IC - Alien RPG - Priority One

[Hemnon]

Galactic Date: 2133
Galactic Coordinates - 9.33 Parsecs Coreward, 3 Parsecs Spinward.
East-southeastern part of the Crestus Prime Cluster - United Americas Space, American Arm/Frontier

Planet - Ulysses (A4/2)
-----------------------------------

The Planet Ulysses, a Forest-covered mudball located in what is at the moment still the frontier area of the American Arm. The Colony on the planet, Ulysses Point as it is named, is about to be hit by the earliest of morning light from the System's star.
The more windy area of that forest-free hilltop that the Colony was on, made everything feel more like an earth-spring, rather than the more near-tropical warmth that is more prevalent at the forest-ground level.
------------------------------

*Beep, Beep, Beep* goes the inter-connected Messaging Terminals in each of you lot's home/residence/bunk-area (all depending on what type of person you are. Not every doctor got more than a backroom bunk with some cramped living space in the back of the clinic they run, after all).
Once each of you wakes up from the constant 'message recieved beeping' and goes to check your respective terminal, you'll see the following Message:

Sender: Local G-Class Corvus Space Vessel - MU/TH/UR (Classification 6000) (PS: this is your ship for companyjobs)
Priority One Message - Clause 48-D of your employment agreement has come into effect - You are hereby required to meet up at the G-class Corvus Vessel for In-system Salvage Operation. 3 Days of travel is expected to reach FTL-engagement distance. This is where the Salvage Operation's Objective will be found. Delay for departure will be fined on a collective basis. Departure in 3 hours... 2 hours and 59 Minutes and 43 Seconds.... (an updating counter keeps counting down in the message).

You each have a little under 3 hours to get your stuff together, make sure your little 6-people ship is ready for lift-off, etc. etc. Oh and no, MU/TH/UR will not respond to any message replies made for further information on this job Since you'll most likely get further details once aboard. It's also quite clear that this is a Company-level Job, not a local colony-job. Your Ship is come pre-equipped with food storage, water supply, regulated Oxygen Scrubbers, etc. etc. Hypersleep is not to be expected since the Salvage Job itself won't require FTL travel, only Sub-Light Thruster speed towards the farther edge of the Star System, which'd take around 3 days of travel at regular sub-light thruster speed.

You may each try to do around 2-3 things that might each take around an hour or less if you got something you wish to do prior to leaving. Anything from haggling local food supplies in whatever fashion you want, giving instrumental checkups on the ship just in case technical issues could be detected prior to them becoming an actual issue, etc. etc. It's all up to each of you what you wanna do all in all.

[Haval]

At the sound of the beeping Robert merely rolls over. If he could get away with it he would hit snooze and get a few extra minutes of sleep but this was a function that had long since been removed by Weyland-Yutani to promote 'efficiency'. He will listlessly stare at the ceiling for a few more minutes and let the alarm continue until he can summon the energy to get up. This is when he finally notices that this wasn't the time that he normally had to get up and starts to pay attention to the details of the message.

As Robert is considered a 'specialist' he merits a private room in one of the prefabricated bunkhouses that the company used to house it's employees. However, it's was still not that much larger then his bed. Robert's room at university had been larger. Eventually he'll get up to make coffee. Whatever this was about it was better not to be late. Even aside from the fact that the fines were imposed collectively, they started off high and got worse the longer you kept them waiting.

The lack of detail in the message wasn't surprising, but it would be nice to have some information on what was expected of them. MU/TH/UR generally didn't talk until it absolutely had to, but maybe someone would know something. When he's woken up properly, Robert is going to call someone in the colony administration building to see if any ships were due to call in at Ulysses. It was always possible there had been some sort of accident.

After he finally gets dressed, he go and ask someone what state the ship was in. Generally, if he had to travel in space at all he felt it was safer to travel in something larger and more durable.

[Hemnon]

Thematic Music to fit the current 'Mood' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LDUaEf3wJA)

In terms of a reply, all Robert would get from the Admininistration was a curt and sour 'No'. It was most likely Ursula Fedderman that was on duty today, at this early morning hour. She was the usual suspect whenever you got a 'I hate my job' flavored reply, even if you didn't recognise the voice of the intercom.

As for the ship, if Robert went to the actual ship and stated his questions to MU/TH/UR, then he'd get a reply that no outstanding issues had been detected, but a cursory sweep of main systems by a technician is scheduled next week.
(These two things will collectively take away 1 of your 3-ish things you can do prior to the departure-deadline)

[Lycan 01]

Phoenix Brigs was unhappy. That was her general state of being, but today especially. Rolling out of bed, she trudges over to her terminal and acknowledges the alert. Her eyes, sunken and shadowed from sleepless nights and red-eye flight missions, scan the message before a scowl curls at the corners of her mouth. "Great..." she grumbles to herself, before running a hand through her short messy pixie cut to resist the temptation to hit something, or somebody.

When her father - "Whiskey One" - had passed away, she had inherited his contract with Weyland-Yutani and all the delightful catches and clauses that came with it. The only differences were a few pronouns, decimal points, and the callsign becoming "Whiskey Two." Thankfully, her dad had given her lessons on piloting and mechanical matters through most of her teen years, so she already had some (unofficial) flight hours under her belt when she inherited the contract. Whether the company knew or cared about that when they saddled a teenager with such responsibilities, though, was uncertain. Personally, she doubted the company cared about her age or experience, just her contractual obligations...

With a sigh, she begins to run herself through mental checklists. Both a checklist of her gear and materials needed for the job, and the pre-flight checklist she'll need to go through once she gets aboard. Corvus-class... She grimaces. She personally preferred groundside piloting, helming the various transport vehicles and aircraft the colony put to constant use. She had piloted the G-class starship a few times before, mostly for small transport jobs or to chauffeur administrators to rendezvous with corporate ghouls. Still, she still felt a cold chill of dread every time she was called up to pilot it, the weight of her responsibility quite heavy on her petite shoulders.

With a small sigh, Nix forces herself to steel her resolve. Straightening her back, setting her jaw, and clicking her heels together, she tries to muster her courage and confidence and brace herself for the responsibilities at hand. C'mon, you can't run away from something like this and expect to ever be a marine, she mentally chided herself. Remember what Dad said. Fake it 'til you make it!

With another sigh, she finishes gathering her things, and zips up her flight suit. Olive drab and not at all flattering to her figure, the baggy jumpsuit is a mess of pockets, straps, pouches, and holsters. Plus a small rucksack she carried on every job, stuffed full of her "crash kit" of tools and medical aid. Flashlight, radio, P-Dat, diagnostic device... Her eyes hover over the small handgun her dad had left her, technically considered a "service sidearm" in one of the clauses of his contract, as pilots were expected to protect corporate property - vehicles especially - with their lives if needed. She chews her lip a bit. She wasn't sure if it would serve much purpose on a scavenging gig, beyond being extra weight and making her comrades uncomfortable. But, the contract did "recommend" pilots carry the service sidearm any time they operated company vehicles, and for all she knew they might be rendezvousing with another company vessel for a joint operation or some nonsense. Some corporate bigwig might berate her for not being properly "equipped," or it might serve to properly dissuade any crew of scrappers who found her "interesting." Grimacing again, she slips the handgun into her flight suit's hip holster, and stuffs two spare magazines into a side pocket. Better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it...

Geared up and mentally prepared, the young pilot starts to head towards the colony's landing pad to wait for the rest of the crew. She knew the ship would be stocked with basic supplies, and any "normal" food she brought aboard would run the risk of making them sick in the low-G environment or stress of the salvage job. As she walks towards her goal, she continues to mentally run herself through the Corvus vessel's pre-flight list, layout, and technical difficulty. She may not have had many flight hours with it, but her dad had made her spend hours studying the blueprints and layouts of most corporate and military vessels. Once she gets to the landing pad, she looks around for whatever transport they'll be using to get skyside and meet up with the ship. If there's a dropship currently available, she'll begin to go through the necessary paperwork and pre-flight checks to get it ready for flight up to their starship.


Nix is taking all her gear and accessories, though she's only taking 2 instead of 4 reloads for her gun, leaving the other two at home.

I assume the G-class ship is still in orbit, so idk how she can really do much of a pre-flight check or diagnostics on it until we get up there. Still, I figure she could at least mentally brace herself and prepare to do the flight check, hopefully speeding it along once she gets up there.

Not sure if I need to do any checks or anything for the transport taking us up there, since I assume it's not too relevant beyond a stage piece. :smallsmile:

[Haval]

'Thank you Ursula.' Robert replies gruffly. A 'No' was more a reply then he usually got. He'll pack his gear into an old rucksack before leaving his quarters. Most of it might serve some obvious use even in space, and it wasn't like the Company seemed to care enough to help him prepare for the assignment anyway. The gun gave him pause, but he'll take it with him unless they somehow decided to enforce weight limitations to keep down costs. If he actually had reason to use it in space of all places there was every chance that he'd end up puncturing the hull of the ship by accident.

He fully intends to do what he can to check out the state of the ship himself. Even if MU/TH/UR did most of the work, space made him paranoid, and there was little reason not to check everything just in case.

Given he had three days of travel before the point when he was actually expected to do any work he's going to try and use the time to relax. Before going to the landing pad Robert will ask around to see if he can find or buy any food that's actually edible that they can take with them. Just as importantly he'll see if anyone will lend him one of the tablets of reading material that get passed around the colony.

Finally he'll go and see who else has been roped into this trip.

[Lycan 01]

Upon discovering that the Corvus-class vessel has already been moored at the spaceport, Nix gives a small sigh of relief. She'd assumed some other sky-jockey or corporate suit had been joyriding or left it skyside. Never underestimate the laziness or annoying arrogance of wannabe flyboys and business gremlins, she'd learned years ago.

Clambering aboard, Nix sets about the usual pre-flight checks, as well as the formalities with the MU/TH/UR system. "Aeronaut Phoenix Brigs, Employee ID N-3266, reporting for mission duty," she says aloud as she walks up the boarding ramp and strides purposefully down the first of many corridors. "Performing pre-flight checks and other piloting responsibilities as per company protocols, and I will make a note of any issues or discrepancies in readiness standards as per company policy," she says clearly and firmly. She knew that if MU/TH/UR could randomly pin new duties and contractual obligations on her, then MU/TH/UR could no doubt snitch on her to the higher-ups over any tiny misstep. She wanted to make sure any recorders of her actions left no room for scrutiny or blame, especially if the job went well. Nothing would be more frustrating than getting a fine from the company for forgetting to lock down a maintenance hatch instead of any reward or thanks for a job well done. Though, honestly, that's what she expected at the end of all this...

With plenty of time to kill, she settles into the cockpit and begins to ruin the initial diagnostics and system reports, her keen eyes scanning the data and scans for anything amiss or noteworthy...

Whenever Robert gets aboard, he'll likely hear her making comments and verbal observations to MU/TH/UR in the cockpit, no doubt for record keeping and ass-covering.


Nix is going to use Comtech to run through the system logs and scans to make sure we're good to go and everything meets company standards. A proper, thorough examination, without cutting corners. She's also going to keep an eye out for anything out of place - new security restrictions, power fluctuations, parts of the ship locked off, or anything else suspicious.

Dice pool is 7. (Wits 3+Comtech 2+ bonus 2 dice from Seegson System Diagnostic Device)

[roll0]

Looks like One Success. :smallsmile:

[Haval]

Robert by comparison does not talk to MU/TH/UR unless he's got a specific question for it. He's aware that it's possible that someone somewhere is judging him for this attitude but is largely past caring. The work ought to speak for itself. If it didn't it was on the company for not having actual human oversight. Still, it was good to hear that he was traveling with someone that actually seemed to be competent.

'Morning. Is thing actually space worthy?' Maybe if it wasn't he could go back to bed. Robert will follow Nix's lead and check whatever he's told to check. Because he's bored he'll ask Nix questions when she doesn't seem obviously busy. 'I take it they didn't tell you what this was about either? I mean, is there a derelict ship out there somewhere?'

