Contact Lost

[Wizard of the Coat]

3012 - January - 20 - 16:00 GMT - Neptune Orbital Shipyards

Terran Alliance Strategic Command Center, Briefing Room


"Good day gentlemen. As you may be aware, I am vice-admiral Jean-Paul Monroe, head of Deep Space Operations for the Terran Alliance."

The French accent of the admiral is clear for all, he clearly is an earth native, like most of his rank. It is well known amongst the officers serving in Deep Space Operation that this man, though qualified, owes his position due to the politics of the Terran Alliance. The European Union, providing most of the Deep Space Resources, ensured it was headed by one of their own and have subsequently provided additional funding for the Solaris project.

All of you are half awake, having just arrived at Neptune Station you were not given any opportunity to rest up or refresh yourselves as you were rushed towards the briefing room.


"Often we only find one truth, not perceived by the eye, but conceived by the mind. Our goal as humans is often to think beyond the practical and into the realm of the theoretical. This leads us to wonder what else is out there and how we may one day reach the distant stars. As such the duty of Deep Space Operations is to keep the frontier open and learn more for the time of our great voyage. This requires excellent ships and better crews. And as you may have noticed instead, the ship that you have been assigned to is undergoing a touch up."

Clearly the man is getting to his point, rather quick for an admiral as if he's rushed by something.

"In this capacity it will be suited for you to use on you oncoming mission. I hope she serves you as well as you will serve her.
He turns to the Japanese man standing to the side.

Commodore Kazuma, if you would be so kind as to brief them for their mission I have other business to attend."

As the admiral takes his leave Commodore Yamamura Kazuma, the distinguished former captain of the TAS battleship Hope for Glory, that successfully managed to overcome the blockade set up by the fleet of Titan, forcing them to again open up to TAS officials and traders. He surveys you all briefly and nods with aproval.

"Good day. I will be your commanding officer. I expect that all of you have read up on the battle group and ships details on your way here and are well versed in it's operations. All of you have come highly recommended and in the coming weeks you will be trained how to work in practical assignments in the Deep Space Operations. As you are aware your work is confidential. What I am about to tell howeer is top secret and not to be shared with junior members of the Radiants staff or indeed anyone not given security clearance."

The lights dim and a holographic display comes into view on the table.

"Three weeks ago the TAS Solaris was ordered to go to the DSO testing facility on Eris to safeguard high energy experimental trials. The nature of these is even beyond my security clearance, but suffice to say we have not heard from here since. Rather then launch an immediate investigation the Admiralty ordered the TAS Radiant to be refitted with some of the Solaris systems that were kept at the Neptune shipyards for easy replacement in case of system failure. As such we have an advanced induction engine similar to the Solaris and our quantum cannons will be upgraded to heavy masers as we progress."

He pauzes

"But you are surely aware of that, having read the specs. In any case our mission will be to find the Solaris and restore contact with Eris Station. On the display you can observe the Solaris's route and the mayor objects of the sector where it and Eris were when contact was lost. Take a moment to study it and ask any questions you may have. We launch in one hour."

[ReproMan]

Lieutenant Scott Grayson sits towards the back of the briefing room, listening with half an ear to the briefing while scrolling through the Radiant's MedBay specs and equipment catalog while cross-referencing the equipment aboard the Solaris. He was satisfied with what he saw; more than enough supplies and equipment on both boats to theoretically last an extended deployment and catastrophic crew casualties, though that insistent doctor's voice in the back of his head calmly reminded him that there was never enough equipment when it truly mattered.

Rubbing a bit of sleep out of his eyes, Scott addresses the Commodore at the head of the room, "Were or are there any signs of hostile or unknown activity in the mission area?"

[Wizard of the Coat]

"Excellent question lieutenant, but I'm afraid to say we just don't know. I've ordered the Archipello to go and take a closer look, but she hasn't reached yet and her long range sensors reveal very little. We'll be updated by her as we go and with these new engines should be able to link up with her before she gets there."

The commodore lights up some of the specs on the Archipello and her scans. They reveal very little, but there seems to be moderate static in some of the bands. The archipello is considerably less well equipped then the radiant, mostly PL 6 equipment, but with decent scanners and a fairly good impulse engine. Clearly a light scout cruiser able to hold her own against lighter crafts only.

"Strategic Analysis and Data is still trying to filter the data, but so far nothing has shown and I doubt it will, apart from the lack of data there is little out of the ordinary."

[Storm Bringer]

A rather tall man near the fornt of the room spoke up "Commadore?" he asked, in a distinctly english accent."what other units were assigned to Eris Station at the time contact was lost? just how many men and ships are out of contact here?"

[Wizard of the Coat]

"As far as intelligence data suggests it was the Solaris and it's normal alotment of ships, the defense frigate Kingdom of Belgium and several lighter types, such as couriers and science vessels. I'll draw up a list of vessels assigned to Eris station."

A list flashes up on the screen.

MIA TAS Solaris - Advanced operations cruiser "Solaris Class" - 3011
MIA TAS Kingdom of Belgium - Defense frigate "Stalward Class"- 2989
MIA TAS Paris - all purpose long range courier "Paris Class" - 2984
MIA TAS London - all purpose long range courier "Paris Class"- 2985
MIA TAS Enlightenment - Science vessel "Luminous Class" - 3001
MIA TAS Gatekeeper- Science vessel "Luminous Class" - 3011
MIA TAS Ajax - supply ship "Odysseus class" - 2980
TAS Agamemnon - supply ship "Odysseus class" - 2982


"As you can see nothing out of the ordinary for the station apart from the Solaris. The agamemnon was on its journey back here for supplies when contact was lost. It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. It's personel records are up next"

1,330 Military Staff
13,012 Science Staff
5,456 Medical Staff
12,940 Support Staff
2,060 Civilians

[Nerd-o-rama]

On the front row, a thin man wearing an eager expression and a uniform that almost seems too neatly arranged raises his hand for attention, the fresh seams on his Lieutenant Commander rank insignia clearly visible. "Excuse me, Commodore," he says, accent proclaiming him a wealthy American, "Lieutenant Commander Raymond Stern, Tactical Officer Space Operations. Who was in command of the Solaris when she went MIA? Also, I've noted that the Radiant has been refitted with heavier armor. Are we expecting hostile forces in the vicinity of Eris?"

[Dustyme]

A young ensign obviously newly minted from the academy waits until LCDR Stern finishes then stands with a quick brush to set off his short cut red hair.

“Sir, Ensign Melern. What is expected of us in the worst case scenario? Do we retake the station and ships if they are being held if possible? Do we withdraw in order to regroup and bring more forces to bear?”

His grey eyes harden a bit.

“Or, do we destroy the station if we can’t retake it?”

[Wizard of the Coat]

"Yes commander, as I've said before, we just don't know about the hostiles. The admiralty ordered the ship refitted with some systems comparable to the Solaris, the armor plating is comparable in strength to that of the Solaris, but of a known material. I believe the admiralty wants to make sure we don't have too many prototype gadgets that could fail us.

As for your first question, her commanding officer at the time of her loss it was Captain Ravi Rahman. As you are all aware, he commanded the radiant until recently."

Ravi Rahman's service records comes up on the display. A formed science officer, Ravi Rahman was granted command of several scientific missions and has been commissioned on several prototype vessels, including the Radiant and Solaris. His service record is militarily unimpressive, but does contain a great number of excellent citations from the TASC Research and Development and TACS Experimental Design Testing departments.

The commodore then adresses a new question.

"To be honest ensign, it is unclear what happened and there are many 'worst case scenario's'. Suffice to say that our mission is to re-establish contact for now, but as evident from the modifications we cannot rule out hostile encounters. In any case our aim is to preserve the station and the Solaris, but as always we will defend ourselves if needed. It's regular code yellow, as with most DSO missions, fire if fired upon."

(NOTE: I've made a mistake in the date, it's 3012, not 3015, sorry)

[Storm Bringer]

the tall Lieutenant thought on the answer to his question, then spoke up agian "Sir, what do we tell the crew? are they to know that Eris station is off the air, or just that we are going to Eris?"

[estradling]

The young man sat quietly. His uniformed marked him as an Engineering Ensign, however most people saw the other markings first. The gloves and the GIFTED (Global Institute For Transformed Earth Denizens) insignias.

Alfred thumbed through the specs, he was quite interested in this new drive they where going to have. He knew it was Top Secret, but he also knew that if anyone was going to be cleared to know how it works it would be the engineers.

For a brief moment he was tempted to pull the info straight from Commodore Kazuma's mind, but he quickly suppressed it. It was precisely such temptations that caused people to fear the GIFTED, and he needed to be better then that

[ReproMan]

Scott's brows crinkled as he read over the numbers of civilian, military, and scientific staff. With that many personnel and that many ships at the station's disposal, he really saw no reason to expect anything but some horrible catastrophe for when they arrived on the scene, and that was a lot of potential wounded to deal with.

I'll need to get my staff prepped and ready for a full-on medical emergency, prep the ready rooms, set up emergency sickbays in mess halls and rec areas, transfer extra equipment and supplies on and around the ship, ready the Couriers for patient transport, coordinate ferrying procedures with the bridge crew... And get some sleep, d*****. I'm no good to anyone on Stims...

He rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger, trying to concentrate for just a while longer and listen to the mission brief before growing truly desperate. As an afterthought, he turned to the Admiral, "Any chance of us securing additional trauma medical supplies from the dock? Enough to stabilize up to 10,000 individuals for emergency transport?"

[Wizard of the Coat]

"The crew will be on a need to know basis. Most of them will not need to know anything, most DSO operations are classified, so it'll be nothing new to them. Only you as officers, being responsible for navigation, piloting, sensors and communications have a need to know our destination and the mission that we are on. Remember even I'm on a need to know basis here, the TASC isn't very forthcoming, probably due to the political implications of the Solaris project."

As scott asks his question the commodore waits for a moment and draws up some ships statistics.

"I've considered the possibility, but as you might be aware, Eris is a distant piece of stone and there are few enough ships in DSO as we speak. As you see here the only large vessels capable of doing so in an expedient manner are part of a US fleet with several battleships and we're not too sure of what they are doing so far from any US colonies and to be frank the Senior staff has decided to monitor them closely. But keep that to yourselves."

[ReproMan]

Flinching at the cold splash of reality, Scott shakes himself and clears his throat, "Understood Sir. My team will do what we can, and give you immediate updates on the medical situation as we discover it."

[Storm Bringer]

the tall Lieutenant shrugged.

"very good sir. When will the Radiant be launched?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern nods firmly in acknowledgment of the Commodore. "I'll be sure to prepare the combat crew for whatever might be out there, sir."

It'd be nice to know what is out there, he thinks. The Solaris is powerful, but captained by a scientist. Anything might have gotten the drop on him.

[Wizard of the Coat]

After going through some last minute minor details on the ships modifications the meeting is adjourned. The trip to the TAS Radiant is unremarkable and you all board it without much more ceremony then a handshake from the admiral and his command staff.

The initial view of the ships interior is one of madness and disarray, power coupling are wide open, panels are set aside haphazardly and the engineering crew seems to be running around performing all sorts of checks, controls and modifications to even the simplest systems.

(dc 20 spot check; only read if you make the check or are a good enoigh roleplayer not to act as if you knew this)The panels set aside are obviously brand new and as you take a closer look at some of material behind it evidence appears of some sort of damage that occured, seemingly some sort of burn marks

The commodore swiftly moves on towards the bridge and as you all follow him to take your stations for the launch that should happen in a few minutes you observe the rest of the ship being in a similar state of haste and hurrying. Crew members wit barely time to salute the new officers run past with all manners of supplies and performing all manners of jobs.

The Bridge is substantially better, though a handful of crew are busy connecting some new panels it seems that these stations are at least ready for operation.

"get comfortable gentlemen, we'll launch in 5 minutes"

[Storm Bringer]

spot check:[roll0]
damm. not a good start.


the tall Lieutenant looked around at his fellow officers, who noticed the small eagles head of a fighter pilot next to his rank pins for the first time.

"I think I got most of you're names in the breifing, so allow me to introduce myself. Lieutenant Andrew Clyne, Tactical Officer External Space Operations, and acting 2nd in command, at your service." his english background was apprant in his speech, in particular the way he spoke "left-tenant". just about hidden under his collar at the base of his neck was recent-looking scar tissue, suggesting a implant of some kind.

[Nerd-o-rama]

[roll0]

"Lieutenant Commander Raymond Stern," the thin American introduces himself again, walking assuredly to the bridge Tactical Officer station, and finding the internal communicator.

"Main gunnery crew, please report to the bridge as you are able," he announces over the ship's intercom.

(OOC: I'm making the very small leap of logic that we have an intercom, if that's alright.)

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew moved to the navigation consoles at the front of the ship, and slid into the pilots seat. He quickly brought up the engine status on one of the console displays, and he looked over the data.

"hm...p7 is in pieces , s13 is showing a burn-out, we've got a valve warning light for the lower forward manuvering thrusters, and the secondry nav-com is throwing a hissy fit....looks good, ready to leave." andrew said without a trace of irony, quickly calibrating the drive arrays to compensate and making sure the faults had been noted and were on the repair detail's 'to-do' list.

[Dustyme]

Spot Check [roll0]

Ensign Melern boards the Radiant a step behind the other officers keeping slightly behind them and observing the commotion as they progress towards the bridge. Working his way quickly towards the communications station and glancing at the actions of his subordinates without interfering in their duties. Making a few minor corrections but otherwise finding them to be working efficiently he nods his head and takes his place at the Comm.’s (Communications) station meant for the on duty officer. Tapping a few key strokes Zell pulls up duty rosters and crew portfolios/dossiers of his soldiers working quickly to familiarize himself with background information that may be useful later ((Zell is looking primarily at family, birth place, birth date, personal quirks and duty records))

After gaining a quick rundown of his troops he sets up a longer much more complex query into the database on all ship crewmembers starting with key personnel ((This is to both familiarize himself with the ships crew and look for any potential issues and or inconsistencies)) Computer Use [roll1]

[estradling]

Spot Check [roll0]

The gloved ensign follows the superior officers on to the bridge. He makes his way over to engineering access station. When his turn for introductions comes he replies simply. "Ensign Alfred St. Clair... Engineering."

Once at his station he activates his neural link, to see if he has been cleared to access the ships computer mental yet. He then look for the latest engineering updates and status reports

[Wizard of the Coat]

It takes about a minute for several of the gunners and other requested staff come to the bridge. The enter, salute the present officers and stand in attention.

"Midshipman Palmer, gunner 2nd class, reporting sir" Clearly an officer in training Palmer, of British ancestry, he seems quite green.

"Midshipman Menzel, gunner 1st class, reporting sir" An older looking German man, looking like an enlisted man that worked his way up from the bottom ranks.

"Midshipman Felici, gunner 2nd class, reporting sir" The clearly Italian man also looks like one who started at the bottom, but doesn't quite have the hardiness of Menzel about him.

These are the three men responsible for the maintenance and gunnery crew of your three primary weapon systems. Though control is easily taken from the bridge of any of the systems, these men are the backbone of any punch the Radiant delivers.

Andrews diagnostics indeed show the ship is ready to go, but as Ensign Melern runs the checks he quickly finds himself baffled by all kinds of restricted access protocols. Those things he can see provide him with a basic knowledge of most of the crews assignments and origins, but three key personnel members stand out, Ensign Nathan Reeders file shows only basic information on his academy, but mentions him as a member of the TASC Marine Corps with little further information. Ensign Alfred St. Clair seems to be listed only briefly as TASC Enginering Corps, but provides little information on his academic performance or indeed any previous assignments. Apart from the normal restrictions on viewing higher ranking personnel it seems that Commodore Kazuma's records only lists his current assignment and some awards, but little on his history or origins for that matter.

As Alfred interfaces mentally with his bridge command station he finds that his access is extremely restricted and with almost all his queries beyond the basic state of the engine or other advanced systems requiring executive access, though not stating whom is to give it. Still on some occasions it is granted and soon the Engine's operations modules come under his control, still it seems that many of the performance tests and other knowledge on the engine that isn't strictly needed to fly the ship and keep it going under normal conditions is withheld. Also it seems that the level of control over it's power systems is severely limited, as if some-one doesn't want to have it run at full capacity.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern returns the gunners' salute. Lieutenant Commander Stern."

Dropping the salute, he continues in a crisp voice, "You will be under my direct command, so I wanted to introduce myself and give a brief supplementary briefing. This mission should be a routine investigation; however, we are heading into a completely unknown situation. Hostilities are not an impossibility, and therefore I want all of you prepared for combat alert at a moment's notice. I'll run tactical analysis and coordinate fire from the bridge, but the Radiant is counting on your hands on the guns. Are you all prepared?"

