"We all need to go help him before the Chariot leaves!"
I'm not completely sure what Dr Griffins status is. If he is mobile, she'll gesture for him to head to the hatch and head over there himself. If he isn't, she'll free his legs as quickly as possible and then head over there.
Brass and Ueda, moving together through the back entrance to the Chariot, pass the crew quarters first. You never really had a chance to use them on the short trips you have taken, but there were rooms to sleep in had you needed them. When you pass the rearmost pair of crew quarters, you see Milo sitting on a bunk in the one on the lefthand side of the corridor. By the way his shoulders are heaving, he appears to be weeping silently.
A familiar thrumming sound informs you that whoever is in the pilot's seat has accessed the engines.
I think you've freed Griffin and he has pulled his shorts on. He'll happily follow Vonash and/or Jade towards the Chariot.
As they make their way from the Deepwell ship to the Chariot, they pass Carson's body, whole in his side, his finger still pointing off into the bush in that strange final gesture.
As brass starts to make his way through the cargo hold and into the crew quarters he’s going to speak to the rest of the crew via comma, if you can provide a distraction so they don’t take off, they’ve started the engines.
Brass sees milo and is going to put a hand on his shoulder and whisper to him, “do you want to get back at Moreau?
"Oh, shit!" exclaims Milo surprised to see Brass.
"When I saw catgirl and bearboy get on, I was still in my astrazoan form. I kind of panicked and chose this ape form so as to blend in. It seemed to work. He thinks I was your mascot. I have so many questions. Who are they? What do they want? Do you have a plan?"
they’re from the future, and it seems they want our ship. and with a look of deathly determination brass says, And the plan is to kill them.
"I like that plan. Clear goals," says Milo using his extra long orangutang arms to pull himself off of the bunk and to his feet. Milo shows Brass and Ueda his watch-less hairy wrists "I should warn you though. Moreau took my comm unit so best not to use them at all. He'll probably be listening."
Ueda moves behind Brass without the soldier's discipline, but with all his apparent paranoia and awareness. He checks corners, sweeps sightlines, and keeps his gun in line with his eyes at all times, finger ready to slip into the trigger guard and squeeze. Upon seeing M'ilo, he's ready to speak, but Brass does well enough in that regard. He nods as the orangutang-starfish-man mentions the comms, and raises a finger to his unmoving lips before gesturing for Brass to continue taking the lead.
Jade moves towards the Chariot with Vonash and Dr. Griffin. "Doctor Griffin, do you know what the others - 'Kitty' and 'Ursus' - were before? Kitty seems to know both Doctor Ueda and myself by reputation. It seems unlikely that Kitty is an Android, given the mutations, which suggests a life of science and research before... all this."
Pausing, she looks closer at Griffin, studying him for a moment. "Anything you know could be useful. We are at a disadvantage and need all the help we can get."
Brass makes a grimace when he hears that the ani-people have their comms though it is hard to see under his armor with almost all of his face hidden but his eyes. Can you fight? Because we could use all the help we could get.
Jade moves towards the Chariot with Vonash and Dr. Griffin. "Doctor Griffin, do you know what the others - 'Kitty' and 'Ursus' - were before? Kitty seems to know both Doctor Ueda and myself by reputation. It seems unlikely that Kitty is an Android, given the mutations, which suggests a life of science and research before... all this."
Pausing, she looks closer at Griffin, studying him for a moment. "Anything you know could be useful. We are at a disadvantage and need all the help we can get."
Griffin speaks quickly as ordered, "They were prisoners, like me ... and, also human. Dr. Moreau does medical research, so, he needs prisoners. We're his greatest successes. Deepwell wanted to sell his research to a military contractor but Moreau decided against it. ...And, here we are."
"I'm not actually a doctor," says Griffin as you round the back of the Chariot and find the cargo entrance open. "Moreau thought we could lure some time travellers here with a false distress call and that a research vessel was less suspicious than a ship of genetically altered human prisoners. I didn't expect you to arrive so fast. We'd taken three days worth of supplies to camp out and steal whatever ship landed. You came moments after I transmitted the first call."
Brass makes a grimace when he hears that the ani-people have their comms though it is hard to see under his armor with almost all of his face hidden but his eyes. Can you fight? Because we could use all the help we could get.
In answer, Milo pounds the furry knuckles of one fist into his hairless palm in a "let's do this" kind of gesture.
