SC Roleplay(IC)- Helter Skelter Mining

[AFlyingPotato]

The trip in the elevator shaft was incredibly tedious. The three of you ,the Manager, and a mechanical trolly are confined into the small tube while it plummets into the ground. The destination is pretty deep, almost 2 kilometers, and the trip is long and uncomfortable. Soon the shaft comes to a gut-churning halt accompanied by the violent sounds of screeching metal, and the doors open. The draft of moist air blows through the doors expunging the stale recycled air in the elevator.

The Manager steps out into the tunnel first, hand behind his back he saunters out into the lit area on the mining apparatus. Outside of the small metal platform you can only see a long winding tunnel, its perfectly circular being almost four meters wide and four meters high. A faint blue light, emitted by the fungal growth, casts deep shadows onto the worn tunnel walls.

After consulting a small device Gregory waves his hand for the team to move out. After a short period of time he sighs. There is a corpse lying on the tunnel, the most immediate thing you notice is multiple long tears in the Hostile Enviroment Suit and a small pool of dried blood. As the group approaches the body, Gregory shines his light on it sending a multitude of small insects scurrying out of the light. Gregory walks towards the corpse and squats down to inspect it.
"Vance check out the body, and Mark, "keep watch."


The mining rig you work on is called The Goldfinch.
The manager of the mining rig you work on is Gregory Heidt. He's rather young, only thirty five, to be in charge of the operation. In your experience working for him, Gregory is in the business for the sole purpose of money and seems to be reckless in the pursuit of it.
He is a stocky Caucasian male, at 175 cm and 165 pounds. He is quite strong and most importantly quick witted, he has strong convictions and decision making skills that are crucial to his leadership role.

At this point all you know about your trip down into the tunnels is that Gregory wants to check something out. Your probably in your Hostile Environment Suits or light armor and lightly armed. The mechanical trolley was bought along with some forensic tools, and from the composition of the team(a doctor, a engineer, and a soldier) you can probably assume your looking for a corpse.

[DMBlackhart]

The good doctor, vance, begins walking briskly, and methodically. He seems to be in his element. Dank underground passages and the threat of being slaughtered seem to bode well in his dark little mind.

Vance reaches the body in seconds, thanks to his long legs and even longer stride. Bending over, removing a small flashlight from his medical bag, Vance begins examining the body.

After a few minutes of careful study the doctor stands, wearing an expression that would suggest a family member had just died of cancer. With this he turns to the director, and gives him a meaningful pat on the shoulder.

I regret to inform you, he's dead.

You could almost swear you see a slight smile on his face, as this could only be a sick joke. Of course the man was dead, a blind man could see it. So why would the doctor repeat such obvious news?

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance begin the careful inspection of the corpse. After he stripps the body of the suit you the injuries. There are multiple lacerations all over the body and heavy purple patches, signs of bruising, is apparent. There are also multiple small holes littering the body. What becomes apparent immediately is whatever attacked the victim was strong. It was strong enough to rip straight through his hostile environment suit and leave lacerations 5 inches deep. The apparent cause of death would seem to be trauma caused by the attack, large bruises and internal bleeding are apparent. The lacerations were most likely caused by some sort of blade or sharp object, perhaps serrated from the pattern of the wound. There are signs of massive hemorrhaging, some from the death when the corpse was subject to massive blunt trauma but you cannot determine the full spectrum of if that killed him. The hemmorphaging could be attributed to being partially consumed by the insects, there are even traces of them burrowing into the body to feast. You cannot tell anything conclusive yet until testing can be done.

I want to give a chance to the others to respond before surging on.

[Randel]

Jack Solder

Jack goes down the elevator with the others, mentally listening to the screech of metal and feeling every jolt in the decent.

Hmm... a Vertimover 1408, cheap bastard had to choose the bona fide cheapest elevator in existence. Probably didn't even spring for the magno-brakes and stuck with the ...

The sudden screech of metal and sudden stop confirms his suspicions.

Yup... he stuck with the default ones.

Jack wearily gets out of the elevator with the others. "Listen, we are going to be replacing this elevator soon, right? That screech means the braking system is rubbing directly on the shaft and that..." Jack stops when he sees the corpse on the ground in front of them.

As Vance begins inspecting the corpse, Jack sets down his toolbox, removes his laser drill and makes sure its got a full power pack in it. Something is down here and he's making sure he's got something to defend himself.

Though if it comes to a choice between whatever ripped through this guys hazard suit or taking that elevator again... well, lets see if the doctor can tell what killed him.

"I regret to inform you, he's dead."

"Well that's a relief. For a second I thought he was undead..."

"... he's not going to turn all Zergy and explode on us is he?"

[AFlyingPotato]

Gregory stands up and walks around the immediate vicinity for a few seconds , apparently having not heard jack. That was a really annoying thing about Gregory, he seemed to have selective hearing when you had something to say. He even goes and looks a bit further down the tunnel before returning.

He starts talking after Vance's report. "Jack get the corpse on the trolley, we're going to keep moving. I got a report on this guy," he motions towards the corpse," and his team going missing. We were pretty close so we're gonna get payed to haul up the corpses and find out what killed em." He looks at the body with a grimace, "What the **** killed him?"


Correct me if im wrong. I'm going to steal your ideas :D
Vertimover 1408- Supposedly a cheap basic elevator
Magno-brakes- A sort of magnetic stopping system?

[DMBlackhart]

The doctor seems to be intently staring at the body again. Not preforming inspections, or mock surgery, rather just eyeballing it while the rest of you speak.

In response to both jack and gregory's questions on the body, vance only mutters softly to himself.

Zerg. Wonderful.

You could swear another tiny smile flicks across the good doctors face. But if it was more then just a trick of the mind, then it dident last.

Right, first things first, we have to press further on. Jack, grab your gun or whatever it is and follow me.

Vance will wait on jacks lead before he presses onward through the area.

[AFlyingPotato]

The manager seems a bit taken back by your comment. He mutters something angrily. He asks again, this time more firmly, "I need an answer. What killed him?"

Just for your information, pertaining to whats coming up, your going to choose between two paths. You should be able to see this if you walk a bit further down the tunnel so if you look ahead this is kinda what you would see.

One leads further down and curves off to the right. Its about the exact same and you cant see much except for some more soft blue illumination.
There is a rather large hole a bit further down. It is not smoothly carved out like the rest of the tunnel, the edges seem very jagged and the hole is only about a meter in diameter. It seems to be quite steep going straight down. You're not close enough to see down it.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance waves the question off as he waits Jacks decision to go on, what would clearly be a suicide mission.

I can't be sure. But evidence points to an on the job accident. Was anyone else on shift with him? I woulden't immediately rule out betrayel. They have a psychosis established around being underground.


He seems more serious this time, more formal, more determined.

[AFlyingPotato]

"Nah, don't think so. Him and 2 others went missing, unless there somewhere in these tunnels or hiding out on some frontier town there probably dead to. Even if each corpse is five grand and finding survivors is ten. Determining the cause of death gets us more."

He pauses again, deliberating and weighing his options. "As long as its not some crazy zerg **** we're going on, and since it doesn't seem to be crazy zerg **** were going onwards."

I'm thinking since you guys are an independent seller, each crew member on the rig gets a cut of the profits. Probably a larger cut for those in technical and leadership roles. Since its a crew of 50 there is probably around 65 portions(2 going to the manager, engineers, soldiers) so you may be making huge money.

[Randel]

Jack Solder

Jack nods and drags the body onto the cart, using some work gloves and disposable paper towels to make sure he doesn't touch the body himself. He then reaches into his toolbox and pulls out a flashlight and a hand held nail-gun. With an adjustment he switches the nailgun to full power, loads it with nails, and turns on the toggle switch.

"Okay, somethings in this tunnel and I say we should have some defense. These tools aren't much, but should be better than nothing. I've got this nailgun... and some big wrenches. Do you have a gun on you Mr. Heidt? Nail Gun... it doesn't shoot nails really. The trigger is pushing it up against something. Melee weapon really... imagine a dagger that shoots nails into stuff when you stab it." He offers the nailgun to the Manager, its heavy and unwieldy but one jab with it should rip into the insides of anything not covered in metal.

If the manager refuses it he offers it to Vance.

Then he quickly pulls out a mini-light, tapes it to his laser drill, and leads the way through the caves to provide firepower on whatever is down here.

Hmm... finding the bodies of people who died mysteriously offers rewards? I hope that doesn't result in people causing 'mysterious industrial accidents' and hoping to claim the reward of finding the bodies later.

A grim view of humanity, but hopefully that would make it easier for them to find such a murderer... check if anyone else magically finds more bodies down here after they turn in this one.

Jack takes point and moves through the caves to lead the way while Vance pushes the cart.


Heh, steal away ;)

Vertimover 1408 - (name inspired by 1408 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)) a movie about a killer hotel room)
A cheap elevator system. Often when mining companies drill holes to probe deep below to see whats down there they may run into something interesting. The Vertimover 1408 is designed to fit the elevators support struts and system into that hole without any extra work. Results in a cramped elevator ride that frequently has bumpy parts and screeches due to imperfections in the rock the hole was dug into. Barely qualifies as safe for human transport and safety inspectors should demand they be removed after a certain amount of time.

Magno-Brakes -
Using technology derived from railguns, Magno-Brakes generate magnetic fields that can provide lift and braking power with magnetic fields. They never wear out due to not being exposed to friction. Often added to elevator cars, they make excellent braking systems by slowing the car gradually instead of quickly and can use the normal friction brakes as a back-up system. The normal pulleys are used for lift but if the cable snaps then the Magno-Brakes can take over and either slowly descend the car to safety or provide lift to take the car up on its own. They are however pricey and use up energy... but can easily be removed and reused on other elevator cars. On a Vertimover 1408 they would cost about as much as the whole elevator car but would make it much safer to use and could be reused after the Vertimover was replaced with a better system.

PowerHammer 102 -
A sturdy nailgun that fires nails into things when pressed up against them. Can be easily repaired with parts fabricated in most space colonies. Safety issues have been brought up with it not needing a secondary trigger to fire things but its simplicity of design makes it cheaper and sturdier than ones with that feature.

Other ideas...

Tremorsense Safety Stickers -
Small devices the size of a pocket calculator that can be attached to cave walls. Have reflective surfaces like the orange reflectors bicyclists use. Also a simple seismic sensor and signal boosting system. Place these all around a mine and they will record vibrations and relay them to a computer base to detect possible earthquakes or in rare cases they may detect the movement of people (generally if its a lot of people or they stomp really hard). With some reprogramming (charged extra by the store that sells them or can be done on-site by someone who knows programming which voids their warranty) they can use their relaying power to send other information like a wi-fi access or communications. With extra modifying then each one could have microphones and/or speakers to provide communication. But while they can be pretty cheap individually, it takes a lot of them to work in a decent sized mine network and a fair bit of work to set the system up to do cool stuff and maintain it. Generally seen as a good investment for people who know how to get mileage out of them but not so much with people who just look at what the stores sell them as.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance continues walking down the tunnels without saying another word. Either he has already steeled his nerves, or his mind is too clouded to worry for his own safety. Regardless vance takes the lead. When the time comes that Vance is forced to make a choice in paths he stops, takes out a small brass coin. With a quick flip of the wrist the coin is sent flying, and with another quick movement of the wrist vance snatches it out of the air midfall.

Without even looking at the results of the flip vance continues to walk down the path with the ominous blue light.

[AFlyingPotato]

The small team proceeds down the tunnel for quite a while. After fourty minutes or so, natural sunlight can be faintly seen illuminating from the further parts of the tunnel. You can already feel an incredible radiating heat and the ground loses its moist squishiness, sure signs your near an exit to the surface. Soon you reach the opening and the natural lighting momentarily blinds you. After much swearing from Gregory he finally takes a good look around. Your located at the bottom of a small rocky canyon, at the top there seems to be a small mesa with an outpost on it and a few small buildings. It looks like a laborious but doable hike up the sides to the outpost.

Gregory points to the buildings, "Benecia Grange, what a misleading name. The exploration is stated to have started at that point. We can do some sleuthing around for some information or get a ride back to the Goldfinch. We still haven't determined if its a homicide or a attack nor located the other three."

[Randel]

Jack

Reaching the surface, Jack thinks for about a moment.

"I'd recommend we get back to the Goldfinch and examine the corpse for a better idea of what killed him. An autopsy or something. Then we get ourslelves equipped for a real search party and come back to start searching the place. Maybe some actual weapons, some sensors, some extra men... I'm guessing whatever did this guy in might be a challenge for three guys with power tools to defend themselves."

"Though yeah, try to determine the cause of this guys death is certainly up high on the list of things to do."

[AFlyingPotato]

The team proceeds up the steep cliff, it is certainly not an easy one with the trolley but it can be done. As you reach the top you spot the small complex on the mesa. There is a metal wall around the perimeter and an open gate around the structures along with a few guards in CMCs. They pay no mind to you as you walk into the compound briefly looking at the trolley but not actually inspecting it.

There is one relatively large building in the center, the hub of the activities in the complex. Its the only building you can see people moving in and out of. There are two smaller structures on the side but they seem to just be a pair of supply depots. There is also a landing pad with a AH/G-20 and a medivac on the side. Gregory leads the group into the hub.

The impression the hub gives off is like a mall. There are multiple shops with a large variety of products at the front. You can see that there are lower levels, most of the building is underground.
"You guys do whatever you want for a bit, ima go call us a ride. We'll meet up in a bit." He splits off from the group going to call the Goldfinch.

So you guys are basically being left to look around, explore, get equipment, ect till Gregory gets back. You can take a lot of liberties here in your role-playing, pick up types of equipment and interact. You wont be able to do much as of this point other than meet some important NPC's or get familiar with the area.

In the hub there are:
Stores(Main floor, 2nd floor)- Most of the stores are selling consumables. Food seems to be a big thing here, most of the stores on the main floor sell foods like meat or actual vegetables. The other types of stores are on the second floor, they sell tools. There are no heavy duty ones being sold, most are smaller hand held ones and seem pretty low quality. There is also firearms being sold here but again nothing of larger caliber than pistols.(There is a small armory on the Goldfinch to, but you may not be able to access that at all times).
Pub(Underground 2nd floor)- A restaurant that serves real, somewhat fresh, food. It also includes a bar. There are a lot of people hanging around here drinking, eating, or just hanging around as there seems to be not much else to do in the hub. It has a bit of a '80s retro burger joint feel from the decor and the jukebox playing old hits.
Internet pub(Underground 2nd floor)- Its a small internet cafe, not much but poor quality computers with a person at each one. There's no line but almost no free computers.
Lodgings( Underground 2,3,4 floors)- All the people live in this hub, so there is a large housing complex underground. There are only about 150 people in this place.
???(Underground 5,6 floor)- Accessible.
Security booth(1st floor)- The hubs security force, there are a couple suited up guards strolling around. The booth itself consists of a couple guys monitoring the complex, you cant get into there anyways.
Magistrate Office(2nd floor)- Something like the local government office. Most of the paperwork and such goes here. If you go here you'll meet a secretary at a front desk and a few guards stopping you from going further
???(3rd floor)- Somewhere you cant access.

The supply depots are unaccessible
The landing pad is open but there are two guards watching over the vehicles, there also two missile turrets you can see around the place.

The hub is almost like a commercial mall, the place seems almost empty for all the stores there. It likely caters to passing rig crews that need to eat/ have a good time/ pick up supplies.

An AH/G-20 is just a banshee without the ordnance. The banshee is a G-24 so i just thought an earlier model would be about the same without the rockets.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance splits from the group, eyeing the place caustiously.

Wonderful, take me away from my research for a senseless trip to the mall. Just peachy

The entire time vance wanders the complex he carries a inquisitive, yet sour expression. Just from looking at him you could either assume he had some bad meat, or was annoyed with his new surrondings.

Our beloved doctor continues a short tour of the area. Stopping off a few times to order something to eat, to purchase a fire arm, and finally to silently stalk the underground areas. (Particularly floor 5 and 6).
Vance wanders the halls with his new semi-automatic handgun holstered to his thigh, and some sort of "meat" hanging loosely off a stick.

*chewing noises* Wonderful, just wonderful. Vance continues to mutter to himself, if anyone is to witness him passing by they will notice he seems to be arching his neck to a weird 45% angle.

Sooner we leave this place the better. I have important research to conduct. That body isent going to diagnose itself. And I am sure whatever nasty little zerg strain that caused it isent too far behind. I need to act quickly.

[AFlyingPotato]

While walking around you find the inhabitants of the place very welcoming. The place is pretty neat here, well lit, sanitary, and wide hallways with large glass windows at each store showcasing their products. They constantly urge you to come and purchase things going out into the hallways advertising their wares as you pass. There is the occasional guard strolling around, although these ones are lightly armed only wearing a vest and carrying a SMG.

The 5th floor seems to be some sort of abandoned area, the air is stifling with the smell of cigarette smoke and cheap cognac. The area seems to be in total disrepair; the floor is littered with **** and the occasional broken bottle, there are multiple half-broken light fixtures, and there are multiple distasteful stains along with rust corroding the floor.

Walking along the area you seem to be in a housing area with multiple units. Curiously everyone that you look into is accessible and completely abandoned. Then there are a few curiously barricaded areas that block off what you estimate to be 3/4 of the level. Some seem to be intentionally blocked off with chain link fences while others are just stuffed full of trash and broken furniture. As your walking there is an occasional gate but there seem to be heavy padlocks on them.

You don't meet anyone, but you can hear people laughing and the occasional laughter from the other side of the fences.


