Logging #BESM to 'logs\#BESM.Aniverse.log'
The_Guild	A ha.
Lopez	ha A.
The_Guild	Got it. Okay.
Lopez	Cool
The_Guild	Ready?
Lopez	Sure. It may take me a few sessions to nail down Lopez' personality but that's what this for.
The_Guild	That's fine. ... For several months now you'd been hunting the ingenious mass murderer cultist Roger "The Void Priest" Adenhyal, and now you were closing in on him. After eluding your grasp in the original raid on his stronghold, you'd been chasing him from planet to planet, doggedly pursuing him like any good Star Marshall would. And finally, here on Idein VI, a rocky little planet in the far reaches of Outer Arm, your ship sets down next to Adenhyal's...
Lopez	How lifeless is this Rock? any major settlements?
The_Guild	His final retreat is a far cry from the Cathedralesque Palace City that had been his original stronghold. In fact, from what you remember the only thing this planet is known for was that, back about a hundred years ago, a few deposits of Velanium were mined from it's core. Now, though, only abandoned mining catapults spike up out of the otherwise lifeless landscape. It seems that Adenhyal's taken refuge in the deeper recesses of this planet.
Lopez	?
The_Guild	[Mining catapults are like oversized rail guns that fire mined ore into orbit for pickup by passing Collections Ships.]
Lopez	[*nod* it just looked like your sentance cut off there]
The_Guild	[Where did it cut off?] ...deeper recesses of this planet.
Lopez	Atmosphere?
The_Guild	Minimal. With your breathing apparatus you can go out without protection.
Lopez	Ok. I secure my Ship then head out
The_Guild	Tracks in the dusty ground lead straight toward the nearest mining spike. The largely ceremonial chain and padlock on the gate has been hacked away with the typical markings of a molecular blade the same type that the Void Priest is known to use. After his wily-ness in all these months, this hasty entry into a supposed dead end seems much sloppier than his usually ingenious work...
Lopez	Hmm..anything comming up on Radar or Thermal?
The_Guild	But the tracks are legitimate, and dust inside shows his path clearly leading first to the power station (which is up and running), and then to the elevator shaft (where the elevator is waiting for you.) Nope.
Lopez converts Mutil-weapon to Rifle format
The_Guild	The power station hasn't been on very long, it's still showing ragged thermals.
Lopez	*nod* and not enough air to do a Chemo-visual Analysis right?
The_Guild	Nope.
Lopez heads for the power station
The_Guild	I'll show you the layout on the whiteboard. The door's lock has been shorted out, and the power station is running. It's a pretty standard setup, with the reactor core sunk into a deep shaft in the center of the room, from which the familiar violet radiation of Velanium is visible as it whistles quietly. A quick look at the control panel shows that, lights and atmospherics have been restored to the mine.
Lopez	ok now a Chemo-Visual Sweep
The_Guild	He had entered here, spent some time at the control panel, and then left again.
Lopez	Which way?
The_Guild	The way you came in. The footprints outside had led to the elevator down into the mine.
Lopez	ahhh Ok...head out and inspect the elevator
The_Guild	The elevator is open and waiting it's next descent into the mine. The dust which has piled up in the corners and layered the floor is disturbed. It looks like Adenhyal was pacing from the looks of it.
Lopez	He's worried Good
Lopez smiles grimly
Lopez	does the Elevator looked trapped or anything? Give it an X-ray sweep to make sure
The_Guild	No trace of any traps or sabotages... except the control panel has been cut up so that all but one of the buttons has been destroyed. Unless you want to spend several hours repairing the panel, you have to go to the very bottom of the mine.
Lopez	They do say that all Serial Murderers want to be caught...I'll indulge him
Lopez gets into the elevator and presses teh button
The_Guild	The doors slowly grind shut and the elevator begins it's descent into the earth. Because the mine is so deep it travels with stomach churning speed, but it still takes you two minutes to reach the bottom. You're VERY deep underground. The doors grind open, revealing an antechamber with several tunnels running off in different directions. In the past this would have been a mess hall or rest area... Now, the tables and chairs are tipped over or broken, and everything is covered in a layer of the grey sooty dust.
Lopez	Open Radar to Internal HUD and check with Chemo-visuals to see if Tracks and Scent follow then same route
The_Guild	As you are encased in rock, your radar is only good at very short range, and isn't much better than line of sight at the moment. Chemo-visual and tracks agree, he's gone down the tunnel to your left.
Lopez	*nod*
Lopez Shoulders Gun and starts to head down Leftmost tunnel
The_Guild	You travel down the tunnel for a while, turning a few corners and following the trail unerringly past different branches until you finally reach what looks to be an old storeroom. Piles of equipment and refuse litter this room - mining equipment, rotted foodstores, repair parts. The trail leads through this room and out through another tunnel.