[Lycan 01]

Nix - Corvus Vessel

Nix glances back over her shoulder as Robert enters the cockpit, and flashes a roguish grin at him. It gives her an almost impish aura. "It'll be more than space-worthy when I'm done checking her over," she confidently replies, before turning back to tap away at a few more keys. "She's up to speed on almost everything, give or take a few minor tweaks I need to make to the sub-system power consumption ratios, maybe change a few lightbulbs, bla bla bla bla bla~" she says, holding up a hand and miming a talking mouth. She looks back with another cavalier grin. "I won't bore you with the details, Doc. And of couuuurse I know what the job is. It's not like I had no idea about this sub-clause in my inherited contract and I had no idea I'd get roped into some sort of mystery mission against my knowledge or interests."

Her grin falls to a flat deadpan. "Yeah I've got no ideas. Probably some mineral surveyors mucked up and left behind some sensory equipment or other corporate property and somebody wants it recovered before heads roll. I-"

Her voice trails off as a dull beeping noise begins to drone from one of the consoles, a small amber light flickering on and off. She turns slowly in her chair, her deadpan slowly souring into a rather displeased scowl. "Well now, that's not something I wanted to see." A few more taps at some keys, and then a low sigh. "Thank whatever God you believe in that I ran all these diagnostics. Looks like we've got a technical difficulty to deal with..."

Standing up from the pilot's seat, she cracks her knuckles before nodding to the doctor. "Wanna help me fix a proximity sensor array? If you're not handy with a wrench, you can just hold my tools while I make sure we don't die in a space collision later." Another cheery grin. Her gallows sarcasm is either endearing or frustrating for most other the colonists around her...

[Haval]

'Most jobs they give me are against my interests. What use is a biologist in space?' Robert had long assumed his file had been mislabeled somehow and he had no idea who he could talk to to get it checked

He'll groan at having his suspicions confirmed. 'One day they'll send us enough engineers that they can fix everything before we get here.' Which of course would never happen, but he still found the Company's apparent indifference irritating.

Robert wasn't much of a mechanic, but understands the need to go through the process of checking everything on the basis that it might save their lives. 'Just tell me what you need.'

[Tycho42]

The android left his room carrying a medium case full of the gear he would need to perform as many types of surgery as he could possibly think. He wore a white coat that he took great pains to keep clean. It was a sign of his occupation, and a very visible signal that he was the one who saved lives. The rest of him was very still, preternaturally so, in many ways.

He walked up the gantry onto the ship, calling out ahead of him. “Hello. Hello. Who is currently aboard?” He continued to walk up, finding the two individuals talking.

“Hello. I am Dr. Galen. The company has sent me here to join this operation. I am pleased to meet you.”

He extended his hand, rather abruptly, first to the pilot.

[Monsterpoodle]

Russian Jack rolled out of bed causing it to cteak alarmingly. A quick scrub and a check of his gea. Most of it was 3rd hand or worse but it had kept him alive so far.
'hmmmm, a ship. This could be the big score he was looking for' he thought to himself. He headed over to the ship to see who else was on tbe mission. He clumped up the gangway and took a look around. A doctor, a lab geek and some kid was playing in the cockpit. He nodded to the others and sat himself in a chair and closed his eyes to sleep. You never knew when you were going to pull a double and something about his 'team mates' didn't make this seem like a salvage operation. He shrugged. So long as he got paid.

[Haval]

'Any chance either of you know what this is about? Or that you've spent more time in space then I have at least.'

To Galen, 'You a medical Doctor? That's something.'

Going to say I don't know what Galen is unless Tycho says otherwise

[Lycan 01]

Nix is about to greet the new arrival in her typical lazy aloofness, but as she realizes there's something uncanny and unnatural about him, her posture stiffens and tenses a bit. When he extends the hand in greeting, she stares at it warily a moment, before slowly extending her own hand and cautiously taking it. Having grown up on this colony, she hasn't really had much opportunity to meet outsiders... especially not synths. She'd heard of the "Good Doctor" arriving recently, and the rumors of his not-realness. Actually meeting him in person, she found his mannerisms a bit unsettling, yet at the same time, she didn't want to be rude. Or... can you be rude to a synth? Do they have emotions? Or is human wariness standard protocol with them?

"Um, hey. Name's Nix..." she mutters, looking a little confused. Clearly she's uncertain how to react to him, rather than scared or frightened, likely due to her youthful inexperience.

She then cranes her neck to look at the other guy who just walked in. She was pretty sure she'd seen him around a few times, but never been properly introduced. Was he a new arrival too? "Sleeping on the job already?" she calls out to him with an impish little smirk. "You're just in time to help us with a little maintenance. Plenty of time to nap once I get us skyward, assuming the turbulence isn't too terrible. Actually, I should probably check the weather..." she mutters the last part mostly to herself, before turning around towards the various cockpit sensors and scanners and typing away at various keys and dials.


Nix is going to try to use the ship's sensors or scanners to see what the weather is going to be like or how turbulent the atmosphere is right now. Also to make sure there's no storms moving in or anything that might disrupt our flight plans.

Dice pool 7 (wits 3, Commtech 2, gear bonus 2)
[roll0]

looks like 3 successes on something that probably won't be important, yay :smalltongue:

[Hemnon]

You lucky bastard....
- Gain a +1 modification to a later skill roll relating to this one.
- You don’t need to roll to overcome the exact same challenge in the future.
- You do it quickly, in half the time it would normally take.
- You get new or unexpected information (GM’s choice).
- You hide your tracks.
- You show off.

From the list above, you may pick two of the stunts to put into effect for having a success with 2 additional 6s. You can only take the same stunt 1 time (for that specific roll) unless specifically stated otherwise in the stunt description.

Beyond that, while checking the nav-data and weather-predictions from the flight-guidance system, you notice a small issue with the docking protocols that can easily be fixed with some correctional edits to the automated sequence - Without this, you'd have had issues getting a functional seal when docking in space, which meant it'd require EVA and pushoff over to the other vessel.

Ps. If you pick that you do it quickly, from the stunts above, you will get a rebate of 1 short additional action that can be taken before the deadline - So something like getting something you'd forgotten at home, run a diagnostic on another system, etc. could be possible. Although that's just running the diagnostic, you do not have time to fix it until after you've all left for the couple-of-days spacetrip to the outer edge of the solar system where your salvage ops target is.

AS FOR THE WEATHER and such - it seems like it'd be hot, humid and relatively low in the windpressure, so there won't be much expected turbulence during atmos-flight.

[Haval]

Robert has had no direct experience of working with synths, but he could maybe expect someone who has been programmed to have a particular skill set to know what they're doing. To Nix, 'If he's here doesn't that mean the company is taking whatever this is particularly seriously? I don't know whether to be worried or relived.'

[Monsterpoodle]

Russian Jack looks up at the new arrivals with a little interest. Synths were useful. Never slept on the job. Reliable too and some newcomer who hadn't been in space much. The chances of a successful mission just went up.

"hello, everyone calls me Jack. What do you need to be done?" he asks the girl who, implausibly. appeared to be the pilot.

[Tycho42]

“I am indeed a medical doctor, and pleased to make your acquaintance. Is there a particular place I should set up my workspace? I am...unfamiliar with this vessel.”

[Haval]

“I am indeed a medical doctor, and pleased to make your acquaintance. Is there a particular place I should set up my workspace? I am...unfamiliar with this vessel.”

'I think there's a galley towards the back somewhere. Couldn't say how clean it is. I think we're all just expected to make do.'

[Monsterpoodle]

'This is strange' thought Jack to himself. He knew why him and the pilot were there. You always needed someone for the heavy lifting, but a labcoat and a doctor!

[Lycan 01]

"Yeah, if the guys in suits are sending synths and grunts and bookworms, something is weird about all this..." Nix mutters with a frown as she types at the keyboards and diagnostic screens arrayed in front of her. "No offense," she adds to one on in particular since she probably just insulted all of them. "Need to focus on this a moment. Aaaand... done," she says with a grunt, before hitting one last button and then hopping up from her seat. "Weather's clear, turbulence should be light, and I'm getting an uneasy feeling about all this."

Pacing around the cockpit a moment, she turns and points at George and Jack. "Alright, I need you two to go adjust the proximity sensors around the airlocks outside. Nothing too complicated, but time consuming and you need a keen eye. Make sure all the wires are plugged, no rat nests or anything, and all the seals are tight. System showed they needed a little adjusting, so best to put a little elbow grease into it otherwise we're gonna have a hard time doing any zero-G docking. And I don't feel like going for a space-walk," she grunts with a dour little frown.

She then glances at the Synth. "Ship's got a pretty standard layout, though I agree that the galley would be a good place for you to set up shop. It's already super sanitary for food service, per corporate orders, so if we need to patch anybody up, that's probably the best place to do it. And speaking of corporate..."

Nix's scowl deepens, and she begins to walk towards the exit of the cockpit. "I'm thinking I'm going to go play damsel-in-distress and see if I can get one of the Corporate Overlord wannabes or pencil pushers to tag along with us. That way if things get weirder we can ask them about Weyland-Yutani's protocols or guidance, or so the company can blame them if we don't do everything one thousand percent by the book," she grumbles. "I hate being the only certified sub-light pilot on this damn dirt clod..." she hisses, mostly to herself.

Heading back into the settlement for a bit, she begins to ask around for one of the Weyland-Yutani Corporate Personnel Representatives, preferably a smart but easily manipulated one. She's not one for flirting, but she can definitely play dumb and naive and express concern about performing this job without proper guidance. And plus, a job well done would sure look good to the bosses, right? Might help speed up that corporate ladder climb for everyone involved...


Of the stunts, Nix picked +1 to future related skill roll and do it quickly. With the scans and edit fixed (I believe you said she already performed the edit in the OOC) that just leaves the proximity sensor repair, which you said in the old OOC would be a Heavy Machinery check? The two strong manly men should be able to handle that. :smallwink:

So, with the remaining time Nix is going to go try to manipulate a Corporate Agent into joining us. Both for extra help, and so they can be blamed if it all goes sideways! :smallbiggrin:

...I forgot she has no points in Manipulation, so hopefully I get a bonus for the damsel-in-distress act. :smallsigh:

Manipulation: [roll0]

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack quitly wonders if the kid is making jobs up to sound like she knows what she is talking about. No matter. He is on the clock and technically she probably outranks him on a spaceship. He heads off to fo the job she requested.

Heavy machinery (https://orokos.com/roll/816531): 7#1d6 5 6 3 6 1 6 4

The kid was right! Someone had been skipping maintenance. He got to work.

[Lycan 01]

Nix ends up having some luck looking for people! After asking around a bit, she finds herself torn between a lawman and a pencil pusher.

...actually she's not torn at all. She opts to drag the corporate suit along for the adventure, because an officer of the law might suck all the fun out of everything and make their job harder, while the soulless company drone might actually be useful or at the very least be a good scapegoat.

"Alright Miss Quark, we're clear to take off in ballpark of an hour," Nix explains to the suit, putting on as pleasant of a smile as she can force. Maybe its petty, but she has a hard time feeling any sort of positive attitude towards anyone who has actual Weyland-Yutani credentials. Watching her parents work themselves to death and then get saddled with their contracts has left her a little... bitter. But she's clever and mature enough to keep it professional and pretend she doesn't hate the bitch. For now. "I'm going back to the ship to get the rest of the pre-flight checks done. We'll see you shortly," she says with a lazy salute and lopsided smile, before turning to head back to the ship.

[Hemnon]

Illyana Quark nodded to Nix, actually eager to get to DO something rather than just dawdle around in this swampy hole of a Frontier Colony. To be clear, this is her point of view, the Colony is specifically located more efficiently than in the middle of a swamp, Illyana is just clearly the kind of young Ladderclimber that's used to climate-controlled living, high class meals on a regular basis and very much being in a coporate society, not a boonies-collection of human cast-off. So the chance to have a few days on board a spacecraft will feel like a vacation to her, even if it's a somewhat more cramped up Corvus Vessel, rather than a Cruise Vessel - Still at least she'd avoid any more offers of Bug Protein Shakes.
---------------------------
Any potential repairs to be done by Jack was done fairly easily, since it was more or less just basic maintenance of lubricating some hydraulics, removal of a few secondary-conduit wiring, etc.