[estradling]

As Alfred interfaces mentally with his bridge command station he finds that his access is extremely restricted and with almost all his queries beyond the basic state of the engine or other advanced systems requiring executive access, though not stating whom is to give it. Still on some occasions it is granted and soon the Engine's operations modules come under his control, still it seems that many of the performance tests and other knowledge on the engine that isn't strictly needed to fly the ship and keep it going under normal conditions is withheld. Also it seems that the level of control over it's power systems is severely limited, as if some-one doesn't want to have it run at full capacity.


Seeing the readouts in his minds eye Alfred says more to himself then to anyone, "They've neutered her." Knowing that there is more to engineering then just the engines he turns his thoughts to other systems on the ship. He wasn't expecting to be able to control any of the systems like weapons or navigational, but he should be able to get operational status reports from all of them. From the sounds the pilot was making there were already thing that needed to be fixed.

[Dustyme]

---Ensign Melern---

After noting the strangeness of his query mentally, Zell decides to run another data query on the communications logs to see if anything pops out at him. Zell also sets up a monitor and block within the communication system that will alert him and LCDR Stern to any messages that seem suspicious. He sets the system to have the duty officer notify him of a message without alerting the officer of what the message contains or why. The alert message will read as a generic systems test notification with a key phrase. ((Main objective is to see if anyone is sending messages ahead of us to warn who/whatever is occurring & Halt the message before it leaves the ship.)) Computer Use [roll0]

Zell cuts a message to LCDR Stern describing what he has done with the following reason why attached

"Sir,
I have set up a monitor and kill switch to keep any information leakage of this mission to a minimum. You and I are currently the only crewmembers that will be alerted. I didn't set the system to notify Commodore Kazuma due to his current overload of work."

Zell cuts another message to all the other new officers that have been assigned today.

"Gentleman,

The Game: Texas Holdem
The location: Officers Lounge
The Time: Down Shift +30

Bring a credit line because your going to need it!"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern views Melern's two communications on his console, and considers for several seconds before replying.

It's a bit outside regulations...but it's appropriate for this mission, and I can always inform the commodore if it requires his attention.

He quickly taps out a message in reply:

"Acknowledged and approved, Ensign. But please cut the recreational chatter while you are on-duty."

[Dustyme]

Re-Reply to LCDR Stern (Only):

"Sir,
As the Radiant’s Communications Officer and a member of the D&R ((Diplomatic & Relations)) Corp. I believe it is my duty to setup a way for our fellow officers to socialize and meet. I apologize if the method I choose to use seemed rather off the duty day topic however I feel that subtlety in bringing my fellow officers to gather and know each other in a informal setting is a primary method of tension breaking. Please do not think that I have chosen to send out an invitation to my fellow officers without careful thought to both wording and intent.

As for the communications lock I felt it necessary due to the extreme circumstances of our mission and the lack of Intel we currently have available. I have also run a few data gathering bots to gather data I may need on the crew as I have been trained to do at the academy. So far I have come up with nothing unexpected other than a few abnormalities. I will let you know if I find anything interesting."

V/R, Ensign Zell Melern" Diplomacy [roll0]

((:smallamused: No wammey! No wammey! No wammey! STOP!!!))

[Wizard of the Coat]

As the crew get aquainted with their ship the commodore sends a message to all over the speakers.

"Good men of the Radiant. Today we set of on a mission of great importance, but I'll keep this brief. I ask you only that you perform as well as you have before and that you live up to your reputation as some of the finest crew members in the fleet. We shall start our departure sequence now, so everyone to their stations. Let's see what these new engines can do."

With that the ship is cleared by the towers and the engines can be fired up. All that is required is an easily set course and the radiant can be off to Eris station.

"Take her away commander. Our rendevous co-ordinates are in your displays."

The displays of the bridge officers show the location and target of the ship to rendevous with the TAS Archipello, within several days. Comm access channels are also cleared for the vessel. In addition the new systems are cleared for testing as desired by the commanding officer.

[Storm Bringer]

"Okay......all hatches confirmed sealed, main engines are ready, coruse is locked......Give the word, Captian, and we're off." andrew said, looking back at Stern with his hands hovering over the controls.


ooc:

before anyone points out that Stern is a Lt. cmdr, the commanding officer of a ship is always a 'captain', independant of actual rank held.

[Nerd-o-rama]

OOC:
True, but I think Commodore Kazuma is the commanding officer right now. I'm a little vague on how the chain of command is working here, and I'd like clarification, because Ray wouldn't be vague.

On second thought, what the hell.

Stern nods in acknowledgement. "Take her out, Lieutenant. All ahead, cruising speed."

[Storm Bringer]

ooc:

Nah, Kazuma's a flag officer. He runs the squadron, looks at the bigger picture. etc. Stern is the ships commanding officer, and is responsible for her day to day running and combat..

It's you're ship, and Kazuma's just Hitchin a ride. :smallbiggrin:

I;ve got to run, so forgive the lack of formatting in this post. I'll clean it up later.


"aye, sir" Andrew nodded, then punched in a few commands, and the ever present hum of the ships generator changed slightly. The ship eased forewords quite smoothly. Andrew checked he was clear of the station and that their was nothing between the ship and Eris. Thankfully, the geometry of the flight was very simple, as the Neptune yards were on the outward side of Neptune, meaning that all he had to do was point the ship straight at eris and light up her engines.

"Redirectors engaged, we're off. She’s still pretty nimble, that extra armour hasn't slowed her too much at all." Andrew noted as he watched the ships velocity climb steadily higher. He wondered how fast she could go when the engines were perfected. He confirmed their was not any traffic ahead, opened the throttle to a tad over 2/3rds rated max. The midshipman in the co-pilots seat, a African lady, read out of the Radiant's speed, in a tone of surprise. "Speed is 150KPS. Already? Man, this ship can shift"

Andrew ignored the middy, keeping his eyes on the controls and adjusting the drive dynamics as needed to keep the course steady. The ship was a bit heavy forwards, presumably due to the faulty manoeuvring thrusters he noted earlier. Otherwise, she was handling fine, despite the addition of several thousand tons of heavy armour and accompanying changes in balance. Someone had obviously spent a lot of time locating the ship’s centre of gravity and feeding it into the manoeuvring computers.

“Speed is…..350kps, still climbing” the Middy reported. That was the normal cruising speed for most ships, but they were just getting started. A few moments later, she said “374kps, we’ve just broken our old speed record”


Andrew nodded. “Let’s give it a bit more power” he muttered, opening the throttle to 89%. The speed readout rose faster. 500...600…700…750, the fastest any of TASC’s courier ships had ever done….800…900…

One of the crewmen at the engineering consoles cleared his throat. “we’re getting some power flux in the rear starboard coils…..nothing serious yet, but it’s growing.”

Andrew eased off the throttle to 85%. “that’s better, the flux is dropping.” The crewman replied.
“1000kps” the co-pilot reeled off.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now officially the fastest moving object in the solar system” Andrew announced with a smile.

“What about the Solaris?” some wag asked

“The Solaris is currently in dock, not moving much at all”

“1100kps”

“The flux is growing again. Trying to pin down what causing it” the engineer reported

“Tell us when you know, or when it’s gets serious” Andrew told him

“1250”

“How fast can this thing go?” on the sensor techs asked

Andy shrugged “Dunno.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” the tech asked, astonished

“How many gravity redirector ships are in service?” Andrew asked,. Not looking at the tech, but at the read outs

“ummmm…..” the tech said.

“4. This one, the solaris, and the two zephyr test ships. I’ve never flown any of them, and most of the data on them is classified above the heads of everyone on this ship save perhaps the commodore. I really do not know what speed this thing tops out at. They got the zephyr’s up to 2000kps on some of the runs.”


“1500kps”

“you might want to ease of on the gas a bit, sir, this flux is growing steadily” the engineer advised.

“roger, crewman, dropping to 68%.” Andrew replied. “that help?”

“A little…..no, still rising, we are gonna have to cut power if we don’t want an overload”

“fair enough, cutting accel and switching to cruise.” Andrew flicked several switches and commanded. “ship is on auto. What’s our speed?”

“1,740 kps” the African replied.

Andrew whistled, then turned to the man in the navigator’s seat. “What’s the ETA to our destination?”

“um…..last waypoint is about 20 days away” he replied. His display didn’t actually say he was heading to Eris, just giving him a arbitrary point in space relative to the ship. However, anybody qualified to sit in the navi’s seat could work out where that point was in about 30 seconds. Andrew wondered idly how long it would take for word to get around the crew.

[estradling]

From one of the engineering stations Alfred checked over all the safety and engineering alerts, making sure they were set properly. Then he when back and set up some private alerts, at levels below the official ones. That way he would know about a problem before it 'officially' became a problem and could already be working it.


Computer use roll [roll0]

[Dustyme]

Ensign Melern carefully logged everything into a series of classified files that occured including the data from the fluxes and bits he recieved from other departments during the initial takeoff knowing that not only would the engineers back on earth want all this information when the command allowed proper declassification but that history would watch what happened with this voyage under a microscope perhaps sooner than anyone would like.

As the Radiant leaves the station he and his crewman monitored all comm channels giving and recieving the various verification codes and monitoring activity around and through the ship.

"Sir, orbital station reports clear and calm out to their limit. Station Commander sends his regards."

Tightening up the data package as it continues to collect information he awaits clearance from the LCDR to send it.

Feeling the thrum of the engines beneath his feet and the artificial gravity gently pulling him down Zell decides the first thing he's gonna do after the game is find the sweet spot on the ship. He knows that there, where the gravity is weakest and less distracting he can go meditate about his new position and this unusual mission.

muttering to himself "Hopefully its not in the middle of some latrine..."

[Wizard of the Coat]

The search for the Solaris

The ship speeds through the solar system at an unprecedented rate over the coming 18 days and the TAS Archipello is easily overhauled. The light carrier is speeding towards Eris station just like you and though it's been scanning continually has heard little more then white noise. The engine has some minor initial troubles, but seems to be holding just fine, and the crew didn't seem to know or care they were heading into the direction of Eris.

The commodore orders the Radiant to proceed without her, being less then two days away from their destination. Though initially the Radiant proceeded as before, after several hours it becomes more and more clear that signals are hidden in the white noise, as the seeming static on some of the channels is increasing.

Running a normal comms check Esign Mellern suddenly picks up on what seems to be a TAS transmission comming from Eris. It's highly encrypted and seems immensely fragmented.

Almost immediately after the message is received the ships engines start to drop their output as the Radiant slowly fades to black...

[Dustyme]

Ensign Melern taps out the sequence for a secure private tri line to the Commodore and LDCR Stern.

"Commodore, I'm getting a broken transmission from Eris possibly TAS. It’s a priority Alpha 3 encryption. Working on it now to boost the signal and decrypt."

Computer Use for boost [roll0]
Computer Use for decryption (If needed) [roll1]

"Here’s the feel now Sir."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Put it thr--belay that, we're losing power," Stern interrupts himself.

He puts the internal communications to good use, cycling through the needed channels."Engineering, what's the situation with the engines? All hands, emergency stations. Raising shields."

Stern runs several quick diagnostics from his console, attempting to formulate a plan to deal with the situation.

Plan (1d20 3=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1460881/) (Requires one minute, has no effect if I interrupt it to start acting before then. Actually, looks like it won't have an effect anyway.)

((Actually, I'm not sure if the final version of the ship still has shields. If it does, and we haven't lost power completely, I'm raising them.))

[Wizard of the Coat]

As the power fades it becomes clear the out put is fast approaching zero and auxiliary systems are beginning to show warning lights, urging engineers to switch them on if so ordered. The display hub on the bridge does however start to crackle with the scattered remnants of the encrypted message. Though the encoding is not entirely broken, some form of message is in there.

Amids heavy static a view of a TAS official can be seen, with what seems to be the backdrop of an earth alliance ship. The logo of the Solaris, a prismatic sunrise with the word solaris under it, can just be made out on the rear wall.

"T******laris****porting crit**l**ama**. Request im*********xta******. Eris new horizon ***ject*********. Catastr**ic*conce***************"

The message turns into heavy static on audio and visual band and a moment later the display on the bridge loses power. Surely an engineering response is needed.

((oh, btw... the OOC thread (been up a while) ishere (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67860)))

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew was in the ships hanger bay at the time main power began failing, discussing with one of his pilots about the diagnostics of DSH-130, one of the hermes dropships, nicknamed the dish due to it's Indent code.

"what the....." he said as the gravtic plates suddenly kicked up to a G and a half before dropping to about 0.6G. making his way over to the nearest computer console andrew managed to get a reading on the main engine dropping output just before the terminal lost power. the Lights started to flicker, and the emergence lighting started to come on (thank god for batteries)

"main power is failing......check the dish, see if she's still running." andrew ordered, before trying the wall comm to contact the bridge.

"Bridge, Clyne. what the bloody hell is happening?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Main power failure," Stern responds curtly over the intercom before switching to orders mode.

"Switch all vital systems to auxiliary power. I want a report from Engineering ASAP on why we aren't getting any engine power, and I want it fixed immediately thereafter. Comms, log the received transmission as a distress signal. We'll respond as soon as we're mobile."

Stern sits absolutely straight, a forced look of calm on his face. Underneath, he's not straining not to panic - he has enough confidence in himself and the ship to know better. The strain is coming from avoiding the appearance of panic.

[estradling]

Alfred was already in motion, the call to switch to auxiliary power was quickly followed by things switching over.

"Understood sir." he replies to Stren's orders while working to answer his questions

[Dustyme]

Ensign Melern does a data dump into him wrist-puter and gives orders for his Commo crew to enhance the signal as well as check their sidearms. ((I assume a wrist-puter could have been acquired at the ships stores.))

Zell then speaks up loud enough to his men so that the whole bridge crew can hear him. He makes sure to hold a steady gaze with each man or woman on his Commo crew patting a back here or making a nod there. ((Anotherwords, I direct the speech at everyone while seemingly only talking to my own personnel. Subtle, eh?))

"Listen up people this is our time to shine! Make the earth and your families proud. Just do your jobs as you were trained and we'll work through this. Look at LCDR Stern and the Commodore they are perfectly at peace here. Think things through and lets get this ship fixed."
Diplomacy [roll0]

"Now get to work. I want signal boosted for more quality and find the correct decryption settings. I only got a partial. The first one who gets it done before me gets an extra 24 hour chit on the next shore leave."

Zell then walks over to LCDR Stern and speaks to him in a quiet whisper. ((I'm assuming we can have requisitioned a few more things from ship stores in 2-3 weeks esp. if they are job oriented.))

"Sir, in the absence of the Tactical Officers advise might I suggest we also arm and armor the marines for a boarding action? We may need to run an extraction on the Solaris and...

Also I'm working on the feed from the Solaris to decrypt it. It'll be another minute."

Zell calmly walks back over to his station and (Assuming LCDR didn't disagree with arming the marines)) sends Private Neil to the bridge armory for his (Zell's) armor and rifle. Zell then starts the decryption codes again.
Decipher Script [roll1] (Any chance my crew would give an assistance bonus?))

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew looked around as the grav plates finally returned to 1G, thinking hard.

"Chief!" he shouted.

The martian-born CPO in charge of the ground crew stuck his head out of the Dish's open hatch. "sah?" he asked.

"Get the ships prepped for launch. all on them. Tell the pilots to suit up when they get here, and be ready to launch at short notice. I'm going to find out what the hell just happened to main power" Andrew orderd as the off-watch scrambled though the hatches.

"sah!" the Chief replied, before begining to bellow orders to the incoming crewmen. Andrew made his way out of the hangers towards the engine rooms.

About a floor down, he ran into several crewman milling around at one of the elevators. as he got near, he recognised Midshipman Palmer among them

"Palmer, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I...I don't know. I can't get an answer on the comm." he answered, Nervous, "Whats happening?"

"Main power is offline, I don't know what yet. Look, get to your guns. we need to know if the power failure has damaged them. You, you and you" andrew pointed at a tio of cerwmen standing thier "Help Midshipman Palmer".
Anderw looked at the marine among the group stood Thier"Private, I belive your squads rally point is on deck four. The rest of you, stop standing thier and get to your duty posts." anderw carried on to the engine room as the crew sped off in various directions, somewhat more conifdent now that they'd seen an officer.

if only andrew felt conifdent himself......

[Nerd-o-rama]

LCDR Stern considers the Ensign's suggestion for a moment.

"Agreed. We can't be too careful here, at least until we know what's going on. No full battle alert yet, though, I don't want any accidents from overanxious marines."

He checks the safety on his own sidearm, making sure he's not shooting himself in the foot by agreeing with Melern's suggestion.

Meanwhile, he's at his station attempting to assist Ensign St. Clair with the repair diagnostics.

