Happy #riday Captains!
We are back with another episode of the Baldie Challenge Aftermath. In yesterday's quite lengthy article, we've seen each crew setting up their colony and checked whether they had everything they needed to survive or not. While most Captains on the ocean world and on the moon were doing pretty fine, things on the asteroid already got pretty rough.
Without spoiling anything, today we are going to see blood - Lets get right into it!
The Ocean World
As the days went by, your crew slowly started to feel at home in your colony. Thanks to the lush climate and without any predators around, it was a rather peaceful albeit monotonous life. It seemed like you were really lucky with your welcoming new home...
@proto26: Norah and the Communications Officer made it a habit to chat with every member of the colony for some minutes every day. They wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page and everybody felt comfortable as a part of the community. At first, these talks went really well, even the Syndicate Squad Leader and the Triskan Fighter opened up a bit.
With every passing day, these talks got a little harsher. Initially, Norah only observed sudden changes in their interlocutor's mood. The Communications Officer even got screamed at simply for asking if everything was alright by the Triskan Fighter. The very next day, the Syndicate Sqaud Leader punched Norah in the face without warning. Something was odd. Norah suspected that something or someone must make these prone to violence become even more violent and aggressive. Without knowing what to do about it, she informed the Security Officer about her observations and asked him to keep an eye on both the Syndicate Sqaud Leader and the Triskan Fighter for her.
The next morning, the Communications Officer was discussing today's duties with the Space Surgeon, when the Triskian Fighter picked up a stone without saying a word and hurled it at the Communication Officers head. He went down immediately and before anybody knew what was happening, the Triskian Fighter was on top of him and started punching him. Luckily, the Security Officer was on alert and had his weapon ready and set to stun. With a single well aimed shot, he tranquilized the Triskian Fighter. Not sure what to do with him, he was restrained and put back into the Baldies cargo hold. The Communication Officer was uninjured and just in shock because of what happened.
Because of all the chaos, it took you some hours to realize that the Syndicate Squad Leader had picked up a gun during the fight herself and ran off into the woods. Your team swarmed out to search for her but had no success. It seems she's still somewhere out there; waiting...
Result of Encounter
- You had to restrain a crew member: 10 damage
- One crew member ran off: 10 damage
- Colony Health remaining: 45
@blockmonster: Eliza made it a habit to chat with every member of the colony for some minutes every day. She wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page and everybody felt comfortable as a part of the community. Luckily, your crew was a very homogeneous bunch that shared a strong morale codex. Still, with each passing day, it seemed everybody was a little more on edge. It felt like your crew members were annoyed faster with each other and Shen even ended up blaming Oksana for being a terrible pilot.
Something was odd. Elizah suspected that something or someone must make everyone a little more aggressive. It was nothing to worry about yet, but she didn't want for things to turn violent. It was time for some experimentation! With the Preservation Officer's help, she started collecting samples of plants, fish, and crustaceans and started analyzing each. The tests went on for several days, but she finally was confident in sharing her results. There's something in the water! Most of the crustaceans ooze out a highly psychoactive liquid that turns humans into mindless killing machines.
This secretion would be a great combat drug, but Eliza had a clear policy on that topic. Everybody, stand clear of the water and don't ever eat anything coming out of that ocean again! You can only imagine what would have happened with a crew more prone to violence...
Result of Encounter
- Nothing bad happened - Great job Captain!
- Colony Health remaining: 100
@apprentice001: Eliza was making great progress with the desalination contraption and after only a couple of days she started the process. It was a great moment for the colony. Should she fail, the colony would be almost doomed. Should she succeed, the colony would be supplied until the Colombus arrives. Because of that, Eliza wanted to be extra sure. She checked the desalinated water a last time. Everything looks fine, the water is safe to drink!. With that, she toasted to the rest of the colony and took a big sip from the water.
The rest of the colonists cheered and celebrated her achievement. But then, everybody fell silent. Something was not right here. Eliza was staring at them with bloodshot eyes. Seconds passed in silence. Without warning, she pounced on Norah, who was standing next to her, bit her in the neck and wrestled her to the ground. Using her hands like claws she started to beat in on her. Everybody else was in shock, pleading Eliza to stop. It was KB-119 Kilbot that finally brought an end to it. With a single blast from his gun, he sent Eliza flying into the air.