I'll assume you haven't visited the 6th floor yet.

[DMBlackhart]

(6th floor? Nope, im good, I will work my way up...or down... or left. Whatever)

Vance turns his head a couple times as he hears the voices. He isen't one to scare easily. He is brave to a fault infact. A few missing synapes and suddenly the guy is braveheart. Unfortunately vances lack of fear more often then not plays against him. He continues searching the area, muttering to himself like a mad man. A mad man wearing a lab coat...cliched...I know.

If there is indeed nothing left to find on the 5th floor vance will move up...or down...or left... or whatever to the 6th floor. If he even so much as smells anything zerg "esque" then vance will whip out his pistol and scalpel.

[AFlyingPotato]

After traveling down a level Vances suspicion of Zerg involvement is sadly dis proven. The 6th floor reveals nothing more than a sleazier side to life. There is another pub/lounge that is almost the complete opposite of the one a few floors up; it has a couple scantily dressed waitress's; people gambling, smoking, drinking, and swearing excessively; the food smells, looks, tastes like garbage; the place is also filthy. The rest of the place is about the same, just about everything is sold around here. You can easily find restricted firearms, smut, drugs in the shops here for the right price. Of course it is a good idea to keep your weapon handy around here though.

You can spot a couple of "guards" who just look like heavily armed thugs walking around. They don't seem to mind you much. There is also a gang culture here where you see people with similar tattoos or emblems on adorn their body or clothing. Best not to mess with these people when you don't know anything about the place.


6th Floor:
Pub/Gambling den- Whole lot of drinking and excessive gambling. No real standards of any kind here, which is good and bad.
Brothel- Well enough said
Stores- Contain restricted weapons/equipment, drugs, smut, and some people can be found who sell sensitive information.

There is a lot more on this floor but you gotta look around for it.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack gets a quick bite to eat, some fish, celery and rice. Then he a few emergency items, a pocket medical kit, some protein bars, and a space towel (a towel made of thin and tough material to make it good for a variety of uses. They come folded up into a pocket-sized sealed package and once taken out are clean and ready to use... but its impossible to squeeze back into its tiny space again). He's basically getting a minimum of stuff that he can fit into his pockets in case their other equipment gets lost (once they get some).

He does however look at the weapons, particularly interested in any energy weapons they might have.

"Hmm... I'm a bit curious about your laser weaponry. I don't suppose you could show me your strongest laser gun (I'd guess a pistol if that's all your carrying) and compare it with a regular bullet shooting pistol. I've heard arguments either way. Oh, and do you carry replacement laser diodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_diode) and parts for that model? If so, how many and how expensive?"

Jake thinks it over, regular bullet shooting pistols have their limitations but bullets are always popular because they don't reflect off of mirrors. However, lasers run on electricity which can be generated from all kinds of sources so ammo is rarely a problem aside from hooking up the right power cells.

Heh, worst case scenario he could buy a bunch of replacement diodes and jury-rig them to the sides of the gun. Add some extra power cells to the device and stick a few more diodes on it and he could double, triple, or whatever he wants with the damage he could do with the weapon.


Laser Diode - The most common form of laser-generating electronic component. Generally about the size of the tip of a pencil though they can get much bigger or smaller as needed for the laser. Laser weapons have blue-light diodes built into them with precision design and special focusing lenses to help direct the laser into a long-distance focused beam.

All laser beams tend to spread out and weaken after a while, cheaper ones spread out faster. More expensive and longer-ranged weapons have precision-based diodes and focusing lenses that minimize this while cheaper and shorter range lasers don't bother with lenses. The cheapest laser weapons tend to be little more than a plastic pistol shape with a laser diode on the end, a power supply built in somewhere, and a trigger. These cheap ones have fairly limited range, damage, and life span.

Laser diodes are generally very reliable aside from Catastrophic Optical Damage in which something breaks and the diode simply stops functioning. Thus laser diodes in weapons tend to work fine until they suddenly don't work at all. Except in the case of special precision-made laser diodes, there is some imperfection in the mirrors and heat sink which means that every shot slightly heats up the diodes mirror inside which slightly warps the diodes crystal. This problem causes near imperceptible flaws to grow until suddenly the diode fails completely. The diode can be replaced, but unless its installed properly and hooked to a heat sink then the same problem would happen to the new diode.


X-Barreling (or X-Dioding) - A term used for adding extra diodes to a laser weapon that it wasn't designed to use. Since the firepower of a laser weapon mainly relies on the laser diode used then some add more diodes to double or triple the potential damage output.

With some tape, a soldering iron, some heat-sink wire, and some extra wires and battery packs, an engineer can hook almost as many diodes onto the gun as he wants and thus increase its damage output. This of course increases the energy used up per 'shot' and unless done very well it increases the chance of something failing (either individual diodes due to adding them to systems not designed to protect them, or to other components of the gun like the circuitry). The accuracy is also affected since its really hard to align all the extra diodes right so that they fire at the target as intended (when done poorly, it seems to turn the gun into a laser shotgun)

Some laser gun designers design their guns to use multiple diodes at a time, thus increasing their damage output at the expense of power consumption. Some even have empty slots where new diodes can be added easily as a form of encouraged X-Barreling while not increasing the initial cost.

There are some lasgun clubs that view X-Barreling as an art and have competitions to see who can jury rig the most dangerous weapons out of the cheapest materials... these tend to resemble satalite dishes with hundreds of cheap laser diodes built in that focus all their light into a nasty beam at one point. These are commonly refered to as Death Stars either seriously or derogativly as the case may be. Death Star Shields are riot shields that have lots of laser diodes installed to turn them into weapons.

[AFlyingPotato]

After entering a small shop called 'Bob's Guns' you see a small modest selection in the glass showcases. Most of them are simple solid round projectiles, the older kind that used firing hammers and bullets, and accessories for them. You cannot see any Gauss acceleration weapons like needle guns nor any laser based weaponry.

There is a sullen looking man at the counter, he is leaning his chair against the wall and fiddling with a clip of ammo. When he sees you he puts away whatever he was working on and stands up slowly. After stretching himself out he walks over in a ambling matter, dragging his feet and slouching.

"Hmm... I'm a bit curious about your laser weaponry. I don't suppose you could show me your strongest laser gun and compare it with a regular bullet shooting pistol. I've heard arguments either way. Oh, and do you carry replacement laser diodes and parts for that model? If so, how many and how expensive?"

The man, who you identify as Jonathan from his name tag, scratches his head. After thinking about what you said he appears hopelessly lost. "I don't know nuthin about laser weaponry. That stuffs military grade right there, all we got is good old-fashioned guns. If your looking for lasers you might wanna look in one of the tool stores, they selling some mining stuff."
The guy stands up straight and looks around for a second, he even walks over a bit to look into the backroom. He speaks softly, "I know somewhere you can get some weapons that aren't exactly civilian grade. But these things don't come cheap you know." He holds out an open hand.

This guy's just selling guns and their acessories. He is almost clueless as to how laser weaponry works or is used. He just knows they mount it on spaceships.

[Randel]

Jack

"Well, in that case I'll stick with a regular gun then." Jack says, "Mostly curiosity."

He looks at the case of guns and tries to make a selection. Since its likely that they will be slogging through tunnels, he doesn't really need a long-range weapon... and whatever killed that guy probably wasn't a huge monster because it likely woudn't have left anything if it was big enough to crush or gut him. His best bet would be something with high stopping power and didn't require much in the way of aiming to hit the target.

"Actually, what do you have in the way of shotguns?" He looks at the selection, particularly interested in the models with a larger magazine size so that he's not stuck reloading them in combat.

Ultimately, he chooses to get his hands on either a shotgun or some form of semi-automatic gun so his lack of combat expertise can be negated with liberal use of more dakka.

Then, he gets plenty of ammo for it, and looks into any add-ons or upgrades or other toys that may include

If possible, I think I'll take either a pump actino shotgun or something similar to a PPSh-41 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPSh-41) or more accuratly the Combat Shotgun (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_Shotgun_%28Fallout_3%29) from Fallout 3.

Pump action for some versatility since this wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_shotgun) mentions that pump action shotguns are easier adapted to less-lethal uses or using other ammuniton than those used in semi-automatic ones.

Semi-automatics such as the PPSh-41 have larger magazines so he should be able to defend against small zergs if they attack... plus the PPsh-41 can use a barrel drum magazine which looks alot like a thompson sub-machine gun magazine... which makes it awesome!

Regardless, Jack tries to get something of the shotgun variety and leaves.

[AFlyingPotato]

The employee seems dissapointed at your decision. He still helps you look for your weapon cycling through a small selection of weapons. Eventually you end up with a choice you like.

The selection for the particular weapon you want, the combat shotgun, has very limited additions. The automatic nature of the shotgun leads the specifications of ammo to be very precise. The only add-on or improvements you can get for it is different types of ammo, hollow point and lead jacket rounds. These of course don't spread like normal shotgun shells.

Youpick up around 3-4 magazines of whatever type of ammo you chose and leave.
Ok, so you'll get the combat shotgun that you wanted. The only problem here is weapons of this caliber aren't going to kill any zerg. Zerglings can take gauss rounds(Spikes being fired through magnetic acceleration, like a railgun) so shotguns shells don't stand much of a chance unless your pouring a whole lot into the thing.

These kind of special rounds make the gun almost an smg instead of a shotgun.
Hollow Point Rounds- They have a softer shell at the front that mushrooms out upon impact. They do more collateral damage to organic/fleshy material. They do little to no damage towards anything harder than the outer shell.

Lead Jacket- They have a harder top layer which gives more it more penetrative power against armored targets.

[Randel]

Jack


Wait, so if I buy any of the weapons from this place then I might be stuck with a weapon that can barely take out zerglings? I've never actually played the Starcraft games (Actually I just bought Battle Chest package at Wal-Mart today so I can play it. But I haven't played it yet.) but I thought that Zerglings were weak disposable units... if combat shotguns count as civilian grade weapons... and civilian grade weapons won't have the stopping power against Zerglings...

Darn it, I'm going to need some kind of futuristic military grade gauss firing combat shotgun or something.


Actually... I'm an engineer... I think that makes me a civilian. So I can't really legally buy military grade weaponry or something. So I can't even buy weaponry that will let me defend against Zerg if we run into them without me becoming a criminal and potentially getting arrested and brainwashed into being a Space Marine... which would involve erasing all my engineering skills!


Looking at the combat shotgun and looking over the weaponry, Jack gets the impression that he just doesn't know enough about guns to be making an informed decision. Sure, he worked on some of the automated turrets... but that was mostly the servos and computers, the actual weaponry was handled by someone else.

But... if he mentions that he's getting this to fight Zerg... or potential Zerg... then would that freak people out or cause rumors or something?

Screw it.

"Actually, forget this... is there any civilian grade weaponry that could help defend against Zerg?" Jack sets the combat shotgun down and hands the employee ten bucks for his trouble. "I'm trying to get a Zerg Apocalypse Plan going in case the monsters show up." Jack says as a way of an explanation. "I don't want to get hauled in for illegally possessing a military grade firearm... but I don't want to look like a chump if the bastards show up and start eating everyone and everything. If you've got anything on hand or can point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful."

[AFlyingPotato]

The employee quickly pockets the money, and looks at the door to the backroom again. "Alright, now go to the 6th floor and look around for a Black Bullet guy. They got a tattoo with a skull on their right or left hand, there is like a bullet hole in it to. Just make sure you bring lotsa money and a few buddies. They charge outrageous prices if your by yourself, and if you don't pay up they'll shank you and take your money anyways."　He looks at the backroom again before continuing. "Best way is to bring a buddy or two, if there is about 3 people they wont pick a fight so easily and you have a good chance of getting a fair deal. Now also keep in mind that if you bring more than that they wont even meet with you. Also, I never said anything ok?"

Soon everyone gets a message on their communication device from the captain regarding their return trip to the goldfinch.

Transport waiting on landing pad outside. Dominique brought the dropship, come ASAP.
The difference between military grade and civilian is that military grade weapons is pretty big. Think about your shotgun in comparison to a C-14 rifle. A C-14 shoots magnetically accelerated rounds, a shotgun shoots projectiles using gunpowder. A C-14 holds 500 rounds in one magazine(which is used quite quickly, one burst is like 30 bullets), a shotgun holds 10 or maybe 20 if your using a magazine. If you were fighting a zergling with a shotgun you could take it out, a well aimed shot to the head at close range could probably splatter it.
But another thing that is different is the difference in book cannon and game-play(The above being book canon). In the books 4 marines can take out 30-50 zerglings as they charge enmass towards them. In the game you couldn't have this happen for obvious balancing reasons. I like to hold true to the zerg swarm thing so i like to take the book or comic canon. A few zerg against unarmoured and weakly armed humans, the humans stand almost no chance.
One of the things you see in starcraft is really old, or relatively so, weapons like lugers. The only thing is they are never used at all.
http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/C-14_rifle
http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Terran_Weapons

These Black Bullet guys are probably only packing needle guns, C-7's, P-45's or special bullet types and modifications. You wont have the money for the weapons at the moment anyways nor the protection or time required to strike the deal.

Some info on the Goldfinch and the crew of it will be up shortly in OOC.

[DMBlackhart]

(short post incomming. I spent the last 2 hours posting, updating games, and generally typing till my fingers turned to dust.)

Vance will spend an undetermined amount of time at the pub. Not drinking anything, which may seem unusual, rather studying the clientel. He will mutter to himself about random zerg stuff while he does this. The doctor tends to go off onto random tangents like this often, another unfortunate side-effect of being completely mental.

[Killerloop]

About weaponry and damage I'll throw in my 2 cents.

The standard C14 Impaler fires 30 rounds per second, each one capable of punching through two inches of steel plating. In game a mere zergling can take 3-4 burst before dying... and for game balance reason a marine (lowlier unit) can take a 3-4 slashes before dying.

Switching to the real thing a zergling claw should be treated like a medieval warrior swinging a sword. You can be killed with a single slash or stab, but it must punch through vital areas. A single burst of a C14 will probably instant kill any low level zerg we encounter.

About shotguns IMHO a point blank burst can probably take out a low level zerg, while firing from distance will just bruise the evil thing.


Speaking for the first time, Mark pointed out to the C14 gauss rifle he was carrying.

"They better charge honest prices, this little buddy shreds Zerg chitine armor with ease... go figure what it does to unarmoed humans" said the soldier patting the weapon.

He was relaxed, his combat armour could take a decent amount of punishment from civilian-grade weaponry.

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
As Vance sits there he gets a couple of weird looks but no one really bothers him. The thing you notice first is that there are a couple distinct groups of markings that people have.

There is a large assorted group of people who have a similar tattoo. You can't get a close look but its round and there's some bold letters underneath it. There is also another group of people you can clearly define, they look pretty ragged and each one would have a small emblem on their left or right wrist.

ALL
Everyone receives yet another message on their communication devices, whatever they may be, informing them of their travel plans.

Get to the dropship now!

Anyone who is tardy will get a subsequent flurry of spammed messages.

Get to the dropship, NOW!

Get to the dropship, NOW!

Get to the dropship, NOW!

I'll assume you haven't been on the Goldfinch, the mining rig you work for, for more than a month. Cause its relatively new to you and i didn't give information pertaining to it at the start :(.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance continues to study the odd markings. Hmm, they seem...familiar, he thought. Although even the good doctor coulden't recall why the markings seemed so obvious to him.

Vance's handheld assitant goes off with a series of short loud beeps.

Get to the dropship now!


Anyone who is tardy will get a subsequent flurry of spammed messages.

Get to the dropship, NOW!
Get to the dropship, NOW!
Get to the dropship, NOW!


Vance continues to let it beep till about the fourth message runs across the screen. With a short, irritated grumble he picks himself up, and heads up to where the dropship should be.

[Killerloop]

"Oh hmpf, I'm going to dump this thing sooner or later" snorted Mark at the communication device.

"Come on guys, the Dropship awaits us"

[Randel]

Jack

"Okay, I'm coming." Jack says as he quickly makes his way to the dropship. Its been several weeks since he was last on the Goldfinch and he was curious how the Engineering Bay was doing while he was away. Hopefully whoever was keeping it running didn't leave a mess of stuff behind for him to handle... or worse yet be so efficient they take over his job.

At least his farms should be a pleasant surprise, after this long he should find a nice supply of oysters and carrots in his mini-farm to come back to.

[AFlyingPotato]

Everyone eventually arrives at the landing pad in front of the transport. Gregory, who is inside already, raises a fit about punctual behavior as you climb in. After taking your respective seats, load the cart, a short flight, around 10 minutes, ensues. You eventually arrive at The Goldfinch.

The Goldfinch
The dropship lowers slowly into the docking bay, after a few moments it finally touches down on the floor and you can hear the hissing of the decompression chamber in effect. Gregory stands up and opens the hatch to the docking bay. As the team piles out you can see the docking bay is relatively empty, the SCV's have gone to work and there is no activity in it.

"Alright guys, all of you but Vance can go do whatever you want. Don't talk to the other crew members about our little trip through the caves, I'll be calling you later to help us."

He grabs the trolley and motions for Vance to follow him. Together the two of you start to walk to the medical clinic.
Jack should have a room on the Second floor.
Mark has a room on the second floor to, your sharing it with another security force member.
Vance can have a room on the third floor or the medical clinic, up to him.

Jack has access through maintenance rooms an pathways. The engineering bay to.
Vance has special access in the medical clinic, being the only doctor.
Mark has access to the security area, armory, and control center.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack heads to the engineering bay to check up on whats been going on for the last few weeks.

