Pushing Boundaries - In character Thread (MTG2E)

[Lacco]

Conrad

"No worries, Dasilev. I'm sure we can find something useful on this frost-covered rock. I'm going to wash the worst grime off my face and will join you. You know how I like shopping and talking to locals" Conrad grinned and went to make himself presentable. At least a bit.

Getting back after few hours he found Sara and Leishiu finished with the sensors. It was time for some zzzs before going back.

---

We're taking off! We're taking off!

Conrad was just in the middle of his regular weapons check-up when he heard the announcement. He quickly stashed everything and ran towards the bridge.

He loved flying. For some crazy reason. Although he himself was never the one to do the flying, he enjoyed the feeling. He strapped himself to one of the seats and just watched Leishiu handle everything. It was one of the life pleasures that he enjoyed without any regret.

The landing was spot on and he went stood up and went back to his stateroom, to get ready. Before that, he tested the transceiver "Hey, everyone. Should I just get the mech toolbox and a stunner, gun or the launcher? What kind of fun are we expecting?"

[LarsWester]

Outside the Minor Tom
Sara was the first one to disembark from the Minor Tom. The wide white and cool blue ice of Aster stretched before her. Sara could barely feel the strong Southern wind blowing due to the protection of her environmental suit. As she took stock of her position she noticed off in the distance the tops of a collection of spherical habitation units peeking above a windblown bank of tundra to the Southwest. Establishing radio contact with the Minor Tom Sara begins to slowly and stealthy move in that direction. After a few hundred meters she notices a flash of white at the crest of a windblown bank to the North. What Sara thought she saw was a six-legged white furred creature measuring about 3 meters in length with shoulders nearly 2 meters of the ground. But it was there and then gone behind the bank a kilometer away in a flash.

Onboard the Minor Tom
Arrak sends a message to the foreman Landed at the mine, you said you'd have some more information on Site 17

Foreman Talizandstra's voice comes through the transceiver. Oh great so you've arrived already. Excellent. The shuffling of papers can be heard over the communication channel. Ah here it is. Apparently M-CAPES 17 head laborer is Supervisor Garand Mosfet. There may be a problem with the facilities main communication array as they've been unresponsive to company calls. The foreman keeps the channel open and you can hear him let out a sigh Please let me know what you find.

[samduke]

Not taking any chances, with what she thought she saw real or imagined. Sara pulled her rifle out setting a grenade into it's barrel and setting the weapon to full auto mode. Captn, I am on the move towards the habitat modules and the stories of the frost wolves may have merit, suggest you use caution. Once she was done transmitting she continued to move scanning the area ahead as she moved along.

[davyjones]

"Understood, Sara; it makes you wonder what something that size would hunt out here. We'll follow shortly," Das responds. He finishes donning his protective gear and hits the internal comms. "Okay, folks, let's button up and meet on the gangplank. Take a sidearm if you have one. Stories of the native fauna might have some truth to them."

The admiral grabs his stunner and other gear and heads for the quarterdeck.

Spoiler: OOC: Equipment Carried

Show

Wearing: Environmental Suit over Cloth Armor
Carrying: Stunner, Dagger, Radio Tx/Rx, Binoculars, IR Goggles, Light Intens. Goggles, Extra Stunner Mag
Total Enc: 6.75/8

[Lacco]

Conrad

Wolves?... Wolves.

He grabbed his enviro-suit and the rest of the stuff. He met with Das and the others at the airlock, a stunner on his belt and a grenade launcher in his hands.

"Ready for action, sir. Das."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Enviro suit, flak jacket.
RAM Grenade Launcher; 6 stun grenades, 6 frag grenades
Stunner
Transceiver

[PartyOfRogues]

Before leaving the ship, Arrak quickly tries to reach the site with the ship’s comms
“M-CAPES 17 this is the Minor Tom, can you hear me? If you are unable to respond can you signal with a flare.”

If there is no response, Arrak puts his environment suit on over his armor and grabs his stunner and transceiver before joining the crew at the airlock.

[LarsWester]

On the Minor Tom
No response from Arrak's hail to M-CAPES 17. Leishiu offers to stay on the bridge in the event the mining station does issue a response and just in case a rapid evacuation is required. The other crew remaining on ship gather at the airlock suited up in environmental suits and armed to deal with anything that might cross their paths.

Surface of Aster: Proximity of M-CAPES 17
Sara continues a slow march through the snow capped glaciers of Aster towards the habitation domes a few thousand meters to the Southwest. She is a good half a klick away from the Minor Tom when she hears the hiss and whirl of the airlock opening. Turning back she sees three of her fellow crew depart from the ship. As she crest a windblown bank of snow she sees a satellite dish near the habitation modules that has been crusted over with snow. The added weight of ice snapped it free of its support and it is in obvious need of repair. It shouldn't take more than a day to defrost the ice and repair the communication satellite but why haven't the miners done so. From her vantage point atop the massive drift Sara sees a cluster of five habitation units a large one at the center with four smaller units in a circle around it.

