DMDM's Last Fleet (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Gunny pauses a moment to visually inspect the area, looking for any sign that the ground artillery is actually active. After making a quick evaluation he keys his mic and responds to Firefly. “Wolf Pack lead to Green One, That’s a affirmative on the Tomcat’s ECM. Be advised, I don’t see any motion in those ground cannons. I can’t tell if they are active or not. We could do a flyby, but be aware that I’m beginning to experience the side effects of the radiation. Over.” After his transmission, Gunny brakes off from his squad, leaving Tin Man in charge of the formation.

“Gunny to Wolf Pack. I’m going to approach the dome location and perform a level one ECM burst. Continue holding the formation and running defense. Nothing gets near those juicers, copy?”

“Break, Gunny to Green One lead. ECM is inbound on my mark………..Three……..Two………One.” As Gunny skirts the relative dome location, he engages his Tomcat's ECM.

I'm not sure if a move is warranted for this kind of escort / ECM. At first, I was thinking engaging in combat might be correct. Considering your attacking their radar with an ECM, but after reading it, I'm not sure.

My best guess might be an Interfere move. I was considering Cover Up as a form of Stealth like flying, but that doesn't really seem to fit either.

My best guess might be an Interfere move. I was considering Cover Up as a form of Stealth like flying, but that doesn't really seem to fit either.

When Gunny gets close, the defenses are going to open fire. So, the obvious Move in this case is...

The goal was to not trigger the defenses...I guess that is impossible. So Gunny it's your call if you want to continue or break off. Thea is coming in after you, so she'll follow your lead.

Ok, so using an ECM to avoid detection isn't a thing?

Hannah, would rather be talking to the other people who actually designed and operate the facility. She knows well enough that most of the time the trillionaire or whatever perched at the top is mostly about sales/perception management/schmoozing/fund raising/ruthlessness and the like. Besides, she still thinks he's probably crazy, probably megalomania and paranoia at least. He did after all decide to settle down in a death zone.

She keeps a smile pasted on and doesn't say anything unless she must. It's better that way so she doesn't say something to undo Sasha's rapport building. He and Sasha may be similar creatures so they can do the dancing.

Ok, so using an ECM to avoid detection isn't a thing?

They've had you on visual for a while now. You can duck behind to the other side of the asteroid, but apparently they've got some simple visual sensors there too.

(That's kind of paranoid and insane, but... actually, is it? There /are/ Corax out there, after all.)

(Also, in case you didn't click on the link, the move would be Shake It Off.)

She's brought back to ground by his quesitons about teh Fleet. "Right, yes." She does her best to move smoothly back into the terrain she knows best. "Obviously lots of information is classified, but I can tel you that I'm authorisd to negotiate with you for some of your fuel. More importantly however, as a mark of our respect for you, I have this - " She pulls out some vids she has made of the statue (of *course* seh didn't bring it with them, it's stone - it's safely in the hold of Cranberry).

"How quaint!" He does look pleased, though.

"Oh, I'm quite happy to deal with the Fleet. Honestly, we've been waiting to make contact. It's been quite pleasant here, taking a little time-out to commune with the Field. But it's time to re-connect with the human race.

"So, by all means load up your Juice. We'll settle accounts by and by, no fear. For now, all I ask is that you evacuate my staff! Apparently some of them are quite frantic to be moving along." Here he gives an airy little flick of his fingers, somehow implying that the staff are being a bit silly, but that he's willing to forbear and forgive.

"Now, I have my own ship here -- my private yacht. It's connected to the refinery. So I could have evacuated previously. But, you know," he shakes his head sadly, "the Fleet would not allow double-Jump drives on civilian ships. So, if I Jump out, I'll have to spend time inside the accretion disk, recharging. Possible, of course, but a bit of a risk with the Corax around. And, as I said, I knew you'd be along by and by.

"So now we can proceed! Just land and fill your tanks, be welcome."

Hannah, would rather be talking to the other people who actually designed and operate the facility. She knows well enough that most of the time the trillionaire or whatever perched at the top is mostly about sales/perception management/schmoozing/fund raising/ruthlessness and the like.

Hey, you could just ask to go off and talk to people. He's been a perfectly pleasant host so far, only slightly eccentric.

The goal was to not trigger the defenses...I guess that is impossible. So Gunny it's your call if you want to continue or break off. Thea is coming in after you, so she'll follow your lead.

