Captain’s Log, Stardate 12062015. Arrived in Aventine Cluster in response to contract. Eventless journey, except for the smell in the crew quarter. Need to get that taken care of soon…
NC-17 tells us the history of ARES-3, including the story of Admiral Hudd. That shape-shifter knows a lot. Can’t reach Alpha-1 base by standard com.
Deadbeet scanned the surface – as expected 10,000’s of settlers around the city ruins, prolly scavenging.
Combine-type hauler came out of FTL near ARES-3 as we were establishing orbit – trying to intercept com but waves are flat.
lost control of helm, com, and weapons control due to a virus – ship turned to attack the hauler. recovered control and established com with hauler. Quiruk is the hauler designation, COO Redik demanded we give reason for our aggression. We told them and asked their reason for exiting FTL here. They claimed “humanitarian relief” for the illegal settlers on-planet. Seems a big coincidence with losing our ship control. We decided to reassure them that if they leave we will not be long nor report their infraction. They reluctantly agreed.
Decided to investigate the source of the virus that took over ship controls. Found space-FORTRAN code was beamed up from surface near base Alpha-1. Heading down to surface in the shuttle larva. Dealt with turbulent entry due to remnants of bombing during the big war.
Parked the shuttle on top of a razed hospital overlooking the park that Alpha-1 base is in.
Security Stanchions were hacked so our codes received with the contract were worthless. Deadbeet hacked them and we investigated the truck hastily parked outside Alpha-1. The inside is very well-kept, especially considering the mess that the rest of the planet is in.
Deadbeet noticed the door to Alpha-1 is rigged with a bomb, and NC-17, Hurtlocker-style disarmed it with a coat hanger scavenged from the truck.
On the other side of the door we found the slumped dead body of Carlo Patrick. Searching the rest of the base we found that all the Alpha-1 base personnel were murdered by blunt-force trauma or disruption fire. 3 days ago, aside from Zach who died from poisoning 2 days ago.
We discovered by hacking the mainframe that Zach was banned from going to the local settler bar. The deaths seemed to be all caused by members of the team. next step: checking the bar.