[Dustyme]

"Sergeant Blake why aren't we getting damage reports from sections by now?"

Zell waits and listens for a second.

"What do you mean you aren’t sure? The system is registering but no body is responding?"

Pauses for a second to think and then spits out orders rapid-fire.

"Technician (Tech) Smith you and Private Neil are manning the bridge when he gets back. SGT Blake get the next shift up and spread around the ship and put the 3rd shift on standby. Do it in person if you have to. Everyone else get to your secondary stations on the double. Tech Jenkins locate Ensign St Clair and get him a Commo headset yesterday. He was near the Dish bay at last check, then get other sets to the remaining engineering crews. Tech Smith the marines have squad sets in their helmets so get them and the bridge crew all tied into the backup computer then add the engineers and any others that come online starting with Ensign St. Clair. All of you alert the marines and crew to code yellow. They are to get to post but no know hostiles present at the moment. Marines are to draw and prepare but not combat load without immanent threat"

Zell grabs earpiece communications devices for each deck officer who doesn’t have one. Melern walks to each and hands links out, starting with the Commodore and LCDR.

When Private Neil gets back Zell stows his armor and weapons in the niche beneath his station awaiting the need to put them on. He then gets back to bringing the internal communications back on line after checking the array for ship to ship communications.

Directing a private channel to LCRD Stern.

“Sir, when we get the array back online do you wish me to send a ship to ship to the TAS Archipello?”

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Dah! Wandering post!))

"Yes. Apprise the Archipello of out situation as soon as we get power back to comms."

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew had to sort out several crewmen on his way to the engine rooms. he was most of the way thier when he found out that main comms was offline. A idea struck him. Rushing to the nearest wall comm.

"Clyne to hanger. Chief?"

++sah?++ crackled the speaker

"what is the status of the Dish and Devil?"

++DSH-130 is being fueled now, leftenant. DVL-019 will be ready in a about 10 minutes. The sabres are good to go, though.++

"Are thier mass transciever still operational?"

Their was a pause, and the sound of shouting on the far end. ++as far as we can see, sah, their fine. we won't know until we try and use them of coruse, but they appear to be working.++

"understood. standby for futher intructions."

andrew changed channels.

"Bridge, It's Clyne. Have you considered one of the smallcraft mass Transcievers as a temperory comm? they got the range to talk to the Archipello, if nothing else"

[Dustyme]

"Melern to LT Clyne thanks for the heads up. I'll have my Technicial link through what we've patched together up here. I'll work with the sensor techs ASAP to tie the Dish's computer in with our backup, maybe we can see what's out there and boost any other signals coming in. Great idea about the Dish's you just got us two systems up with one idea."

Turns to Tech Smith:
"You got that Smith? Good, set it up and then run the decryption through that craft maybe we'll have better luck that way. Besides, its definetly more powerful than our hand & wrist-comps."

Transmits to the marines on duty at the armory nearest engineering:
"Find Ensign St Clair. Send a runner to him to get a line of communication until my Technician gets there."

Sets a new channel with Ensign St Clair and ties in LCDR Stern (As soon as Ensign St Clair gets Communication):
"Melern to Ensign St Clair ignore the comm's until you have time to deal with it. Everyone should be on tap sooner than you can deal with it for now. Besides its probably a part of the larger problem. We have nothing up here weapons, shields, sensors, thrust, comms... My team is working around the ship to your people getting them headsets. Tell each team to grab a marine for now until they get the their own commo sets. Also have them inform the crew to stand up to yellow alert per LCDR Stern. We need to see what's out there. LT Clyne put a quick handled on the Commo and sensors for now. We're tieing them into the Dish's."

Back to solo line with LCDR Stern:
"Sir, I'm running a log and sending everything to the TAS Archipello once the Dish is out of the bay."

To line with Commo crew:
"Sound off people where do we stand?"

[Wizard of the Coat]

As auxiliary systems switch on it becomes clear that several power conduit are blocked altogether and only basic life support and emergency systems come back online. In his attempt to use these minimal systems to continue the decoding the Ensign finds that no matter where he looks the data is just gone, vanished without a trac, even his attempts to upload it into his wrist-puter seems to have failed, as if the power failure has wiped clean the system of this.

The shuttles and fighters in the bay likely have operational systems and crew swiftly get to work on them as Andrew ordered, reporting a successful find. Then a sudden shock comes to him as he is about to enter the next room. The emergency bulkheads are shutting down behind him as he feels a rush of air. Those on the bridge see a decompression light flashing on in the hanger bay and notice that bulkheads are closing all over the ship... A few screams can be heard over the intercom followed by silence...A partial connection with the shuttles and fighters arrays seems to have been established though, allowing sending, but not receiving of data.

((OOCYes it's a good solution, but things went bad for a reason))

Marine teams are swiftly organizing themselves for combat ready action and three of them are rallying to Lt Clyne as their paths have been cut off.

Throughout all the chaos the crew realize that the commodore, who wasn't on the bridge at the time of the accident has not yet contacted the other officers as is customary in an emergency. After all that is part of why you all have your personnel communicators.

Overall the ship with it's emergency lighting on looks like a dark and gloomy place, red flashing lights and warning symbols on all systems all add to an atmosphere of despair as the crew is becomming very much aware that they are not on an ordinary mission. Fear is read on every mans face, which are mostly scientist and engineers after all.

[Storm Bringer]

Lt clyne bit back a cruse as the bulkheads came down. thier were over s dozen crewmen in work cloths on the far side of that hatch, plus most of the ships qualifed pilots, though it's more likey they'd be suited up and able to surive a decompression.

struggling to keep the fear in check, cylne tried his comm.
++Clyne to any bugger out thier. What the bloody hell is happening to this ship? and has anyone seen the commodore?++

[Dustyme]

---Zell---

Zell tries to establish the last known location of the Commodore (Using whatever is at hand including the last location he signaled from). Barring that he starts putting on his armor and checking all internal sensors for other open hatches.

Zell starts attempting to make sense of everything that is going on and barely audible mutters to himself half serious half not.
"Good thing I got my gear out of storage. Next thing you know and we'll get boarded..."

As he finishes getting suited up he glances around his eyes finally settling on LCDR Stern. What is he thinking he looks to calm? The Commodore possibly dead, the ship in tatters, I hope he has a good plan. As Lt Clyne's communication hits his ears Zell goes into overdrive trying to restore the ships systems.

"Don't panic people! Do your jobs and do them well. The best way to resolve this is to fix your issues then help the station next to you. If you're working on something that can wait drop it. If you need help ask for it. Primary systems are now sensors, drives, weapons and commo in that order until you are told otherwise. No go, go, go."

bluff (To get people back on track and calmed down) [roll0]

Walks over to Stern and quietly conferences with him:
"Sir, I suggest we have the crew get into their pressure suits a possible especially the engineering staff. Someone’s going to have to enter the hanger and with the blast doors down it's probably best to give it to Lt Clyne since he's on the spot now. We may still be able to get to our fighters or other ships and possibly even assist any crewman trapped in the hangar or vented with atmosphere."

(Assuming Stern agrees to the pressure suits, If not then it never gets said :) )
Ship wide
"Alert, we have lost atmosphere on the hanger deck. All crew members if possible are to don pressure suits. All crew report into your sections chiefs, Section Chiefs report up by the numbers. I want to know what’s damaged, what’s good, who’s injured, and if anyone’s missing."

(I'll let Stern contact Lt Clyne directly other than me giving him and all the officers on comm's the basic jist)

Zell gets that "Oh crap!" look for a second before stuffing it down and turns back to LCDR Stern.
Knowledge: (Tactics) (Would an enemy use the hanger to assault the ship?) [roll1]

"Sir, as they say 1st times an accident 2nd times enemy action. I suggest we place the marines at red alert and prepare to be boarded."

Zell finally heads to sensor station and attempts to help as he can.

Computer Use (To assist the crew or vise versa in getting the sensors online.) [roll2]

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern nods to the suggestion of pressure suits, then sits silent for a full ten seconds, thoughts racing behind an impassive expression.

It's just like--no, it's not just like training. People are counting on you, and they will die if you don't do your job. Put all your worries in the back, and focus. Do your job.

Then, he stands up. "I'm confirming Ensign Melern's orders. I want sensors, engines, and weapons up immediately. Marines and security are to go to red alert until further notice. I want everyone to focus and stay alert, and we'll get through this as soon as possible. Move."

[roll0] - to keep the crew calm and motivated.

Stern then keys up Lt. Clyne. "Lieutenant, this is Lt. Commander Stern. I'm presently in command. I need you to find the nearest team of marines, get all of you into pressure suits, and investigate the hangar bay. Find out what caused that depressurization."

He then tries to raise Commodore Kazuma on his personal communicator, and assuming he fails, he dials up the nearest security detail and orders them to look for the Commodore, checking his quarters, the officer's lounge, and anywhere else he might be.

((He also might accept volunteers if you are, as a player, bored.))

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Ugh, that roll was terrible. Action Point on the Diplomacy, just so I don't look like a schmuck in a crisis)).

[roll0]

Total: 15

[Storm Bringer]

++Understood, sir. on it.++

andrew looked around at the squad of marines that had gathered.

"you guys remember your EVA training?"/COLOR]

"I remember it made be sick for hours afterward....." one corporal spoke up.

[COLOR="Green"]"well, you can guard the hatch." Andrew said, moving to a the weapons locker nearby and retriving his personal weaponry and sheild unit.

"Right, to hatch 3, and then back along the hull to the hanger doors." andrew set off, the marines falling in behind.

[Wizard of the Coat]

Commodore Kazuma is not reachable on his communicator and a few moments after contacting the security staff, the marine report from the commodore's quarters. "He's not in his quarter sir...there seems to have been a struggle though, this place is a......" The comms break off with what sounds like a snap and a long last gasp.

At the same time a group of marines in armored space suits ((OOC:think halo)) stands ready with Lt. Clyne. The door is forced open manually and pressure around them drops.

The inside of the hanger bay is a mess, with everything that wasn't bolted to a wall having been forcibly thrown through the room with the rushing of air and now random pieces of equipment and a few asphyxiated crew members lie scattered. The lights are still on. The shuttles and fighters are unaffected, even though the launch doors are wide open. One of the shuttle doors is also open. There seem to be no enemies though, or evidence of anything docked to the doors.

((Zell/Tactics: An enemy might very well do so, seems logical to cut of their escape route and prevent them launching fighters. In addition the doors of the launch bay are probably a weak point in the hull that is easily forced open))

As for the sensors, rerouting emergency power is possible, but costly and in order not to compromise vital systems only visual and basic sensors are activated, they show nothing out of the ordinary.

((roll a spot check and a will save for all Zell and anyone else checking the visual view screen on the bridge))

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Attention all security personnel. We have possible intruders in the Officers' Quarters section..."

Wait...what was that on the screen?

[roll0]

[Nerd-o-rama]

((And a Will Save, sorry))

[roll0]

[Nerd-o-rama]

((I really really hate to triple post, but Flood Control (god I hope that's not an omen) messed up my last roll, and deleting the post will anger the dice database.))

[roll0]

[estradling]

Spot Check [roll0]
Will Save [roll1]

[Dustyme]

Spot [roll0]
Will [roll1]

Zell opens a private channel to LCDR Stern & Lt Clyne then mentions his thoughts on the tactical situation to them.

[Wizard of the Coat]

As the three officers let their eyes run over the screen all notice there is nothing wrong with the ship. The outside looks tranquil, unaffected by the turmoil withing. Then on a second view overlooking the bow something else is seen by Lt Commander Stern and the Engineering Ensign. Well, not so much something else, as one could expect to see at least some changes. But instead nothing had changed, as if the image had frozen in place, and likewise the next image and the next, as if they had stopped recording after the hangar bays were opened.

Yet as they watch and draw their conclusions the engineer just stands there responsively and all seem to get a feeling that the screen is warping as if it's getting fuzzy and unclear

(@alfred)You are sure that the screen is showing no stars anymore, merely streams of light entering a void at the far end of the bridge.

((OOC: I'm off on a trip for a few weeks and have asked storm bringer to take over the current chapter (pm-ed him some details). I'll be back some time after feb 20th))

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Everyone, the main visual sensors have been compromised. Looks like a looped feed of some sort," Stern reports. "Engineering, run a diagnostic. See if you can find where the signal is being interrupted."

So, what do I do? The rest of the ship's going straight to hell while I sit here playing second-string captain. Dammit, commodore. There needs to be a CO on the bridge, and I'm surrounded by Ensigns, so I can't rush off myself. Oh, to hell with it.

"I need half the security group here to form up on me. I'm going below to find out what the hell is happening. Ensign Melern, you have the conn." With that, Stern draws and checks the charge on his custom sidearm, its weight reassuring in his hand. Once escorted, he heads out of the bridge, toward the officers' quarters to find whatever neutralized the marine team he contacted earlier.

[estradling]

Nodding the Enginnering Ensign acknowledges the orders.... He saw something different on the view screen but it didn't make any sense. He continues to try to get a diagnostic on anything... so he could know were to start repairs

[Dustyme]

Ensign Melern stands in shocked silence for a split moment before a big Sh!& eating grin breaks across his face.

Zell salutes LCDR Stern as he leaves the bridge.

"Yes Sir!"

Zell then realizes that LCDR Stern has left the entire ship to the most junior office on board. Not audible but mouthed (slightly) "Oh, ..."

Zell stands tall and decides that the weight of commanding the apparent Flagship of the fleet is just what he needed to start his carreer.

Pointing at a young midshipman who looks lost. "You there. What are you waiting on? If you can't fix your station help at the weapons station!"

Now pointing at the marines stationed on the deck near the door.
"Secure that door Marines. Nobody less than L-7authorization gets access without direct authorization from myself or LCDR Stern until we get the Commodore back onto comm's. Just follow protocol."

[Storm Bringer]

++Clyne here. We've secured the hanger. The docking clamps are stuck, so we can't launch anything. That means no long range comm or sensors, not though this hull.++ Andrew reported as he looked around the bay. A few of the marines was extracting the two pilots form the Dish, Whoose pilot suits had manged to save thier lives, if not keep them consious.he changed to a piravte channel with the officers++We have 7 dead crewmen here, plus 3 pilot and a marine who are unconsious due to explosive decompression. I'm not sure how many crewmen were in here at the time. However, from what I can see, it doesn't look like anyone forced entry here. Rather, we've had a hatch failure. I'll try and seal the hatch and get some air back in here.++

[Elvith Jars]

Wake up, Old Son, time to go hunting.

Cheveyo “Chevy” Hudson woke up a few moments before the boson whistle and klaxons sounded general quarters, rapidly put on his Apache Somatic Combat Vehicle, jacked into its onboard computer, and told the computer system to quick start and haul a**.

God*amn. First I get shanghaied from urban tactics training and dropped onto this bucket with no explanation, then I spend two weeks straightening out f*cked up paperwork that god*amn Frenchman left me, and now this, Hudson thought to himself. I’m gonna f*cking kill someone. At least I made Sergeant.

Hudson grabbed his gear while the armor finished its boot sequence. He felt the computer generated sixth sense embrace his mind as tactical data began flowing into his vision and hearing. Radiant’s tactical maps were noticeably missing, so he couldn’t see the ship’s status. The marines’ shared data were coming in fine. Odd, LT Winters should’ve mustered the platoon by now.

The ship’s complement of 160 included 50 marines divided up into 4 squads of 12, plus platoon commander and ship’s security chief LT Frank Winters, and SGT Hudson, newly promoted and assigned as platoon sergeant.

“Squad leaders, sound off.” Hudson said on Marine Command channel as he made his way to his rally point on deck 4.

“Brown.”

“Clancy.”

“Coonts.”

Hudson waited. “Harrison? Echo Squad, report.” Technically, Hudson was second in command of the platoon, but it was turning out to be more of a desk job than a field position. At least he got a little action now and then.

Echo squad wasn’t exactly “his” to lead, that role fell onto SGT Elaine Harrison. But LT Winters wanted Hudson to gain some leadership experience. So he was attached to Echo and he shadowed Harrison, who proved to be an excellent teacher. He was picking things up quick but his new job was also frustrating. Chevy liked being in the thick of things and gunning down marks, not leading a bunch of jarheads or worse, stuck behind a desk.

“Corporal Hastings here, Echo is uh, coming together. Sergeant, sh*t’s hit the fan.” Hudson could hear the fear in his voice. “Harrison, Vasquez, and the LT were in the hangar when the outer airlock blew. A couple more I think too. Harrison got ganked by debris so she’s out for a few days. Vasquez got banged bad while pushing Harrison and herself to safety just in time. Then she collapsed. Somebody declared her dead but she was still breathing. I think they’re rushing her to sickbay. She’s tough, she’ll be ok.” Chevy felt relieved that Vasquez, the other half of his scout sniper team, would be ok, but he still had a job to do.

