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Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 8, Subectors 6, 7, & 8

Star Log Sec8 Sub6

Exit, pursued by a bear.

Or, in our case, a very large armada of very small ships.  Not tiny, the way that that one planet still stands in the mind, but one- or two-person ships, from the looks of things, all with impressive armament.  

It is not so much like being nibbled to death by ducks as it is stabbed by a thousand toddlers, which, admittedly, is not any better.

We made it out of the sector and halfway to the next sector before they stopped chasing us.  Now we’re looking for a place to make repairs.

Sending rec to HQ that they quarantine  Subsector 5 and all connected subs.


Star Log Sec8 Sub7

If a bear shits in the woods…

…it has definitely shit on this planet.

I thought the weapons-test planet in Sector 8-5 was bad enough. Now we’ve found what we’re betting is 8-6-1’s dump planet.

There are little robots skittering around, sorting trash and moving it into processing facilities.  There are dump ships that land here – we’ve seen one so far.

Oh, ffs. Trem has found indigenous sentient life living amongst the trash dumps.

Do the 8-6-1 sentients even KNOW?  Are they dumping on another civilization – or the ruins of their own?

I want out of here.


Star Log Sec8 Sub8

We moved quickly out of Sector 8-7 — maybe not quickly enough.  We were followed by one small ship right up to the edge of this planet’s space — where the ship immediately turned around and zoomed back towards Sector 6.

This planet is just as inhabited as 8-6-1, but far cleaner.

“Too clean,” Oina joked, but it might not be a joke.

Their broadcasts are very, very tidy.  I might not understand the language but I understand the feeling.  Their planet is very bright, pristine.

I got us out of there before they decided we needed cleaning.

 

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 8, Subectors 4 & 5

Star Log Sec8 Sub4-1

After a long trip between subsectors with nothing but gas giants and tiny dead worlds, we came upon a plush world.

Not lush, plush.  This world is covered with a long coating of plants that look like fur.  They move in undulating waves from one section to the other such that it looks like a round, breathing animal with a watery belt.

This fluffy world is inhabited by equally fluffy creatures and beings, from round things like a mouse to tool-using being with two skinny upper limbs that bounce or roll from place to place.


Star Log Sec8 Sub4-2

That was the closest call we have had in a log time.

We did only cursory readings on this planet; it’s a lifeless rock with a very thin N2 atmosphere.

But as we were ready to leave, another ship – not one of ours – came swooping down on the planet, did a quick round of attacks, and left.

And again.

And again.

The fourth ship – possibly the fourth visit of the same ship – decided to attack US, too, while we were attempting to hail them.  We got out of there just in time.

Suggest this sector may be too dangerous for settlement.


Star Log Sec8 Sub5

I think we’ve found the source of the bombers from 8-4-2.

We are cloaked using the prototype Paetherel technology we picked up just before this run.  We are running on radio silence and, just to be careful, actual silence. The ship sounds like a graveyard, but better sound that way than be that way.

This planet is terrifying.  It is composed, as far as we can tell, of 3 major factions and at least a dozen smaller ones, and they are all attacking each other – both on-planet and on orbiting space stations and satellite habitats.

We are not sending a greeting.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 8, Subector T

Star Log Sec8 Sub3-1

Lizard people.

We had begun to think that they were a scifi trope without any merit when we found this planet.

Actual lizard people.

Not bipeds, but they have a culture & technology, tools & electronics and, possibly most importantly, radio. And television! Or visual-spectrum broadcast, at least.

We sent them a greeting message.

They are the most brilliantly-colored lizards I have ever seen!


Star Log Sec8 Sub3-2

Not that far from the lizard-people planet, we found a gas giant, mostly Hydrogen atmosphere, swirling with massive storms.

One of the two moons, a very wet planetoid with dense bioluminescent forests, held sentient but not high-tech inhabitants – octopods – who had giant telescopes pointing at the planet.

Avoiding detection by those scopes became a dance of navigation. Kept our pilots on their toes!


Star Log Sec8 Sub3-3

I would call this planet small were it not for the ridiculous tiny planet that we found earlier.

It orbits in the path of at least three asteroid belts, but around its beautiful meadows and forests – the view even from space is gorgeous – are rolling, dome-like buildings filled with – well, with Yeti.

These tall humanoids have developed cybernetics but not radio or other broadcast media that we can detect, nor space travel.

We sent a greeting probe.  I wish we could explore their buildings.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 8, Subector 2

Star Log Sec8 Sub2-1

This planet is incredibly pastoral-seeming for one which appears to be on the cusp of space flight.

