Erik's fingers are quick to find the right combination of settings and shortcuts to confuse the lock, in under thirty seconds the door quivers, then rises up in to the roof, revealing a second cargo bay.
The stench of rotten meat washes over you.
The room is similar to the one you woke in, however the red emergency lighting reflects from dozens of broken cryopods, all irreparably damaged and piled against one wall. There are also haphazardly stacked crates along the opposite wall, marked 'CONSUMABLES', 'HYDRO' and 'MATERIALS'. Some are cracked open but others look untouched.
The airlock door opposite you seems to have something blocking the viewport, you can't see inside it.
Konrad hefts his magma-wrench and moves forward into the bay;
"Let me take point. Da?"
- his movements are well rehearsed and fluid, as he surveys the area:
:
Konrad hefts his magma-wrench and moves forward into the bay;
"Let me take point. Da?"
- his movements are well rehearsed and fluid, as he surveys the area:
Erik wrinkled his nose at the stench of rotting meat.
He follows closely behind hoping to find out more information about their predicament or obtain resources.
"Any of you have a gun I could borrow? I have a feeling we'll be needing one soon."
Konrad pauses and shoots back a grin to Erik;
"Min apologies Komrade. I forgot to pack min Mauser-Rostec Kombat Schottgun in this outfit!"
|
As soon as Daniel kisses her hand, Clara starts seeing red. She pulls her arm away. She grabs his shoulder to brace him for a punch in the gut. As she readies the punch, the doors open and she freezes when the sent reaches her nostrils.
She backs down and peers into the room. "Oh no..." She follows behind Erik, surveying the room.
Konrad pauses and shoots back a grin to Erik;
"Min apologies Komrade. I forgot to pack min Mauser-Rostec Kombat Schottgun in this outfit!"
Erik replied, "Oh no, not a shotgun. Those things have a hell of kick to them..."
He then realized that the heavily-accented man was joking, "Ah good one. Sure, go ahead and take advantage of a man in a desperate situation. How many times have you been stranded in the middle of space?"
--------------
Konrad flashes a hard smile, as he moves forward;
"First time vor me. Vhat about you?"
The smell gets worse the nearer you get to the cryopods, and the floor is sticky with fluid. It doesn't take much guessing to realise these pods ran out of power without waking their occupants.
Odd though, there are supposed to be safeguards in place to prevent that, pods store enough emergency power to do a 'quick defrost' if they are taken off the grid. Either they are all faulty or they were tampered with to stop the occupants from ever waking up...
You are closer to the airlock door now, but there seems to be something smeared all over the window from the airlock's side, and you can't see in.
Erik was past holding his breath and just pinched his nose, "I'm not sure I want anything that's in here anyways."
He looked at the others, "Take a quick look around if you want and then we can leave and I can shut the door. There are other places that we can investigate."
------------
Konrad nods toward the few untouched crates that Clara is investigating;
"Dah. Ve shud chek if zhere is anything of use. Hydro zuggests vater at der least?"
The lean soldier moves to assist Clara, scanning amongst the other crates with a methodical set;
:
Daniel flinches at the almost gut-shot and looks up injured, but says nothing. As the group begins to go into the smelly room he holds back. "You guys got this. I'mma look in my pod for anything left."
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Daniel checks over the cryo pod he was found in, but it's state is similar to the others, the built-in locker has been removed by a powered tool of some kind and there is nothing of value left in the pod.
Clara picks over the crates, but finds mostly empty ration wrappers and water containers. Konrad finds a handful of k-bars and water pouches that are unused, hidden under an upturned crate. He also spots a utility belt with a flashlight and radio holstered in the pouches...
As he reaches forward, something moves in the shadows...
...sniffing and turning its head to and fro, a humanoid shape lurches towards you from where the pile of bodies is. The poor light doesn't allow you to get much of look, but his hair is matted and he is covered in grime. Long strips of ripped cryosuits hang from his body. He stops and regards you, whispering constantly under his breath
Trapped, been trapped, been long, long, time is long, long trap...