“And the LT?” There was a long pause.

“He was… sucked out the airlock. Without a suit.”

“Swell,” Hudson said over the air.

“Well that confirms my theory,” Brown chimed in, “Chevy never swears when he’s mad. You owe me 20 creds, Bob.”

“Don't forget about flag country, Nancy, bet's not over yet. Hey, guess that means you’ll get promoted again, you’re now the defacto Chief of Security. Congratulations, Lieutenant Hudson.” SGT Clancy’s remarks practically oozed sarcasm.

“F*ck off, Clancy.” Bravo Squad’s leader knew full well that even fast-tracked, Hudson had another two years before being eligible for promotion again. But Clancy didn’t like Hudson and his Fancy Marine Special Forces. And he made sure everybody knew it.

“Ship-wide is down- pretty much everything is,” Brown said over the radio, changing subjects to diffuse the situation, “so we’re relaying comms. The squids ordered a squad outside, so I told Echo to suit up. That’ll give ‘em something to do and not dwell on Harrison. They’d appreciate you down there though, so if you hurry you can catch up. Want the rest of us to keep sweeping for baddies?”

Brown, like Coonts and Harrison, had more leadership experience than Chevy, but none of them wanted the platoon sergeant’s job. Better to go with the devil you know, then one you don’t, so the three squad leaders were keeping things working while giving Hudson the right nudges to grow into his command while they themselves conveniently looked somewhat inept around the brass. They saw his potential, and even inexperienced, he was still better than the guy he replaced.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Chevy answered, “don’t let the squids break up the fire teams too much while they’re using them for phone sex. Keep me in the loop on what’s going on, but use your discretion.”

“Aye aye, Sir- uh, Sergeant,” Clancy quipped. Hudson ignored him and proceeded to the airlock. Coonts told him he lost contact with one of his fire teams near the Commodore's quarters, but he was on it. Hudson quietly (moving silently into the airlock, old habits die hard), caught up with the last of the marines suiting up for a spacewalk inside the decompressed hangar and grabbed a jet pack just in case. While the marines looked out of sorts, even with the LT he noticed giving them a pep talk, Chevy looked and moved like a man with no fear. {OOC: Gotta love the Dreadnaught's fearless ability}

Even if he sees me, he probably doesn’t even know who I am. F*ck, Vasquez and I might not even be on the crew manifest yet given how they shuffled us aboard. I’ll introduce myself later, let’s get this done.

A quick thought to the Mjolinir's Apache’s computer sealed up his armor, its gold faceplate darkening to obscure his face. With his weapons checked and secured, Hudson stepped out into the hangar bay with the rest of Echo Squad to survey the damage. Chevy heard the LT give his report. Then one of the marines finally noticed him and did a double-take in his combat spacesuit.

“Geezus! God*am Chevy, how the f*ck did you sneak up on us like that, in powered armor?”

“Practice.”

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew looked up at the marines

"Right......Sergeant, you you and your squad stay here. I'm going to get a repair team together to seal the hatch and get some bloody air in he....".
++This is Coporal Wayland. we have a situation here.++

Andrew frowned. Wayland was using the marines command loop, sergeants and above. whatever this was, he didn't want to many people to know it.

++Wayland, this is Clyne, go ahead++

++It's the commadore, sir. He's dead, sir++
It took all of Andrew mental will to prevent form showing his reaction. with a voice that strained to be level, he responded.
++Say again, Coporal. Commadore Kazuma is what? ++

++Dead, sir. looks like he slipped in the shower when the power went and broke his neck.++

++.....Stand by, Coporal.++
Andrew looked up at the marine sargent (what was his name.... Hubreck? Hondurez? something begining with H). He'd have heard this as well....

[Dustyme]

---Zell---

To the bridge crew:
"Listen up people we have a hull breach in the Main Hangar the door system blew. There are casualties but no enemy action is noted. Take a look at your systems and see if that effected them at all I wan no chances taken. I want internal scanners up 10 minutes ago! I want to know who is on this ship, who is missing and do we or don't we have intruder present. Hop to it."

Simultaneously monitoring the ships Comm's and attending to the bridge Zell chuckles a bit at the antics and comments from the marines. Phone Sex "heh" Squib? "I haven't heard that one in months" ever since Zero-G training with that latina instructor. Man Oh Man that brings back memories. To bad about their LT though, I wonder what the heck he was thinking going around without his armor on. I though the jar heads even showered with those things on...

After another minute of listening to chatter the command line buzzes and the announcment about the Commodore comes across. "Mother of"

"LCDR Stern did you read that? Of all the stupid things. LCRD, We also lost the Marines LT. Sounds like the Platoon SGT is currently in the hanger. Might I suggest a down and dirty temporary field promotion to organize them quickly? I also suggest having him pick a new temporary Platoon SGT to avoid any issues among his NCO's (Sergeants for you layman types :smalltongue: ). LT Clyne is on the scene with him. Sir, do you want me to send the Doc in to determine if it was really a fall? If this is action how the heck did they get him?"

"CPL Wayland, you stay there and keep your mouth buttoned up. LCDR Stern is on his way to your position. Not another word about this and nobody else gets into the Commodores quarters until he assesses the scene. Got it?"

[Elvith Jars]

“Roger that, Sir,” Hudson says automatically to the LT. “Ok boys and girls, listen up. Make two fire teams, 4 and 3. I’ll go with the trio and round em out. You heard the LT, but fan out a bit keep an eye out for trouble.”

He listens in on Marine Command as the bridge sounds off. I’m not an officer, I work for a living, Hudson thinks to himself in his not-swearing-because-he’s pissed tone. Hey genius, I don’t need a promotion. We’re already organized. But he’s partly right. If I take over, I’ll need someone to fill my spot. It’d be a bit unusual to have a SGT in command of a platoon, but hey, they stick Corporals into the PS slot that normally takes a Staff Sergeant, so stranger things have happened.

“Commodore’s dead? I guess the PS and his girlfriend won’t be finding out why they’re really on board.” The way Clancy said it, PS sounded more like “PoS.”

Gee thanks, Clancy, way to keep quiet. Then again, It’s gotta be pretty f*cking obvious we’re not here simply to replace an incompetent PS. Why the hell are we here?

“Guess not, Clancy. Joe, you get all that from the bridge?”

“Yeah honcho,” Coonts responded, “we were already moving to secure the quarters when we got the word from on high. Actual should be here shortly. I’m tapped into Wayland’s vid feed, looks like somebody had a fight. Anything else you need, honcho?” The way he asked sounded more like, “And what else do you think we should be doing?” Hudson came from the school of hard knocks, and nothing beats gaining experience than on the job training.

Chevy thought for a moment. Something didn’t add up. “Coonts, you said you lost contact with one of your fire teams, right?”

“Yeah. But it was just one marine, possibly two. We're short handed with all the squids having phone sex and there's a bit of chaos going on. Know why the Navy keeps Marines on board? Because sheep would be too obvious.” Coonts responded with a bit more energy than normal, a non-verbal clue that Hudson was on the right track.

“Heh. Good one. What happened to the marine?”

“Private Hicks said he got to the Commodore’s quarters, reported signs of a struggle, then got cut off. His mike was on and we heard a neck snap, a gasp, then nothing. His vitals flatlined before going off the air.”

Chevy sent a thought to his armor, and checked Hicks’ black box recording but of course there was no trace of Hicks on JTIDS (Joint Tactical Information Distribution System). He then thought of something else, and a picture-on-vision display came up, piping in Wayland’s video feed of the Commodore’s quarters. The Corporal was now outside looking in. Hm.

“Where is Hicks’ body?”

Coonts piped up more. “Dunno. But makes you wonder if the Commodore really ‘slipped and fell’ in the shower, don’t it? Time for an expert investigator?”

“Yeah, who we got?”

“Well, we had Ensign Nathan Reeder, but he’s gone missing. He vanished a few days after we left port. We know he’s been in and out of his quarters, but we’ve never caught him doing it. He’s listed as AWOL.”

“Missing? How do you vanish without a trace on a spaceship?”

“How do you sneak around in that suit of yours?”

“Point. Alright, Brown and Clancy, tell your teams to keep an eye out for an Ensign Nathan Reeder. We’ll want to talk with him. Don't turn it into a witch hunt though, maybe he just needed quiet time to beat off.” A brief "Alpha" and "Bravo" was all Hudson heard as Brown and Clancy acknowledged their orders.

“I guess the doc will have to do instead. Coonts, you in a position to hump LT Grayson over to the crime scene?”

“Yeah, if I can pry him out of sickbay, he’s been holed up there since we left port. I think he lives there now. If he’s… busy with Vasquez,” Coonts didn’t want to remind him that the good doctor may be working on Vasquez in ER surgery, “I'll come relieve you and you can do your ‘medicine man’ thing. Unless you know some other witchdoctor in the house...”

“Ok, sounds g- wait... Bridge, this is SGT Cheveyo Hudson, XO of the marine contingent onboard. We need some help down here with the Commodore's death. Is uh... Ensign... St. Clair available? we could use some of his special talents I've heard about.”

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern listens stoically to the news going over the radio channels.

Damn. Damndamndamn.

Shortly, he opens a comm to everyone on the ship as he and his security contingent stalk down the hallways. "Attention, this is LCDR Stern. Commodore Kazuma has been reported KIA, and I am officially taking command of the Radiant. My current orders stand; everyone not in a marine or security post is to continue repairing disabled systems as quickly as possible. Priority is internal sensors, external sensors, shields, weapons, and engines. If you can't do any of that, get to work on something else. Go to it."

"All marines and security are on red alert until further notice. I'm provisionally appointing Sgt. Hudson marine platoon leader; he may designate a temporary platoon sergeant until the current crisis is over. All marines and security are to sweep the ship for intruders until they are found. Over."

At this point, barring any obsructions, Stern and the security contingent arrive at the officers' quarters. "Cpl. Wayland," he returns the marine's salute. "LCDR Stern, I don't think we've met. Now, I'm actually less interested in the Commodore right now and more interested in what happened to the fire team that was originally sent to look for him. Have you found them?"

[Dustyme]

Realizing from the conversation among the Marines that they've activated HUD cam's Zell taps into the line and set it to record to his wrist computer. Never know when they're gonna get hit and not be able to tell us what happened like our missing private...

"LCDR Stern, this is Melern sir. The Marines are asking for Ensign St Claire at the Commodor's quarters. Guess they need an engineer to babysit them for some reason, they think he's special." (Fills him in quickly on the jist of everything if he's not already patched in.)

To himself:
"Wonder if they think he's some sort of rabits foot? Meh, marines. Way to damned superstitious..."

(Assuming that LCDR Stern agrees for St Claire to show at the Commodors)
"St Claire this is Melern. We have a request for you to show your face at the Commodores quarters. Better make it quick. As you heard we've got a situation."

[Storm Bringer]

wayland shook his head.++No, sir. we've not found any trace of them here. Their suits are not responding to any hails, either.++

ooc:

Spot check! Lets see if you can spot anything of intrest. Treat Injury check if you wish to examine the deceased, nerd.


Andrew nodded as he got the order. he looked at Hudson.

++roger, Melrn. I'm on my way. have we heard anything form the engine room?++ Andrew headed towards the door, then turned back to the marines ++ the hanger is off limits to everyone else until futher notice. We can fix that hatch later. Right now, no one is to get near those craft without orders form above.++ he said, Guesturing to the shuttles, still prepped and ready to launch.

with that, andrew headed back into the ship, passing thought he airlocks agian.

[Elvith Jars]

"Doc is getting busy with Vasquez, he's not going anywhere," Coonts said. "On my way to relieve you, honcho. Clancy's gonna boss my guys around a bit."

"Roger that."

Over a private channel, Coonts adds, "You're officially in charge now. You might want to head over to the Commodore's and show your face, let 'em know you're part of the team. Hangar's pretty well taken care of at this point. Besides, brass like to chew on unattended privates. Boy that just didn't sound right..."

Hudson was thinking of just having Wayland look around and check out the situation via video feed. With hi-def cameras, that would've been more efficient than trudging all they way up to the Commodore's place. But Coonts' idea had merit. "I get your meaning, thanks." Once Coonts arrives he keeps one fire team guarding the hangar proper, another guarding the airlock into it, and periodically rotates them so none get overly ZeeGee sick.

"Where's my rabbit's foot? My lucky rabbit's foot, where is it?" a marine nearly freaks as Hudson gets ready to move out.

"You check up your a**?" another responds.

"F*ck you, this is serious."

"Higgins, stow it. Ripley, give Agaki one of your lucky rubber bands for now." Coonts calmly orders.

"But-"

"Hey, you've got five of em, just give em one for now, ok? You can have it back later."

"Ok..."

Taking note of how Coonts handled the situation and learning from it, Hudson nods his approval and heads over to the crime scene.

[Dustyme]

Zell cuts Hudson into the command channel after letting LCDR Stern now he is doing so.

"Sir, I haven't gotten a recent report from engineering. Their either too busy, dead, outside the ship, or got the flux drive opened up since that tends to wreak havoc on low band comm's. I think it is most likely the later. BTW LCDR Stern, SGT Havoc is on his way up to the I believe. Also, we're working on the internal scanners to get some visualization to go by. Keep your head down sir, fighter jocks (LT Clyne :smalltongue: ) in command of carriers are a nightmare waiting to happen."

Cuts a private line to SGT Hudson:
"You Space Marines are more damn superstitious than the Solar League Spaceball teams on moon colony. How the heck he can fit anything extra into that tin can is beyond me."

Security guarding the bridge hatch alerts Ensign Melern to the arrival of the bridge crew now arriving to assist with repairs. He signals the marines to triple check all personnel coming through the hatch and indicates for everone to change out stations with new arrivals.
"Next shift on, all Station supervisors to me in 5, I want a Situation Report. Former shift take a break and get some coffee, you have 20 minutes and then your on ops while next shift continues with repairs."
You heard LCDR Stern get this ship fixed."

Zell walks over to his console and grabs a little box out of a drawer.
"Private Neil, Post. Run these to LCDR Stern be quick but be carefull."

((Nerd, check your email. :smallwink: ))

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern looks over the Commodore's quarters, leaving autopsies to the medical officers.

[roll0]

"So you're telling me the Commodore's dead, and the leathernecks we sent to check on him just disappeared? Moreover, we've got two confirmed senior officer deaths and a ship who's dead in the water, but no one can confirm any hostiles or tell me what any of the problems are? This situation isn't just bad, it's contrived. You men, fan out, and either find me the missing marines or their corpses. People don't disappear of a starship."

Well, there were rumors about the senior gunnery officer, who hadn't been officially seen since leaving port, but that had to be coincidence.

Stern salutes Hudson as he arrives. "Sergeant. Your thoughts on this situation?" At this point, Stern's expression is fixed into a grimace of part-worry, part-anger that will probably last him the rest of his career, whether it be five minutes or fifty years.

[Storm Bringer]

Before hudson can relpy, one of the marines shouts "sir!". Both Stern and Hudson move to see what the private has found.

In one of the long term storage rooms near to the commandores quarters, hidden behind a crate of spare parts, one of the missing marines has been found. He appears to be unharmed, but his suit does not appear to be working and he's been knocked out. The marine who found him has unsealed the suit and his checking him out. he looks up when you get thier.

"Looks like someone hit his suit with an focused EMP charge. The feedback form the nureal links must'a knocked him out. Damm, with the shielding on these things, they would'a needed to slap the damm pluse generator on him...."

[Elvith Jars]

"You'd be surprised at what we could stuff where," Hudson says to Zell. Hm.

"Clancy."

"Yo."

"When you get done sweeping corridors and rooms, check crawlspaces, spider holes, air ducts, stuff like that."

"You think? We're already doing that as we sweep," Clancy pointed out, "Yes Oh Mighty One." Well, at least he's thorough.

Taking Coonts' suggestion at his word, Hudson's golden faceplate is clear again, his gray eyes and Amerindian features clearly visible as he arrives and salutes LCDR Stern. Anyone looking at his eyes would notice a bit more wisdom than your typical Marine, and an unquestionable air of calm. He listens to the LCDR then approaches the recovered Marine as soon as he's found. The marine looks like he'll be coherent soon.

Time to walk like an Egyptian, Hudson thinks, slipping into counter-terrorism mode. Hudson turns to the skipper to respond.

"Sir, I'd prefer not to speculate too much until we get more evidence. But based on what we know, I think someone took advantage of the ship's unexpected engineering failure to accomplish their goal.

"If the fire team did little more than a cursory check, they could've missed the Commodore as he was getting ready for a shower, especially if the shower was off. A talk with Jansen will clear that up.