With the last few hours ticking by, the time proscribed by the Ship's MU/TH/UR chimmed in on the bridge of the ship, everyone present and ready to be more fully informed what this job is all about. Oh and with an additional crewmember, namely Illyana Quark. She hadn't really introduced herself, not feeling the need to let the worker grunts be informed further.... rather instead she was busy typing away with her Datapad.

On the main comms-screen between MU/TH/UR and you, the crew, the following text appears, blinking prompter inserting it all as if fast-typed, line for line:
'Mission Start: On time - no delayed noted.'
'Objective: Edge of System Salvage Ops - Derelict Vessel detected, Salvage rights claimed by WY.'
'Clause 43A of the Employment Agreement grants part-salvage rights to contracted crew - 20% shares in salvage value, to be split between crew upon completion.'
*Beep* - Awaiting lift off...... *Beep* - Awaiting lift off...... *Beep* - Awaiting lift off...... *Beep* - Awaiting lift off...... *Beep* - Awaiting lift off...... ---> and so on and so forth did the Prompt keep adding in that lift off was needed from the planet. Time to go get a good pay! these kinds of jobs are rare after all, especially since this is Maritime Law in active use, since it's a derelict vessel, anyone that stakes first active claim, will gain ownerhship rights - you've all be contracted to make this claim on behalf of WY, and will get a 20% salvage profits after completion of the mission and depending on what can be salvaged and the condition, this can be quite lucrative, with Clause 43A protecting your rights as contractors to this share of the profits.... although it's a share that needs to be split up between you all in the end, not 20% each.

[Haval]

Robert is sitting at a terminal with a cup of coffee when Nix returns with Illyana. When the Company Woman was out of earshot he ask Nix about it. 'More bodies is good but does that mean she's in charge of all this now?' He assumed anyone like Quark would naturally want to throw their weight around if they thought it was for the good of the mission.

-----

'Derelict vessel? It's nice when they can be specific. If someone pinged it wouldn't it have any information on where it came from?'

[Lycan 01]

[Pre-Launch]

Catching a moment to slink over to Robert, Nix offers a coy little smile. "She volunteered for this operation to earn points with her bosses, rather than being selected, so she's technically outside the chain of command for this operation. She has an advisory role, no more, no less. If she gets uppity and tries to take the reigns, then you and the boys simply remind her of that. And if that fails, just tell her that only one person here is technically certified and authorized to pilot the ship, and thus is technically the 'acting Captain' for this mission," she whispers with a sly wink.

Nix doesn't actually consider herself in charge, but if push comes to shove, she'll happily play the role of "Acting Captain" to shut the corporate suit up.

---

[Launch]

Nix can only offer a shrug to Robert. "Alright space cowboys, guess it's time to go chop-shop a ghost ship we know nothing about. Get ready too, because this old mule kicks hard on the way up..." Nix says with a wry smirk, as she begins to type in the codes to finalize the launch procedures and flight trajectory. The final countdown begins, and she quickly runs the crew through her quick pre-flight advisory: "Alright, boys and other girl, this is your 'Captain' speaking. Scans showed we're clear as far as the weather and wind currents go, but there's always a chance for pockets of turbulence. So seriously, buckle up. Its company policy that we all stay strapped in until we hit the void, and I don't want my cut of the reward getting penalized because one of you decided to kiss a bulkhead before we even break atmosphere. All the other pre-flight checks came back clear, and no other red flags to speak of. So, with that said... Hold on to your butts, don't touch anything, and I'll kill you if you throw up on me," she deadpans she grips the throttle and prepares to take them to the stars.

[Haval]

Robert chuckles 'I think I can live with that.' Being able to overrule Illyana on something might be enough to justify this job all by itself.

---------

Robert will strap himself in. Equally deadpan, 'Turbulence I can live with. Just remember, if there's anything seriously wrong with the ship feel free not to tell me. I prefer the surprise.'

[Monsterpoodle]

'a derelict salvage vessel', that was great news. Although something still seemed off. They weren't in a hauler class vessel, and their crew roster still seemed way-off for that sort of mission, and now a pencil-pusher. He would try to look good around her. It might push him up tbe line if more jobs like this came along.

Jack idly mused over this stuff as the ship clawed it's way out of the atmosphere.

[Haval]

Once the ship reached the atmosphere and it was safe to move about, Robert is going to go and have a chat with MU/TH/UR. He's not expecting to get anywhere but he had to try.

'MU/TH/UR, how was the derelict detected in the first place? Has the company been able to identify it or establish any opinions about where it might of come from?' If the ship was a derelict company vessel then it might be easy to identify. Presumably they had a list of all the ships they lost over the years. If it was from outside company space they could try and work which region of the galaxy it had originated from. 'Honestly, the fact that a derelict drifted into an inhabited system at all is fairly remarkable.'

[Hemnon]

In response, MU/TH/UR's communications Terminal fuzzed over for a short moment.

*Prompt blinks for 4 seconds......*

Derelict Vessel, Estimated in G-Class Size -
Derelict Vessel was detected through This Ship's Sensor, combined with Colony Comms locating the passive locator beacon from Derelict Vessel.
*Beep*
Derelict Vessel remains unresponsive to all Comms attempt.
Derelict Vessel Designation & Classification - Unknown. Vessel is NOT suspected as Wayland-Yutani Company property.
Original Destination and Origin Point Remains Unknown.

MU/TH/UR remains unresponsive towards the final remark, mostly since typing such statements to an AI is fairly useless, no matter how remarkable it is that the Derelict Vessel had ended up randomly so in an inhabited system.

As a final note, just before Robert would either leave or return to typing, MU/TH/UR gave another response -
Gravity Drive Arrival Suspected - Unable to further specify due to distance.
*Prompt then keeps passively blinking, awaiting any further input.*

[Haval]

That the ship seemed to have come here on purpose just raised more questions, 'Assuming MU/TH/UR is correct, then whoever it is came here on purpose, which given we're in the arse end of nowhere seems a little weird. Were we the closest inhabited planet?' Robert is mostly thinking out loud. 'Maybe their comms are broken?'

[Hemnon]

With time passing on, the first of the 3-4 days of travel goes by and it's time for the fresh new morning shift. So far nothing has gone wrong with the ship, no error reports or reactor core fluctuations. For now it seems like everything is going as expected.
Illyana Quark was already sitting at the dining table in the small eatery place where everyone could get either ready-made meals, or various types of dry-goods, like different types of very bland cereals, a non-dairy type of milk (most likely made on some sort of nut, like almonds), quick thaw cornbread, etc.
She was personally busy buttering up a half-through cut cornbread square-loaf and adding some sort of jam on it.

(you all need to tally up having spent on your food for lunch and dinner the day before. Prefab meals cost 10 bucks, if you wanna go with something like a bugjuice protein drink instead, it's 5 bucks, If you just ate a candybar or two for lunch yesterday, then they cost between 2-5 dollars each. if you want carbonated deverages like sodas and such, then it's 2 dollars per can. Or you could just drink water, re-re-re-recycled water that is. Whatever amount of coffee you want/need is free of charge~ we are gonna ignore effects like gaining stress from coffee, unless you want coffee at the breakfast table, then you'll have to spend around 5-10 minutes of restfulness to lower that stress by 1. There's no loss to the ship's food or water supply rating, it's stocked for months if need be, longer with rationing. So all in all pay for lunch and dinner the day before, and choose what you want for breakfast. just about anything 'food' is a prefab meal and is 10 bucks. You technically only need to eat once or twice a day, but to stay healthy, 2-3 meals is best. Note what you've purchased, since it'll be deducted from your salary in the end of the job upon receiving payment.)

[Monsterpoodle]

'how much for a meal! Typical company, we are out here getting salvage potentially worth millions of creds in a ship with enough food to fly to the next system and they eere charging for meals.. Screw' em. Bugjuice all the way. '

[Haval]

'how much for a meal! Typical company, we are out here getting salvage potentially worth millions of creds in a ship with enough food to fly to the next system and they eere charging for meals.. Screw' em. Bugjuice all the way. '

Robert has long been resigned to how the company operated. 'I believe they call it the poverty trap. The prefabbed **** isn't great either but at least it feels like a meal.' For all that Robert hasn't had that much to do during the trip he will absolutely get coffee for breakfast. It was always possible that something would come up that he needed to be properly awake for.

After Robert sips some coffee, 'So...there's no still no sign that there's anyone else out here?' If there had been any communications or additional signals detected Robert assumed he would have heard about it already. 'How close are we to the derelict? It would be nice to know if it's still stable enough that we can dock with it without having to go outside.' He'll gesture vaguely towards the hull. 'Never had to EVA before.'

[Lycan 01]

Nix has practically lived in the cockpit for the last few days, mostly keeping to herself and occasionally venturing out to find food or use a restroom. She's primarily been keeping an eye on the ship's systems, sensors, and bearing during the journey, as well as learning and familiarizing herself more with the controls and displays. If the company picked her for this mission, they'll probably pick her for more after this, assuming things don't go horribly wrong. Might as well get in as much experience as she can right now, when it might be useful later.

Trudging into the mess hall, the young pilot's eyes seem a little more sunken and dark-circled. She's been eating light, only spending 20 bucks a day on mostly snacks and a half-decent meal with lots of free coffee in between, both out of penny-pinching and stress dulling her appetite. She makes her way over to the coffee machine, fiddling with it (within company parameters) to make her batch as strong as possible. Skipping the sugars and creamers that the company would no doubt nickel and dime her for, she makes her over to join the fellas at the table they're sharing. She nods to Ilyana as she passes, not saying anything but at least acknowledging her to be courteous. Sitting down with the boyz, she takes a sip of the steaming coffee, before grimacing a bit - whether its from the taste, heat, or general sour mood, its unclear.

"You know, I've been thinking..." she grumbles, before pointing at Robert. "From what you said, this ship we're going to snoop around on... MU/TH/UR detected gravity jump signatures, so it can't have been drifting around out here for too long. Must have been a recent arrival, or 'recent' in the sense of space travel. So, it arrived here on its own power and probably crewed, rather than a long-dead ghost ship slowly drifting in from outside the range of the system scanners over a period of months or years. Point is," she scowls, "Somewhere between that ship getting to the system and the company hailing it, something serious had to have happened to it."

A wry little smirk flashes across her young face. "So, who wants to place some bets? I'm thinking... Explosive depressurization from a meteor to the cockpit or something, vented most of the air and crew out of the ship in one quick pop," she says with a click of her tongue for emphasis. She takes another sip of her coffee. "Other options... power overload from the jump, ship arrived dead in the water, no lights, comms, life support... just a slow death in the dark..." she murmurs, before flashing a grin. "Or maybe life support failed before or during the jump, and the ship already had the coordinates locked in. Dead Man Trigger sort of thing, like a giant flying coffin," she muses aloud.

She then sighs, and takes another sip of coffee. "Gallows humor aside... this whole thing is starting to sit a little unwell with me. Seriously, if it was recent enough for the grav jump to still be detected, I feel like we need to be especially cautious in our approach. Give it a full external look over before we send anyone over, before we attach our ship to what may be a giant floating bomb for all we know." She frowns, before glancing at Jack. "You know your stuff pretty good. Got any experience with space walks? Think we could maybe float a scout or two over with enviro-suits and try to open the airlock manually, maybe get an idea of what's going on before we tie our ship and whole crew to it?" she asks uncertainly.

Admittedly, Nix is still pretty young and inexperienced in the ways of salvage work. Her forte is piloting and knowing all the things that can go wrong with a vehicle or ship and how to quick-fix them. The actual complexity of stuff like space walks, getting aboard abandoned vessels, and actually doing a recovery job is still a bit above her head. Though it sounds like she's eager to learn and discuss it, at least.

