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Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Flores
--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


"Go with Magnetics, no need to clean up that way. So, yeah, I'ma head down and prep Corrido for launch, whoever's coming with, ven conmigo!"
I maneuver expertly through the micro-Grav passages, twisting, turning, tumbling until the final hatch. I grip the frame, eye my target, and push off, snagging El Corrido's ramp frame and swinging around and into my A-Grav. G0U regards me silently as I break my pressure suit out of a storage locker, checking for wear or damage. I reach back in and pull out an improvized frame and what look like a set of mechanical hooves. It's a set of Mag-boots and thrusters I 'scavved off of some other pressure suits and rigged up in a way that my Bot can use.

In a few mninutes' time, I install G0U's extra equipment and crack open another Nova. Gonna need the caffeine on this run. I double check his ammo drums, make sure the feed sensor is green, and then check out my own loadout. Not much need for a big fuckoff sniper rifle on a half-hulled transport, so I snag my nice, compact FNP220, and get it locked into my battle rig along with my sidearm and other useful bits.

That done, I get into my pressure suit-sans helmet- and make my way forward. Ping-handshake, and I'm eyeballing readouts, flipping the analogs and tap-swiping the digitals. A fringe bennie of helping to bootstrap the Lance's power is that my cores are nice and hot, so that cuts 5-10 minutes off my startup right there.

I'm getting ready for launch, so whoever is riding with me should join up!

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Mr E
Sep 18, 2007

Mahren Inaris
--:--Harm|1-armor|1/10 XP|3 Cred

"Guess I'm riding with you Ying - the Lance is too big to get that close and hope for escape." I begin setting up the auto systems for the ship. I set up a sequence that will lock all ways in or out including interior doors once I'm outside of the ship, and set the ship up to alert me if anyone tries to board. Power's back down due to Ying unhooking, and life support will be off once the ship's locked down. I strap on my armored jacket, and finally find my pressure suit and suit up, which isn't exactly comfortable over the jacket. I put on my revolver and taser , making sure they're both loaded and ready to go in case we get in trouble outside of Ying's ship.

"We'll need to leave last so that the ship can lock down without issues. Once I'm off the ship the Lance is shutting down everything - no way in or out unless I say so or you have a big gently caress off bomb."

Spending my hold to ask: Who or what is my biggest threat in this situation?

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Fedor-II
--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred

"Mag is set for CLAMP," I report as the knob turns and the electromagnets pull the limbs and spine of the Warrior into travel position on the side of the Corrido. Combat-grade mechsuit and most importantly air umbilicials are in, and I'm reviewing the system readouts. "All clear, you have my sign-off for Go." It's a trap. It's a trap. It's a trap. We spotted the trap, and we're going right loving into it. My eyes spot the eject handle and note that my guns are properly on the tethers to come with me. "Sign-off expires in T minus 60. Let's rock and roll."

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Roosevelt Profit
1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

I study the image of the ship for a few moments, smoking my cigarette, then turn and walk out of the lounge. I make my way to the quarters I claimed, and suit up. My pilot jumpsuit doubles as a pressure suit, which simplifies that, and its easy to pull an armor vest on over. I check my pistol, then put it into the thigh holster. I pull a black case down from its shelf, and extract my assault rifle from it. A few minutes of work and I've swapped the barrel and furniture around for close-quarters work.

By the time I've slung the weapon, slotted a pair of skillchips, and collected my helmet, the others are clearly ready to go. I walk down to the hangar deck step onto the ramp of the El Corrido.

"Once Spectre clears us to approach, he and Fedor should go over the external hull and the cargo bays. That way they're in position to cover our exfil if this turns out to be bait." I join Ying and Mahren up front. "But I read this as a booby trap. We still need to look around inside, retrieve any sensor or crew logs that were left, and check for the crew."

I nod to Ying. "Your lead on what's safe and what's not in there."

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Flores
--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


"Corrido copies Fedor."
I turn to face profit, "yeah, we're not in a hurry here so I'mma take a few close passes and give Spectre time to scout before docking. Bee tee dubs, there's fold out seats in the hold for y'all to strap in. Just in case."

I recheck my feeds, chug my Nova, and wait on Mahren's greenlight.

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy
Spectre glides around the Hilsa slowly, observing it from all sides as he does. He sees that the ship has been rigged with small, self powered nodular sensors, which meant that anyone could be watching them, or more likely, that activating those sensors will alert whoever put them there to tune in or even drop in. Also, that the Point Defense Cannon has been wired to a compact external battery, hidden among its housing, so it could operate independently of the ship spooling up.

Mahren, similarly, knows that the biggest threat is that the ship is covertly hostile, either controlled by someone else as part of an ambush or booby trapped; the most obvious external trap being one involving the Point Defense Cannon.