"Hicks reported signs of a struggle before he was apparently killed and Jansen was knocked out. I'm thinking it was more like someone was looking for something- quickly- and got trapped in the Commodore's cabin when the marines arrived. The intruder might have paniced, ambushed the marines, stuffed them away to hide their discovery, then made his escape. Jansen wasn't found too far from the Commodore's cabin, so likely the intruder didn't have much time to hide the bodies. We'll probably find Hicks or his corpse nearby.

"The hangar explosively decompressed not long after, so maybe the intruder used it as an opportunity to get off the ship or to hide evidence. Jumping overboard with only a spacesuit is a ballsy thing to do, but doable if you know you'll have help lurking around. We might want to check the hangar for signs of sabotage when we recover, and take a head count as soon as we can.

"At this point, I'd suggest checking the area for Hicks or his corpse. Like I said, given where we found Jansen, Hicks can't be far. I'd also question Jansen to see if he saw anything and ask him how thorough his search for the Commodore was. As soon as we're recovered, I'd have Engineering check to see if the hangar was tampered with, possibly the engines too, but I doubt it.

"And with your permission, Sir, I'll do a cursory check on the Commodore and see if he really did just slip in the shower. If the intruder just wanted something out of the Commodore's cabin, then it wouldn't make sense to kill him unless the intruder was discovered by him.

"I've also asked Ensign St. Clair down here for a quick look. Scuttlebutt is that he's got some special talents beyond engineering that might help. If so, he should do his thing quick before things grow cold. As soon as he's done, we should seal off the Commodore's quarters for when we have time for a more thorough investigation.

Lastly, I'm not sure how Ensign Reeder fits into all this. He's a suspect given he's gone AWOL, but it could be that the pressure simply got to him and he went someplace quiet."

If the skipper approves Hudson's medical exam of the Commodore, he detaches a very small medkit from his suit, links it to the medicomp in his left gauntlet, and performs a scan.

Treat Injury: 1d20+14 = 32 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1487934/)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern nods at Hudson's assessment, and then again at his suggestion of checking over Kazuma's body. "So your assessment is that we had a spy on board, and he escaped, or planned to through the damaged hangar bay?" he summarizes. "That seems likely. I might take it one step further and guess that this spy was also a saboteur, and disabled our power supply and hangar by some means. However, we still can't be sure this was an inside job, nor can we tell if whomever's responsible successfully escaped until we get internal sensors back up. I want your men to continue their sweep until we can come to a conclusion."

[Storm Bringer]

Hudson checks the corpse over with the eye of a combat medic. He quickly determines that while the commadore was indeed killed by his broken neck, the breakage itself and damage to the surrounding tissue is not consistant with him falling over and landing badly. It is consistant with someone very skilled in unarmed combat breaking his neck. You also note what you recognise as contact points for a nerual intferface device, simmilar to the one used in the Apache SCV. It appears that he was interfaced with a nueral link very recently, either at or just before his demise.

ooc:

well, you all aussmed he was assassinated, and Elvith did get an exceptional roll, so threw in a teaser.

everybody with Knowledge: tactics make a roll to asses what the assassins most likey actions are.

Andrew roll: [roll0]

Dusty, if your character is activly seeking to try and fix scanners, comms, etc, make a Use Computer/Repair roll (whichever is highest) and specify what your working to fix.

[Elvith Jars]

"Yes Sir, that's my working theory on what happened. Roger that, Sir, we'll keep looking." Hudson relays his findings about the Commodore to the skipper.

Knowledge: Tactics 1d20+3 = 13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1488085/)

"Jansen, how you doing? What's your rundown on what happened here?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

[roll0]

"So we can confirm that Commodore was indeed murdered," Stern concludes. "Now, starting from here...someone stealthy, probably unarmed, probably wanting to avoid conflict..."

[estradling]

Alfred pulled up from his computer screen with a puzzled look when he was called. Why would he be wanted in the Commodore's quarters. It's not like he could fix a dead person.

Still he was a solider and he had his orders. Acknowledging the orders he entered the hallway and passages that would allow him to get their in a reasonable amount of time.

When he gets there he looks for the person in charge, when he find them he reports in "St. Clair. Here as ordered."

[Dustyme]

---Zell--

Tactics [roll0]

Computer Use [roll1] (Scanners Internal then External)

Hmm, If it was me what systems would I gank up 1st? Maybe the power relay at junction box A23 on deck 2 aft...

Zell takes the update brief and points out a few ideas for the teams to try keeping in mind that this might be an internal sabotage.

[Storm Bringer]

Zell:try as you might, the scanning systems refuse to come back online. The power-outs affected many cuircits, but even so, you seem to be making exceptionally little headway in fixing things.... if you were an assassin, screwing with the scanners like this would make sense. You can't see any solid proof someones tampering with the scanners, but it's not semi-plausable.....

ooc

you screwed up the repair role, so not hard proof of tampering, but you're tactics roll is good enough to guess at it. you can try and fix other systems, or have another bash at the scanners.


Nerd: if you were charged with killing the commadore and escaping without alerting the wider world, their would be two tasks you think they'd been to achive: first, complete the disabling of the engines systems, preferablbly so that they appear to malfunctioned, giving the power-outs a plausable reason, and sufficenlt thoughly so that the system won't be repaired by the crew, disposing of the evidence. Second, escape via a shuttle. Thier were definatly no ships within a couple of AU of your position, when you lost power, and your still immense speed means you'd have seen anyone trying to catch you (not that they could). The only way to escape to a pick-up ship would be via a shuttle burning a lot of it's fuel to slow down enough to be picked up.

assuming the assassin is planning on leaving, and not blowing the ship up with her....

ooc

damm good roll, so a wack form the clue bat (http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/slides/cluebat.html) for you! (not that you need it. you guys have played FAR too many games to be anything but highly paranoid and cyncial.:smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:


++Clyne here. I'm going to check on engineering quickly, see if i can get a ETA on powerup.++

[Elvith Jars]

Seeing that Pvt Jansen hasn't recovered enough to respond yet, Hudson turns his attention to the young Ensign St. Clair.

"Sir, I know you're busy getting things working again, but we could use your expertise to help square things away here ASAP. If the skipper approves, we'll want to seal up this room shortly after moving the Commodore's body to the morgue, and make sure we preserve any evidence until we can take a closer look at what happened.

"But before we seal the place up, is there any surveillance data we have access to in this room or the corridor outside, that we can review and see what happened, say, a half hour ago or so? It would be great if we could catch whover did this in the act." It's obvious Hudson is looking at the Ensign's GIFTED insignias on his uniform, but he's also positioned so that only th Ensign would notice.

"Oh and one more thing. It looks like somebody jacked into the Commodore's neural link. Know anybody that can pry any data out of his head?"

{{OOC: Not sure if Hudson can hack a dead guy's brain...}}

[Dustyme]

---Zell---
Monitors the comand channel:
"SGT Hudson, regarding that video footage. We have nothing until the main computer comes online again. I can't even track a toilet flush as of right now... What about the HUD display on your suits? Were you marines using them when they searched before they got hit? Maybe you can pull something off of them."

"DarkRed"]"Ensign St Claire, this is Ensign Melern. I need you to assign an engineering team to assist my crewman in repairs on the brigde.[/COLOR] (Looking for that +2 modifier :smallamused: ) I'm still having problems getting these systems online and we need these systems as much as anything else including the flux engine."

Zell passes orders for the marines to check and pass any engineering crewman that show to assist repairs.
I'm going to roll again for scanners if I don't pass I'll move on to the next system until I get assistance I'm also going to use an action point if I roll at least a 13 to 20. (Anotherwords, if my roll falls between 13-20 add it otherwise consider it not posted. I just don'twant to double post.)
Computer Use [roll0]
Action Point (if appliable) [roll1]

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Alright. Our hostile has one of two options. On a standard mission, he or she is going for a shuttle - one moment," he says, and quickly switches on his comm to contact Lt. Clyne.

"Mr. Clyne, please confirm that no shuttlecraft are missing from the hangar, and be on guard for hostiles attempting to take one."

((Clyne is still in the hangar, right?))

Stern turns back to the marines. "As I was saying, that's if it's a standard mission. The saboteur's only other real option is to destroy the Radiant. Now, this would render all this extra effort to disable her and sneak around rather moot, unless he has access to a working Mass Transceiver and was aboard to steal information. Sergeant, can you pick up any signals in the MT band on your HUD? You're wearing the best sensors on the ship right now."

While Hudson sees if he can pick up any anomalous comm signals, Stern sends another transmission up to the bridge. "Mr. Melern. I want you to keep a very close eye on the ship's external comms array. If it comes back up without explanation, alert me immediately. Hostiles may attempt to repair and use it to send intelligence off the ship."

[estradling]

Alfred

Responding back to the command line call he said, "Ensign Melern. I need to take care of something at the Commadore's quarters. After that I will personally be back to help get the systems on-line. Expect me in no more then 5 minutes."

Then turning off his command link, he turns to Hudson, "You and I will enter the room. Observing each other to make sure neither of us compromises the evidence. Once inside I will see if I can do one better then the cameras. I will try to observe things as they were when he was attacked, and see if I can get a face."

While he is talking Ensign St. Clair removes his right handed glove that he uses to prevent human contact.


Visioning power roll
[roll0]
If I don't get a 15 or greater I'll use an action point
[roll1]

[Elvith Jars]

"Affirmative Sir," Hudson replies to the skipper's inquiry, "the US Marine Corps has seen fit to equip my suit with some of the best sensory gear available to a powered armor. I'll set up the scan and keep you posted." Chevy does a quick mental activation of his sensory gear and programs it to alert him if it sees any activity on the MT bands.

Use Computer (program the scanner): 1d20+9=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1489380/)

"Thank you Sir," he says to the Ensign, "your help is appreciated." The pair step into the room, and while Alfred is checking out the place, the Sgt responds to Zell.

"Ensign Melern, Sir, I'll check and confirm, Sir, but an EMP shock powerful enough to take an SCA down and off the air would also wipe its blackbox too." If the downed marine's armor is back online, Hudson remotes into its computer, checking its blackbox. Otherwise, he waits until he's back in the storage area (or wherever the marine is now) to check the marine's computer.

Use Computer (Check Pvt Jansen's blackbox) 1d20+9=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1489392/)

Once completed with his tasks, Hudson does a thorough scan of the area where the Commodore's body was found (outlines it on the video too), flags sick bay to send someone down to retrieve the body and isolate it in the morgue. He then makes a request to the doctor to see if any data can be retrieved from the corpse's neural interface.

"Just a reminder, Sirs, the Commodore's neural link was recently accessed. Possibly right before or right after his death. We may find something there but I don't know enough about the technology to know if it can be retrieved after someone's dead."

[estradling]

Alfred

Ensign St. Clair moves into the room and tunes out Hudson's chatter.
He moves with his bare right hand leading the way. Almost as if he was blind and feeling his way forward. He gets near the Commodore's body and drops down and kneels by it, his right hand about a foot way from his head.

With his eyes closed he seems motionless expect for the occasional face twitch. Then with a gasp he falls back, "She killed him..." He was expecting it, but still feeling someone death was a shock. "She killed him and then downloaded something from his neural net."

Pulling himself together St. Clair stands up and puts his glove back on. "I need to access the personnel files." Which meant he need to fix the system so he could access the files

[Storm Bringer]

++clyne here. both shuttles are still in the hanger. thedocking clamps are still screwed however. the shutles have got the power to break teh clmaps, but then we wouldn't be able to recover them until we'd fixed the clamps, which is a drydock job. Techs think we might be able to unstick them in an hour or two++

ooc

eg we can't launch ships since we need to land them again, but our assassin can escape on a one way trip.


Elvith: You suits onboard systems are not really built to monitor MT bands but they can answer the question: the ships neturonite hull would scramble or block any MT signals unless they were broadcast via the primary comms array which would be trackable on the bridge. since they've not tracked any outbound messages, the assassin cannot have contacted anyone since the power failure.

you cannot get any ideas about the identiy of the attacker form the blackbox (visual memory banks are sufficently screwed to need replacing) but you get a feel for the EMP device that did the damage. As the other marine theorised, the device would need to be physically touching the suit when it was fired. it was placed on the suits rear, and not too far form the primary CPU. whoever placed this knew where to get the best effect.

The charge was only just able to penatrate the suits EMP shielding, and the pluse traveled mainly though the suits own wiring, so wouldn't have affected anyone else. The marines internal cyberware surived pretty much unaffected, but that was due to the suit taking the hit. if used on a unsuited person with cyberware, the effects would shut down the cyberware for certian, and maybe induce crippling feedback in the target.

It appears to be a grenade sized device which was attached via a gravity field, and would likey have burnt itself out creating the pulse. The charge strength is much higher than you've seen before in a handheld device. This sort of gear would be very rare and expenisive.

as to the commadores neural net, the system is suffciently reliant on living neurons that it will only function if the target is alive or has only just died. within about 2-3 minutes death the brain has deteriorated beyond the networks ability to cope. access must have occured before then, and it is not possible to determine what was downloaded at this stage.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Wait...St. Clair, exactly what did you do there?" Stern asks.

No one ever briefs me on anything.

"Well, never mind that for now, I'm willing to take your word for it. So, the assassin killed the commodore and stole some information. She's either headed to restore power to the comms array or to escape in a shuttle; we're going far too fast for her to jump out in a suit."

Stern ponders this for a moment, trying to guess the enemy's next move. "The power loss was likely caused by the same sort of brute-force EMP that she used to disable the marine, which means it'll be a lot of effort to repair a specific system, even if she knows what she's doing. Hudson, you take half the marines here and go join Clyne in the hangar bay. Terminate anyone attempting to leave in a spacecraft unless I give them clearance first. St. Clair, thank you for your assistance; go back to the bridge and help Melern with the power systems. I'll take the rest of the team and keep an eye on the power relays."

He sends a communication to Melern once again, asking "Mr. Melern, I have an engineering question. If someone wanted to restore power to only the external comms and then use them without alerting the bridge, where would they go to do it?"

[Elvith Jars]

Once Alfred finished up, Hudson steps outside again, checking the marine and then reports.

"Yes Sir," Hudson says in response to the skipper's orders.

"Coonts."

"Yeah?"

"Just in case, make sure nobody tries to come through the open hangar door."

"From the outside in? Huh. Ok boss."

"I'm coming back down there with reinforcements and swap places with you again. Clancy, Brown, keep sweeping. I want two fire teams in the bay guarding the shuttles, fighters, and the outer door. I also want another two teams guarding the airlock(s) from the ship to the bay."

"Clancy."

"Brown."

There'll be roughly a squad of marines in or near the hangar on guard duty.

Before heading out, Hudson does a quick search of the room to find the dead marine.

Search: 1d20+1=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1490673/)
Spot: 1d20+1=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1490681/)

[estradling]

Alfred

Facing the Sterns he said, "Sir I saw the assassin's face both with and without the disguise, if I can get the computers to work and get access to the personnel files I might be able to put a name to this person and an image for you to work with."

[Dustyme]

To Stern on command channel:
"Sir, I think it would be best to send 2 of my commo team with an engineer and a marine escort to start physically checking over the comm's system. I want them start working their way from that end to here. I think we need securtity posted there while that team makes its way back junction box by junction box."

Zell details two (male) commo personnel to the detail. (If the internal sensors just came up I will next work on the computer but only bring it online once I can make sure it is slaved to bridge access only.)



Zell also sets up a monitor and block within the communication system that will alert him and LCDR Stern to any messages that seem suspicious. He sets the system to have the duty officer notify him of a message without alerting the officer of what the message contains or why. The alert message will read as a generic systems test notification with a key phrase. ((Main objective is to see if anyone is sending messages ahead of us to warn who/whatever is occurring & Halt the message before it leaves the ship.)) Computer Use [roll0]


(The Comp Use roll was a 17 :smallwink:)
As soon as we get the computer system up Zell checks to see if this worked or not. Zell will check any and all inbound/outbond messages for the last 48 hours with special care towards messages by females. He will also lockdown anything/everything the Commodore had access to and check it for recent access as well as check to see if there are any dummy accounts for sending/receiving messages. Zell also checks for any tampering with of every system as it comes online (Starting with the scanners).
Did I fix the scanners? If so...
Computer Use: Scanners (Internal) [roll0]

To Stern:
"LCRD Stern, I am locking down all systems I can as we bring them up. This intruder may not be trying to escape yet. She or they may have accessed the Commodors link to gain information about something onboard they are going after. Either stored information or a peice of equipment. I suggest we send security teams to the computer core mainframe room and any other sections or storage areas the commodore kept off limits. He probably has a safe or secure storage unit in his room. Also don't forget that his personnel file was intensely secure when I was reviewing crew files. I suspect that there is something contained in them you might have access to upon his death as the senior officer and now expedition Commander."

