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The Secrets' Crusade

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Simon_Jester said:
@Snowfire , do we have any indications on the activity level, or lack thereof, of those Shiplord battleships?
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Quite low. There are shuttles in transit between them and some of the larger civilian craft. A few smaller ships have docked outright.

Without using active sensors that would reveal your presence, it's hard to be certain if the two craft are armed. Iris is certain that they still have their AIs installed, which could present some challenges, and it's unlikely that they'd ever have shielding or point defence fully removed. But neither ship is on anything approaching a combat stance.
 
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The descriptions have me wondering if this is like the bit in The Last Angel where a star was weaponized. That might explain the blowtorch bits and the unstable star?
 
Snowfire said:
Quite low. There are shuttles in transit between them and some of the larger civilian craft. A few smaller ships have docked outright.

Without using active sensors that would reveal your presence, it's hard to be certain if the two craft are armed. Iris is certain that they still have their AIs installed, which could present some challenges, and it's unlikely that they'd ever have shielding or point defence fully removed. But neither ship is on anything approaching a combat stance.
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On the other hand, we don't have a battleship of our own handy to trade slams with the things. Even their point defense and shielding would be adequate to fend off pretty much anything we brought with us except Kalilah making rude gestures at them.

From the sound of it, they're not decommissioned and could, conceivably, be revved up to open fire on us if we're detected. Plus the Shiplords probably have other security forces in the system.

edofthesquid said:
The descriptions have me wondering if this is like the bit in The Last Angel where a star was weaponized. That might explain the blowtorch bits and the unstable star?
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Arguably. On the other hand, the Third Secret is energetic enough that orbital bombardment could readily create the desired effect without need for a sunbeam, as I understand it.

[Doc Smith did the "weaponize output of a main-sequence star using massive array of collectors built around it" thing first, in Grey Lensman, so I use his name for that weapon concept...]
 
I'm thinking we should be looking at the sun first - not only is it explicitly one of the weird things we noticed from afar (lots of nearby stars got blown up? til they formed white dwarfs but this one wasn't) but we were also told that the Zlathbu doing something with their sun was a trigger issue for the Shiplords based on their experience with this group. Presumably looking at it will let us know more about what/why - even if the what is that the star is unstable because the Shiplords reconstituting the original star from its white dwarf remnant (for the purposes of making their memorial more historically accurate) was an imperfect process.

Also, given that the other options (planet with a ship in high orbit/actual museum ships/planet with an actual Shiplord enclave on it) have significantly more Shiplord activity than the star there's a good chance that we're more likely to be discovered there - so the sun is also a good low hanging fruit to pick up some scraps of knowledge with minimal chance of discovery before moving on to higher risk stuff.
 
I'm leaning towards visiting the sun as well. It's a relatively safe option we can do while still snooping on Shiplord activity on passive sensors. Having a clearer picture of things like traffic/patrol patterns will help when it comes time to close in on the more difficult destinations.

EDIT: And, to double-check, is this system also creepily empty of every last speck of orbital debris?
 
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[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?

Changed.
 
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[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[3] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[2] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.


I want to check out the star, then get some context before rolling the gachas
 
[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[4] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[2] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.

Above reasoning for A Troubled Sun: it lets the team build up a more complete picture of Shiplord patterns in-system before going anywhere else.

Otherwise, while the Untamed planet is the safer option, any answers it may hold likely require context to interpret. We shouldn't necessarily assume that the Shiplord enclave is a tourist site like the Zlathbu homeworld, but it's likely to have substantial amounts of information. My guess is that the two dreadnoughts are museum ships, but approaching those is going to be difficult... and there may be guided tours of the ships starting from the inhabited world. Why sneak up on them if there's a chance of getting said guided tour?

EDIT: Also, with the uninhabited world... last time I checked, planets are big, and we don't necessarily know where to start searching. The enclave hopefully provides context as to where to start searching. Also, slight change on the ranking (switched the Regulars and The Untamed)
 
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[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
//
I like the increasing threat approach. And earlier discoveries might give us a chance to dissemble when, later on, a SL starts asking questions.
 
Snowfire said:
"I'll do it," your daughter said. "But I'm keeping a copy of the truth. And I will come here to return it, once this is finished."
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You're a good kid, Iris. Never lose that.

Simon_Jester said:
I wonder if those dreadnoughts are decommissioned museum ships or active, functional warships?
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I doubt that there is a meaningful distinction beyond "they are deployed here permanently." These are the Shiplords' "Last Enemy", so it is fitting that there would be a guard stationed here, even if it is mostly ceremonial.

This order seems appropriate.
[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[3] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[2] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[3] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[3] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.

The sun, and one of the dead cities we can probably examine without being harried. The inhabited planet would be easier to approach then. I probably wouldn't want to touch the ships, even if they are museum pieces.
 
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Doing a quick tally for now. I'll close this out over the weekend, Monday at the latest. A few more votes would be nice, but we understand this comes across as a bit bland. There's not a great deal to go on, and mystery only goes so far.

Vote Tally : The Secrets' Crusade Original - Sci-Fi | Page 51 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 1284-1294]
##### NetTally 3.0.3
[#1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
[#2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[#3] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[#4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?

Total No. of Voters: 10
 
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[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[4] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[3] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
[3] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here?
[2] The Untamed - The closer world to the system's odd sun, this one appears to lack any Shiplord presence beyond the Regular Fleet dreadnought in high orbit. What secrets might those dead cities hold?
[4] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
[1] A Troubled Sun - Something is amiss with this system's star. You cannot tell what. Perhaps you should find out.
 
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Alright, that's the vote. We'll be going to look at the star!

Vote Tally : The Secrets' Crusade Original - Sci-Fi | Page 51 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 1284-1298]
##### NetTally 3.0.3
[#1] A Troubled Sun
[#2] The Untamed
[#3] The Inhabited
[#4] Regulars

Total No. of Voters: 13
 
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