[Haval]

'Maybe some sort of virus? It left too many of them too sick to answer comms. Which might mean that there are survivors in their sickbay.' Robert grins cynically, 'That might be the most optimistic possibility.'

'Easy enough to think of them being unlucky enough to hit debris or an asteroid. Anything that was big enough to puncture the hole and small enough that they never saw it coming. It's almost like space is incredibly dangerous.' Robert looks pensive, 'If the ship has depressurised it'll be easy to tell when we're close but I imagine it'll be a hell of a mess inside. Can't say what that'll do to the salvage either.'

[Hemnon]

Illyana nodded back at Nix with a brisk, wide business-smile, sipping at her own mug of company-paid coffee... Technically speaking, she wasn't official for this job, so if any of you were very policy-minded, you could point this out to her.

With nothing else really happening, the next few days goes by in what feels like an eternity to some, and rather quickly so to others among you. No issues seems to have cropped up, although the constant location-beacon ping (when the comms were turned active on it's signal) were ominously repetitive and singular, so to speak. Still no radio transmissions beyond the passive beacon itself, no IFF-ID signature, no nothing.

(Everyone, you gain a Plot Point, please add this to your charactersheets)
---------------------------------
... A few days later - Arrival at Derelict

The Derelict vessel seems to be of a class of spacecraft just one size category above Your G Class Corvus Craft - And M-class Arlington Vessel. It stands around 300 meters in length (a good 6 times the size of your own Corvus vessel).
Now what's the price of such a vessel as a standard purchase-cost? Oh just a nice 28 million. And that's without taking into consideration any further additions that might have been made, if there's any cargo on on board worth something, etc. etc. Looks like quite the jackpot since these types of vessels are not exactly rare, but they are the sweetspot for any enterpeneurial moneyman (or woman) since it is neither too oversized for common use, but still big enough to haul big cargo loads and carry a functional amount of crew (on average 7-9 people).
With a percentage-salvage payout, you'd each potentially rack in a healthy 500.000 dollars EACH. And that's if it's just the vessel itself, in functional condition and no one onboard that can claim rights of ownership!

Your Medical Doctor Android, Galen will stay behind on the Corvus.
---------------------

So yeah, you've all arrived, please count in the next 3 days of food purchasing - remember you need to each what is collectively a value of 2 meals - however you want to explain this is up to you, with protein bars, bug-juice shakes, pre-fab meals, etc. Just like prior.

Right now, the M-class vessel seem to be on total blackout, nothing but auto-lighting seems active on the outside. You can try and dock with it - which will require a Piloting Roll to do this without issues cropping up. Or you can mag-clamp onto the hull of the M-class vessel with cabling and do EVA'ing instead.
There's still no active response from the M-class vessel as you approach it.

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack ponders the idea of a vessel. In his experience if something goes wrong in space it is usually fatal but someone told it where to go. Maybe people had it all wrong. Maybe it got sent here precisely because it was the butt end of tbe universe. If you had mechanical problems you wouldn't come here. Maybe the crew were on the run. Didn't matter though, he knew how s**t worked. Everyone else on board was a suit. He would be the one knocking on the giant tomb..

[Haval]

Robert is taking no comfort in the lack of obvious answers to what had happened here. 'No signs of damage and it has some power still. I suppose that doesn't mean it has any air.' This would at least be an explanation. 'Short of finding an external window we're going to have to take a look inside. I suppose if it was on fire or something and likely to go up when we get too close it would be hard to miss.'


Going to try and contact the derelict's Mother now we're closer. Doesn't mean I'll get a response obviously.

Wits + Comtech if it helps (5+3)
[roll0]

See ooc

[Hemnon]

Robert's attempt at contacting the M-class vessel went silent in response. He would also very much know that the issue is NOT from his end. There's just no one that responds on the other end, not even an auto response of message-recieved from the Ship AI that really should be on board.

This would mean the ship is either fully 'dead' in the way that not even enough power was sustained to keep the AI running as well. Sure the ship could potentially be in silent running mode with only essential powering remaining active - like 'ye olde freezerinos' (aka. the Cryosleep pods), artificial gravity, regular lifesupport systems, etc.

[Lycan 01]

Nix scowls as she surveys the scene before her, gently coaxing their own vessel to stay a safe distance from the derelict. "I don't like this..." she grumbles. "A ship this big, this expensive, this heavily crewed, just floating dead in the water? No distress or F-F-I or AI response? I don't like it all."

Fidgeting with the controls, she debates pulling in a bit closer, but decides to hold at a distance for the time being. The hairs on the back of her neck are starting to stand up. "Either something went horribly wrong while they were already in transit here... or whatever happened must have sent it into some sort of auto-protocol to bring it to the nearest system on what little energy it had left before the power frizzed out completely. Crew is either in the deep freeze, or they're all deep fried. My money is on a flash fire..." she says, scowl deepening. "My dad used to tell me stories about how humans first flew, and he said one of the first space ships - Apollo something or another - lost the whole crew to a fire in the crew cabin. Or something like that." She shivers at the thought of burning alive in a flying coffin. "Or maybe the oxygen and other life support systems bugged and they had to reroute all the power just to keep breathing as long as they could. Either way, I'm not too keen on docking use directly with it. Seems like a great way to tie ourselves to what could be a floating coffin, floating bomb, or... I dunno, maybe some sort of crazy pirate trap? Either way, I think sending someone over on a space flight might be the best course of action."

She scans the crowd of crew members, working her jaw thoughtfully. "You guys want to put it a vote? Space walk, or airlock dock? We're all in this together, might as well make it a democratic decision on how we approach it."

[Haval]

'What kind of clock are we on anyway?' Robert said thinking of their supplies. 'We can afford to be a little careful.' The idea that the derelict might be full of ash and bodies meant that Robert was in no hurry to go over there. 'Space walk. If you're right I'd like to think that we could keep a safe distance from that thing, at least until we get to the airlock and see what the problem is.'

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack shrugs.. "any radiation spikes? If nyet then fly close, look for external damage. If nothing, go airlock."

[Haval]

Jack shrugs.. "any radiation spikes? If nyet then fly close, look for external damage. If nothing, go airlock."

'As long you go first either way.' Robert replies. 'If one of us was going out onto the hull I'd rather it was someone who knew what they were doing.'

But it was a fair point about radiation leaks. Robert will do what he could to double check.

[Monsterpoodle]

"of course. Ship is very heavy. For heavy objects you need a Jack.."

[Lycan 01]

Having only gotten input from two of her crewmembers, Nix decides to put a plan together. "Alright, so here's the plan," she says, slurping down the rest of her coffee. "We'll give it another flyby, just to make sure there's no other damage we've missed. MU/TH/UR hasn't mentioned any radiation, but there's still plenty of other risks that may be aboard. If there's no signs of any trauma or major red flags, I'll inch the ship in close, just shy of docking with them. Maybe hook the umbilical or some tow-locks, that way we can break off in the event of an emergency, but there's an extra safety net for our space-walker and it'll be easier to fully lock on once the coast is clear. You-" she points at Jack, "Bebop over, scout out the airlock and see if there's any immediate sign of danger. If the coast is clear and the air is good, then you hop back, we fully airlock, and most of the crew comes aboard. Sound good? Good."

Having put together a plan from everybody's suggestions, Nix then heads back to the cockpit. "Alright boys and girls, time to get the party started..." she sighs, her hands starting to dance across the control panels as she bites back the rising nervousness and dread. Something about this still feels wrong. Like she's missing some important clue or red flag...


Pilot check! Dice pool is 8 - 3 from Piloting, 5 from Agility.
[roll0]

[Haval]

To Jack, 'Appreciate the enthusiasm.'

'As I said, I don't think we're in a hurry.' Robert says tentatively 'No reason not to be careful.'

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack goes and makes sure his gear is ready to go..

[Lycan 01]

Nix maneuvers the ship around with practiced ease, despite not having much actual practice. Her dad had taught her the basics, and things to keep in mind. Inertia, three-dimensional awareness, and most of all, patience. With a few taps of some buttons and a gentle twist of the flight stick, Nix sends their ship in a slow, gentle spiral around the derelict. Now that she's had some practice and hands on experience, she has a pretty good feel for the ship. Old fighter aces in the dawn of flight had usually possessed a killer instinct of sorts, strangely at home behind a throttle and able to feel and understand the aircraft around them better than most. Nix, it seems, has inherited such instinct from her father.

Hopefully the corporate suit is paying attention - this sort of skill isn't what you would normally expect to see on a backwater planet, and definitely shouldn't be left to rot there for low wages. Who knows, maybe if the Suit can help market Nix's skills to somewhere more useful to the company, she could pocket a "headhunting" fee, and everybody wins...

"Minimal effort, maximum efficiency," she purrs with a smug grin as they finally slow to a halt just shy of the derelict's airlock. "Should just be a hop skip and jump to get over and let us know if the place is infected with brain eating space worms or something ridiculous like that," she snorts. "Or worse - haunted. Woo-ooo-ooo~" she says, wiggling her fingers as she makes spooky space ghost noises at whoever has the misfortune of still being in the cockpit with her.


I guess I'll use one stunt to look cool, and then pocket the extra +1 to future Pilot checks. Not sure if there's anything I can do with that remaining stunt, unless I can bank multiple bonuses for future use. At least she hopefully won some brownie points with our corporate overseer. :smalltongue:

[Haval]

Robert is watching the ship's sensors but is impressed by Nix's piloting, 'You're very good at this. Least we won't bump into anything.' Nix's speculations made him frown, 'If there's ghosts in there we'll vent them into space.'

[Monsterpoodle]

"am in airlock waiting for instructions" says Jack over the intercomm.

[Hemnon]

The flawless piloting by Nix, puts your smaller vessel into a near perfect drift-orbit with the M-class Derelict, leaving the minor readjustments to MU/TH/UR since she'd easily be able to do such a menial task.
It goes to say that Illyana Quark, who had not even the slightest of basic understanding of 3-dimensional navigation, still seemed suitably impressed by Nix's skillful use of the G-class Corvus Space Vessel that you were all onboard at the moment.

After a short while, the umbillical corridor is attached and passage from one ship to the other is possible.

MU/TH/UR reports on the bridge, that she is unable to engage with the hatchway door on the derelict, but manual override does seem possible at the hatchway door itself - although if it'll automatically open as well is another question entirely.

Caution IS advised by her, however, since she is also unable to recieve any other ship-information from the Derelict - no information on oxygen-systems functionality, lifeform presences, etc.
All she can inform about is that there's no active dangers to be detected in terms of the Derelict - Radiation warnings, coremeltdown signatures, etc. None of that. It just seems like a dead, inactive husk of a vessel.

[Lycan 01]

Nix grabs her radio, and calls in to Jack. Presumably he's got one either on his person or built into the suit he's about to go star swimming in. "Alright Jackhammer, looks like we're just about locked tight. MU/TH/UR is showing no immediate danger of the radioactive meltdown sort, but no readings on O2, lifesigns, anything useful like that. Door systems are also dead as my hopes and dreams, so you're probably going to have to manually override it or get creative. I'd suggest that once you get the door open and we've got an idea what we're dealing with, you hop back over here. Don't go running off to claim all the treasure for yourself, alright?" she purrs over the airwaves, the crooked grin audible in her voice even if he can't see it on her face. "Looks like everything's stable. You're clear to go, God and luck be with you," she intones, actually sounding a little more serious as she gives him the green light, and toggles any safety systems or overrides that might otherwise prevent him from exiting the airlock.

[Monsterpoodle]

Altbough Jack had done this before he knew he was no zero-g gymnast. Making sure to keep safety lines hooked and that all indicators were green. He pumped the air iut of the airlock and began to cautiously make his way over to the other ship.

[Haval]

In case there was actually a problem here and Jack needed help Robert will go and put on his own suit.

