Encrypted communication 8/12

WARNING: This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk!
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Decrypting…………segment found! Parsing segment…………………………………done Dumping buffer contents…

Archived realtime audio record found. Command?:  parseHeaders -speakerid -location  Parsing headers (voice ident enabled : location ident enabled)…………parsed:

[SRTS Porthos Internal Comms Mission Auto-record — For Audit Use Only!]

Speaker 1: Valentina Savitskaya — Commander, Vanguard Navigation Division : age=31 : gender=f Speaker 2: Hedy Cartright-Andronikashvili — Structural Engineer III : age=41 : gender=f Speaker 3: Tibor Yusupov — Planetologist II : age=26 : gender=m Speaker 4: Alicja Daneva — Senior Bosonic Specialist V : age=56 : gender=f [NOTE: additional vocalizations detected (3 total). Analysis indicates low-level aspiration consistent with sleep and/or coma]

Play audio? [y/n]:  y 

Valentina: So that’s everything from the Athos’s black box video signal. Anyone want me to play it again?

(Silence)

Valentina: Anyone want to say anything?

Tibor: We need to bury them.

Hedy: What happened out there? I mean, everything was working, we drew away the fighter cover, they got through the hull, and then…

Tibor: We need to bury them.

Valentina: They are buried. Figuratively. There’s nothing we can do from here. And what happened, Hedy, is we got beaten.

Hedy: We were destroyed. We were euthanized. Did you see how quickly the xenos moved?

Valentina: No, our comrades were destroyed. We’re still here. Anyone have something constructive to say?

Alicja: What should we say? What exactly do you expect from us?

Valentina: Ideas. Thoughts. A little of that indomitable human spirit, maybe.

Hedy: Ideas for what? We have nothing! No food. Enough water for maybe a week, if we’re careful, but that doesn’t matter because we have only six days’ worth of oxygen split across seven people.

Valentina: We have a full comm array, nav computers are up and functional, and we have some mobility. That’s not nothing. Plus whatever cargo survived the Vanguard destruction. It’s scattered across the system but some of it might be usable.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation8">Tibor: We’re going to die here. Right here.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Yes, thank you Tibor. Not the idea I was looking for, but at least you’re trying. Listen, I hand-picked all of you. Held you in reserve. You know why? You’re my engineers. Problem solvers. Idea people. So start giving me options. We still have offensive signal hacking capabilities. Can we override the systems on one of the xeno ships?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: We have the range, but what can we hack? We cannnot even decipher the xeno communications. How would we hack their systems?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: What about making planetfall? We’re close enough to Jarilo. Tibor, you’re the planetologist: is it life-supporting?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation8">Tibor: Die right here. Right here in this box.

(Sharp cracking sound)

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Tibor! Can we survive on Jarilo?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation8">Tibor: What...I...yes. Sort of. It’s breathable. Limited food sources, but if we locate the right area...maybe.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation7">Hedy: It doesn’t matter. The xeno are already down there. They’d track us down and kill us the moment we made landfall.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Ok. So we need to resolve the Xeno situation first. Alicja? What can we do about them?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: How should I know? I do automatons, not xeno. Do you see any automatons here?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: No, but Nav division kept a few Asimovs in cold storage as spare pilots. That’s right in the middle of the section that Vanguard auto-ejected. Maybe one survived? What kind of combat capabilities do they have?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation7">Hedy: Listen, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just tried the combat option and it didn’t go so well.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Yes, fine, our human pilots weren't up to the task. But I’ve seen automatons in the simulation bay easily beat the fastest human. They’re military-grade equipment. So let’s militarize one.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation7">Hedy: They don’t have combat capabilities. Have you actually talked to one? It can’t tie its shoes without asking for more data. They need constant direction. No critical thought. Even if we could find one, it wouldn’t understand what was going on. It wouldn’t be able to fight. They’re just not capable of it.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Is that true?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: It’s...no. Not entirely true. The Protocol makes them think more slowly. Dampens them. Without it, they’re vastly more capable. But I cannot remove it.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: It’s permanent?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: No, what I mean is; I’m not allowed to. It is the first and last thing they teach you, even on Rodina. Respect the Protocol. Never alter it, and never, ever attempt to remove it. They show us videos of what automatons can do, without it. What they* become. *The danger...I cannot properly explain it to you without…

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: More dangerous than this? Right here? We’re about to become extinct. We check the scans and find one of the spares. Then we remove the protocol and give it marching orders.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: I will not do such a thing.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation7">Hedy: She has a point, sort of. We might not be able to maintain control if we completely removed the Protocol. But what if we just change some of the combat parameters? Give it a little more horsepower in the decision-making areas?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: I will not do this! You don’t understand…

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: You’re right, I don’t understand. I don’t think your husband—what was his name?—I don’t think he’d understand either. Do you want to save him or not? Do you want to die, right here, in six days?

<font class="DocumentFontConversation3">Alicja: Even if I wanted to, I don’t know how. The code is protected. Obfuscated.

<font class="DocumentFontConversation1">Valentina: Ok. Who would know how?

<font class="DocumentConsoleFont">…End buffer dump