(The post is on page 1 from wizard. P.S. Would the escape pods work in hyeperspace? What about the fighters are they in th main hangar too?)

BTW I loved the triple threat post there Nerd :smallamused:

[Storm Bringer]

Zell's face is a furrow of total concentration. He is sure that he sensor systems are fine physically. Someone is blocking his access with a software hack. It's a good hack, very good. He's having trouble even working out it's their, let alone trying to bypass it. Zell started to use tricks the tutors at the TASC acadeamy didn't know eh knew. He started to use tricks he didn't know he knew. but it was to no avail, the hack was blocking him at every turn....except one. he managed to figure out that the hack had been rebuilt not long ago, incorporating new data. Finally, after a lot of brute force and dirty coding he managed to extract the authorisation codes used in the hack.

Zell blinked. They were the commodores’. It took him a moment to process this. The hacker was using the commodores’ access codes to shut down the sensor systems, the exterior comm...... they must have got hold of them somehow. At any rate, it was now clear that he'd need a long time, hours, possibly days, to get this hack out the way and talk to an exterior source.

However, the hack was built with no by-passes in it. the assassin would have to hack her own hack if she wanted to try and talk to someone.

The personnel files are not blocked off, but so fragmented as to be useless for the moment in time. Zell sets the system to recover what it can and pass it to St. Clair, but there is little to go on.

Considering the Lt Cmdrs question, the best place to insert a pirate broadcast would be at the comm array itself outside the ship or the main comm. Line just below it form inside. Both these sites are accessible, if a little out of the way. However, getting power to the systems in the first place would mean a trip to engineering and some subtle tweaking of a few power relays in the engine room itself. It would be next to impossible to hide the power up form the bridge.
ooc:

Would the escape pods work in hyeperspace? What about the fighters are they in the main hangar too?

The ship is still in ‘realspace’, its just travelling much faster than everything else. A person leaving the ship would need to lose about 80% of his speed to have a chance of being picked up by a conventional drive ship. A pod hasn’t got the sort of power to go lose that speed and get anywhere: it can brake to a halt, but not speed up again. The shuttles however, can meaning the pick up vessel can be a lot futher away, and so easier to hide. Also, since the shuttle is armed, a vengeful crew could use it to attack and destroy a escape pod. Ergo, it’s easier to escape via the shuttle. The fighters are also in the Main bay, but are not prepped to launch. It would take several people a couple of minutes at least to get them ready.

The pods might do In a pinch, but a shuttle would be a much better option.

And yes, I am aware that there is no top speed in space. But this is si-fi, so there is.
Oh, btw, you only just failed the opposed roll to break the hack.

more to come in the morn.

[estradling]

Alfred

As the files started to show on his neural net hookup. The engineer realized it would take much to long at its current speed to defragment the files. However he didn't need all the files... Just ones meeting a certain very limited physical profile, he could skip large chunks...

So in his head he rewrites the sorting algorithms to speed it up and only give him matches for the assassain.


Computer use [roll0]

[Dustyme]

Command Channel:
"LCDR Stern, there's some Black Ice blocking access to vital systems it is going to take hours and possibly day for me to crack it. I suggest we get a programing expert up here on the double that I can assist in clearing this up. Someenoe more skilled may have more luck than I. Whomever did this job used the Commodores codes to set it up so we know at least some of the info they got away with, The only good news I have is that the Mutinous Dog(s) locked themselves out as well. What info on the personnel files I have I'm sending to Ensign St. Clair."

ooc:
I just had to use the phrase "Mutinous Dogs!!" Arrrhh!!
BTW Storm Bringer since I specifically reveiwed all the personnel files at the begining of the trip is there a feasable likelyhood that I could either:
A: Have some, many, most or all (basics) stored on my wrist comp? (This would make sense due to the fact that I was reveiwing these lists o glean tidbits of info that could help dealing with crew members plus the fact that I'm paraniod and expected some B(!) to turn on us (LMAO, both the PC and me the player expected it).
B: Assist St Clyne in reveiwing the records due to my prior experience with them.

If option A floats then He should have a lot more to work with instantly (Here's hoping for a Situation Bonus!).
If option B floats then Computer Use to assist [roll0]

[Storm Bringer]

Zell and Alfred, working together, manage to narrow the shearch to about a half dozen crew files. of them, two were at their stations at the time of the power failure (confirmed by other crew), one was asleep in her bed (confirmed agian by other crewmembers), one was wounded in zero-g accident and was in sick bay under sedation at the time, and two unaccounted for: A brown haired cook who has a good resemblance to the assassins disguised look, and a blonde engineer who is a dead ringer for the assassin's 'real' face. Quick enquirys to thier section chiefs reveal they have not been seen since the power failure.

However, a lot of the crew is still unaccounted for by thier chiefs and are spread thoughout the ship dealing with local problems. the mid-rankers are working to organise the situtation and account for everyone, but as it stands, these two are the most likey covers for the assassin.

ooc:

everyone apart form elvith make a will save.
andrews: [roll0]

[estradling]

Alfred

Turning to LCDR Stern he says, "Sir please be advised that what I did in the Commodore's quarters is not admissible in any court. I did what I did to save the ship, you still have to build your case and have evidence for your reports. That being said this person is who the assassin disguised herself as. She could be in danger, she is being set up to take the fall and evidence might be found with her." Using the available gear St Clair makes sure Stern get the information on the two.

"This one is a dead ringer for our assassin. I think your best chance to find evidence is to find the neural link down loader she used to get the Commodore's comm codes and who knows what else. Hopefully she still has it and hasn't purged the data beyond recovery."

The ensign paused to let his commander have time to take in the information. "If you have nothing else for me sir, I'm going to get to work removing that command block hack that we found."



Assuming his is not ordered to do something else
Computer Use to remove the hack
[roll0]

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Right," he responds to St. Clair. "If we're lucky, our quarry will resist and we won't have to worry about trials. I hate saboteurs. Right now, I'm just concerned with finding her. Head back to the bridge and report to Melern. I'm going to Engineering."

And hopefully, that means we've covered all of her possible exits.

[Dustyme]

---Zell---

Ensign Melern has the marines immediately let Ensign St. Clair onto the bridge and assists him in clearing the computer block.

Will Save [roll0]
Computer Use (Assist) [roll1]

[estradling]

OOC: I totally spaced needing a will save... Sorry [roll0]

[Nerd-o-rama]

[roll0]

Whoops.

[Elvith Jars]

Back at the hangar, Hudson addresses the squad:

"All right boys and girls, listen up. Nobody in or out of the hangar. If they're not authorized by me personally, shoot them. If they stand back up, shoot them again. Obviously I have authorization so don't shoot me. We'll continue rotating fire teams in and out of the hangar but that slows down as of now. We also might be taking a jaunt outside to guard the external comm array, so be prepared for that. Stick to your training and you'll be fine.

Switch to data comm Bravo fiver and do not accept any incoming data requests, not even the commodore's. If you don't know what channel that is, pay more attention to the day's channel rotations and ask your buddy. We're isolated from the command channels as of now. You answer to me and to the skipper, nobody else. Anybody gives you flak, send em my way.

Lock and load and stay on your toes. Nobody goes anywhere alone."

Hudson readies his M-82A1 Longbow, its capacitors growl in anticipation.

[Storm Bringer]

Hudson is about half-way to the hanger when his suits NBC warning light activates. a few quick quireys shows that an unknown chemical is present in the air. the system chugs a bit, trying to work out what the agent is, and finally comes back with a return: it's a Hallucinogen. a very uncommon one. It oversitumlates the certian areas of the brain, causing the person to percive a mutliude of horros conjored up form his own mind. the effects are not crippling, but do impact proformance.

ooc

everone who failed (under 12), it's a -2 on all roles due to fear. oh, and the walls are crawling with gribbleys.....

[Elvith Jars]

Beep...beep...beep Hudson's NBC alarm goes off as he approaches the hangar.

"All marines, seal your armor now!"

"What the f*ck, Chevy, you rip one?"

"Wait one, Brown, just get your guys sealed."

"We're ok in the hangar," Coonts replies, "got a fire team cycling through now though."

"Bridge," he says as the Apache's medicomp IDs the contaminant, "we've got foul air. RoboDoc identifies it as some kind of hallucinogen. Got any neurotox to flush the air out with?" Then he remembers everything is offline.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Dammit! Everyone, find a rebreather or a suit!" Stern shouts, too late. Still, he shakes off the effects of whatever it is and concentrates on determining what it's doing to his security complement.

[Dustyme]

Zell watches as the command chair stands up on its own and walks 10' away he goes to sit in it to hold it down but once again it moves. When he hears the news about the hallucinogen in the air system he decides that the crew needs some music to help relax them and keep them concentrating at the same time he finds some Mozart on his wrist computeries it into the bridge audio system unfortunately Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is what come on instead and every time he tries to change the music his wrist computer skitters up or down his arm to get away from Zells fingers. Giving up on that he turns to St. Clair and attempts to assist with programing again.

"We need to get the filtration system back online St. Clair. I'll make the call and pay for it later if needed."

Computer Use (Assist) [roll0]

[Storm Bringer]

The marine's armour grants them protection form the airborne agent, sealing automatically if not already sealed. As hudson had not unsealed his armour since he left the hangar, he had not been exposed to the agent. An enquiry to the sick bay reveals that an antidote exists, but that none is ready to use on the ship due the uncommon nature of the toxin agent used. They can whip up enough to inncoulate the crew. given an hour or two warning, and start to prepare a batch, with enough to cover the commander staff (i.e. you) in about a quarter hour.

The good news is that the concentrations present in the air are low enough that continued exposure would not significantly affect the crew after the first few minutes of exposure (which have already passed), so protective gear is not nesscary (in that it would not really change the affects).

The bad news is thats some 80% of the crew have recived significant doseage of the drug before donning protective gear. the effects can vary significanly, depending on the persons mental state at the time.

There appear to be mutilple release points in the life support system, presumable after the air is filtered. once the release cannisters have been removed and the filters programed to check for it, the agent would be scrubbed form the air in a few cycles.

ooc:

okay, answering a few questions thrown at me:
all rolls before I posted the NBC light going on stand as is, no -2. The gas hasn't taken affect until that point.
gas masks and such are kept on hand at most crew stations, but as noted, they won't affect the outcome at this point, fluff or mechanics (the stuff is in the blood already). I may allow a re-save later, but i doubt it'd be needed.

for those two of us that saved, no need to roll agian unless the exposed to a higher doseage of the gas. trying to remove the canisters, for example, would need suits.

oh, just to be clear, everyone apart form elvith is seeing vivid and horrorfiying images everywhere. It's just me and the lt cmdr are currently able to force the fear down somewhat better at this point. feel free to discribe was your character is seeing crawling out the god-damm walls.....

[estradling]

Alfred

St Clair helplessly watched as Zell and the rest of the crewmen in the same room began to decay in front of them. Their hair fell out, and skin tightened and outlined their bones like morbid shrink wrap. Then Zell turned toward him and while accusing him saying, “You did this,” he drew a way oversized firearm and shot Alfred right in the face.

With a startled jerk St. Clair snaps back. Everything was fine. He hears Hudson warn of some kind of hallucinogen in the air, and Stern’s order to grab a rebreather. He goes to grab one when his implants decide to grow on him. Sprouting tendrils they burst up out of his flesh and quickly surround him, binding him in place.

Like some kind vid record being played back really slow St. Clair hears Zell try to tell him something. He makes out something about filters and puts the rest together.

Doing his best to focus he tries to get the air filters back.


Man failing will saves suck
Computer Use [roll0]

[Elvith Jars]

“Ok honcho, we’re all scrunched up tight,” Clancy says, “I’m scraping a couple guys off the ceiling but we’re ok. You should see the squids though, they’re going ape sh*t. I stuck a fireteam outside of Engineering just in case, and Ensign Melern’s got another team babysitting some techies as they work through the com system. Gonna go find the assassin now with that supersuit of yours?”

“Actually, in some ways, your gear is better than mine. We’ll deal with the insurgent once we find her.”

Standard Marine assault gear was in some ways better than what the scout snipers carried. While both groups carried the M-4 plasma rifle- the modern day equivalent to the OICW Assault Rifle that replaced bullets with plasma rounds, the M-4C scout sniper version lacked the mini grenade launcher but was more compact for easy carrying.

Regular marine fireteams also had the M-60 Squad Automatic Rail Gun (SARG). Unlike the newer M-82A1 Longbow, the M-60 had fully automatic capability. In the right hands it could deliver devastating amounts of damage, but unlike the Longbow, the SARG was at the pinnacle of its development.

While lighter than a Somatic Combat Vehicle, standard marine Space Combat Armor (SCA) was bulkier and harder to get around in. It made up for its bulkiness by integrating a zero-gee maneuvering unit and a pair of boot-mounted jump jets for planet-bound leap frogging, both features the SCVs presently lacked. Plus, the SCA had better stopping power than the SCV. However, Somatic Combat Vehicles had better strength, more maneuverability, and more sophisticated electronics. They were stealthier too, and continued upgrades would allow SCVs to meet and exceed standard power armor capabilities.

[Dustyme]

Zell watches as snakes slither in and out of St Clairs empty eye sockets and sees a snake move into his mic set.
"Holy crud!"

Zell turns his headset mace off and reaches out and snatches off St. Clairs set as well.

"Snakes in the grass Man! Snakes in the grass! She's listening in on the command channel. We need to shut her out of or commo. Screw the vent's she thinks we're looking at them now. We need to setup new secure command channels."

Zell grabs his wrist computer not letting it get away anymore and sets up a new encrypted algorithm for the commo.

Computer Use [roll0]

He waves to another marine on security.

"Corporal, Turn off you commo." Zell waits for him to do so. "I want you to take this to LCDR Stern and tell him that the" Zell shakes his head as the Trix cereal rabbit with bloody stumps and no paws crawls up the back of the marines armor and dances on the mans helmet. "the commo is a bust, it's compromised. This is the new algorithm to use and well adjust it again as soon as we can. We need to keep chatter on the old one and maybe direct her to an area we can catch her unaware. Do pass this info on to SGT Hudson. No one is to talk about this on an unsecure channel. That includes your private lines. Got it? Two more things before you go." Zell looks at the rabbit again. "How many rabbits feet are you carrying and would you turn the music off for me please. " Zell holds out his wrist computer to the marine...

[Storm Bringer]

Alfred and Zell manage to figure out the dispersal points for the gas, and a several suited crewmen are duly dispatched to remove and space the gas. the filters are programmed to remove the gas, and you reckon it will be flitered out soon enough. The effects should wear off in an hour or two. Also, dispite the gas, you make progress with the software hack, when the figures on the screen still still. You start to get a track on what doors are being opened by whom, and even managed to turn the music off.

Stern arrives at the Engine room to find lt. Clyne, up to his waist in a power conduit, with tools in hand with one of his hanger crew (not present in the hanger when the door blew) helping him. a quick cough from his aide brings him up. He takes a second or two to focus on Stern, as if having trouble seeing.

"Oh, thier you are, sir. We've tracked the power failure to this segment here. seems to have given under stress, but I can't rule out sabotage. The feedback kicked the back-ups, hence the outage. Just clearing the fragments out before we install the new parts. The crew Chief is just down......" Andrew points over his shoulder to a crawlspace hatch"thier, checking the main reactor feeds." He sounds to be calm, though his eyes don't really appear to focus on anything.

He looks around vaguly, and then looks at his hand. "just checking here," he says, holding his hand up and wiggling his fingers "I havn't actaully got a bleeding stump here, have I?"

ooc:


three things:
1) first, let me see if i've got everyone place right:
Stern: engineering
Clyne: engineering
Melern: bridge
St Clair: bridge
Hudson: hanger bay

correct me if i got this wrong

2) Is st. clair actually the higest ranked enginnering section crewman on broad, or shall we have a NPC chief engineer (possibley as a unseen for a new play to claim later)?

3)nerd, you and I are making spot checks:
Mine: spot [roll0]
edit: curd. Nerd, if you don't get a good roll, I'm gonna really have to get creative here......

[Dustyme]

Alfred and Zell manage to figure out the dispersal points for the gas, and a several suited crewmen are duly dispatched to remove and space the gas.

Zell has the crewman store the canisters in the airlock with careful handeling to preserve evidence rather than outright space them. (Keeping them in vacuum storage with the airlock guarded and sealed.)

P.S. I posted some stuff while you were typing look up Storm :smallwink:

[Storm Bringer]

I noticed. you managed to post again while i was editing my post to account for yours.:smallmad:

btw is the 'changing comm channels cos of snakes in the line' a fluffy "I'M SEEING THINGS!" thing, or a serious action just dressed in those terns?

