As T'sorkel brings them in closer to the saucer's wreckage, Rar'gul rises from the turret's gunnery station and makes his way down to the bridge.
The trox leans through the door way and surveys those gathered on the bridge. "Lookks likke everryone's herre," he observes in his deep rumble, nodding. "When do we head across?" he asks, already adjusting various straps and checking seals on his armour.
He nods his agreement with Beau's suggestion. "I was going to suggest the same thing," he says. "I can help ancchor the line."
"I've got about 50 feet of ccable. That's prrrobably getting ccloserr to that wrrreckk than would be safe. Breez, anything more suitable on board?"
Making a close-in pass of the saucer ship, it appears that the upper deck will be the logical place to make entry. It likely had an airlock, which was blown apart by Rar'gul's laser blast.
Now there is a gaping hole where it used to be.
T'sorkel closes the seals on his suit and makes sure to activate his magnetic boots as John reminded him. He takes several deep breaths to calm himself and smells the slight metallic odor of the suit's recycled air. He looks down to where the twins are normally secured, but he has decided to leave them in the cabin. No reason to subject their case to vacuum and with the ship disabled, the threat on board the Steward ship seemed minimal now. Still, it was like having a phantom limb; he thought he could feel the case pressing against him.
As they open the airlock, he cranes his neck out to look at the offending ship. Maybe we'll finally get some answers. He can't help but look off into the void of space even though, he's heard that's exactly not the thing you should do. He refocuses on the ship and waits for someone to head over and attach the tether.
The seals of his armour activated, Rar'gul makes his way to the edge of the open airlock, engaging his mag boots. Stopping beside T'sorkel, he joins the shirren in inspecting the remains of the saucer.
"You rready to get some answerrrs?" he asks, grabbing the secured end of the tether and wrapping it around a forearm as he waits to guide the volunteer.
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Lilly consciously slows down as she seals her armor, taking extra care with the connections and settings. After double-checking her suit, she huddles with John and Breez to discuss the approach.
“If you want to tie the line to me, I’m fine free-floating over and anchoring it for everyone else.” She looks to John. “Or we can go together. What do you think?”
Breez comes into the airlock with some sort of apparatus. She points it toward the derelict saucer ship and pulls some sort of trigger.
A long tether fires, with the end attaching itself to the saucer near where you going to make your way in.
When his turn to cross over to the saucer arrives, Rar'gul fastens his hammer into place across his back. Then, eyes firmly on the destination, he begins to slowly
himself across hand-ovet-hand.
Rar'gul, Beauregard, and Dr. Flint-Bridge all make it over safely, though for a moment it was touch and go for Beauregard.
Your current position on the upper deck makes it easy to see that there was a major hull breach here, and most of the starship systems here are offline. There is no gravity, so furniture and debris float nearby.
T'sorkel watches the others traverse the gap along the tether. He takes a deep breath, trying to avoid looking out into the dark void, and launches himself along it.
Whether due to nervousness, or perhaps shaky line, T'sorkel misjudges what it takes to pull himself across to the saucer and is now floating in space between the Voidcrier and the saucer.
John is behind T'sorkel getting ready to step out of the Voidcrier. The rest of you are on the saucer.
Rar'gul gasps, pointing out the predicament for the others, as T'sorkel loses his hold on the tether and begins drifting away from the safety of the line.
"Someone help me with this!" he rumbles, dropping to a knee and fishing a coiled cable from his pack. "We need to move quickkly!
The shirren suddenly gets tangled up in the tether, losing much of his momentum and before he knows it, he's just drifting between the two vessels. He scrambles, panicking for a moment. Then he turns to find the fire extinguisher in his backpack. He tries to activate it to shoot him towards the saucer.
T'sorkel activates the fire extinguisher and for the first couple of second, he is spinning out of control. But the Shirren manages to direct the nozzle away from the saucer and begins moving towards it, albeit still in an erratic path and spinning. Ahhhh! I'm getting there!
T'sorkel somehow has the wherewithal to find his fire extinguisher. One blast changes his inertia, and soon he finds himself being helped onto the saucer.
John soon follows.
The areas the five of you currently occupy include an airlock and some sort of...conference area? There is a large table here, along with several chairs. Much of the debris here floats by, as you are in zero-g.
There are partially-opened doors leading into some sort of larger area beyond--perhaps a lab.
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This wasn’t Lilly’s first time on a seemingly dead space ship, nor was it her first time exploring the remains of a ship that she helped kill. But this was her first time on a Gray ship, so her curiosity mixed with anger and some very dark, vengeful thoughts toward the saucer’s crew.
She automatically checks her weapons and draws her laser pistol.
As soon as her magnetic boots clamp onto the hull, the poem plays through her mind. ”Slow and careful, reward and risk. Head on a swivel, watch your six.”
To her shock, she realizes that she just recited the rhyme into her comms.