Everyone else is loaded up onto El Corrido and Ying is ready to bring them in close however she likes.

What do you do?

Since both your questions covered the same things, I tried to give you both a decent amount of stuff.

Sockerbagarn
Sep 8, 2007

All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare.
Spectre
--:-- Harm | 0-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred

"Corrido, Spectre, initial recon pass complete. Looks like someone has left us a few presents, stand by."

I bring up the 3D model of the Hilsa on my HUD and set it to slowly rotate. I've marked the numerous sensor nodes with small yellow triangles and the Point Defense Cannon with a large red diamond. I reach down to the comm panel and transmit the targeting data to Ying and Fedor.

"Be advised, the Point Defense Cannon is live. There's also several sensors scattered about the exterior of the ship. Give me two minutes."

If I can strike everything at once I should be able to get in relatively easily. The electronic warfare suite can easily take care of those flimsy sensors for good, but the point defense looks hardened. I maneuver the Wraith in position above the large hole in the Hilsa's hull and take a deep breath. Here we go.

With the press of a button I hit the Hilsa with a short wide spectrum jamming field, overloading the sensors and forcing the PDC to recalibrate. I don't waste any time, I slam hard on the thrusters and quickly shoot into the cargo hold of the ship underneath me before it has a chance to get a lock on me.

"I'm in. Sensors are down, but I think the turret is still up. Proceed with caution."

Spending all my covert entry hold to:
Bypass the sensors.
Disable the sensors.
Bypass the point defense cannon and enter the cargo hold.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Flores
--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


I'm gonna go ahead on the assumption Mahren did as they said before and locked up as we left.

I goose my axial thrusters with a light touch, lifting Corrido up and out of the Lance's hold. We drift a moment before I gently kick in the main engines, nothing major, 20 seconds at 1G ought to put us there in a few minutes, and I have to watch the speed with Fedor hitching a ride, he's outside the hull and outside the protection of my A-Grav, so if I pull too many G's he's toast unless he's got some kind of stress compensation of his own. So, slow and easy does it on this run.

Corrido's relatively quiet, I make sure all our comms are patched through my system as a relay, so we're all real-time, listening to Spectre report back. A single PDG? gently caress, we got off light. I watch the yellow triangles on his feed wink out and the red diamond turn yellow. As Spectre's mech continues in through a breach, I make my first pass, sensors and a spotlight playing over every meter of the hull.
Asses the Situation 9
What do I notice despite an effort to conceal it?

"Spectre, Corrido copies, I'm making some scanning passes myself to see what's up...
Spectre, Corrido, I just got a weird contact, moving to confirm, Keep it Fiver, over."

Sockerbagarn
Sep 8, 2007

All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare.
Spectre
--:-- Harm | 0-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred

"Copy that Corrido, performing a quick sweep of the cargo hold now. Let me know if you need me outside with my fangs out."

After killing most of my momentum from the rapid entry I slowly glide further into the pitch black maw that is the cargo hold. The scale of the beast is impressive, you could fit a drat lot of cargo in here, but there's none to be found... I turn on my floodlights and set my sensors to active. Hopefully whoever did this didn't cover their tracks too well.

Assess: 2d6+1 7 What do I notice despite an effort to conceal it?

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Roosevelt Profit
1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

So far I've eschewed the jump-seats, choosing to use a handhold so I can look over Ying's shoulder. "They located that PDC well, but no single weapon mount can cover every approach."

I lean over and confiscate a screen, bringing up a nav plot. I sketch out an approach vector. "It's rotating on two axes, but if we come in this way we should avoid its field of fire. Once we're inside, I suspect we can disable the cannon from there."

Ying gets +1 forward to getting docked with the ship without getting shot.
Help Ying [+Links]: 2d6+1 8

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Flores
--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


"Alright, Hé wǒ shuōhuà ba, bǎobèi."
My fingers fly across my controls and vector controllers.
Hot poo poo Pilot 14
Holy poo poo!
Avoid one external danger (point defense gun)
Maintain control of the vehicle (I make this look good)
Impress (the group - with my kickass skills)


Relative to the Hilsa, Corrido matches rotation, then inverts. I put in a couple half G bursts to align the new heading, we slide quickly into the shadow of the ship, towards a maintenance docking collar amidships. I pulse my axials, spinning Corrido 180 degrees and firing another small burst to slow us to docking speed. another 180, and the forward Docking collar meets with Hilsa's. There's a clang-thunk, and a quick tremor can be felt through the ship. My readout shows safe and we're locked. I begin pressure sequence on my airlock, and I safe-lock my cores and make my way back to the others in the hold.