Lopez	X-ray.
The_Guild	There is A LOT of stuff in the room. What are you looking for?
Lopez	Body...and traps
The_Guild	Bodies, no. Traps, no. The room seems clean.
Lopez	Ok I head into the room
The_Guild	As you near the center of the room, the lights go off.
Lopez	Thermal
The_Guild	No change.
Lopez	Light Enhance
The_Guild	Far down the tunnel behind you, you hear a grinding noise, and then a whine that quickly quiets to nothing.
Lopez	track still go ahead of me?
The_Guild	Yup.
Lopez	keep following them
The_Guild	You switch on your flashlight, and keep going. The tracks follow a long loop through the mines. You follow them unerringly. Eventually they come to the staging area for the Catapult, Circling around the massive cannon and disappearing behind it.
Lopez	has my hearing picked up on anything?
The_Guild	Not since the grinding noise and the faded whine.
Lopez	I move cautiously around the catapult barrel
The_Guild	The trail leads to another elevator, this one closed. It's on the far side of the cavern.
Lopez	how long ago was he here?
The_Guild	Half an hour to an hour ago.
Lopez	Ok...I head over to the Elevator do my checks for traps etc. then if all clear head down
The_Guild	The elevator is closed, and the only way left to go would be up, since you're already at the bottom of the mine.
Lopez	Ok I go up then
The_Guild	The elevator is closed.
Lopez	closed how?
The_Guild	The doors are closed. You can't get on until the doors open, or you open the doors. There is a button, if you'd like to press it.
Lopez	Ok I open the doors then see if I can ride the elevator up
Lopez pushes the button
The_Guild	The button doesn't work. When you open the doors (which would have been impossible for a regular human, but is only mildly annoying for you), the elevator... isn't there. It's probably on one of the upper levels of the mine, or even on the surface. At any rate, it's not here to be ridden up. ?
Lopez	Ok is there a call button on the lift? or am I going to have to do this the hard way So i guess I'll ahve to climb up ?
The_Guild	Luckily, the ladder has not been sabotaged in any way. However, it's a long, long climb. Every level you pass is blacked out, the power has obviously been turned off again, and the fact that your atmospheric compensators switch on seems to indicate the same.
Lopez	Ok..well continue on.
The_Guild	And continue, and continue... climbing at a steady rate, it still takes several hours before you reach the underside of the elevator.
Lopez	Ok now what whould be the easiest way to get through this...tear though the bottom?\
The_Guild	To simplify, you cut through the floor, force the doors, and you are once again standing on the planet's surface, on the opposite side of the mining complex. The trail picks up here, but the tracks are mostly brushed away by the wind, and chemo-visual is similarly faint.
Lopez	Pick up the pace..and follow
The_Guild	The trail loops around the complex, back toward the ships. You see a column of smoke rising into the sky over the buildings of the mining complex shortly before you round the corner to see that your ship is now nothing but a smoking hole in the ground. Oddly though, Adenhyal's ship is still sitting there. Tracks lead to the ship's airlock.
Lopez	I head up to the ship...and I've had no discernable reaction to my ship beign destoryed [Yay CCW for ppicking up the tab on that one] Can I get i get into his airlock?
The_Guild	The airlock allows you entry without question, another curiosity. The ship is in sleep state, the quiet whistle of the Velanium reactor barely audible. For the ship of such a capably brilliant madman with a preponderance toward glitz, glamor and gaudiness, it's a pretty spartan setup.
Lopez	Hmmm any movement or anything on sensors? ?
The_Guild	There is someone to the rear of the ship, in the common room. Chemo-visual is overwhelmingly Adenhyal, obviously. The common room is behind a closed door at the end of the hall.
Lopez	Ok I Kick in the door...gun already leveled at Adenhyal
The_Guild	The door crumples inward and smashes against the opposite wall, levelling the table in the center of the room. But... It's not Adenhyal.
Lopez	"who are you..Where is Adenhyal?"
The_Guild	Sitting calmly with a deck of cards in his hands, poised to play another card onto whatever game he'd been playing until it'd been swept away by the door. He looks up at you with mild amusement. "Quite an entrance you have there, Marshall Gordon. The greeting could use a little more umph, but we can work on that."
Lopez	Level my Gun at him "where is Adenhyal?"
The_Guild	"He has been remanded into the custody of The Regency Guild Offices. Thank you for your hard work, Marshall, it would have taken us so much longer if you hadn't been on the case."
Lopez	[Have i heard of the Regency? ]
The_Guild	[The Regency is a multi-star nation in one of the other galaxies. You've heard of The Guild before, they're a trading and research corporation who deal on fairly equal terms with all races and nations.]