"Hey Arbour." Jack says when he meets up with the younger mechanic. "Just got back. Gregs been having me going all over the place out there." he says.

"Glad to be back here too. Do you know that Gregory still has the mine access tunnels using Vertimover 1408's instead upgrading them? I'm serious, I just hope that people don't have to use them too often. I'm going to try getting a list of the equipment we've got set up outside the base... I mean, you know how cheap he is with the stuff we have around here. But you have no idea how much someone can get away with out there."

Jack pauses a bit, wondering if discussing how their boss cut corners and costs in safety and engineering out there in the mines counts as "talking about their little trip through the cave."

He waves the idea away. "Anyway, I'm glad to be back at least for a bit. Hopefully I'll get back to work here tomorrow but with my luck Greg will drag me back."

Jack starts looking over the repair requests, trying to see how things have been going while he was away.



After checking on things there, Jack heads back to his room on the second floor and checks on his room and the areoponics gardens and oyster farm. He's been away from it a bit longer than he would like but if his setup and auto-feeding mechanism system has been doing its job then he should have a decent crop of garlic and potatoes and a nice big supply of oysters to go with it. (max would be about 30 potatoes, 30 garlic, and a bunch of oysters... say 80 or so... its a very compact setup and takes up a decent amount of his room).

He pauses a bit before he opens the door to his room, "Hmm... if I do get a nice crop of food then what do I do with it... I'd have to show it to Avery to cook it. Maybe I'll arrange a nice little feast for the guys in Engineering, fresh veggies and oyster should brighten up their day. Or splurge on a meal the whole crew can enjoy."

He opens the door.

"Or heck, I'm sure I can sell the stuff and buy something nice."

[DMBlackhart]

Yeah, first floor/medical bay room would be nice. Thanks

Vance stretches his limbs. Rubbing his neck as he exits the vehicle and begins to follow gregory.

I never did like traveling that way. Hieghts make me woozy.

Vance checks to ensure his I.D., Medical equipment, and other miscilanious personal items (including his new gun) are in place as they walk through the hanger.

So, what's up?

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
Gregory rolls the trolley into the clinic. As you go in Ashley, the nurse, hardly seems to care whats going on, instead she seems to be busy on some sort of social networking site.
"Vance i want an immediate autopsy on this guy. We need as many clues as we can get from this guy, hes worth way to much money to just let go."
There is equipment for surgery and an autopsy in the clinic, just no real heavy duty regenerative abilities in your lab. For those kind of things like mending back bones or parts of arms you have to go to a larger facility.
Gregory
After looking through the list and making some small talk with Arbour, who also has some complaints on cheap repair components, you see a couple minor problems. Most of them are being covered or not in your area of expertise, it looks like the rig might have to move soon. The idea made your head hurt, the amount of work required to lift off one of these things was astounding. All the elevator shafts and mining equipment underground had to be disassembled, then the station lifted off and moved. This of course fell into your area of expertise.

It doesn't look like it'll be within the next week though, the move was posted because there seemed to be a depletion of gas pockets around the rig.
Arbour didn't have much of a chance to talk back but he has similar qualms about the cheapness and poor quality of Gregorys purchases. Hes just barely cutting it.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance gives the body a glance over, acting surprised and mockingly dropping his very durable I.D. Badge.

Gregory! This man... He's... He's horribly ill. And look, most of him is mottled and decaying! We must operate quickly!

After vance finishes his stupidly little joke he sets to work on the body. Opening up a bunch of cabinets, pulling materials out and strewing them all over the place. Once the room is as he would often put it "professional looking" vance picks up a small powerful flashlight and a pair of medical tongs and begins escavating the poor corpse.

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
Gregory leans against a counter and carefully inspects Vance set about his work. He seems be trying to hold a neutral expression but it cannot hide his nervousness, he is constantly looking down and shuffling his feet. Everytime Vance makes a cut he seems to want to say something like 'be careful' but stops himself.

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
After some careful and extensive inspections Vance finds out more.

The repeating rip patterns of the wounds is the same for the whole body, suggesting the same weapon or appendage was used for all the wounds. Another theory, while very unlikely, is that each one of these appendages or weapons were exactly identical. You never really knew with Zerg biology or any biology really. The bruise marks also make it look like he was restrained down, its a plausible assumption whatever killed him was quite large and strong enough to overpower the man.

The other thing you find is that there is a strange type of toxin you could isolate from discoloration in the kidney, livers, and parts of the bowel. This toxin seems to be deposited in the largest areas of internal hemorrhaging, leading to suspicion that it may be some sort of toxin that caused this hemorrhaging and subsequent death. The death wasn't even directly attributed to the cuts on the body but the massive amount of internal damage.

What toxin could have been potent enough to cause that much internal damage seems out of proportion for a normal animal. It is known that there are certain strains of zerg that had powerful biotoxins, but the ecology on the planet was not exactly weak either.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance finishes up the autopsy. He removes a pair of plastic surgical gloves and protective glasses and a mask. After tossing these materials, along with all the "leftovers" of the operation, into the nearest waste basket, vance turns to the director.

Now holding a pen and clipboard in hand vance tears his focus in two. One part of his speech restrained to mumbling to himself, while his eyes follow the paper and pen. The other part of his speech is devoted to gregory, causing vance to skip some more important details.

It seems he was killed by a biotoxin. A poison of some sort. It caused his kideys to inflame and hemorrhage. My reports have come up conclusive to only one of two possibilities. According to the bruising and locations of the injuries, I can only assume that the assailant was a poisonous feral creature with large, sharp appendages. Or a very craftily disguised assassination by another employee.

Only one thing rolls through vances mind during this entire shpeel.

Finally, a new specimen. A zerg hatchery this close to the mines! I can finally continue my research!

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
Gregory seems very agitated, he sounds very nervous and possibly scared.
"Ok Vance. That biotoxin you where talking about, can you get me a sample? I'll send it to a lab and get it appraised, see what kind of creature we're dealing with. If its not a known species im calling the thing off. Save it for some other guy to deal with."
Gregory turns to leave the room before turning around and looking at the dead body. "You know what? That poor bastard is worth 5 grand, him and his team are actually worth almost 20 grand a piece. It's so much god-damned money I couldn't help but go after it," he pauses to sigh and scratch his head," but it feels kinda weird. I got a gut feeling about it, tells me we should just drop it and back out. What do you think?"

[DMBlackhart]

No! Vance immediately blurts out when gregory asks his opinion on the matter.

I-I meen. I only ment that we shoulden't be so hasty. The safety of this facility comes first. We shouldent in all good conscious let the assailant run free. *sigh* listen, im not the kind of man to care much about this sort of thing, but I can tell there is something strange at work here. And if your gut feeling is anything like mine you'll agree we can't just leave it be.

I dunno, maybe thats just my nature. At any rate, heres your sample.

Vance hands gregory the toxin sample all nice and bottled up. Unless gregory stays for a further discussion on the matter vance will lock the door behind him, cleaning off the table in an almost violent manner, and giving out a loud groan.

I can't let him take it away from me. Im so close, they can't stop me when im so close. I just need more time, I am SURE there are zerg here, possibly a new strain even. Then I can get off this dump.

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
Gregory takes the sample, "Thanks man, i guess your a better person than i am. Im going to get this sample identified, see you later."
He leaves the room with slow steps, deep in thought.

[Killerloop]

Mark

Mark jumps out of the dropship first.

"Ok guys, I'm heading to the command center to report for duty. We can meet later to grab some food if you want. Byebye!" said the soldier to his companions... after all friendship has to start somewhere. The engineer looks quite normal, but the medic is scary!

Walking quickly with a base map on his hands Mark finds the command center and knocks on the door.

An old officier with a paper listing a lot of names greets him: "Soldier: state your name, callsign and ID"

"Good morning sir, Mark Gillian reporting! First class Viking pilot ID: 672342MRKGLLN-VIK01. Callsign: 'Hellstriker'"

[Helinon]

As Mark enters the CC, Neal moves over to talk to him "Hey Mark. I'm Neal. I just got hired about a month ago. I was wondering if you had seen anything out of the ordinary around here. I'm on the security detail for the ship and patrols around the mines. Got any info for me?" Neal wonders why he approached this man. Is it because he's a soldier like himself? Probably.

[Randel]

Jack

Looking over the bumper crop of vegetables his home-made areoponics garden produced, Jack smiles as he pulls the produce out for storage.

"Hmm... I'm sure I can get a decent price for these veggies and they keep well. Or at least I can store them for a good while in here." He cuts the greens off of the roots and sets them up to dry.

The oysters however are a different matter, no matter how fresh they are, its doubtful he could sell shellfish to anyone without getting into all sorts of regulations. In the end, he decides to head to the kitchen where he can talk to Avery.

"Hey Avery, I may have mentioned that aquaculture setup I've been working on. Anyway, I just got a decent crop of oysters. Anything you think you can do with oysters that won't make them taste like fish flavored oatmeal?" He says this with a smile, most of the synthetic foodstuffs they've been having here lately has tasted or looked like some form of oatmeal or mush with slightly different flavorings. Maybe with some decent ingredient then Avery can show how well he can really cook.

[Killerloop]

Mark Gillian - Location: Command Center

The old man who approached Mark wrote down his data and walk away saying nothing.

Mark turned towards the man who had greeted him and offered his right hand.

"Nice to meet you Neal. Depends on what you consider 'out of ordinary': civilian walking around carrying light weapons and people dead here and there." Mark spoke with a soft tone.

"I just arrived and was reporting here to know if there are routine patrols or the like for a Viking pilot. What about you?"

[Helinon]

Neal shakes Marks hand. "I got hired out of Formicia. I've been a soldier for most of my life, and I even saw some action out on Char before the Zerg ran us out for good." Neal grimaces at those memories. "It...wasn't the best place for us to fight in the first place. Anyways, a few years back I was discharged for an 'unspecified reason' and I needed to get some money. Headed out to Formica the do some work and did some merc work as well, same as now. As for people being armed, well i wouldn't be too surprised at that, there's no telling whats here. But people dying....How'd that happen? I heard some guys went missing down in the mines, but you're saying you found them? That's not good for me. You know what killed them?"

[Killerloop]

Mark Gillian - Location: Command Center

Mark widened his eyes

"Char? Oh god, that planet is hellish. And you fought the Zerg there! Must have been one hell of a time."

"My experiences aren't that flashy. I served the UED for an year with various duties battling the Zerg and the Protoss then one day while I was patrolling with a Goliath I met a group of freakin' Zerg who came out of the earth!! Damned cowards, two minutes with them was enough to win a looooong rest in the army's hospital... and I consider myself lucky to be here telling this to you"

"Wait a minute! Did you happen to see that famous infested girl on Char? Kerrigan is her name."

[Helinon]

"I..... saw her briefly. As we were retreating, she came out, just to watch her victory I suppose. I really can't describe her. She looked evil, no other explanation. The fact that she was once a human....... it's almost too much to comprehend." Neal shivers, remembering the carnage the Zerg wrought on Char. "I was one of the lucky ones. I got out. We were all but destroyed, and most of us were injured. My squad lost half our men, and our officer. That's actually how I got that." Neal points to a nearby armored suit and you can see a huge pistol strapped to the leg of it. "That not your standard issue pistol. That could blow a hole in a Hydralisk with one shot at a good distance." Neal looks back over to Mark. "It takes a very skilled operator to face ground based Zerg in a Goliath. You must be really skilled in piloting vehicles."

[AFlyingPotato]

Jack
You walk through the mess hall, relatively empty except for a single person sipping coffee or tea and watching a newscast. Looking through a window into the back kitchen you can see Avery in the back. After walking around a few tables and observing the incredible uniformity of the cafeteria, as every piece of furniture is the same and not decorated, you enter the kitchen. The places temperature is quite warm and there is a very bland smell. Its hard to describe, something between a mix of styrofoam and the smell of paper. Avery is bent over a pail and is stirring it slowly with a ladle near the back. You can see him peering at the contents when you enter. As soon as you enter he erects himself and walks towards you, listening to what you have to say.

"Ho, that sounds pretty good. Haven't worked with any real meat in this kitchen since about two weeks ago, never seen the soup go out that fast." He gives a couple loud laughs before stopping, the typical soup at the mess hall consisted of some sort of thick tasteless gruel with chunks of mushy bitter 'vegetables'. The crew has had multiple assurances of the nutrition and healthiness of the soup but rarely did anyone ever want any of it.

"How much have you got? I could probably work out something special with them. Your probably not sharing this with the whole crew are you?"

[Randel]

Jack

Thinking it over, Jack responds. "Well, we are going to be pretty busy moving the rig... Hey, tell you what, I've got about 80 oysters and 30 each of garlic and potatoes. At the very least, maybe cook up some kind of oyster stew or something for everyone and then stretch the vegetables out to add some flavor to our regular stuff."

He chuckles "To be honest, I grew all the stuff mostly for kicks, never really wondered about what to do with it. Just do what you want with it but make sure everyone gets at least a little bit... and maybe a little extra servings for the guys in engineering if you think it'll help."

If Avery agrees then Jack delivers all the oysters and vegetables to the kitchen so that they can be added to the rigs food supply. Judging from the schedule, it looks like he won't have time to deal with any more crops and when the rig starts moving he would have to have everything packed up anyway. Maybe he'll start another crop later but he'd start from scratch.

After a bit of cleanup on the areoponics equipment, Jack puts all the stuff away and gets some much needed rest to begin the next day nice and early (with the help of his alarm clock).

[AFlyingPotato]

Jack
Avery happily agrees to your request. He returns to the back and stirs the paste like mixture in his pail again, happily whistling a tune as he does.

As you walk outside the cafeteria is completely empty now. The man watching the TV has left, the channel was left on a business broadcast. You glance at the headline(Merger Pushes Through) before leaving.

[Randel]

Jack

Curiosity piqued, Jack stops mid stride to get another look at the news broadcast. Jack doesn't really stay with current event enough and in a universe where giant space bugs may randomly appear and eat peoples homes then the economy can get pretty hectic.

"Hmm, what companies merged together?" Jake asks out loud as he tries to see what the story was. Hope it wasn't Servo Servants... or at least it doesn't result in him having to look for a new job. His last job fell out because the company was eaten by Zerg... if this one got eaten by MicroSpace then who knows how it would affect his career.

[AFlyingPotato]

Jack
The report is on an attempt to streamline mining and zoning rights by merging multiple smaller independent owners with a larger corporation called the Riksville Mining Operations. It seems that this company has been striking these deals for the last few months and a lot of them are pushing through. There are multiple charts and statistics showing profit gains and how less competition would equal more prosperity soon afterwords.

[imp_fireball]

Kary Blessing made his way into the mess hall of the gold finch and promptly flicked the channel, hoping to catch images of DGTV (Damn Good Television - a main stream station chock full of media whorishness).

A pretty, jovial, petite woman with blue dyed hair appeared on screen, "Woo! Yeah! What's up!? We're live at K-fest, and it is a party up in the hizz-ouse!"

Hizz-ouse? Evidently, they were trying way too hard to get hip with young audiences. Or maybe not hard enough. Kary only ever watched this show for the occassional broad casted bikini contest.

"I know we promised to show case a bikini contest, but we lied! Instead we're going to do random interviews with brain pans."

Jesus christ. Half the people on screen were under the influence of mock excitement. The only sample of true excitement he witnessed was when the camera would make a cursory tilt over to some drooling gogglers jacked into cyberspace. The woman on-screen seemed to deliberately forget about them.

Colony life didn't prohibit that sort of activity, but the cyber transience was limited out here.

Kary sighed, yet again. The only true joy seemed to be work these days. And there was no ore. It was all v-gas. Which meant he'd need to rent some fuel pumps and then haul steel barrels onto the elevator rack. Not as fun as ore treking.

He lit a cigarette, zoning out.
------

Later on, he woke up to dinner and the smell of Oyster stew wafting out from the kitchen.

"Damn. Haven't had anything that good in a while. Except for rations maybe." Which was rather depressing now that he'd brought up the subject. Stale Eat 'Em Ups MREs and non-perishable X-treme Turquoise energy bars? He'd eaten so much of that, it gave his diarrhea a distinct X-treme Turquoise odor.

The TV continued to blast obnoxious 'damn good' programming.

The same woman's face was far too close to the screen, "Aren't those brain pans sooooo stupid?! I mean like, totally ugh! Like, right, y'know? Harris?"

A man with a backwards base ball cap and wife beater promptly shoved the small woman over, now occupying the screen with his lanky bulk, "Yo, what's up, yo this is Harris, bro! Here to announce the top songs in the charts!" Titles came across the screen of main stream garbage synth songs such as 'Screwing the Light Bulb that is My Girl', and tricky pop fusion genre 'Tramp on a Trampoline' (when oh when would that bikini contest show?), accented with entirely unnecessary phrases from Harris: "Schwing! Fo'shizzle? Shiz nat! Biatch! Flavor Flav! Oh no he din't! Boom, there it is!".

Kary couldn't take it anymore, so he hit the mute button. Too bad he couldn't record this and then fast forward. He could have rid the bandwidth of the tv set and downloaded it to his HDD with the wireless in his SCV, but the company didn't really enjoy people doing that.

He finished up his oyster and onion chowder and then returned it to the kitchen to be cleaned. Like a robot, he made his way back to the TV set.