[Hemnon]

The short umbillical walk goes more or less issue-free. There is some issue with the whole lack of gravity to deal with. There was no air of course, so it was a total vaccuum in the umbilical.

Nowever, due to Nix's expert piloting and such, there was no outstanding issues for Jack, as he finally reached the airlock access-door to the Derelict Vessel. As expected, there was no power on, so the removal of a covered up seal-break lever had to be done before the airlock hatch itself could be pushed open afterwards.

Inside the Derelict, for Jack, it was eeriely silent, only his own breathing in his heavy-duty EVA suit could really be heard, along with the impact from his own steps as he entered the little airlock cycling room. Oddly enough there was no air in the airlock itself either, but it did seem sealed at the other end, so most likely the rest of the Derelict was more than likely still pressurized. How breathable the atmosphere was inside was a whole other question tho, and until power had been re-activated, it'd be rather hazardous to check by trying to just remove the EVA suit.
There's no lighting that seem active, except for some basic emergency lighting that gently illuminates navigational points and signs, nor any other sound of 'activity' from what Jack can notice.

--------------------------------------------

So yes, there's now access to the derelict. At the point you all have access to, it wouldn't be much of a walk (once the second airlock door has been opened) to walk either straight to the reactor itself or straight for the bridge.
You could either try to just brute-force open the second airlock door (which requires a heavy machinery test), you could try to do a manual override if you have the proper tools for it (you need some sort of computer-interface device like a SEEGSON SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC DEVICE for example, or try to do a physical override via some rewiring which does NOT require that device)... or you could potentially pull a power-extension from your own ship and over through the airlock so at least partial power could be established to at least ensure regular functionality for the airlock itself.
Or if you can think of something else to do, feel free to try that as well. But for now, you have the secondary door to deal with and then it's either engineering or the bridge you'd have to head to if you wanna try and re-establish full power to the derelict.

[Haval]

Robert starts to relax a little as Jack made it into the airlock. Over the comm, 'That doesn't really illuminate anything, but as nothing terrible happened to Jack I'm going to take that as a good sign. Getting the internal door open shouldn't be that hard. If it's damaged I want to try and make sure we don't break the airlock getting in. Wouldn't want to vent the whole thing by accident.'


I have the SEEGSON SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC DEVICE, which would be a 10 dice test I think. I'll give the others a minute to weigh in.

[Monsterpoodle]

"you want the door opened or will you open it from your end?" Jack uses his torch to look around the airlock.

[Haval]

To Jack, 'Much as trying to power a spaceship using jump leads might be amusing, I think I'll try opening the thing up myself first. I think I can avoid making anything worse. If it is beyond me please do what you can.' To Nix, 'Don't go far.'

Robert doesn't particularly want to go outside, but as he's come all this way he can at least try to be useful. He'll make ready to cross over and join Jack in the derelict's airlock.


So no mobility test needed. Bringing the diagnostic device, motion tracker and flashlight. I'm assuming these are all things that can be clipped onto a space suit.

Going to roll to try and open the inner door of the airlock.
Wits 5 + Comtech 3 + Diagnostic Device (+2 Comtech)
[roll0]

[Lycan 01]

"Yeah, opening it manually is best plan, I'd say," Nix muses, working her jaw thoughtfully. "I'm not too keen on sharing our power supply with a ghost ship. If there's something wrong with their reactor or systems, could cause all sorts of feedback issues or leach more power than intended. I'd rather keep our juice to ourselves, just in case," she says, eyes glancing over their own system stats. "You guys just be careful. I don't feel like washing what's left of you out of the airlock and then having to foot the bill for corporate," she deadpans, throwing a little gallows humor into the mix. At least, its hopefully humor.



Not much else to add, Nix is staying in the cockpit. I'll offer a gear manifest when/if she leaves our ship.

[Hemnon]

The inner airlock door seems rather uncooperative - possibly due to the lack of power and only getting any input function from the little powersource from the Diagnostic Device...
And then the override-accepted confirmation showed up for Robert and luckily it seemed that the emergency-pressurization system seemed to work, albeitly with some difficulty, adding atmosphere to both the airlock and slowly to the umbillical corridor as well.

Then a click and mild suction-hiss came as the last bits of pressure was equalized with the internals of the ship, as the Airlock door's locking mechanism got unsealed and the doors tried to open before failing to do so, getting stuck with barely a crack between the door opening. It should easly enough to forced open the rest of the way though.

Inside, you'd find yourselves in a dark, dank ship-corridor at the airlock entrypoint that had a left and right passage, each big enough to allow a single EVA-suited person walk around with relatively ease.
Left leads towards the bridge, Right leads towards the Ship's Power Generator in engineering.

Everything is quiet, except for the odd vent-hissing and what sounds like a distant 'thrumming'. Beyond that, there's no activity, no signs of life, barely any power seems present with just emergency-lighting giving everything a red tint to it along with the 'directional signs' being illuminated for air in navigation - But beyond that the derelict appears totally dead.

[Haval]

Whatever was actually going on here Robert preferred to be inside rather then out in space. To Jack, 'Nice place they got here.' He'll talk mostly to break the silence as he looks around. Was there any sign of internal damage?

To Nix, 'Door's open. If there's anyone here they're not in a hurry to show themselves.'

[Monsterpoodle]

With his torch in one hand and his jack in the other, Russian Jack starts heading towards the bridge. "I am thinking there might be more answers on the bridge."

[Haval]

With his torch in one hand and his jack in the other, Russian Jack starts heading towards the bridge. "I am thinking there might be more answers on the bridge."

Robert will follow, 'I wish I could share your optimism. Somehow if the whole ship is deserted I wouldn't be surprised.

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack shrugs as he checks atmospheric levels. "I hope so. No one to dispute claim for salvage."

[Hemnon]

The atmospheric readings (as shown by the EVA suit's own basic sensors) show that the air is THIN, but breathable. It'd not be a good idea to try run a marathon on this derelict but the air is quite breathable.
It's however clear that it's not exactly warm here either, what with all the hoarfrost clinging to various protruding objects and such. Some basic sense of ship-wide power would be a good idea to get re-enabled such as heating, air-cleansing and circulation, as well as some better lighting.

Every step towards the bridge 'clunks' heavily with each step, rattling chains can sometimes be heard jingle against eachother in the currently-still Zero-G enviroment. It takes a few minutes to traverse from the entry-point and up to the bridge which is equally empty. No people, no nothing. Not even signs of occupancy.
Various navigational terminals and piloting controls can be seen up there on the bridge, every screen is black except for the core-access terminal which has an active prompter blinking.

Feel free to interact with things on the bridge, however I'd like an Observation skill test from each of you that's on the derelict bridge.
If you have some sort of lumination aide (flashlight or some such) you'll cancel out the normal penalties from the dim lighting currently present.

[Haval]

Robert has his flashlight out and is looking for signs of ...something? Was there any sign that anyone had been here in the first place.

On the bridge he will have a quick look around before moving to access the terminal.


Wits 5 + Observation 2 with flashlight
[roll0]

[Hemnon]

Robert has his flashlight out and is looking for signs of ...something? Was there any sign that anyone had been here in the first place.

On the bridge he will have a quick look around before moving to access the terminal.


Wits 5 + Observation 2 with flashlight
[roll0]




Everything is covered in a frozen-condensation and, as mentioned earlier, just the main Terminal is active with a prompt ready for input.
One strange thing that Robert notices is that usual dust layer that'd be on top of everything after a long while, even in Zero-G seems to be missing from the Main Terminal's Keyboard. The frozen condensation is there, but not the light dusty layer one would expect....
It is very odd, because it would indicate that there has been other people on board this ship within the last week or so... but no signs of that is seen anywhere and Your own ship did not detect the signals of any other ships being out here.

In any case, with the Main Terminal at the Bridge still being active, it might be possible to turn on the power generator from here if it's only in shutdown mode rather than actively turned off - and with how there's minimal power present on the ship to begin with, that would indicate that the power generator in engineering is still very much functional still.

From the Bridge there's one way back where Robert came from, that splits in three - First path to the right leads back towards the airlock and the umbillical. Another path goes straight ahead which'd most likely lead to the Living Area where beds, dining table and kitchen, along with the Derelict's Cryopods would be located as well. To the left is a third path that would most likely lead to Medical/Science Facilities.

[Haval]

'The keyboard is too clean. Someone was here recently.' Robert will talk over the radio to keep Nix in the loop. 'If you were in cryo would you have yourself woken up occasionally to make sure the ship was heading in the right direction?' It wasn't something he'd ever had to care about. 'I can see if I can reactivate power from here. Least we can get the lights on.'

[Monsterpoodle]

"after you have done that let's go and check medical for more information."
Robert is hoping that nice expensive medical equipment is intact.

[Haval]

Robert will try and get the power on from the bridge. It would be nice to have the regular lights on in here.


Holding off on a Wits + Comtech roll unless Hemnon says it's needed.

Robert has 1 stress so I shouldn't look for trouble here.

If I can't get it working from here we can head to engineering.

[Hemnon]

The re-powering of the Derelict ship seems at first to be troublesome, but no, not at all! The prompting terminal accepts the keycommands easily, albeit the keys are a little frost-stuck at first, and with a few shutdown and restarting of power on the bridge, suddenly everything is powered, the hum of air circulation and purification vents tells that the air is beginning to get back up to a breathable format.
The air would still be negative-degrees celcius, so it's still very cold, but give it a little while and the various ship compartments ought to heat up to a human-friendly level.
-----------------

Power cycles on throughout the now-functional ship, engineering humming with activity again, the ship's MU/TH/UR taking over all the minor stuff. On the Terminal Screen Robert used, there is a prompt requesting the actual sol-time for the sake of re-syncing - but it's not something that needs to be worried about.
Lights began springing to life through the hallways, the mess area, the cryopod area, etc.
Nothing is reported as having issues with turning on.
In the distance, even through the EVA suits, both Ivan and Robert can hear some sort of low hissing. Although how much of it is caused by sound reverberating up thorugh the soles of their EVA suit's boots, and how much is comms-feedback within the EVA suit, along with if it's something actually audioable within the ship.... that was harder to tell.

[Haval]

At the hissing sound Robert will pensively glance around the bridge. The lights being on probably didn't illuminate everything equally. 'Anyone else hear that?' It was that feeling when you were alone in a house, but you could still hear it creaking in the wind.

He'll investigate the terminal to see if he can find out any details about the ship or of who might have been using the terminal lately.

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack frowns at the hissing sound but as the ship has atmosphere he is not too worried.. He waits for Robert to finish the computer stuff.

[Lycan 01]

Nix listens along on the radio, carefully monitoring their own ship's vitals. "Status report, fellas?" she asks warily. "If everything's powering up alright, I'd say check on the cryo bay to see if anyone is aboard, throw it back in reserve power or power the whole thing down to be safe, and then haul ass back over here," she says into the radio, before adding mostly to herself: "Something about this just feels off..."

There's a cold tingle on the back of her neck, and she can't help but shudder. A derelict vessel, half-frozen but with some signs of recent activity but no crew to greet them...

A colder chill runs down her spine, and she turns in her chair to slap the locking mechanism on the cockpit door. She lifts the radio back to her mouth and quietly calls in to the EVA scouts. "Hey... Do all models of synths need life support systems?" she asks uncertainly. "Or can some of them stay operational in a low-temp or low-air environment?" She isn't sure herself, but that might explain why somebody had been able to move around on board the ship with everything powered down. A replicant crew member, possibly gone rogue or worse...

[Haval]

Nix listens along on the radio, carefully monitoring their own ship's vitals. "Status report, fellas?" she asks warily. "If everything's powering up alright, I'd say check on the cryo bay to see if anyone is aboard, throw it back in reserve power or power the whole thing down to be safe, and then haul ass back over here," she says into the radio, before adding mostly to herself: "Something about this just feels off..."

There's a cold tingle on the back of her neck, and she can't help but shudder. A derelict vessel, half-frozen but with some signs of recent activity but no crew to greet them...