Without any protection, there was no way she could have survived a direct hit from a KB Blaster at close range. Norah was in a bad condition as well, but with treatment from Shen she will survive. Still, there was more trouble on the horizon. There's something in the water! That much was clear. But with the colony's only scientist dead, there was nobody left to do anything about it. There has to be another way, we need to find fresh water! Captain Cranium told his fellow colonists.
It was a black day for the colony and with its colonists close to dying from dehydration, it might not have been the last one...
Result of Encounter
- You had to shoot a crew member: 25 damage
- Crew member badly injured: 10 damage
- Colony Health remaining: 45
@apshamilton: You really made yourself a home on this planet. While KB-119 Kilbot is on guard duty the whole day every day the rest of your crew has plenty of time for other things. While the tech expert is still fiddling around with your underground installation, constantly finding ways to make things even more efficient, Alanna Vös, Shen, and Stug spend most days training and preparing for any threat that might ever come up.
Alanna Vös and Stug might not exactly be on the same page, but they respect each others abilities and with the relaxed life they are living right now, there's not much potential for any conflict. Stug considers to take a bath in the ocean the other day, but Shen gently reminds him that the crew decided to not get in touch with any local flora or fauna if they don't have to.
This is almost getting a little boring here, but you have it all under control and you've already survived the first month without much of an issue at all...
Result of Encounter
- Nothing noteworthy happened, again - Great job Captain!
- Colony Health remaining: 80
@raudell: Eliza and Norah made it a habit to chat with every member of the colony for some minutes every day. They wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page and everybody felt comfortable as a part of the community. Luckily, your crew was a very homogeneous bunch that shared a strong morale codex. Still, with each passing day, it seemed everybody was a little more on edge. It felt like your crew members were annoyed faster with each other and Alanna Vös even insulted the Military Engineer because of his horrible haircut.
Something was odd. Eliza suspected that something or someone must make everyone a little more aggressive. It was nothing to worry about yet, but she didn't want for things to turn violent. It was time for some experimentation! The tests went on for several days, but she finally was confident in sharing her results. There's something in the water! Without the ability to easily catch living specimen, she couldn't tell where it was coming from exactly. But no matter - Everybody, stand clear of the water and don't ever eat anything coming out of that ocean!
Result of Encounter
- Nothing bad happened - Great job Captain!
- Colony Health remaining: 105
The Moon
The mine field was something you did not anticipate when your sensors first detected the alien ruins on that moon. Firing missiles at an incoming ship, laying out booby traps disguised as rocks, these were no ordinary ruins. You were unsure what could wait for you there, but you knew your survival would depend on it. Not going to the ruins was not an option.
You prepared as good as you could and set out for the minefield...
@slabakbg: It took Eliza some days to finish her contraption and both the Maintenance Staff and the Tech Expert had some ideas how to further improve it. The three gave quite the speech of how this little gadget is going to interfere with the mines using some electromagnetic pulse to disarm them, but honestly, all that Shen cared for was that he should point it at the mine field and press the red button. Because of the importance of the coming mission, you decided to send your whole crew in. It was all or nothing now.
Shen cautiously approached the end of the minefield with everybody else lying in cover. He put down the contraption and pointed it at some of the mines in front of him. Thump! The gadget discharges and it seems nothing has changed. Shen is looking back to the rest of the crew and raises his shoulders. Eliza is positive that it must have worked and is showing him a thumbs up. Well, no way to find out if it worked other than testing it. Shen puts up a stone and throws it against one of the booby traps. To the great joy of everybody, nothing happens. Looks like this thing did its job after all!
With guns raised and everybody in full alert, your crew traverses the now inactive mine field. The ruins themselves are pretty underwhelming. It seems this once was a small alien outpost with roughly 10 different installations, but there's not too much left of these buildings. From the look of it, the Battle-Trained Socialite is sure that the base was forcefully destroyed, probably by some kind of beam weapon used from orbit. Both the attacker and the attacked seemed to be long gone. Your crew was about to give up, when Shen found something. Wait a minute, there's something!