Ueda moves behind Brass without the soldier's discipline, but with all his apparent paranoia and awareness. He checks corners, sweeps sightlines, and keeps his gun in line with his eyes at all times, finger ready to slip into the trigger guard and squeeze. Upon seeing M'ilo, he's ready to speak, but Brass does well enough in that regard. He nods as the orangutang-starfish-man mentions the comms, and raises a finger to his unmoving lips before gesturing for Brass to continue taking the lead.
As Brass, Ueda, and Milo follow the main corridor to the heart of the Chariot, he sees the bear-like man in boots, weapon drawn. The man's obviously been waiting for you to approach the main door as Brass mentioned planning to do on the comms. A shot goes off over your heads.
Moreau's voice comes over your comm units. "Ursus, does your weapon have a stun setting?
Ursus replies, "No, sir."
Moreau answers, "Good."
"As for your reputations," Griffin adds sheepishly in answer to Jade's other question, "Moreau's lying. You're the original time-cops. When I come from, everyone has heard of you."
Ueda ducks as the first shot is fired, and scrambles to try and find some cover.
As he round the corner brass sees the gun go off and near instantaneously starts to react, his programming kicking in.
Brass dives for cover and raises his rifle taking aim at the half bear.
Vonash rushes into the ship
"Come on, we have to help the others!"
Jade had been fairly taken aback by Griffin's response. Being known for potentially hundreds or thousands of years. "Original" time cops implied there would be more. It was a strange legacy to leave, not the one she'd have expected. She couldn't help but wonder if she was still alive when Griffin was from, what else she'd seen, what else she'd done. Who would she be, then? So many questions that she wanted answers to.
Snapped out of her thoughts by Vonash's urging, she moves quickly inside the ship as the door begins to close. "I would prefer it if we did not have to kill Kitty and Ursus," Jade tells Vonash, drawing her knife all the same. "Much like Griffin, whatever crimes they have committed before, here and now they are victims of Moreau's hubris."
Ueda's eyes lock onto the bear-man, once again flashing orange as his combat tracking activates. The exocortex's voice is that of an old friend, chipper and more amused than annoyed.
I simply need the telemetry. Assess for weak points and probable movements.
Ursus fires a shot at Brass, as Brass was the first one to fire at him.
"We don't want to fight. We want to live. Just let us have this ship." Ursus yells.
Brass stairs the man bear down, you’ll love only if you stop fighting. You will not be taking our ship, under any circumstance
Brass is going to shoot back.
You hear him shout, "Moreau, we're outnumbered. It's useless. Let me in."
You know the ship well enough to know that he's in the final stretch of corridor before the Bridge, which has an airlock door. If Moreau lets him onto the bridge and seals the airlock to the bridge, it's going to be hard to get him out without destroying your own ship. Getting Moreau off the bridge is going to be another challenge no matter what happens to Ursus.
Ueda maintains his position, and keeps his gun trained on Ursus. For a moment, he doesn't fire, watching as the bear-man seeks to retreat--and then he realizes that if he does retreat, it will make their job that much the harder. Which leaves only one choice.
Ursus, on his turn now, retreats to the airlock to the bridge, pounds on it yelling, "Dr. Moreau ... let me in."
"I'm sorry, Ursus, I can't," says Moreau's voice over the ship's intercom, "I recognize this situation is rather grizzly, but please bear with me while I try to figure out another solution."
The ship begins to lift off from the ground.
Vonash rushes up
"Ursus, PLEASE surrender. We don't want to kill you. Dr Moreau is obviously a total jerk and doesn't care about you. Why die for an a%##!#+ like that? When we retake the ship, we will NOT return you to your prison"
if you're willing to allow diplomacy in combat. At any rate, she will NOT fire at him
Ursus hesitates, but then, more desperately, shouts to Moreau again, "Could you paws with the puns and open the door."
"Don't let them take you alive, Ursus," replies Moreau calmly.
Ursus drops his weapon. Orangutang-Milo scrambles forward and scoops it up.
Jade notices the barn owl egg intact in the stasis chamber she had prepared for it. Someone has scrawled "barn owl" in black on the outside of the chamber using a heart instead of the 'o'. It wasn't any of your crew.
She notices backpacks loaded with gear that Moreau and gang must have had on them when they got on the Chariot. Most importantly though, she notices a panel that could be used to override the door lock with an Engineering check to disable device.