"Si puedo! De nada. Lady and gentlemen, welcome to the Hilsa, please make sure your seatbacks and tray tables are in their full upright and locked positions."
I make a quick sarcastic bow, and then start sealing my helmet, and getting G0U ready to disembark.

for reference, here's the basic Corrido Layout. Y'all are in the hold (obviously), the ramp/hatch at the rear is closed, and we're gonna head down a short corridor to the forward facing airlock (unless something really bad happens right now)

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Fedor-II
--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred

"Hey, now that's a smooth landing," I say, and I am truly impressed. Twin-axis evasion combined with precision docking and coming in with barely a slam is a hell of a job. "Mag set and reporting FREE in 3, 2, 1 -- mark!" I fire up the floodlights and start rotating through various sensor suite overlays. First order of business: secure the LZ and make sure we don't get popped before we can accomplish anything at all.

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

I nod to Ying as I turn to make my way to the airlock. "Nice work." I drop down the ladder to the lower deck, and pause to put on my helmet. I want a hard seal before I pop the hatch. I also put down a pair of chem-lights on the handiest flat surface nearby.

I'm not really worried about any kind of chemical or biological weapon left as a trap. But I've been on a few derelict pirate leavings before. I'd rather not repeat that olfactory experience. Un-slinging my weapon, I cycle the locks and enter the Hilsa, proceeded by the red beam of my flashlight. "I'm heading for the bridge," I inform the others over comms. "Wearing a red chemlight. I left each of you one, Ying, Mahren." A friendly fire incident would be just the way to start our working relationship.

With that resolved, I moved off carefully, checking doors and corners as I go.

Assess [+Edge]: 2d6+2 7
Gonna spend that hold for: What do I notice despite an effort to conceal it?

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 22:33 on May 4, 2016

Mr E
Sep 18, 2007

Mahren Inaris
--:--Harm|1-armor|1/10 XP|3 Cred

"Thanks for the ride, Ying - that was quite the landing! Can't say I've been in this situation - I tend to stick to planetside missions. Think I'll back you up, Roosevelt - unless you have any objections?" I seel my suit and turn on the chemlight Roosevelt left behind. "I don't think splitting up is a great idea right now - we can't know what's on here quite yet. I figure there's a remote trap or ambush here, otherwise it wouldn't have been quite so easy to get on the ship". I pull out my revolver just in case, covering Roosevelt's back.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
Flores
--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


"Hey Profit, you know this whole time how I've been guessing at what we'll face based on 'What would I have done if I'd done the upgrades?'
Yeah, so when you get to the bridge, clear it, but don't try to access any of the terminals until I give you the all clear. Otherwise...it could be bad. Just trust me on this.
Mahren, you should go with Profit, I've got my own backup-" I jerk a thumb at G0U, "I'mma head to the Core Nexus and make sure any signal to overload gets smashed before it can happen."

I snap on my light, check my rifle, and ping G0U to follow in 'Watch-Defend' mode as our magboots *Thunk Thunk* away down the corridor, following the signs pointing to Operations.

Xian told me this via discord: It's a standard core reactor and main engineering room, the the thing is, it's too neat. After whatever happened here, you'd expect some kind of mess. Hell on any given day there'd be tools sitting out. This place is showroom clean.

I ping G0U to stand watch in Sentry-mode, ready to paste any jackass trying to sneak up on me.
I head over to the main control terminal, pop a panel underneath it and start stripping wires, disconnecting it from the main computer system so can take control over the engines, and power to sections and subsystems in the ship. After about 10 minutes I think I have it, the touchscreens above flash warnings for a second and then reboot. On a hunch I input a default manufacturer's access code. After a moment an acknowledgement flashes and I'm in Safe Mode. So now, no other terminal on the ship can access the power systems except this one, and nothing connected to the main power will work unless I want it to.

"Heads up folks, we now own the power systems on this heap, so nobody can scuttle this ship unless they get through me first. I can also wire in a repeater terminal and connect it to Corrido, so we can pilot this thing remotely once we're done here. Profit, you are green for bridge access.
That's the good news.
Bad news is, I'm sure there's still all kinds of independently battery-powered bullshit hidden outside and inside, like those sensors or the cannon, so stay Fiver out there, and watch yer six."

Asses 9
Where can I gain the most advantage?


Heads up: I'm heading out of town for the next few days, so posting ain't happening until at least friday, but maybe longer. I'll try and get a post in when I can, but no promises.

Error 404 fucked around with this message at 06:18 on May 3, 2016

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy
The cargo bay is familiar because there are only so many different layouts for a Cargo Bay or Warehouse. There are only so many ways to stack things, especially containers full of raw materials, especially on an interplanetary freighter. However, there are no containers. All the materials that the Hilsa was once carrying are gone.

