[Taocow PBEM] [Koba] Book 3 - Chapter III - Engine Room

[Aaron Clausen]

> > [GM]
> > ...
> > It's then that Koba, looking over the wreckage, spies what looks like
> > a torn and water-damaged book, shoved up between two coolant lines.
> > He can just make out the writing on the cover...  "Diary of Etta Alma".
> > [/GM]


> [Koba]
> Flipping through the book, Koba will try to see if it is written in a
> language he understands. Maybe it is the log of repairs or at least some
> info on what they got themselves into on this sub. Koba will make his way
> back to the control room and see if any of the information on the ship has
> either symbols or insignia belonging to a kingdom or group anyone would
> recognize.
> [/Koba]

[GM]
The book is written in American, though the dialect and spelling are a little
odd and make it hard at points to sort out the words.  Making it harder
is the dense, cramped writing.  There really isn't time to go through it very
well, but a brief perusal reveals some facts.

- Etta Alma is/was something called a "starship farseeker", apparently
a navigator of some kind on a ship named the TS Pruffian Warlord, though
the use of the letter "f" suggests it's probably TS Prussian Warlord.
- She was apparently born on Mars, specifically the Cassinni-Pasteur
Prefecture of the Arabia Terra province of the Martian Subfederation of the
Terran Federation.  Apparently Elves as well as humans are quite common
on Mars, Earth and the Jovian Subfederation.
- The TS Prussian had been on a mission on to the world Palladion,
to meet in negotiations with a powerful local leader, someone named
Arsendel, said to be considered a powerful "supernatural scientist".
On the way back, Arsendel seized control of the ship, but in the process
damaged the "wormhole drive", killing nearly a hundred crew and propelling
the ship "sideways through co-dimensionality".
- The Earth that the ship found was described as a chaotic post-apocalyptic
world, filled with "supernaturalism" and dominated by "supernatural
scientists."  Arsendel, apparently as frightened as anyone, begged for
peace with the commander of the ship, but was arrested, while a number
of missions to the surface were made, all unsuccessful, with killer
satellites, apparently, destroying or so heavily damaging them that they
crashed into the surface, save for Etta's craft, which managed a landing
somewhere around England, making contact with New Camelot, and
bringing an embassy from King Arr'thu to the ship.
- Arsendel managed to escape, murdered several crew, including the
ship's senior "farseeker", rendering the farseeker "discorporealized".
He forced Etta and three crew to help him, a traitor named Zaelrae
(apparently of half-Palladion Elvish/half Terran Elvish ancestry) to go
to the surface of Earth, taking the New Camelot ambassador with them
as a means to communicate with the locals.
- The landing shuttle was heavily damaged, and crashed in the Atlantic
off the coast of Africa.  The submarine the crew are in was apparently
one of the craft stored in the shuttle.  Unfortunately for Arsendel (and
everyone else), the "discorporealized farseeker" tagged along, and in
a battle with Arsendel, the sub's reactor was heavily damaged.  Arsendel,
injured, feared that Etta and her fellow crew would overpower them, was
about to force them into hibernation.

That's where the diary ends.
[/GM]

> [Koba]
> "Is everyone alright? I heard some scuffling" Koba says with concern. "We
> may need to bring one of the crew out of the hybernation pods. We need a
> real sub mechanic to fix this thing, and they better be good. Even then I
> hope we can even get the thing moving. There is nothing I can really fix in
> the engine room. Anyone find out if any of the people in hibernation are the
> engineer or better yet an 'Etta Alma'?"
> [/Koba]

[Louissa]
Louissa responds, "No names at all.  I think we're going to have to look on
the computers.
[/Louissa]

-- 
Aaron Clausen
mightymartianca at gmail.com