[AFlyingPotato]

The ugliest sound that ever existed awakens you the next morning, the blaring of the alarm clock . The next day had come far to quick, after a short rest it is time to work again. Regardless of what time you wake up you hear Gregory giving the morning announcements over the intercom.
"Good morning everyone, it is currently 0700. I hope you had a good sleep because there is a lot more work to do today. So onto the announcements we have a meeting for all the foremen and SCV workers in the briefing room at 0900, your duties are suspended for the morning until then. We also have meeting for the finance team after lunch in the archive room...."
The announcements continue with what the meal menu was, what movie was playing in the Break Room, and a reminder to stay safe. The rest of the announcements have almost no important content.

JackAt some point you check your computer or phone, you will find another message regarding a planned lift-off of the rig. It seems they are surveying out a location already so your told to prepare for the move.

While your looking through your computer though you notice some discrepancies in your room. It looks like some objects(up to you) have been moved and cleverly replaced to their previous positions. Just about everything has been flipped through, your drawers, closet, hell even under your bed. Your email and computer also seem to have been looked through with a backlog showing multiple failed login attempts before a successful one.

Neal When you wake up you will have to go to the control center to report for duty. In it you will see a few operators already sitting at the surveillance stations and a box of treats with coffee on the table. Its open for anyone to take, beside it there are the schedule and orders posted. For you it looks mostly the same(Patrol the area make sure nothing happens), except for a little note about patrolling the 2nd floor corridors and keeping an eye on the breakroom. Looking at the others orders you notice Mark has the same orders as you. There seems to be no explanation for the little excerpt in your duties.

(You guys are sharing a room right?)

Mark When you wake up you will have to go to the control center to report for duty. In it you will see a few operators already sitting at the surveillance stations and a box of treats with coffee on the table. Its open for anyone to take, beside it there are the schedule and orders posted. For you it looks mostly the same(Patrol the area make sure nothing happens), except for a little note about patrolling the 2nd floor corridors and keeping an eye on the breakroom. Looking at the others orders you notice Neal has the same orders as you. There seems to be no explanation for the little excerpt in your duties.

(You guys are sharing a room right?)

VanceOnce Vance leaves his room and goes to prepare for the work day he will pass the front desk of the medical clinic. There is a cup of coffee left for him on the counter, most likely by the Ashley(the nurse), who is missing from her position. The coffee however is still quite hot so she shouldn't have gone far. Upon entering his office you notice something is not right. It looks like your stuff has been moved. It looks like they flipped through the cabinets and searched the place then tried to put things back to the previous state, it looks quite thorough and subtly done. The things are almost in the same place but for a doctor that needs to meticulously place things and keep organized its quite obvious. Ashley sometimes goes through your stuff but she knows just as well as you where to place it so the culprit is not likely her.

Paranoia will beset you and you do a thorough examination of the area yourself. After a while you notice a couple things, the documents you wrote during the autopsy have been moved. You immediately search the morgue and you can tell the body has been inspected. It looks like someone else opened up the place and poked around with it. After doing another inspection you notice someone else has sliced off a piece of the body where those biotoxins where located.

KaryThe morning for you is quite a sorry one. You have nothing to do for the whole morning and there is nothing on TV. The food in the cafeteria is quite bland, some sort of porridge that tastes to artificial and isn't even sweet. You have to attend the meeting later on in the afternoon with the rest of the SCV crew and foremen.

Things looked quite glum. After doing whatever you do you eventually meet up with Arbour, a mechanic. He walks up to you and punches you playfully as a greeting, "Whats up?"

ALL
I want a sort of description of your morning and what you do. I need to know how you act. The latter part of some of the narrative takes command of your character but you can change it if you want.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance spends the morning the same way he does every other day. Running from room to room, raving to himself like a madman, and generally acting paranoid. However today was different. Vance had entirely left the clinic un-attended, no doubt playing poorly with the workers who will show up wanting to get a quick fix.

After a few strained hours of running around the base, asking questions, he returns to his office empty-handed.

Vance runs his hands through his wiry, unkempt snow-grey/black hair.

Hrm... I need to figure out what has hap-
However vance cuts his thought off half-way. He moves some boxes, and opens up the floor-panel/hidey hole he uses to safe-gaurd his only remaining "zerg" specimen. Normally he woulden't need to go to such lengths, but when he was transferred here it was made abundantely clear that he was to have NO access to zerg material of any sort. (DNA, Tissue, you name it, all off-limits).

A rush of cold air strikes vance's face as he pulls up the cryo-container out of his special crafted hiding spot. And ever slow slowly he removes the lock and lid, letting the cold-steam to settle praying his specimen is unharmed.

(I'll leave the rest up to you GM. :p)

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance
The hiding spot had concealed the remains well. Indeed it seems that nothing had happened to it, not a single hair is amiss. You hear a sound coming from the hallway and you quickly, but carefully, shove the container back into the hiding place.

Ashley walks in, "Hey doctor. Did you get the coffee?"

[imp_fireball]

Arbour sneak attacked Kary with a shoulder punch that hurt more then it should have. Apparently he needed to the hit the gym and build some muscle in that area. Avoid the marines in case they happened to be high on stims in the locker room (and one could tell with that black eye discoloration - scary as hell)...

Kary responded in his usual passive, but sometimes what could only be described as 'desperate' or 'willful', manner, "Hey! Oh nothing. Uh... bored I guess, but can't wait to get to work. Seriously, it's the only thing that's any fun out here. What's the plan anyway?"

Good old Arbour. He could be annoying at times, but then again everyone was annoying out here. They all had to be tolerated. Regardless, Kary needed him to keep looking at his SCV every day. Speaking of which, Kary had told himself he'd give it a name, or 'christian' it, and where that word came from, he didn't know, nor, he noticed, how it happened to relate to the mild curse 'Jesus', 'Jesus Christ', 'Geezus' or 'Hayzus'; he used to think it was derived from the sound made by a sneeze.

One of these days, he'd give it a name and cease Arbour's constant pestering about it... maybe once he cashed in enough to own it and quit paying rent.

His future was literally hanging by a thread - he was given a major loan to keep up with rent but compound interest could easily pile up. If he lost this job, he'd owe a ton of debt and the loan would be discontinued. All he needed was a few more years in this job and then maybe he could convince them to give him a slight boost to own the machine - or convince them to allow him to spend the extra money currently being saved, of which they had already given him.

[AFlyingPotato]

Kary
A smile splits Arbour's face and he talks quickly, "Later today, me and you should go grab some drinks and chill in the breakroom. They're showing this old film, its called Avatar. Heard it was great from a buddy of mine, it was supposed to be innovative a couple hundred years ago."
He looks at his watch, "Oh ****. Ok, i gotta go see ya around 20:00 or something." He runs off somewhere to go work.

After awhile the meeting starts, you have to sit through it. Its incredibly boring, most of it is about safety standards and mining safety. Don't smoke, don't race, go slower, report problems blah blah blah. You've only heard it a couple thousand times already so you tune it out mostly.

[imp_fireball]

Couple hundred years? Wonder what that kind of vintage would sell for? Well, if it hadn't already been corrupted with the likely millions of copies flowing over cyberspace. Well then again, there wasn't very much transience on this colony so if they had cheese like this, then darn. Someone out here had to be an avid movie fan (obvious understatement).

"Oh wow, let's hope it's the correct format," Kary joked, "Alright, see yah." And then sighed. When he asked what the plan was, he wanted to know about the schedule. Ah well.

The meeting was a drag, but Kary endured it nonetheless.

Remember to breathe, heart beat and wipe your ass before sitting down on our nice company chairs. Right. Of course, nearly everyone ignored smoking regulations.

Why did they suspend activities for this meeting?

He knew he should be making some use of his time here.

He raised his left arm into the air, prompting the tasteful crack of stretching shoulder bones (or whatever you called that area, part of the spinal cord?), "Hey, question: What is our next step? Y'know, what's happening in the near future?"

Is anything useful gonna happen on this rig?

[DMBlackhart]

Vance nearly falls over, stumbling over some loose boxes hiding his "dirty little secret".

Im FINE ashley

vance says, in an unusually harsh tone.

Sorry, I ment, im fine. And yes. I got the coffee. Thankyou. It was rather... deliscious today. Now, I have alot of work to see to so I would ask you to please go about your buissness.

Vance moves to lead ashley out of the office, stopping just at the doorway.

Ashley, did you happen to see anyone come in this morning?

[Randel]

Jack

Now then... with my mechanical army of self-replicating autonomous construction robots I will harness all the resources of this puny planet and rebuild it as I desire! With metal buildings, vertical farms, areoponics gardens, bio-material plasma recyclers, lazer defence turrets and ramps! None of those crummy elevators or stairs, I want ramps everywhere from indoors or outdoors or...

*beep!* *beep!* *beep!*

Curses, the zerg are attacking! Activate the defense grid...

*beep!* *beep!*

I said defense grid you foolish robot, why I outta...

*beep!* *beep!*

Wait... do I even have robots?


Jack opens his eyes and his brain slowly reboots as he finds himself in his room. The alarm clock buzzing as the engineer starts to unwrap himself from the blankets in his bed in order to turn it off.

Dang it... stupid reality... where am I? Oh yeah... my room in a mining rig in the middle of nowhere.

He looks around.

And no robots... dang it! I'm in space, I deserve a robot servant.

Dressed only in a pair of boxer briefs, he finally turns off the alarm and sits down at the computer to check on the day ahead.

It was at this point that he discovers that somebody had gone through his stuff!

What the... dammit! I'm gone for a month or so, doing my job... heck, doing more than my job and somebody messes with my stuff?! This is unnaceptable... this is exactly why I need robots. Jack makes a mental note to get some extra security for his room... maybe install some micro cameras or something to monitor the place while he's gone.


His room itself is a mess, the floor littered with clothes, plastic bags, random knicknacks, and spare parts. There are shelves and boxes around the room, shelves on the wall which hold all sorts of clutter he's collected over the time he's been here. 90% of it is junk but at least decent enough that he can justify trying to keep them.

In the corners, the areoponics and aquaculture setup was taken apart and packed away... but a few more of his half-assembled mechanical experiments have been moved around. His mini-foundery (which when finished should hopefully be able to melt down all the plastic packaging and junk items he's collected into raw materials) and half-finished Rapid Prototyper (which makes plastic items) have been moved around while he was gone. Along with several books and items although thankfully nothing was stolen.

Jack quickly looks though the backlogs and file system to see what passwords the person had attempted (his real password is a seemingly random string of numbers and letters which was derived from the opening sentences of chapter three of Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics (http://www.britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm)) and what files they had tried to access or edit.

Darn it... well, there was nothing really important on my main computer anyways other than my web logs and video games... and schematics for some of his projects (which all use open source blueprints).


Regardless, Jack gets up, grabs one of the cloves of garlic he kept for himself and eats it for vitamins, gets dressed, locks the door securely, and heads out the door to get to work.

Okay, first I get breakfast and then I go to the security guys and let them know that someone went through my stuff... maybe they have videos on the security cameras.

After he lets the security guys know, he gets to work on the engineer work. Namely check with Arbour and then go through the complex running checks and diagnostics on every hover system that can be accessed from inside the building (he brings along his environmental suit just in case).

[Killerloop]

Mark - Private room

Mark awakened crampy as hell. Space-lag is tougher than jet-lag.

"Get your ass up, Neal. We have to report in ten to the command center"

The soldier had a quick shower and then dressed up. In nine minutes he was at the command center eating yummies and coffee.

"Morning people" he said to the operators "Same old same old or something interesting happened so far?"

[Helinon]

Neal jolts awake when mark waakes him up and slowly gets out of his bunk. "The one thing that I will never get used to is getting up early." Neal then does his morning excerxices, 20 pushups, 20 situps and 40 jumping jacks before checking his orders, and reporting to the command center to get some coffee and suit up. "Hey Mark," Neal says as he looks over his orders, "why the hell are the telling us to watch the breakroom? Something happen there?" Something doesn't feel right about this and Neal would like nothing better than to get into his suit so he could have at least some protection.

[AFlyingPotato]

Neal and MarkOne of the guys at the surveillance posts swivels around towards you guys in his chair. You can see its Dallaire, the head of the small 9 man security team. He stands up and walks over grabbing another pastry from the box, he pauses to chew for a bit before speaking, " Other day in the breakroom we got some rabble rousers stirring up a ****storm in the breakroom. They made a fine mess, broke a few glasses and a table before Ling(another officer) stepped in. Looked like it was going to get pretty messy to, make sure you keep an eye out for troublemakers."

He walks over to his desk and opens the drawer pulling out a pair of cards, "You guys can suit up with some shock batons and combat shields. I'm keeping most of the team on alert today, nothing less than a protective vest and helmet." Dallaire hands you the cards.

To you this seems like a bit of overkill, it wasn't necessary to gear up this much. Dallaire wont talk to you anymore, he seems to busy to work and deflects any questions.

JackThe morning sucks, and so does work. Almost immediately they have you looking at a long string of numbers and statistics on the intake and outtake flow of the valves to troubleshoot problems. After a while you notice there are a few minor leakages that need to be fixed. After though you can finally do some more interesting work. You travel down into the maintenance tunnels with Arbour to check the systems.

After opening the gates with your access card you can see into the shaft. Its quite small in the first place and then its even more cramped with multiple cables and machinery on the side. There are also multiple vents into multiple of the larger rooms as you crawl along to the first floor. The trip through the cramped corridors leads you somewhere on the first floor, looking at the lift-off equipment. Arbour is doing a tuneup, oiling and securing the parts while your inspecting it.

As Arbour is doing his work he tries to make some small talk, "So how's it going Jack?" He grunts from exertion as he tries to tighten a bolt. "Anything going on with you?"

Vance Ashley is a bit taken back by your sudden outburst but takes it in stride. She walks over beside the doorway and leans against it. "I opened up the clinic this morning, first one there and opened up the doors. I left for about 10 to 15 minutes, i don't think anyone just walked in though."

She thinks it over then stops, "Why did something happen? Cause it wasn't me if you need to know." The amount of negligence she showed was infuriating but there was nothing you could do. It didn't look like she knew much about anyone coming in this morning, and a 20 minute window didn't look like it was enough to search your office.

KaryRomeo the geologist pauses and looks at you. Many of the members in the assembly look expectantly at the old man. You get a strange vibe from the rest of the crew. After a short awkward silence he starts, "Well our next step is moving the rig. As some of you may know our mining area is yielding less and less gas throughout the past weeks. Now it has been our intention to tell you this from the start of the meeting but unfortunately we will have some lay offs..."
An angry murmur arises from the small assembly and Romeo quickly tries to settle them down, "Now don't worry, if you are willing we will only be temporarily dismissing three or four of you(there are only about 10 SCV pilots anyways). And if you are willing we will bring you back to work. Think of it as a small vacation instead of a layoff." He seems nervous under the scrutiny of the workers.

One of the pilots, a man named Bretton, stands up, "Yeah and how long is our 'vacation'?" He speaks in a very sarcastic tone. The economy on Tymat fluctuated and stable jobs where hard to come by. There was a large likelihood you would get laid off, or fired, and end up unemployed for a few months.

Romeo seems to hesitate, "I would say about...." He looks around before continuing weakly, "Six months?" He says it like its a question instead of a response. Naturally the idea of being unemployed for half a year did not bode well with the workers, an angry discussion starts. Romeo tries to calm them down with no success and then after awhile simply ducks out of the room into the management office.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance ushers ashley out of the room, and aplogises for his out burst. Once the coast is clear he will lock his door, and open up some rather.. incriminating files. He gives them a cursory glance, while trying to think about who would want to break into his office and steal stuff.

Vance seems entirely focused on his research. The information on the terminal shows that he is looking at reports/files regarding zerg biology. He has a specific section about venoms and bio-toxins open, and is trying to place a match to an existing strain, to the poison the patient had.

Hmm, this is strange. If it was a known strain, I'd have it logged....

[Helinon]

(I'll assume that the card are for us to turn in for the gear or security clearance cards)
Neal sighs, grateful that it wasn't more serious than a simple worker dispute. However, he does go over to his personal gear and takes his flak pistol and attaches it on his back. If Mark asks why hes doing that, he'll respond, "I'm not taking any chances. With this incident and the death of the mining group down there, I'd prefer to have some lethal support."

[AFlyingPotato]

VanceAshley is more than happy to leave and doesn't linger around to long.

The database comparison is futile and it only makes you want to slam your keyboard and throw something at the wall. The biotoxin is so close to the spores found in zerg spores, but the similarities are also beset by completely contrasting irregularities. The chances of it being a zerg poison or a man-made on is about even, perhaps a human one based off of the zerg spores? Nothing can be ruled out on this strange toxin for now.

As your working you hear someone knock on your door.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance quickly shuts down everything he was working on, and stashes it back in a secured file cabinet.

Just a minute!

After a bit of scrambling vance comes to the door, and looks outside it (if possible) before pressing the switch to open it up. The whole time vance keeps a hand on his pistol on his hip*

* (unless it is illegal for him to have one. Then it's strapped to his leg)

[Randel]

Jack

As Arbour is doing his work he tries to make some small talk, "So how's it going Jack?" He grunts from exertion as he tries to tighten a bolt. "Anything going on with you?"


Jack shrugs, "A bit, I just harvested my first crop of veggies from my little areoponics garden thing. Plus some oysters. Gave em all to Avery yesterday except for some garlic. So the quality of the food might be a bit better for the next day or so." He finishes examining one of the parts and jotting down the readout in an electronic pad. "Figured its the best option since everythings going to be so busy for the next few weeks. I consider it a test run for when I actually get serious about it."

He moves onto the next device. "How about you?"