A colder chill runs down her spine, and she turns in her chair to slap the locking mechanism on the cockpit door. She lifts the radio back to her mouth and quietly calls in to the EVA scouts. "Hey... Do all models of synths need life support systems?" she asks uncertainly. "Or can some of them stay operational in a low-temp or low-air environment?" She isn't sure herself, but that might explain why somebody had been able to move around on board the ship with everything powered down. A replicant crew member, possibly gone rogue or worse...


Robert tries to sound more relaxed then he actually feels. 'Just some weird noises on the comms that I am completely ok with.' If Robert can't find a ship's log or any sign of who had used the terminal last he'll leave it alone for the moment. 'Apparently boarding a strange ship in the middle of the outer system is a little nerve wracking.'

On synths, 'Can't say I can speak to the specifics but maybe it's theoretically possible. I assume they'd seize up if it got really cold.' The possibility of a damaged synth in here with them was not helping things.

If he can't find anything useful on the terminal he'll take a moment to try and slow his breathing and try to relax before heading down to cryo. 'Thi is still moderately better then being outside.'


Will roll Wits + Comtech if there's a need but I have 1 stress so I'm going to try avoiding rolling unless I have to.

Will try and relax to reduce stress if that's possible. Everything is weird but there's no reason to think there's anything actually dangerous here with us. Maybe that's enough. :smallsmile:

[Hemnon]

Robert tries to sound more relaxed then he actually feels. 'Just some weird noises on the comms that I am completely ok with.' If Robert can't find a ship's log or any sign of who had used the terminal last he'll leave it alone for the moment. 'Apparently boarding a strange ship in the middle of the outer system is a little nerve wracking.'

On synths, 'Can't say I can speak to the specifics but maybe it's theoretically possible. I assume they'd seize up if it got really cold.' The possibility of a damaged synth in here with them was not helping things.

If he can't find anything useful on the terminal he'll take a moment to try and slow his breathing and try to relax before heading down to cryo. 'Thi is still moderately better then being outside.'


Will roll Wits + Comtech if there's a need but I have 1 stress so I'm going to try avoiding rolling unless I have to.

Will try and relax to reduce stress if that's possible. Everything is weird but there's no reason to think there's anything actually dangerous here with us. Maybe that's enough. :smallsmile:


Taking a seat at the bridge, albeit a little awkwardly in a bulky EVA suit, Robert had the chance to take a breather for few minutes while the hum of ventilation fans slowly peaks towards full circulation and no longer makes much noise at all. One had to even strain the ears while wearing an EVA suit to even hear the hum vibration through the flooring.

After calming down, Robert could then calmly head towards Cryo-sleep (which was in a back room behind the mess-kitchen area. Walking along the pathway to Cryo-Sleep was of course followed with the odd 'pop' sound of heating metal grating expanding a little as it was heated up, clicking back into proper place in their fittings.
A much louder 'THUNK!' could be heard towards the right which would be either back towards the Umblillical entrance airlock, or in the science lab/med lab locating in the center. There's no direct path towards the place the sound came from. Either go back or keep going down the pathway you're on towards the Crew-area with Cryo-Sleep, Mess-kitchen, bunks, etc. are located.

[Haval]

Robert will turn awkwardly in the direction of the noise. 'Was that inside?' Maybe they had somehow managed to connect with a micro asteroid. 'Or something chooses a fine time to fall over just when we come in.' That was a little hard to believe. Robert will unclip the motion sensor and switch it on. Something had been here after all and nothing about this filled him with confidence. If he doesn't find anything to worry about he'll head to cryo.


So M314 motion tracker detecting movement at long range in close quarters (p.134)

Power supply 5 when fully charged, so supply roll at 5d6?

[roll0]

[Hemnon]

It's quite clear to Robert that the Motion Tracker wasn't reacting well to the still very-cold air, or had reacted badly the moment He and the Russian (Jack) had entered the freezing cold derelict - Since the powerlevels had already shown signs of dropping.
The pulsing dot-dot-dot-dot motion-tracking display shows no motion beyond whatever motion Jack was making (it wasn't registering Robert himself after all). Beyond that, no motion at all. No further noise either for that matter. Everything was still just eeriely quiet with only the noise of Robert and Jack's EVA-suit footsteps making any noise what so ever.

[Haval]

Robert will hurriedly switch the motion detector off to preserve it a little longer. If there had been something here it wasn't here now. The only think likely to be alive would be in cryo. Still, he'll pick up the pace so they could get out of here quicker.

[BananaPhone]

*Click!*

A familiar sound echoed within the confined, still corridors of the ship.

"Halt..." followed the surprisingly soft and soothing feminine voice.

Foot-steps were heard behind Roberts as a figure congealed out of the gloom of the hallway, her angular features still hugged by the shadows of the ships interior.

She didn't look a day beyond her mid-twenties, with an athletic physique that was grasped by a trim blue zip-up flak jacket and dark jeans. But what glinted in the passageway most of all, was light upon the barrel of the large revolver she was pointing in Roberts direction.

"I am Marshal Kovacs. Identify yourself, please, and tell me: what are you doing on this ship?"

[Haval]

Robert visibly sighs over the motion detector's failure to warn him about this. Stupid Company tech.

He'll turn and put his hands up. 'Easy. We weren't sure if there was anyone still alive up here. Ship arrived in system and no one was answering hails. Company sent us to have a look.'

[BananaPhone]

If Marshal Kovacs seemed worried or distraught, she didn't show it. Indeed, the athletic womans persona was surprisingly calm, as she stood there in the centre of the hall-way, half-cloaked in the natural shadows of the passage and pointing a revolver in Roberts direction.

'Easy. We weren't sure if there was anyone still alive up here. Ship arrived in system and no one was answering hails. Company sent us to have a look.'

For several long seconds, Kovacs did not respond. Instead, the gap in their exchange featured the background hum of the ship interior and the occasional groan of metal. Looking Roberts down, then up, Kovacs spoke.

"What system is this?"

Her eyes then move from Roberts to something seemingly behind him, before shifting back to lock eye-contact.

"And where is the rest of the crew?"

[Haval]

Robert is still watching the gun even though the fact that she hasn't taken a shot at him yet is probably a good sign.

'Alpha-4, or Ulysses if you prefer. We're sort of in the middle of nowhere. I take it you didn't expect to be here?' He notes the woman looking behind him but doesn't turn around while she still has a gun out.

On the question of the crew, 'We were just heading to cryo to check that out. You're the only person we're met since we came on board.' He'll see if she'll answer the obvious question, 'What happened here?'

[BananaPhone]

"I am the only one in the hypersleep chamber. And 'the middle of nowhere' was not our destination..." the Marshal trails off, a hint of suspicion lacing her voice. Once again, if news of being on a derelict ship with her former grew gone as a concern, she d

"Identify yourself through name, company number and organisation," she asks.

[Haval]

'Well I can't help that. What was your destination?'

Robert will answer the woman's question though. No reason not to. 'Doctor Robert Moore, currently attached to Ulysses Point on behalf of Weyland-Yutani. I think I have a number but I've never bothered to remember it. You're welcome to ask the suit we brought with us. You going to tell us who you are?'

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

"I have introduced myself once already," her gentle voice replied.

"Marshal Kovacs," the Marshal repeated.

Several more long moments passed until she decided that Roberts was no longer a threat. With another small glance behind him, then back to his face, Emma lowered her weapon. Curiously, she twirled the weapon on her index finger for two rotations before holstering it in a smooth, almost practiced motion.

"I have been awake for seven minutes and have yet to encounter any of the crew of this ship. I was the last to enter hypersleep...their absence is...troubling."

Emma pursed her lips,

"Who else is with you?"

[Haval]

"I have introduced myself once already," her gentle voice replied.
[

Robert had been hoping for some context, 'Fair enough Marshal. But what's a Marshal doing out here anyway? Forgive my ignorance but this doesn't seem large enough to be a colonist ship.' Robert notes that the woman had not answered his question about the destination but doesn't care enough to press. For all he knew it was some Company bull**** he wasn't supposed to know about.

'So there's no one else in cryo?' Robert will explain about his suspicions, 'For what it's worth it looked like someone was using the bridge computer before we got here. Couldn't find anything concrete but I suppose it could have been your friends.'

As for the rest, 'Just me and Jack here came on board. Nix our pilot and a lady from the Company are on our ship outside. You're welcome to come with us if you want a lift.' Speaking of which, 'You have a problem with me calling them?'

[Hemnon]

While the trio is talking, waving guns around, standing around in underwear or EVA suits - a light 'pop' can be heard back in Cryosleep that Emma had exited earlier. Most likely something cold had warmed up enough to 'give way' so to speak or otherwise pop into place.
Temperatures had reached 'functionally cold' levels by now so at most you'd get a cold nosetip and ears right now.

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Emma watches Robert give his run-down on who else may be here with the best poker face the doctor might have ever seen.

After a few seconds of consideration, she nods, "Very well."

Then the popping sound emits from cryo-preservation.

Turning her head to the side to listen over her ear, Emma furrows her brow. Having decided that Roberts isn't a threat, she turns to face the hypersleep chamber and beckons the man to follow.

"I wonder what that is..." she says softly, as she moves quietly towards the cry-pods, sticking near one of the walls so that she can peer around the corner.

[Haval]

Robert is going to ignore the noise for the moment. The woman's caginess was irritating under the circumstances.

'Hey Nix, we got at least one survivour. Claims that the rest of the crew are missing. Oh and she's got a gun, which is lovely.' He'll follow Kovacs as he talks although he's not sure what to expect from whatever was happening in Cryo. 'As yet, no one's actually shooting at anyone. Heading to doublecheck cryo now.'

[Lycan 01]

"Cool," Nix replies with an aloof deadpan. "Sounds like an honest citizen and totally not some sort of convoluted pirate scheme. Missing crew? Right, totally didn't have an airlock accident. Ugh. You guys keep your guard up, and keep an eye out for signs of a struggle. Spent shell casings, broken door latches, anything. Also, check the crew manifest if you can access it. If her name ain't on it, she stays on that ship until we get it back to the colony. She survived this long - somehow - so I'm sure she can handle a short trip back."

A short pause, and then she quietly adds: "Seriously though, this is bad. She shouldn't be up and waving a gun around if she's been in cryo and everything is powered down and half-frozen. A whole crew except for the gal with a gun doesn't just go missing in deep space. Don't say anything about any of us being armed, and play cool when you try to access the logs. Say its company protocol, and try to feed her some corporate lines about not having clearance to come back on our ship. Let her think we're idiots following orders, and she can take it up with the Big Y-T if she has an issue. Ping me if anything comes up. Over."

Nix pats down her flight suit, making sure everything is still where she left it. Handgun holstered on her hip, check. Two spare mags in a side pocket, check. She also takes a moment to dig around under the flight seat, before dragging out the small rucksack "crash kit" and setting it between her feet, so she can more easily access the tools in there if needed. Or the meds. If that crazy lady ends up on their ship, she'll probably go through the whole bottle of Neversleep pills before they get back to the colony. That's going to be fun...

With a sigh, she keys the shipboard PA system. "Hey, Miss Quark? I need you to come up to the cockpit. We may have a security concern and I think corporate input is needed."

While she waits, Nix gets a cunning idea. Reaching into the crash kit, she starts pulling out handheld equipment. First, the Seegson P-DAT, which she powers up and plugs up with an aux wire to the ship's flight console. Then, the Seegson System Diagnostic Device, which she connects to the P-DAT for better system control if needed. A few button clicks later, and she grins like the cat that ate the canary.

Time to see what the rest of the team is up to~


Nix is going to use the P-DAT to access the rest of the crew's EVA suits. At the very least, she wants to see if she can pull up all their vital info and keep tabs on their life signs and stuff in case the stranger tries something. Normally a P-DAT allows access to helmet mounted cameras on the team, but I'm not sure if these EVA suits have them. If they do, she wants to try to pull up live feeds, and get a personal look at what's going on. That way she can warn the team if anything strikes her as being out of place or a major red flag on the ship.