Jade frowns at the drawing. Her suspicion was that only Moreau could have identified it by the egg, but he wouldn't have written a heart for the o. Maybe Kitty? But for what purpose? Putting a pin in that for the moment, she turns to the others and puts a finger to her lips. Quietly, she points out the wall panel to Immanuel.
To Vonash, she whispers "Can you get a message to Kitty? Silently? Letting her know that we have not harmed the others and it is not too late to turn on Moreau?" Jade also points out the backpacks, hoping there is something that can be used within them.
Moving towards the door with Brass, she nods to him, hoping he'll be ready for whatever happens next, and draws up her knife. She does not expect Ursus or Griffin to fight with them, and simply gestures for them to stand aside, in case any shooting starts immediately.
"Stand down, Moreau." Jade calls out through the closed door. "No one else has to die today."
Brass stacks up on the door standing straight up waiting for the door to open, his eyes fixed on griffin and ursus as he glares at them through the slit in his helmet.
The hovering ship begins to move slowly. You can't see what direction, but you're on an island, so there's a good chance it is out over the water.
"1947," says Griffin out of the blue, and in the kind of thoughtful tone people don't usually adopt during combat. "That song he said was 'going out to Griffin and all those we're leaving behind' was from 1947 or 48. He was telling me when he's going next."
Vonash will definitely attempt to telepathically contact Kitty
"Kitty, this is Vonash. The female wearing the scanty clothing if you don't recognize the name. Both of your friends, Griffin and Ursa, are alive and well. They have joined forces with us. We have promised them, and I promise you too, that you will NOT be returned to prison.
Please help us stop that madman Dr Moreau. It is obvious that he doesn't care about ANY of you, he only cares about himself. Just open the door for us and stand down. We'll even try and take him alive if that is what you wish.
IF you want to return to what you were, and ONLY if, we'll even try to help you accomplish that.
PLEASE help yourself by helping us. We're MUCH nicer and easier to deal with than Moreau is"
Kitty lets out a little telepathic happy squeal when Vonash introduces herself. "'V'! Don't tell the others, but you were always my favorite!"
She pauses for a while and listens to the rest of what Vonash says, "Moreau said he would take us to Eden and I really want to go there...But, listen, he said he's going to dive into the sea if you don't get out of here. He said with the cargo bay door still open, you will drown first."
Then again, "Okay, now he's saying he's going to shoot up Bar Harbor instead. He's deciding."
"Don't let them take you alive, Ursus," grumbles Ursus quietly in an imitation of Moreau's peculiar accent. "F!@@ you, Moreau." He sits and sulks and looks at his wounds and generally takes up room in the corridor.
Milo takes advantage of this and uses the big bear-man for cover and steadies Ursus' oversized weapon at the door, ready to shoot when/if it opens. Griffin is standing back, not helping but not hindering.
Brass is going to try to get in the door.
Vonash rapidly heads to the cargo bay and pushes the (hopefully) very obvious button to close the doors.
Ueda calmly moves to the door as the others discuss, contemplating the chances of firing through with his rudimentary weapon. Once Jade points out the control panel, however, he once again stows the pistol and begins drawing tools from the roll still jangling on his chest. It takes a moment, during which Brass makes his own attempt, but then Ueda squats down, leans in, and sets to work. His eyes return to their customary blue.
Ueda succeeds.
Vonash reaches the back of the ship and hits the button to shut the cargo bay doors at about the same time the door to the Bridge slides open.
Moreau is flying the ship, sort of. You can see from the main display in front of him that he's angling the ship down towards the water, although not steeply. The ship will contact the ocean soon. Kitty is standing but looks like she's moving to get herself a seat as quickly as possible.
Brass sees the door open steps into the doorway reading to shoot.
Ueda stands and draws his pistol once more, aiming it at Moreau. "Please stand down and relinquish control of the ship to us. This is your only warning."
When Moreau grabs Kitty, she embraces him and allows him to pull her into his arms; Moreau, however, wasn't grabbing Kitty to protect her from the impact. He pulls her onto his seat as he spins his chair to face you. He puts something against her neck. "Stay back! You wouldn't want to endanger your biggest fan, would you?"
Kitty looks shocked, like she only now realizes Moreau doesn't have her best interests at heart.
The device Moreau is holding to Kitty's neck looks like a laser gun, but with an improbably thin, almost needle like barrel.