Erik was happy about finding the radio and the flashlight, at least it was something.
As he moved to grab the gear, he saw the...
He backed up not really getting a good look at it. Near the door, he asked, "Are you OK there?"
Konrad stands poised as the raggedy man slinks from the shadows.
Remember your training Korpsmann! Schould kommunication fail - engage und neutralize...
As the others hail him, the soldat breaths deep and hefts the magma wrench; ready to react if needbe...
Disorientation, frothing at the mouth and loss of balance are all symptoms of 'Freeze Fever', an uncommon but known potential side-effect of being defrosted too quickly. The man's brain won't be functioning properly, he could curl in to a ball, run off somewhere or even be aggressive, experiences vary... he's not looking very friendly...
He ignores your attempts to communicate
...meat, eat, eat, meat...bar, water, water, scar... pretty scars...
he starts to laugh, then starts to advance on Konrad, holding a something metallic and cylindrical in his hand...
Closing the distance to Konrad and staring at him all the while, the man lashes out with his metal pole.
Ha...ha...ha...
His face now more visible out of the shadows, you can see his eyes stream with blood.
As the madman strikes with his pole, Konrad reacts in kind with a counter swing w/ the wrench;
"Niet!"
:
:
Erik did not sign for this, not at all.
He stayed away from the man trying to give his wrench-wielding companion a chance to knock this... thing out.
He saw the thing get ready to swing at Konrad...
"Watch out for the pole, friend!"
---------------
Seeing the man attack his potential ally, Daniel considers closing the door to the room to protect himself. As he moves sneakily towars the controls he sees Clara and has a different thought. Taking cover behind the pod-coffins, Daniel sneaks around behind the crazy man.
Konrad's blow results in a sickening crack of something inside the man's chest breaking, but still he keeps coming.
Despite his intense focus on Konrad, Clara's unarmed attack misses, and Daniel is unable to find a favorable path through the detritus on the floor so can't maneuver in a way to sneak up on the madman.
The man swings the pole at Konrad again, but Erik's shout seems to distract him and the weapon misses the Eugenetikorpsmann.
As blood begins to seep from his own headwound, the soldat's adrenal conditioning kicks in;
"Mutter of der Stars!"
He brings the wrench to bear in a vicious strike;
:
:
:
:
Konrad's blow is well aimed, smashing in to the man's shoulder with a sickening crunch, he drops like a stone and lies on the floor unmoving, chest moving irregularly. It doesn't take a doctor to realise he isn't going to be conscious any time soon.
Daniel walks up proudly from where he was. "Well done team! We did good!" he says as he pats Konrad on the shoulder.
Clara rolls her eyes at Daniel and looks at the unconscious man.
"Any of you guys want this pipe?"
She looks over the crazed man to see if he has anything else useful, then continues to grab the water and bars from the crates.
Erik congratulates konrad, "Good hit, man! And I'm glad you listened because that pole would have knocked you out."
He considered Clara's offer, "Sure, I'll take something. Either the pole or the wrench, whatever Konrad here doesn't want."
"Did you find anything useful?"
-----------
Konrad smiles, then winces as he checks his own wound.
The soldat offers the Magma Wrench to Erik;
"Here. You are more skilled vis zhis Da? I vil take der pole."
He takes the fallen man's pole, then nods back toward the cache he found earlier;
"Ve shud take zhem too. Food, wasser und instruments..."
There is nothing to find on the man's body aside from the torn cryosuit he was wearing, though now you look closer, it's several suits, maybe more than a dozen, a number to match the haphazardly piled pods scattered around.
Erik searches around the room, but even picking through the pile of pods and in the corners, it seems to already been well scoured and the only items of note have already been seen in the crate.
You get the impression that the man has been locked in here on his own for a while, perhaps he woke up and couldn't get the door open.