If there's any sort of backdoor routes or system hacking that needs to be done, she SSDD should help her through it. Idk if it needs a roll since this stuff should be accessible since the EVAs are probably linked to MU/TH/ER on the ship, and in turn Nix should be able to gain access to it easily. If she needs to do a little backdoor access though, I'll go ahead and throw down a roll for it. Wits 3, Commtech 2, SSDD +2 bonus, for 7 total.

COMMTECH: [roll0]

[Haval]

'Claims to be a Marshal. Hell of a thing to say if it's a lie.' Robert will continue on to cryo first, if only to confirm Emma's story.

[Monsterpoodle]

Jack eventually introduces himself. "i am Jack. You said 'our' destination. Who is your group and where were you going? Have you been up to bridge yet? Do you have clearance to access bridge logs?"

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Emma's ears twitched as Roberts spoke into his commlink, her eyes considering him as she looked over her shoulder at his image.

"i am Jack. You said 'our' destination. Who is your group and where were you going? Have you been up to bridge yet? Do you have clearance to access bridge logs?"

Emma turned her head to look over her other shoulder at the largr man behind her, her face retaining the mixture of impassive and diplomatic appearance.

"I am Marshal Emma Kovacs, Sir," she said quietly, her movement having slowed down so that she wouldn't alert whatever was ahead in the hypersleep chamber.

"We were supposed to move to a recently settled world in the Crestus Prime Cluster, and I was one among a crew of five, the others being Paulson, Bennet, Ricter and Dean. However, upon awakening, they were missing, as were their locker tags for identification. I was on my way to the bridge, actually, when I encountered Roberts. Being the only member of official authority out here, I should have access to every log the ship contains."

Emma paused and thought for a second, before resettling her eyes on Jack.

"It could perhaps be interference from those commies in the UPP...they have been exhibiting border friction recently. But that seems unlikely due to the large cost of such a long distance and precise operation not having a conceivable pay-off that would make it a worthwhile investment. Now, please stay behind me Sir."

Having given her initial thoughts, Emma returns her attention to the hallway ahead. With the noise still on her mind, she almost half-crouches, arms out to her side, shoulders down, like she were an approaching cat ready to pounce, as she moved with surprising finesse and silence towards the hypersleep chamber...

[Hemnon]

Inside the hypersleep chamber was.........! Nothing. Only new thing for Emma was that all the cryosleep pods were open, rather than closed. Seems like an automated system-function had opened the rest of the empty pods as well a little while after Emma had awoken from hers and exited it.
There does seem to be something stuck in the leftside of the two joints lifting the top of the hypersleep pod up so one may enter it. It looks like some kind of fabric that was stuck in it. Specifically what appeared to be a T-shirt.
Most likely it getting jammed into that joint had caused the pop as it was wrenched up as the pod opened in full. Hence the 'pop'.

[Haval]

Emma's explanation was better then nothing, although Robert couldn't help but dwell on Nix's suspicion about pirates.

He'll go to get a closer look at the t-shirt. Would there be blood on it? To Emma, 'Was someone wearing this when you went into cryo?' He'll look around for signs of anything that might clear up what was going on in here. 'If you have proper access to the computer. Does this ship have security cameras by any chance?'

[Hemnon]

Emma's explanation was better then nothing, although Robert couldn't help but dwell on Nix's suspicion about pirates.

He'll go to get a closer look at the t-shirt. Would there be blood on it? To Emma, 'Was someone wearing this when you went into cryo?' He'll look around for signs of anything that might clear up what was going on in here. 'If you have proper access to the computer. Does this ship have security cameras by any chance?'

The T-shirt seems to just be a leftover piece of clothing that had apparently been missed out on when.... whatever happened, had cleaned out the lockers and items of everyone else but Emma's. Emma's stuff was still in it's own locker tho, same with her nametag on said locker.
It does NOT look damaged, bloody, etc... just very stuck in the servo joint right now and most likely damaged beyond any worth when/if removed.


As for Emma - Yes she would have access to the Computers, at least for anything non-vital (like power core containment operations and what not). And She'd also know that there is indeed security cameras and whatnot on board - all being recording onto the ship's blackbox and the central core's memory storage.

[Lycan 01]

Snap crackle pop. Static, and then voices, and then questionable video-feed. Nix grins triumphantly as she's given access to the EVA suits' information relays. Settling a bit more comfortably into the seat, she begins to watch and listen, trying to pick out anything she feels may be out of place.

"Hm. Hey guys?" she quietly calls out over the radio to her comrades. "Make sure you're not externally broadcasting my calls. Keep her in the dark about it, but I've got access to your suits' camera feedback. Picture is garbage though. Were those lockers I saw? That one still had her name on it, right? Why would the rest of the crew take their stuff but leave her behind? And if there's nobody on board, how'd she get woken up? You fellas keep playing it cool, but don't let your guard down. This really isn't adding up. If you can access the cryo-logs, try to see when she got woken up, and how. She's not showing signs of NDD from a quick-thaw. If she wasn't thawed out the moment you guys walked in that airlock, something is very wrong here..." she mutters.

She's feeling more and more uncomfortable with this woman's presence. And... wait, what planet did she say they were supposed to be colonizing? Nix frowns, and keys the radio again. "Also, find out what planet they were heading to. And, uh, when. If she's off course, there's no telling how long she's been on ice..."

What the hell is going on? Is this a salvage job, a search and rescue, or something way above her pay grade? Come to think of it, if the ship still has crew, does that mean the salvage rights are off the table? Ugh. What a mess...

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Entering the hypersleep chamber, Emma peered about in inspection - her eyes nestling on the source of the 'Pop!' sound as she let out a light snort of amusement.

With focused eyes, Emma started to inspect the rest of the chamber. She took note of the cryopod whose function was disrupted by the t-shirt, before tracing her attention to the lockers themselves.

"There is a layer of dust across the crypods that the others had occupied," she pointed out to Roberts and Jack.

"The lockers too," she drew their attention to the film of grime across the containers. "The grime is thickest upon my locker, at least the areas undistributed by my retrieval of clothes upon awakening from hypersleep. Meanwhile, it is thinner upon the others: that tells me they departed early into the journey."

The Marshal brought her finger to her chin in thought, before speaking to the other two.

"The ship could have been boarded. We will check the logs if any of the escape pods have been jettisoned or the EEV...but that seems unlikely, as none of the emergency systems were functioning during my awakening or your arrival."

[Haval]

The point about NDD had not even occurred to Robert. He'll reply quietly to Nix when Emma was out of earshot. 'So what...someone tampered with the protocol to wake her up. Or else she's a synth and doesn't need to worry about it.' They did claim you couldn't always tell by looking at one.

To Emma once she'd finished looking around, 'So does that mean the others left willingly without leaving a note, or that someone boarded you who had the authority to switch the emergency systems off? Why the hell would someone go to that effort?'

Assuming he's not stopped Robert will investigate the computer in cryo to see if there's any record of when the rest of the crew woke up. To Emma, 'You want to enter the password? If you're worried about telling me I can always turn my back.'

[Lycan 01]

Nix's blood is running colder with every moment. "My money is on a synth..." she whispers softly into the vox-piece. "There's too many coincidences. Get the logs. Check her data if you can. Medical history, vital signs, anything to prove she's flesh and blood and not going to go killer robot on us the moment she's aboard."

When she overhears Robert offer to turn his back, a pang of cold fear cuts into her gut. "Don't turn your back on the 'sole survivor' who has a damn gun!" she hisses over the radio. "At the very least, put something between you like one of the cryo pods so you can get to cover if she goes crazy. Same to you, Jack. Even if she is human, there's no promise she's not half-crazy from a quick thaw and could go full nutso any moment..."

She leans back in her seat and sighs. She still wasn't even sure if they could properly salvage this ship now that there were survivors aboard. Or do synths count as survivors? Would they count as colony or corporate property? An uneasy feeling churns in the pit of her stomach. If the "Marshal" is a synth, what would they need to do with her? What could they do with her? Her stomach was starting to hurt...

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

"I already have, Sir," Emma responded over her shoulder, before turning and approaching Roberts.

"The data on my crew mates has been corrupted, which further leads me to believe that this flight was hijacked early into our venture."

To prove what she was saying, Emma moves up to the console and shifts her shoulder in such a way that Roberts could not see the codes she inputted. The screen would then flash with the black-and-green code lining, exhibiting an image of Emma, her status as a Marshal and the planet to which their flight was heading.

When she attempted to access the logs of her other crew-mates, the feed-back was that of corrupted data.

"We will find out more using the computer on the bridge, Sir" she stated simply to Roberts with a small node.

"Come."

With that, Emma switches the console off and then turns about to head back down from whence they came and move towards the bridge.

[Haval]

Robert is of the opinion that if Emma really wanted to shoot him it didn't matter if he was facing her or not. Perhaps it being a surprise would be preferable. He'll only grin to himself at Nix's comment.

'Corrupt data seems convenient under the circumstances. Alright then, let's go to the bridge.'

[Hemnon]

It was getting rather warm and musty in those EVA suits by now - and the air temperature was on the cool-but-comfortable side. So if a certain pair of EVA-suit wearing colonists wanted to get out of those things, now's a good time for it. Also a waste of air supply.

[Haval]

It was getting rather warm and musty in those EVA suits by now - and the air temperature was on the cool-but-comfortable side. So if a certain pair of EVA-suit wearing colonists wanted to get out of those things, now's a good time for it. Also a waste of air supply.

Robert will eventually get out of his EVA suit, but will leave it near the airlock. It seemed like the sort of thing he would be billed for by the Company if he somehow mislaid or damaged it.

[Haval]

To Emma, 'If someone corrupted the records on purpose why go to the trouble? They'd be well prepared pirates to be worried about someone coming along to look at the evidence. Or did the others desert? They didn't want to go wherever they were supposed to be going and jumped ship when they had the chance. If I was going to do that I might not want to leave a record of having done that either.' Still, it was a stretch.

Robert wasn't sure if Emma could provide some context to the rest of her crew's motives, but her status perhaps explained why she was still here. Someone didn't consider her important enough to take with the others. 'So you're a synth.' he says aloud, partially for Nix's benefit. 'Forgive me if you'd rather not talk about that, but if the rest of the crew were thinking of leaving under their own power, would they have told you?'


Just going to post this to get the information out IC. Going to the bridge after. I suppose Robert can get his EVA suit off on the way.

[Lycan 01]

Nix watches what she can over the EVA's video feed and radio comms before Robert goes about removing it. She grits her teeth as she reads about Emma being a synth, but the fact that it's readily available and officially documented helps to calm her rising paranoia and unease. If her synthetic nature were meant to be something nefarious, its unlikely she would have purged the other records but left her own accessible, nor would she have allowed Robert to read over it. No, something even stranger than a rogue synth seems to be at play here.

"My money is on pirates or a mutiny. Either the rest of the crew got taken hostage and she got left behind because she's not worth as much as a flesh and blood human, or the rest of the crew knew she wouldn't rebel against her orders so they left her in the deep freeze, especially if she's programmed as a Marshal. She'll probably follow the letter of the law until she's smashed to scrap," the pilot muses over the radio.

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Emma moved along the corridors with the confidence of familiarity. It was clear she had traversed these halls before, as she knew which route to take without even needing to address a map.

'If someone corrupted the records on purpose why go to the trouble? They'd be well prepared pirates to be worried about someone coming along to look at the evidence. Or did the others desert? They didn't want to go wherever they were supposed to be going and jumped ship when they had the chance. If I was going to do that I might not want to leave a record of having done that either.'

"Both are possible, Sir," Emma responded softly, her attention directed forward as the three of them moved through the gloom of the empty hallways.

"My crew-mates were in high spirits before we were placed into cryo-sleep. So I find the possibility of them 'rebelling' or going on mutiny, to be highly unlikely."

