"The drone we sent in measured temperate climate, breathable atmosphere with similar oxygen/nitrogen mix to Earth (slightly higher oxygen). We can expect standing water, reeds, thick tree growth. Hip-waders might be a wise addition to our uniform."
"For more details than that we'll need to get closer."
"I should be able to get a bead on any of the hostile flora and fauna we encounter." The biologist declared.
If they prove hostile, I'll should be able to get a bead on them too. He smirks, as he checks over his las rifle.
Legion clenches their first and a swarm of nanites flows out of it, forming a cloud around their hand and giving a crisp salute to the captain, ”Affirmative. I am ready to deploy.”
The trip into the atmosphere is relatively calm. Ensign Knightgale, one of three designated shuttle pilots on board, guides the broad-winged shuttle (similar in shape but not color or function to an F-117 Knighthawk) down its gentle trajectory from orbit, heading across broad plains far below. The ship flies at supersonic speeds, and it takes only a brief time until the land, now much closer below you, turns to small lakes and the beginnings of the marshland.
The shuttle lands on a rock outcropping to ensure stability.
"I'm still reading acceptable air quality out there with my multi-comp.
Doctor, would you like to run external environmental scans as well, to ensure we have accurate readings?"
"Please be warry of foreign pathogens." Ilnari warns, slipping on her spindly glove-device. "I'd rather not have to deal with something like that during a simple rescue and recovery mission."
Commander. Betty and I will be here when you're ready for extraction. She fiddles with the controls, seemingly calming the vehicle down.
Let me know when you're ready to open the bay ramp.
"Please be warry of foreign pathogens." Ilnari warns, slipping on her spindly glove-device. "I'd rather not have to deal with something like that during a simple rescue and recovery mission."
Rifle in hand, Lt Clausius waits to be first out, by the bay ramp.
Commander, I'll take point. Everyone... if you see something, say something.
"Please be warry of foreign pathogens." Ilnari warns, slipping on her spindly glove-device. "I'd rather not have to deal with something like that during a simple rescue and recovery mission."
Make a Life Sciences check with a +2 bonus in addition to your normal bonuses.
Before the team leaves in full, the biologist reaches out through her med scanner to take a more in-depth look of the local atmosphere. She winces, as some local creature's natural psionics briefly resonates with her own. It distracts her enough that she's not able to completely focus on her task before she makes the necessary adjustments.
Legion stands beside Rudo, ”Keep an eye out for threats at range. I will handle any that make it to us.” They take a deep breath and the normally dark circuit-like patterns take on the same blue glow as their eyes, and a scintillating, shimmering cloud forms around their body, concentrated on their hands. They draw a laser pistol too, before nodding at the crew, ” I will keep my remarks short and efficient. The first assignment of any crew has the highest risk of fatal errors. Make sure communication is clear and consistent. Crosscheck all potential targets with at least one other crewmember, and do not under any circumstances venture off alone. Your individual capabilities are formidable, and working together I have every expectation we will succeed.” With that, they step off the boarding ramp.
The two scientists not detecting any reason to do otherwise, the go-ahead is given for Lt. Clausius to open the door.
Outside, the weather is cool but not cold. In several directions, marshy land spreads out across a roughly flat plane.
"We're going to head off in a roughly North-Easterly direction for 1.51 kilometers. I'll keep an eye on the coordinates and help us correct if we veer off," Williams says, holding her multicomp.
She gives a nod to the android as she follows it onto the alien soil. Her hand is held aloft, performing cursory sweeps of the local environment. There was certainly plenty here that'd be interesting to study if they weren't already pressed for time.
"In case we do run into trouble, please be aware that in order to make full range of my capabilities I'll need to inject you all with various drugs, narcotics, and steroids. I'm giving you the option to opt out now if you'd like, otherwise I'll be taking your silence as consent."
Swinging the heavy cutting tool around, Arkady surveyed the area around the landing site. "How far to the site where we were getting readings?" she asked.
"1.51 kilometers should be the landing, or crash, site, as the crow flies. Hopefully we won't have to walk too much further than that."
Perception: 21
Arkady notes that you are, roughly, on the edge of the marshy area, barely inside it. You will be heading deeper into the marshes at the heading Lt. Williams noted. The trees in that area get progressively thicker quickly, and there's a visible layer of water on the ground.
Ilrani's brow raises at the odd phrase, but simply shuffles it along as being a 'human thing'. Richard never seemed to exhaust his supply of obscure references and memes, so it was little surprise that there were still some she'd never heard. "Hope everyone has their watertight boots secured."
Lt Clausius moves forward per Lt Williams navigation, scanning the path ahead.