[imp_fireball]

Damn, lay offs, eh? Just my luck if it's me.

Kary had to think of a way around this. If he lost this job, he'd have to work for the debt collectors directly. Who knows what he'd do then, sell his body? Damn damn damn.

"Hey guys, hey guys... uh, guys, shut up! I think we gotta think proactively here. Maybe we can arrange to lower wages or something. Or maybe we can get rid of some benefits?"

[Killerloop]

Mark - Command Center

"Yes sir, going on patrol now"

Mark suited up, taking the combat shield and the shock baton. He also took his C14 rifle both does not bring it out of the protective sack, instead he throws it around the shoulder.

"Combat shield and baton is fine, but I will carry my good Impaler anyway well hidden. Those civilian armed I saw doesn't really make me at ease. Let's go"

To Neal: You see Mark set the shock baton at maximum.

[Helinon]

Neal nods and sets his baton to maximum too. "I'll watch our six." He'll be right behind Mark, making sure nothing and no one tries to get them from behind.

[AFlyingPotato]

VanceA worker walks in slowly as you open the door. He has a pained expression on his face and you can see the source, there looks like a pretty painful cut on his chest. "Hey doctor can you help patch me up... I got in an accident."

Inspection of the wound pretty much identifies it as a cut from a weapon, or at least something was used aggressively to attack him. You didn't see any plausible way something could fall and cut a 5 inch laceration horizontally onto his chest.

JackArbour throws his hand up in a mock cheer, "Whohoo! Real food. No more plastic lumps in grey slop anymore." He laughs a bit before continuing, "So how about you come with me and Kary, hes one of the SCV pilots around here a real good guy, to go watch the movie in the breakroom today. Called Avatar, its supposed to be really good."

KaryThe group wont seem to calm down. Pay on the Goldfinch was very unequal, lower positions payed absolute **** while pay for senior crew or specialists could triple or quadruple your pay. The idea that half of the SCV crew would be layed off was just about the last the workers can take and there is quite a bit of anger in the crowd. Eventually they disperse, many of them going to the cafeteria for lunch or the breakroom to let their anger blow off.

Bretton walks over to you, "Dude, aren't you pissed? Cheap *******s in management are gouging us again. Hell the equipment on this piece of junk is crap, combined with the fact they pay us nothing for hard work...."

Helinon and KillerloopAs you guys are patrolling you see the elevator from the first floor open up. A small and angry mob of 12 or so people walk out, ranting about somethings, yelling, and looking quite angry. Half of them walk to the cafeteria, as it is about noon, and the others to the breakroom.

From what you see and hear most of them are the SCV pilots, part of the labor force on the ship. While they pass you can catch something about wages and can clearly tell they're frustrated.

[Helinon]

Neal moves up to mark and whispers, "Should we split up? If we leave one group alone, the might cause trouble. On that note, its also 6 to 1 odds if we do split up."

[Killerloop]

Mark

"I am not that used to crowd control. Let's split up, but if something happens lets call each other and act together. 6 to 1 odds are overwhelming if they are determined to resist."

[Helinon]

"Alright. I'll take the ones in the break room. Remember, wait until they start something. We don't want to incite a riot where one can be avoided." With that, Neal moves into the break room and simply waits, leaning on a wall, trying to appear uninterested in his work.

[Randel]

Jack

"Hmm... Avatar, huh? I think I heard about that one. Is it the one with the firebenders and oriental style martial arts or is it the one with the mining operation and the blue space elves?"

Jack keeps working, stopping as he suddenly remembers something. "Wait... yesterday when I was in the kitchen I saw on the news that someone was buying up and merging all the mining operations. Supposedly to streamline it all. Hicksville Mining Operation or something... or is it Ricksville..." He gets back to work "Some kind of 'iksville' Mining Operation company... don't quote me on the name. They're buying up the mining operations so we should keep an eye out for that."

"But anyway, I'd love to watch this movie with everyone. Heh, but from what I've heard don't be surprised if I root for the Miners." he gets a little serious, or rather annoyed at whoever writes up the ideas for these movies. "I hate aliens, if you can't play for team human then who the heck do you play for, right?"

[AFlyingPotato]

JackArbour stops his working to and leans back against the wall, of course he still has to bring his knees up in the tiny corridor. He ignores your avatar question. "You know, I heard some **** going on about layoffs. Did you get a message about a liftoff in the near future?"

He gets back to fiddling with the mechanisms, even though they are already tuned up. "I heard some guys started a fight in the breakroom. One of em even brought out a knife and went crazy. I heard it was cause there's a rumor going around about layoffs."

[imp_fireball]

Kary replied with the typical maturity entirely uncalled for for a representative of his age group, "They do that everywhere, Bretton. Maybe take my advice, and don't cause any more trouble then it's worth. I mean, if you're nice and polite, they might not fire us. Personally, I'd very much like not to lose this job."

Kary had a very quick brunch in the lunch room and then made his way over to his SCV, working in the pumps and barrels with much scrutiny.

It's gonna be a long day.

He didn't think he'd have the energy to endure some vintage movie from what was probably pre-rocket era after all this was through.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance's insticts immediately kick in, as he blocks all inquiries about the events of the injury until the man is patched up.

My hypothetical oath wont prevent me from saving someone, so please, hurry lay down on the table over there.

vance leads the man over, and helps him lay down. Vance begins by locking the door and switching on a little light that says "operation in progress" outside the front door.

First he administers some anethesia to the injured miner. After the man is sufficiantly "drugged up" he sets to work on clearing any obstructions from the wound, and then cleans and stitches it. He is careful to take some tissue from the injured area for diagnostics.

What could have caused this....

The doctor works inhumanly fast, and finishes in a matter of minutes, although the patient remains sedated for an hour or so after. Once the miner comes to he has him shipped off to his quarters on a trolley bed.

After all is said and done vance closes up the office, locks it, and ensures everything is indeed properly hidden/secured.

I need to speak to the director. He wont like this at all.

Vance then makes his way to the director's* office.

* (I forget what the lead guys name is. So... refreash my memory please)

[AFlyingPotato]

VanceYou take the elevator from the first floor to the third. As the elevator is passing the second floor the doors open revealing a glimpse of the second floor. You see a small crowd of people loitering in the hallway, they don't look very happy. A bit bothered by the tiny mob your thoughts are dispelled as you reach the third floor. A pair of heavily armed guards, in full CMC armor suits and carrying gauss rifles, are standing in front of the doors into the hallways. The security guards do a manual ID check instead of the door processing it automatically. This seems odd, normally there are no guards even stationed here. Some warning lights go off in your head, something was up.

As you enter the management department, you can already hear loud arguing from the managers office. There are a few disgruntled workers processing forms and whatnot on the computers, clearly bothered by the noise. As you walk in you encounter two men and women arguing loudly. Gregory is seated in his desk talking to Romeo, who is leaning over the desk and yelling at Gregory as close as possible. You also notice Hayek seated in the corner after awhile, she seems calmer and isn't taking apart in the argument other than a few quips here and there.

Gregory motions for silence as you walk into the room but Romeo persists on his heated debate. After a few seconds Romeo notices your presence and stops yelling, he turns around.

"So what do you want Vance?" Gregory sounds quite irritated and impatient.

[Randel]

Jack

He turns to Arbour, "A knife fight? In the breakroom? Geeze... just what we need." He looks down to his tool box, it still has his laser drill and some wrenches and screwdrivers. If things start getting crazy then he can try to defend himself... actually, scratch that, security can do their job.

"But what's this about a liftoff? Are you talking about us moving the rig (hence us making sure this thing is in good enough condition to fly considering how cheap we run this place.) or is there something else that's going to be launched?" Jack finishes his work on one of the devices and moves on to the next.

"Heh, when this thing flies its going to be held up by our engineering skills, happy thoughts, and a lot of duct tape. Now the SCV drivers aren't happy and we're running low on duct tape."

...

"Okay they will be lifted by the massive array of anti-gravity generator and direct-kinetic atmospheric disruption compensators for vertical movement while the horizontal will be handled by more traditional jet propulsion systems but still alot of that falls under the duct-tape and engineering category... happy thoughts is what keeps society together and gravity from looking in our direction as we hotwire its car."

he thinks about it. "Though really... I suspect that if they are moving the rig and laying off people its probably because this Vespene Gas vent is running low... they're probably wanting to move the rig closer to another fresh one and the decreased productivity means they need fewer SCV drivers for the work."

He keeps thinking. "But, if someone did pull out a knife then at least the guys there know which of the SCV guys are psycho and thus who to lay off..."

[AFlyingPotato]

JackArbour sighs as he works, "The whole rig is supposed to be lifted off, that's what i think at least. I really dont know how this bucket is going to make it through the liftoff, you should talk with Abraham." His voice's tone gets very serious, "It's to damned confusing now, come with me to the breakroom. We're going to try and work this whole thing out."

He sits back up again, his tone lightens."Yeah this part should be done, you ready to go too?"

[DMBlackhart]

VanceYou take the elevator from the first floor to the third. As the elevator is passing the second floor the doors open revealing a glimpse of the second floor. You see a small crowd of people loitering in the hallway, they don't look very happy. A bit bothered by the tiny mob your thoughts are dispelled as you reach the third floor. A pair of heavily armed guards, in full CMC armor suits and carrying gauss rifles, are standing in front of the doors into the hallways. The security guards do a manual ID check instead of the door processing it automatically. This seems odd, normally there are no guards even stationed here. Some warning lights go off in your head, something was up.

As you enter the management department, you can already hear loud arguing from the managers office. There are a few disgruntled workers processing forms and whatnot on the computers, clearly bothered by the noise. As you walk in you encounter two men and women arguing loudly. Gregory is seated in his desk talking to Romeo, who is leaning over the desk and yelling at Gregory as close as possible. You also notice Hayek seated in the corner after awhile, she seems calmer and isn't taking apart in the argument other than a few quips here and there.

Gregory motions for silence as you walk into the room but Romeo persists on his heated debate. After a few seconds Romeo notices your presence and stops yelling, he turns around.

"So what do you want Vance?" Gregory sounds quite irritated and impatient.


Vance comes into the room, carrying with him a short report written up on his most recent patient. He lays it on the desk, and gives gregory that "im dead serious" face of his.

I fear we may have had a repeat of the last attack. The man's wounds coulden't have been accidental, or self inflicted.

[Killerloop]

Mark

"Ok, I'll go into the cafeteria." said Mark, turning the power level of his shock baton to 'moderate shock' from 'maximum shock'

[AFlyingPotato]

VanceGregory gingerly picks up the report. He flips through quickly before handing it to Romeo.

Gregory raises an eyebrow at your negligence, "This guy told you he got into a 'mining accident', and you didn't question him further? He was obviously lying and you knew it."

Romeo starts again, "We should have a god damned lock down. Don't let the crew run around this evening other than in their own quarters."
Hayek cuts in, "That won't help at all, the crew will only get more frustrated."
Their little debate continues for a few minutes much to your amusement and to Gregory's irritation.

Gregory slams his desk with an open palm and stands up, his visage is a portrait of malice, "Everyone shut up! Right now, I don't want to hear a word out of either of you anymore!" The room falls silent under Gregory's wrath. "Vance go to the crew members room, and find out what happened to him, I dont care how you get the information. Grill him if you have to, I want to know who injured him and why first, if it has anything to do with the layoffs find out who is propagated this violence. We'll take out their leader."

The guy he is one of the mechanics, named Douglas, and his room is on the second floor. You should prepare to snag him and interrogate him though cause he might not be willing to divulge information.

MarkThe cafeteria is about half full of crew eating, no one seems to making to much of a fuss right now. After they finish they move around to the breakroom.

[Killerloop]

Mark - Cafeteria

"One espresso please" said Mark to the barkeeper, trying to disguise himself as a normal customer.

As soon as the SCV crowd exits the cafeteria he waits for about two minutes and then follows suit to the breakroom.

[Helinon]

Neal, notices the crowd from the cafeteria moving into the break room, and then notices Matt following suit. He nods at Matt and continues watching for any trouble.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance simply nods and leaves the room in complete silence. You could have sworn you saw a slightly crooked smile adorn his face as he dashes out of the area.

Only minutes later vance shows up at dougla's room, a back full of medical supplies (among other things), and a small recording device. Vance double checks to make sure he still has his side-arm on his person.

Assuming the patient is awake, vance walks in, his expression "normal" however somehow dark at the same time, as if a sick joke was running through his head.

Good morning mister douglas. I do hope you are holding up well. Unfortunately I have some bad news, it seems that whatever little incident you were involved with has gotten the facility on lockdown. So it's my solumn duty to....extract, any useful information from you.

Vance sets up his medical equipment to one side, gregory can see a wide assortment of needles, chemicals, drills, and other nasty utensils. Vance stops to make sure the door is sufficiantly sealed.

Vance picks up a small syringe filled with a red-ish liquid.

Now, I have to run some tests. To...erm... determine your mental stability. However this can be avoided if you just tell me all the details about your little "incident".

Finally, something fun.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack double checks the equipment in this area to make sure he got everything. "Okay, looks like we're done here." he says as he gets up to follow Arbour to the break room.

He picks up his toolbox and follows to the break room, stopping by the kitchen area to see if Avery had put any of those oysters and vegetables to good use.

If there is anything, he makes sure to get some for him, Arbour, and Abraham. Making sure his co-workers have at least some natural vitamins in their system could go a long way to putting people at ease... well, at least the ones he has to deal with on a regular basis.

[Helinon]

As Neal walks around the break room, he accidentally bumps into a table, politely apologizing those he disturbed.

[AFlyingPotato]

Time passes and it eventually reaches 8 o clock

Break-RoomThe break room is quite lively, the previous aggression and outrage has drowned with beer and loud music. The place is quite full, but not jam packed. There are about 17 people in the place(not including any PC's), a lot considering there's only 40 people on the ship. All the seats are filled and just about every activity is being occupied. Avery is running around fetching drinks and some snacks for the people.

The movie Avatar is on the DVD selection menu right now, the movies going to start in a few minutes.

A careful eye splits out a few groups. Most of the workers, the SCV pilots, are in the lounge playing pool or just relaxing. There's a small group of people from management sitting in one of the tables, the one closest to the hallway door. There is also a small engineering and mechanics crew in the breakroom to, bummed out from a day of work. There are also a few security guards on break in the room to, they are sitting on the bar stools.

Helnion and NealAs you patrol the break room, the other security guards are also keeping a tight watch. They don't appear to be armed but you can just about bet they're armed. They nod at you if you make eye contact with them but they don't want to talk to on-duty guards.

The crowd seems to have settled down but earlier you saw a glimpse of the workers heckling the guys from management. It didn't break out into a fight, verbal or physical, but it got pretty tense. Most of the guys on the mining team are down on the lower level, drinking quite excessively while waiting for the movie.

Jack As you and some other buddies (Genser, Thomas) from engineering get into the break room they take a seat in one of the tables. After a short conversation about how hard work was you decide to check up on what Avery was doing. Since your about to go anyways the rest of the guys tell you to fetch 6 beers, one extra than needed for good measure. Douglas was supposed to show up soon. You decide to walk straight into the kitchen.

You see Avery pretty much busting his ass off, hes running around trying to satisfy everyone's demands to get drinks or snacks as quickly as possible. After about five or six minutes he finally gets a chance to talk to you. He looks pretty tired and even when he's talking to you he's still working, cooking the oysters that you raised.
He doesn't even look up when he talks to you, preoccupied with his cooking. "Ok, you gotta talk to me fast. I don't wanna hold those guys up much longer than i have to. The faster they get what they want the happier they are, i don't want another guy, or girl, to get shanked."

Also, another thing that only the guys from engineering would know, there is a maintenance access route from the break room. Its behind the bar counter.


Descriptor of break room:
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/263/rect377266142.pngThe break room is split into two distinct parts. The bar area, the lounge, and the pool table.

The bar is nearest to the door. There are three tables, each one with a few seats along the sides. Splitting the three tables is a low barrier between each for privacy, if your sitting you cant see over it, and the most you can see from the other side is the head. There is a bar counter with a few stools beside it. They serve drinks; mostly beer or 'fruit juices', which are artificially flavored. They also have coffee and light foods, like sandwiches and chips. There are two doors from at the very side that lead to the breakroom from the kitchen.

The second level is down a small flight of stairs, its set about 1 and a half meters below the first level. There is a small railing to prevent people from falling down to other than where the stairs are.

The second level is a lounge area. There are a few comfy couches and a screen projector that is projecting some form of media onto the wall opposite. There is also a pool table and a few game machines, a pinball one and a mock firing range.

Vance You enter Douglas's room with your card, the security clearance has been activated. The room is quite tidy, there's a bit of clothing laying around on the floor but other than that his desk and bed are quite tidy. As you lay out your tools, Douglas reacts by slowly getting out of his bed. He edges closely to his desk. His hand is outstretched as if trying to block you from coming closer.
"Wait a second, what's going on here? I didn't get anything you just said and i mean, how did you get in..."
He edges just a bit closer to the desk again, keeping a careful eye on you and the syringe

KaryYou're pretty much alone in the Docking Bay, tuning up your SCV quite carefully and thoroughly. As you are you cant help but notice the once beside you. It looks like it's been modified extensively. It looks like something was added to the back near the exhaust and then covered up with a welded on metal plate. Now it might not be your business but it seems a bit suspicious, unauthorized upgrades by employees other than the engineering crew was prohibited. Especially since you didn't own them.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance approaches with the syringe, keeping a hand on his hip where his hand gun lays, in case things go sour.