When they neared a door that needed to be opened, Emma reached out and, with practiced hands, opened it. As she did so, she looked over at Roberts and continued.

"Not impossible. Just improbable," she smiled.

'So you're a synth.' Roberts asked as they progressed. If Emma was surprised at Roberts knowledge, she did not show it.

'Forgive me if you'd rather not talk about that, but if the rest of the crew were thinking of leaving under their own power, would they have told you?'

"I prefer the term Artificial Person myself," Emma answered gently to Roberts first question.

"Due to the issue of corruption on the developing colonies, the idea was promoted of Marshals such as myself. Marshals who could not be bought, bribed, bullied or intimidated. I and those like me, will ensure that new colonists can enjoy life on their planet secure in the knowledge that they can rely on the letter of the law, and the shield it provides."

After a few more paces forward, Emma continued. "If what you are suggesting is what happened, that the crew decided to mutiny, then omitting me from their plans would have been essential. But if that were the case, why would they leave me my sidearm?"

The group continued towards the bridge, with Emma's knowledge of the ships internal lay-out allowing an expeditious trajectory.

[Haval]

"I prefer the term Artificial Person myself," Emma answered gently to Roberts first question.

'Noted.' There was no point in being rude. 'An artificial Marshal? Someone watches old movies, or else never bothered to see how they ended.' This was typical Company behavior, and after a certain point it was easier to try and see the funny side of it. 'Mutiny or piracy will have to stand as a working theory until someone else comes along. I admit, I'm not a lawyer but if I really wanted to desert I might try and steal as much as possible on the way out the door. If you're going to go to this much trouble to disappear you're going to be punished the same anyway.'

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

'An artificial Marshal? Someone watches old movies, or else never bothered to see how they ended.'

Emma paused as they neared the door to the bridge.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"...I admit, I'm not a lawyer but if I really wanted to desert I might try and steal as much as possible on the way out the door. If you're going to go to this much trouble to disappear you're going to be punished the same anyway."

"Not necessarily," Emma countered, her smooth, pleasant voice carrying a diplomatic gentleness, "the company might not care to follow up AWOL crew this far out. But steal millions of credits worth from them? They will want that back."

[Haval]

Idle chitchat was preferable to listening to the background noise of the ship.''Westworld', a piece of 20th century science fiction about a violent robot uprising. I probably have the file somewhere.' Robert wondered how it would feel to be a synth watching that. 'If you ever have reason to watch it, it has a somewhat primitive view of artificial life. I could probably recommend some more even handed examples.'


Yul Bynner apparently isn't a marshal but we'll say Robert didn't remember that either. Its the future :smallsmile:

[Haval]

On the bridge Robert will use the comns equipment to ping Nix after saying something to Emma about needing to call his ship. Unless Emma is actively trying to stop him he's unsure how much he needs to justify himself to her.

To Emma, 'If you can't find anything useful on the bridge computer I'd tend towards getting the hell out of here.'

[Hemnon]

The M-class vessel's bridge was just like Jack and Robert had left it. Just warmed up and now also less-confined due to Jack and Robert no longer being sealed inside a bulky EVA suit. There was a bit of condensation clinging to various surfaces, but nothing major due to how ships were build to keep a more dry atmosphere to avoid excessive condensation buildup.

Terminals were on and there was a lot of dust all over. except for one terminal - the one that Jack and Robert had noticed earlier to be a lot less dust-covered. The one they'd used to turn on power on the whole ship.
The right-side terminal (comms officer station, usually) had a blinking LED indicator that seemed to go on and then off quickly again a few times before just remaining turned off.

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Emma moved onto the bridge with a practiced gait that hinted at her familiarity with the region. With her baseball cap atop her crown, gun holstered and light, blue-and-grey flak-vest grasping her torso, she looked every bit the security officer she was supposed to be on board the vessel.

Moving over to the main console, Emma took note of the flashing LED that abruptly went quiet, before she placed her fingers onto the keyboard. With a swiftness only a Synth could conjure, she stabbed the required information into the system with a spider-dance of her fingers...

ooc:
Emma is going to run and inspect the video camera feed logs, the black box code, flight log changes etc. Basically looking into everything that's happened to the ship since departure to now.

[Hemnon]

Emma notices a lot of... fiddling with records and data. There's no evidence of what exactly happened on the ship. Only one small thing is odd. There's a blip from an active IFF beacon approaching the Ship some 2-ish weeks back - Coincidentally around the same amount of time it's been since the ship arrived here in This starsystem. But only a remnant note of the contact detection is there - nothing else.

-------------------

On the G-Class Corvus Space Vessel (where Nix is), Illya Quark finally got up to the bridge as Nix had requested a good 30 minutes ago. She'd been sleeping and hadn't wanted to arrive looking less that stellar as her job position requires - so she'd had to take a shower first before she'd get freshly dressed, etc.
"You... called for me?" She asked a bit confused as to what need or use she'd have in the current situation.

[Haval]

Emma notices a lot of... fiddling with records and data. There's no evidence of what exactly happened on the ship. Only one small thing is odd. There's a blip from an active IFF beacon approaching the Ship some 2-ish weeks back - Coincidentally around the same amount of time it's been since the ship arrived here in This starsystem. But only a remnant note of the contact detection is there - nothing else.

Robert will watch Emma's investigation of the computer over her shoulder. He had hoped for more but wasn't really surprised at this point. 'That ship. I don't suppose we can tell where it went? No reason to think that it stayed around in system after it did whatever it was doing, but it's an awful coincidence.' Was the other ship still in the system somewhere? Was someone on Ulysses aware of what had gone on here?

He has pinged Nix through the comm system and left the feed open so she could listen in and interject if she wanted to. 'Hey Nix, what are the chances that someone back home knows anything this? Someone who might be willing to talk to us about this under the table anyway.' He had been under the impression that the colony was the only inhabited point in the system, but perhaps he was wrong about that.

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs

Emma stared at the screen as the data clicked up before her, the green-on-black font casting pale reflection across the Synths features and draining the colour from her face.

Someone had fiddled with the data?

A transponder blip was recorded two weeks ago, around about the same time that they had arrived in the system?

Something did not compute within the Synths processors, as her unique programming software went to work...

[Lycan 01]

On the G-Class Corvus Space Vessel (where Nix is), Illya Quark finally got up to the bridge as Nix had requested a good 30 minutes ago. She'd been sleeping and hadn't wanted to arrive looking less that stellar as her job position requires - so she'd had to take a shower first before she'd get freshly dressed, etc.
"You... called for me?" She asked a bit confused as to what need or use she'd have in the current situation.



He has pinged Nix through the comm system and left the feed open so she could listen in and interject if she wanted to. 'Hey Nix, what are the chances that someone back home knows anything this? Someone who might be willing to talk to us about this under the table anyway.' He had been under the impression that the colony was the only inhabited point in the system, but perhaps he was wrong about that.

Back on the Corvus, Nix listens to the discussions on the radio with a dour scowl. When Illya shows up, she gives her a mildly annoyed look. "I asked for you to come up here half an hour ago because we found a survivor and we needed your input. But since then we've figured out all sorts of fun stuff. Turns out this ship was either the victim of a mutiny or piracy, and the survivor is actually a syn- er, Artificial Person. It's looking more like the crew was kidnapped, probably for ransom, and they left the Artificial Person behind because of their nature... or because they're a Marshal. Bad idea to kidnap a space cop, usually." She then gives the Corpo a serious stare. "They just mentioned there was another ship. Here, in system. Miss Quark, do you know of any other settlements or colonies in this system? Research bases? Mining outposts? Anywhere else a ship could have come from?" She then frowns. "Also, what does this mean for our salvage op? Is this still a recovery mission, or do we need to do anything different since there's evidence of criminal activity leading to the vessel being derelict?"

She turns and keys the com to hail Robert. "I'm asking Miss Quark about it right now. I figure the only people on the colony who might know about this sorta stuff would be Suits or Badges. Disappearances and rumors of piracy seem like the sorta stuff they'd keep an ear out for it. Let me know if you find out anything else. Maybe give the ship another once-over before you get back, make sure there's no other surprises like sabotage or bomb. As much as they tried to cover their tracks, I'm surprised they didn't set the ships generators to overload and go nova," she grunts. "Let's make sure that's not the case before we tow it back, please?"

[Hemnon]

Illya frowned in reply to Nix. "Um, not from what I know. This is a shake'n'bake colony that's still DECADES away from further colonization of the planet, let alone further parts of the system." She said with a serious surprise-face.
"As for the op itself? I doubt you can get the priorly offered... what was it, 20% or some such? That's usually the 'up to' 20% where the 'up to' is with tiny script." She said with a sniff and a shrug. "There's still no actively valid crew on the ship, so I personally see no issues with the salvage-rights and bonus-gains. Report what's found to the Colonial Marshal when we get back to the colony, hand over whatever data is considered valid.... and report EVERYTHING to the company. Any sort of contractual loophole that can be found, will be made use of to deny the percentage-payouts. As for the Android.... well, let the company contact whatever-manufacturer that made it and let them deal with the rest." Illya finished off with a non-caring shrug for the whole 'found an android' issue.

[Haval]

'It might depend on whether they have anyone who doing the actual work who noticed something weird in local space and doesn't want to keep it to themselves. Might be worth asking around at least.' Robert doesn't really want to talk about this in front of Quark but doesn't really have another option. She at least sounded surprised, but it didn't mean she necessarily knew anything useful.

He'll sigh audibly at the idea that the ship might be booby trapped. 'That sounds like that would have taken a lot of work, but considering everything else that went on here it's not like we can rule it out. Ok, checking to see if the ship's engines are on fire or something.' Robert will see if he could assess the state of the engines remotely, but unless he has a good reason not to, he'll head to engineering after to check them in person. To Emma, 'You know anything about spaceship maintenance? If there's a problem down there I'd like to think it'll be something I can understand, but really who knows.'

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs


"I know a little about the computer systems, Sir," Emma asked, her tone pleasant and smooth. The Marshal turned to draw herself alongside the biologist as he made his move to head towards the engine room.

"But I doubt I have the expertise to do anything except run a simple diagnostic."

[Haval]

"I know a little about the computer systems, Sir," Emma asked, her tone pleasant and smooth. The Marshal turned to draw herself alongside the biologist as he made his move to head towards the engine room.

"But I doubt I have the expertise to do anything except run a simple diagnostic."

Robert shrugs, 'Which is still more engineering expertise then I have. I expect I could make an educated guess if something looks broken. Otherwise Nix has a point. If there's any chance there's a danger of something exploding I'd like to know about it.'

[Hemnon]

The walk to the engine room was fairly swift, and with the temperature levels having reached chill-but-servicable, it was not longer feeling like needling prickling at the skin.

The Ship's MU/TH/UR was keeping the engine output and such at a stable level like on any ship with such an AI.
It was quite cramped down there in the engine room, having more of a narrow-path towards everything, rather than vast open areas like the living area a floor up. Any Roughneck would feel quite at home here tho, so would anyone with a technical flair-of-personality.

A few wall-mounted terminals could be seen near larger machinery-bits that seemed to deal with individual diagnostic and service manipulation.

[Haval]

Robert is looking for anything out of place. Just in case the ship looks like it has been sabotaged or otherwise interfered with.


Just to be try and be certain

Wits 5 + Observation 2
[roll0]

And Comtech to check the computer
Wits 5 + Comtech 3 + Diagnostic Device 2
[roll1]

[BananaPhone]

https://pasteall.org/media/f/0/f0766f543606917075f348602cb06680.jpg Emma Kovacs


Emma led the way, her walk a casual and surprisingly fast pace that was carried by her long legs. Her powerful, synthetic muscles certainly helped too.

Entering the Engine room, Emma was swift to investigate by an internal checklist of systems, using her knowledge of both detective work and computers to try and piece together anything that might be out of place.

ooc:

Likewise to Haval, Emma is doing a Wits + Observation and a Wits + ComTech roll.


Wits + Observation: [roll0]

Wits + Comtech: [roll1]