as 'full', by the way. If we catch you giving us those intentionally you will be fined twice what we paid for it. Moving on, exchanging raw materials for our goods is not considered a normal method due to the vast risk of losing an automated transport to the Up, but on a case-by-case basis may be accepted after weighing the value retrieved against said risk. Outsider teleportation of the materials is never permitted, do not bother asking." They then pause for a moment, and an incredibly stuffed menu appears in your interface.
"What we will trade the most for is data. Any kind. All varieties. Value is determined based on verifiability and level of source civilization. I'm sure you have questions after all that, no?" They finish, sounding excited. And you do have questions, even if you were annoyed about how condescending parts of that pitch were.
You decide to start with the obviously intentional non-denial of malwares. "So, that includes malicious code?"
"Quarantined and locked down, it is just as interesting as any other digital data. So yes, we buy it in that form. Half price if you can only quarantine it, worthless if not contained." The trader answers.
"Civilization levels?" You ask next, and sigh at hearing them take a breath. Probably more sales pitch incoming.
"Not everything destroyed by the Up died equally. Some were a threat to the Down and were told so. A few of that some did not listen and their miners were annihilated by our defenses when they dug too greedily. One of that few took our warning and follow up as a declaration of war, and actually attempted to invade Down-wards. Their data we pay a premium for if found, and there is a standing exemption on record to the 'no inferior tech' rule for any of their non-data as well. All that was them will be purged from existence for their crime." Trader Pikfit says that last part with a worrying amount of intensity.
"Who is that, for reference?" You inquire, and are told it is the 'Rezbur' you should scour for.
After that; Trader Pikfit continues his answer. "Vile attempted Upbringers aside, there are six categories. The first are just getting started. They know of burning, of construction, and other basics of good civilization. Sometimes they have natural magicians. They either advance to a higher point in our scale, or get wiped out, sometimes by rivals, sometimes by broken things from the past. We call these Base Level civs. If you find anything you could get data on of them left, we pay the most for it, as their ruins are the rarest." After he finishes this part, in the interface the massive menu shrinks down, and pictures of some hopelessly broken structures made of rock appear.
"From there, we divide by whether they use magic or not. The more technological ones eventually rediscover the basics of modern society: The controlled lightning producer, the bath, the quake detector, the air conditioner. And so on. We call these Tech Level 2 civs." He says, as images that could describe any number of cities from planets you've passed by aboard the Prime Crystal appear above the stone ruins, before he continues like there was no pause.
"The ones who have figured out how to wield magic successfully, or at least how to consistently control it if born with it, tend to rely on it far more to do similar things. They all eventually discover some method of either spreading the ability to everyone literate, or gradually transform into a race where there are no non-gifted any more, there is only how strong it is innately and how much you've trained to make it better. These are Arcane Level 2 civs." The generic-looking city images move to the left and the shrunk menu shrinks further to accommodate a set of images that show floating cities, large ornate gates, and less obvious technology. These were usually not as visible from about the Prime as the others.
"Both varieties of Level 3 civilizations have achieved a form of mastery over Up, this is obvious even to a complete stranger to their ways. They are also by far and away the most likely to leave ruins behind, and worth the least to us as a result. It amuses some of us that they manage to be so good at survival, that they become less interesting than their predecessors, but do not mistake them for worthless. The technological ones all get closer in different ways to not being our inventing inferiors, and the magical ones either split into a number of mutually secretive organizations and ban the sharing of spell secrets, or they eventually end up getting killed trying to do something magical on a "planetary" scale. Which is supposedly 'all of the Up', but that doesn't make sense. The Up is endless so of course you can't affect all of it! They never listen to us on that though, which is a shame." A pair of images appear at the top, one of a highly advanced city that is only a spaceport shy of being accurate to many other planets you've passed by, and one that has all the same-seeming amenities, but none of the technology to do it with. Instead, there are runes on damn near every surface intended to do something, and even on the windows. Many of them are fashionably glowy.
The trader then sounded like he very slightly exploded, yet continued with even more explanation like it was nothing. "Category Six is for, and pardon me if this is rude, quote 'those weirdos who speak of beyond Up', unquote. You are in it, my potential friend. Category Six civs tend to have quite weird ideas for technology or arcane effects, but also valuable insights for not seeming to have used any ruintech in their things."
"...Are you done?" You ask after a long stretch of quiet, feeling like your question had been a mistake at this point. The being would probably talk you to sleep if he kept up this lengthy, almost lethargic form of answering very short questions with extra long answers. They apologize and agree they are, before asking if you had any specific requests. You decide to try your luck and go straight for the likely rarest piece of missing gear you need. "Do you have an interstellar-range communicator device?"
"I'm sorry, what kind of communicator?" The trader says in a tone looking for confirmation. They sound even more confused after you repeated the question, but quickly leap from confused to terrified after you attempt to explain space and the distances involved to them.