[Dustyme]

I noticed. you managed to post again while i was editing my post to account for yours.:smallmad:

btw is the 'changing comm channels cos of snakes in the line' a fluffy "I'M SEEING THINGS!" thing, or a serious action just dressed in those terns?


Both kind of. I'm implying that he what Zell saw with a snake moving into the mic made him come to the realization that she is probably listening in on the communcations lines using the commodores access codes.

[Elvith Jars]

{{OOC: Yup, Hudson is in the hangar.}}

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Main Engineering)

[roll0]

"No, your hand's fine. And I'm pretty sure those spiders crawling all over everything are also figments of my imagination." Stern looks around over the engineering bay. "Look, we need to keep the power to main comms offline for another little while. Whoever's behind this might be attempting to beam intelligence off the ship, and it's possible she'll try to scuttle us once she's done."

((Dammit, sorry. I think I'm going to switch to the IC roller, because this is getting ridiculous)).

[Storm Bringer]

"Hey, no probem. It's gonna be a while before we get main power back anyway. gonna be a right swine to get the spare part in here....."

andrew looked at his hand again, then shook his head.
"Jesus, man, what is this stuff? I feel like I've eaten one too many of Jimmy Dobson's cookies" andrew asks, refering to a cadet at the TASC academy that was caught with a rather large suppily of drugs not long before graduation. the crew-woman helping him, a latin american armements tech, began talking very fast in spanish, fear clear in her voice. andrew turns to her, and also begins speaking spanish, trying to calm her. Stern looks around, and sets off to find the Chief, leaving andrew to his work.

Suddenly, Coporal Wayland, who was stood beside Stern, wispered "Boss". Stern look round at him, and he nods towards the main reactors. "That gantry on the starboard reactor, working that control panel. It's Blondie."


Looking closely, Stern realises that the woman working the panel is indeed the blonde engineer form the suspect shortlist. The woman glances around, and catches stern looking striaght at her. A look of absolute horror passes over her face for a split second. Before stern can do anthing, the woman's turns and bolts, nearly knocking a cerwmen off the gantry. Wayland brings his plamsa gun to bear and snaps off a shot, but the hasty aimed shot goes wide, leaving a ugly burn on the celing and shorting out a light. the woman jumps over the side of the gantry, falls a good 15 feet to the floor, rolls and is back on her feet in a flash, running for a side door. Stern finally gets his gun out of his holster and is just bringing it to bear when she disappears into the side corridor, another shot form wayland slamming into the wall next to her.

ooc

Well, I had the NPC make the spot roll, since we both failed.:smallredface: :smallredface:

hint for all you budding DMs: never plan a adventure that relies on a PC making a single skill check at some stage.

[Nerd-o-rama]

(That's what DMPCs are for).

"Damnation! Everyone, spread out and cut off her escape routes." With that, Stern dashes off down the hallway after her, pistol held close.

[Elvith Jars]

{{OOC: And Clancy had the smarts to post a fireteam next to Engineering...}}

"Hey boss?"

"Yeah?"

"I got something funny here. My HUD is showing two ident codes for you."

"That's because I have two nanobeacons. The Marines like to keep track of me. One is an implant, the other is embeded in my suit. Just squelch the suit beacon."

"Ah, ok. That worked... Hey, we have a live one here in Engineering!"

[estradling]

Alfred

Having given the information on the gas to the other to deal with, and not knowing the current drama going on, St. Clair goes back to working on removing the hack and trying not to believe the things his eyes showed him



Computer Use roll at -2
[roll0]

[Storm Bringer]

Stern takes off, with Wayland and his fireteam on his heels. The Assassin has a headstart, but the corridor she is on is a spinal route, giving you several seconds to get a good shot. A pair marine form the other marine fireteam in the area is someway down the corriodor, sited at a junction, and, alerted via the comm, they are opening fire on the assassin. Wayland takes another shot, and stern brings his gun to bear.....

One action before she gets too close to the other marines to shoot safty. Range is within whatever one incerment is for your guns, so don't worry about that. of coruse, if you have any other actions you'd like to make, go ahead.


Andrew began to chase the escaping assassin, but stopped, and looked up at the console she had been working on. in the back of his head, the paranoid part of his mind, given a voice by the gas, made him wonder what she'd been doing up their...... andrew hoisted himself up a ladder and moved to access the panel.......

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern levels his custom pistol and, sighting down the barrel, fires a bolt of pulse energy at the apparent assassin, resisting the urge to fire at the illusory creepy-crawlies first.

Attack (1d20 6=21) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1511602/)
Damage (3d10=16) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1511604/)

Gotcha.

[Storm Bringer]

the shot was true, caught the fleeing assassin in her lower left arm, and the woman yelps and drops to the floor. the marines stop firing when they see shes down, but not quick enough, and a late shot form wayland connects with her shoulder. the two marines at the junction dash foreward, gun still covering the prone assassin, now lying in a slowly expanding pool of blood. they check her then signal it's clear.

"We need a medic here, or she'll bleed out." Wayland promtly starts talking into his com to get one.


massive damage save: [roll0]
just remember you're going to be making these as well on any damage higher than your're con score.

edit: holy.....someone link me to invisable castle. we need a roller that doesn't hate us......
BTW, nerd, your shot was only just good enough to hit and force a save. you lucked out their, mate

In other news, I'm gonna be away form my PC form about now until late afternoon tomorrow, GMT. Don't expect to here form me till then.

dammit, i thought she'd be tougher than that.

[Elvith Jars]

"On my way," Hudson replies as he hears the call, "Sounds like you got her." Hudson runs double-time to the scene. As soon as he arrives, he unclips a small medkit, waves his left hand across the wounded assassin to diagnose the situation, and gets to work...

Treat Injury

1d20+14 = 33 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1512165/)

[Storm Bringer]

hudson arrives on the scene at about the same time as the truma medics from sickbay, who quickly work to stablilise the dying assassin. Dispite successfully stopping the bleeding, the womans life signs continue to fade. Continued examanation reveals a neurotoxin has somehow entered her bloodstream. Antidote is applied, but too late. the combination of the toxin and blood loss kills the assassin.

It as at about this point that a shout is heard form engineering.

"We got a problem here......"

Looking in, you see anderw working franticaly at the console where the assassin was stood.

"She's rigged the reactor to overheat and burn out. If this goes up, It'll take the other one with it, and then we'd really be buggered" he explianed without looking away form the screen. After a second or so, he raises his hands in frustration"The Bitch put a command lock on the controla.....somebody get the bridge on the blower, I can't crack it at this end."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Dammit. Whoever sent her knew what he was doing. Preserve the body for an autopsy, so we can figure out whatever we can from her." Stern says in disgust over the dead assassin.

Listening to Clyne's brief report, Stern raises Melern on the communicator. The personal channel, not the command channel. "Melern! Clyne needs help accessing the reactor controls. This is an emergency, so drop whatever you're doing and help him shut down the reactor before it overheats. I'm heading directly back to the birdge."

(I'm not really sure what the situation was with the communicators, so it's possible Melern has switched his off. If so, Stern runs back to the bridge. If not, he'll walk in a quick but dignified manner.)

[Dustyme]

Zell looks at St Clair and taps his headset so he knows to listenup for a second.

"Melern here sir. Myself and St Clair are working it but she fouled the whole system up someting aweful. Does she have the codes on her? Does she have an implant or a computer we can tap into? If we could get the Commodores command codes out of this they might just be the litteral key we need to break her system lock..."

((Estradling, dno't forget to add in my assist rolls from the OOC thread))

"One more thing sir. Don't forget we're still missing another marine (right??)and we don't know if she was working alone. Maybe her partner is now wearing that combat suit and walking around inside or outside the ship."

[Storm Bringer]

the sickbay medics strap the lifeless corpse of the commadores killer onto a strecher and cart her off. The non-essential crew in the area are also evacualting, and compartment doors are being sealed and made airtight.


On the bridge, Zell and St Clair set to work on the lockdown. thankfully, the hack is only partially compelete, and much easier to find and attack than the comm block. Apparantly the assassin was partway though tidying the hack and hiding it's existance when her cover was blown.


Evilth and anyone else still with the corpse (I think nerds already set off, but can't be sure), spot check to check the body. Get a 25 and I'll give a substansial bonus to the computer use roll to break the hack.

will post agian once Estradling does......or if the wizard shows up. expected to hear form him by now, TBH)

[estradling]

Alfred

Still under the effects of the drug St. Clair watched as his codes and commands slithered away from him, resulting in failure after failure.

When the new block was given him to work on, the ensign tried a new tactic. Instead of trying to work as fast as possible, he would check and double check that what he thought he was doing was really what he was doing.



He is going to take a ten on breaking the new hack. (Computer Use)
That gives him a 21... then -2 for the gas and +2 for the assist (if it applies)

[Elvith Jars]

Hudson performs a cursory look at the body, then realizes he shouldn't be where he is right now and returns to the hangar.

Spot: 1d20+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1514771/)

[Wizard of the Coat]

ooc
Hence I never use the massive damage rule...it either screws up plot or pc's. Neither is a thing that is good for a game. Also the commodore apparently had a sex change operation some-where between "HIM" going missing and "HER" lifeless corpse being carried of on a stretcher. :smallbiggrin:

The gas is still giving Ensign St Clair some delusions as he works the hack, probably causing a lack of progress as none of his standard code breaking works. It does become apparent to him however that the assassin has a far greater access level over the engines then he did. Evidently the assassin managed to by-pass the restrictions on the engine power levels that were laid upon Alfred. It seems that without the access decryption to those the reactor overload cannot be stopped.*

*OOC
remember alfred had trouble accesing all engine controlls. Somehow she managed to get deeper into the system by having proper clearance. He can easily see what she's been doing. It wasn't too well covered yet and should be easy to reverse if he had the right level of acces.

As the reactor streadily rises to threshold values the ship send out an automated warning.

"All crew, reactor core breach imminent. Prepare for immediate evacuation. All non essential personnel are to board escape craft."

The call is clear to all and after a moment of silence it is repeated spurring some of the crew members into action. As Commander Stern makes his way to the bridge he sees a hustle of panicked crew members in one of the most disorganized evacuations possible, the red warning lights and the distressing message combined with hallucinogens in the air clearly taking the better of their training. Clearly panic is spreading as anyone moving through the corridors would soon enough be able to find out.


((OOC: spot checks still in order))

[Storm Bringer]

dispite the software blocks, Andrew worked hard to try and shut the reactor down.

Repair roll (plus or minus whatever for others help)= 1d20+10=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1516359/)

edit= since you asked for a spot check= 1d20+3=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1516361/)

[estradling]

Alfred

Reaching Stern over the commutation channels, St. Clair report, "Sir. The assassin's use of the commodore's codes is very effective. The whole system is designed not to let me override his commands."


Spot Check [roll0]

OOC: Any chance Alfred could get to the reactors fast enough to try a manual shut down?

[Dustyme]

---Melern---

To Stern & St Clair:
"Sir, I just had an idea. What if we were to burn off the excess energy? If we can get the engines online and put ourselves up to speed then wouldn't it stand that we would have more time to fix this?"

Spot 1d20+3

[Nerd-o-rama]

As Stern hurries through the corridors to the bridge, he takes the time to issue orders in an attempt to calm (or at least focus) the panicky crewmen.

"Alright, make this orderly. Non-essential personnel follow evacuation procedure. Anyone working on repairs stays at his post." When simply giving orders in a level voice fails to work, he adds "Focus, crew! You look like a lot of cadets. Stay calm and follow orders."

Diplomacy (1d20 9=17) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1517825/)

Stern arrives back on the bridge just in time to key up the engine room as a followup to Melern's recommendation. "Engineering, is that a feasible idea? If so, do it now. If not, I want a manual override of the shutdown procedure done now."

[Elvith Jars]

"Alright Marines, listen up. The gas attack on the squids has got them spooked and the ordering of non-essential personel to the escape pods doesn't help either. We have NOT received an abandon ship order so we're not punching out just yet. You see any crewmen going nuts, do what you can to calm them down and either direct em to their duty station or to an escape pod. But our job isn't done yet. This is a perfect time for an accomplice to strike so keep frosty and keep focused. Above all, don't panic, or I guarantee you'll be hating life. Got it?"

Intimidate (to keep the marines from panic): 1d20+6 = 25 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1518073/)

While most of the marines sealed up their armor before the gas attack, the possibility of abandoning ship so far away from help is likely enough to get on anyone's nerves. Hopefully, Chevy's calm and collected mood carries over the airwaves and keeps the Marines from total panic..

[Wizard of the Coat]

Alfred believes he could get to the reactors in reasonable time, but it'd be a wild shot for a manual shutdown though and he isn't sure that he;d be able to get it back up again. Still his eyes notice something, al be it in a flashback. He gets a vibe from the assassins mind as he works on breaking the commodore's code. He sees her interfacing with the commodore holding only her fingers against several points in his neck. His vision returns to normal a moment later.

((OOC: as to Mellerns suggestion, it is an idea that Alfred too believes has a chance. In addition if it fails thy can always try a manual shutdown afterwards...they should just have enough time for it.))

The reactor schematics are baffling Andrew, though he does manage to find what he thinks is the manual shutdown control panel. He could attempt to shut it down himself now...but is it the red, blue or yellow button...or some combination thereof. In any case the crawlspace he is in will only fit one and is quite deep within the core, so to get a proper time on the shut down he'd have to do it himself or possibly have one of the engineers talk him through it (aid another action/ +2 for every 10 points scored).

Commander Stern manages to instill some confidence in the crew he meets and at least around him they appear to pull themselves together. Still he can read the fear in their eyes as he walks by. It seems they are counting on him now.

Chevy's rallying of the marines has effect, apparently they fear him more...possibly because within his armor the effects of the gas make him look like a hulking powerhouse terminator of doom. Soon he has the squad of marines fan out and start to organise a controlled evacuation, ensuring that the rally by commander Stern is not lost as soon as he walks around the corner.

[Storm Bringer]

Andrew sweated as he worked not so much form the heat as the effort of controlling the drugs effects. His training as a Flight officer had covered repairs and damage control to a deggree, and he'd helped out a lot in the flight bay with the maintainance of the ships, but he wasn't a engineering specialist, and the reactor controls and layout were only vaguely related to those on the ships smallcraft. But he was dammed if he was going to let this ship, his ship, go boom without him doing everything he could to stop it.

ooc:

I'll attempt to stop the reactor going boom/shut it down, whichever i can manage. dunno who is in the area to help, but I'll try.

repair roll: 1d20=10=25 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1529733/)

[estradling]

Alfred

In response to his superior officers question he answers, "Sir, It buys us some more time. The more energy we burn off the slower the build up. Also the assassin appears to had downloaded the commodore's code into some kind of cyber implant. If we can recover the code from the dead body, before it purges we can make this all go away. But if I go for the code that means I'm not going for the reactor shutdown." It was a choice that Stern was going to have to make... Code or Shutdown, knowing that either one could fail to work for one reason or another.


Alfred will take a 10 on his Knowledge (technology) roll to know what he needs to do and the tools he need take to do it for what ever task Stern gives him.

After the gas that is an 18

[Nerd-o-rama]

"If we've got an even shot...Clyne! Do your best with the reactor. St. Clair and I will try for the override codes," Stern barks over his communicator.

Walking over to the Ensign's duty post, protocol forgotten in his sense of urgency, Stern says, "Now, let's see if we can retrieve the Commodore's codes..."

Computer Use (1d20 10=26) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1531399/)

Stern will contribute whatever he can to the hacking/retrieval process with that roll.

[Storm Bringer]

"Oh, great idea, sir. I'd never have thought of that. what the hell does he think I'm doing...." Andrew muttered (after checking his comm wasn't going to transmit) as he manuvered in the crawlspace to get a better angle at the panel. why it had to be down a 30-foot pipe instead of in the main engine room was almost beyound clyde, were it not for the fact the entire engine system, reactors and all, had been built for a completly different hull, and in order to get the damm things to fit in the space some control and acess panels had to be located in hard to reach places.

damm the solaris project, it would be the death of them..............

ooc:

if two 25+ rolls in sucession can't save us, i'm heading to the pods.:smallbiggrin:

[Elvith Jars]

"Johnson, what the f*ck are you doing?! Stop standing there like a deer in the headlights, and get your ass over to Section Bravo 3, pronto! The squids are going apes*it over there and bouncing off the walls trying to evac. You're supposed to be a marine, now act like it!"

"Hey Boss," Clancy said, his voice a bit nervous, "We're all packed up here. Squids are good to go and we can bug out quick when you want."
Thank the spirits the squad leaders are US Marines...

Chevy gives a quick acknowledgement in reply. As the PVC sprints off, Sgt Hudson could've sworn he heard a canine growl sending him on his way...