Covered behind some debris is a rusty control panel. Shen removes some of the dust and tries pushing some buttons. To your great surprise, the terminal actually comes to life and a small lens beneath it projects a hologram of a human female in a uniform of unknown design into the middle of the ruins. Welcome back Captain, please state the passphrase. Everybody is looking at each other, unsure what to say. The hologram looks around, seemingly impatient. Please state the passphrase or you will be exterminated. The Dark Boss doesn't seem to be very impressed with it all. Ah shut up stupid girl, show us the treasure! The hologram turns around immediately and shakes his head. Passphrase incorrect. Please stand by for extermination.
The Battle-Trained Socialite is the first to realize what's about to happen. Everyone, get down! As the hologram disappears, secret windows all around the ruins open up, revealing auto turrets that immediately open fire on your crew. Most are fast enough to get into cover, but both the Mysterious Dark Boss and the Life Searcher are not as lucky. Before they know it, they got hit by multiple bullets. There's no saving them as the auto turrets keep pounding them.
It takes almost 5 minutes until the guns stop and the windows close again. Eliza and Shen rush to help the fallen but there's nothing left to do for them. What the hell was that!? While everybody is still in panic, the Tech Expert takes another look at that panel. Just give me a second here. After a minute of working the panel, you here a clicking sound and a huge auto door hidden underneath one of the ruins slowly opens up. The remaining crew slowly descends into the darkness. Suddenly, lights turn on and you find yourself in a large control room filled to the brim with cargo crates, all kinds of electronic devices, and other stuff. Shen is looking around in disbelief. He slowly checks his sensors. The room has a breathable atmosphere!
It seems you've found a shelter for now but it cost you dearly. Two members of your crew are dead and there's still a hologram and auto turrets hellbent on killing you out there. Getting through everything down here is going to take you quite a while...
Result of Encounter
- Two crew members got shot - 50 damage
- Found the secret base: Colony Health + 15
- Colony Health remaining: 55
@palasatenea: It took the Syndicate Hacker two full days and nights to get everything prepared but he finally is ready to go. During his tests, he confirmed that the mines indeed are linked in clusters with each other, so if he manages to hack that link, he should be able to activate and deactivate the whole cluster at once. Because of the importance of the coming mission, you decided to send your whole crew in. It was all or nothing now.
The Syndicate Hacker cautiously approached the end of the minefield with everybody else lying in cover. Starting up his neural interface, his whole body started shaking erratically. Long minutes passed without any sign of success or failure. Out of a sudden, he stops moving. It's done, the mine field is ours! Everybody starts cheering but he signals everybody to remain silent. Wait, there's more! Apparently the mines are not only linked with each other but also with a central system in the ruins itself. Ayumi is baffled by that. Who would do such a stupid thing? The Syndicate Hacker gives his best guess Someone not expecting to be hacked, I guess.
With guns raised and everybody in full alert, your crew traverses the now inactive mine field. The ruins themselves are pretty underwhelming. It seems this once was a small alien outpost with roughly 10 different installations, but there's not too much left of these buildings. From the look of it, the Exploration Officer is sure that the base was forcefully destroyed, probably by some kind of beam weapon used from orbit. Both the attacker and the attacked seemed to be long gone. Now let me show you another trick the Syndicate Hacker proclaims, clearly feeling like he's the coolest guy around.
He snaps his fingers and a huge auto door hidden underneath one of the ruins slowly opens up. The remaining crew slowly descends into the darkness. Suddenly, lights turn on and you find yourself in a large control room filled to the brim with cargo crates, all kinds of electronic devices, and other stuff. The Research Officer is looking around in disbelief. He slowly checks his sensors. The room has a breathable atmosphere!
It seems you've found a shelter for now. But not only that, your Hacker took over control of the whole base! Getting through everything down here is going to take you quite a while...