Gunny should narrate the "attack" run and then roll Shake it Off. Take a look at page 91 for how that works. (You'll notice it's literally the Move for avoiding enemy fire.) If you roll a 7-9 you'll succeed but I pick a consequence. On a 10+, you get +1 Forward, meaning +1 on your next die roll.

BTW, you *could* roll Engage In Battle. However, this would mean you are actively shooting back, trying to take out enemy guns and radars, and implicitly accepting the risk of killing someone on the station. Shake It Off is when you're just trying to dodge and weave with maybe a bit of antimissile fire.

After one final transmission to Green One, Gunny kicks his ECM on and heads in. “Gunny to Firefly. I'm now seeing activity among those cannons. I’m going to try and draw their fire long enough for you to locate and possibly evacuate the subject of that SOS. Alert me when you are in the clear."

With firefly on his six, Gunny’s ship dips close to the location indicated by Green One’s Scans. While drawing fire from the ground cannon’s, he runs point in an aerial display of quick hairpin turns followed by an immediate burn that sends his Tomcat into a powerful forward thrust. From a distance his ship looks like a bullet speeding through the ground cannon’s line of fire. With his mic open to a general channel, he begins to taunt the defensive gunners. WOOOHOOOO, YOU NO GOOD USLESS PEESHOOTERS COULDN’T HIT THE BROADSIDE OF A FRIGGET. I HAVE SEEN BETTER SHOOTING FROM BLIND, ONE ARM NUGGETS!” Back and forth he continues to bank and weave while verbally taunting those on the ground.

Shake Off: (Hard +0): 2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11

When you Shake Off a threat, roll +Hard. On a Hit, you’ve shaken it off, but on a 7–9, the GM chooses:
[_] It’s out of the frying pan, into the fire.
[_] You don’t escape unscathed.
[_] You lose or use up something in the process.
[_] The threat intensifies, escalates, or targets someone else.
[X] On a 10+ you’re in full control, take +1 forward.

"Three……..Two………One.” Gunny's countdown echoes in her ears. When his thrusters kick in and the squeal of his ECM fills her headset until her own Fleet systems filter it out, she dives in behind the larger craft flanked on either side by two of her squad mates.

"Green Two, Green Four stay in tight. Rattler, Raven you fly cover and make sure nothing gets the drop on us from above. Let's find that blasted signal!" She says as her own thrusters press her back into the flight seat.

Bursts of anti ship fire start to light up her screen as collision warnings beep nervously in her ears. Come on, come on... She slaps the altitude warning override and drops even closer to the surface. The move drops her out of the reach of some of the defense batteries, but there's little room for error as she glides less than a few dozen meters above the asteroid's surface.

Slowly the radius of the potential origin point for the S.O.S. signal starts to drop. Sweat pours down her back as she slams her stick hard to the right, barely avoiding a ruined beacon atop one of the outermost cracked domes. Moments later a green dot flashes and on her screen partnered with the chime of a successful comm connection.

"Gotcha!"

She opens a channel and flashes a tightbeam signal back to the origin point. "This is Fleet Lieutenant Gillis of the Federation Starship Cerberus acknowledging your emergency transmission. Please confirm receipt and state current status and need."

Seek Out: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 2) + 1 = 9

whssssszzzht

kzzzzhhht

kracklship Cerberus we kzzzzhkzzshhhpeat we read you. This is kzzzzzhhhhrrt krackl kssshrrrrt questing immediate evacuation. Repeat, we are shrekkkkezzz have about ksssssshrrrrkkk and injured requiring ssshhrrrkzzhh. We also have ssshhhhrrrrkkkkkkonflict with the Corax. We ssshrrrkkkeeeeeto the Fleet.

It's a voice, for sure, and it sounds more or less human... though it's hard to make out gender or any details through the incessant roaring static.

That's after several repeats. The problem, of course, is that someone is broadcasting from the asteroid's surface -- which is radioactive, which tends to mess with reception a bit. It also sounds like someone is operating a jury-rigged transceiver. (Or, a paranoid part of your brain whispers, like something wants to sound like someone operating a jury-rigged transceiver.)

If you want more clarity, your options are (1) make another pass (with Shake It Off roll), or (2) talk by Morse code, loud slow pulses, effectively trading bandwidth for reception; this will work but it's slow, or (3) land and investigate in person.

"Acknowledged. Repeat. We have your coordinates. Please standby for further instructions." Thea sends the reply and immediately clicks back to her scrambled connection with Cerberus.