“Um, sorry about that,” she chuckles. “Didn’t mean for this to be poetry hour or something. That’s just a rhyme my parents taught me about safely exploring hulks like this. We did a lot of salvage work then I was a kid, and every pair of hands helped. I could run a laser excavator before I could pilot a shuttle.”
She nods toward the room ahead. “Looks like that’s the next stop. Anybody see anything useful?”
T'sorkel breathes a sigh of relief once his mag boots click back onto the ship's hull. He climbs inside the hole and looks around the room. Please tell me that I don't have to do that again to get back.
The Shirren quickly moves away from the hull breech and draws his sonic pistol. He looks around the room for anything interesting, particularly any writing or images that might confirm this is a Gray ship.
"Welccome backk," Rar'gul rumbles, offering a hand to assist T'sorkel to the comparative safety of the hulk. "You did well, kkeeping yourrr head then."
"Don't worrry, it'll be okkay," he replies to ease the shirren's concerns. "We won't need to rreturrn herre, so we ccan tie you to the tetherr and then reel you in once we'rre all backkk accross," he adds with a chuckle.
"Hold, Docc," the trox blurts when he notices the direction of the halfling's curiosity. Though its meaning may be unclear, the memory of the dream is still vivid. Squeezing past her, he adds, "I'll checkkk things out firrst. Makke surre you'rre safe."
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”Hold, Docc, I'll checkkk things out firrst. Makke surre you'rre safe.”
Lilly heard Rar’gul speak but the emotions flashing through her head conjured a different voice…
It seemed like he knew everything, way more than she’d ever know. And he taught her even when she was impatient or fussy or just hell to deal with. And sometimes the whole stupid thing just drove her nuts, like it would for pretty much any teenager.
”Use both hands on the las-ex just like we practiced, Lillithbryne. Stay on the tether. Don’t get ahead of yourself with that. Now, where’s your ‘six’?”
”It’s behind me, I need to watch behind me,” she said with the flattest tone possible to show, she hoped, that this was serious stuff and that she understood just how serious it was and that the lecture would end soon so she could go exploring NOW.
“AND in front of you, AND below you, AND—”
“YES! Watch my six with head on a swivel because my six is everywhere… I know the rhyme and what it means. Now can we PUHLEEEEASE explore this ship before scavengers show up?”
She drew out the word extra-long because she knew he hated that, but she was in a mood and didn’t care who knew because, well, this-stuff-doesn’t-matter-so-let’s-get-on-with-exploring-the-ship-can-we-pl ease-now-huh??
He nodded and carefully slid through the hatchway first. Powered by a fit of smart-assed teenaged I’ll show you, she spun around and darted through behind him. A jagged bit of wreckage sliced through her tether. The motion propelled her forward where she bounced off a control panel, and found herself flying out of control, straight out of the ship toward an endless nothing.
She screamed and flailed and spun — then his hand caught her boot and everything was mostly fine again. He pulled her back to deck and gave her that look, then smiled and reattached the tether.
Her mind snaps back to the current moment, and she hears Rar’gul tell her that she’s important to this merry band of explorers and that he wants her to be safe.
For a moment, that smart-ass I’ll show you side of her flares to life as Rar’gul moves past her, but drains away when she sees T’sorkel find his footing with John’s help, Beauregard check his weapons and then do that detective thing of his, and Galatea call for a comms check.
I’m with friends. We watch out for each other. Nothing to prove to anyone. Just be and do my part. And get us out of here.
She nods up at the Trox and holds her pistol ready.
“Sounds good, Rar’gul. Lead the way. I’ve got your six.”
The ship is breached and pitch-dark. It seems like no systems are online, at least so far as you can see.
Portions of the bulkhead in front of you are jammed partially open. Dr. Flint-Bridge and Rar'gul notice that there seems to be a fair amount of debris floating by in this room, including a significant amount of medical and science equipment.
She nods up at the Trox and holds her pistol ready.
“Sounds good, Rar’gul. Lead the way. I’ve got your six.”
Rar'gul nods once and, boots clamps and armour flashlight activated, turns away to push on, deeper into the darkness within the wrecked saucer.
Both Rar'gul, along with John and Beauregard are able to push open the doors nearest them. This provides access to the immense laboratory beyond.
This laboratory is only illuminated by whatever light you provide (though there is a tiny relic of ambient lighting from the Voidcrier, now holding station near the saucer). Anything not bolted down floats in the zero-gravity here. Furniture floats here and there, along with racks of scientific test equipment.
The body of a gray floats near the ceiling.
T'sorkel clicks on his suit's light and moves into the room, getting more of the feeling that he's exploring a new ruin than a hostile ship. He turns and the light finds the floating gray body though and the telepath sends a psychic scream into everyone's mind. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Taking some deep breaths of recycled air, the Shirren tries to compose himself. Well, it's definitely a gray ship. He moves over to one of the racks of equipment. Looks like a laboratory.