Now now, no need to be startled, im just running a few routine tests. This here, well, it's morphine to help you relax. You must be in a great deal of pain.

Now, lay back down, you woulden't want me to miss and hit something important now would you?

Despite Vance's reasurrance he still holds an unnaturally dark smile on his face. However there is hope in his facade, hope that the miner may be fool enough to trust the doctor, the man who saved his life. Then again, vance was a gambling man.

[AFlyingPotato]

Vance"Easy does it there doctor..." Douglas takes one more step towards his desk, taking a nervous shaky step. "I think we can just...." You see him shoot a quick glance at his desk after the step. Suddenly he flies into action.
The man has finally edged close enough to the desk to reach it(only like 1 meter). He is close enough to quickly whip out one hand to open the desk drawer and use the other hand quickly withdraw a pistol. He has to spin in a half circle to do this so he isn't facing you as he retrieves the pistol. He fires a shot into the air wildly as he withdraws the gun from the drawer, the bullet lodges itself into the desk sending a small tuft of paper flying.

AHHH he's got a gun D:
So he basically grabs the gun from the drawer, fires a wild shot as hes pulling it out, and is now has his back to you. If you want to do something roll a d6 and state what you want to do yourself and post it in the OOC, depending on the results come back and write your actions.
If its 1 you fail terribly. So you try to inject him but you miss and the needle breaks or you hit yourself. You fail to upholster your gun quickly
2 is a failure. Missing an attack or fail your action.
3 is a bare failure, a small margin of error. Maybe you merely scratch him with the needle and don't get a chance to inject the contents, or maybe you fire off your gun but miss.
4 is a bare sucess, a small margin of sucess. You hit him but not vitally, maybe a wound to a limb or such.
5 is a success. You hit him where you wanted to and get your desired effect.
6 is a really good success, lets you pull off a very hard task and go beyond your desired effect.

So for this guy, lets assume i actually rolled any dice, i would have gotten a 3 for drawing his gun. Sure he got his gun but now his back is facing you and he fired his gun for no reason.

[DMBlackhart]

Charging at the patient like a madman himself, vance tries to drive the syringe deep into douglas' arm. He does have success, however at a cost. The missed fire from douglas' shot had caught itself in the doctors shoulder. This could have been avoided, however vance seems to be consumed with rage... or is it passion?

The sedative drains into the miners body, and unless this batch had been faulty, should show immediate results, forcing the man to drop to the ground like a stone.

*Huff* *Huff* I am not letting this opprotunity slip by. I apologise doug, but this is what has to be done for the good of all terran kind.

Vance, having sadated the miner, moves him to the bed, and begins preparing some surgical materials.

Worse come to worse, I can blame it on an un-explained toxin from the wound...

Vance, setting to work, begins his dark, morbid experiment.


Yeah, vance's goal is to take what Zerg DNA he has access to (hopefully freash, given he has the body part, and the technology to preserve it) and splice "doug" with it. Although the obvious moral veiw of it would be evil beyond reason, vance's rationality has been shot to hell in "the name of science". Hell, he is obsessed about learning about zerg, why would he pass up a chance to CREATE a zerg/Terran Hybrid? :P

so, if you don't like the idea, feel free to kill doug, or have the doctor get caught/detained, or something like that. Although I do hope you appreciate a bit of dark humor :p

[Killerloop]

Mark

As Mark saw the heckling between workers and managers he stepped in between the tables. Walking with a slow pace he wants to remind both groups that there is security watch around, and having a fight is not a good idea.

[Helinon]

Neal looks down to the lower level making sure that no one is causing trouble. if anything is suspiscious he'll go down to check.

[AFlyingPotato]

Sorry guys in the breakroom but your gonna have to wait for Jack's action before we go on.

Vance After the needle plunges into Douglas's arm he quickly turns around and fires a stray shot. A sudden flare of intense pain rips through your right shoulder. Injured and stunned, you cannot stop him from aiming again and preparing to gun you down. For the briefest moment a sudden panic overcomes you as you stare down the barrel of the gun, your research all ends here if you die. After a very long second you hear a low grunting from Douglas, his whole arm seems to shake. It looks like hes pressing the trigger but cannot muster enough strength.
"What the..." Douglas's takes a quick breath,"****..." Gravity seems to pull him down gently and he has no strength nor will to resist. His body stoops slowly over and his hands seem to heavy to hold the gun, slowly and involuntarily he falls. Douglas slumps forward into the grounds embrace, the clattering of the gun follows as it to hits the floor.

As you move him you can see that the sedative has worked, although not quite fast enough. His muscles have all gone slack, but he isn't unconscious. As you roll him over you can see that his eyes are open and Douglas seems to be able to move them, they're staring at you almost pleading. The experiment must go on, Douglas probably cant feel anything anyways and if he can he's not objecting. You check the Zerg DNA that you have isolated, it is a dark viscous amber liquid. You have two needles full of the stuff, with a careful hand you stab into the spinal cord and the bone marrow in the right femur.
The subjects eyes widen briefly as you insert the needle in his spine, he cannot see it but appears to be able to feel it. An immediate profound effect starts to take place, his eyes dilate an absurd amount, the pupils growing to an absurd size. You watch the subject for about two minutes(exactly 112 seconds) with fascination, other than his initial reaction he lays in a comatose state. Near the second minute mark you notice a viscous spasm in his right leg that manifests itself as a sudden kick that nearly turns him over in the bed.

You quickly turn the subject onto his back. Soon his whole body is being shaken with spasms, his back arches forward then relaxes repeatedly. He seems to be writhing in agony. You also begin to notice an absurdly quick reaction in his lymph nodes. They swell and turn a sickly green color, to your fascination. The speed the DNA was taking affect was astounding, many viruses must incubate for days before you could get this kind of an effect. The subjects eyes have returned to normal, they are staring at you again.
Eventually, exactly 20 minutes, the spasm's stop and the vital signs flat line suddenly. You barely catch it, as soon as the subject stops writhing he has died. The subject is clinically dead now, no pulse and your biometric scan reveals no brain activity. The body is now dead, and the cause appears to be a failure in the immune system. The Zerg DNA overpowered his immune system and killed him through the failure of his immune system. This requires an extensive autopsy to uncover more information.

[DMBlackhart]

Hmm.. Not what I expected, but wonderful. Simply wonderful

Vance mutters ot himself as he clears the place up, stashing douglas' gun with his own belongings, and dressing his own wound more properly.

Now I have something I can work with. My research will not die yet!
Vance is overtly giddy at this thought, and marrily prepares to take douglas' body to the surgical station so that he can begin an autopsy.

It's really a shame. All you had to do was cooperate. No need to have made it messy.

>>>>>>>
(Assuming he is uninterrupted on his return)

Vance sets the "stage" for his greatest "project". He treats the preperations for dougs' autopsy almost like an art, humming a up-beat tune while he works.

(I will leave it here, unless you want me to go into detail about how he slices the guy open, fondles his guts, then takes notes and samples and what not)

[Randel]

Jack

"Oh, in that case do you need any help?" Jack volunteers to help out. If the offer is accepted, Jack quickly gets six beers for the others and returns ready to give Avery another set of hands to get things done.

[AFlyingPotato]

JackAvery leaves his oysters for a second and enters the backroom. He grabs a six pack of beer and hands it to you, patting it after he hands it to you. "We'll there's one thing you can help me do. Keep an eye out for your buddy Douglas, make sure he stay's safe. Also keep an eye out for me for a guy called Woods, he's a bad piece of work. Liable to start something again. Just make sure to keep an eye out for me ok?"

He walks back to his work to check up on the pot.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack nods "Okay, I'll keep an eye out. What does this 'Woods' guy look like" he asks Avery, just making sure he knows who he's looking for.

Once he gets a decent description, Jack heads back to the table and sits down with the other engineers. He distributes the beer to everyone as they wait for the movie. "Got a glimpse of the kitchen, I have a feeling we're in for a special treat."

He sits down and takes a sip, glancing at Doug to see how well he looks.

[AFlyingPotato]

Once again, i have to mention Doug is missing. Hes expected to arrive soon though.

[AFlyingPotato]

Break Room
The movie starts.The place gets pretty quite and the only sound is the occasional clacking from the pool table. You notice Avery come in catering to the crowd with some food and everything seems well.
JackThe movie starts without a hitch. The place gets pretty quite and the only sound is the occasional clacking from the pool table. You notice Avery come in catering to the crowd with some food and everything seems well. You notice Woods stirring with discomfort, he seems very agitated and unable to sit still. his man named woods seems a bit nervous, he's not drinking his beer either other than a few small sips. He looks around nervously a lot, especially at the guards when they're not looking.

As soon as a lady from management talks to a guard and they leave the room together, you notice Woods stands up after. He gets up to whisper to his friend, who nods back, for a few seconds before getting back to his seat.


Mark After you send a small signal to the guys they back off. One of the girls from the management does attempt to get your attention though.
"Hey, can we talk? Lets go take a walk outside for a second."

She basically pulls you out into the hallway, she looks around to make sure no one else is around. When she assures herself no one is around she starts pleading with you, "I know that one of those punks has a weapon. I'm sure he does. I saw him flash a gun at us for a second before covering it up."
She stops for a brief moment but quickly continues on without letting you speak, "If you don't do anything someones going to get hurt. You should just go ahead and kick them out." She speaks with a flair of indignation.

As you are listening to her, her claim seems baseless and like she made it up on the spot.


NaleThe movie starts without a hitch. The place gets pretty quite and the only sound is the occasional clacking from the pool table. You notice Avery come in catering to the crowd with some food and everything seems well.

Some girl in management pulled Mark out of the room to talk to him for a second. Soon after you notice a small reaction from the guys on the lower level.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack notices that Douglas is missing from their group. "Darn, I could have sworn... wait, I'd better go see whats keeping Doug. Don't want him to miss all this good food."

Jack politely gets up from the table, taking his beer with him, and makes his way toward Dougs room. Jack remembers the way there because all the engineering personnel have room in the same section of the ship (that, and Doug keeps borrowing Jacks Irresponsible Captain Tyler DVDs without returning them in a timely manner.)

If one of the security guards stops him, he lets them know that he's just going to check up on one of his friends who is supposed to be here soon.

Jack soon reaches the door and knocks on it with his knuckles "Hey Doug, you in there? The movie is about to start and Avery's got something really good cooking up in there. Don't want to miss this."

He puts his ear up against the door, to listen in and find what might be keeping him.

[Helinon]

Neal figures that the girl was either just worried about the possibility of these guys breaking into a fight, hitting on Mark, or just someone Mark knew. The disturbance on the floor below however, is much more important. Neal descends the stairs and approaches the center of the problem. "Is anything wrong here?"

[AFlyingPotato]

Break Room
NealThe men respond with a murmur of "No, nothings wrong." You do notice though one man in particular who seems to be behaving strangely. Oddly enough hes the only sober one out of the bunch and he seems very nervous. He's actually sweating when you come up and ask the question.

After your question though, you seem to have overstretched your hospitality. The men wave for you to go away and continue to watch the movie.

JackA quick knock doesn't suffice to generate a response. You knock on it again, this time louder and more times, still no response. That was pretty odd, Douglas must be somewhere else. Just in case you press your ear up against the door to listen, the room is absent of any sound.

[Helinon]

Neal backs away from them, but stays fairly close to the suspicious man, glaring at him extremely hard, trying to see if he has a weapon on him. If the man happens to look at Neal, he'll be seeing a security guard giving him a glare that practically screams 'I know somethings up, try anything and you will pay dearly.'

Alternatively......

If Neal has the authorization to search him for weapons, he will do that. if the man refuses Neal will take out the shock baton and ask him to get on the ground, and we'll pick up the posting at that point.

[AFlyingPotato]

NealThe option to simply search him is a valid one but it may not be the best choice. The room's mood is very relaxed right now but you can't be sure what would happen if you make such an aggressive action.

You can still go on with it though.

[Helinon]

(Hmmmm. Thats a good point. Doing that might be as bad as him actually pulling a weapon. I'll just do a "Routine search" of the entire table. I'll do quick checks of all the obvious places of everyone at the table, and socialize with them while doing, saying that its a new order they gave out to the guards and that I'm sorry about doing it. Less than 2 minutes per person and i check the suspicious guy second. If he tries to move away I will be forced to take action.)

[AFlyingPotato]

Neal
A bit of joking seems to lighten the mood but they seem to be pushed pretty far. Your pretty surprised they didn't tell you to just shut up and leave them alone. The men submit, although not quite willingly. Most of them have nothing but a wallet and some miscellaneous items, some of them have knives but those aren't prohibited. This does raise a lot of suspicion though.

The nervous looking man you search identifies himself as Woods, a SCV pilot. His voice sounds very shaky, but he looks clean. While your looking you can tell he's definitely sober and near the verge of pissing his pants.

It may be good to press him further, somethings bothering him and its going to just burst out if you do. There is also the risk of when it bursts out to though.

[Helinon]

Neal decides to approach the situation with caution and only try once more to figure out whats up with him. "Anything wrong Woods? You seem kinda....well to put it bluntly, scared $%^less. Have anything you want to tell me? Maybe I can help out."

[Killerloop]

Mark

Mark raised an eyebrow at the girl wanting to talk with him "Sure miss, we can talk"

After hearing what she has to say Mark replied:

"Relax, I cannot kick out people out of a mere suspect. Let's go back inside and you will come with me to the armed man to hear what he has to say."

[imp_fireball]

Kary decided to write down the specifics of this incident and let engineering know later on. He'd go about his business, feigning ignorance until he could get in touch with Arbour. Arbour seemed like a nice guy and he trusted him - he'd probably get the notice to the others and Kary could stay in the dark as an 'anonymous informant' until the authorities felt it necessary that someone come forward. Arbour would take the hit unless there was a reward in store.

Kary was young after all, he didn't have much responsibility and he didn't want to hang himself over the others in terms of who had authority and who didn't. He didn't want to anger anyone unnecessarily.

A full hour after writing and pocketing this note, he made his way to the break room in the hopes that Arbour would be there wherein he could pass it on amidst the noise.
------

The break room itself was boring. Kary was terrible at billiards and the pin ball machine was so old fashioned, the concept was beyond nostalgia - beyond antique. Cyberspace gaming was so much more intense - so much more filling. No transition hubs around here though, he remembered for the 18th time today. Well, he had to break that addiction anyway.

Wait, wasn't there a firing range? It wasn't the real thing, was it?

[AFlyingPotato]

Neal
Woods shakes his head and responds quickly, "No sir, not at all." He is acting like a child denying he stole something, you can tell he has but hes not going to give you a response.

Your comment does also draw the attention of the whole group. They mutter among themselves. You also see one of the security guard members on the level above, sitting on one of the barstools, shake her head and motion for you to come to her.

Mark
The women refuses adamantly to go back with you. "They'll hurt me," she bites her bottom lip and looks like she's about to cry, "just get them out."

Kary
You see a security guard and a women talking to him, almost pleading, in the hallway. You pay little mind to them and you enter the break room. As you open the door a sudden burst of noise and light greets you.

The movie playing includes multiple explosions and a whole bunch of lame special effects. The room has a pretty relaxed attitude, the tables are all full as is the whole bar. You also notice another guard talking to some of the guys watching the movie on the couches. You think his name is Neal.

[Helinon]

"Okay, well have a nice time, try not to get too drunk and again, I'm really sorry about having to search you guys. I'll buy you a drink sometime, okay?" Neal then moves away from them and goes to the off duty guard. he whispers, "If you're going to tell me to watch what you do around those guys, I know. Woods is too suspicious, but i can't do anything or something will happen."

[AFlyingPotato]

NealThe woman pulls you down lower so you can hear her whisper, "Don't push this any further. I know they have weapons, they're hiding them under the couch seats. As soon as they saw you walking over, they slipped them in." She looks at you directly, she looks quite serious about this part. She emphasizes each word in the sentence, "But don't confront them."

Her eyes narrow and she shoots a glare at the guys in the couches below, "After the movie ends we'll get Avery to shoe the rest of the guys out. Then we'll beat these guys over the head, get em kicked out of the station too."

She points to the man beside her, "If you don't know he's Gord, and I'm Ling. You might have seen us around a couple times but we take the night guard shifts. Make sure you tell your buddy that to." Ling points a finger to the door.

[Helinon]

"I knew they were hiding something. You'd better hurry on that backup. I'm not sure they'll wait for the movie to end. Things might end up getting a little.....messy. I'll go and warn my partner now." Neal then casually strolls over to mark and interjects in his conversation. "Excuse me miss, I need to have a word with this guy for a second." Neal then pulls Mark aside and whispers in his ear, "We've got a situation. There's going to be trouble when the movie ends."

[imp_fireball]

Where the hell is Arbour?

He glanced around, finding it difficult to recognize faces in the dark audience, but one of them was a guard - Neal? Kary thought he had been introduced to him at one point.

-----
Years Earlier

Kary was 17, proud to be moving onto actual SCV work. Those horses were massive, more hard core then any car he might have gotten from his damn, child abusing parents. He'd own one of those babies some day - but all he had for now was rent money for the thing. He promised he'd rent one, and his ability to get that landed this sweet job ahead of all the others who claimed to have the colonial union backing them - of course, unions weren't as powerful here as back on Tarsonis. Though it was worth it.

He was at work orientation, being introduced to things he knew a little about already on the rig.

A man in uniform (some kinda rent a cop?) strode up to the podium.