"Cerberus, this is Green One. We are under fire from the refinery defenses. However, I've made contact with the group initiating the SOS from the domes. Report an unknown number of refugees. They have injured, are under assault from the Corax and requesting evacuation." She relays the situation back to the command crew of the Big Dog.

"Requesting an evac shuttle with marine backup at this location." She squirts the coordinates of the signal back to the ship and begins to circle around for another run. Only this time she was going to land just outside the identified dome. Something was happening down here. They had Corax on station, one group firing on them, one group requesting evac, and hadn't heard anything from Sasha or Hannah. Her gut told her waiting for the marines was going to get someone killed.

"Wolf Pack...This is Firefly, I've made contact, but the signal is messy with all this interference. Sounds like we've got injured in need of evac with Corax breathing down their necks. I've signaled Cerberus." She says. "Going to make another run, land, and try to make further contact or assess the situation from there."

"Green Squad, Rattler's in charge while I'm EVA. Cover my run and keep any shrooms off my back."

She then kicks her fighter back around, swooping back and forth as she careens along the surface before making a gut buckling move to bring her craft in hot and fast less than twenty meters from the wrecked dome and its weak transmission.

Shake it off to get there and landed safely: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11

Meanwhile, indoors:

The billionaire suddenly pauses and stares into the distance for a few moments. Then he turns back to you:

"I'm afraid some of your colleagues have engaged our defenses. This could be a problem... the refinery is not entirely stable and safe, I'm afraid. There's loose Juice scattered around.

"Let me open a commlink for you, and you can tell them to back off. We don't want any accidents! The Juice is vital to the future of humanity, am I right?"

After making his strafing run, Gunny pulls off and replies to Firefly. "Thats a good copy Green One. Wolf pack can accommodate up to five in our unmanned copilot seats. That's assuming they are geared for transport. I will be standing by, out of range for the moment. Let me know if you need any further cover from wolf, over."

When Sasha and the rich wacko seem to have settled the question of getting fuel and start with the details, Hannah takes the opportunity to wander off back the way they has come. She looks for some of the tech types she's seen coming through to chat with. Hannah is awfully curious about why anyone with options would take a job at the place.

Was the money really that good? She figures they must not be the kinds of f#$+ups who can't find other work. That wouldn't do at all for V, and if it were so they'd probably already be dead due to some accident or mistake, or incompetence already.

What were the terms of employment? Some of them weren't looking so good. But then again, she doesn't expect she is either at the moment...

"Green Squad, Rattler's in charge while I'm EVA. Cover my run and keep any shrooms off my back."

She then kicks her fighter back around, swooping back and forth as she careens along the surface before making a gut buckling move to bring her craft in hot and fast less than twenty meters from the wrecked dome and its weak transmission.

[dice=Shake it off to get there and landed safely]2d6

Dang, these dice rolls. Well, okay...

The transmission is a bit better now that you've landed. "zztter the compound at Dome Baker skssst ksshpeat Dome Baker X-Ray. Please bring skssshhtsistance. Repeat, please skkkkssshhhh...

The domes have two-letter signifiers, painted in large letters along their sides; you've landed near Dome BU, which is wrecked. About 100 meters away is dome BX. It looks intact. Each dome has a large airlock. After a few moments, there is motion on your screen: the airlock to Dome BX is opening. It's pretty large -- you could drive a crawler in there.

It opens, and then... that's all. It's very dark. Nothing comes out.

You have a pressure suit, so you can make the short walk to the dome and enter the airlock. Or, you can wait.

(You're nowhere near the Amanita, btw. That's back next to the refinery.)

Your sensors are confirming what you already knew: it's g&@@$@n radioactive out there. And in a little while, the asteroid's rotation will cause the neutron star to rise over the horizon, making it even worse. A hundred-meter walk can be done quickly, so with the anti-rads you /should/ be okay...

You did roll a 12 on your Seek Out a while back, so...

Several of the domes have been damaged, but you don't see any of the signs of Corax attack. There are... bullet holes? And that looks like damage from a plasma weapon.

Whoops, wait a moment. Off to one side, a couple of hundred meters away: that looks like a body. You take a moment to fiddle with the screen, and zoom, and... yeah. Looks human, pressure suit. Can't see the injury but there's a large dark stain on the ground around it.

Hm: you could go and examine the body. But it's 200 meters away in the opposite direction from Dome BX, turning what would be a short trot to safety into a couple of minutes outdoors.