Lopez	I see...I will have to contact my Government over this..plase reamain where you are...i pull out a QE-Comm {Quantum Eentaglement Communications device} and hail my supervisor
The_Guild	[Most planets with high populations have a Guild Office. They do a lot of import/export shipping, and commodities trading, research funding, stuff like that.]
Lopez	[I see so their well know]
The_Guild	[Yup. Businessmen, keeping the wheels greased in good times and bad.]
Lopez	[ok]
The_Guild	The man sits and waits patiently, shuffling absently while he waits for you to make your call. You connect to your supervisor. KZzzsht! "Lopez, you'd better have good news for me."
Lopez	Sir...do you know anything about Adenhyal being remanded to the custody of the Regency Guild?
The_Guild	"Remanded? No, haven't heard about that. They have a bounty out for his capture though. Why, what have you heard?"
Lopez	I have a Mr?
The_Guild	"Clairune."
Lopez	A mr. Clairune here I'm presently inside Adenhyal's ship and there is no Disernable physical Trace of him. even though the Chemo-visuals say otherwise. and they say they have him in custody.
The_Guild	[Adenhyal has been living in this ship for several months, chemo-visual would be useless to pinpoint where he is on the ship.] "Really? Hold on for two 'secs, I'll contact the Guild Office in Regency and confirm that." KZzzsht! Mr. Clairune raises an eyebrow of inquiry, the cards flickering absently in his fingers. "Well?"
Lopez	please wait
The_Guild	"Are you happy in your job, Mr. Lopez? It seems like you've reached the top, the pinnacle of your profession, and yet here you are on some godforsaken rock in the middle of nowhere, holding a gun on a businessman because he happened to get here before you." "It seems to me that your abilities are ill-used." "You could accomplish so much more, and yet, they give you a job that should rightfully be done by a whole contingent. How fair is that? If Adenhyal had succeeded in leaving you here on the planet, how would you have felt, having to call for a ride home?"
Lopez	Its happened And the Fact that they give me a job worthy of a whole contingent is high praise...I'm as powerful as a whole infantry contigent
The_Guild	"I would think that you should take a little pride in what you do, find honor in your chosen field. And yet... you're a tracker. A bloodhound. A dog. For all the advancements you're given, it's just brought you that much closer to being an animal." Do you want to know the truth, Mr. Lopez?
Lopez raises the "your treding on dangerous ground here" eyebrow
Lopez	What Truth would that be...the one thing this job has taught me is that the truth is variable it changes from conrty to county Planet to Planet Galaxy to Galaxy Species to Species So what is your truth?
The_Guild	"That's true. But none of those are the big picture. In the big picture, you are a cog out of place, no matter what truth you try to fit yourself into from moment to moment."
Lopez	We're all Cogs some are just bigger than others
The_Guild	"A cog out of place will eventually foul up the machine in which it moves."
Lopez	What are you trying to say?
The_Guild	"I am saying that I would like to offer you a job more suited to your abilities."
Lopez	and you realise I'm a bonded Deputy of the CCW.
The_Guild	"Your government has a population of what? Two, three trillion? How many of those are unemployed? And yet, here you are, with billions of dollars worth of equipment inside you, doing the job of a thousand men."
Lopez	Yes
The_Guild	"A thousand people who can't feed their families because of the money put into you. A thousand people who can't work to make that money because you do all the work yourself."
Lopez	And?
The_Guild	"And?" "You spend your life protecting these people." "How can you simply 'And?' them out of consideration?"
Lopez	yes And. are those thousand people suited to do what I do...can they ever? as for me protecting them its my Job its what I volounteered to do...take the economics up with the government. I'm just doing what is right.
The_Guild	The man smiles. "Of course. What is right. I've chosen the wrong tack. Let me start over, but first, let me tell you about Roger Adenhyal, the Void Priest."
Lopez	and If you want to take up people suffering and starving go talk to teh Emperor of the Transgalatic Emipre...they conquor and Crush with no consideration for the Billions of other Sentients they harm.
The_Guild	KZzzzsht! "Lopez, the Regency Guild Offices have confirmed this Mr. Clairune's report, they have Adenhyal in custody. It's out of our hands for now."
Lopez	Roger that...I'll get back to you.
The_Guild	"We'll let you know what your next assignment is in a few days. Take a break." KZzzsht!
Lopez	Now please continue.
The_Guild	The man stands and stretches, setting his cards on his chair and going over to inspect the table, which is demolished. "First, I would request that you acquiese to a mind wipe if, after what I tell you, you do not agree to work for us. Just of this conversation, nothing else."
Lopez	Fair enough.
Lopez converts Gun back to Blade and sheathes it, then takes a seat.