[Lacco]

Conrad

"All right. Suited up. Let's go outside and find our forward observer. Before something else finds her."

He steps out, reminded of his colonist training. Stepping out was always interesting, although you never knew if you had a chance to get back. But the ship was always there.

"Radio check. Leishiu? You there?" He clears his throat. "If you can hear me, let Sara know we're following." He looks back. "We ARE following her, right, Dasilev?"

[samduke]

Captn it looks like the satellite dish near the habitation modules is broken. We will probably need to get on repairing it sooner rather than later. then using caution she continues marching on towards the modules stealthily.

[Harmony]

Leishiu

As soon as she's alone on the ship, Leishiu turns on music and makes herself comfortable on the bridge, while keeping tabs on sensors and comms, having just enough time to catch a glimpse of microsleep before Conrad's broadcast comes in. She lowered the volume of the music before replying.
"This is Minor Tom actual." She paused for herself, it was an old habit. But, technically, with everyone else out, she was in command of the ship. "I read you fine. Wilco, contact Sara and inform her that you are following. Out."

After a quick lookup, she contacts Sara. "Sara, this is Minor Tom actual." She almost bit her tongue again. "The rest of the team have set out to follow you. Acknowledge."

[davyjones]

OOC: It appears I constructed a post yesterday and failed to send it...

"Aye, Sara, we'll check it out when we're on site," Das replies to the report. He looks over to see if the ship's mechanic heard her assessment, too, but he appears busy with a call of his own.

Das waits for Lei's reply and nods his affirmation. "Yes, we're following Sara," the admiral answers. "Speaking of, she's reporting that the habitat's sat-dish is 'broken' - a technical term, I'm sure."

Letting the joke hang there for a bit, he adds, "Come on. We shouldn't let our recon expert get too far ahead. Everybody, remember where we parked."

He starts to follow the trail Sara blazed for them, eyes watchful for danger.

[LarsWester]

Surface of Aster
Sara continues trudging through the knee deep snow towards the Habitat modules. As she approaches she notices that a thick layer of snow covers the top of all the domes except for one which is clear but along its perimeter there appears to be a layer of ice extending out a meter or so. As Sara gets within a few hundred meters the sound of muffled voices can be heard but the words can't be deciphered.

Das, Conrad and Arrak have set out after Sara and reach the top of snowbank in time to see her pause a few hundred meters away from a cluster of habitation domes. From this vantage point Das can see the snow capped wilderness looking like the surface of white ocean frozen in a photograph. Banks of snow roll out in all directions however there is no sign of the native lifeforms that Sara warned about.

On the Minor Tom
Boredom sets in as Leishiu waits for the ship sensors to complete their scan and report.

[samduke]

looking at the situation, exploring around the edges of the dome with a clear top attempting to locate the entrance and thinking about climbing on the dome if needed to see about the voices from inside.

[LarsWester]

Surface of Aster
As Sara approaches the dome and walks around it. On the back appears an airlock entrance way that extends out from the dome for a good 2 meters. At the entrance way has walls about 2 high before rounding to the top. As Sara approaches the outer door of the airlock she sees that it is closed and the window is frozen over with a layer of ice. The bottom meter of the door is covered in a drift of snow.

[Lacco]

Conrad

I wonder what color of shirt does Sara wear. Conrad's folks back at his homeworld were seriously superstitious, and even the instructor for his first job told him to be careful not to wear red when going scouting due to it traditionally bringing bad luck. Not that he would believe it.

Even though the snow made it a bit harder, he decided to speed up, to be able to catch Sara. Especially before anything else would.

[davyjones]

The admiral notices Conrad start to hurry. "Steady pace, shipmate," he counsels. "We'll exhaust ourselves trying to hurry in these conditions."

He doesn't like the idea of Sara being so far ahead, either; but, she's the professional, and he has to trust that she'll mitigate her own risk until they catch up. And they still have eyes on her position.

Still...

"Sara, Das. How's it looking? Any signs of life?"

[LarsWester]

And they still have eyes on her position.

Still...

"Sara, Das. How's it looking? Any signs of life?"

We'll say this conversation occurs as she is circling around the dome and disappearing from view. The airlock passageway is not visible to the others. IF Sara wouldn't approach ignore the previous description of the doorway but I posted as she further investigated as it seemed like that was Sam_Duke's intent.

[samduke]

We'll say this conversation occurs as she is circling around the dome and disappearing from view. The airlock passageway is not visible to the others. IF Sara wouldn't approach ignore the previous description of the doorway but I posted as she further investigated as it seemed like that was Sam_Duke's intent.

OOC: samduke's (Sara) intent was to find a dang door - and she found one - lol

Once spotting the door and its condition, Keying in her mic Captn. I am at the Hab door. it is iced over and snow has gathered , No one has been out side in days, I am going to see if I can free the door of the snow and ice with what I have handy.