When Sasha and the rich wacko seem to have settled the question of getting fuel and start with the details, Hannah takes the opportunity to wander off back the way they has come. She looks for some of the tech types she's seen coming through to chat with. Hannah is awfully curious about why anyone with options would take a job at the place.

Mister V is a bit distracted and doesn't comment on your departure -- perhaps he thinks you're just looking for the powder room, or some such.

A few minutes of wandering bring you to something suddenly, unexpectedly ordinary: a coffee station. There are two men there, holding cups and talking in low voices. (At some point, you will notice that the cups contain hot water with just the faintest sprinkling of brown, as they are literally down to their last few pinches of instant coffee.) The two men are obvious "management" types -- once well dressed, but now grimy, badly groomed, and haggard.

When they see you, they instantly stop talking and stare at you. Stare at you, with a weird mixture of emotions that you can't decipher. The younger one starts to speak, but the older one grabs his arm and shoots him what is unquestionably a quelling glance.

There's a long awkward silence, which stretches. Senior Management is slowly stepping away from you, his weird expression changing to a very obviously fake smile. He's about to pull Junior Management along with him.

Meanwhile, indoors:

The billionaire suddenly pauses and stares into the distance for a few moments. Then he turns back to you:

"I'm afraid some of your colleagues have engaged our defenses. This could be a problem... the refinery is not entirely stable and safe, I'm afraid. There's loose Juice scattered around.

"Let me open a commlink for you, and you can tell them to back off. We don't want any accidents! The Juice is vital to the future of humanity, am I right?"

Sasha rolls her eeyes. "Pilots. They can't resist a dare, I'm afraid. Please do get me a commlink and I'll see what's going on." Outwardly, she's all calm, this is fine, it jsut happens, smooth as glass. But inside she is seriously pissed. G#**!&it Gunny! Thea too. She *told* them - she did, didn't she? And for all that she told Thea she was worried about the hotshot riding right over the edge one day, sh'es pretty sure that day isn't yet.

Which means something's going on, something not good. She looks around for Hannah, but the student has wondered away. Oh well. She told her to take a look around, and it's come back to bite her. Still, it could be worse. She coudl be visibly armed.

Sasha rolls her eeyes. "Pilots. They can't resist a dare, I'm afraid. Please do get me a commlink and I'll see what's going on." Outwardly, she's all calm, this is fine, it jsut happens, smooth as glass. But inside she is seriously pissed. G@!+!~it Gunny! Thea too. She *told* them - she did, didn't she?

Okay so: nice Mister V is going to put you on a tightbeam through to Cerberus, which will give you that Exec that Hannah is obviously interested in. What a pity she's not here... but you can talk to him just fine.

What he knows is that he has a garbled transmission from the fighters that they've found survivors and that they've engaged the refinery's defenses. He might be just the tiniest bit on edge! So, the default result here is that he'll agree with Mister V and order Gunny and Thea to withdraw, right /now/. If you want a different outcome, you'll need to use some sort of Move.

Thea curses as she sees the body. What in blazes is that dark patch? Spores, blood? She warily eyes the darkness of the airlock waiting for some sign from within. With nothing forthcoming, she curses again.

"Wolf Lead...Firefly. I've got a body out here. 200 meters off my position away from the domes." She looks over the wreckage of the place and frowns. Did this happen before or after the Corax arrived? Was there some kind of rebellion? Worker's strike gone out of hand? If it was Corax, why, by all the gods, didn't the base ask for assistance for their people. Why fire on us? Where the blazes was that man running too? Why was he out here at all? Too many questions to ponder. She chides herself to refocus and to simply concentrate on surviving this blasted rock. Still, the bullet riddled walls and signs of plasma grade weaponry leave her feeling even more uneasy.

"Looks like the dome was taken out by plasma grade weaponry supported by...I think regular small arms. Can't be sure, but those look like bullet holes." She says her puzzlement clear even through the static filled haze of the transmission. "They've opened the airlock, but so far no other contact. I'm moving in..." She relays.

Grabbing her first aide kit, handlight, and her side arm she cracks open the canopy and slides out of her fighter to jump down onto the asteroids surface. She peers at the open, black maw of the airlock and then out toward the lone body.

"S$%T!" She exclaims to the interior of her suit before quickly turning toward the body and slapping the override on her radiation alarm. She then pushes off and starts the her odd leaping run across the low g surface. "This is by far the dumbest thing you've ever done Gillis." She adds hoping the radiation meds hold out.