Result of Encounter
- Nobody got hurt - Great Job Captain!
- Found the secret base: Colony Health + 15
- Took control of the base: Colony Health + 5
- Colony Health remaining: 120
@nockzonk: Your crew was an odd one indeed. With everybody distrusting almost everybody else getting rid of that mine field won't be an easy task. Eliza still insisted that she could have easily built a gadget to disable the mine field, but neither the Kumicho nor the Rebel General would listen to her. Just follow my every step the Rebel General told the crew, I'll get you through in no time.
There obviously was no point in discussing it any further, so your crew cautiously approached the mine field with the Rebel General leading. He took a last close look at the mine's layout and then slowly started to traverse it. The rest of the crew followed and at first, it seemed to be going pretty good. Everybody was minding their steps and more than half of the mine field had already been passed. All of a sudden, some of the booby traps close to the end of the crew raised up and started walking towards your crew on tiny mechanical legs. They are mobile! RUUUUUUN!!
The crew started to dash towards the ruins, no longer looking where they stepped. More and more mines got up, slowly approaching the ones next to them. It was only a matter of time until somebody had to touch a mine WROOOM. With a big blast, Eliza got catapulted into the air. The moment she landed, additional mines were already swarming towards her. There was no saving her as mine after mine exploded on contact with her. Only thanks to the great agility of your crew nobody else got killed while rushing out of the minefield. As you crew manages to get farer away from the mines, they retract their legs and go dormant again. You've made it. For now.
You knew that was going to happen! It's not a second before the blame game begins. The Kumicho is convinced the Rebel General lured Eliza into a trap. If I wanted her dead I would have killed her already. You better mind your words or you'll be next! the Rebel General replies. Before he even knows it, he has the Battle-Trained Socialite's blade at this throat. One word from her and you'll bleed out on that damned moon! Galvin-4 starts talking about companionship (again) but nobody listens to him. Admiral Valro seems to be rather amused by what's going on there but finally decides to take action. If we kill each other here, nobody is going to leave that moon. Let's concentrate on surviving first, we can still do some killing later!
Cautiously, everybody retreats a step or two. Great. Now with that out of the way, let's see what we have here. The Admiral starts exploring the ruins and the rest of the crew slowly follows. The ruins themselves are pretty underwhelming. It seems this once was a small alien outpost with roughly 10 different installations, but there's not too much left of these buildings. From the look of it, the Admiral is sure that the base was forcefully destroyed, probably by some kind of beam weapon used from orbit. Both the attacker and the attacked seemed to be long gone. Your crew was about to give up, when the Kumicho found something. Wait a minute, there's something!
Covered behind some debris is a rusty control panel. She removes some of the dust and tries pushing some buttons. To your great surprise, the terminal actually comes to life and a small lens beneath it projects a hologram of a human female in a uniform of unknown design into the middle of the ruins. Welcome back Captain, please state the passphrase. Everybody is looking at each other, unsure what to say. The hologram looks around, seemingly impatient. Please state the passphrase or you will be exterminated. Galvin turns to the crew It would be my great pleasure if you all could please just get done to the floor for a tiny second, please, thank you.
As the Kilbot raises his KB Blaster everybody understands what Galvin was hinting at. Passphrase inco... Kilbot starts pounding the terminal and the hologram disappears. Hidden windows revealing auto turrets open up all around the ruins but within a matter of seconds they are all destroyed by KB-119. He then starts shooting at one of the ruins until a hidden entrance is revealed. Galvin speaks up once again This should be all for now, if you would like to you are very much invited to stand up again, thank you for your time and your cooperation.
The remaining crew slowly descends into the darkness. Suddenly, lights turn on and you find yourself in a large control room filled to the brim with cargo crates, all kinds of electronic devices, and other stuff. The Kumicho is looking around in disbelief. She slowly checks her implants. The room has a breathable atmosphere!
It seems you've found a shelter for now but it cost you dearly. Eliza is dead and there's a deep distrust between your crew members. It's only matter of time until the conflicts will escalate again. Still, getting through everything down here is going to take you quite a while...
