"Pilot Ontozz, if you can secure the scaffolding we can check the doors"
He waits and follows Karma up.
The swath this thing cut has the away team standing in open ground and the XO seems to be getting nervous. He idly pulls spare rounds from his Bandoleer to refill his auto-pistol magazine, and scans the horizon.
Molly takes a look at Karma and Eivo. "You want me to take point, you gimme a shout. That pantsuit you're wearing ain't the best at takin' a hit.", she grins, patting her own heavy armour. "I'm pretty sure I'd have to open the doors anyway.", she chuckles, following up the stairs.
Relieved at their success, Ellion hostered his pistol. Let's not have any surprises like that any time soon!
The imposing facility loomed before them, entry points observed and noted. "If you're up to it, Miss Bakir. I'd only ask you mind the collateral damage on any demolition; we don't know the potentially delicate nature of what's inside."
Molly opens her mouth at Ellion, then grins loudly, bursting out in a suspiciously vulgar laugh. "Oh. Sure.", she says a moment later, still giggling. "Gotcha.", she nods. Well, it's a damn relief not to be the oldest in a team.
"Let's check if there's nothin' we can do to sweet-talk the door before I have to... expansively persuade it.", she shrugs, following Karma to the door's console. "Or, you know. It could just be unlocked." Pushing the open button, Molly raises her laser rifle at the door.
HP 74/74, SP 99/110, RP 12/12
Aphelion cannon 20 charges
"Yessir". Karma effortlessly leads the way up the ladder and upon reaching the top swings her cannon around to look for trouble, before waiting for the others to catch up. With a fierce laugh, she dismisses Molly's motion to lead. "It's not what you wear, but it's how you wear it. This 'pantsuit' has saved my life. And my precious" she runs a hand along her primed cannon, "is capable of opening any door." To prove a point, she raises it against the door, then lowers it without firing. She shrugs, steps back, and gestures at the door allowing the engineer to push buttons. "But, doc's got a point. All yours. Enjoy." She smiles innocently through her helmet.
Turning to Eivo, Karma remarks "Engineers", and snickers.
Zeni listens to the exchange between her crew, but at least initially, stays quiet, being one of the more scientifically inclined and running some of the numbers in her head. Cost of lost productivity, of getting the transport vehicle out here for the tow...and curiosity at what they might find within.
Before they go inside, she'll pause for a few moments, drawing on her inborn psychic ability in the hopes of giving them a heads up on what might lie ahead -- she's making the effort to detect thoughts.
Karma was an adrenaline junkie to be sure, but Ellion understood becoming attached to particular objects, attributing a bond between it and its owner. However, he didn't understand it so much with mass-produced items. Isn't there another gun just like hers somewhere?
His ancient formula book only remained due to preservative abjurations throughout the centuries, but it was the only constant thing in his life. I couldn't replace it though. Sure, I might be able to rewrite some of the entries, but the spill of wine on the page about panacea and tear on the corner of the entry regarding thistle evoke memories of their own that would be lost...
He gazed at her "pantsuit", wondering if she sometimes recalled memories in a similar fashion when stimulated by the garb itself - and if she would know if it were replaced by another copy. We're like children with their animal toys, I suppose. We all have our superstitions.
"Should've tried it on the cargo doors then, hon. Save me a helluva lot of trouble.", Molly raises a challenging eyebrow back as she leans towards the door's console. Grunting, the door refuses to open, as she quietly begins muttering. "I'd take a goblin before I take a damn Novatech designer...", she begins grunting before popping the door's console open and delving into the wires and crystals. "Not a damn word."
Karma narrows her eyes and concentrates on a comeback. Molly certainly has a sharp tongue. "Those weren't doors. More like walls." She snorts, and turns to stare at the horizon. Absentmindedly, she flicks the gun's status readout and checks it. Raising an eyebrow at how little fuel is left, she continues "And a waste of battery. I fired half a tank into that robot." Running a hand over the cannon, she fiddles with the safety, and then turns back to the door, not saying a word as per her instructions. Gotta start counting shots. That was too many.
The detect thoughts power doesn't catch anything within its radius as Molly wrenches the door open with a storm of curses. The floor beyond appears to be a sorting room of sorts. Automated belts and measuring units able to look at individual pieces of crystal to sort them into their appropriate places. The machines are still now save for blinking standby lights. The room is not filled with breathable atmosphere as most of the process is automatic and requires little in the way of manual labor.
