RE: Sixty-four Pixel Colonists
01-27-2018, 01:35 AM
TURN 8
Colony Mood:
Suspicious
Construction Drone: ???
Compact Scouting Drone: SEARCHING
Compact Scouting Drone: SEARCHING
Projects:
Design - Radar Tower: Complete!
Diagnose - Algae Tank A: Complete!
Build - ???: 1 Turn
Supplies:
11 Food (-2)
9 Plasticarbon (+5)
600W unused power
![[Image: map_8_cropped_1.gif]](https://www.deepwatercreations.com/SixtyFourPixelColonists/A/8/map_8_cropped_1.gif)
The colonists waste no time sending both scouting drones to go find the biologist. The geologist takes the controls personally. They search for hours with no results. Eventually, the other colonists go to bed.
The geologist stays at the drone console well into the night, palms sweaty, staring at the sensor readout screen without blinking. At some point, the medic shows up with a warm mug of algal-derived stimulants. The pair of them sit together in the cramped cockpit of the landing craft through the night while the drones continue their methodical sweep.
They're interrupted in the middle of a quiet conversation by a sudden dimming of the lights. The console screens flicker out, then cycle back to life. There is a tense moment of waiting before it becomes apparent that the power system is still holding - for now. The medic makes a nervous joke. The geologist doesn't laugh. Power failure at this point would destroy the biologist's last hope of rescue.
Finally, as the colony's artificial day cycle triggers a slow brightening of the ambient lights, one of the drones sends a video feed of a body lying on the ground. The drone is at the periphery of its range, and the image is very shaky, but the body looks to be wearing one of the colony's uniforms. All of a sudden, the picture wavers and turns to static! The geologist, howling with frustration and despair, hammers on the controls with their fists, but the drone is totally unresponsive.
The medic finally calms them down, pointing out that they should send the second drone to the same coordinates. However, when it gets there, the video feed shows no sign of either the body, or the other drone. What could have happened?
![[Image: map_8_cropped_2.gif]](https://www.deepwatercreations.com/SixtyFourPixelColonists/A/8/map_8_cropped_2.gif)
Mio finishes a design for a radar tower. It will take a lot of resources to build, but once it's finished, it will both give the colonists better vision of their immediate surroundings, and help warn them if any smaller asteroids or malfunctioning drop pods show up to cause problems.
The colonists finish diagnosing Tank A's electronics systems. They conclude that nothing is malfunctioning. That means that the records must have been altered deliberately. Unfortunately, all of the colonists have the training to have altered them, and all of the colonists have had plenty of opportunity to do it without being noticed. Everyone is a potential suspect.
Mood: +Suspicious
As for the weird mold, the colonists are divided in their opinions. Some don't see what the big deal is - just clean the stuff off and turn the tank on again already, right? Others, however, put forth the opinion that if there's the slightest chance this mold is an alien organism, then maybe that's worth paying attention to. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing they all came out here for? To make exciting new discoveries? A third group, still irked about the earlier paint generation incident, think whatever this is, Shiva is to blame. In any case, it doesn't cost much to try to analyze the mold, although the colonist with the most expertise in this area has chosen a highly inconvenient time to go missing. Not to mention that the colony still lacks a proper biology lab.
New Project: Analyze Mold (2 Turns)
The archivist, remembering a notion from earlier that they meant to follow up on, starts meditation classes for any interested colonists. Several join. The colonists will be better at staying calm and at focusing from now on.
The attempt to vote on the security officer issue dissolves into a brief debate over the definition of "security officer" that ultimately leads nowhere. It's hard for the colony to coordinate this kind of thing when they don't have any sort of proper meeting area. Maybe they should revisit some earlier proposals to build a central community space?
The archivist wants to confront Shiva, but they're having a tough time cornering the artist. It's not that Shiva is hard to find. On the contrary, the colony is so small that there's nowhere for Shiva to hide. The issue is that they aren't sure they want to make their findings widely known until they've given Shiva a chance to explain themself, so they'd prefer to speak to them in private. But there isn't much privacy to be had among the colony's handful of tiny buildings. Shiva is always in the company of others. The archivist can't figure out a good excuse to get Shiva alone. Or should they go ahead and just spit it out in front of everyone?
Shiva mixes up some algal protein powders and cooks them over a heating element borrowed from some spare environmental shelter equipment into a kind of experimental scramble. Those colonists brave enough to try it declare it to be surprisingly good, and a welcome change of pace from the usual algae patties. The majority of them, however, refuse to touch the stuff until the business with the algae tank is resolved to their satisfaction. Especially since there's a contingent of the colony that remains convinced Shiva is responsible for either the tampering or the mold - even if they can't prove anything.
