[ may ii event results ]

[barrayarmods]

Quick links: Team Rosters / RNG results & LP gains
BARRAYAR: Corral Roundup
CETAGANDA: Base Repairs / Lab Notes / Gene Therapy / Undercover

TIMELINE
5/20 Horse escape!
5/22 Bombing of Vorkosigan Vashnoi

No official eavesdropping missions this month, but here are a couple of scenes anyone could have witnessed.

All is more or less quiet aside from the bombing of Vorkosigan Vashnoi on the Cetagandan base and the ongoing tension in the wake of the Barrayaran attack, but on the night of the 20th, Diya is discovered dead. According to Sei, she was attacked and killed by Natasha when Diya had come to see Sei -- for what exact reason, Sei cannot claim to know, but this clearly marks Natasha as a dangerous entity. Natasha flees the base that night in a hijacked groundcar, leaving no one to fast-penta and no witness but Sei and Ba Talim, and -- even though it would be an affront to suggest it -- haut and ba are immune to fast-penta.

However, unbeknownst to Natasha -- until now -- Diya and Sei have been reconditioning her as a sleeper agent for months, ever since they discovered the previous tampering via her very interesting brain scans. However, this certainly wasn't a programming Diya was aware of -- but as soon as Diya posed a threat to Sei's plans, Sei hit that failsafe and had a convenient scapegoat.

corral roundup
Miles Vorkosigan - 21
Lakshmi Bai - 13
Nash Natkje - 2
Benjamin Sisko - 19
Agent Washington - 12
With the magic of teamwork, the outsiders help recover the escaped horses. And by teamwork I mean mostly Sisko and Miles, because everyone else seems to be having difficulty with horses. Nash is probably injured, maybe he got kicked, I don't know, it's bad news.

base repairs
Deanna Troi - 4
Lapis Lazuli - 20
Symmetra - 6
Kaidan Alenko - 19
Vex'ahlia - 18
Thanks to the exotics' help, they're able to complete a lot of manual base repairs in the meantime while they wait for supplies and reinforcements to come in. Vex, Kaidan and Lapis are especially helpful, but Symmetra seems to be having an off day.

lab notes
Natasha, Symmetra, Kaidan and Deanna, as lab assistants, will learn the following about the Star Gate Project:

Despite the power outage in the labs since the Barrayaran attack, Micah has still been hard at work doing whatever they can longhand in the absence of computing power. By the time power is rerouted from the secondary backup generator to some of the undamaged research labs, Micah's made great headway on how to stabilize and strengthen the planetside Niadem field, but they aren't able to complete the final equations until they can finally retrieve data from the satellite launched in April. Thanks to the satellite data, what information the Cetagandan researchers collected in the beginning, Micah's sheer genius and the assistance of the extrauniversals, Micah has, at last, pinpointed a solution that should allow them to track the "shadow trajectory" left behind as a result of the quantum entanglement with the neural net observed in the Niadem field.

With power back online and this research in hand, they're able to finish evaluating the neurological scans taken before, during and after the satellite trip, which show tangible evidence of the Niadem field's effect on the neural net. They come about as close to confirming their hypothesis about neural imprints as they can without testing, but in cooperation with the neurological team, they conclude that a neurological scan should be able to match the extrauniversals' neural imprint to the shadow of it left behind in the wormhole. Along with Micah's modified equations for typical jump prep and sending people through via the Niadem field rather than directly through the wormhole, they have about what they need (and as much as they're going to get working on pure theory) to actually start on the Star Gate itself.

In light of the recent power outage and some internal politics issues, Micah has been granted the use of a jump ship to build the Star Gate into. Micah uses the hard-light mapping device developed by Symmetra and Pearl to come up with a few theoretical designs on how they can double-generate nested Niadem and Necklin fields, concluding that it would take two sets of Necklin rods, meaning it's not just one jump ship the Cetagandans will have to sacrifice, but two. But it's exciting news all around, because it means that as soon as the base gets the necessary physical resources, they can start building the Star Gate – which is good, because by Micah's very rough calculations, they have only a couple of months before the naturally-occurring Niadem field dissipates entirely.

And Micah isn't the only one with concerns about the Cetagandans using this technology to reach into other worlds, whether it be for conquest or more DNA sampling, and they aren't planning on letting the Cetagandans hold onto it once the extrauniversals are safely through. Micah and Symmetra are working on implementing a failsafe in the Star Gate on the down-low.

Informants have also been passing along information to the Barrayarans about Cetagandan activities, including the Star Gate, including the closing time window before the Niadem field no longer becomes viable.

gene therapy
All three existing cases are mostly showing improvement, plus Tarn and Jasper join the ranks of the gene therapy trials.

Pearl's case shows improvement: her skin is now five times as resilient as the average human being's, and as a plus, the neuropathic pain lessens in severity by about half.
Lapis's case doesn't show any forward progress, but she doesn't regress, either. The migraines stay about the same.
Natasha's case shows more progress than it has since the beginning of the trials: her healing factor is now about 25% more efficient than a human in peak conditions, and her blood chemistry stabilizes – she is no longer hemophilic.
Tarn's case is just beginning, but no progress is made on restoring any of the unique properties to his voice. He does not, however, suffer any complications.
Jasper's case shows some promise right away, perhaps because they've been working with the other two Gems for some time: after the first round of trials, testing shows that she is now about 25% stronger than a human in peak conditions, and she suffers no complications.

undercover
Natasha Romanoff
Roll: Maintain cover - FAIL
Despite her careful maneuvering, Natasha was implicated in Byerly's fast-penta interrogation. She manages to blackmail Diya into having her exempted from fast-penta interrogation, but Sei conducts her own interrogation -- one that Natasha will not remember.
Kaidan Alenko
Roll: Maintain cover - SUCCEED
Vex'ahlia
Roll: Maintain cover - SUCCEED

Please comment if you have any questions! NPC starters will go up for each mission top-level with the IC log as usual, and, as always, here are the rolls for this event. All rolls are d20 unless noted otherwise; the skill ratings of 1-4 are converted into modifiers of -1 to 2. The number of people in each group is also added to the total modifier.

EVERYONE GETS +2 LP:
Agent Washington
Benjamin Sisko
Deanna Troi
Kaidan Alenko
Lakshmi Bai
Lapis Lazuli
Nash Natkje
Symmetra
Vex'ahlia