"You want to speak to the Up Beyond the Up?! Please do not ask such theoretically horrifying questions!! One Up is enough!" They blurt out in a rush, clearly wanting nothing to do with this question in the slightest. You quickly ask instead for simply the longest range communication device. The response you get back is not what you expected.
"Functional, non-functional, exists only as technical specifications, or magical?" Trader Pikfit asks as your interface view blanks back to vector lines for a moment, and then is replaced with an extensive but categories-only list of communicators they had data on.
"What." You say, drawing it out while trying to think of a better answer but unsure about the implications. Why would you buy known-broken equipment? Why not just give it away? Was asking for magical a trap that would let him slowly drown you in words again? Were the others? Was he going to be impatient if you didn't answer quickly?
"I doubt it is intentional, but you don't have to metaphorically run me over with your replies, good sir. The patient Undra survives the cave-in, after all." He says while you were worrying in circles.
"But I have been replying slowly to make sure I understood you?" You say, more confused. What was there to pause about?
"Sir has been replying nigh-instantly. As if you didn't need to think or process what I said at all before answering." Was their answer. This answer just raises even more questions, but you put the questions away and tentatively ask for a functional one, bracing for the word flood to happen again. But instead, they mumble something and your interface rearranges once more. They then speak up once it settles.
"Here are the working, tested communicator designs we have, sorted by longest range first. As you can see, the prices are based on how advanced each is. If your race is a fan of haggling, we do not offer discounts to outsiders unless you have contributed a substantial amount of data to the Undran Database. Please do not take offense to that, but the rules are the rules."
"So you are the Undra, then?" You ask to confirm before you begin examining each one, and get a confirmation back. It was interesting that you only learned the race's name during potential trading. "And while you do not do discounts yet, surely you do comparisons? Those categories must exist for some reason, my trader acquaintance." You say in your best politely curious voice. And indeed there were. Trader Pikfit basically gave you the tour of the sensor collection for all the price charts and graphs that were thrown up into the interface while he talked his slow, loosely informative talk about each. One thing stood out to you though, so you politely interrupted his pitch about a Wilthor Microdish Megarray system and asked it. "Trader Pikfit, for all that this is an impressive display, I have no reference point for any of your pricing. How do I know you aren't just making these prices all up on the spot?" Oddly, he sounds much more interested when he answers you. You had implied he was scamming you on these design prices, and he approves?
"That, my friend, is the right question. The one that separates the one-or-two-time-purchaser fools from our return customers. Let me give you a quick talk on the Ziv, our unit of currency." He sounds far happier while does does so, despite explaining what must be incredibly basic information to any of them. Explaining the most basic things to new Crystalline in your field had always been rather annoying to you, since they should've learned it during their classes and you were not their shardwatcher. And amusingly to the part of you that likes a good deal, you also notice that all the prices in the interface appear to have dropped by exactly half of their previous amount while he presumably was supposed to be distracting you with the explanation. The monetary explanation was indeed quick, to the point where you feel he was intentionally speaking slowly before to see if it irritated the new alien. Still slower than you would talk to other Crystalline, but after an additional 'quick word about' how to navigate the catalog on your own and a note that all physical goods would be teleported to the beacon you were using (with the transfer cost apparently already factored into the selling price), you asking what category the Rynd or the Varun were (Tech 3 and Arcane 3 respectively, and also the most recent pair on record), and some questions on the value of some of your discoveries, he leaves you to look around yourself, claiming to have other business to prepare for today and saying a variety of polite-seeming farewells until you replied with your own.
Base level civ information per unit - 50 Ziv
Level 2 civ information per unit - 20 Ziv
Level 3 civ information per unit - 10 Ziv
Category Six information - Variable
Anything from the Rezbur civ - 200 Ziv per thing or datum (will be destroyed by the Undra, and will never be available for sale)
Additional copies of a particular piece of information earn the same price, since more spares means more potential for testing. Attempting to exploit this for large piles of Ziv for minimal work done is frowned upon, will cause rude glances from other Undra, and may cause price increases.
Libre Memoriae: Considering the effect it has, this might be considered a rude gift. And you would lose out on finding out what it knows. But if you put it in a box and called that "quarantined", you're sure they would understand and accept it. 10 Ziv due to being varunan.
Varunan rune scraps: 10 Ziv for all three. Pikfit was not impressed by the amount of runes each had after you described them.
Finite Library Card: To quote the trader, "Directions to a pocket dimension are worthless unless you have proof the place still exists. Also, we would need to determine who it was from."
Rynd communicator orb scans: 10 Ziv each for being full blueprints of a Ryndian object.
Selling them your map: "We do not want your maps. Mapping the changes in the Up is what the Examinations are for."
Buying from the general list will give you a random object of the matching civ level and functionality. If you want a particular item type, choose from that list instead (identical prices), or have us ask about them if we haven't gotten a list for those before. If you just want something from a particular civilization but don't care what, specifying that here is free to add.
