Rbz6: Left Behind
General Summary
The crew pile into their bright red fire engine and drove the truck down through the makeshift ramp, descending into the lower concourse. According to the colonists, no one had ventured down to lower levels before. The alien layout of the station meant they didn't even know how to access the lower levels, or vast stretches of the immense station. And so the crew would be the first humans to explore this part of the station, or so they thought.
As the truck descends to the bottom of the ramp, the crew could see that the vaulting style of the alien achitecture continues down here. The precursors were immensely tall creatures, and everything they made were several times taller than a human equivalent. The vast space of this "concourse" might well be a large corridor for them -- who knows?
Despite being abandoned by the precursors for who know how long, this part of the station, like the habitat sections, were in surprisingly good shape. A soft glow seemed to eminate from everywhere, lighting the interior beyond the lamps of the fire engine. Superficial structures showed their age. The gentle curves of the vaulting wall fascades peeled and crumbled here and there, exposing alien machinery underneath. But there was no evidence of rubble that would accumulate under the exposed spots -- the station cleaned up after itself, it would seem. Another mystery of the Gardeners.
After driving for some time, the crew came upon a strange structure. It was Reinhard who spotted it first, having taken up watch high up in the rescue bucket, in the "gunner position". What seemed like the sharp drop of a pit appeared to be lined with regular steps that descended to a stage below. It was an amphitheater! There were "stairs" at regular intervals, though each step was over a meter high and utterly impractical for human use. And the theater formed a three-quarter circle, perhaps suggesting something about the precursor physiology. Pillars of exposed alien machinery stood in the remain quarter of the circle. What looked even more curious, however, was the objects on the stage, some 20 meters below the roadway. Even from the parked fire engine, the crew could make out the distinctive shapes of crabs. Some half dozen bodies laid out on a slab. Quinn suggested ritual intent. benesh likened it more to a dissection table. He pulled out a fancy pocket telescope for a closer look, and to his surprise, he saw an array of medical instruments laid out against the back wall. Clearly human made. Something weird was going on here. Tempted by the lure of mystery, the crew disembark to investigate. The tall steps would be hard enough to navigate for the humans. There was no way to bring the fire engine along. So Echo volunteered to stay with the truck. The others rumage through the truck's equipment cabinets for something to help, and Saskia finds sets of magnetic handholds. Getting down would be easy enough, but these would be vital for coming back up. The crew took their time descending the steps, and when they finally reached the stage, Reinhard took the lead, wary for any sign of ambush. The slab dominated the stage. It had looked like a table from afar, but, sized for the precursors, the slab was high enought that even Reinhard could not see over the top. On a hunch, benesh circled around behind the slab, and found a long crate with power lines running from it. "This is a lab refrigerator," he announced eagerly as he popped open the lid. Then he yelped and recoiled in horror as he found himself stairing at a dozen left arms. All amputated below the shoulder. All in various stages of decay, as the fridge had lost power. Reinhard stepped in as benesh struggled to recompose himself. The warrior carefully picked up one of the arms, looking it over. The arm seemed... mostly human, but the fingers of many were... mishapened. Some of them looked tree-like, with bark-like patches, like the tree zombies. Others... had the wrong number of fingers -- four arranged with pairs opposed. Each had some sort of medical film sealing the stump, and some kind of tag with a QR code on them. "We should burn them," Quinn interjected in the silence, "cleanse them with fire. This is not the way of the Gardeners." Still recovering, benesh sputtered feeble protest. But the arms were pretty gross. "At least let us take some pictures and recordings of them. Then we can put them back into the fridge and set it on fire." "No, we must build a pyre. It is the proper way." benesh wanted to argue, but a pyre will take some time to build, and give him some time to work. As Reinhard help Quinn gather materials for the pyre, Saskia helped benesh record the macabre findings. On a hunch, she scans the QR codes on her hand terminal. To her horror, the code brings her to a website, displaying a failed login attempt. Looking over her shoulder, benesh unhelpfully suggests, "Don't worry. You can use the password recovery link." "No, no, you don't understand. This means they know someone is trying access their records." As she scrolls down the page, she sees the emblem of The Legion. Whatever weirdness is happening here, it seems like the mercenaries were involved. And they would probably not randos meddling with their business. The four crew members gathers around the pyre as the last of the left arms was added to the pile. Saskia had also pulled the subscriber identity module from her hand term and chucked it into the pile. Then she started fiddling with the device's factory reset. Quinn said a few words in prayer, asking for the blessing of the Gardeners in this cleansing. benesh wasn't sure he believed in the mumble jumble, but he's been to enough services to know how to fake it. As pyre began to burn up, the crew produced their magnetic hand holds to begin the arduous climb back to the fire engine. benesh pulled one of the racks out of the medical equipment, deciding maybe Echo could pull some useful information from the drives. The four made the hard climb in silence, but questions stirred in their minds. Whatever they were doing there, there was some degree of ritual to it. A cult perhaps? The arms were human... at some point. But clearly, the biology was altered. Human experimentation perhaps? How were the Legion involved? Wasn't Khosla also missing her left arm? Was one of those hers?
