Flatfoot watches his companions move forward through the swirling snow. He has no training in this, so his role would solely be backup.
He hunkers down and prepares to support them.
Drifter glances down the long, dark hallway and sees only a rather non-descript puffcrete building, like a million others across Known Space. Nothing particularly threatening there, beyond the darkness.
Drifter motions to the others and then heads into the building taking the lead and sticking to the left side of the wall as they move in as quietly as possible.
The hallway runs about half the length of the low building, with offices and other rooms opening onto either side at regular intervals. The power is out and looks to have been out for a century. You clear the rooms with trained efficiency and arrive at the end of the hallway. There is a stout durasteel door at the end with a conspicuous notice that reads "Property of Her Imperial Majesty's Government. Authorized Personnel Only. Deadly force authorized beyond this point."
Flatfoot continues to cover his companions, moving closer when they enter the building.
Drifter approaches the door and then checks for any mechanical traps or signs that lethal force was an automatic response.
While Drifter checks the door, Mascot reads the sign and smirks. "You see that. We're allowed to use deadly force on anything beyond this door." he whispers.
Drifter examines the door and finds it locked shut. The lock is of good manufacture, a type sometimes used in bank vaults that shuts down when not powered. He can't see any signs of automatic weapons, at least not on this side of the door.
Planting a Breaching Charge: Average (8+) Explosives check (1D x 10 seconds, EDU). The damage from the explosive is multiplied by the Effect.
Mascot examines the area around the door for any controls or access panels. He's looking for any type of manual release in the event of a power outage.
Flatfoot continues to watch the drifting snow, occasionally casting a glance towards the doorway where his companions are working.
Yes, Mechanics could get it open, but it would require a few hours.
Mascot examines the area around the door for any controls or access panels. He's looking for any type of manual release in the event of a power outage.
Finding it is relatively easy, and Mascot does find the emergency backup. It's a six-point mechanical lock.
Drifter decides to try and open it nicely before using his explosives.
"Wait, you're trying to avoid blowing something up?" He shakes his head and covers the doorway with his rifle, ready in case Drifter manages to open it.
"Something interesting is beyond these doors. If we want to just destroy it then we should get in our ship and drop an asteroid on it. That would be safer." Drifter says as he works on the door.
A few hours later, Drifter is no closer to getting through that lock.
Drifter shakes his head and sets the charge. Once the bomb is planted Drifter motions to everyone to get out of the building and sets off the charge.
The charge detonates, neatly severing a man-sized rectangle next to the vault door with a loud rip, followed by the thud of the all falling inward.
Inside is a small chamber with a panoramic clear plasteel wall looking out into a much larger chamber. That larger chamber holds machinery, computers and laboratory equipment, all dormant and all connected to four large vaults or tanks. Inside of each lies a human corpse in a fetal position. Two other corpses in lab coats lie inside the lab.
On the wall of the larger chamber is the Imperial Sunburst emblem and a holo of the Empress Margaret (who was one of seven pretenders to the throne during the Final War and who controlled most of the surrounding sectors of space a hundred years ago.) Another large emblem proclaims "Project Hermes" and shows a slender running man wearing winged sandals.
There is a door between the Observation chamber and the Test chamber.
As you enter the observation chamber, you feel a curious sensation, like a shiver down your spine, and all communications with Sandman and Resolution cease. All four of you hear the warbling tones of the song again.
"I'll be remembering you
Whatever else I do"
"Midnight with the stars and you."
Drifter begins looking for what is producing the music.
Drifter, you don't see anything. Perhaps some sort of hidden speaker? Or a resonant panel?
All your suit systems are nominal, including comms, yet you have no communications with Resolution.
"Doctor? Is this Lexol?" The sound is behind you, and you turn to see that the breach in the wall is gone. Indeed, the whole wall is gone and the laboratory is somehow there, now. Only it isn't ruined and the figures in the tanks are young women with synaptic leads running to points around their heads. One is out of her tank and standing in front of you. She's smartly dressed in a jumpsuit with a "Hermes" logo. Small marks on her forehead show where synaptic leads would connect.
"Did we succeed?"
"Sandman, sandman, do you copy? Sandman, if you can hear us, we have lost contact again. Boost your jamming signal by 500%." Mascot glances around at his team.
"I'm beginning to get the idea that something happened here and that we're watching events unfold. Some sort of psychic imprint. I would say let's just watch, except that it put us in danger before."
"I think we should play along. Just try and not walk anywhere." Drifter looks at the woman and says, "Yes, give me a mission status."