We could not locate its factories at first, because they were all under a thick mound of dirt and foliage.  We could not find its population centers for a similar reason – trees, which a further probe discovered were actually artificial constructs  – reach up taller than their highest skyscrapers.

There are pockets of more standard-looking industrialization across the planet, but those seem stuck in the steam era.

We picked the prettiest city and sent down a greeting probe.


Star Log Sec8 Sub2-2

This planet, at first, looked like a giant monoculture, almost one plant over the whole thing.

“This,” Erki said, “is what happens when you let morning glories go unchecked.”

I never did find out what Erki has against morning glories: Lerin found life.

Life in small nests, each under a slightly to much taller plant with a broad flower. Each nest had twenty to five hundred beings, and they seemed to communicate along root-ways.

We found radio signals and underground structures, but each being seems connected to the flower, and all the flowers seem attached.

Morning glories, indeed.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 26

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 26

From space, this place looks like a glitter-filled lava lamp, the sort of thing you see only in college dorms.

It’s crazy.  The clouds are filled with some sort of metallic shine that reflects sunlight; looking past the cloud cover, the land and water, the plants and even the mountains are, too.

Readings suggest no sentient habitation and a breathable atmosphere, and so we found a place where the plant life looked the least shiny and sent down a team.

I hope it’s not gold.  It’s too pretty to be mined and picked over. On the other hand…


Star Log Sec7 Sub26

The impression given by this planet is that it never achieved space flight, despite being more heavily industrialized than any planet I have ever seen.  Perhaps they do not care.

The media we see of the denizens indicates that they are descended from burrowers, not tree-climbers, and, indeed, although they have built up, they have also dug down quite far.

It’s an ugly planet, but the media of the subsurface looks beautiful.  I almost wish I could go down, instead of just sending a probe.


Star Log Sec7 Sub26

I had to physically stop Steb from going down to the surface, nineteen protocols or no.

“They don’t REALLY look like animal-people,” I tried, but Steb was unconvinced.

“Ears!  Tails! Bipeds! FUR!”

I had visions of Steb trying to pet someone and starting an interstellar incident.

Steb aside, the planet is post-Industrial but pre-space, filled with lovely people, with wide semi-inhabited places and very few city-like structures.

 

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-25-2

Our habitat landers are designed to fit in to natural environments.

Here, the thing looks as out of place as I would at a Founders’ Ball. It needs more square edges.

In one week here, we have found three edible-to-human plants, although one of them requires processing twice – once with an alkaline plant which grows near it in most circumstances, and then again with heat – to not give horrible gas.

We have also found animals.  Square animals. Square, fluffy, adorable, taller-than-humans animals.

This place cannot be for real.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 25

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 25-1

It had been so long since we saw a technologically-advanced planet that we were momentarily stupefied.

This planet is perfect for humanoid habitation – large oceans, medium-sized continents, ideal atmosphere.

And to the south, it looks like it is only populated by machines, big ground-sweeping agra’bots.

To the north, though, huge, dense, sky-scraping cities crowd what looks to be a rocky, inhospitable continent, and north of that is a sinking mass of industrialization.

I applaud their specialization, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in it.

We sent down a greeting probe.  I’m sure they’ll have something to talk to us about. Continue reading

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-9-1

Planetary Day 393

Summer here is a riot of color, most of it pink (but there’s some purple).

We’ve managed to domesticate or at least sort of tame several of the pink-yaks and a litter of the Red Cats. Because of the yaks — they make a really nice yarn, if you’re okay with everything being pink — we found two more edible plants, one of them a starchy root that has to be boiled but is surprisingly tasty, and one a spinach-like leaf plant.

Torvi is developing pink-screening glasses.  

Tootplanet 7-24-5: Another Viewpoint

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 24-5 – Another View

Salek and Elkel saw the Strange Beings come down from the sky.

They spent four hours tucked in the boll of a tree arguing if they were the Malevolent Wings or the Beneficent Wings or, because they showed no literal wings on their bodies, if they were not Wings at all but some other creature.

Elkel bounced into their magical shield.

 

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 24

Star log Sec.7 Sub.24-1

From a distance, all you can see is the rings. The planet is impossible to land on, but we managed to get one probe through the mess.

It found ruins on ruins and in the middle, a society of child-looking humanoids.

I don’t know if rescue is even possible, but we got a message pod through, and, based on discrete sampling by our probe, an aid packet.

Where are the adults? What can we do for these kids?

Continue reading