"Hi, my name is Neal, I work day shifts in employee wellness and cooperation enforcement here. If you have any tips or concerns about anything going on, any y'know... any suspicions, do not hesitate to let me know, alright? Even if you're absolutely certain it's insignificant. We take all cases seriously. We won't arrest anyone without proper warrant from the people we report to and especially not you. The higher ups are even more serious about this. Honestly."

Kary couldn't help but roll his eyes. Why the hell would they arrest a tipper anyway? What sort of logic could induce that kind of fear in a person?
----
Now

****... there's a cop here?

Should he give it to him? Would the cop report this to Kary's supervisors?

Wait, that was Neal, wasn't it. What a damn coincidence that he should have a flash back about that exact cop at the moment that such a person should be sitting right in front of him.

He tapped Neal on the shoulder, slipping the paper, the one with information about the customized SCV he wrote, to him.

"Hey man. Thought you should have this. Just uh... do whatever you feel necessary with it. Could be nothing though."

He breathed, and then backed into an open chair.

"Ah ****. I mean, crap. There you are Arbour. So, what's up?"

He glanced at the screen to see a blue elf with a heavy machine gun gritting his teeth and firing, obviously a combination of make up and overly glossy CGI - a trend of the 60s or whenever the hell they first came out with it. Then there was an overtly attractive female elf - elves were always attractive, untarnished by the wars humans brought to them.

Damn, the concept of aliens in fiction or how they looked or whatever was just like now. It hadn't changed in this long, recent encounters with murderous reptilian insectoid zerg and hyper advanced, legionnaire far cry, doom bringing protoss not with standing.

Unlike what fiction told you, neither of the real aliens was even barely humanoid.

[Killerloop]

Mark

"Miss, I understand you are scared but I cannot..." Mark was interrupted by Neal coming over and telling him of what's happening.

"Ok, miss.... well, just bring your friends out slowly and quietly and leave the matter to us."

[Randel]

Jack

"Darn... Doug must not be here. Well, I'll quickly check the sickbay to see if he's there. If not then I guess I'll have to wait."

Jack quickly heads to the medical area to see if Douglas is there. If the door to the place is closed then he will approach silently and listen in by putting his ear near the door (to get a general idea of whats happening so he doesn't interrupt an important operation).

Then, he'll try opening the door or asking if Doug is in there.

This is all he can think of for now... he'd hate to let Avery down after all this but he'll need help to track down Doug if he's not here. Plus, it would be a shame to let that good food go to waste...

"Hey Doug, are you in there?" Jack asks.

[Helinon]

Neal takes the note from Kary and checks it over. "Mark, this might be really bad. I just got a note from one of the workers. It says that one of the SCV's has been modified. Now I might be acting paranoid right now, but if one of the people who is involved in the attacks also modified that thing, it could have weapons hidden in it. Of course, it also could be nothing." Neal then goes back over to Gord and Ling. "Hey, could one of you bring this to the command center? I think that security should check this out." Neal hands over the note to Ling.

[AFlyingPotato]

Medical ClinicVanceThe dissection is ready, the tools are out, the cameras and equipment are set up. It was time to work. As soon as you are about to make the first incision you hear a beeping from your phone. You decide to ignore it but it continues in a persistent fashion to the point of incredible annoyance.

After picking up you hear Gregory's voice on the other side, "Hello? Vance are you there?"
"Did you find out what injured that man? I got a report on a potential armed conflict in the Breakroom."

Soon, not even 5 seconds after you pick up, you hear someone by the door. It sounded like someone was there, although not knocking. There was no end to disturbances in your research...

JackAfter entering the medical clinic you see the place is empty. The entrance and waiting room are all open, except the nurse nor any patients are there. It seems likely the nurse, an incredibly flirty and irresponsible woman, had gone off somewhere else.

You move towards the door to the examination room stealthily, after putting your ear to the door you accidentally bump the door. The sound wasn't loud and there seems to be no response for a second, you decide to continue and listen in.

You hear a few beeps and someone talking on the phone, the door is muffling the sound to much for you to hear properly.

Medical ClinicThe place is pretty simply set up. There is a waiting room at the front. Its pretty small having a front counter, which Ashley deals with, and a few chairs in front. There is also a bed in the waiting room in case someone severely injured is brought there. There are only 3 other rooms; an Bio scanning room(X-ray, CT scans, ect) with a nanite machine; a examination room, which also has a morgue/storage in the back; and a medical storage room.


Breakroom
Neal Ling reads the note over quickly with a raised eyebrow. She passes it off over the counter to Gord, looking at the workers below with disdain. Gord takes the note and reads it to, he frowns and his forehead scrunches into a grimace. He downs his beer and stands up to leave the room.
She talks quietly, making sure the workers can't hear her."Gord is on it. He'll check out the thing and report it. We are definitely moving in after, even if they didn't have those weapons we can still nab 'em for the modifications as an excuse."

Mark The women looks at the exchange confused, after Neal leaves she walks over and pushes you to get your attention. She of course isn't that strong and can barely budge you in full CMC armour. She starts to plead again, "You know its the right thing to do. I made up the thing about the weapons, but i know there going to do something so you gotta protect us."


KaryArbour smiles as you sit down, "I thought you weren't going to come. This movies actually pretty good." Even though he's acting cheerful you can tell somethings bothering him.
Sure enough his expression turns serious, he leans over and whispers, "What did you talk to one of the guards about?"

[Helinon]

"Good." Neal then watches the scene below, hand on his flak pistol ready to be fired at a moments notice.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack waits for a bit until the talking stops and then knocks on the door. "Hello?" Jack asks through the door.

He admits that it is a pretty long shot, but this is probably the only place in the whole rig where Doug would be instead of the break room. "Is Doug there?"

Normally he wouldn't just go around knocking on the doors of medical personnel asking if they've seen his friend, but Jack did kind of promise to watch over Douglas... and he just hopes that his fellow engineer and coworker is doing all right and isn't in any sort of immediate danger.

Yeah, well at the very least its good to know that the rig has a properly trained doctor on hand to keep a cool head in these situations.

[DMBlackhart]

Vance pulls a blanket over the patient, and heads to the door. he opens up the blinds in front of the glass part of the door, and looks out and sees some random engineer.

Go Away! He yells through the glass. Although he doubts the man heard him. Then he points at the light outside which should indicate a surgery ( or in this case, optopsy) is in progress.

If the man persists, then vance will shut the light off and open the door, a slight scowel on his face.

What do you want? Im very busy.

[Randel]

Jack

"Sorry, its just that we were expecting Douglas at the breakroom but he hasn't show up yet, and well... his friends are worried something may have happened."

Well, okay technically Jack was just running around like an idiot trying to track down somebody but it's close enough.

"I checked his room and he's not there. Do you have any idea where he might be?"

[DMBlackhart]

Vance seems a bit peeved by the sudden intrustion.

Sorry but no. I don't have time to play baby sitter to the personel on board. Right now I have na autopsy to complete so I can free up some space in case people actually need help.


Vance motions for the man to leave.

Now please, bother someone else. And don't come back unless your arms or legs are missing.

[AFlyingPotato]

Medical Clinic
As Vance is shooing Jack off he forgot about his phone. Gregory was apparently talking most of the time until he realized you weren't listening. In an attempt to get your attention he starts yelling, "What the hell are you doing Vance?"

[imp_fireball]

At Arbour's inquiry, "Something I was going to mention to you and rely on you to deliver but I couldn't find you soon enough. Y'know what, I'll mention it later."

[DMBlackhart]

Vance scrambles back for the phone, locking the door once more. Although the man had a knack for multitasking, even this was pushing his limits. Between unwanted visitors, a phone call he had little interest in, and finishing his autopsy so that he may further his goals; He was at his breaking point.

Never the less vance strains his voice to sound cool, relaxed, and reliable.

Sorry sir. Im here. Just had a late night visitor.

So, what were we talking about?

Cut to the chace you pompus windbag

[Killerloop]

Mark - Breakroom

Annoying girl, why she is so scared?? thought Mark

"Miss I told you to relax, I'll take care of the matter. Now please return to your table and get your friends out of the breakroom while I get my partners and we check out on this armed man" says Mark

He however is very suspicious, this woman is TOO pushy. As he comes back inside he passes by the table of the management guys trying to spot anything suspicious.

[Randel]

Jack

"Autopsy? Did somebody else die?" Jack says with audible alarm. Granted they did find a corpse yesterday but he's sure Vance must have gotten it done as soon as they came back from the trip. Either Vance was still working on the corpse they found yesterday, they found a new corpse recently, or somebody died in the last couple hours.

Hmm... Arbour did say something about there being a fight in the breakroom recently and Avery was concerned about it happening again... wait, did Douglas die?!

"Vance? Is Douglas dead in there?" Jack raps on the door "Did he die of something and you're performing an autopsy on his corpse?"

Suddenly he remembers something and calms down a bit "Or is he still alive and you're performing a vivisection? Because you know, when the person is dead its an autopsy but when they are still alive its a vivisection. Cause vivi means life and all that."

Besides, Jack thinks, if he's dead then there really doesn't seem to be a reason to rush things. If he's still alive then... well... yeah, maybe Jack should leave the doctor to his work. Wouldn't want to have Douglas get hurt due to interrupting the doctors operation.

[AFlyingPotato]

VanceGregory starts, "Ok good. So what did you find out? How did your little information gathering session go? Well i hope?" You also can hear some people talking in the background, it sounds like Hayek and Romeo arguing again.

Then after a few seconds he will interrupt you and speak, "Vance make sure you don't tell anyone else. Just us, and make sure your safe wherever you go. We're getting reports of something odd in the rig."

You hear some more rapping on the door and that annoying engineers voice again. He seems to be asking you something but you can't hear well.

JackThe door shuts on you as Vance answers the phone he had momentarily forgotten about. You can't hear anything from this side and the words you say don't seem to reach Vance. The door is locked and you can't see in anymore. The position you are in is quite frustrating, nothing seems to be going your way, Vance didn't even answer your question. At least you can assume it's a no or he didn't hear.


MarkThe women joins the group again. They leave quickly all the while looking behind their backs. The men down on the lower floor are glaring at them as they are.

Kary"Come on, just tell me. Whats going on?" He gets very serious suddenly, "I need to know whats happening. People are running around and getting hurt."

[Randel]

Jack

Jack sighs and stops knocking on the door. Instead he turns around and heads back to the Break Room. He'd spent a fair amount of time looking for him with no clue as to where he could be... and he's probably missed a lot of the movie.

Actually, maybe Doug is in the break room right now. Jack decides to stop worrying about it and at least get to the break room so that he can have some of the food.

Jack calmly returns to the break room and sits down with his fellow engineers.

[AFlyingPotato]

Jack
After you sit back down you notice that Kary has joined you. Arbour asks you "So what happened? Where's Douglas." Arbour seems awefully serious, his expression is one of confused frustration.

Kary
You see Jack enter the room, he takes a seat in the table. Arbour asks him "So what happened? Where's Douglas." Arbour seems awefully serious, his expression is one of confused frustration.

[Randel]

Jack

"I didn't find him. I knocked on his door but there was no response. I went to the Medical Clinic and saw our doctor was busy... um..."

Hmm... the doctor said he was performing an autopsy, it could be the body we found the other day that Gregory doesn't want us talking about.

"In the back room with the surgery light on. I asked him if Doug was there but he was very busy and didn't want to be disturbed..."

Jack has a concerned expression. "I don't know where Doug is for certain... he might be in the Clinic but I don't want to disturb the doctor if he's busy."

[DMBlackhart]

Vance just sort of "Mhms" the entire conversation along.

Listen, gregory. I am pretty busy. Our little miner, douglas. Wait, did I tell you about him? Right I did. Well ya'know that accident he got himself in? It was more serious then we thought.

After returning to his room, I discovered he'd been unconcious. After a shrot diagnosis I found out he was dead.

Vance grabs a glass of water and takes a long drink. He returns to the call, a sense of urgency in his voice.

Listen, he diden't die from the injury. Well, not the wound. Something in the wound, it twisted him. I don't have any details yet, but it stopped his heart.

Look, listen greg. Im in the middle of something, I'll call you back when im done.

Without a further word Vance hangs up the phone, and returns to his research.

I have come too close. All I need to do is just get a sample or two. Then I can stow it with my other... "materials" and I will be set.

jack rubs his forhead, taking a breather as he tries to think.

What's got all the miners so worked up...

[AFlyingPotato]

Sorry Randel but i want a response from Imp_Fireballs character before going on.

VanceGregory pauses, "What?" Another brief pause, "WHAT?"
You hear him talking quickly and angrily to the other two in the room with him, when he gets back to you he sounds like he's in a panic. "We didn't....

You cut off the call with him and continue on your research, you've already lost far to much valuable time. You start to cut up the body.

[Ill give you the results from the autopsy later, your prepared for the evening and probably won't be taking part in whatever happens in the break room]

[imp_fireball]

Kary remains stubborn, "Ask the cops. I informed them."

He pauses, and then says suddenly, "People are getting hurt? So I guess I was right to worry about my own safety then. They could be hurting informants like myself man, I gotta guard my balls, y'know."

Feeling uncomfortable, the kid got up and made his way to the firing range to see how genuine it really was.

[AFlyingPotato]

Break Room About one and a half hour later the movie ends. As the credits roll most of the people leave, presumably to continue the party else where or turn in for the night. Some do stay in the break room though.
Mark and NealThe men in the break room hang around even after the movie ends. You see Ling talk to Avery and after she motion towards the workers. Avery scuttles off to do whatever he needs to do.
Kary and JackArbour stands up, he looks around the room nervously. "I think we should leave..." He is looking quite nervously at the security guards.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack looks around, noticing that he didn't even get to have any of the delicious food that he Avery had served up. He looks put off by this but admits that it might be best to vacate the area.

He nods and follows Arbour out.

[Helinon]

Neal waits for one of two things. One, for assistance to come and so they can round these guys up, or two, for these guys to start something. All the while Neal keeps up his vigilant watch on the breakroom.

[AFlyingPotato]

Break room
Woods's forehead is soaked in sweat, it took a few seconds for him to realize something was up. The rest of the workers seem to notice to but they continue on with their own play nonchalantly. The room gets pretty tense as soon as the group from engineering leaves.
Woods decides to test his luck and tries bailing right behind the group leaving the room. Ling quickly intervenes and steps in front of the door, effectively stopping him. The whole room falls quite, attentive to the actions of those two. In a split second, before anyone can intervene, Woods hastily attempts to push Ling out of the way. She draws her firearm and does, what you consider, a perfect and vicious backhanded pistol whip. Ling connects squarely into Woods jaw.
Time seems to have stretched itself out, the two seconds it takes for Woods to stutter backwards a few steps and fall down the stairs seems to take forever. The workers don't take to this to kindly, an immediate backlash is created as a bottle sails through the air and shatters against the wall by Lings head. The workers seem outraged and are yelling and pulling out any weapons they have on hand, they don't attack yet though.

There is 11 workers in the room
3 workers by the pool tables, say they have pool cues, balls.
6 workers sitting by the couches, they have knives and beer bottles.
1 more at the pinball machine hes got a knife.
Woods is flat on his ass at the bottom of the stairs by the pool table.
None of them are armed with anything more than melee weapons. No guns have been pulled out, yet.

Kary and JackRight after you leave you see some sort of commotion break out in the break room. Arbour continues on, ignoring anything that is happening. About 3 seconds later you hear a bottle shattering and yelling from the break room.
Arbour turns around momentarily, "****."

State your action in the OOC and roll a dice
If its 1 you fail terribly.
2 is a failure. Missing an attack or fail your action.
3 is a bare failure, a small margin of error.
4 is a bare sucess, a small margin of sucess.
5 is a success. You hit him where you wanted to and get your desired effect.
6 is a really good success, lets you pull off a very hard task and go beyond your desired effect.

Any action is ok as long as its withing a 10 second frame, and as long as you have the skill to do it. The rest is open to you.

[AFlyingPotato]

Jack
Jack calmly moves Arbour and Kary along away from the break room, arms over both their shoulders, trying to act casual and keep a bright optimistic view of the future while leaving the break room to sort out its own problems.

"Know what I think? Arbour... Kary? I propose we get to work getting this rig ready to move ahead of schedule so everyone spends less time laid off. Kary here could probably join the engineering crew to help out, valuable job, helping out... probably not the best paying but something is better than nothing at least until things brighten up... which they will. I'm sure Greg will okay bringing on another engineer if if speeds up the move and profitability and all that. Anyway... lets check out the work schedule and look busy while we get this rig ship-shaped."

Roll to casually move away from the break room while projecting an aura of optimism, harmlessness, and good work ethic that will protect Jack and his two buddies from whatever happens in the break room. Then go about their business without any trouble.
Arbour is convinced easily. He follows your lead and ignores the commotion behind you. The other engineers hesitate looking at the door to the break room before following along, perhaps finding strength in numbers.

Kary lags behind, apparently still making his mind.

Neal
Quickly moving into action you shield Ling from the majority of the objects being thrown. The shield shudders a few times as its hit by pool balls or beer bottles and its making a damn fine mess. A slosh of beer and broken glass starts to grow. You take a quick glance at Ling and her condition.
Ling seems fine, perhaps a bit shocked but otherwise unharmed. She nods to you, thanking you for the cover.
After turning back around a bottle hits your helmet, the resulting spray of beer and glass obscures your vision.

[Helinon]

"Okay, that's enough." Neal gives Ling his shield and moves to the balcony. When there he pulls out his flak pistol and points it at the workers. "I have enough ammo in this to make sure every one of you is dead. Stand the **** down!"