Flatfoot remains still, waiting for the woman to respond. He looks around the chamber, unsure whether he is seeing reality or a dream.
She looks at Drifter. "We're here, aren't we? We made it. It worked!"
Spider meets the woman's gaze "The results certainly look promising. Let's call it a qualified success - there is still work to be done. What's the status of our subjects?"
She looks confused. "Ummm? Okay, I guess? I feel really, really tired."
Spider, you notice the name on her jumpsuit: "Vasander, E."
Just then she looks pale and says "I don't feel so good..." she sways and starts to fall, but then as you reach for her, she just fades away. The room swiftly returns to its former appearance, revealing the lab with its four tanks and four corpses. The name plates on each are dusty, but one clearly reads "Vasander, E.".
Mascot blinks as the vision disappears. He walks over to the tanks. "They died here. Something happened." He looks down at the corpses in the lab coats. "It had to be sudden or the doctors would have run, right?" He bends down, trying to look at the corpse of the doctor without touching it.
"What are the visions, ghosts?" He looks around for any equipment that might be powering the signal.
[b]"Not a ghost. I am guessing its some recorded memory with some tech to send the message straight into your mind. It could be some research project that died with the old order." Drifter says as he walks towards another one of the tanks and rubs at the plate to see what other names he can discover.
Drifter, only two of the other name plates are readable when you clean them off: "Ellendale, Y" and "Samiibukun, E.".
An old Imperial computer terminal stands in the lab, powered down, but apparently undamaged. Perhaps some information might be had there.
Mascot, you can't tell what killed the doctor, now a mere skeleton, but you don't see any signs of gross trauma - broken bones or bullet or laser burns to the uniform. Looking around it occurs to you that this place is a bit of a fortress. They might have starved or something if locked in.
Drifter will walk over to the computer and try to access the logs.
Mascot searches for any manuals or documentation for the equipment or the procedures they were conducting.
Mascot, the lab and observing chamber are at one of the building behind the vault door. There are plenty of other rooms in the building. But manuals aren't stored on paper any more, or at least they weren't before the fall of the Imperium. Any manuals would be on that computer or on the world's now-defunct internet. Get the computer started and you may find what you want.
There are two smaller hand-held tablets in the observing chamber. They may be easier to bring online with a simple power-up. They may be infected by Virus, but they're not attached to anything, so if they are infected they can't harm you. All your personal gear is hardened against Virus.
Spider looks around to see if he can scrounge up the wires and connectors he needs to put together a connector to charge the tablets off of our equipment. "It felt like more than a recorded memory - the woman reacted to us, answered our questions. An experimental method to digitize human consciousness?"
"You are better with these things than I am," says Flatfoot.
"Did you want me to fetch anything from the ship? Or are we staying together in case we hallucinate again?"
Oh. Sure. He can do that.
In about half an hour, Spider has jury-rigged a power source to the computer tablet. It takes some time powering up, but the Imperials built to last, and a holographic image of the Project Hermes logo appears. "Greetings," the computer says in a pleasant female voice. "Biometric Analysis failed. Password please?"
Spider finds a more or less comfortable spot and gets to work circumventing the pad's security.
"While I work on cracking the security layer on this thing, let's see if there is anything in here that can either help us get the refinery running, or shed any light on what is going on with the visions we're seeing."
"Should I continue to keep watch? Or, is there something else that I can do to help out?," asks Flatfoot.
"I will go make contact with the ship. Someone come with me, though, in case there are hallucinations," says Flatfoot.
Once someone joins him, Flatfoot goes outside and tries to raise the ship.
"Sandman, this is Flatfoot with a status check. We managed to get inside the building and Spider is working on some electronic records. It will be a while, but someone will continue to check in at least every two hours."
"Do you have any news for us?"
'I'll go with you. Drifter, stay here with Spider." Mascot walks with Flatfoot back outside. He looks around the building for any other signs of activity while Flatfoot tries to raise the ship.
"We lost you as soon as you entered that building, Flatfoot," says Sandman. "We're glad you're alright. None of us want to have to execute Spider's order to leave you behind."
"Yes, we would not like that either," replies Flatfoot. "Sandman, have you been monitoring communications or signals from this base? Or from elsewhere on the planet or the system?"
Mascot relays what they know to Sandman. "Sandman, it appears this facility may have been used for biological or medical experiments. What we're seeing seems to be some sort of psychic impression or imprint left behind. We're not sure if it's trying to convey a message or if it might not be aware of what's happened to it."
"We're still trying to figure out the power source for the signal. Any further analysis on it?"