The_Guild	With a nod, Mr. Clairune continues. "Roger Adenhyal built a cult around the figure of destruction, Void. He is mad, yes, but he is also brilliant. The Guild knew long before he became popular that he would be a problem. We've run across his kind before."
Lopez nods
The_Guild	"I don't mean mad and brilliant, though of course there are many of them. Void worshippers, however, are not a new occurence, though it is the first time it has ever happened here in this Realm." The word 'realm' seems to register oddly to your ears, and the translator AI in your head babbles out a bunch of gibberish, trying to translate it into something else. "The Guild asserts, and I am sure it is being confirmed right now, that Roger Adenhyal is a channel for a far darker force, trying to gain a foothold in this Realm," again, the squaggling interpretation, "and if it weren't for you, it would have succeeded. Had that happened, Chaos would have ensued."
Lopez	your starting to loose me
The_Guild	The man smiles slightly. "I'm not surprised. It's a difficult subject to be introduced to. I will dive right into it, then. This universe, consisting of it's planets and stars and galaxies, is part of a larger, all-encompassing multiverse. This dimension is but one of an uncounted number of dimensions. In most cases, travel between dimensions is restricted.... "In the case of Roger Adenhyal, however, he became a gateway, a passage for this darker force, this... Void to enter this dimension." The man moves toward the kitchen facilities. "Coffee?"
Lopez	Multiple Dimensions...You've got to be kidding me...I Mean I know its theoretically possible....and some of teh experimental Engimes deal with phased FLT. envelpoing the ship in its own psudo-reality to get past the Relativistic barrier...but other Universes..well its not too crazy i guess in response to Coffee..."I don't Drink" So Adnehyal is from another reality?
The_Guild	"Fair enough." Mr. Clairune pours his own coffee and returns, sitting across the absent table from you. "We don't know yet, this is the first time we've been able to get close to him. There is a chance he is from another reality, but it is more likely that his mental instability made him more susceptible to the subtle machinations of the Void. When a being is born into a reality... It generally rejects anything not associated with that reality.
Lopez	So normal people don't hear voices from beyond..sort of deal?
The_Guild	"Precisely."
Lopez	and Adenhyal was suffencentlly abnormal?
The_Guild	"Even if they try to, the average person cannot see, hear or otherwise sense something that is not already native to their dimension."
Lopez	unless they are immersed into that other Dimension?
The_Guild	"Something in Adenhyal made him susceptible to those influences. Most times these chinks in a dimension's armor go unexploited, but occasionally they are taken advantage of. And when they are, the entire dimension is put at risk." "Not even then, sometimes. It is a lengthy process to realign oneself with a new dimension."
Lopez	how lengthy?
The_Guild	"Entering a new dimension can be likened to a dream world. Things are difficult to focus on, you gain strange new powers or disabilities, illogical things make sense, and you find that trying to apply your own will on the scene casts you out of it, back to the waking world." "It depends on the ability of the person, the similarities of the dimensions, and whether or not they have help."
Lopez	Ok i guess I won't know till I ever try...so what is it you want from me...to become a transdimensional Star Mashall as opposed to a Transgalactic One...not too much of a strech...just one more step up the ladder really
The_Guild	"The rules are a bit different, but yes, I suppose that, essentially, is what we are offering."
Lopez	Interesting...and you'll buy out the Security Contract from the CCW [Star Marshall's oddly enough Hail from one planetary Collective The Magellan Republic they're Bonded Deputies in the CCW. the CCW actually fowns on extreme bionic Conversion]
The_Guild	"Of course." He sips his coffee, dark eyes watching you patiently. You are suddenly struck by the disparity in your appearances - you, the bionic star marshall, gun, dust, grime from your recent climb; he the businessman in a well-tailored midnight blue suit, black tie, white shirt, black hair slickly gelled.
Lopez	So how does this work now?
The_Guild	"Have you anyone or anything back home to which you'd like to say goodbye?"
Lopez	Not really they all died of old age a while ago...and I obviously don't have any children. [Bionic Conversion one way to have a long life :) ]
The_Guild	"Then we will take Adenhyal's ship up and dock with our frigate in orbit. We'll brief you on the way to the Guild Office in Regency, and you'll transport to Shar Torin from there." [You've never heard of Shar Torin before.]
Lopez	Right. As long as this is done legally. I have no problem...this may just be what i've been looking for
The_Guild	"You'd be surprised what a multi-dimensional research combine can do legally." The man grins, and heads out toward the bridge... It happens like he says, Adenhyal's ship lifting off and docking several minutes later in orbit with the Guild Frigate. You are given a small room and time to clean up, given fresh clothes, food, and anything else you need.
Lopez looks around changes then just sits and absorbs it all