These pods too have had their cargo sections removed.
"Yes!" Daniel says taking a step closer to Clara. "Beautiful Clara here has a phenomenal point. Onward!" Daniel exclaims pointing in a random direction and a little bit up.
The only way open now appears to be the corridor leading south...
You venture forward, with the newly discovered flashlight leading the way. There are bits of debris scattered around the floor, and ducting hanging down from the ceiling, liquids pooling on the sides. The ship seems poorly maintained, or has just been through a significant firefight, perhaps both.
After a few dozens meters lit only by the stark white light of the flashlight, the next pressure door looms large in your view, with two smaller side doors at east and west. The smaller doors are access ways barely large enough to squeeze through, and are marked 'power distribution 3' and 'power distribution 4'. The large door is marked 'botanical'.
It's not unusual for larger ships to have a section with plants in, both for a change of pace during long flights and for the additional oxygen they supply as this makes it easier on the CO2 scrubbers.
All three doors have access panels, the access doors are in lock mode, botanical is unlocked.
Erik looked at the door for signs of entry.
"I guess this is the only easy way to continue to investigate. Who knows? We may find something to eat in here. Not that I mind the energy bars."
He looked at this his companions, hefted his wrench, "Ready to go in?"
"Give me one sec," Daniel requests as he goes to each of the access panels. At each access panel he attempts to find a history of accesses and whatever else is available.
Daniel pulls up a blank list on all three terminals. There's no fault with his skills, it's just that the link back to the core computer, where all the info is stored, is unavailable. Daniel does recall that the panels still hold local memory of approve/deny lists, so they can authenticate and grant access even during a power event. He scrutinises the access matrix and sees that Botanical is free access, and the power distribution doors require engineer level access, usually granted by either biometrics or a keycard.
Konrad finishes strapping on the utility belt, packing it with ration bars and water pouches where possible.
He hefts his pole, then eyes his companions;
"Vhat is der prognosiz? Kan you access der komputing zyztem?"
" Nothing useful. Let us go."
Erik waited patiently by the entrance to the 'garden', "Yeah, let's look in here first. We can always go back and check out the side entrances later."
"Do any of you have knowledge of the ship layout or other info that may help us?"
Clara is aware that on larger ships there is a need for multiple power distribution hubs to control the energy usage of various systems. You'd expect a hauler like this one to have 6 to 8, so by the numbers, that puts you about halfway along the central spine of the ship.
As the door control to botanical is thumbed, bright white light stings your eyes as the door slides up in to the roof cavity. Inside there is a large hexagonal room with trough upon trough of shrubs and other leafy plants standing up.
You are aware that this room will have several under and over sub-levels to house the room's environment controls. There will be water reservoirs under the floor and a sophisticated air circulation system.
There is a door at the back marked 'ENGINE ROOM', a small office pod sits hunched against one wall (nothing more than a lean to with a chair and a dead, powerless screen). There is a body propped up in the office chair, with a handheld terminal clutched in its death grip. The handheld terminal is blinking between 'run again' and 'clear'.
Konrad moves into the room, eyes scanning for potential threats;
:
He pauses for a second then with a shrug bids the others follow.
Erik is cautious as he enters the room. He looks around for anything edible.
"There should be water reservoirs here."
"Comrade, this vvay." He catches himself mimicking the man's accent but continues, "Here through the door."
He then enters the door in the back and looks at the dead body trying to determine what he was trying to do.
-----------------
It looks very much like the control panel is hooked in to the environmental systems in this room. It is also readily apparent that the corpse suffered multiple bullet wounds, highly likely the cause of death, though there is a sizeable pool of blood underneath, so there may have been some time between being shot and passing away.
The corpse is beginning to stiffen and the blood is congealed, you'd say it's been dead 6 or so hours.
The plants in the room seem to shiver, moving in an odd way as if there was a breeze.