Close to the passageway leading to the Crew Quarters and Bridge--roughly that third of the Cargo Bay--there is a lot of blood or the remnants of it. The stains of multiple pools, spatters, and sprays stain the Cargo Hold a burnt rust color, but only the biggest puddles have any blood left frozen in them and are now striated and cracked. Most of the blood has desublimated into very fine ice crystals tinged the color of Mars' dust that still cloud the Cargo Hold and are gradually diffusing into space.

There was a gunfight, and very likely death, here, but there are no bodies. The walls and floor are riddled with bullets, bullet holes, and scorch marks from energy weapons line the walls and floor. Its all the signs of a pretty intense, or protracted, firefight. And they're in 0g since the ship's offline, everything from shell casings to bits of detritus from inside the Cargo Bay to bits of the ship to icy crystalline blood is floating around.

The areas where materials containers would be area clear of blood, bullets, etc. The deck and walls are battered with scraping and denting, clearly caused by something dragging containers across the deck, or slamming them into walls as they were being removed.

Spectre and Profit both notice the same surveillance nodules Spectre saw on the exterior of the ship, but thanks to his work upon entry, they're just as jammed as the ones on the outside.

The parts of the Hull that are missing clearly look like they were ripped off from the outside, shorn metal curving out towards the black unevenly, interior hull cabling hanging uselessly.

There are two smaller breaching party sized holes opposite each other halfway down the Cargo Bay that look to have been cut with a plasma torch.

~

Ying was right, it was trapped! As soon the touchscreens flash for a second and reboot, Ying sees the readout from the reactor containment field begin to drop. It keeps dropping. If she doesn't do something, the Hilsa's reactor is going to lose containment, and the whole ship is going to be space dust.

Ying punches in a factory reset code she gleaned through her research into the schematics of the ship, which bypasses user setting and factory resets the interface. Then her breath catches as the UI resets again. Once it does, she checks something, and breathes a sigh of relief when she confirms that she didn't just lock herself out of the ship's video surveillance archive, or worse, wipe it.

That done, she goes about setting the ship up for remote control access. "I'm setting up a remote repeater so we'll be able to set and forget this thing back to Amardeep whenever we want to. Routine enough, but takes a little while to get the calibrations in sync."

Ying burned an [intel] to stop the core from becoming compromised, and a [gear] for the remote access. Error 404 will tell us exactly what that looks like next week. Additionally, since Error404 is AFK for the next week or so, this all happens off-screen. Nobody else knows how close they got to getting vaporized unless Ying tells them.

~

Once he's got his Mag Clamps on the Hilsa, Fedor goes about sweeping the space around them for bogeys. After a few minutes, he's got the LZ locked down tight, every object within firing distance bigger than a basketball is tagged, so if anything new enters his field of vision, he'll know immediately. Most of those objects are pieces of the ship, or random junk that's spilled out of it since it had a few extra sun roofs installed, and some rocks, some ice, nothing out of the ordinary.

xian fucked around with this message at 23:14 on May 3, 2016

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

It's not until we're under Spectre's flood lights that I identify the ice flecks floating in the passage ahead of us. The color of my flash light obscured it, but they sparkle crimson in the hold. Whoever boarded this ship, they didn't find a friendly reception.

"There was a firefight in here. Major one. No sign of bodies so far. I'm continuing to the bridge." I raise my hand to acknowledge Spectre as I make my way further into the ship.

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 22:53 on May 4, 2016

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'


--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred
Edge +0 Style +1 Meat +2 Mind -1 Cool +0 Synth +1


"LZ currently secure and on lockdown," I report. "If anything moves in here I'll know it. But nothing's moving." Moments pass. "I find it hard to believe this thing is a powerless hulk. What's creeping out there?"