[PartyOfRogues]

Arrak radios back to the foreman “The site’s main satellite dish is down, but there are signs of life, although it doesn’t seem they’ve been outside in several days.”

[LarsWester]

Once spotting the door and its condition, Keying in her mic Captn. I am at the Hab door. it is iced over and snow has gathered , No one has been out side in days, I am going to see if I can free the door of the snow and ice with what I have handy.

Arrak and the others outside your transceiver units hiss with static interference having only bits of a transmission discernable.
"... at the Hab door.... snow ... outside in days ........ free the door .... "
It seems likely the damaged comms satellite dish is causing interference with Sara's transceiver unit and she is outside of visual range.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Arrak is descending a snow bank towards the habitat modules but may want to revise his message back to the foreman based on the garbled message received or he can try to piece it together with a routine (6+) INT test.

[davyjones]

Dammit.

He brings his comm up. "Message garbled. Repeat. Message garbled. Stand by. Stand by."

Looking to Arrak and Conrad, he says, "Now we hustle. I'll try to keep up, but don't wait for me if I start to fall behind. Just keep in sight."

Before starting off, Das hits his comm again. "Minor Tom actual, Dasilev. Sara is at the habitat area ahead; we're to follow shortly. We'll be outside effective comm range for conditions. We'll check back in two hours."

The admiral waits for Arrak to be finish with his transmission, then says, "Okay, let's go."

[LarsWester]

Arrak radios back to the foreman “The site’s main satellite dish is down, but there are signs of life, although it doesn’t seem they’ve been outside in several days.”

Foreman Talizandstra responds quickly to Arrak's transmission. Excellent Aaron. Mystery solved then. Technical difficulties with communications satellite not any fanciful wildlife. If you feel competent enough to repair the satellite I'll increase the offer another 10kCr. The original 25kCr payable once those miners get back to work. Find out why production has stopped please.

Outside Hab Unit 4
As the others rush to get eyes on Sara again they round the habitation module to see the scout using her blade to scrape away a thick layer of snow that has piled up outside an airlock passage into the only hab unit without snow on the top. When they approach they see that the scout has managed to get some of the snow out of the way but that she doesn't have a truly effective tool for the job.

[samduke]

After some time carving and scraping at the ice and snow, sara looks up just in time to see the others round the corner approaching her position at the door. - Seems I did not pack an ice pick nor shovel, care to lend a hand ?

[davyjones]

"You want to give it a go, big guy?" Das says to Conrad as he offers the engineer his dagger. "Unless someone has a hidden army background and thought to bring entrenching tools."

The admiral looks around to see if there's anything in the habitat area they could use to speed up excavations.

[Lacco]

Conrad

"Ah. Should have brought incendiary grenades... well, I'll write it down on the shopping list when I get back to the ship."

Conrad cheerfully takes the dagger and starts to work on the opening Sara already provided.

"Now the question is: why did I not take up ice-sculpting as a hobby when I was young...? Oh, yes. Not enough ice." he mumbles, more for himself than for anyone else. "As for the rest of you, I'd appreciate if you would make sure I don't get attacked by any strange creatures. Would hate to have 'died while carving out entrance' on my headstone, thank you."

He grins on the joke as if it's the best he'd ever heard.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Roll End?
(2d8+1)[5]

[LarsWester]

Outside Hab Unit 4
With Conrad joining Sara's efforts the two of them start to make some progress on the clearing the snow pack. After about 5 minutes of working together they have removed the about 60 cm of snow and hit the ice formations underneath. The two continue to chip away at the ice with their blades. The wind begins to pick up and blow through the hab units creating a low hum. As the two dig at the door what does Arrak and Das do?

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Can I get Recon (Int) checks for Arrak and Das? Sara and Conrad are busy digging.

[davyjones]

Das patrols the area around the habitat entrance, keeping a (very amateur) eye out for potential danger.

[LarsWester]

Outside Hab Unit 4
Sara growing frustrated with the slow progress stops slashing at the ice with her blade. The mining facility must have the means to deal with this sort of thing. She does a quick search around her area pushing away the top layer of snow. As she does she notices a dark pink section of the ice and snow. Digging further she finds buried here a two-wheeled blower unit with a handle for pushing. There's a small fuel tank on the side of the blower which has a hand pullcord that will heat up the fuel through friction and start the blower's motor. On the handle of the blower is an electric switch that states blower/heater. After several pulls of the cord the fuel is heated enough and the motor in the blower comes to life.

[samduke]

Powering the snowblower back over to the door area, gesturing to the others to get out of the way , as it was now her intent to clear the whole area around the door then use the hot exhaust to melt the door seal area of any further ice so that the door could be opened easily.

[LarsWester]

The snow blower kicks on with a sputtering a first turning into a whooshing buzz. Sara with the proper tools make quick work freeing up the outer door to the airlock. As she turns off the blower a figure in a hostile environmental suit can be seen behind a small window in the door. The figure is on the other side of the doorway and puts a thick gloved hand up towards the window. It looks like the figure is motioning to back up.