[Wizard of the Coat]

Down in the reactor core Clyne figures that the three buttons regulate the shutdown of different reactor phases, first the blue for cooling, then red for the main reactor and finally yellow to power down the flow regulation systems. In an act of wisdom he figures that the red button will do for now, though as he presses it nothing happens...evidentially the auto-regulations are overriding his command.


Guided by the engineers technical knowledge commander Stern quickly figures how to 'get under her synthetic skin and remove the minute cyber implant in her finger... Plugging it into the computer the two men soon finds the access encryption codes they were looking for. Yet as they are about to plug these in Andrew hits the yellow button to shut down the engines autoregulation and the engines seems to short out...a shockwave runs through the ship due to the sudden change in gravity and for a moment all find themselves being hurled forwards as the ship begins a monumental deceleration due to the solar dust they were displacing.

@all: 21 damage to all due to the shock of hitting the front wall (reflex save dc15 halves it) and 16 sub dual damage due to the high G-forces (fortitude dc 15 halves it)

((please let me know if you fall unconscious, assume most of the crew will...))

Unless you have a very creative action thought of next...(strength check dc 20 required to move)...take a further 14 subbdual damage the round after that and 9 subdual damage each round after that. (both still have a dc15 fort save to halve it). Not acting reduces sub dual damage by half. ((essentially figure out the amount of rounds you have before you fall unconscious and see what you want to do with them...for better or worse...)).

Those with endurance or similar feats may add the bonus to their fortitude save and strength checks.

[Storm Bringer]

ooc:

you bloody swine :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:

reflex save (you realise you pasted enough of the crew to leave us bloody unable to do anything for the rest of the game, right?): 1d20+5=23 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1532941/)
I won't bother with the fort saves, cos unless I can get power on to bring gravity back online, thier isn't any point.

[estradling]

Alfred

"Excellent now all I have to do..." the rest of his thought is cut off as he is thrown against the nearest wall like a rag doll. The last thing he hears is the sounds of snapping bones as he leaves a bloody trail down the wall





[roll0]
Wow I didn't expect him to make the save... Still thats 10.5 damage bringing him to a 4.5 left.. I'll call it an even 4...
[roll1]
That is -16 sub so he is at -12
[roll2]
He is not moving for only -7 sub so now he is -19
[roll3]
He made the save and not moving for -2 bringing him to -21
He is out for a long time

Just a note... had he not made the fort save he would have been at -6 and bled out 24 second later. I don't think anyone could have saved him. From that I would say most of the crew didn't just fall unconscious I'd say most of the crew (non grunts anyway) are dead

[Storm Bringer]

ooc

well, it would not be beyound reason for large parts of the crew (who are presented as being expereniced hands mostly) to be higher level than a bunch of fresh acadamy grads on their frist mission......but yhea, a lot of the crew is dead and all of the rest are badly wounded. which means that when we come round, presumeable at a nice sedate speed not far form eris (this being sci-fi), we're gonna find it hard to do.....well, anything reallly. large parts of the cerw will be dead, equally large parts are not available for duty, and the ship will have suffered major damage form the decelleration on TOP of the previous damage. best we can hope for is the comm to be worked and call on the american fleet in the area to bail our asses out.

think wizard may have cocked up on this one.

edit: Just had a thought. We're all trained naval officers with a solid grounding in the techologies we're using. We've have known this would happen when we turned the reactor off.

[Dustyme]

---Melern---

"No, look I think if you run this algorithm here." Zell pushes a series of buttons and looks up after a few seconds when the ship starts decelerating. But that was only supposed to open..."

Ensign Melern starts flying forward face first a the bulkhead. He barely has the chance to wave his arms in front of him to brace while finishing his though.

"EXTERNAL COMM'S!!!!!"

ooc:
Ref vs Wall dancing:[roll0] vs DC 15
Fort vs High-G's: [roll1] vs DC 15
Fort vs Subdual: [roll2] vs DC 15

((Zell has DR 1))

While waving his arms might have been great for warding off birds it wasn't so great for reducing impact.

Zell swigs his arm out catching his bicep on the railguard of his comm station nearly fracturing it in multiple locations luckily his armor takes the brunt force and supplies enough ridgidity to swing Zell out face first into a Marines power armor helmet. With pulped nose, blood and a fist full of pain Zells arm comes loose and he continues his impromtu flight plan to the bulkhead. Feeling the crush of gravity Zell welcomes blackness as the marine lands next to him.

(ooc: Failed both saves (5 HP after fall, -10 current with subdual.))

[Nerd-o-rama]

Reflex save vs. wall (1d20 5=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1533209/)

(Action Pointing this roll for an auto-pass)

Fortitude Save vs. G-forces (1d20 2=15) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1533210/)

(11 points damage + 8 points subdual = 10 HP remaining with 8 subdual damage. He's alright, folks!)

Stern, thinking quickly, ducks as the deceleration begins, bracing himself against the console he and St. Clair had bee working at. This avoids the trip through the air and into the main viewscreen, but he doesn't avoid smacking his head painfully against the console itself, opening a nasty gash in his head.

In his last moments of consciousness before the pain and the crush of G-forces causes him to blackout, Stern crawls along the now-essentially-horizontal console and inputs the newfound override codes for an automatic shutdown, hoping - praying - that the automated shutdown process would cause the failsafes to kick back in. If nothing else, shutting down the reactor properly will solve the initial problem of exploding.

Old computer adage...when all else fails...re...b and he's out like a light.

((Stern's out after his last action no matter what he does, so I won't bother rolling saves.))

[Elvith Jars]

Just as the private takes off, the ship lurches and throws him and Chevy off their feet. The pair go flying down the corridor towards a bulkhead...

"Warning, impact imminent!"
"No kidding, Big Joe!" Hudson says to his armor's computer.


Reflex Save vs Wall: 1d20+3 = 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1533235/), + 1d6 = 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1533266/) Action Point
Fortitude Save for G-Forces: 1d20+7 = 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1533234/)

Damage (physical): 11 points - 5 (Dmg Reduction) = 6
Damage (subdual): 16 pts
Total: 24 (still on his feet but not for long!)


Hudson lashes out towards a door frame trying to catch himself but his fingers slip after leaving gouges in the frame. He twists in the air and tucks his hands and feet in towards his chest so his back hits first, landing hard on the bulkhead, smacking his head on an exposed pipe and giving him a concussion. The marine tastes blood as he bites his tongue. The heavy impact rattles his bones but they remain whole, impact polymers woven around his skeleton absorbing kinetic energy.

With the wind knocked out of him, Cheveyo huddles down where the bulkhead meets the deck and assumes the crash position (so when the deceleration stops he won't fall over). As Chevy passes out from the severe deceleration, his suit performs an internal diagnostics check of both itself and its wearer before squawking its nanobeacon, signaling a distress code.

[Wizard of the Coat]

OOC: @Storm Bringer: Normal ships have safeguards on them to prevent this. The induction engines power down slowly as gravity shift back in place (even if destroyed it's set up so the gravity field buffers the deceleration). This being an experimental design in which a kind of miniature black hole is used evidently lacks the security feature...or at least it was disabled or didn't quite work as expected at such incredible G-forces. Evidently the designers didn't expect sabotage or such major emergencies and the implementation on your ship was a rush job.

Also remember most of the crew is in escape pods or sitting elsewhere strapped in, they'd suffer less actual damage. Don't expect too many deaths, but expect a few. Your damage came from less then optimal positions, running around etc...

The world has faded to darkness for all...perception of time and place, gone. With no reference expect the feeble dreaming of the subconscious the minds of the crew wandered...until their eyes opened anew.

OOC:yes the fail saves eventually seem to have kicked in due to Sterns action (or something else...to be frank not all gravity disappeared, but a good chunk did). Enough to prevent a crushing death, but not fast enough to prevent unconsciousness

Chapter 2: Unknown

date...unknown...Location...unknown......status... unknown

As some of the crew and officers are gaining consciousness the ship is hued in a ghostly darkness. Passed out personnel and debris from objects not bolted to the hull is scattered throughout and only a few diodes and other instrumental lights are providing a shadowy red, blue or green illumination of a few places. Most of these warning lights indicating a lack of certain functions, either due to power loss or system damage.

Still the ship is quiet and for the time being no imminent dangers seem to have arisen. The question now was...where were they and what was the extend of the damage.

OOC: You all have recovered all sub dual damage and are conscious, but are sore and aching all over. The hallucinogens have worn off.

[Dustyme]

---Melern---

Ensign Melern wakes slowly groaning of the strange position he fell asleep i the night before.

"Musta been some kinda party."

Trying to open his eyes he finds them nearly gummed together. Lifting his left hand to wipeaway whatever is on his face he unintentionally scraps his wrist across his nose.

"AAAAaaahghgh!! What the h#ll?"

Suddenly he remembers his last few moments of conciousness...

"Oh Sh@t."

He begins standnig and realizes as he collapses that his right arm might be broken since it won't support his weight.

Ok Melern you can do this get up and sound an alert. Get everyone moving to fix this. So far at least some must still be alive.

Again attempting to stand Zell sees for the first time the extent of the bridge damage and the bodies strewn about. Nudging the marine who fell on/next to him with no response Zell determines to check the man(?) after he gets the alert going.

Staggering over to the comm's station Zell taps in the code for a general alert to sound then tries to bring up the private commo lines again.

"This is ensign Melern. Can anyone here me? Report. I need to get a general status of all ship systems. I want to know who's alive and who didn't make it. LCDR Stern are you awake?"

Zell keeps running a similar vocal until he starts getting voices. As he talks he grabs a first aid kit off the station and starts checking everyones vitals on the bridge. ((ooc: Zell is specifically looking for Ensign St Clair but will assist everyone he comes across))

Treat Injury[roll0]
Treat Injury[roll1]
Treat Injury[roll2]
Let me know if I need more rolls, I will start taking 20's.

[Elvith Jars]

“Come in,” the Commodore said, and Cheveyo stepped into his meeting area. He stood with his legs about shoulder width apart, his hand neatly clasped behind his lower back, and faced the Commodore straight and true.

“Sir, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes Sergeant, how are you holding up in your new position?”

“Sir, the previous platoon sergeant left quite a… paperwork challenge for me to overcome, but I’m getting there.”

“Glad you’re keeping busy. I’ve been looking over your service record, Sergeant, very impressive. Enlisted into the USMC at 18, joined US Marine Special Forces as a Mechanized Scout Sniper at 19, and you’ve been to several ports of call in the Solar System. You’ve seen quite a bit of action. Most of your record is classified, some of it even beyond my clearance level. Aside from your court marshal and demotion to Corporal for ‘striking a superior a$$hole’ four months ago, your service record is exemplary. You would’ve made Staff Sergeant by now if you hadn’t done that.”

“Yes Sir,” Hudson replied, trying not to bristle at his remark.

“Well, I’m sure he had it coming. So, tell me Sergeant, why would a highly trained MSF operative have his rank reinstated and abruptly ordered to report aboard the Radiant with his partner moments before she set sail, only to take a Platoon Sergeant slot? And why would Vasquez be given another administrative job? Don’t you think that’s a waste of talent?”

“Permission to speak freely Sir?”

“Of course.”

“Sir. I do think it’s a waste of talent and taxpayer money. I gather from the platoon though that my predecessor wasn’t well liked. Perhaps this is part of my ongoing punishment?”

“Punishment? Hah. I guess you could see it that way. I trust you’ll not have any more ‘superior a$$holes’ to knock down a notch while you’re on my ship? The Marines like you better than the other guy, but that’s just a bonus. You both took desk jobs because that was the only way I could get you and Vasquez aboard on such short notice, and I had to call in a few favors just to do that. You’re here, son, because I need your special talents. Have a seat and I'll brief y- Is that your dog?"

Cheveyo looked to where the Commodore was pointing. A large timber wolf with piercing silver eyes stared at Hudson, looking right to his soul. It barked once, loudly...

Hudson woke up with a start to the thundering silence aboard ship, an odd feeling of shifting from one vivid reality to the next creeping over him. “F*ck, that almost seemed real,” he said to no one in particular. He took stock of his condition, mentally commanded his Apache Somatic Combat Vehicle to run diagnostics and replenish its air supply via filtered outside air (assuming he's not in vacuum), gave himself a painkiller to dull his raging headache, then tried to call up the ship’s computer. Then he remembered he had Marines counting on him to lead.

In Athabascan:

“Wolf, remind me to kick Coyote’s ass next time I see him. LT Winters didn’t deserve what he got.”


Chevy sighed, then flipped on Marine Command, tying it into the command channel the bridge officers were using.

“Hudson here, Ensign, checking in on my marines. Squad leads, sound off! The squids need to see that we’re large and in charge, so get to it. Anybody able to render first-aid just became medics. Tend to your casualties, but get your guys up and running ASAP. We are g*damn pillars of strength, let the squids see that and help ‘em get back on their feet.”

"If pain is weakness leaving the body," Brown chimed in groggily, "then we must all be pathetic!"

Chevy begins doing the same thing he ordered others to do, getting the Radiant’s crew up and running, performing triage as needed. He also squawks Vasquez’s health alert to see how she’s doing.

OOC: Take 20 on Treat Injury, total 34, using his med kits or the ship's as needed.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Stern wakes up seeing stars. After a momentary panic, he realizes they're the metaphorical/illusory stars you see when you get hit on the head, and he has not in fact wound up in space.

"I'm...ow...I'm awake. Status...status reports from all sections. What's the status on the reactor? Are there any casualties? Where...what's our position?"

I'm alive. Holy hell, I'm actually alive. Stern very briefly barks a laugh in relief and surprise before regaining his composure, standing up and holding a hand over the gash on his forehead.

Keying up the status of the reactor and other engineering systems himself, assuming his console works, he begins to rattle off his orders in a more assertive fashion. "Alright, I want a full roll call of every single person on board: who's alive, who needs medical attention, who was evacuated, and who's KIA. I want a full diagnostic of all systems that may have been damaged, and I want a report on our position, speed, and heading immediately. We're alive, and I want to thank everyone aboard for their work in that, but we may not be out of the woods yet."

[Storm Bringer]

the comm is full of groaning for few seconds, before Andrews ever-destictive voice is heard.++Cl....Clyne here. Still alive, and thoughly regretting it. thiers power here, so the reactor appears to be working. As soon as i have more info on the reactor, i'll pass it on.++ Andrew had been facing the ships bow when the ship deceleration began, so his nose was bust, he had heavy bruising all down his front, and he was reasonable sure he'd suffered interal bleeding at some point in his unconsiousnes. he began to wriggle his way out of the crawlspace, with the intention of finding out the reactors status.

[estradling]

Alfred

Under Ensign Melern care Ensign St. Clair, comes around, "Did someone get the name of that truck?" All things considered it was a rather mellow response, but that was the pain meds talking. Given the numerous broken bones he wouldn't be moving under his own power for a while. At least not without a trip to the medbay.

While his body was kind of broken his mind still worked and he still had his cyberlink to the computer. Once he recovered he initated two things in the computer system. First he used the commodore's code to reset the commodore's code, and set up warning if someone tries the old code. The he initiated a full diagnostic of all the system that the computer system could run a diagnostic on. Starting with the critical and working outward.


Take a 20 on the computer tasks for a 31


Hearing Stern's order St. Clair reports in using a secure line (if possible). "I have the computer system running a full scan and test of of all linked system. I'll let you know once it is done. Also fearing that the assassin might have help, I have reencrypted the commodore's code. As of right now I am the only one that can use it, and any attempt to use the old one will set off a silent alarm. I assume you will be wanting the new code?" What he didn't say, but assumed was that Stern would be locking him out soon as well. Ensigns were not suppose to have that kind of power, and being GIFTED it was unlikly he would be trusted with anything higher

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Very good Ensign," Stern replies, heavily dropping into his seat. "Yes, send me the new codes immediately, and give me a full status report on the computer system when you have it."

[Dustyme]

---Melern---

"Sir, although we believe that everything is 100% secure. However, maybe we should hand deliver the codes? We also don't know what kind of back doors may have been setu in the time tey were missing..."

As more personnel get back online Zell tasks them out between helping others, organizing relief and fixing the ship. Rather than burden Stern with all the B.S. Ensign Melern handles the bits & pieces while giving the big stuff to Stern as ell as any status reports necessary ((KIA, wounded (by general severity), missing, systems info, etc)).

Zell also keeps a running tally on is wrist comp., Checking his wrist comp against the ships systems.

After the initial rush is done Zell attempts to verify ship location and time lost during the blackout as well as prepare a emergency beacon to repeat a assistance needed broadcast (not releasing it just preping it with proper info.)
He then relays everthing over the command channel the LCDR Stern.

[Wizard of the Coat]

((OOC: placeholder for a GM updated post...hopefully comming again some time in the coming 12-18 hours. Been ill and then down with lots of work and exams...sorry for the delay))