Assessing LZ: 2d6+0 4

Captain Foo fucked around with this message at 04:31 on May 6, 2016

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy


Fedor keeps scanning the black void he's staring out upon. He doesn't see anything, or pick up anything new on his scanning passes, but he finds himself turning over a conundrum in his mind. It is this: The existence of the sensor nodules that Spectre jammed implied that the Hilsa was being watched: passively if not actively. He wonders whether jamming the sensors, stopping data from being transmitted, would be nearly as telling as the data itself transmitting their presence. In a perfect world, they would have spoofed unblemished footage as opposed to jammed the sensors, but that's not what happened here. He supposes their vulnerability is impossible to know, as it depends entirely on how closely the sensor suite they've compromised is being monitored.

~~~~

Profit moves forward through the ship toward the bridge. Out of the cargo hold, the next thing she encounters is the crew quarters and a small mess hall / communal space. It's a bare utilitarian space, but bigger than she's used to, which she chalks up as a byproduct of being attached to a massive cargo bay. There's room to spare, which is taken up by a makeshift gym, a boxing bag floating horizontally in zero g. According to the schematic, there should be four identical crew quarters, then the mess, then a corridor to the bridge. The corridor to the bridge and the mess look how they should, however there are only three entrances to crew quarters and where the fourth one should be is a bulkhead. One is to her left, two are to her right.

She goes left.

With the power restored and Ying having root access, the door shoots up as normal and allows Profit through. As she suspected, the two crew quarters had been converted into one larger room. In the first half of the double room, she sees something she recognizes easily. Similar to stacking raw materials in a cargo bay, when two people cohabit a room on a ship like this, there are only so many ways their quarters can look. She sees pictures of Steiger and Karensky, of loved ones, and items that she could see slotting into various different sets depending on how Tambour/Steiger and ??/Karensky divided them. Proft can see each of their design influences: one modern, the other focused on rustic greenery, there are a number of now-frozen plants in the suite.

Beyond their living quarters, the other compartment is basically a well kitted drone bay. There is a man-sized scaffold, the kind that a set (or two) of power armor could hang off of, as well as five rows of two smaller scaffolds, the kinds that would hold inert drones. One of them does. Profit notes an unfinished drone, roughly spherical, a diameter twice the size of her fist. She sees some small thrusters and what looks like a compact energy weapon attached to the bottom of it. This is military level poo poo that Sake Karensky was playing with.

A workbench dominates the center of the space, and one corner houses a desk with a computer console, another a 3d printer / additive fabricator. Profit also sees more than a few tools-- burn cream, scalpels, biomonitor equipment, first aid gel, sutures-- that would be found in a medic's kit mixed in with the obvious drone tech gear. The bedroom looks relatively untouched but the drone bay looks like it's been turned over and raided; smaller items and tools are strewn about and on the floor, and about half of anything not bolted down is knocked over.

Before digging deeper into Tambour/Steiger & ??/Karensky's room, Profit moves to clear the other two. When the right side door closest to the cargo bay opens, Profit finds herself staring at two bodies in bullet riddled vac suits floating in zero g. She doesn't need to check them to know that it's the other two crew members, and not Tambour and Karensky, but does check them and confirms that truth. The other room on the right side is another crew quarters and has photos that correspond to one of of the corpses floating in the first room.

