1/3 – Sunrise
A motley group of travellers are gathered at the Fritz 13 Tavern as sunrise approaches, watching the spectacle of auroras on the night side of the Earth, when their attention is drawn to a similar display below them, on the floor of the crater. As the crater was not previously known to have an ionosphere, and is not currently exposed to the sun, former Warbots Lemon Yellow Sun and Colonel Bear set out to investigate, and are thus in the middle of it when a hurricane of dust springs up; A research lab on the other side of the crater asks for some assistance in getting the hell out of there, so the Bots set out through the storm to rescue Dr. Theo & her assistants.
Up in Fritz 13, some patrons are taking the strange activity as a sign to flee, some as a sign to head for the capacious cellars, and some as a call to have another drink and settle in for the show.
As the Bots approach the lab, seismic activity indicates something moving in the swirling dust, ECM systems suggest that it’s really noisy from an electrical point of view, and from the glass & iron vault that makes up the heart of the tavern, Captain Allison Boshoff spots an enormous machine moments before it takes off the front of a lab module with a single swipe of a digging arm, silencing the distress call from inside.
[Interior of a lab fitted into a cave, the walls strung with pipes and cables, with computer equipment, screens, cabinets, and work benches strewn haphazardly around the space. WORKER sits on a stool, hunched over and peering at an electro-mechanical device through an illuminated magnifying lens on an adjustable stand, delicately manipulating something inside it with a pair of glass probes. READER reclines in an office chair at an angle which would be incredibly uncomfortable under 1G, feet on the desk, reading aloud from a technical manual]
READER (continuing): and from the second, parts in a proportion of …
[There is a loud pinging, and READER rocks ever further back to peer at a screen behind them]
WORKER (jumping and losing grip on one of the probes): Shit!
[WORKER extracts the probe from inside the mechanism & stands up. READER rolls off the chair, stands, and approaches the screen]
WORKER: What’s up?
READER (slowly): I’m not sure. [Taps at the screen] There has been a burst of EM noise, and apparently it is something there is a programmed alert for.
[WORKER moves up to stand beside READER]
WORKER: How old’s the alert? [Taps screen & looks surprised at the information box displayed] Oh, that can’t be right.
[READER points to something else in the info box and raises an eyebrow]
READER: Do you think we should disturb him? [Pauses to look at WORKER] I’m happy to do so, but, …
WORKER (thinking): It’s just one signal. I’d be inclined to let him sleep.
READER (nodding): We can keep an eye on it for now, see whether we can get a better location.
[WORKER nods agreement, and they go back to staring at the screen]
In the wake of the lab depressurizing, it is determined that someone has headed out across the crater floor, someone else has gone for the crater wall, and that a third person is still in the lab.
Lemon Yellow Sun distracts the machine by the novel approach of shooting at it, while Col. Bear enters the lab wreckage to locate the survivor. Meanwhile Capt. Boshoff commandeers a lander and takes off to render assistance, relinquishing the controls back to it’s owner mid-flight to enable a high-speed jetpack-assisted rescue of a climbing lab assistant before they tear their suit open in their haste to escape, followed by the rescue of a second lab assistant, who has been making good time across the crater floor in an inflatable survival bubble. As that rescue is concluded, and the monstrous machine seems to decide that Lemon Yellow Sun is a threat & moves to attack, Col. Bear extracts Dr. Theo & sends her on her way in a rover, while he heads for the robot digging contraption, which is chasing Lemon across the crater.
With Lemon Yellow Sun leading it across the smooth, dusty crater floor, and Dr. Theo safely on a trail leading up towards Fritz 13, Col. Bear climbs onto the digging machine’s back, and is joined by Capt. Boshoff.
[Cave-Lab Interior. WORKER and READER are still looking at the screen, and jump when an alarm gives a rapid series of toots. They lean in and look at the information box, which has turned red]
WORKER & READER: Fuuuuuuck.
Lemon Yellow Sun finds the task of keeping ahead of the digging machine more challenging when it dispenses with walking, and instead drops to it’s treads and charges.
Col. Bear & Capt. Boshoff force their way inside the machine, discovering that it’s a combination digger & refinery, starting with iron and working down to something the Colonel cannot identify, that it’s unmanned, and is controlled by an elaborate electromechanical system of punch-card readers; By disabling and interrupting internal systems, they’re able to disrupt the digger to the point that Lemon Yellow Sun is able to lure it into a precarious position, tipping it onto it’s back. This position does not suit the machine, which begins to collapse thanks to the stresses caused by malfunctioning systems which were never designed to run upside-down.
Having escaped in the nick of time, the trio stand on the crater floor as parts of the machine burn or melt, and examine the punch-cards & canisters of the unidentified fine powder from the far end of the refining process, watching it softly fluoresce.
[Cave-Lab Interior. The lab is empty, and the screen is now flashing a red “SIGNAL LOST” message. There is the sound of running feet]
READER (from out of shot, growing fainter): Yes, I am sure! Wake. Him. Up.