Above is a scaffolding network that connects the pressurized cots, communications room, and main control office. As well as the main chutes for taking in raw crystal. Below you should be the cutting machines and refined crystal sorting rooms. you spot a central lift that should take you down to those.
Tank?, Molly's eyebrow raises. "You better scoop some more electricity into it. There's bound to be an electricity hose around here. How many gallons of electricity d'ya need, hon?", she quips in an adversarial tone. Maybe a bit much. But. Massive electricity murderghost., she thinks to herself, setting towards the lift. "It should be workin'. Why didn't we ask the miners for access codes?", she ponders for a moment as she reaches to control the lift. "Would've saved me a helluva lot of hassle.", she comments as she pulls up her HUD, quietly attempts to connect to the sorting machine's console. "Place is too quiet."
"No idea. I only understand metric units." She quips back with a wry grin. Who'd have thought the criminal disliked slang? Karma examines the room, looking for trouble. She picks up a piece of crystal and holds it up to through it, before spinning and tossing it at Ellion. "Catch." He can science that all he likes. Moving swiftly throughout the room, Karma continues her sweep, investigating all the nooks and crannies for potential threats. That sorted, she turns to the captain for orders. In a voice that implies a suggested course of action, she inquires "Command centre, sirs?"
"I'll meet you there Pilot Eivo pulls a grapnel and line from his Null-space chamber and tosses it over to attach to the scaffolding near the control office and swings over the rail climbing hand over hand to the top. a huge smile on his face.
Molly grins back. "Hah. I remember when we had to learn both the Vesk and the Galactic standard units...", she shakes her head. "You don't know how good you have it, nowadays.", she shakes a metal finger, before calling the elevator. "Ready.", she indicatees that she'd ready to protect the other Captain and Ellion if there's something unfriendly in the elevator.
As Karma prepares for launch and Eivo begins to scale the walls ala Adam West Molly pushes the button for the lift which rumbles and comes down a a fair pace.
Karma taps a button on her uniform sleeve, and begins digging around in the portal it creates. "They ain't gotten better. Spent a month in the middle of nowhere 'cuz command switched coordinate systems without telling us" She extracts a length of cable, which she loops over her shoulder. "Military bureaucracy is bad, lemme tell ya." She heaves an oversized machine gun out of the null space, and finds her grappler hiding beneath it. "There you are." Quickly and efficiently, she slings the machine gun back into the portal and seals it. She grins wickedly, and throws her grappler and cable after Eivo. The rope affixed, she races after Eivo enjoying the competition.
Zeni is perfectly content to wait for the lift, though she watches it a touch warily. It seems she's inclined to agree with Molly's assessment about the quiet. She continues scanning for signs of intelligence on the station for as long as she's able, turning as needed to encompass all directions -- it'll mean she's moving slightly slower, but that's a small price to pay for potential early warning.
The lift comes down as Karma and Eivo get roughly two thirds of the way up. Climbing aboard the lift goes up and is about halfway up when it stops at the scaffolding. Karma and Eivo arrive just a moment before the lift comes to a stop.
The upper scaffolding seems to mostly give you a better view of the working machines below. To the left of the lift are the pressurized cots suspended in a web of cables and pipes. Behind them is a much larger structure attached to the actual hull of the refinery that is likely the common area or some other bigger living area. The main control office and comms control are off to the left in a bressureized room attached to the hull and overlooking most of the stuff below. Blinking lights and the low hum of electricity at work indicates that everything is functioning just not turned on.
"That was bracing." Karma heads towards what appears to be the common room, leading the way with her gun. She jerks her head towards the control centre, clearly indicating a suggested plan of action. "Moll, see if ya can get the logs. I'll look for signs of struggle." Without waiting for a response, she plunges into the common area scanning for any obvious sign of upheaval, quick abandonment, carnage, or killer robots. After all, she's always on the lookout for killer robots.
Going towards the common area Karma sees that the individual cots are either habitable or not. Perhaps to help spare resources when not in use. A light above the door indicates whether or not they are occupied. Of the 10 cots one is lit.