Result of Encounter
- Eliza got shot - 25 damage
- Your Crew hates each other - 10 damage
- Found the secret base: Colony Health + 15
- Colony Health remaining: 75
@veryanprime: It took Eliza some days to finish her contraption and both the Maintenance Staff and the Tech Expert had some ideas how to further improve it. The three gave quite the speech of how this little gadget is going to interfere with the mines using some electromagnetic pulse to disarm them, but honestly, all that the Special Infiltration Agent cared for was that she should point it at the mine field and press the red button. Because of the importance of the coming mission, you decided to send your whole crew in. It was all or nothing now.
The Secret Infiltration Agent cautiously approached the end of the minefield with everybody else lying in cover. She put down the contraption and pointed it at some of the mines in front of her. Thump! The gadget discharges and it seems nothing has changed. She is looking back to the rest of the crew and raises her shoulders. Eliza is positive that it must have worked and is showing her a thumbs up. Well, no way to find out if it worked other than testing it. The Secret Infiltration Agent puts up a stone and throws it against one of the booby traps. To the great joy of everybody, nothing happens. Looks like this thing did its job after all!
With guns raised and everybody in full alert, your crew traverses the now inactive mine field. The ruins themselves are pretty underwhelming. It seems this once was a small alien outpost with roughly 10 different installations, but there's not too much left of these buildings. From the look of it, the Exploration Officer is sure that the base was forcefully destroyed, probably by some kind of beam weapon used from orbit. Both the attacker and the attacked seemed to be long gone. Your crew was about to give up, when the Exploration Officer found something. Wait a minute, there's something!
Covered behind some debris is a rusty control panel. She removes some of the dust and tries pushing some buttons. To your great surprise, the terminal actually comes to life and a small lens beneath it projects a hologram of a human female in a uniform of unknown design into the middle of the ruins. Welcome back Captain, please state the passphrase. Everybody is looking at each other, unsure what to say. The hologram looks around, seemingly impatient. Please state the passphrase or you will be exterminated. Finally the Special Infiltration Agent speaks up Strawberry Pie and a Banana Split! Everybody turns to the Special Infiltration Agent, questioning her mental health. Before anybody can say something, the hologram starts to nod. Passphrase correct. Please enjoy your stay!
With that, the hologram disappears and a huge auto door hidden underneath one of the ruins slowly opens up. The Secret Infiltration Agent heads down without saying a word. The rest of the crew follows cautiously, still not sure what just happened. Suddenly, lights turn on and you find yourself in a large control room filled to the brim with cargo crates, all kinds of electronic devices, and other stuff. The Secret Infiltration Agent turns to the crew You are safe here, please put down your weapons and help yourself to a Happy Soda!
It seems you've found a shelter but you now have even more questions then before. How did the Secret Infiltration Agent know the passphrase? Who is this woman?? Getting through everything is going to take you quite a while...
Result of Encounter
- Nobody got hurt - Great Job Captain!
- Found the secret base: Colony Health + 15
- A member of your crew obviously knows more than you - that's...good!?
- Colony Health remaining: 95
The Asteroid
@drillith: You are fighting to your last breath. Literally. Your crew is trying everything they can to buy you more time. They explore tunnel after tunnel but to no avail. There's no way of getting past the energy shield and there's no way out of the asteroid. There's nothing more you could do.
Your crew is suffocating and your journey is over.
Result of Encounter
- Your crew suffocated - 100 damage
- Colony Health remaining: 0
- You have been eliminated - Thank you for your participation and better luck next time Captain!
@craniuma: Your mission was doomed from the beginning. Without any cargo, no prefabs, and no suits you should have gone for the ocean world. On an asteroid devoid of all live you never stood a chance.
Your crew is suffocating and your journey is over.
Result of Encounter
- Your crew suffocated - 100 damage
- Colony Health remaining: 0
- You have been eliminated - Thank you for your participation and better luck next time Captain!