LtC... comms check... one, two.. one, two. Come in. Over.
Clausius hears response tones from everyone's comm around him. Of course he can't hear Oren's response back in the shuttle, unless she chimes in, but presumably it's in working order.
"Shame it doesn't look nicer, we could go for a paddle and find all sorts of interestingly bio-diverse creatures," Arkady said dryly as she made sure her gear would, indeed, keep her dry. "Anything from the site now we're closer? Even a hulk should support some personal communications and the like."
"Appearance alone isn't anything. There's a wealth of discovery to be hard here, I'm sure. That'll have to be for later explorers however." She muses, skirting here gaze across the landscape.
"Anything from the site now we're closer? Even a hulk should support some personal communications and the like."
By doing a quick scan for hidden networks, Lt. Vassally-Simmons is indeed able to find a network labeled: VC-Aus-22910-comm. It's not publicly available, however, and the signal is very weak (1 "bar").
"Got a weak signal," she told the others. "Looks like the Auspicious' comm system. It's locked out, but it's there." That at least confirmed it was the right ship.
"At least we have that." Acknowledged the doctor.
Ahead of you, you can see the devastation from the emergency landing of the Auspicious. The Auspicious itself is much larger than the Guangzhou (counting as starship size Huge) and thus did incredible damage to the trees coming in, as well as displacing a large amount of boggy water and mud.
This has made traversing the terrain particularly treacherous. Make either an Acrobatics or Athletics check (whichever is better, the DC will be the same).
Acrobatics:
Rudo was torn, there was a source of power but why wasn't anyone signaling for help? He kept his thoughts to himself.
If there is a network up, there's power. There will be something to work with when we get there.
Now, let's get there.
Do our sensors indicate topography below water level? His words were cut off...
Legion-12 Acrobatics:
Everyone manages to gracefully avoid any mishaps, but at the very end of the trip, Vassally-Simmons falls into a particularly deep pond of water, which happens to have some chemical leakage from the ship.
The engineer takes:
Acid damage
Before you all lies the hull of the OSM Auspicious; it's body is fractured and damaged from the crash, and at several places its interior is open to the environment.
Aside from the devastated terrain, which obviously happened weeks ago, there is little unexpected about the scene.
That said, no one is there to greet you, nor seems to have noticed your presence, save some rather annoying insects that fly in small swarms here and there above the marsh.
Noticing the engineer's mishap, Rudo moves closer to assist. Simmons, are you OK?
Rudo can see a few vines in some trees in the area, actually. In a pinch, they COULD be used, but helping Vassally-Simmons out would require only a hand. The puddle was deeper than expected, but not THAT deep.
"It's just a light chemical burn," Dr. Yusil verifies. She was already in the process of cleaning and bandaging the area. "She'll be fine after a little rest."
"Owowow, burns," Arkady replied. "Some kinda caustic element from the engines is leaking into my suit."
Arkady scrambled out of the puzzle with whatever help was offered and started stripping off the armour to make sure there wasn't more acid. "Give me a minute to clean up, and I'll be good to go."
I'm gonna get closer. He takes a a few steps.
Let me know if you pick up any life signs, heat signatures or movement...
Legion follows along with Rudo, making sure the security chief isn't going in alone.
Ilrani keeps closer towards the rear of the group. Keeping everyone else alive meant she needed to keep herself alive too.
Now that everyone's got some positions, I'll post this map.
Note the rubble in the north-east quadrant, spilling out of the ship. That's a tear in the side of the ship. It would be a relatively easy point to enter.
Commander Legion:
Dr. Yusil:
Lt. Vassally-Simmons:
Lt. Willians:
Lt. Clausius:
Rudo and Legion both stride up nearly imperceptibly toward the hole in the side of the Auspicious.
At the same time, Dr. Yusil gets an idea into her head that perceiving might be best done through her custom device.
She scans the readings momentarily and is doubly horrified. The air composition around them is different here: there is a high count of some sort of spores in the air. Anyone not wearing some sort of breathing device (with the exception of Legion-12) has been exposed to these spores.
The second horrifying thing is that there are several life forms nearby that appear to be only fungoid life with faint animal signatures are coming out of the bushes: They appear to be the near-dead forms of several of the Auspicious crew, ant they appear hostile.
Pulling her boots back on, Arkady looked at the shambling, fungal...beings and hoped back up, her modified weapon swinging up as the shambling creatures appeared. "Doc, I'd love you to tell me that this is treatable so I don't need to try melting these guys," she radioed.
A quick check tells Dr. Yusil these creatures, once human, are now basically brain-dead. They're meat-puppets for...something else.
Guess we may as well do Initiative:
Animated crewmembers:
Lt. Williams: