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Brains? . . .
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Prolog
Following the adventure on the high seas against the notorious agents of A.P.E.; the crew of the Desperado spent some time restocking the ship and outfitting themselves with better hardware.
Jacob picked himself up a used scout ship with an obstacle avoidance computer and named it ‘Queen Anne’ for some reason, then commenced to arm it with the standard loadout.
Gilbert’s Underworld Ties helped to secure a plasma cannon with military grade targeting computer for his hover-round – but when it arrived, the plasma cannon tuned out to be almost the length of Butch’s star fighter, so it was mounted to the Desperado instead. Gilbert did manage to install the targeting computer in the hover-round though; and then equipped the Snack Runner VII with some nifty stealth technology.
Crystal piggybacked on Gilbert’s weapons order to pick up a nice police-style assault rifle.
During this time, Ethel decided to leave the crew. She wouldn’t explain why, but mentioned that she had to go sort some things out with her dad. She seemed really shaken up by the whole ‘deadly smallpox thing’ – especially given how close they came to losing Moonkit over it.
Butch also left for a month or so – to visit a contact about more cyberware – though he came back, ready for mayhem as usual. While he was away, he also retrofitting the Plan C? to fly-by-wire. The old-school control system felt more responsive and alive to him and guaranteed that his ship couldn’t be hacked, like he had seen Gilbert do to the enemy pilots.
Captain Montoya meanwhile, continued to tinker with the Desperado (finally scoring the cloud defense system he had always wanted), while getting in a few ‘Theatrical Fencing’ seminars at a Comic & Anime Convention held in Capitol City. They seemed to do wonders for his swashbuckling skills!
He also send out a few want ads for a new crew member to replace Ethel.
Almost immediately, a Junker Guild Member (and fellow sword aficionado) replied. Cillian must have had something to do with it, because only fate could bring in another genuine swashbuckling space scallywag!
Plus, he had a really cool flaming sword, so Montoya hired him on the spot – before reviewing any other applicants or even meeting the man face to face.
It would take a few weeks, but Samuel would eventually convince the Space Pirates of Ceres to let him tag along on a Gate Jacking, so he could finally get out of the Ceres system and to Jupiter to meet his new Captain on Europa with his Freighter, the ‘HWSS Raven’.
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The Dandy Desperado & Crew (Over Io)
The Crew has left Europa and is heading for Io to deliver a shipment of “Anti-Rad” to the mining colonies there.
The Anti-Rad was supplied as part of Gilbert’s Obligation (Syndicate) Flaw arrangement with the Syndicate that secured the weapons and targeting computer – though only Gilbert knows this currently.
As far as everyone else is concerned, the Desperado is on a PR-Friendly humanitarian run for charity – because what would the Desperado be, if it wasn’t constantly hemorrhaging funds and operating deep in the red?
Who needs to pay bills? Who needs to eat? Who needs fuel for the ship? Besides, it’s for charity! ^v^
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Everyone is currently aboard the Desperado approaching Io; about two hours from orbit. From the bridge, you can see the Jovian moon roughly 90,000 miles below; a strange ball of radiating iridescence, currently shrouded in an intense wash of boiling colors and luminous flashes – the effects of a fierce magnetic storm raging across its surface. News on the Net is calling Io’s storm, “one for the centuries” and advises all spacecraft to steer clear of Io until after the storm passes.
Even from the Desperado’s current distant, the effects of the magnetic storm that hammers Io can be felt, as a static interference that mildly distorts all electronic communications.
Of course, that just means the Anti-Rad is even more urgent, because the magnetic storm will surely be causing a spike in Io’s already dangerous radiation levels.
The plan is to get the Desperado into orbit and then take the Anti-rad (already loaded in Samuel’s Freight Cars) down in the HWSS Raven, with a scout ship escort.
Montoya Computers with Desperado's Super Computer 19+2X 1d20 : 18, total 18
Gilbert Computers with Desperado's Super Computer 22+3X 1d20 : 17, total 17
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Montoya, monitoring the radiation levels notices some odd reoccurring patterns in the distortions being caused to the electronic communications systems.
Gilbert, upon seeing them, remarks that when plotted out, the patterns appear remarkably similar to human brainwaves.
Just for shits and grins, Gilbert runs the patterns through a series of analytic programs to see if anything can be made of them. It is discovered that a very small portion can actually be translated into meaningful text.
“It may be a way out” repeated over and over.
As Gilbert reads what it says, the hairs on Cillian's neck abruptly stand up on end.
There is some serious 'disturbance in the force' thing going on here . . .
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Having just finished up doing his third double check of the cargo fasteners and preflight checks of his freighter, Samuel finds the crew of the Dandy Desperado huddled around each other around a computer terminal obviously enthralled with something. Hopefully good news about their mission...
"Alright the Raven is all set, what have you guys found out about the storm so far?
Samuel remarks to the crew, cigarette casually bobbing with his lips as he speaks.
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Cillian isn't sure what to make of the new guy yet. Despite what the Captain might think, Cil's pretty sure he had nothing to do with Samuel's sudden appearance.
He tries to climb up Gilbert's hover round and whisper so only the hacker can hear. "It's. . . Wrong. Or dangerous. . . Maybe even bad."
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Montoya answers Samuel "Strange message hidden in the static, not a cry for help but it does say they might need a way out. Clearly not urgent though or there would be some .S.O.S. At least attempting to be sent. Everyone take full gear and precautions when you head down, suits and masks just incase. I'll bring extra supplies and pirate music!" he finishes with a flourish.
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Samuel laughs at Inigo's flourish and shakes his head.
After taking a puff of his cigarette and ashing it he speaks: "Maybe with all the interference we seem to be having we're just p[icking up some surface communications, maybe people trying to escape the storm? Who knows though to be honest."
He goes back to his cigarette and takes the nearest seat to wait for the crew to chime in and to get rolling on this delivery.
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"Alright, I'll see you soon Moonkit. Make sure everything stays stable here on the ship, yeah?" Butch says, playfully patting Moonkit's head.
He turns to Tubbs,
"It's been a pleasure having you around Tubbs. Gotta be glad Crystal didn't freak you out back on Mars, ha ha."
He then takes out his sawwed off shotgun, silenced submachine gun, and hunkers down to the train cart, wearing his skinsuit. He may be a Cyborg, but he's also a wanted cyborg, and it'd be best not to show that off.
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Crystal pets Fluffy, careful not to harm him through the heavy vac suit.
"See you soon boy, keep everyone safe okay?"
She leaves her room and joins the others in the captain's bay.
"Hey, did you guys see that storm outside? Nasty stuff."
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Samuel looks at Crystal as she enters the room.
"Yeah, apparently they found some message in the static, something about a way out? We haven't figured out what it means yet."
*puffs cigarette*
"I figure it's just some scrambled surface broadcast being thrown about by this storm, but I've been wrong as many times as I've been right"
He shrugs and returns to his smoke.
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Montoya gets into his personal vac suit in.his cabin then joins the others "remember your anti-rad even if you are in a suit, don't want to trip and tear it then realize after that you weren't protected!"
He is actually thinking more that with their current experience people will probably run into a bounty head and start shooting so precautions are good. He takes all his normal weapons, military side arm rather than the deck pistol, sword by his side (pirate shanty travel mix loaded and ready) and carries his rifle this time.
"Shall we send butch in the fighter as escorts then the rest can head down in Samuels ship or the snack runner?" he asks the others
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He tries to climb up Gilbert's hover round and whisper so only the hacker can hear. "It's. . . Wrong. Or dangerous. . . Maybe even bad."
Gilbert glances at Cillian, then gives a knowing nod.
"Our mystic boy wonder thinks bad things are in there", he states. "So, um, can't we just launch the package from here? It should be fine..."
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Standing up Samuel addresses Gilbert.
"With that storm? Just launching one of my cargo containers could be extremely stupid. For one they can't guide themselves. Two, it could end up on the other side of the planet! Three, I'd like to have my container back ya know..."
Looking at Montoya now: "I've only got a 2 seater boss. A pilot and a passenger, well I guess I could fit two of us in the sleeping cabin, though it's not ideal. 2 preferred, 4 tops."
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As the crew is deciding on who is going in which ship, the Desperado is suddenly rocked by a massive explosion that throws everyone into a wall or right off their feet! Even Gilbert's hover-round is slammed about!
Seconds later, alarms on the bridge begin to sound, indicating that the engines are offline and that the hull of the ship’s engine room (or compartment) has been breached. Further, the bow of the ship is nosing down towards Jupiter now – an indication that the explosion has altered the ship’s trajectory – which, at the moment, is straight into Jupiter.
At the ship’s current rate of descent, and presuming nothing is done to stop it, the ship will impact with the surface of Jupiter in just under six hours. The crew has no more than three hours to avoid this fate however, as once the ship is past that threshold, it will be too far caught in Jupiter’s massive gravitational pull to escape. . .
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"Shit! What, hit us? Get me on the coms, I'll head down and start repairing the engines. I'll hail the bridge when I get there!"
Samuel and his exceptional fabricate skills make way first to his cabin to grab his construction tools and anything he may need, and then rushes to the engines to get them online and repair any damage he may see.
Edit: on his way out the door he straps on his sword and pistol, puts his skin suit on, helmet, grab boots and straps his riot shield to his back just in case...
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Crystal heats up her shiny new assault rifle and asks - "captain is surveillance still up?"
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"Gil, get on electronics and find the damage then get the engins running from the bridge!" He flicks the cameras feed up on the monitors on the bridge to show what is happening.
Already in his suit and armed he scans the screen for info then heads after Samuel, the new guy is good with tools but Montoya has worked on the ship for years and is pretty handy himself. "Everyone comms on and take anti-rad now just incase the breech is worse than we though, I'll help on repairs and someone keep an eye on the camera- if we were boarded by some stealth ship then use the RC turrets!" He heads out the door aiming to get himself a few anti-rad doses then head to join Samuel.
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Not wanting to die in a fiery inferno, Gilbert attempts to mitigate some of the damage from the bridge.
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Left behind by Montoya again, Cillian attempts to assist Gilbert in locating/repairing damage.
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Butch instinctively reaches for his sawwed off, but retracts it, seeing that it's not a bording attempt.
"Should I fly the Smoker's frigate? Might be strong enough to pull us outta the gravity."
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Tubbs gets himself and Moonkit into a skinsuit, before putting the crew's monkey mascot into its miniature spacesuit.
Following that, he doles out Anti-Rad for everyone (including a tiny amount for the monkey, who's eyes almost immediately turn yellow from it).
"Ooh..." Tubbs remarks, "I think I might of given him too much."
The monkey climbs up on Moonkit's shoulder and smacks Tubbs, then folds its little arms in disgust.
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The ship’s surveillance doesn’t show anything amiss, but there’s no feed into the Engine Room itself. Outside communications are also completely garbled now, by interference from the magnetic storm.
On the Bridge, Gilbert checks the ship’s computer and attempts to restart the engines.
They fail to respond, but Gilbert does notice that with each attempt, the ship is bumped forward slightly by the engine igniters. After some quick calculations, Gilbert is able to conclude that a few more ‘bumps’ and some fancy piloting could put the ship back on a trajectory to intercept Io before plummeting into Jupiter.
Butch heads down to Samuel’s ship and, coordinating with Gilbert, fires the Raven’s engines to adjust the Desperado’s course. After a few minutes, the Desperado is falling toward Io once again.
The good news is that the Desperado is no longer in danger of crashing into Jupiter. The bad news is that unless the Desperado is slowed down significantly, it will now crash into Io instead.
While the Raven’s engines are not powerful enough to completely alter the Desperado’s course, they could be used to start braking – which would allow the Desperado to enter a tight orbit around Io at a survivable speed.
Unfortunately, that will uses nearly all the Raven’s fuel and the Desperado’s orbit will continue to degrade enough to crash into Io anyway – after only a few hours more.
One thing that occurs to Butch however, is that they could siphon fuel from the Desperado to the Raven, which would probably give it enough fuel to both slow down the Desperado and allow it to facilitate a controlled emergency landing on the surface of Io.
Of course Butch will probably want to maneuver the Raven to the top of the ship before then, unless he wants to be under the 7000+ ton Desperado when it comes down.
Such a landing would require only one crewmember be at the Desperado’s Bridge, while Butch or Samuel piloted the Raven. Everyone else could get into one of the Scout Ships and follow the Desperado down.
It’s that, or abandon the Desperado to a fiery end…
Meanwhile, in the Engine Room, Montoya and Samuel assess the situation.
They find a huge hole in the ship where the number two engine used to be – exposing the Engine Room to the vacuum of space and high levels of radiation from the current magnetic storm going on outside.
It seems that the starboard engine has literally blown apart; only a shattered casing and the structural mounts that once held the engine in place remain. It was the force of the engine exploding that blew a hole through the hull and showered the other engines with damaging shrapnel.
As Montoya gets to work shoring up the hull breach with an emergency patch (a job that will take about an hour of welding), Samuel tries to figure out what went wrong.
Evidence suggests that a critical failure of the main coolant coupler caused a repeating cascade failure, which overstressed the ion induction valve, causing it to collapse. This resulted in a backflow, which pressure-ignited and blew out the starboard engine, damaging and taking the rest of them offline as well.
While there’s nothing left of the starboard engine to repair, the other engines could be fixed – but that would require replacing a critical engine component (not currently on the ship) and about twenty hours of work.
If the crew can successfully put the ship down on Io, they might be able to get the part from one of the domed mining colonies on the surface – or order it for delivery, after the magnetic storm passes and normal communications are restored.
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As this goes on, Cillian checks his lopan and sees some very strange readings. It's almost like what he gets when he's reading someone's aura - only here it's like he's surrounded in spirits or something!
He reads 'desperation' - 'exhilaration' - 'panic' - 'resignation' - 'apathy' - 'madness!' - yep... a whole lot of madness and insanity... broken minds... so many broken minds...
He also sees strange Feng-Shui pulling on the Desperado itself - as if someone has Summoned it (maybe?) ...
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"Captain, this is futile, these engines are done for, our only hope is to successfully touch down and get these rigged up." Sam's voice calmly broadcasts over the comms.
"Butch, how are things in the Raven? I can meet you there after repairs if you need a hand, we shouldn't be much longer patching this breach."
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"It's the only choice. . ." Cillian says to Gilbert. "Any second now they'll tell you. . . everyone will say it's the only thing we can do. We have to land on Io."
He tries to get a clearer reading on the spirits while addressing the entire crew over comms.
"Um. . . This is Cillian? Sorry, but. . . please be careful. Something. . . I think something terrible happened. . ."
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"Um. . . This is Cillian? Sorry, but. . . please be careful. Something. . . I think something terrible happened. . ."
"Yeah, We're missing an entire engine. That's pretty terrible, we're gonna have to get this boat on the ground..." His voice trails off as he realizes that there is more in Cillian's voice, fear?
He's not referring to the engines...
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"Captain, this is futile, these engines are done for, our only hope is to successfully touch down and get these rigged up." Sam's voice calmly broadcasts over the comms.
"Butch, how are things in the Raven? I can meet you there after repairs if you need a hand, we shouldn't be much longer patching this breach."
"We're gonna need to fill this Freighter with fuel, deplete the Dandy's, if we wanna get out of this death spiral. I think I can pilot us down, maybe."
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"Butch good plan, not much else I can do here, The Captain has got the breach under control, ill get ready to fuel The Raven. If we're gonna use her to land the Dandy, you're gonna need to not be underneath it. So after we refuel you're gonna have to unclamp and reposition yourself on top."
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"Butch good plan, not much else I can do here, The Captain has got the breach under control, ill get ready to fuel The Raven. If we're gonna use her to land the Dandy, you're gonna need to not be underneath it. So after we refuel you're gonna have to unclamp and reposition yourself on top."
"Already in the gameplan, Spacer." Butch says.
"Gil, any chance you could find a good spot to land on Io? Not really my territory." Butch says.
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"We probably should fly the other ships out of the hangar, if this landing is botched no sense in all of us dying and all of our ships being destroyed." Sam generally speaks over the comms, not to anyone in particular.
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"Gil, any chance you could find a good spot to land on Io? Not really my territory." Butch says.
Gilbert looks at a surface map, near wear he calculates the Desperado will come down.
The surface of Io is not made for landing anything bigger than a Freighter - and has zero water landing facilities (in part due to there being only sulfuric acid on the surface and no water).
The best they can hope for is to try to ditch as close to a domed mining facility as possible.
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Montoya chimes back in "Ok valuables and living things on the scout and fighters! I'll land the Dandy like a feather with Butch and Samuel in the Raven! Only Vicini stays aboard with me incase of catastrophic explosions!" he pauses "and our resident space Magician thinks somthing hinky is going on so stay armed. And yes hinky is a word, very piratey."
Having just ruined his own speach he finishes up the weld job and heads to the bridge calling Vicini with him.
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Crystal tries to make sure fluffy gets a dose of anti-rad and mayhaps a dog-sized skin suit to deal with the radiation that's leaked into the ship.
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"I'll take the queen and land her." Jacob states
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Trusting his captain, Gilbert obediently heads to his ship (after making sure he has some of that sweet, sweet anti-rad).
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Samuel joins Butch in the Raven and the next hour is spent braking the Desperado with the Raven’s burners going full-bore.
As Butch had suspected, the maneuver depletes the Raven’s fuel supply pretty quickly, so a refill is arranged – compliments of the Desperado’s stores – and then the Raven is released to reposition and reattach topside the Desperado in anticipation of the emergency landing.
As this goes on, Crystal takes Butch’s ‘Plan C?’ out of the hanger and notes how smooth the fighter handles. Fluffy doesn’t seem to like it though, sitting behind the pilot seat panting loudly.
Gilbert then takes Cillian, Moonkit, Tubbs, and the space monkey out in the Snack Runner VII. He quickly programs in a landing algorithm, complete with turbulence buffering variables to account for whatever the weather will be doing down there on Io.
Finally, Jacob takes the Queen Anne out – leaving Montoya and his faithful lapdog, Vicini, alone on the Bridge of the Desperado.
Io approaches fast and the Desperado is pulled into a tight spiraling orbit – straining the gravity control systems to keep the G’s down to a survivable level.
Samuel and Butch meanwhile, wrestle the controls of the Raven, using the burners to make critical adjustments on the fly, while Montoya waits for the ship to hit the thin noxious atmosphere of Io, so he can put his skills on the line and bring the Desperado down in one piece.
Those chasing the Desperado down in the other ships can do nothing but cross their fingers, hope for the best, and watch helplessly as the drama unfolds. Well, everyone by Cillian that is…
The moment to truth is now.
Butch Pilot with -1 Handling 15 1d20 : 10, total 10
Samuel Pilot with -1 Handling 7 1d20 : 2, total 2
Crystal Pilot with +2 Handling 12 1d20 : 17, total 17
Montoya Pilot 14+2X 1d20 : 2, total 2
Gilbert Computer Control 20+3X 1d20 : 7, total 7
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As the ships pass into the magnetic storm that is thrashing Io, sensors on the various controls light up, indicating a massive spike in radiation. The levels are so high in fact, that a vacc suit alone will not protect the crew from the deadly radiation; one would need both a vacc suit and a dose of Anti-Rad in order to venture outside of their ships (skinsuits with Anti-Rad won’t cut it this time).
Additionally, sweeping torrents of rain begin to buffet the ships as soon as they enter Io’s thin, un-terraformed, and highly toxic atmosphere. Again, alarm indicators light up – it’s not water in the rain, but pure sulfuric acid, thought the acid won’t harm the ships or those outside protected by vacc suits (once again, skinsuits are a no go).
As Gilbert, Jacob, and Crystal come down behind the Desperado, they spot one of the domed mining colonies through the sulfuric rain and chaotic lightshow of the magnetic storm. The closer the Desperado can land the ship to the domed colony the better. Unfortunately, when they try to radio that information to the each other, the comms are completely useless.
Butch, Samuel, and Montoya meanwhile, manage to use the Desperado’s engine igniters and the Raven’s thrusters to strategically slow the Desperado’s breakneck speed and establish a proper angle of descent that helps to reduce the impact of the emergency landing – at least to the point that everyone is still alive and able to walk away from it when the dust finally settles.
Even so, the impact and subsequent careening across the jagged and abrasive landscape does tear up the hull of the Desperado pretty badly, reducing the bottom of the ship to a chewed up tangle of shredded metal, before it finally comes to a stop a few hundred yards from the domed mining colony that some of the crew saw when coming down. The ship itself has taken 100 points of Damage and depressurized the cargo bays, while the Montoya and his dog each take only 2 Damage inside (thanks to those five-point belt harnesses they installed before leaving Europa).
Samuel and Butch manage to detach the Raven moments before impact and the tractor ship and freighter-cars take no damage and are able to be set down nearby.
The three other smaller ships are violently buffeted about by chaotic and powerful gusts of wind and acid rain – Butch’s ship (piloted by Crystal) actually being struck by lightning and going completely dead right before Crystal can land it!
It falls about two hundred feet out of the air, but miraculously, Crystal re-ignites the engines in time (2 Luck) and slows down enough before impact to simply land hard – snapping off a landing strut. The same landing strut incidentally, that Jacob accidently blew off in the fight with the Syndicate goons a while back.
Aboard the Desperado, Montoya remotely opens the hanger doors from the Bridge, so Gilbert and Jacob can land inside.
Crystal manages to get the Plan C? back into the air long enough to bring it in as well.
And, after realizing that they have no way to communicate with the others, Samuel and Butch separate the tractor ship from the freighter-cars and head into the Desperado too.
Once everyone is in, Montoya closes the hanger doors again, which shields everyone from the radiation outside. He also discovers, quite pleased with himself in-fact, that he still has comms inside the ship through the PA system.
Outside however, the environment is a hostile mix of unbreathable atmosphere, acid rain, supercharged radiation, sharp lightning, and colorful ionic disturbance.
Visibility, through the sheets of sulfuric acid pouring down and the scintillating auroras of color that dance across the landscape, is less than a few hundred feet. The “air” itself is charged with energy that makes one’s hairs stand on end, while lightning arcs across the sky in a nonstop display of the storm’s savage fury.
Even the surface of Io is a hazard; its rocky and jagged exterior is pockmarked with ruts and fissures – most overflowing with sulfuric acid, as rivulets running through the rust-like soil continuously feed them with the down-pouring rain.
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"Lets... Never do that again." Samuel says removing his helmet and stepping out of the freighter.
"Though I have to admit, it was quite a ride. Almost can't believe we pulled that off. Good stuff everyone."
He reaches back into the cockpit of the freighter and pulls out his box of Smokes, and promptly lights one up.
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Inside the damaged plan C, Crystal curses.
"Not a chance anyone here is still alive. I better get to Butch and the others..."
She looks at Fluffy for a second... "Wait here boy, I'll be back soon".
Crystal gets out of the ship's cockpit and starts looking for the others.
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"Ha ha! Fark yeah!" Butch shouts, fistbumping the air. "That was awesome."
He then gets outta his seat, and quickly runs outta the freighter.
"Need to check on the Plan C? Hopefully Crytal didn't wreck it." Butch says, moving quick.
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"Geez. These guys need to learn how to fly already." Jacob states to himself as he flies 'Queen Anne' into the cargo bay for a landing. Once landed, he will try to find Montoya.
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Montoya pets Vicini then begins full system checks and runs, he goes over every single important system on the ship he also carefully checks for all areas with breaches in the hull where acid or radiation could get in. A captain can not fly without his bride after all.
He gets on the comms while the checks run "Capt. Here. It looks worse than we thought outside so everyone keep in the ship. We took huge damage in the landing but all in one piece by the looks of things! I'm running checks now but if everyone can perform visual checks of the doors, walls and airlocks as they pass that would help, I don't want a single leak to let the radiation or acid in!"
He goes off comms and releases Vicini from the harness "Ok boy, go check over the Dandy for me and make sure the crew are ok!"
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Montoya sees that the cargo bay is the only area in the ship where radiation is getting in. The ship's doors are currently keeping it contained however.
From the cameras positioned down there, he sees that sulfuric acid is coming up through the wrecked hull and flooding some of the bays a few inches.
It's going to be one hell of a clean up!
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Speeding to the ships, Butch skids to a stop as he sees the goddamn landing platform broken again.
"Dammit Crystal, I just got that repaired!" Butch groans inwardly.
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Trying not to panic, Gilbert attempts to use his knowledge of the physical sciences to determine if there is an easier way than suits to shield themselves from the storm so they can make it to the mining colony.
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A quick check reveals to Gilbert that all Mining Colonies have an airlock-syle hanger facility (like what the Desperado has) to facilitate deliveries via Scout Ship and Freighter.
The crew could pile into the Snack Runner VII and fly over there - presuming they aren't taken out by lightning and someone inside sees them and arranges to open the hanger doors for them.
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"We should go over there. To the colony." Cillian whispers to Gilbert. "It will be all right. It's where we're supposed to go."
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Washing his latest smoke Sam addresses the crew in docking bay: "I'm gonna go met the captain and get a first hand look at whatever damage maybe done. If we're heading out I'd suggest everyone go grab their stuff out of their cabins, we could be in this mess for awhile."
He puffs, exhaled, and exits the hangar.
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Gilbert looks at Cillian for a moment before commenting.
"Why are you only whispering to me? It's too ominous. It's kind of creeping me out. How do you know it's where we're supposed to go anyway?" He asks, only half caring about the answer. Gilbert then ponders to himself for a moment, before deciding that the established mining colony is probably safer than staying on a broken ship. That, and if he doesn't make sure the delivery goes down properly, he'll have to deal with the syndicate...
"So, um, everyone. I think we should take one of the scout ships to deliver the anti-rad to the mining colony. If we're lucky they'll have what we need to fix the ship. If not we might at least be able to contact someone for help..." Gilbert says, reflecting on the strange message they heard earlier.
"Also they probably need the stuff."
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Washing his latest smoke Sam addresses the crew in docking bay: "I'm gonna go met the captain and get a first hand look at whatever damage maybe done. If we're heading out I'd suggest everyone go grab their stuff out of their cabins, we could be in this mess for awhile."
He puffs, exhaled, and exits the hangar.
"No need." Jacob replies before Samuel can walk off. "We got a bunch of the chems in the 'Queen's' cargo bay. With a bunch of C4 grenades i cooked up." He says with a smile. "I was thinking of testing one later, care to join?"
"Oh, and i'll fly the queen over there myself."
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"No need." Jacob replies before Samuel can walk off. "We got a bunch of the chems in the 'Queen's' cargo bay. With a bunch of C4 grenades i cooked up." He says with a smile. "I was thinking of testing one later, care to join?"
"Oh, and i'll fly the queen over there myself."
"What guy doesn't like explosions?" Sam promptly stops his exit and gives Jacob a mischievous grin. "But we're gonna need more than just chems and explosions if we're to believe Gandalf over there." He sticks a thumb out at Cillian. "Im gonna grab the rest of my gear and I'll be back." He then continues his exit to grab his gear, meet the Captain, and head back to the hangar.
-
"Tsk" Jacob gives the man both thumbs u with a broad smile. "Yeah, i'm going to do the same." he says and follows him for the time being.
-
"Well what's the plan mates? We gonna all pile up and head over to thunderdome?" Sam says with a good laugh.
-
As the crew is coordinating inside the Desperado, a metalic rapping is abruptly heard from outside the starboard airlock.
It sounds like someone banging on the hull with a monkey wrench...
-
"Well if I knew we were having company I would have put on something nicer." Sam laughs as he instinctively grabs the hilt of his sword...
-
"Agreed. And i would have brought a lovely lady called Mathilda." Jacob smiles as he put his hand on his sidearm. "Lets go see if we can somehow look who's knocking trough the bridge or cameras or something." He shrugs.
-
Listening in Montoya gets on the comm again "The ship is pretty good, only the hanger is Rad flooded right now and some acid getting through the flood in there but the rest is secure. Make sure you have your anti-rad disease keep the suits on."
Listening to the banging "Also lets say three armed people head to the starboard airlock armed with trank rounds and anti-rad doses, it sounds like the guys from the colony came to check on us. Or attack us, either way I'm heading there now!"
Montoya heads to the airlock with trank rounds in his rifle. He stays back from the door until at least one more joins him "Gil, ready to let them in when we say!" he calls
-
A man in a vacc suit, with startling yellow eyes, stands outside the ship in the storm. He is 'knocking' on the door with a 3 ft long metal spanner.
He has with him a first aid kit, a box of Super-Coag, and a box of Antirad.
When he sees the crew looking out at him, he gestures that he wants to speak with them on the ship.
It is clear from his demeanor that it is very urgent and that the crew needs to hear what he has to say.
-
"Captain's looking to play hero, well, dead hero. I'm gonna run up there and make sure he doesn't do anything too... Heroic"
Samuel departs the hangar for the captain.
-
Jacob will rush to let the man in. He will have his weapon drawn though, prepared for anything suspicious.
-
Gilbert obediently (but without joy), heads to the bridge and prepares to open the door when he's given the signal.
"Okay... I'm all set here."
He then stealthily shuts the bridge door.
-
Crystal keeps close with her weapon at hand, but is disinclined to think the man means them any harm.
"We going to let him in cap?"
-
"Yep, let him inside, hands on weapons just incase and seal the airlock right after him Gil! Can't risk pirates sneaking up!"
Montoya stays several feet back from the airlock, rifle ready and prepped with tranc rounds currently pointed at the floor but ready to fire and leap backwards if necessary.
-
Taking his cue from the captain Sam Raises his riot shield in case the guy outside charges in.
-
If the man isn't hostile, Cillian would try to read his aura.
-
The man isn't hostile, but reading his aura is too easy to pass up. Seems that he is just your average hardscrabble mining boss, with a really severe case of 'Io Eye' from all the Anti-Rad he's taken over the years.
Once in the ship, the man removes his helmet and introduces himself as 'Brutus Bartok'. He doesn't seem fazed by the defensive stance of the crew or their weapons.
“The colony is done for!" he says urgently – "Only about thirty of us – out of twelve thousand – are left! Can you get this ship back in the air? We need to get off this moon now!”
-
"Whoa, what happened?" Samuel demands, relaxing his guard a little.
-
"We were meant to deliver a shipment of Antirad here, but we crashed when the storm hit us. One of our engines blew up, we can't get off until we get it replaced - but you can bring everyone into the ship while we search for replacement parts. Any mechanics with you still alive?"
-
Answering Samuel's question, Brutus relates: "An explosion of an internal fuel depot breached the colony’s dome! Repeated lightning strikes during the height of the storm (this is nothing right now) overloaded its capacity to dissipate the energy and allowed some of it to get through to the depot. With the dome breached, the radiation from the storm killed everyone inside who had not recently taken Antirad and the loss of breathable atmosphere finished off the rest!"
"Only the crews manning the dome’s ship transfer station (between the interior and exterior of the dome), which is airlock protected, survived – roughly thirty men."
“But that’s not the worst of it...” Brutus continues, hesitating a moment, as if trying to find the right words, “Something in the storm – it’s… It’s got the dead walking!"
"Yeah – you heard me right! The streets of the colony are swarming with the dead – like they’re some kind of brain munching Zombies! We got them barricaded out of the transfer station for now, but there’s no telling how long that will last. We need to start transferring men to your ship immediately!”
Regarding Crystal, he replies: "We can help with your engines though; plenty of good mechanics among us. Can I see them to see what it's going to take?"
-
"Captain with your permission I'll escort this man to engines while you figure... What exactly to do."
He turns back to the man. "You take too much anti rad, zombies don't exist."
-
"Wtf"
-
Butch shrugs.
"We've faced crazier stuff. Come on guys, let's gear up. Cill, that guys definitely clean? No zombie disease?"
-
"I . . . how would I know what 'zombie disease' looks like? . . . He's a normal guy, not dead or crazy. His eyes are funny from the Anti-Rad."
Cillian looks to Brutus. "The people. . . are you sure they're . . . really dead? They're. . . scared, or confused, or . . ."
-
Jacob sighs. "Kid, i woulden't blame you if you stayed out of this one. Walking dead? Thats Farked up." He sighs.
"If what he's saying is true... then wouldent it be kinder to kill them all? For real?"
-
"Uh, yeah kid," Brutus answers Cillian; "There's no breathable air inside the dome anymore - they certainly can't be alive."
To Samuel he just says, "Zombies or whatever. They're dead; they're walking; They're trying to break through the airlocks to get to us."
-
Montoya thinks for a moment but having help fixing the ship wouldn't be a bad thing and most of the Dandy's secrets were on the tech side and on the bridge "Ok Samuel, you show him the engines and hull breech in the hanger bay, make sure to be in a sealed suit for that. Butch or Crystal, mind going with them to give me a current report of the damage?" He really just wants two armed men with the man, he was talking about zombies after all. There were people in danger either way so they were going to heroically rescue them!
"We need to prepare for the incoming survivors, probably a small escort over there to get the parts and supplies we need then bring them back." he pauses slightly "Cillian, we have to concentrate on those we can save for now. We get the survivors out then we can call in the big shot scientists to come help the ones in the dome if that is possible! So everyone make sure they are at max normal dose for anti-rad and we take enough for 60 with us to make sure we can dose everyone we see when we get there."
He runs to fetch a couple of gas suppression and stun grenades from the stores, you never know what will work on zombies, if they are real. He also brings real bullets along for his guns (Loaded into clips stored in his pockets), also just in case.
-
"Aye captain"
He turns to the new man on board "If you'll follow me I'll show ya how bad it is" He begins to lead the man away...
-
Brutus inspects the damage with an expert eye.
"We got pumps and hoses rated to handle the acid," he says, regarding the flooded cargo bays - "Also some ship-plate in the shop, so sealing the hull shouldn't take more than half a day or so.
When they get to the engines, he just whistles in awe.
"Can't say I've seen anything like this before. Like some sort of freak malfunction of the main coolant coupler..."
"Yep, she's not going anywhere without a new catalyst amplification chamber. And let me guess: you don't got a spare, right?"
"Yep, trouble with these older ships - they're reliable as hell, but when they go bad, parts are hard to come by."
"We're in luck though. We got the parts you need in the warehouse on the other side of the colony from the transfer station. If someone (you guys, as I see you're all well armed) could just get past the zombies and recover the engine component, we can repair the engines, get the survivors loaded, and blast the hell off this cursed death ball of a moon!"
"You got enough vacc suits for your crew? I can get you some if you don't. The radiation in this storm is too strong without them. Looks like you already got enough Anti-Rad."
-
Samuel is obviously impressed with this guys knowledge of ships. "You'd make a good Junker Brutus" he laughs. "Yeah we've got a few Vacc suits but I don't think we have enough for everyone. Thanks for the offer. Now honestly, you're saying some 12,000 people have come back from the dead!? We can't fight 12,000 so hopefully you've got a plan?"
-
"Yeah, the plan is you guys go get the part and my men repair your ship, and then we all get out of here."
---
As this is going on, Cillian detects more strange Feng-Shui going on with his lopan.
It's almost as if he had used Divine Location or something... he feels a tug in the direction of the domed mining colony.
What if a Feng-Shui Master caused all this to happen with a Summon or Chart Fate?
Such an incredible loss of life... and for what?
-
Montoya calls through to Samuel
"So whats the status and how much equipment do we need to pick up? Oh and... new guy... Yellow eyes, I forgot your name, anyway, how big is the hole in the dome and could our scouts either fly in and land at the warehouse or blow our way in from outside the back to bypass the... whatever they are?"
-
"Well Boss, its bad, but he says he can get her back in the air. We'll need to haul some stuff back, pumps and ship plate, and whatever he needs to build the engines back." Samuel answers back to the captain.
-
Montoya thinks for a few moments "We will need to be using the scout ships to help with the heavy stuff and have the guys we are rescuing help carry the rest, maybe drag the hull plating over with the Raven's tractor to make it fast and easy." He starts sounding happy and excited but begins sounding a little disappointed "Means we don't even need to go see the zombies then? That is great, don't need to put the crew in danger..." He sounds very disappointed and not even trying to hide it.
-
Montoya thinks for a few moments "We will need to be using the scout ships to help with the heavy stuff and have the guys we are rescuing help carry the rest, maybe drag the hull plating over with the Raven's tractor to make it fast and easy." He starts sounding happy and excited but begins sounding a little disappointed "Means we don't even need to go see the zombies then? That is great, don't need to put the crew in danger..." He sounds very disappointed and not even trying to hide it.
"Don't worry Montoya, you'll get to do some heroic jumps for the mechanics barricaded there." Butch says.
"So we're flying the Raven over? Think we'll need to fuel it again?"
-
As this is going on, Cillian detects more strange Feng-Shui going on with his lopan.
It's almost as if he had used Divine Location or something... he feels a tug in the direction of the domed mining colony.
What if a Feng-Shui Master caused all this to happen with a Summon or Chart Fate?
Such an incredible loss of life... and for what?
Could someone have caused the disaster? It's possible they didn't know what would happen. You can't tell how Chart Fate will work out.
One thing's for sure though: those zombies need his help.
-
"Fark it." Jacob says. "I got my ship packed with anti rads, i could fly over there right now to get em out."
-
"You guys are nuts if you think flying over they is worth the risk," Bartok scoffs.
"We got terrain crawlers and trailers in the hanger bay. They're built for operating out here and are heavy enough not to get blown around."
"The only problem is that we can't open the hanger doors until everyone is out of there, as there's no way to get the air back once it's depressurized."
"That means we have to ferry guys over a few at a time and take the vacc suits back for each group."
"Once everyone is aboard the ship, we can open the hanger and drive the crawlers out with the ship-plate and other heavy equipment."
"As for the hole in the dome, you can check it out, but I doubt anyone could fly a ship through it."
-
Montoya sounds happier at the bad news "Ok so we have everyone that has a suit, suit up and head over to get the survivors. Then the rest of the crew bar Tubbs can come over to help get everything we need and check out the situation when they get out of their suits! Tubbs you will be in charge of looking after the ship and keeping our non crew members like the dogs locked safely in the bridge so they don't get in the way!" He doesn't mention Moonkit but is sure Tubbs will understand that she is to be kept safe too, just best not to mention and lone girl hanging around on the ship.
-
"Understood, I'll be in the hangar ready to move out on your command Boss."
Samuel heads down to the hangar and waits to head out.
Guess we're gonna find out if these Zombies stack up to the old movies, hopefully not though...
-
"Think we could fit a fighter into the hole, eyes?"
-
"Like I said, you'll have to check it out for yourself - but the dome wall itself is twenty foot thick plasticrete, with a heavy rebar sub-structure, and I doubt the hole blown through it is very pretty."
"Plus there's a lot of fuel still burning over there..."
-
"Right then, I'll get some termite and C4 and meet those with vac suits by the starboard airlock in a few minutes!" Montoya, clearly overjoyed, announces, he heads off humming atmospheric pirate music as he thinks about zombies.
(ooc, trades out rifle for riot gun as he believes it fits the zombie theme better, normal ammo, termite charges x 2, C4 x2, universal remote and the previously mentioned grenades.)
-
Jacob will go to his room to suite up, fetch "Mathilda" make c-4 grenades, and then head to queen anne.
-
"Like I said, you'll have to check it out for yourself - but the dome wall itself is twenty foot thick plasticrete, with a heavy rebar sub-structure, and I doubt the hole blown through it is very pretty."
"Plus there's a lot of fuel still burning over there..."
Butch shrugs.
"Might as well, I'm a solid pilot, and don't get any interference anymore." Butch says.
"Captain, I'm heading over to the dome, think it'll be good to see whats inside." Butch says, heading to grab a vac suit abd his fighter.
-
The crew clears the hanger, so Butch can take the Plan C? out.
Pilot 16 MTN 10 1d20 : 13, total 13
-
The violent storm batters the Plan C?, but Butch handles the new controls with a practiced ease. Still, he realizes that if he stays out here too long, he's going to take lightning strikes or get the Plan C? blown into the ground by the powerful microbursts all around him.
A gaping hole can be seen in the upper side of the nearby domed mining colony, as if a portion of it has recently collapsed in. Smoke billows from the fissure and the orange hue of fires can be seen radiating within - as a raging inferno of fuel and oil burns below.
The hole is jagged and uneven, but one might be able to fly a fighter through it - though you would be going in blind through the conflagration and probably straight into wreckage (or a pool of flaming oil)...
-
Butch sadly turns away. Woulda been much cooler this way, but alas, safety first.
-
Butch returns to the Desperado to report what he saw.
The crew with vacc suits (Montoya, Crystal, and Samuel), then walk over to the domed colony with Brutus, to begin coordinating the transfer of miners to the Desperado. The dome covering the colony is two miles across and two thousand feet high at the center (being much lower at the edges).
As they near the transfer station, they see the gaping hole in the upper side of the dome, where the explosion of the fuel depot caused it to collapse. As Butch had described, smoke and flames still roar from within.
Once in the transfer station itself, the team sees that it is just a large air-locked hanger bay between the inside and outside of the dome. The hanger itself is filled with various pieces of mining equipment and a couple of terrain crawlers with flatbed trailers for hauling men and equipment to the mining sites.
To the sides of the hanger are some offices and rooms used for administration, operations, and logistical purposes, as well as a decontamination area to shower off sulfuric acid and other contaminates from vacc suits and equipment.
When the team enters, Brutus takes them through the decontamination area, before introducing them to the other miners guarding the area – a thuggish group of unshaven roughnecks, some dressed in vacc suits, and armed with a couple of riot guns and a wicked assortment of dangerous-looking mining saws and drills. They all exhibit the yellow tint of ‘Io eye’ - the long-term effect of continually using of the radiation-countering drug, Antirad.
After quick introductions, Brutus shows everyone the transfer station’s security room, where a panel of camera feeds show the area just outside the transfer station.
What Brutus told the team was true – the area inside the dome is crawling with zombies. Almost a hundred of them can be seen with the cameras; their radiation-sizzling bodies thrashing and shambling about, with the majority of them swarmed around the transfer station’s airlock doors, literally clawing at the metal in an effort to get inside.
It is apparent, from a few cars and a school bus crashed outside the transfer station, that the residents of the colony died almost instantly with the dome’s breach – as the vehicles in motion at the time of the accident have all continued forward with their dead passengers, until they ran into something.
It's a truly horrifying spectacle to behold and/or contemplate.
---
The next three hours are spent slowly transferring miners over to the Desperado - taking a group in the available vacc suits, getting out of the vacc suits, taking the vacc suits back to the transfer station, another group suiting up in said vacc suits, and repeat... until all the survivors are finally aboard the ship.
At this point, the transfer station hanger doors are then opened, causing the irreversible loss of atmosphere within. The ship-plate, pumps, and gear, are all loaded onto the trailers and taken over to the Desperado via the terrain crawlers.
With everyone back aboard the Desperado, the miners get to work on the hull breach and engine repairs immediately.
All that remains now, is for the team to go in through the transfers station and get the critical engine component from the warehouse on the other side of the mining colony.
Brutus collects the spare vacc suits and refills their air supplies for any members of the team that will need one.
"Mighty heroic of you guys to risk your necks saving us," Brutus says, thanking everyone.
"Good luck getting that part. And don't worry - We' ain't going anywhere till you get it back to us."
---
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/CowboyBebop/Entryway1_zpsurrvczjt.png)
-
It is decided to have Tubbs lock himself and Moonkit (who has wisely been kept a secret from the roughneck miners) on the Bride of the Desperado – securing the ship’s Armory and Vault in the process and ensuring that Tubbs has the firepower he needs, should the miners attempt some sort of a takeover while the crew is gone.
Gilbert is elected to pilot everyone over in the Snack Runner VII, so the team boards in the hanger and the bays are opened.
Bolts of strange lightning arc continuously across the sky, scorching the ground in brilliant traces – like white-hot spider legs dancing a jig across the horizon.
Gilbert is about to ask if anyone else notices that the intensity of the storm has picked up significantly in the last few minutes, but he is rushed to the controls by the overly eager Captain Montoya and hurried into the air.
Gilbert Computer Pilot 20 MTN 10 1d20 : 6, total 6 (+1 Luck Point burned for Extra Success)
-
Gilbert wrestles the controls as the scout ship is buffeted violently by the storm, furiously typing control adjustments into the computer!
The ship is struck by lightning several times, which initially doesn't seem to do any harm, until the ship's computers register a huge energy build up in all systems. Not sure what else to do, Gilbert hurries the ship to the open hanger doors of the domed mining colony's transfer station.
That's where - as he is bringing the ship in - all the ship's built-up energy is abruptly discharged in one massive static arc between the Snack Runner VII and the hanger doors!
The Snack Runner VII immediately goes dark, falling twelve feet out of the air and slamming into the jagged ground about thirty feet shy of entering the transfer station! The scout ship takes 11 Damage and everyone inside is banged up for 6 Damage - as the ship skids forward and comes to a stop right at the opening of the hanger itself!
Looking out, the crew can see that the upper parts of the hanger doors has been melted into slag by the discharge - likely rendering the door fused into the 'open' position. That, and the discharge also seems to have knocked the power out in the area as well...
-
Crystal groans, rubbing at her forehead where it had slammed into... Uhh, something, she wasn't too clear on the specifics of the crash since she was too busy hugging her seat and hoping she wouldn't die.
"Everyone okay?"
-
Rolling around the ship, Butch curses.
"Farking hell." He mutters, before standing up and dusting himself.
"Yeah, I'm good. Cill? Gil? You guys still kickin'?"
-
Grumbling to himself mostly Samuel picks himself up off of the floor (ceiling?) He's not even sure how the ship is oriented after all that.
"How's everyone doing? How close did we get?"
-
Gilbert doesn't answer any questions to him. Instead, he simply rocks back and forth on his chair, confident this planet is where he will die.
-
Montoya leaps to his feet "We have arrived" he announces as if that went to plan "let's check on the snack runners systems and get her running before we head inside!" He proceeds to do that, also ensuring the airlock doors are still sealed...
-
It quickly becomes apparent that the Snack Runner VII's entire electrical system has been fried. It's going to take days to rewire - and that's only if they can somehow get it back to the Desperado's Repair Bay...
-
Cillian checks his lopan. Hopefully it wasn't damaged in the crash.
He wishes he could have helped them avoid the Lightning. But then, maybe it was inevitable. Maybe this is how the universe wants it to be.
-
Cillian's lopan is fine and he's still getting the strange readings 'pulling' him in a direction that appears to point deeper into the colony.
-
"My head." Jacob mumbles as he gently strokes it once and immedietly stopping once its appearent that it had a few bumps.
"So what now?"
-
"Guess we hoof it from here. We need to find a way to get this thing inside too. I reckon there'll be vehicles inside once we can make it there ya know. Though to be perfectly honest, I'm not looking forward to this. Lets do what we have to do and get back out alive."
Samuel starts for the door to start heading towards the dome...
-
Using chains and some tackle in the transfer station, the crew is able to winch the Snack Runner VII the rest of the way into the hanger - so that it's at least out of the acid rain and storm.
Then, taking a moment to inspect outer hanger doors, they confirm their assessment that the doors cannot be closed again - the steel roller wheels that the doors hangs on have been arc-welded to the rail.
Looking out the windows of the airlocks that head from the transfer station into the colony itself, reveal a hundred or more walking dead crowded around the area. They seem to be drawn toward you by something other than sight - apparently able to sense the living from thirty or so feet away.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Entryway2_zpsm2jajbja.png)
-
"I'm going to investigate this room just North of me, yell if you find a safe way through!" Samuel shouts out as the crew is taking in the sights of the zombie hoard through the Windows.
"I may find something useful in here"
He heads north through a door that reads "waiting room"
-
An airtight (but not air-locked) door, joins the transfer station to the Administration Building in the waiting area. Currently, the door is locked from this side by a simple bar that prevents the handle from being turned; while two large vending machines have been shoved up against the door itself to keep it from being used by the miners. Opening the door would have cause air to rush out, decompressing the transfer station, until it was closed again. At this point however, there's no atmosphere left in the transfer station to lose.
-
"Hey Gilbert! Plenty of snacks in here, and it's safe. Why don't you join me in here!" Sam shouts at Gilbert hoping to get him to move.
-
Crystal heads south into the office there, keeping a careful eye out for anything of note.
-
"Crawling with living dead... what the Fark have we gotten ourselfs into." Jacob states as he looks trough the window. "Hey, i wonder how many would be permakilled by a C-4 grenade in the middle there..."
-
Montoya thinks "Well let's test. Strap a few C4 to my RC car and we program it to go through the airlocks and out say 20 feet then trigger the c4!" He begins programming...
-
"Oho" Jacob beams. "And that is why you're the captain!"
With a grin, Jacob takes out not one, but two C4 grenades!
-
Cillian tries to read the zombies. Are they really dead? Would killing them be best? Or are they still sort of people, who need to be rescued?
-
"Hey guys there is a door blocked off here by vending machines. Wonder if we should move them?" Samuel uses his listen skill to hear if anything is moving directly behind the door
-
Cillian tries to read the zombies. Are they really dead? Would killing them be best? Or are they still sort of people, who need to be rescued?
The readings Cillian gets from the walking dead are quite unusual.
They are dead, but also alive, but separate somehow...
Like... like another person inhabiting someone else's body maybe?
Either way, they are all in unmitigated agony, which has driven them completely insane and madly ravenous!
-
Sam walks back to the main transfer area and wonders why the crew is just hanging out.
"Guys we don't have a lot of air, we're on a strict schedule here. We need a plan stat. I found a door in the waiting area there thats blocked by some vending machines, I didn't hear anything on the other side, seems like the safest bet. Especially considering these doors are crowded with the undead. Should we vote? Because, I don't feel like standing here all day, this is not somewhere we should linger..."
His voice trails off as he looks back towards one of the windows to see the zombies...
-
Montoya calls back "The moment I program this RC car and we attach the c4 grenades we can test the doors, we can use this to draw them away from the upper door while we head out that way!"
Montoya happily hums YoHoHo as he works.
Then adds "Oh and Gil, better get the Hover-round ready to go, you don't want to be trapped here alone incase the zombies break in to tear you apart and eat you!"
He goes back to humming.
-
Crystal's sweep of the area reveals nothing out of the ordinary - the transfer station hasn't been breached by the zombies, yet.
Montoya and Jacob rig a remote control car with two C4-packed hand grenades and program it to drive out into the crowd of zombies to detonate. They let it out the north airlock (which is blocked by the car crashed into it, but not enough that they can't get the car out through the cracked door).
The R/C car drives out under the vehicles and then turns to roll into the center of the horde. The zombies do not seem to react to the car as it moves out among them. A few moments later the car explodes with a thunderous boom that shakes the hanger doors!
A small crater is left where the car detonated and a swath of zombies has been blown up. Others have been torn to shreds but still shamble about in some apparent confusion.
-
Cillian meanwhile, continues to try to make sense of what the Feng-Shui is showing him.
The explosion definitely wounds the zombies - and the ones blown apart have lost whatever dual nature they had before (and are now simply 'dead' dead).
It almost seems like when the host body originally died (of radiation and suffocation), some other spirit being entered the corpse and animated it. When the body was battered beyond use, the other spirit 'thing' left or abandoned it...
-
Sam does a fist pump at the sound of the explosion.
"Thats one way to get the testosterone flowing in the morning. Cillian, what are you detecting now? How many did we take out?"
-
Butch shakes his head.
"We don't need to kill them. We need to get into one of those trucks. Think someone could draw them out so we can get in a truck?"
-
"Um . . . You want me to tell you. . . How many you killed?" Cillian says unhappily. "I . . ? I don't think. . . I can?
"When you. . . um. . . when you ruin the . . . Wait, let me start again. . ?
"There's two different parts to them? Like, a dead body-- and then a spirit or a ghost or something inside of it making it move around.
"When you . . . ruin the dead part so they can't use it, the spirits leave.
But I don't know where they go? I'm trying to find out."
-
"You seem to be in tune with their energy, instead of killing them is there a way you could shield us from their senses?"
-
Montoya thinks hard, he acts the fool but he is still a smart man "So the bodies are indeed dead, and they are being inhabitted by some sort of mind or spirit. Has to be connected to the storm and those strange readings we got from orbit"
He gears up with again and prepares to head out "We can't tell just what the thing inhabiting them is but the bodies are clearly dead so we don't need to feel bad about killing them... again... disabling them... Anyway! We need to get this part and with the power out here it isn't any safer than inside so we head in, seal a vehicle and drive for the factory! On the plus side so long as the electricals are not fried, half the trucks, van's and buses out there will still have their keys in the ignition so we only need to hot-wire one if there isn't readily available and still running!" he pauses then looks up "And I've seen the movies, no splitting up with zombies around and no-one point out if it gets strangely quiet!"
He nods to himself and heads to the very North entrance to the offices to wait for everyone to prepare and gather.
-
"But it did get pretty quiet after the explosion." Jacob points out. With a shrug he follows him.
-
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Entryway3_zpssfgltp3p.png)
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It seems that while the explosion has taken out a decent number of zombies, it has also knocked part of the hanger doors off the rails. Another throng of zombies pushing at it might actually manage to push their way in...
The three cars parked out front have also sustained damage from the blast.
-
Montoya peeks at the damage "Next time we make it go another few feet before exploding! Right, I say we nab the schoolbus or the pickup truck! The bus should have keys still in the ignition but is damaged, that parked pickup however looks undamaged but no keys." He thinks for a moment "shall we try and steal both then all jump on the one that gets going first, both if we get both running?"
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"You seem to be in tune with their energy, instead of killing them is there a way you could shield us from their senses?"
Butch shakes his head.
"We don't need to kill them. We need to get into one of those trucks. Think someone could draw them out so we can get in a truck?"
"I can't . . . hide?. . . like that?
I just know things. . . and change things. . ." Cillian is still trying to work out what happened to the spirits. Are they still here?
"I think maybe. . . if you want. . . maybe I can make them come to me?
"Like how someone made us come here."
-
"I can't . . . hide?. . . like that?
I just know things. . . and change things. . ." Cillian is still trying to work out what happened to the spirits. Are they still here?
"I think maybe. . . if you want. . . maybe I can make them come to me?
"Like how someone made us come here."
"Would it put you in significant danger? Or, would you be able to, I don't know, control them or at least make them recognize your power and let us get through the administration building?"
-
"Y'know, i've done plenty of things i'm not proud of. But nothing i could not live with." Jacob says. "Letting Cillian be bait.. thats not something i could do. A kid bait for living dead? Hell no."
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"Agreed." Butch says.
"Cill, are they attracted to anything aside from the living?" Butch asks. "If not, I'd be willing to do the run around to draw their attention."
-
"Well I sits mean it like that, sounded better in my head. Of course I wouldn't want to put Cillian's life on the line like that. I meant it more as maybe he could be the pied piper from the old kids stories. As long as it wasn't dangerous, he seems to be connecting with them on levels we can't understand is all.. "
Sam lets his thoughts trail off, he didn't mean for it to seem like he wanted Cillian's as bait, but even if it wasn't dangerous he reckons that's how it would come off...
-
"If he can attract them to himself, why shoulden't he be able to attract them to one of us? I'd be willing to be bait... as long as i can set up a few surprises for them." He grins.
-
Still taking everything in with his lopan, Cillian realizes that the zombies are actually homing in on everyone's chi energy (like what he looks at when he reads someone's aura).
As the other zombies are effectively dead to each other, they jostle and bump into each other like they are blind, but do not attack themselves.
Cillian has to wonder if messing someone's aura up (with Discord maybe?) might confuse the zombies or present a less appealing chi signature to them...
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Cillian debates trying to explain chi energy to the rest of the group, then settles for "space wizard magic."
"I think. . . Maybe I can change things . . . so they don't notice you?" He looks to the captain.
"Should I. . . try it on someone first?"
-
"Excellent, I told everyone you would be a great addition to the crew, spacemagicis always useful." he poses dramatically "Ok test it on me first!"
He seems honestly excited to be a guinea pig
-
"Oh captain my captain! You're so brave!"
Sam laughs quite a bit at this. "Better you than me boss, go right ahead..."
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"No. Do it on me." Jacob says, unwilling to let the captain be the teams guine pig.
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Montoya seems to think as he looks out at the zombies for a few seconds "Ok, test it on Jacob first and if he doesn't get eaten I'm second!" he announces with a Heroic flourish and a grin.
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Crystal looks to Jacob - "if you die I promise to kill you", she offers.
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"How thoughtful." He grins at her, then nods at Cillian. "Do it."
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"Even if he dies. . . I don't know if a spirit will possess him?" Cillian offers, while casting Discord on Jacob.
-
"I'll shoot him anyway, just to be safe", Crystal says with a grin, patting her weapon as it hangs at her side.
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"Good. Better safe than sorry." He beams. "Besides, i dont think my skin would like being a walking dead." He jokes.
-
While Gilbert was successfully coaxed out of his ship, he still is on the brink of having a breakdown. He eagerly watches the others discuss the best plan of attack, focusing all of his efforts on remaining calm.
-
"Good. Better safe than sorry." He beams. "Besides, i dont think my skin would like being a walking dead." He jokes.
"Hey, uh, well... if this goes south. It was an honor to know you. Would you mind if I write about this? Us junkets are keepers of the past, I feel like an action like this is heroic enough to warrant remembrance."
-
"Ehm... sure... i guess." Jacob replies with a shrug.
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Cillian effectively muddles Jacob's aura with Discord, which Jacob feels palpably, as something distinctly 'off' about himself.
Jacob then goes to the window in the airlock to see if the Zombies are still interested in him.
They actually don't seem to notice his presence anymore - the rest of them beginning to gravitate back toward the now damaged hanger doors, where the rest of the crew has gathered to see what happens.
-
Jacob will quickly make his way to the others. "It worked. The zeds dont seem interested in me at all." Jacob smiles.
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Montoya helps his sword drawn just in case "Ok, Space magic us all and we head out to steal that pick-up truck!" Montoya peeks out "Let's lead them all away from the hanger doors first though.
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Montoya helps his sword drawn just in case "Ok, Space magic us all and we head out to steal that pick-up truck!" Montoya peeks out "Let's lead them all away from the hanger doors first though.
"I don't know Cap, I think we should clear that administration building, there are bound to be key cards, or weapons, or something beneficial in there. And shouldn't the guard post be there too? Weapons and armor and stuff could come in handy if we get deep in the mess later on. I mean ultimately I guess it's your decision but that seems a wise choice to me. Maybe one a couple of us could clear the building while a couple work on the truck?"
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Cillian discords everyone else's aura before reluctantly affecting his own as well.
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Crystal does whatever Montoya orders, and keeps a close eye out for any undue reactions from the living dead (as well as being ready to heal anyone who becomes dangerously wounded or exposed to radiation).
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Gilbert jiggles nervously as he feels his aura being tampered.
"We're not really going to go out there, are we? What if this stuff wears off? What if they attack anyway? What if the storms gets worse and the whole roof collapses on us?!" He says, constantly look at the damaged hanger door.
"I bet they sent me to here on purpose. I bet it was their plan at getting revenge on me..." He then adds quietly.
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". Lets just get in the car, hotwire and get to that engine component." Butch says, heading out. No need to worry with the discord affecting him.
"Whatd you say Gil? Aside from the silly defeatism?"
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"Who's them?" Crystal asks, casting a suspicious look towards Gilbert.
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"Who's them?" Crystal asks, casting a suspicious look towards Gilbert.
Gilbert immediately tenses up and looks at Crystal.
"They're, uh, the uh... secret society! Yeah, right Montoya? The secret society somehow brought us here as a plot to get revenge on all of us. Because that's the only explanation as to why everything is going so bad, and they're the only group of people that are interested in harming us..."
". Lets just get in the car, hotwire and get to that engine component." Butch says, heading out. No need to worry with the discord affecting him.
"Whatd you say Gil? Aside from the silly defeatism?"
"Can the device fit in the car?" He asks, calming down a bit now that his mind is focused on something other than zombies.
-
The vending machines are moved and everyone heads through the door into the Administration Building. There, they find that the zombies are very easy to take out unawares (one can simply walk up to them, point a gun at their head and pull the trigger).
It's a nasty business clearing the Administration Building this way however, as the zombies are absolutely wretched-looking up close and personal. One can see (and actually hear!) their skin sizzling in the radiation!
It doesn't help anything either, that their melted out eyeballs drip from their sockets and they all look as if in the throes of abject agony and pain!
As the team does the dirty work to secure their perimeter, Butch heads out to try to hotwire the truck. When he get inside, he sees that it is the Administration Building's security vehicle.
Samuel meanwhile, takes the zombie out in the guard post and notes that it happens to be the guard on duty. He has the keys to the truck on him.
There are no weapons or anything else of use in the guard post however, and the rest of the Administration Building proves equally unfruitful.
---
Butch Larceny 12 1d20 : 10, total 10
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Butch manages to hotwire the truck. As it starts up, the zombies abruptly seem interested in it for some reason and begin shambling slowly toward it...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Entryway4_zpsyqwwy3dt.png)
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Montoya watches the zombies move as he responds to Gil's rambling "I did not want to worry everyone prematurely but only the secret society have the resources and evil to pull off somthing on this scale. And our engine just blowing up right there and then is too much of a co-incidence. They are trying to silence us and probably testing our their new weapon at the same time!"
He poses then concentrates for a second "They are heading for the truck Butch just started, they are attracted to it for some reason, might be safer of foot if they move on it too quickly."
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"Fark. Guys! Get in the damn truck!" Butch shouts, gearing up to go zombie joyriding.
wonder what music this guy has...
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Butch notices that the truck seems to sputter and cough a bit and requires pumping the gas to keep running. It may not be getting enough air, due to the thin toxic atmosphere...
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Crystal winces and averts her gaze from the mass of zombies outside. She leans back against a wall and sighs in discontent - the men made her think back to the guards she'd seen burned alive by that boy so many years ago.
I don't even remember his name. Just his little burnt body being carried away...
Butch's shout focuses her thoughts away from the flashbacks - you can bitch about the past later Crystal.
"What's happening Butch?!"
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"Radiated buggers are converging, and this car sucks gas as much as those luxury cars without any o' luxury. Get over here!"
"And Montoya, no dramatic posing!"
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Crystal dashes out of the building and will (if it's free of the zombies) leap into the back of the pickup, training her assault rifle on the nearby dead to shoot if they get too close.
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Gilbert tries to keep as much distance between himself and the zombies as possible. He can't help but think that he could end up like that at any moment...
Not willing to leave the safety of his hover-round, he instead decides to simply hover a few feet above the truck with it.
"That truck doesn't sound so great... I'll just be up here if you guys need me."
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Montoya dramatically leaps aboard. "Let's get moving! You'd think there was a better vehicle than this though, maybe put a Brock on the accelerator and have the zombies chase it down the road while.we find somthing nicer?" he calls into the cab
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"And away we go" Jacob says as he runs to truck.
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Montoya dramatically leaps aboard. "Let's get moving! You'd think there was a better vehicle than this though, maybe put a Brock on the accelerator and have the zombies chase it down the road while.we find somthing nicer?" he calls into the cab
"Gods I hope so. I feel sick driving ths lunk of junk."
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Montoya calls out "Ok everyone, the second we see a better vehicle we all bail and rig this on to drive on!"
Then he sits and watches the zombies like a kid in a candy store. Where the candy might eat you
-
So many people, hurting so much.
Your fault, your fault, they are suffering and it's all your fault.
You could help them and you're not. You could save them and you don't.
Cillian takes off running, towards the strange feeling that might be a summons.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please.
-
Cillian happens to be running in the direction the team needs to drive to get across town to the warehouse.
Butch pulls the truck out and it sputters and lurches. He gets it going, drives through the guard post gate, and through a bunch of zombies - which make a noise, going under the wheels, remarkably reminiscent of speed bumps.
Butch is doing about 15 miles an hour, the truck is sucking wind, and the zombies are definitely interested in it, crowding around closer and closer - meaning soon, they may swamp it, due to the piss-poor horsepower Butch is struggling to get out of the engine.
Cillian is up ahead. Fortunately the zombies seem to be ignoring him still.
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Not wanting to lose the boy wonder, Gilbert speeds ahead and hovers over Cillian instead.
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Sam rushes out of the building in time to see the gang loading up the truck
"Going somewhere?" He says as he sprints for the vehicle. "I found the keys on a guard" He shouts through his sprint
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Samuel sees that there are too many zombies bunched up behind the truck to easily get through...
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Samuel sees that there are too many zombies bunched up behind the truck to easily get through...
Sam will stay behind the hoard and wait for a clearing where he can break away from the pack and follow at a safe distance
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Crystal calls out - "Hey Cil, you'll be moving faster on this truck than on foot!"
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Cillian hears Crystal, but keeps running.
They won't listen to him. They'll go get their part to fix the ship, then leave all these people to melt forever while they see how much stuff they can steal.
He can't do anything about Gilbert, so for now he just ignores him.
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Seeing that Cillian appears to be dead set on continuing to run mindlessly off into a ridiculously dangerous area alone, Crystal gets off the truck and takes off after him herself.
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Montoya assesses the situation "Ok, Butch rig it up to keep running with somthing on the peddle and bail out! We are moving by foot!"
He then heroically leaps clear and runs to catch up with Cillian, the kid can't run fast anyway...
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Butch shrugs.
"As long as I can get off this shitvan." Butch says, playing around with the rigging of the truck.
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Butch is able to rig the accelerator and everyone jumps out of the truck.
The disgusting zombies file past, as the truck plods along another hundred feet or so, and runs into the side of a building. With its engine still sputtering, the zombie horde surrounds it, as if waiting for it to do something (which it obviously doesn’t, of course).
It’s a mile and a half walk to the parts warehouse from where the crew abandons the truck; and takes roughly thirty minutes to get there. The streets all around are crawling with the dead, but Cillian’s alterations to everyone’s aura holds; and the zombies fail to notice the team’s passing.
Cillian continues following the strange feng-shui tug, that seems to be going in the same direction as the parts warehouse. This is confirmed, when the warehouse comes into view and the vector Cillian is following leads right into (or through) it.
The warehouse itself is to the right side of an adjoining administration building. Over a hundred zombies mill about the parking lot in front of the area, blocking any easy access to the buildings, while three cargo transports (semi-trailer trucks) are backed to loading bays on the front side of the warehouse. The metal doors of each loading bay are currently closed however, in addition to being blocked by the trailers.
The zombies seem to gravitate more along the walls outside the warehouse itself than anywhere else…
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Warehouse1_zpsyqnu08tl.png)
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"Well, Damn."
Sam looks around at the horrific sight.
"Maybe we should just punch a hole through this admin building. I've got termites with me. It's gotta be easier than trying to wade through all that..."
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Butch shakes his head.
"They wanna get in. Opening a hole would be bad."
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"Think we can start a couple of those cars? Maybe draw them away from the doors so we can get in and lock it up behind us. Maybe we'll find whatever is driving them nuts inside and stop it."
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Montoya nods "It might work, also worth seeing if there is a way in from the roof!"
Montoya checks out if he could get to the roof from another building, a ladder or from on top of a loading Bay truck. He even assesses for Gil giving him a ride and floating above the trucks/other buildings for extra height.
Seeing that getting on the roof is possible he heads for the trucks to climb up "I'm heading for the roof to see if there is a way in. If there is I'll signal from the room then get inside and open the middle loading Bay door for everyone! While outside why not move the two side trucks to form a triangle against the middle one then drive the middle one forward a little. That way we have a safer area in the middle and can get away on the middle truck after!"
Happy with his ideas he goes and climbs up to the roof.
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With a grimace Crystal says - "if they're hanging around here it might mean someone inside is still alive. Or that an engine's running, like how they were drawn to the truck. Either way, I'm thinking we should just clear them all out, if we have enough bullets."
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"We could set some of the car alarms off, then use bombs to blow them up once they all gather around", Gilbert suggests.
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"Thought we were over killing them?"
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While everyone else is occupied discussing their entrance strategy, Cillian continues following the lopan's guidance: through the horde towards the front door.
-
Captain Montoya makes his way through the zombies and climbs up one of the trucks. After some effort, he manages to get atop the trailer and heads to the roof. There he spots a trapdoor on the east side (that would drop down into the hallway east of the warehouse).
Cillian slips through the zombies and into the Administration Building. His small size makes it easy to move through the shuffling horde and he finds himself standing in front of the door that leads to the warehouse. What will he find on the other side? His lopan indicates a focus of weirdness beyond.
The rest of the team stands around near the cars indecisively...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Warehouse2_zpsbjdntzfa.png)
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"guess it's time to make a move player." Sam decides to try the front doors of the office. Cautiously avoiding bumping into any of the zombies on his way
He'll make sure Cillian is okay inside then he will explore around for a minute, maybe he can find some keys in the building for the big trucks out there...
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Butch begins to slink over to the cargo transports, to make sure the getaway vehicle is ready.