THE NUMBERS:
Colony Mood:
Suspicious
Construction Drone: ???
Compact Scouting Drone: SEARCHING
Compact Scouting Drone: SEARCHING
Projects:
Design - Radar Tower: Complete!
Diagnose - Algae Tank A: Complete!
Build - ???: 1 Turn
Spoiler
Supplies:
11 Food (-2)
9 Plasticarbon (+5)
600W unused power
The colonists waste no time sending both scouting drones to go find the biologist. The geologist takes the controls personally. They search for hours with no results. Eventually, the other colonists go to bed.
The geologist stays at the drone console well into the night, palms sweaty, staring at the sensor readout screen without blinking. At some point, the medic shows up with a warm mug of algal-derived stimulants. The pair of them sit together in the cramped cockpit of the landing craft through the night while the drones continue their methodical sweep.
They're interrupted in the middle of a quiet conversation by a sudden dimming of the lights. The console screens flicker out, then cycle back to life. There is a tense moment of waiting before it becomes apparent that the power system is still holding - for now. The medic makes a nervous joke. The geologist doesn't laugh. Power failure at this point would destroy the biologist's last hope of rescue.
Finally, as the colony's artificial day cycle triggers a slow brightening of the ambient lights, one of the drones sends a video feed of a body lying on the ground. The drone is at the periphery of its range, and the image is very shaky, but the body looks to be wearing one of the colony's uniforms. All of a sudden, the picture wavers and turns to static! The geologist, howling with frustration and despair, hammers on the controls with their fists, but the drone is totally unresponsive.
The medic finally calms them down, pointing out that they should send the second drone to the same coordinates. However, when it gets there, the video feed shows no sign of either the body, or the other drone. What could have happened?
Mio finishes a design for a radar tower. It will take a lot of resources to build, but once it's finished, it will both give the colonists better vision of their immediate surroundings, and help warn them if any smaller asteroids or malfunctioning drop pods show up to cause problems.
The colonists finish diagnosing Tank A's electronics systems. They conclude that nothing is malfunctioning. That means that the records must have been altered deliberately. Unfortunately, all of the colonists have the training to have altered them, and all of the colonists have had plenty of opportunity to do it without being noticed. Everyone is a potential suspect.
Mood: +Suspicious
As for the weird mold, the colonists are divided in their opinions. Some don't see what the big deal is - just clean the stuff off and turn the tank on again already, right? Others, however, put forth the opinion that if there's the slightest chance this mold is an alien organism, then maybe that's worth paying attention to. Isn't this exactly the sort of thing they all came out here for? To make exciting new discoveries? A third group, still irked about the earlier paint generation incident, think whatever this is, Shiva is to blame. In any case, it doesn't cost much to try to analyze the mold, although the colonist with the most expertise in this area has chosen a highly inconvenient time to go missing. Not to mention that the colony still lacks a proper biology lab.
New Project: Analyze Mold (2 Turns)
The archivist, remembering a notion from earlier that they meant to follow up on, starts meditation classes for any interested colonists. Several join. The colonists will be better at staying calm and at focusing from now on.
The attempt to vote on the security officer issue dissolves into a brief debate over the definition of "security officer" that ultimately leads nowhere. It's hard for the colony to coordinate this kind of thing when they don't have any sort of proper meeting area. Maybe they should revisit some earlier proposals to build a central community space?
The archivist wants to confront Shiva, but they're having a tough time cornering the artist. It's not that Shiva is hard to find. On the contrary, the colony is so small that there's nowhere for Shiva to hide. The issue is that they aren't sure they want to make their findings widely known until they've given Shiva a chance to explain themself, so they'd prefer to speak to them in private. But there isn't much privacy to be had among the colony's handful of tiny buildings. Shiva is always in the company of others. The archivist can't figure out a good excuse to get Shiva alone. Or should they go ahead and just spit it out in front of everyone?
Shiva mixes up some algal protein powders and cooks them over a heating element borrowed from some spare environmental shelter equipment into a kind of experimental scramble. Those colonists brave enough to try it declare it to be surprisingly good, and a welcome change of pace from the usual algae patties. The majority of them, however, refuse to touch the stuff until the business with the algae tank is resolved to their satisfaction. Especially since there's a contingent of the colony that remains convinced Shiva is responsible for either the tampering or the mold - even if they can't prove anything.
THE NUMBERS:
Spoiler
Spoiler