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From everything that they'd seen, it was obvious that the rats had some kind of psionic ability, and Nevada kicked himself for not including psi shielding in the design of the crew's battledress. Now they needed some! Some research across the ship's database and the planetary PAN turned up the standard plans for a PSI helmet, and a trip to Newland procured the parts they were going to need. The standard design was intended to wear over plain clothes, but it was actually easier to build bigger as well as allowing them to design it to sit atop their armour helmets. This looked a bit strange, and would have earned them several black spots on Marine parade, but they seemed secure enough. A couple of days' work at the electronics bench was enough to put them together - though obviously there was no way to test them.
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Timo was a bit sceptical about this, and elected to stick with his tinfoil. Whether the others accepted this or decided to let him be this coal-mine's canary, nobody said anything.
With this protection added, they returned to the edge of Mossyface Wood and started examining it more closely, Nevada hovering just above the canopy. The trees were very dense and opaque to many sensors, but Wombat was startled when his densitometer picked up a large metal mass roughly in the centre of the forest.
Locking the ship into a hover, Nevada unpacked the drone he'd used during the hunt for the Bluey traffickers. Launching it, he steered it carefully in among the trees until he found the source of the detection. As he neared the ground, he saw one or two of the rats moving around, though the silent drone didn't attract their attention.
At the bottom of a three-metre crater was a crushed and scorched mass of rusting metal, which looked as if it might once have been some sort of grav vehicle. However, the wreck was not the most interesting discovery, because from beneath it was emanating a pale light that reminded Nevada of something, though he couldn't think what.
He directed the drone down the crater, and through a fissure at the bottom into a square room about eight metres across. It was lit with the same radiance coming out of the crater, and was largely filled with rubble from the vehicle crash that had broken it open.
The presence of this and the appearance of the strange rats was too much of a coincidence, and the group decided to investigate. On the basis that he might need rescue if it went wrong, Nevada did the first descent on his own, floating down on his armour's grav modules and twisting like a bar dancer to avoid getting his weapon barrels caught in the tangletrees.
As he landed, his armour highlighted several rats, observing him from cover behind tree trunks and boulders. It was possible he was wrong, but he could have sworn he saw them looking slightly puzzled before ducking back out of sight. He touched the side of the makeshift psi shield and grinned.
On landing, his PRIS visor confirmed that there was nothing harmful accompanying the light. The others descended to join him, and Timo steered down one of his asteroid mining drones. This made short work of enlarging the fissure so that the crew could fit through, and they clambered down into the room below. As they did so, the penny dropped for Wombat as he recognized the wall finish and light quality as identical to those in the base below the Mountains of Dreams. So was the gravity; noticeably lower than Tarsus normal.
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1. A strange but recognizable door was visible at one end, with controls set rather lower than comfortable for a human to reach. There were two symbols on the panel, a triangle and a square. A correct guess pressing the triangle caused the door to open – in a triangular shape – and the square to close it. The doorway was a bit short for a human but a bit wider. When it was open, a slight air current could be felt coming from the other side.
Some screens and equipment of a possibly scientific nature were mounted on the walls, all somewhat damaged; the majority of the room's contents looked to be crushed under the tons and tons of rubble in the centre. Their pickups relayed the sound of a crackling electrical short from somewhere amongst it.
Timo elected to stay at in the room, to guard the entrance, and the others moved out into the corridor beyond, checking that their comms and unit telemetry still worked. Tiny semi-transparent images of each others' viewpoints hovered in the edges of their fields of view, enlarging and solidifying if they looked firmly at them.
1a. As they did so, a metallic clattering became audible from the end of the corridor. Nevada sent the drone to look round the corners of the T junction, and it came optic-to-beancan with a small cylindrical robot of some kind, heading towards them on metal tracks. They stepped to the sides of the corridor as it rounded the turn, and it rattled past them ignoring them utterly.
it trundled over towards the far side of the room, but was obviously balked by the massive pile of rubble filling most of it – some of new since the PCs' arrival. It extended some tentacles, felt around the heap, picked up some chunks and loaded them into a sort of backpack mounted on the read of its’ barrel. Then it turned around and headed back the way it had come. The drone followed it to another corridor, where it disappeared through a sort of cat-flap sized for itself.
2. This room was very similar to the first one though intact. Assorted incomprehensible machines lined the walls; their screens were dead, most of their readouts were dark but for a small cyan light on each. The machines incorporated sealed spaces with clear sides, and Wombat recognized these as laboratory work areas with macro and micromanipulators. All were empty, but each had a square arrangement of cells in its’ ‘floor’ all containing what looked like very dry soil. On one wall was a big row of various-sized lockers, from squash-ball sized to large dog. All were empty.