@digital-wisdom: Preparing the experiment was not an easy task. With the lack of communication, getting the timing right would be very hard. You picked two tunnels with approximately the same distance to the Baldie for your first test. One team was to be made up of an Exploration Officer and the Kilbot, the other one of the other Exploration Officer, Eliza and the Little Buddy. The former was tasked with giving their shield something to do (aka have the Kilbot shoot it) while the latter was going to monitor what was happening with the other one.
Both teams set off at the same time and agreed on an exact moment for the Kilbot to start his work. Once everybody was in position, the Kilbot aimed at the shield and started blasting it. As expected, the power level surged immediately and everything hitting the shield just vanished into the void. At the other shield, something amazing happened. The second the Kilbot was tasked with shooting at his shield, the shield the second team was monitoring all but disappeared. So Eliza's theory was correct. Once one shield is hit, almost all energy is transferred to it, leaving the other shields defenseless. To make sure it really worked, the Exploration Officer picked up another of his flares and threw it through the shield. Nothing happened, the flare just landed on the other site. Highly ecstatic about her find Eliza would have loved to move through the shield right away, but things were not that easy. We now know how to get through, but we don't know how to get back again!.
Obviously, to get back from the core someone or something had to give another shield something to do again. The team had a lot of discussions on how to proceed. There are only 3 human Officers, was it really a good idea to split up? We can't send in the Kilbot alone and nobody knows what the Mysterious Robot would do if he was ever powered up. After some back and forth, their eyes fell on the Maintenance Droid peacefully cleaning the shuttle. This shuttle won't be going anywhere and there's no damage to repair. We can risk sending him! So it was decided. He was tasked with moving through the open shield, going as deep in as possible for an hour, record everything he sees and then come back to the shield exactly 2 hours later. Kilbot would then go for the other shield again and give him a 1 minute window to return.
The very next day, everything was set in motion. The shield opened up just as planned and the Maintenance Droid got through. It took him about 10 minutes to get out of sensor and communications range and up until then there was only more tunnel without anything noteworthy. Then the waiting began. These 2 hours felt like days to your crew. They sat there, waiting, hoping. But the Droid never returned. They waited another hour, hoping he might yet return and work something out but ultimately, they had to accept that he probably wouldn't return.
Back at the shuttle there was yet another heated discussion. We are safe here, there's no need for another expedition! - We are explorers, we don't sit around 2 month doing nothing with such a fascinating thing right in front of us! - And what happened to the droid? What if there are hostiles? What if they know where we are? What if they come for us!? So it was decided. There would be another expedition and this time there would be humans! Kilbot had to come with them on the expedition, leaving only the Little Buddy as a trusted companion. Luckily, he has some small weapons himself. He was sent to the far shield and ordered to shoot at it continuously every three hours so what ever happened, there would always be a way back.
One last check of the weapons, one last check of their suits, and they were ready to move towards the shield. There was no telling what they'd find on the other side of that shield but no matter what, they would find out! In the exact second they anticipated, the shield went down and in they went...
Result of Encounter
- You lost your Maintenance Droid - 10 damage
- Colony Health remaining: 95
And that's all for today Captains! We had our first eliminations with both @drillith and @craniuma failing to find air for their crew. With several casualties, overall these second 15 days were a lot bloodier than what we had so far.
Let's have a quick look at the standings after 30 days:
Ocean World:
@raudell: 105 health
@blockmonster: 100 health
@apshamilton: 80 health
@apprentice001: 45 health
@proto26: 45 health
The Moon:
@palasatenea: 120 health
@veryanprime: 95 health
@nockzonk: 75 health
@slabakbg: 55 health
The Asteroid
@digital-wisdom: 95 health
@craniuma: eliminated
@drillith: eliminated
That puts @palasatenea at the top of the leaderboard overall, but all 3 locations still have contenders in great health. Don't feel too safe there, though. As you might have already learned from some of the less fortunate Captains, one catastrophic event and you can loose half your Colony health or more. But bring the perfect solution to an encounter and you can quickly make a come back.
Rewards for making it to the 30 day mark will be send out in some minutes again. Congratulations to all Captains that are still alive!
Moving forward, events will not become easier, so stay tuned for another 15 days worth of colonization tomorrow!
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