Peering through the porthole in the cots thick plasteel door Karma notices a bulky figure slumped against the wall sitting in one of the cots two small beds. Its suit looks damaged and one gloved hand is across its stomach where there's a noticeable patch of brown dried blood. It's helmet is off and its large triangular draconic head is lulled back and to the side unconscious.
Molly sighs, looking around for a security or operator's console. Bound to be one here. Maaybe even a working one., she sighs, shouldering her rifle as she takes heavy footsteps into the room. "Place has seen better days, I wager.", she lets out a grim chuckle. "And I don't see it seein' 'em anymore." Is there a point of looting some dust miners' lockers?, she ponders, still looking for evidence as to what happened here.
"Allow me a moment Chief."
Eivo closes his eyes and reaches out to see if he can find any minds that are not those of his team.
Zeni, meanwhile, moves to investigate the injured or dead crewman. She's not an expert in medicine, but she knows enough to be of use. She's going to see if there's anything she can do to help, or failing that, determine the cause of death. That said, she does approach cautiously.
Karma wipes the filthy plastic with a gloved hand, straining to peer through it's murky depths. "Hey guys? I got somethin" she calmly utters into the comms. Then the blood catches her eye, and she hurriedly begins to engage the airlock to enter the pressurized cot. Continuing her calm facade, her voice crackles over the radio. "Doc? Got a casualty"
No thoughts are being detected while the captain takes a look at the fallen humanoid through the cots door window. Without opening the lock and potentially killing him she can see that he's alive though unconscious. It's possible he may have fallen unconscious from blood loss or some other cause.
Molly passes by the main control room. The door is unlocked and a quick look inside sees no real danger from anything within and perfectly normal functioning machinery.
"Well, s&%#.", mutters Molly a moment later. Lootin's one thing, but maraudin's... a bit much. ++Gotcha. Take care of the duster, I'm 'bout to shove my hand right into the brain o' this beastie.++, she relays, shouldering her laser rifle.
Giving a long glance at the door, she slowly begins making her way into the room. Huh. Seen worse., she sighs, as she steps quietly towards the main console. Her metal arm held forwards, she smiles. Been a while since I could make a thing that big move., she thinks to herself as she attempts to find the start key. Though, if I start this thing, Sparky out there's bound to see us. Or not.
{b]"Hmm"[/b] Karma grunts, stepping back to grant Zeni access. She mentally flicks through her gear list for something appropriate, but comes up with nothing. Out of other options, she starts banging on the door. "Hey! Wake up!" She yells uselessly into the comms.
"Is there any survival gear in here? Or does anyone have a tent in their pack? If so, we might be able to rig up an environmentally sealed space that we could use to safely get through the door," Zeni suggests.
"I have a tent, I would also guess there is a store of rescue gear somewhere in the refinery."
Eivo re-opens his NSC and produces the "Mobile hotelier". he then begins to look for some emergency gear.
Searching around the cots open up both into the work area and into a common area where meals and other general care things can be dealt with.
As people start to look for a way to get to the draconic humanoid the whole structure shakes and surprises you as molly turns the whole structure on. As machines rumble and conveyor belts start to turn on some immediately give out alarms and halt their motion. A computerized voice comes on in the control center where Molly is.
"Warning: Ore loader not present. Switching off non-essential functions. Please insert full loader in order to utilize this system.
Getting back to trying to rescue the draconic humanoid Eivo discovers the common area can easily be pressurized and the cot accessed from there.
The common area itself looks like it had seen some activity recently. Cold caffeinated drinks and half eaten meals are strewn about a table. Eivo finds a rescue kit including an environmental protection stretcher and other necessary tools for removing someone from a pressurized area. Which seems may not be necessary at least for now. Among other things on the maintable covered by the food are printed maps of the area around the refinery as well as electrical diagram and blue prints for the refinerys comm array.
"Not sure that's necessary sirs." Karma stalks into the common room, and gestures to be followed. While waiting, she examines the food. "Coffee. Molly'd love this." She picks up an electrical diagram and pretends to study it momentarily, before tossing it down again. "If everyone's ready, we pressurize this room"
+Not sure if I should've, but I did.+", Molly's voice carries over the comms in a second. +I think I can jig-along the conveyor, if we felt like it. Or we need a rapid escape down a small chute.+", she relays. +You find anything?+