The crew were very tempted to try some of the controls, but caution from the two who had seen the consequences of experimentation under the Mountain won out and they didn't fiddle with anything.
3. This laboratory was almost identical to the last, except that there were only micromanipulators in the workspaces, and far smaller specimen cells.
Meanwhile, back at the first laboratory, Timo glanced up and saw a rat peering down at him from above. A snap shot from his gauss rifle knocked its' head off and it dropped into the room. Hefting it by its' tail, he lobbed it back up onto the surface above, and followed it with a hand grenade. Nothing further happened.
4. This lab was markedly different from the others. The machines had much larger enclosures, and all were filled with a dark green liquid. It was hard to tell from outside, but Wombat suspected it to be seawater.
Tentatively, they identified the four labs as Aquatic, Microflora, Microfauna and - maybe - Macrofauna.
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6. Crossing the main corridor, they headed down towards the door at the end of the passage. As they did so, a selection of strange sounds became audible. It seemed a random assortment of sounds, some mechanical, some electronic, some almost like articulate words. Like the light, they seemed to come from all around rather than one point of origin. After a minute or so, they ceased. A couple of the words had seemed familiar, and very old lessons in "know your enemy" drifted back to the marines. They were in Zdetl, the language of the Zhodani Consulate.
Through the door at the end they came to a surprised halt. Instead of the rather surgical and sterile environment of the rest of the base, this was almost exactly like being on the surface. It was lit with warm sunlight; grass and earth lay underfoot. Various plants grew naturally but in clearly defined areas. The ground undulated and occasional holes like burrows could be seen. Small robots, like the one seen earlier, were lined up against one wall, looking unoccupied. A brief search discovered traces of very, very old bones, which cross-referencing with the PAN tentatively showed as comprable to various lifeforms found on Tarsus.
5. This was similar, if slightly smaller, included a pool, and with more plant types including two Tangletrees. The robots in here were busy, trundling around evidently caring for the plants. Feng the botanist examined the Tangletrees carefully, and after checking the databases came to the conclusion that these were a very primitive forebear of the modern type.
11. The door at the end opened into something far more easily recognizable; a vehicle hangar. Lips were figuratively licked at the concept of Ancient vehicle tech in retrievable form.
To the left was what looked like a spacecraft, around 15 dtons. On the right were two vehicles of the air/raft or G-Carrier type, around 5 dtons or so, and in the middle were four open vehicles which resembled small grav bikes of around ¼ dton.
A small glassed booth at the back looked like some kind of control room.
The group looked up and, as they suspected, there was what looked like a retracting ceiling above. "It must have tons of earth, rocks and trees on top by now," said Feng.
Just in case, I had made notes about what would happen if experiments with the controls in the booth succeeded in opening the ceiling panel. But, common sense happened, rocks didn't fall, everybody didn't die
10. This, again, was very different. A large circular room contained a holographic planetary globe display exactly the same as the one under the Mountain. Ringing it were six small and strange-shaped chairs – designed for small beings with wings and tails – each with a familiar silver metal domed cap. The globe had no notations but appeared to portray the planet as it currently was, leading to some headscratching as to how it was getting its data.
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Timo was interested in this, and as the others moved onward he entered the base, located the control room and - doffing his protective tinfoil - slid the silver cap onto his head. The effect was immediate.
First of all he felt his senses expanding; he could perceive everything in this base without going and looking at it. Secondly, he felt something missing; he felt as if he were the sixth part of a whole that was not complete, and this was uncomfortable to the point of distressing. Finally, looking at the globe, he could see symbols and notations all over it, presumably indicating detected things - including spacecraft. A little experimenting allowed him to make the view of the globe rotate slightly, but the effort was enormous and the discomfort growing.
With some alarm, he realized that the action of taking off the cap was immensely difficult to contemplate. Finally, though, with considerable effort, he wrenched it free and dropped it back on its stand. Suddenly he felt enormously tired. Clicking into the comms, he told the others what he'd discovered.
13. A large power distribution block dominated this room; ancient tech or not it was unmistakeable and PRIS visors could see the scale of the power being routed through it. It rose out of the floor up a shaft that descended into the darkness below.