~~~~

"Got access to the video archives if someone wants to scrub it. I'd do it, but I'm in the middle of something." Ying radios the rest of the crew. She sounds distracted.

~~~~

What do you do?

xian fucked around with this message at 04:00 on May 7, 2016

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


I'm juggling windows on the terminal screen. The cores are under firm control, but now that I've restored basic power, I'm getting flooded with commands from everywhere. This was expected. Every single one is 'open both ends of this airlock' or 'overload that' or 'hey wouldn't venting reactor coolant into the Hab module be hilarious?' Each command dies instantly, the hard lines having been cut, but each one has to leave me a fun little '502 - Bad Gateway' error pop-up as it goes.

Next I move to the computer cores, isolating their commands but mostly leaving that bit of 'here be dragons' for Profit to gently caress with.

Confident that nothing's gonna explode or reach a critical failstate for the moment, I turn and snag a toolkit and components out of G0U's cargobags. Within a few minutes, I'm elbow deep in the fiber optics wiring in the signal repeater. With a spot of soldering the leads connect to the control board, I double check the battery pack, and send a test ping to Corrido's systems.

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

There's no doubt, really, but I check to make sure. The I call it in over the comms. "Two fatalities. Crew. Neither is one of our subjects of interest." I tag them with locators. "Tambour/Steiger and Karensky still unaccounted for. They were sharing quarters. Probably part of why they chose this cover. They have a drone bay in there, military grade hardware. No operable drones in it."

After making sure nothing else is lurking in the other two cabins, I close them up and go back into the main cabin. For a moment, I stand in the middle of it, and look around slowly, taking in the chaos. This is what Consuls do. See patterns in the chaos, and exploit them. Accept the information in front of me without preconception.

There's something important here. I just need to see it.

Spending a hold for:
What do I notice despite an effort to conceal it?

Mr E
Sep 18, 2007


--:--Harm|1-armor|1/10 XP|3 Cred

"Two down at least, and I can't say I expect the others to have fared any better. Ying, can I access the video archives in one of the bedroom terminals? I'll check out one of the passages Profit and I didn't go down after I'm done."

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy
Mahren, scrubbing through the video is a research roll, unless there's a hunter move that applies.

Sockerbagarn
Sep 8, 2007

All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare.

--:-- Harm | 0-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred | 1 Gear

I'm still drifting around in the cargo hold trying to piece the scene together when Profit calls out the dead bodies. "They were likely killed out here, then moved to the crew quarters to get them out of the way while our marks were unloading the cargo. From the scene out here I was expecting more bodies though."

I bring the Wraith down near the passageway leading to the crew quarters, kill the floodlights and engage the mag clamps. With a thunk they snap to the deck and the indicator goes green. "Nothing more to glean from the cargo hold, I'm proceeding on foot." I quickly verify the integrity of my flight suit again, then pop the hatch and push myself down to the floor, landing nimbly on my mag boots. I make sure my SMG is locked and loaded before proceeding, just in case.



"Profit, Mahren, I'm coming in." I step through the passageway and acknowledge them with a nod. "Ready to hit the bridge?"

Sockerbagarn fucked around with this message at 22:45 on May 8, 2016

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'


--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred
Edge +0 Style +1 Meat +2 Mind -1 Cool +0 Synth +1


"We're obviously being watched," I comment to the cargo trash emptiness, but also to the team. Open comms and all. "Jamming yes, but zero is just as much a signal when you're watching the noise of an all-but-dead ship." Profit's comment rings in my ears as I sweep the Warrior's torso back and forth. "Military drones. Inop. Are any still present? Recons or Reapers? Something else?" And double-check that they're inop. Got a weird feeling about drones on a ship like this."

Mr E
Sep 18, 2007


--:--Harm|1-armor|1/10 XP|3 Cred

"Spectre, glad you could join us! I don't think I'm going to have any luck looking at the recordings unless someone else wants to try. I agree that the bridge is our next best option, and heading there together seems best. I agree that we're being watched - anyone able to make absolutely sure those drones aren't going to attack as soon as we're not alert?"

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


"Hey, so, I've got this poo poo here on lock down, but I gotta stay in ops to keep it that way, so whoever's snatching the logs, you're kinda on your own as far as help from me goes, lo siento mucho. Same for those drones, I'd say seal the hatch and forget about it for now, I'll go through and salvage once we're on our way out and we can set some defenses here.

And yeah, Fedor, I feel you. Someone's watching, and however they're doing it is isolated from the onboard systems, so I can't do poo poo about it, but the faster we get it done and get gone the better off we are."

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy


Anyone who wants to scrub through the video sees this. More info would be a Research Roll. Mahren is a bounty hunter, though, so probably has some experience looking at Surveillance tape?

The video begins and shows a static scene of the Cargo hold. Cycling through the various hold cameras, the first sign that something is amiss is the plasma burn and sparks coming off the cutter. There is no loss of pressure yet, undoubtedly due to some sort of makeshift, likely inflatable, airlock used on the outside by the intruders.

Red alarm klaxons begin firing as a squad of six intruders armed with long arms enters through each of the cut holes, twelve total. Two soldiers break off and head toward the engine room, the rest take up positions among the cargo.

On the video: the crew quarters door opens slightly, less than half a foot, leading to a spurt of reactionary gunfire. When it does, six drones roughly the size of cats and designed like crickets, leap in various directions out of the hold, onto the tops of cargo, mag clamped to the ceiling of the hold, they throw the attackers into chaos. Three people use this chance to get through the doorway: the two dead crew members in the EVA suits they're still in and Steiger/Tambour, wearing heavier power armor. He moves like a skilled operator, from cover to cover, and an intruder, firing his energy rifle through their chest.