John flinches at the psychic outcry. "Be easy, T'sorkel."
John switches on his armor's light, and kicks off the floor toward the grey by the ceiling. He rotates on the way so that he can land on the ceiling. Then he examines the body.
[dice= Acrobatics] 1d20+12
[dice= Medicine, cause of death] 1d20+7
The burns and other trauma on this gray indicate it may have been near the line of fire from the Voidcrier. It does appear that the usual brain bomb went off shortly after the laser blasts blew up this deck of the ship.
Through the darkness, both T'sorkel and Dr. Flint-Bridge note at least one nearby case. T'sorkel can just reach out and grab it...
The case appears to have a pair of dials on the side, most likely a form of latch.
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Through the darkness, both T'sorkel and Dr. Flint-Bridge note at least one nearby case. T'sorkel can just reach out and grab it. The case appears to have a pair of dials on the side, most likely a form of latch.
Lilly shines her light on the case T’sorkel snagged.
“There’s writing, but I... I can’t make it out." She shifts slightly to get a better angle for the light.
"Yeah, I recognize the font from travel… geez, I can almost see it on the sign over the bar at that spaceport… there's a mermaid show where they swim up to your table and feed you these little spiky purple Castrovellian fruits... uh... gah, I can’t come up with it. Any ideas, T’sorkel? All I can see in my mind now are those little fruits. Or we can save time and just open it.”
Rar'gul scans the area, noting the floating equipment and grey body amongst the debris.
"My Akklo's not the best, but it loolks likkke some sorrt of scientific orr mediccal equipment," he rumbles over the comms, indicating the cases floating toward the ceiling.
Striding further into the room, he draws himself to his full height and extends his hammer up to hook one of the cases and pull it down to a lower, more accessible, height.
"That one you have there, T'sorkkkel, is labelled as docct- Uh, no, medicine... mediccal... supplies."
T'sorkel turns the case around to see the lettering in Aklo. Ah, yes 'medical supplies.' Excellent. He opens the case to check what is inside.
T'sorkel turns the case around to see the lettering in Aklo. Ah, yes 'medical supplies.' Excellent. He opens the case to check what is inside.
This crate contains the following:
(2) Brown Nanite Hypopens
(1) Purple Nanite Hypopen
(1) Black Nanite Hypopen
Rar'gul scans the area, noting the floating equipment and grey body amongst the debris.
Striding further into the room, he draws himself to his full height and extends his hammer up to hook one of the cases and pull it down to a lower, more accessible, height.
Rar'gul, the outside of the case indicates that it is science and diagnostic equipment.
Hey, Doc. These are hypopens. T'sorkel turns to show and hand off the case to Lilly. He looks around and considers the science equipment. None of this tells us why they are here though. Or who they expected to use this on. Maybe we need to keep looking around for their records. The bridge might hold that.
The Shirren moves to the other set of doors. Should we check this room first?
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Hey, Doc. These are hypopens.
“These will be useful toys.” Lilly smiles broadly and tucks the case into a pocket. “Let’s see what Rar’gul found.”
She gently pushes off and floats toward the case that the massive Trox identified as science and diagnostic equipment.
“I wonder what presents they left for me in here…” She flashes Rar'gul a grin and gently opens the case for an inventory.
“More goodies in here! There’s a chemalyzer, some diagnostic lozenges, and… hey, isn’t this a thermal capacitor armor upgrade? Why would they… ”
Then she remembers the standard issue Absalom Station gear and control surfaces they saw. Oh sure… of course they’d have it. Because of whatever the hell they’re doing that we still don’t FULLY UNDERST…
She closes her eyes and gets her breathing under control again.
Holding up the thermal capacitor, she calls over comms: “I think it’s a Mark I. We can install it once we get back to the ship.”
Should we check this room first?
“Makes sense to me, T’sorkel. How do our stealthy and investigative teammates feel about it?” as she looks toward John and Beauregard.
The door to the small northern room stands partially open. Peeking inside, it appears that this room is similar to the severely battle-damaged room some of you were able to make entry into. a few chairs and a small table float in the zero gravity. There is also debris here from the laser hits.
Over near John is a ramp that leads down to the lower level.
Taking a closer look at the lab area, there are examination tables, some floating, some still securely attached to the floor. You also see a wide variety of science equipment, much of it severely damaged.
T'sorkel enters the small room to see if there are any documents, data devices, or other interface tools that might have been left behind. Once he's done a quick sweep, he return to the main room and nods towards the ramp. Looks like this is the only way to go.
Rar'gul holds the case open for Doc to rummage through.
"Seems likke they were equipped to deal with all sorrrts of eventualities," he rumbles.
He releases the now empty case, leaving it to spin slowly in place as joins the others to descend the ramp...