7,8,9. These spaces were very similar to what Wombat and Nevada had tentatively identified as living spaces under the Mountain. The sleeping spaces were divided into groups of six, each of which could acommodate five sleepers, suggesting a base complement of 30 ... whatevers.
Considerable time was spent examining the vehicles. Small 'bangles' were discovered in the control booth which granted access to the closed vehicles; each had a silver psi-cap as part of the controls - and no windows! Plans were considered for buying the wood and excavating the vehicles, but in the meantime the four 'bikes' were eased out through the corridors and winched into the Long Walk. Nevada transmitted an application to the Ranch Approval Board for permission to claim the wood as if for the construction of a new ranch. As it was on the edge of Nobberosa's range, this was likely to be straightforward enough.
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At this point, the peculiar sounds returned, but in much clearer form, and settled down into actual Anglic sentences, if very broken and strange. "Talk-talk-talk; want to talk with you two-legs, stop death, yes-yes-yes" and similar. After a surprised pause, one of the crew said, rather self-consciously, "Hello? Can you hear us? Who's speaking?"
The voice seemed quite excited by this, and responded. After some back and forth, the speaker identified it - them - selves as the rats. The crew exchanged startled looks. They knew the rats were unusually clever; but the idea of them being sub- or even sentient put a new aspect on everything.
A conversation followed. The rats had apparently discovered themselves thinking around five months previously; some weeks after the vehicle crash had opened the base to the surface. They had little understanding of anything outside their wood, and had been operating to feed and ensure their survival. The fact that the humans they'd encountered (ie the crew) were 'people' was new to them, but driven home by the sudden killing of some of their number. Although new to the concepts of so much, they didn't need telling anything twice and rapidly expanded their worldview to understand that they needed to negotiate in order to survive.
Timo and Feng were very disturbed by the whole idea. Timo, familiar with rats as he was, could forsee them taking over his homeworld; Feng could see further and considered very intelligent psionic rats a terrible danger overall. Wombat, trained as he was in IISS First Contact procedures, was a little calmer, and Nevada seemed more interested than worried. With a nod to the others to keep watch, he reached up and removed his psi shield.
Immediately, the conversation shifted to within his head, and became vastly clearer. In a few minutes, enormous strides were taken in understanding between the two species. Nevada could feel concepts being picked up as they drifted across his mind - not in an agressive manner but purely as they came into 'view'. He realized that he wasn't talking to one rat; he was talking to all the rat minds in range, operating as a single conciousness. As they spoke, more piled in and the intelligence of the whole increased as they did.
He invited them to come and join the crew inside the base, as together there was more chance of understanding it. The rats were hesitant, as they did not like the lab with the collapsed roof; it made them uncomfortable for some reason - and they were afraid of Timo, who they referred to as "the Hater". Eventually, however, they were persuaded, and three cautiously joined the crew.
After some experimentation, it was discovered that the rats already knew how to work the doors remotely and could learn to operate the control room holodisplay. Nevada discovered that he could see the notation through his link to the rats. At one point, they mentioned in passing that they had attempted to communicate with "the other ones" but had not succeeded. Questioning revealed that these "were more like you", that they spoke Zdetl - and that they were in the base under the Mountain. The three Imperials were rocked by this news. There were Zhodani in the Mountain of Dreams!
This was bad. If there was psi tech or - worse - weapons in the base, the Zhodani were far better equipped to understand and plunder it. From Timo's point of view, they were no less foreign invaders; he didn't want Tarsus to become an Imperial world, but another star empire was no better to his mind. Something had to be done.
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This was significant on a planetary scale, and after some discussion Timo put a call in to Hayden Poole, now a member of the emerging Tarsan planetary government. Evading some details - like exactly what was under the Mountain, any mention of the base they were currently in, and the rats - the crew managed to convince him that there was a Zhodani covert operation in play. Hayden was a little reluctant at first but eventually agreed to allow the PCs to handle the issue. He confirmed that the IISS had not yet started any further investigations into the site.
Nevada persuaded him to release sensor information listing all the ships insystem, and they correlated these with the holodisplay with the rats' assistance. Nevada had taken to calling the one he was working with Benjy for some reason - the rats really didn't understand personal names, and were constantly confused that telling one human something didn't mean they all knew. Sure enough, marked on the ground roughly where the IISS expedition forward base had been was a sensor trace of a Type A Free Trader, logged in the system as the Hydarnis. With ten staterooms and 20 Low Berths, a rough estimate of the enemy's possible numbers could be reached.
The crew broke out their armour and some of its' heavier military options...