Gunny quickly replies to firefly while banking his ship into position for another run. “Wolf lead to Firefly, that’s a good copy. Stand by, wolf pack is inbound on your twenty. (Brake) Wolf lead to Wolfpack, ten-nineteen my twenty. We will be rendezvousing with Green One for an evacuation. Expecting heavy fire so run your ECM's on full.” After Gunny finishes his transmission, he sets a waypoint for the group. When everyone arrives, he reopens his localized comm. “OK, everyone on me. I will try and draw most the fire but be quick. These cannons mean business. They’re a bit slow, but one hit will likely take you out of the fight.”

Shake Off (Hard +0)(Forward +1) : 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 5) + 1 = 10

With his thrusters wide open, Gunny hits the Tomcat’s after burner for another pass through the cannons and over to the domes. While in flight he continues with his taunting banter. “YEP! THAT’S RIGHT, I’M STILL HERE! EMAGIN IF I WAS ACTUALY SHOOTING BACK! NOT MUCH OF A DEFENCE! I HOPE YOUR NOT BEING PAIED BASED ON YOUR SKILL!”

After running interference for his squad, he and wolf pack land close to Firefly’s ship and begin to immediately look for her.

Seek Out (Sharp +0) (Forward+1) : 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 6) + 1 = 11

"Wolf lead to Firefly. You there?"

Okay so: nice Mister V is going to put you on a tightbeam through to Cerberus, which will give you that Exec that Hannah is obviously interested in. What a pity she's not here... but you can talk to him just fine.

What he knows is that he has a garbled transmission from the fighters that they've found survivors and that they've engaged the refinery's defenses. He might be just the tiniest bit on edge! So, the default result here is that he'll agree with Mister V and order Gunny and Thea to withdraw, right /now/. If you want a different outcome, you'll need to use some sort of Move.

Sasha of course dones't know any of that, so this should be an interesting convsersation!

Sasha has the definite feeling that there's a lot going on at the moment she doesn't know about, and under Mister V's watchful eye she isn't going to learn anything without him knowing about it too. Still, she's been in worse fixes than this and lived to tell about it. She picks up the comm and salutes the XO as he apears on the vidscreen. "Sir, Captain Maran here on the ground." Lterally in this case. "Discussions with the civilians here are in progress and they are requesting evacuation of some staff in eschange for supply of fuel. Permission to agree to that?" AS always, she leads with the unimportant, and she makes the important stuff sound trivial. "Comms here are patchy, Sir, and the pilots are on edge. With your agreement, Sir, I'll take local command in order to get them to do what's necessary." She makes it sound like a complete afterthought, like she's taking a burden off him so he doesn't have to worry about it at all. Smoothly does it.

Pull strings, do things my way: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (1, 5) + 1 = 7

Thea clicks on her handlamp and flashes it back toward Gunny's ship as he lands.

"Out here Wolf Lead." She says breathless into her comm and making sure her suit beacon is broadcasting on the Fleet frequency. "I'm grabbing this body and bringing it in for examination. I don't know what's happened down here, but my gut tells me it might hold one or two answers." There's a pause. The comm line filled with nothing but static and Thea's breathing as she navigates the odd surface of the asteroid as quickly as she dares. Finally she picks up her thoughts. "He must have been running from something. Else why be out here? If they were just spacing a criminal or some Corax agent why waste the suit? If he were caught outside when the dome was breached, why not head for the other dome rather than out into oblivion?" The curiosity and concern are clear in her voice even with all the interference.

"I'm almost there. Standby Wolf Lead..."

"S$%T!" She exclaims to the interior of her suit before quickly turning toward the body and slapping the override on her radiation alarm. She then pushes off and starts the her odd leaping run across the low g surface. "This is by far the dumbest thing you've ever done Gillis." She adds hoping the radiation meds hold out.

This will require a Shake It Off roll.

You set off at a sprint across the asteroid's weird half-melted surface -- which turns out to be a mistake; in the low, low gravity, you fly meters into the air, flail helplessly for several seconds, then hit the ground in a long dangerous skid. It turns out the only way to move without wasting long minutes in hang time is to lean forward and then give a gentle push with first one foot, then the other. It's unnatural, and hell on the ankles.

Still, in a few minutes you reach the body.

[dice=Seek Out (Sharp +0) (Forward+1) ]2d6+1

"Wolf lead to Firefly. You there?"