After driving for some time, the crew came upon a strange structure. It was Reinhard who spotted it first, having taken up watch high up in the rescue bucket, in the "gunner position". What seemed like the sharp drop of a pit appeared to be lined with regular steps that descended to a stage below. It was an amphitheater! There were "stairs" at regular intervals, though each step was over a meter high and utterly impractical for human use. And the theater formed a three-quarter circle, perhaps suggesting something about the precursor physiology. Pillars of exposed alien machinery stood in the remain quarter of the circle. What looked even more curious, however, was the objects on the stage, some 20 meters below the roadway. Even from the parked fire engine, the crew could make out the distinctive shapes of crabs. Some half dozen bodies laid out on a slab. Quinn suggested ritual intent. benesh likened it more to a dissection table. He pulled out a fancy pocket telescope for a closer look, and to his surprise, he saw an array of medical instruments laid out against the back wall. Clearly human made. Something weird was going on here. Tempted by the lure of mystery, the crew disembark to investigate. The tall steps would be hard enough to navigate for the humans. There was no way to bring the fire engine along. So Echo volunteered to stay with the truck. The others rumage through the truck's equipment cabinets for something to help, and Saskia finds sets of magnetic handholds. Getting down would be easy enough, but these would be vital for coming back up. The crew took their time descending the steps, and when they finally reached the stage, Reinhard took the lead, wary for any sign of ambush. The slab dominated the stage. It had looked like a table from afar, but, sized for the precursors, the slab was high enought that even Reinhard could not see over the top. On a hunch, benesh circled around behind the slab, and found a long crate with power lines running from it. "This is a lab refrigerator," he announced eagerly as he popped open the lid. Then he yelped and recoiled in horror as he found himself stairing at a dozen left arms. All amputated below the shoulder. All in various stages of decay, as the fridge had lost power. Reinhard stepped in as benesh struggled to recompose himself. The warrior carefully picked up one of the arms, looking it over. The arm seemed... mostly human, but the fingers of many were... mishapened. Some of them looked tree-like, with bark-like patches, like the tree zombies. Others... had the wrong number of fingers -- four arranged with pairs opposed. Each had some sort of medical film sealing the stump, and some kind of tag with a QR code on them. "We should burn them," Quinn interjected in the silence, "cleanse them with fire. This is not the way of the Gardeners." Still recovering, benesh sputtered feeble protest. But the arms were pretty gross. "At least let us take some pictures and recordings of them. Then we can put them back into the fridge and set it on fire." "No, we must build a pyre. It is the proper way." benesh wanted to argue, but a pyre will take some time to build, and give him some time to work. As Reinhard help Quinn gather materials for the pyre, Saskia helped benesh record the macabre findings. On a hunch, she scans the QR codes on her hand terminal. To her horror, the code brings her to a website, displaying a failed login attempt. Looking over her shoulder, benesh unhelpfully suggests, "Don't worry. You can use the password recovery link." "No, no, you don't understand. This means they know someone is trying access their records." As she scrolls down the page, she sees the emblem of The Legion. Whatever weirdness is happening here, it seems like the mercenaries were involved. And they would probably not randos meddling with their business. The four crew members gathers around the pyre as the last of the left arms was added to the pile. Saskia had also pulled the subscriber identity module from her hand term and chucked it into the pile. Then she started fiddling with the device's factory reset. Quinn said a few words in prayer, asking for the blessing of the Gardeners in this cleansing. benesh wasn't sure he believed in the mumble jumble, but he's been to enough services to know how to fake it. As pyre began to burn up, the crew produced their magnetic hand holds to begin the arduous climb back to the fire engine. benesh pulled one of the racks out of the medical equipment, deciding maybe Echo could pull some useful information from the drives. The four made the hard climb in silence, but questions stirred in their minds. Whatever they were doing there, there was some degree of ritual to it. A cult perhaps? The arms were human... at some point. But clearly, the biology was altered. Human experimentation perhaps? How were the Legion involved? Wasn't Khosla also missing her left arm? Was one of those hers?
Report Date
24 Jul 2021
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