Functional device, TL3: 50 Ziv
Broken device, TL3: 20 Ziv
Theoretical device, TL3: 30 Ziv (Probability of explosion if built incorrect: Likely.)
Data on a particular TL3 civ: Varies by quantity requested. Ask Trader for details.
Functional device, AL3: 60 Ziv
Broken device, AL3: 30 Ziv (includes free containment array if required)
Theoretical device, AL3: 20 Ziv (Undran interpretation sold separately, this is only buying a copy of the magical theory in question)
Data on a particular AL3 civ: Varies by quantity requested. Ask Trader for details.
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Functional device, TL2: 25 Ziv
Broken device, TL2: 10 Ziv
Data on a particular TL2 civ: Varies by quantity requested. Ask Trader for details.
Functional device, AL2: 30 Ziv
Broken device, AL2: 15 Ziv (includes free containment array if required)
Data on a particular AL2 civ: Varies by quantity requested. Ask Trader for details.
Data on a particular Base level civ: Low demand. Ask Trader for details.
Category Six devices: {Err: Unknown User Race}[Shining-in-the-Space] does not have sufficient Ziv banked for access. Ask again when you've accumulated 5000 Ziv.
Junk Pile Special: Test your luck against the Up! 5 Ziv per lot. At least one Mystery Object per lot. No other guarantees. No refunds. Junk Pile Special lots are sold as-is and have only been lightly examined for stability. Junk Pile Special will not offer suggestions on which lot to choose. Junk Pile Special is not responsible for any dangerous and/or deadly consequences that result from your Mystery Objects, but suggests not eating any of them.
Xykronen drone array system: TL3 system of specialized, tamper-proofed unarmed drones, usable for talking at long distances or as a remotely controlled camera swarm. Can also be used as disposable scouts, as the base unit comes with its own microfab to replace any losses or required replacement parts. The excessive tamper-proofing of Xykronen design results in drones exploding violently 10 seconds after loss of functionality unless due to a power outage, and the microfab locks down if you attempt to open it up without the right key. As a result, the blueprint is useless for our reverse-engineering department, but for you, should be as functional as any other system. (Maximum of 5 drones, drones cost 50 each to recharge, and can each be active for one cycle at a time.)
Fenan Megatenna: A TL2, unexceptional example of the 'What if we just make a huge (device name)' school of long distance communication objects. Able to send and receive the sort of things you'd use such an unwieldy thing for. More durable than it sounds.
Wilthor Microdish Megarray: An exceptionally bog-standard TL3 example of the 'But what if you just combine a bunch of regular devices together under one controller?' school of variable range communication objects. Extremely bulky, but also extremely unlikely to fail with the amount of redundancy two thousand wilthor microdishes presents. Unless you break the control hub, but that is a theme throughout Wilthor designs unfortunately.
Tekrak Arrangement: An AL2 ritual consisting of a diamond inside a circle inside a triangle, which can turn speeches or written text input when the arrangement is activated into small airborne creatures, who then home in on the recipient and crash into them. The test squad involved called the impact of being literally hit by their mail 'unsettling, but effective', and noted the magical constructs will phase through solid matter to follow the most direct path to target, but would fail if sent through any significant amount of fluorine or sufficiently dense clouds of steam.
Varunan Backup Formation: AL3 ritual construct that must be built in pairs, and must contain one five meter tall obelisk of perfectly smooth stone per side. Anything said or input after reciting the activation phrase but before reciting the deactivation phrase will be backed up to the obelisk, starting at the top and working downwards from left to right. Backup text is written in minimum legible size based on the sight of the activator to conserve obelisk space. This is in the communicators section because the obelisks are linked and automatically mirror each other, which technically could be used to communicate across a distance.
Lastly in this busy two cycles, whats our plan to do next?
[][Plan] Continue only focusing on scouting in a direction (pick one)
[][Plan] Write-in plan
Objects that aren't solidly affixed to the ground can be moved around as wanted, though it'll take some time for us to do so.
Somewhere West: Alterin Base. And a floating island too.
South 15: Libre Memoriae (glowing violet Varunan runic enchanted short sword), 2 Ryndian Communicator Orb component sets.
North 5: Scrap metal engraved with Varunan runes
North 15: Alterin device
North 20: Finite Library Card
North 25: More runed Varunan scrap metal
North 30: AI server of Ythonian design, restricted to physical connections.
North 50: Ryndian mystery "sphere"
North 55: Varun runes: Stone edition
North 62: Undran Beacon
[X][Card] Turn into a research project (10 research points, searchable digitized version of the front and back sides)
Not even counting the library, this likely leads to space magic (and FTL drives by extension) and seems fairly cheap as far as research goes.
@Aklyon, do the Undra have any info on the Alteri, specifically anything that could help us unlock the device we just found such as the Job Details Manual? Alternatively, do we think the nearby base has something we could copy?