At this short range, you can communicate directly, though the radioactive background makes it difficult. Thea is some little distance away, bending over that body.

Oh:

Doom Clock [something] 2/4

"Discussions with the civilians here are in progress and they are requesting evacuation of some staff in eschange for supply of fuel. Permission to agree to that?" AS always, she leads with the unimportant, and she makes the important stuff sound trivial. "Comms here are patchy, Sir, and the pilots are on edge. With your agreement, Sir, I'll take local command in order to get them to do what's necessary." She makes it sound like a complete afterthought, like she's taking a burden off him so he doesn't have to worry about it at all. Smoothly does it.

[dice=Pull strings, do things my way]2d6+1

Let's see here.

On a 7–9, the GM chooses two:

-- You can’t do it without help from someone you you’d rather not get involved with.
-- Someone demands a favour in return, or else they won’t help.
-- You attract unwanted attention.
-- There’s an unexpected cost or consequence.

Hmm hmm. Give me a moment...

"He must have been running from something. Else why be out here? If they were just spacing a criminal or some Corax agent why waste the suit? If he were caught outside when the dome was breached, why not head for the other dome rather than out into oblivion?" The curiosity and concern are clear in her voice even with all the interference.

"I'm almost there. Standby Wolf Lead..."

She was shot. Shot with a fairly high caliber weapon; the slug punched right through her pressure suit, leaving a very large hole. Between the injury and the explosive decompression, death must have been pretty much instantaneous. The large stain around her is blood -- pretty much all the blood in her body. Or anyway what's left of blood after the vacuum has boiled away all the water.

According to the nameplate on the suit, her name was CHIANG, M. There are some bright stripes that obviously represent some sort of color code. The pressure suit itself is a modified version of a make you're familiar with: heavy vacuum construction, with the addition of rad shielding.

The Corax use missile weapons, but they tend to be short range -- roughly analogous to heavy sawed-off shotguns and grenade launchers. This shot was fired from a human weapon.

On a 7–9, the GM chooses two:

-- You can’t do it without help from someone you you’d rather not get involved with.
-- Someone demands a favour in return, or else they won’t help.
-- You attract unwanted attention.
-- There’s an unexpected cost or consequence.

Team, I'm open to ideas here. The game obviously intends the consequences to be pretty harsh. And that makes sense, because otherwise, Pull Strings would just allow you to make NPCs do anything you want. But none of the consequences above are clicking for me right now.

Perhaps they will once I sleep on it -- but meanwhile, feel free to offer suggestions. The goal is, Sasha gets what she wants (autonomy, at least for the next little while), but pays a price or suffers a consequence that has her sincerely cursing or clutching her head.

Thoughts?

Shake it off (with +1 Forward): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 3) + 1 = 10

"Whooaaa!" Thea hollers into the nothingness of her suit as she takes momentary flight and slowly falls back to the ground. But she's ready for what little impact occurs and manages to tumble and roll along the surface for several dozen feet before finally seeing herself upright again. The unexpected flight and following gymnastic tumble leave her relatively unscathed, but momentarily dizzy until her eyeballs manage to stop spinning and her mind catches up with her body.

Another suit alarm chimes warning her of the approaching "sunrise." Not really relishing the thought of being turned into a microwaved burrito out on the desolate rock, she quickly shuffle-walks herself to the body.

A hiss escapes her lips as she approaches and quickly recognizes the cause of the person's death. The woman's actually. Chiang M. Frowning, she reaches down and lifts the body into the old fireman's carry and begins to hurry back toward the ships keying open her comm mic as she goes.

"Wolf Lead. This is Firefly. I've recovered the body. A Chiang, M. according to the suit ID." She says over the mission channel to Gunny. "Beware Wolf Lead, she was shot. Appears to have been a high caliber weapon and not...repeat not...of Corax make." She takes a moment to navigate a tricky bit of rippled terrain. Her breathing heavy into the mic. "Nothing I can see here that says the Shrooms were involved. Looks like she was killed by her own people. No time at the moment to tap into her suit recorder...might be something there...if it's still intact. I'm bringing the body in just in case. ETA five minutes....I hope."