Basically trying to intimidate them into stopping, because lets face it, hes got heavy duty hardware and is not afraid to use it. He's just giving them a chance.

[roll0]

:smallsigh: Looks like some people are going to die.

[AFlyingPotato]

Break RoomThe men completely ignore your threat and a pool ball smashes into your torso as a result. You feel the impact and stutter a step before another bottle shatters against your suit. The groups attacks do next to nothing against you, your suit can take much more punishment than that.
Ling takes a few steps forward, holding the shield in front of her ward off projectiles. She puts a hand on your flak pistol and tries, in vain, to push it downwards. "Don't ****ing kill them."

The workers move forward in turn, although not intimidated by you, Ling and Mark still pose a threat.

[Helinon]

Neal looks to Ling, his face obscuered by his suit. He then puts away his flak pistol and jumps down into the lower area of the breakroom. "Fine, I won't kill them. But they're gonna learn what it mean to mess with a former Marine." With that Neal moves up to punch the nearest armed worker.

[roll0]

[AFlyingPotato]

Break roomThe workers assault pauses momentarily and Neal capitalize on the moments. Taking a short leap down the steps, Neal advance towards them. The workers scuttle back as soon as Neal moves, cautious of his advances. They move around the pool table, putting it between Neal and them, for some protection.
Advancing forward Neal throw a few punches but the workers are out of his effective reach, to fast for him to run up to and out of his range. The only effect Neal's attack has is a few whacks of retaliation from the workers. It does do absolutely no damage to the armored Neal, possibly only infuriating him.

Lings voice over the radio asking for assistance, reporting the situation and talking to the people in the control center. Mark to has taken a similar approach. He however has some more luck with his attacks, his advance is much faster. Charging down the stairs he rams into a surprised man, the force is enough to throw the poor man back into the pool table. He hits the edge and flops over it falling onto the floor. Mark then proceeds to crown another man, quickly attacking again by swinging down his elbow before he can react. The man drops straight to his knee's remaining upright for a few seconds before falling over.

[Helinon]

Rather than infuriate him it amuses Neal. Obviously they have never even seem CMC armor before. In any event, Neal continues to try to pummel the workers into oblivion. This time, Neal actually has a few punches connect, but none of the workers actually go down.

[roll0]

[AFlyingPotato]

Break room
The workers realize that their attacks do nothing against the two armored guards. One of them smartens up quickly and runs to the back of the room, he grabs something out of his pockets and slides it against the wall. A portion of the wall opens up to one of the engineering access grates. About 4 workers promptly slip into it and then close the grate.

The workers remaining in the room are quickly dispatched. Beaten over the head or stunned to submission by the guards. The whole thing took less that 2 minutes.

Ling walks over, "****, they got away."

[Randel]

Jack

Jack makes his way to the engineering room and looks over the list of stuff they have to do to get the rig ready for lift-off.

"Arbour? You know, I'm not normally in the loop on how things go, I'm more of a work first talk later sort of guy. But... why the heck are we having riots in here? When did this mining rig turn into a death trap where we're at eachothers throats?"

He frowns a bit as he looks the reports "And our guards are wearing combat gear... standard regulation combat gear to protect us in case the frikkin zerg attack. I thought engineers like us were smart enough to know you can't hurt armor designed to protect against razor-clawed bulletproof death-monsters when you're only armed with... a broken bottle or whatever the heck those guys were using."

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering
The rest of the guys retire to their rooms for the night. Only you and Arbour return to the engineering bay.

Arbour sits down on his chair and boots his computer. He grabs a pen off his table and starts spinning it absentmindedly while reclining in his chair to look up at the ceiling. He sits for awhile before, "You know things are tough all over, for everyone to."

"Competition is the source of our problems. The workers make **** in the first place and our work conditions are pretty harsh in the first place. It doesn't help that Greg is a ****ing cheapskate, our equipment barely works and our work is hard. At some point you just can't take that kind that kind of abuse any longer, you've gotta stop being a doormat." He sits properly in his chair and puts down his pen to log onto his computer. His back is facing you as he speaks, "I mean, management never pays attention to our wants but now they're blatantly ignoring our needs. If those guys in management can't hear what we're saying we'll shove it down their god damned throats." Arbour gives a grim humorless laugh.

"I mean what would you do?" He turns around to face you, a puzzled expression on his face.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack thinks it over, yeah... from a certain point of view he could be considered a bit of a... doormat. Ask not what others can do for you, ask what you can do for others. Positive thinking is the key.

Blech, all those year learning to be... nice... and hard working just turn out to teach him how to put up with stuff that leaders pull every day.

But what are you gonna do?

"I dunno, look for a different job, I guess. Maybe go for one of those military gigs or a job in security. I take it there's a pretty good demand for stuff like that elsewhere. If enough people in engineering find other work then Greg can sit on his non-flying rig and/or sell it to someone who knows how to run it."

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering
Arbour spins around a few lazy circles in his chair, "Yeah but no one but the workers would leave. I mean you make almost double my pay and i make double what an SCV pilot does. Hell, guys from upper management make double what you make. Plenty enough young blood on this planet to hire, they'll be keen to work and make money. Hell it might take awhile for them to realize they're getting the short end of the stick but they can get replaced."

Arbour turns back around and uses his computer for a bit before continuing, "I even debated quitting and finding someone else to work for a few times. There's just to little high paying positions anymore, all the good jobs have been taken. And i would also never work for a corporation, you would make even less money working for some Terran Dominion public enterprise company. Sure its safer but the pay is menial, even relative to the pay here." He flips through some drawers on his desk looking for something.

[Helinon]

Neal goes to where the grate is and turns to Ling. "Where does this lead?"

[AFlyingPotato]

Break Room
As you look at the grate you notice that the thing is pretty small, there's barely a 1 and a half meter clearance. Ling holds out a hand to gesture for Neal to wait, she's currently radioing in something about the situation. After 2 seconds she walks down the stairs to where Neal is.
Before reaching the grate she pauses momentarily. She takes a step in and kicks the grate as hard as she can, an expression of disappointment on her face. Of course this does nothing to the metal door but a large clanking sound. She sounds pretty annoyed, "Those paths are engineering access tunnels. I don't have a access card to get in there, I think we need engineering's help to flush the guys out of the tunnels."

She looks around the room, there's 7 unconscious or incapacitated workers. "Lets just head to the engineering bay and let our backup clean up this mess. I don't know what those guys are about to pull, we have to sort this little problem out quickly."

Engineering Bay
Before Arbour can finish finding what he is looking for and before Jack can reply, the intercom crackles to life. Gregory's voice is issued from the speakers, "Hello? Hello? Is anyone in there?"

Arbour doesn't take to this very nicely, you see a brief flash of disappointment or annoyance across his face. He mutters something softly to himself.

[Helinon]

"Lets go." Neal starts to go off in the direction of the engineering bay when he stops, almost in mid-stride. "Isn't the engineering bay where that modified SCV was?" There's a tone of dread in his voice when he says this.

[Randel]

Jack

Jack gets up and moves to the intercom and responds "Hello, Jack here." the engineer says, as helpfully as possible.

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering
A sigh of relief can be heard over the intercom. " Good, good."
You hear some discussion in the background between two people, one of whom you recognize as Romeo.
"We have a situation on our hands. It seems like we have a problem in our engineering access system. Angry workers would be the problem in this case, we have 4 people who slipped into the tunnels with unknown intentions. It's imperative we get rid of them soon. Security will arrive soon, help them get in."

After a brief pauses he starts talking again, "I know it's not part of your job, but it would be really helpful if you partake in helping security remove the hostiles."

[AFlyingPotato]

NealLing frowns, "Gords looking into it, he got there a few minutes ago and hes checking it." She thinks about it and looks at you and Mark, "You know what. First things first, lets go to the armory. That suits not going to fit down into the tunnels, and that gun isn't either. We should probably pick up some weapons to."

Ling, Neal, and Mark proceed to the armory. "I need to inform boss about whats going on. You guys slip into something less bulky," Ling looks at the CMC rifle, "and something that won't rip the ship to shreds." She leaves soon after.

Pick up some weapons, lighter armor.
CMC suits wont fit into the tunnels, as you can't even stand in them.

Neal only has the option of a combat vest, while Mark has a CMC Light Combat Armor. You can also bring the combat shield but since your not in CMC powered armor the thing is heavy. You cannot fire a two handed rifle and hold the shield at the same time unless your really strong. If you do there has to be a reasonable penalty or the like, we'll figure that out later.
CMC Light combat armor can protect against small firearms but isn't a powered exoskeleton.
The Combat Vest is like a supped up Kelvar vest. Can take a few bullets but it doesn't straight up deflect them like a CMC would.

Pistols, SMG's, the whole like is open for weapon choices. The only stuff you can't bring are huge guns, like the C-14 or grenade launchers. Its also ill advised to bring heavy weaponry, like C-14 or grenade launchers, because your fighting inside the rigs engineering tunnels, the place with all the fancy pipes and wiring. One reason is you might damage the rig and the other is you might blow something up inside the rig and kill yourself.

[Randel]

Jack

"Okay." Jack replies and heads to one of the desks to a set of keys for the engineering access hatches. He also rummages through one of the drawers and pulls out a map for the tunnels, both a paper one and a digital copy on a PDA he accesses some options on the digital version to make it easier to keep track of the map and the rooms.

He then waits for security to get there. Okay... I'm either selling out my fellow engineers to my tightwad boss or I'm trying to get this thing over with as soon as possible before any more damage is done.

I mean... its not like the security guys couldn't open the access hatches by themselves if they needed to and the sooner we get this sorted out the less damage is done and the less repairs have to be made and the sooner everyone gets to work.

[Helinon]

Neal will be going with his shield and his signature flak pistol, as the thing can and shall, if the need be, rip through any enemy. Having a two handed weapon isn't going to do much good here, seeing as if I'm hit with one of those improvised weapons with the combat vest, I'll be down in a short time. The extra defense will do Neal good.

Neal shrugs on his combat vest and takes his pistol out of his CMC's holster. he then picks up the shield grunting at the weight. "Damn, I didn't realize how heavy these things were." After getting used to the weight of the shield, he heads toward the engineering bay.

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering
While Jack is working he sneaks a glance at what Arbour is doing, seeing what he would do. Arbour is rummaging in his drawers looking for something. Neal resume his work, after awhile he look again. Arbour slips something into his pockets, although you didn't see it.
Arbour walks over to Neal, he looks over Neals shoulder at the maps with a worried expression. "You really going to do this?" He asks, " Its not exactly safe."

[Helinon]

"Personally, I'm not quite sure i want to do this either. I don't know these tunnels as well as they do, and they've probably got real weapons down there. however, this is what i signed up for so..... can't really do anything about it now."

[Randel]

Jack

Jack gets out the keys and maps for the security team, he then looks over the map of the tunnels and starting from the entrance in the kitchen tries to mark all the possible exits from the tunnels or any vital systems that could be accessed or damaged from there.

"Okay, I dunno what these guys are thinking... but I hope none of the vital systems get damaged. It could keep us grounded even longer and... well, make things worse for everyone."

A bit curious, Jack checks the map to see if the tunnels have an exit anywhere near Gregs office. If he was half competent and cheesed off enough at Greg get violent about it then he would go after Greg directly instead of at the security... and the tunnels are about the easiest way there are to move around unnoticed through the rig.

Actually, now that I think about it these engineering tunnels are a huge security risk... they're like... Jefferies Tubes or something.

Jacks face momentarily turns white as a terrible horrible though runs through his mind. Oh my... I'm in Star Trek! Where all the machines are poorly designed and things explode without reason! Where twisty turny Jefferies Tubes wind all through the place like a labyrinth just waiting for monsters and assassins to make their den inside of it. Where management sends unarmored, underfunded redshirts into dangerous conditions and everyone in vital positions have quirky nonsensical personal...

Well, okay Doctor Vance seems pretty tame at least... bit of a sense of humor but I think his heart is in the right place. That nurse is about useless though.

Anyway... where was I? Oh yeah, we're in flippin Star Trek! We're doomed!

Jack turns back to look at the map to double check if there is any way for the people in the Jefferies Tubes to get at Gregory or if there are vital systems that could be accessed by them.

[Helinon]

Randel, if Jack is implying that Neal is a Red Shirt, things are gonna happen. And they won't be pretty. :smallannoyed:


J/k! :smallbiggrin:

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering Bay
Ling and Mark arrive, both are fully suited up for action. Ling is holding two extra protective vest, she tosses on at Jack and the other at Arbour. "Put these on, let us hope you don't need them." Arbour looks at the vest for a few seconds, even turning it around to make sure what it was. Arbour has a very ginger expression on his face as he puts it on, struggling with it for a few seconds before getting it on successfully.

Lingstarts giving orders, "Can we get a layout of the engineering tunnels?". Arbour complies bringing up a map of the various tunnels in the ship onto a screen at the front of the room.
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9838/acess.png
Those orange hexagons are access paths, they're more discrete. The larger orange pentagons are actually doors, the circles are like smaller hatches or grates. They lead to every elevator and up and down every level.
Ling inspects the map carefully, "So whats the plan here? Is there someway we can find them or any idea where they are? We need to get them out fast before they can do anything. Anything helps."

[Helinon]

"Well," Neal starts off, "I would say that they would go to the armory to steal our weapons, but it looks like that area's pretty safe. However, if you were a pissed off worker, already knowing that if you were caught you were done for, where would you go?" Neal points up. "You would go after the guys who made you pissed. I think the guys in upper management are in big trouble right now. There are entrances directly into both the Briefing room and Management."

[Randel]

Jack

Jack looks at the protective vests and gratefully puts his on. "Yeah... either they'd go for the management for revenge or hostages, or just sneak through the maintenance tunnels, sabotage something to set off an alarm and cause a confusion, then steal some office supplies or equipment before making a getaway in one of the vehicles."

"Wait, are those access panels leading into the rooms?" Jack looks at the map closer... "No? Oh that's good they're leading into the hallway. For a sec I was worried... nah."

Jack heads to the intercom and calls up Gregory "Greg, Jack here. According to the map there are several access panels on the third floor near you. One is in the northeast corner of the Management Room, another is in the northern side of the Briefing Room. Others are outside in the hallway near the third floor rooms on the northern side. There is the chance the guys in the tunnels may try to break into the management room. So uh, find the access panels in your rooms, put some heavy furniture in front of them, and uh... keep an eye on them in case anyone tries crawling out."

Jack helps Greg locate the access panels so they can protect the management who are probably the top targets.

He then turns to Ling.

"I dunno... I'm thinking next they'll try to make a getaway or something... I think I can disable the docking bay door (unplug the motor that opens the hanger door) or the vehicles so nobody can get out quickly. Sort of a failsafe if they get out... other than that... get a bunch of people to listen to the walls to hear where they are crawling around. Absolute worst case scenario maybe smoke the tunnels out with... I dunno."

Jack shrugs "Whatever you use to smoke people out of tunnels."

[imp_fireball]

Kary lags behind, apparently still making his mind.

"Sounds like a plan."

Kary chose to retire early that night. Hopefully, things would blow over by morning. From the noise he heard, things had obviously gone bad.
-----

OOC: I've been away, if OP could PM me what's happened and where my character is, I'd very much appreciate it.

[AFlyingPotato]

Engineering
Arbour nods at your suggestion, he immediately stands up and goes to a side room. "I'll shut down the docking bay doors, we'll lock em inside here." He leaves momentarily into a control room on the side.
Ling exams the map too, a expression of confused frustration on her face. "So we trap them in, then what? Should we head to the third floor and just wait to see if they pop up?"
Mark points at the third floor on the screen, "I think thats-" The lights briefly flickers and the projector's and computers turn off. It takes a few seconds for the dimmer backup lights to turn on. A few seconds later Arbour opens the door and pokes his head into the engineering room, "Guys i have good news and bad news. We'll start with the good news, there is no way those guys are getting off the rig in ships." He pauses before continuing, "The bad news is that the power has been cut, no computers or elevators are working other than vital systems. We can't contact command or well... anyone. Only short range radio is on. Every door on the ship is locked too, except for the engineering access paths. This also means we can't just run a system scan and blow out those guys in the tunnels."
AllThe engineering bay still has power as do the docking bay, security center, and management. The rig is also in a lockdown, every door in the rig is also locked, no one can open any doors unless you break it down. The access tunnels are however open.
JackThe fact the guys shut down power means the rouge workers are right beside the engineering bay access tunnels.
There is also power tools in the engineering bay. So welding equipment, laser cutters.

Medical Bay
Your autopsy is about 30% complete, when suddenly the operation lights and room lights turn off. Your left in the faint red illumination of the backup lights, unable to continue your research. Immediate frustration and disappointment overcome you, yet another problem. The doors are all locked and you seem to have no way out.

[Helinon]

"Well........damn. Now we're going to have to find our way to management through these tunnels. You three." Neal says as he looks at Arbour, Jack and Kary. "You guys need to see what you can do to fix this. If it was caused by the workers, odds are other workers can fix it. Me and the rest of security will track those guys down. They can't be very far. Let's go!" And Neal enters the tunnels, shield raised and pistol ready.

[Randel]

Jack

"If they cut the power then they can't be far from here." Jack says as he grabs his toolbox, a laser cutter, and a flashlight. He'd like to avoid cutting up any more doors than absolutely necessary but... well, he'll need the tools to deal with it should the need arise.

Jack stays behind the security personnel, giving directions on where the power systems should be so that he can try to get it working again as soon as possible.