Four more drones roll out the door's opening, and another person emerges: Karensky in lighter, but no less advanced armor than Steiger/Tambour. She has a pistol at her waist but moves through cover as well, directing the drones via gesture. The new drones look like bowling balls with energy beam weapons attached to the top. All her drones move very fast and don't cause casualties as much as chaos for her and Steiger/Tambour to operate within. By this time in the fight, both other crew members have been killed.

The battle continues this way for a little while. An intruder kills a bowling ball, a cricket takes it out from the ceiling. A cricket bounces around, drawing fire, while Karensky sneaks up on the person shooting at it and fires from point blank range into the back of their neck. Over the course of a few minutes, it becomes clear that Steiger/Tambour and Karensky, with the help of her drones, seized the advantage. When there are only six live intruders in the cargo hold, the Hilsa shudders violently and the first hull piece is ripped off from outside. You can't see their facial expressions from under the helmets, but the way their heads are craned up towards the new opening in the Hilsa, Steiger/Tambour and Karensky are both having "ah, gently caress" moments.

With everyone behind cover, there's a standoff. The remaining cricket drones all jump toward the newly ripped opening and don't re-appear on camera. There's tense, stop and go yelled conversation that's not audible via the cameras. It becomes obvious a surrender is being negotiated when the remaining bowling ball drone stops moving and nobody shoots it. Karensky and Steiger/Tambour put their weapons down and kick them away. The mech rips a second hole in the hull of the Hilsa and the cameras cut out.

---

Profit finds a fist sized data deck wedged between two of the drone by structures. It didn't fall there, it was jammed in. When she managed to yank it out, she sees twelve status readouts. Three display their status as "Offline." The other nine display their status as "Connection Lost: Out Of Range." If Profit could figure some way to boost the range...

The bridge of the ship is relatively untouched, both by the crew or by the intruders. There's a pilot's chair and two co-pilot chairs. There's no much sign of use or the build-up of junk that usually accompanies a lived-in cockpit. There's stray data-pads and other stuff floating around, but the Bridge hasn't been turned over the way their drone-bay quarters were. Profit assumes that Karensky and Steiger/Tambour did most things remotely from their quarters, and that the intruders weren't here for anything on the bridge. The most interesting thing about the Bridge is that, thanks to Ying, all the consoles are operational and it seems like data from just before the ambush wasn't wiped on the reset.

As you all know Science better than me, let me know if there's something I blatantly messed up in that battle (or elsewhere), or if anything doesn't make sense in general! Sorry for the delay, this weekend was a doozy and needed a day or two to recharge.

xian fucked around with this message at 21:28 on May 11, 2016

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

I pry the data deck out of its hiding spot and look it over. "Ying, got a present for you. Karensky and Tambour left us some bread crumbs." I send an image of the deck to her.

Until Flores has a chance to come get it, I tuck the deck into a pocket on my suit. While I'm locking down the cabin and make my way up to the bridge, I review the footage. "The drone I found was a partially disassembled spheroid. Down for maintenance when the attack came. Looks like whoever hit this ship wasn't expecting to run into that kind of resistance."

The firefight raises some other questions. I'm more sure than ever that the Hilsa was carrying something other than what its official manifest claims. As soon as I reach the bridge, I start pulling down the ship's logs. If nothing else it's proof of what we found. While that's being done, I check the bridge space itself, though from a cursory inspection I suspect there's very little to be checked.

Assess [+Edge]: 2d6+2 8
• What potential complication do I need to be wary of?

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 03:06 on May 12, 2016

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy


The ship's logs are frustratingly succinct. "Ship is 5x5. Crew fine. Cargo secure..." ad infinitum. The ship's manifests here are the same as what Amardeep sent them. Profit knows that if there was a glowing briefcase aboard the ship, or something similarly important, it wouldn't appear on any logs anyway.

And while her instinct says that's what this is, a hidden item among all the rest, when she looks at the communication logs, a sliver of doubt creeps in.

There are two dispatchers from Himalia Station listed, either overtly or covertly in Amardeep's employ. Scanning through the dispatches, Profit is able to determine that Halle Iavarone is loyal to Amardeep, and that Jacque Faust was the inside man, as he was the one who convinced Karensky and Steiger/Talmoud to divert to a more distant Spinner, which they never reached. It took convincing, too--those back and forths between Faust and the Hilsa are by far the longest recorded. But if the ship wasn't carrying something special, why hit it? Because it wasn't. Just a small fortune in raw materials that everyone in the system needs to survive. Faust, like the rest of the intruders, probably had no idea of Steiger/Talmoud and Karensky's true identities or capabilities and thought this would be an easy score of merchandise that was even easier to move.

Profit reckons that they're too far from Himalia station--a few days each way--that they can't go there themselves if they want the trail to remain 'slightly cool' as opposed to 'frozen in space'. She doesn't think she knows anyone on Himalia Station right now, but wonders if anyone else in her crew does.

What do you do?

*Himalia Station is at the Fringe of JSS Space, and isn't totally a Pirate Haven, but it's not that far off. Certainly one of the more lawless major space stations in the system, which is why Amardeep operates out of it in Jovian Space.

xian fucked around with this message at 06:59 on May 12, 2016

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy


Profit relays the information about Jacque Faust and Himalia Station to the rest of the crew.

~~

A probe, unidentifiable at this distance, appears at the edge of Fedor's scan range. It's coming in hot.

~~

What do you do?

xian fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 15, 2016

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'


--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred
Edge +0 Style +1 Meat +2 Mind -1 Cool +0 Synth +1


"He sold them out," I conclude. "Fucker." That's the way poo poo goes. "Doesn't seem like we've got - HANG ON. Live probe bearing down on me out of nowhere. Where'd it come from? I had this place locked fuckin' down." I swing the Warrior's pulse cannon around to bear, and wait for the reticle to lock. Gotta take this thing out before it reveals what we've done to the hold. Not that we're shady, per se. It's that this whole thing is.

Eliminating the Probe: 2d6+2 11

"Bogey is waxed," I report. "Waiting on kill confirmation. Double-check those drones, and be ready for poo poo popping up that we never saw." Traps on traps.

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

"Nice hit on that probe," I say, already moving back the way I came. "The drone isn't going anywhere - its motive drive and its primary controller are on tables about two meters away from each other."

"But I concur, it's time to go."

Sockerbagarn
Sep 8, 2007

All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare.

--:-- Harm | 0-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred | 1 Gear

"Affirmative, it seems like we've overstayed our welcome." I'm already halfway back to my mech when Fedor calls out the kill on the probe. "Fedor, Relay the inbound vector of that spook. If our marks sent it in response to their sensors going blind odds are they didn't bother having it loop the long way around, might be able to track it back to them. If not..."

"I spent some time on Himalia when I got to this sector, gathering intel and personnel for my hit against JSS. The contact I've got in mind will be able to squeeze Mr. Faust for what we need. I'll ping him when we've cleared the site."

Declare contact: Jerro Stone. Mercenary, muscle, murderer. Big guy. Dangerous. Likes what he does a bit too much, but is mostly reliable when he isn't jacked up on this or that. I figure he owes me for setting him up with a job.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'


--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred
Edge +0 Style +1 Meat +2 Mind -1 Cool +0 Synth +1


I consult the target tracking overlay, and give the info - "Target first spotted in grid one zero mark three five mark one seven on an effectively straight negative X vector right at me. It wasn't evasive."

I'll let xian decide what that means in terms of actual origin.

Mr E
Sep 18, 2007


--:--Harm|1-armor|1/10 XP|3 Cred

"Ying, I'm heading back to your ship. Can't see any reason to stay here - everything's dead on this ship. Let's get the gently caress away from this deathtrap!"

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

--:-- Harm | 1-armor | XP ●○○○○○○○○○»
2 Cred [1 Gear][1 Intel]


I'm finishing up in Ops, re-tightening the screws holding the access panel to the terminal. I leave a quick message on the terminal lockscreen as a finishing touch. [HEY rear end in a top hat, IF YOU TOUCH THIS THE SHIP GOES BOOM. IF YOU TRY TO REROUTE CONTROL, THE SHIP GOES BOOM. NO COUNTDOWN, HAVE NICE DAY], I didn't have the time to actually rig the core, but 'they' won't know that.

Just then the comms chatter hits, gently caress. fuckshit. shitshit. I start scrambling to get my tools put away onboard G0U, I ping him into follow-defend mode once more and start 'sprinting' as fast as my magboots will take me (more like a brisk walk) back to the midship dock and Corrido.

"Ok, folks we are the gently caress outta here. I'mma be floating in five. Be there. Fedor and Spectre, maglock onto my hull, I'mma try and keep it smooth, but we might pull some Gs so be ready and sound off with your G-limit (if you have nothing to protect you from G forces, the limit a human body can take is about 9G, 12 is survivable for a few seconds, but you'll have broken ribs at minimum)"

I hit Corrido's lock, command G0U to take up his position, and stomp up the ladder to my console. ping, click, tap, swipe and I'm watching a countdown until the engines are prepped, and I'm eyeballing sensors, internal and external, for trouble and approaching team members.

"Get those asses MOVING!"

I put on some music, and pipe it throughout the ship.
(Music plays over montage of ship disengaging and burning for the Lance. :v:)

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'


--:-- Harm | 2-armor | 1/10 XP | 3 Cred
Edge +0 Style +1 Meat +2 Mind -1 Cool +0 Synth +1


"Total G-limit is around 15, compensators are short-life, though. Set clamps for hop-on, Flores, I'll cover us until burn." I increase the sensitivity of my sensors. More noise, but clearly there's some things we weren't counting on here.

xian
Jan 21, 2001

Lipstick Apathy


Fedor's shot with the Pulse Cannon is a direct hit and turns the probe into a cloud of dust.

~

Following the telemetry from the probe back up its path would lead you farther away from any established shipping lanes or spinners and further into unoccupied dark space, which makes sense. If you've just loaded yourself up with stolen goods you're not going to take the main roads, after all.

~

With the same care to avoid the PDC attached to the bottom of the Hilsa, Ying pilots El Corrido back out of range and into the Lance's hold Once everybody is back aboard the Obsidian Lance, the question remains: What do you do?

~

Spectre, Jerro Stone sounds good. Start the conversation and roll hit the street.

Sorry for the slow and sparse post. I've been sick all week, but didn't want to leave you guys stranded on the Hilsa.

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Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

1200 Harm 1-armor | 2-cred | Ed+2 St+1 Me+0 Mi+1 Co+0 Sy-1 | XP ○○○○○○○○○○»

As soon as we return to the Obsidian Lance, I hand off the data deck to Ying. "Found this hidden aboard. If we can boost the range, might find something interesting."

"I'm going to review that footage again. Might find an edge when we have to fight these pirates." I head back to my cabin, keying in the video. This time I can pause and rewind, focus in on particular moments. But the angles are not great, and the tactical situation is straightforward. I suspect I am not learning much here.

Research [+Mind]: 2d6+1 5
Dang.

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