"Wolf Lead. This is Firefly. I've recovered the body. A Chiang, M. according to the suit ID." She says over the mission channel to Gunny. "Beware Wolf Lead, she was shot. Appears to have been a high caliber weapon and not...repeat not...of Corax make." She takes a moment to navigate a tricky bit of rippled terrain. Her breathing heavy into the mic. "Nothing I can see here that says the Shrooms were involved. Looks like she was killed by her own people. No time at the moment to tap into her suit recorder...might be something there...if it's still intact. I'm bringing the body in just in case. ETA five minutes....I hope."

Going back to your ship, or to Gunny's ship, or into the (open airlock) dome?

I believe Gunny landed next to Thea's ship. Assuming that is correct and since the ships are on the way to the dome, she might as well go to them first.

"They've opened the airlock, but so far no other contact. I'm moving in..."

Deigon looks back at Firefly's location and then glances over at the Dome's airlock. (Comon girl, you can make it.)

"Gunny to Firefly, I'm going to open the Tomcat's cockpit so we can load the corps into the copilot's seat. I will come with you to assist with inspecting the dome." After relaying his intentions, Gunny begins feeling around for his ship's cockpit release. After a few moments, he finds it, and begins the procedure for exiting the Tomcat.

"Over here Firefly!" Gunny states while grabbing hold of the corps. "Here, let me give you a hand." After helping Thea load the corps into the back of his ship, he carefully escorts her too the airlock using the preferred method of leaning forward and softly pushing forward with each foot independently.

"Any idea who or what's in there?" He asks while retrieving his side arm.

Both of you heading into the airlock, then? Okay...

Both of you heading into the airlock, then? Okay...

That's Gunny's intention unless Thea intervenes for some reason.

No intervention here. If there's time she would try to grab the helmet or recorder from the suit before they go. If sunrise is imminent, she'll leave it for later. How long is the 'day cycle?'

No intervention here. If there's time she would try to grab the helmet or recorder from the suit before they go. If sunrise is imminent, she'll leave it for later. How long is the 'day cycle?'

About eight hours. The "sun" -- the accretion disk -- will rise soon, and then it's four hours of extra bonus fun radioactivity.

Okay, so the two of you step into the airlock. The door closes behind you. A moment later, you airlock lights flash and it begins to cycle. After a minute or so, it flashes green and the other door slides open. You step through...

...or do you? The other side used to be an elevator shaft. However, it's been cleared out; there's no elevator, and no cables. Now there's just a shaft, going down. A few red emergency lights give a dim illumination. Peering over the edge, you can see that there is a floor at the bottom... thirty meters down.

Of course, "gravity" on this asteroid is just under one percent standard. So a thirty meter drop is like a twenty-seven centimeter drop under standard gee. On a planetary surface, jumping down that shaft would cripple or kill you. Here it'll be about equivalent to jumping off a chair. You should be fine.

...except that it'll take about twenty seconds to fall. So, if there's anyone in the neighborhood who's not completely friendly, for twenty seconds you'll be an absolute sitting duck, literally just hanging in mid-air as you drift slowly downward.

Without hesitation, Gunny holsters his sidearm. “I’ll go first. Keep a good distance between us incase things go south.” He then grabs hold of the runner that guides the elevator and uses it to control his descent.

Hand over hand he makes his way down the shaft, looking for any sign of life below.

There are lights below, and movement. Someone is down there.

Thea is coming along too, I assume?

Thea does not remove her suit or helmet as the airlock closes. The presence of that Corax ship at the refinery kept her worried about possible spore contamination. She nods as Gunny starts the climb down. And after a few moments to make sure he's clear, she follows him over the ledge. M. Chiange's suit helmet hangs loosely on her belt after she'd grabbed it before making the final dash to the airlock.

Working her way carefully down the along the elevator runner, she spots the lights and movement as they suddenly make an appearance below. After alerting Gunny she keys on her suits external speakers.

"This is Fleet Lieutenant Thea Gillis of the Federation Starship Cerberus responding to an emergency signal" She says looking down the shaft so her suit lamps offer a bit more light, her voice echoing into the depths. "Please show yourself and state your name and condition."

She kept an easy grip on the runner, but her other hand couldn't help moving toward her sidearm, just in case this really was some kind of Corax trap.

Gunny glances up when Thea makes her announcement and then continues down the shaft while keeping an eye on the movement below.

So, back at the refinery, Hannah and Sasha are talking to the billionaire boss. They've noticed two groups of people there: management types, and Security. They've been a little distracted, though, so it hasn't yet occurred to them: you don't run a mining-and-refinery complex with just management and security. There is a mine. So where are the miners?

The answer: here. Here are the miners.