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Crystal runs after Cillian
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Seeing Crystal take care of Cillian, Gilbert attempts to rig some explosives he can remotely detonate to one of the cars on the lot (the bottom left one on the map).
He'll then attempt to set off the alarm of the car, to draw their attention to it (then he'll float into the air and run away).
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Montoya keeps his comms open just incase but relies on his vocals to bellow down at everyone "Found a safe way in, heading inside! I'll try and open the central loading door!"
He then Sprints for the trapdoor to open it and get inside as fast as possible. If possible, throwing it open and leaping inside with sword drawn and rolling to his feet.
Zombies plus trapdoor after a crash landing? This was turning into the best vacation.... Erm mission ever!
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As Cillian reads the bizarre feng-shui readings, Crystal and Jacob rush into the building after, to see him in the Reception Office. Cillian is jolted out of his thought by gunfire, as Jacob clears the hallway.
Montoya meanwhile, clambers down a ladder under the trap door and into a hallway on the east side of the warehouse. He hears the muffled pops of Jacob's gun going off from the other side of the building.
Samuel also heads into the building through the front door and considers looking around for anything useful (maybe they have some office supplies he can swipe?).
Gilbert meanwhile, heads over to a car in the lot and begins setting some of the team's explosives up on a timed-delay trigger. It will take a few rounds, but then he can set off the car alarm to draw a bunch of zombies toward it and then set it off. It occurs to him, as he wires the charge, that he'll have to bring his hover-round down to zombie-level to actually place it once it's ready.
As this goes on, Butch jumps into the cab of one of the cargo transports. He finds (to his good fortune) that not only are the keys currently in the cab - but it also runs on hydrogen, which means it won't suffer from the thin atmosphere, like the pickup did.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/Warehouse3_zpsrfnxu46x.png)
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There is gunfire! Montoya quickly but carefully opens to door into the warehouse a crack then keeping sword drawn and drawing his pistol in the other hand kicks it open the rest of the way as he charges in.
"Captain Montoya to the rescue!" he can't help but announce to the world as he scans the warehouse for the enemies and gunfire.
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Crystal tries to interject herself in Cillian'd way and stop him from opening the door.
"What the hell are you doing? We have to wait for the others!" She exclaims
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Sam has his sword at the ready as he follows the trio in the building g he's currently in.
"Well that's one way to make an entrance Jacob." he has his sword out but not yet lit ablaze
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Butch nods, and takes the keys before heading up the truck to follow Montoya.
"Got keys, if the coms are still on." Butch says to himself.
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Cillian tries to evade Crystal and open the door.
-
Montoya kicks the door in and poses dramatically - while, on the other side of the warehouse (with substantially less flair), Cillian ignores Crystal and comes in opposite.
Crystal, Jacob, and Samuel hurry to back Cillian up, while Butch crosses the roof overhead on his speed switch to come down the trapdoor.
Inside, the warehouse is a large open area with a thirty-foot high ceiling. Large boxes and crates are stacked everywhere, moved into place with a small forklift, while three loading bays with scrolling metal doors allow parts and equipment to be brought in by cargo transport.
Currently, there are a number of men working in the warehouse around a strange antenna dish of some sort, which is hooked into and being monitored or controlled by, a series of computers.
The men do not appear to be zombies however, as they are neither radiation-burned nor shambling about --- but neither are they wearing vac suits, or any other type of environmental protection!
Their startling yellow eyes would account for the radiation (anti-rad build up), but do not explain why they seem to have no problem breathing the vacuous toxic atmosphere.
The men, eight of them in total, look up in alarm, as Montoya burst in (not so much however, when Cillian sort of does the same thing on the other side of the warehouse).
They have a small assortment of firearms and weapons ready to defend themselves, but do not immediately attack --- there being the unspoken 'what the fark do you want?' hanging unsaid in the air...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Warehouse4_zpsbdjvv20a.png)
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Outside, Gilbert has just about wired the explosives, when he looks up and notices the zombies are sort of crowding around underneath him for some reason.
WTF?!?
Nah... don't panic Gilbert... it's just your imagination, right?
Cillian's space mojo wouldn't wear off... while you are all alone, by yourself, out here in the parking lot, with all these flesh-eating monsters, suddenly looking up at you, like a ravenous wolf staring at a juicy steak... Right?
Right?!?
-
"Hey gu-" Gilbert begins, looking up to find that he's been abandoned, and is currently the only one outside. He was so absorbed in wiring the explosives, he hadn't noticed. Sweat begins to pour down his face as he comes to realize the very real possibility that he may be eaten alive. In response, he double checks to make sure the hover-round is as high as possible, and then focuses back on his work.
"They can't reach you. They can't reach you. They can't reach you. They can't reach you. They can't reach you. They can't reach you." Gilbert repeats to himself, over and over, in a futile attempt to calm himself down as he finishes the explosives.
-
Crystal calls out into the room, "Hello? How are any of you still alive? Do you need help?"
She tries to put her hand onto Cillian's shoulder and gently edge him in back through the doorway, hoping he'll understand how delicate the situation is.
-
Montoya waits for the hail of bullets he can dramatically dodge, then looks for a rope to swing off. Finally he lowers the weapons and slowly walks over to the nearest person "We are here to help evacuate everyone from the colony, Oh and we need a part for our ship which is not far from your dome!" He looks around "So are you all hiding out here from the zombies because there are hundreds outside here trying to get in!"
As he acts innocent he tries to get a good look at the dish device thing to work out if it is part of the cause "Everyone can come in, it's just some survivors hiding out here!" He calls to the others, more to get Butch, Crystal and Sam inside with weapons incase his suspicions pan out.
-
Crystal calls out into the room, "Hello? How are any of you still alive? Do you need help?"
She tries to put her hand onto Cillian's shoulder and gently edge him in back through the doorway, hoping he'll understand how delicate the situation is.
Sam has his right hand on his sword and gently puts his left hand on Cillian's other shoulder to help Crystal ease him back.
"Lets let the Captain introduce himself, we can be the good crew members giving him a moment of glory. Just., just stay with us Cillian's, don't do anything crazy here okay?"
Damn I'd kill for a smoke...
-
"I say! It actually worked!" a rugged miner-looking man (F on map) exclaims at the sight of Cillian coming through the door with his lopan in hand.
Another man (S on map), looking like a foreman, but armed with a hunting rifle, holds one hand out to calm everyone and speaks - alternating his glance between Montoya and the others near Cillian.
“I am Shen Mao, the Chief Science Officer of the capitol ship Demetrius, and these men are a part of the ship’s crew.”
“And yes, you could say that we need help.”
“Five years ago, our ship was trapped in Hyperspace, when the wormhole we were traveling to Jupiter in collapsed, flinging us into a strange and timeless dimension. In our ghostly prison, we lost the sense of time, as it seemed to stop passing – we only know that we have been lost these five years, due to the dates on the computers we have set up here in the warehouse – but for us, those five years could have been the blink of an eye, or a million years. We don’t know.”
“But timelessness was a merciful panacea to our plight – perhaps it is what kept up sane all this time, because we found that after a while, we began to slip from each other physically, the same way a ship in Hyperspace exists intangibly from real space. We became ghosts ourselves in our ghostly prison – unable even to interact with each other or our ship. It may even be that we died in the Gatecrash, but that our spirits could not pass on to the afterlife.”
“That was until a few hours ago. For out of this timelessness we were suddenly drawn here, to find ourselves in these bodies. We speculate that the unique nature of this magnetic storm has somehow opened a primitive conduit between real space and where we were trapped. For us, it was like a doorway had suddenly opened and we had a way out. Imagine our surprise to find that we had come into these bodies – like some sort of processing spirit – but then we saw what was happening. Our spirits were being drawn into the bodies of these colonists as they died in the tragedy that caused the current decompression and radiation.”
“But as you can see from the walking dead outside – it was not a perfect fit. As far as we can tell, only the eight of us here managed to keep our own minds in the ‘transfer’. We believe this is due to the Antirad these men, whose bodies we now inhabit, had taken prior to the tragedy. For the others, the radiation-ravaged brains could not support higher function – leaving them to go mad – trapped in a deteriorating, zombie-like shell.”
“So here we are.”
“We are trying to record the frequencies and signature of the electromagnetic storm, so that after it passes, we may be able to duplicate it. And in a more sterile environment, we may be able to free the rest of the trapped souls – bringing them not into the maddening prison of a broken body, but into a fresh and sound cadaver – or better yet, a cloned body. We are confident that it could be done – with results similar to the eight of us!”
-
Indeed, what Montoya sees, as he moves in, is a signal recording array.
Something about the Demetrius rings familiar too. There really was a gatecrash five years ago, but all the ships were successfully evacuated - except two...
The news said the Demetrius had been destroyed in a collision during the evac, when a drunken freighter captain crashed into it in a rush to exit the wormhole...
-
From behind Crystal & Sam, Cillian checks his lopan. What are these people? Is the man telling the truth?
-
Like the zombies outside, Cillian sees that the men in the warehouse are both dead and not dead at the same time. There is a tremendous amount of Discord surrounding them as well - more so even than what Cillian did to his teammate's auras to hide them from the zombies.
The guy currently speaking is not lying, but he is being deceptive about something. The guy that initially spoke, is a Feng-Shui Master, though not nearly as in tune with the art as Cillian himself. He doesn't have a lopan with him either.
The Discord in the men's auras prevents Cillian from determining anything else about them in particular...
-
Montoya things for a moment before putting on a big smile and putting the pistol away "Well then, we are the crew of the Dandy Desperado, here on a humanitarian mission!" he gives a flourishing bow "Terrible accident that I remember hearing all about it on the news. My name is.capt. Montoya, who do I have the honour of assisting today?"
He makes sure the others can see him and waves them inside the room, still wants other armed ppl inside.
-
"Alright space wizard, what are you gathering from them?"
-
Butch waits outside. If things go sour, it's best if they don't know how many combatants are around.
-
Captain Mao introduces some members of his crew, none of which ring any bells to Captain Montoya. He also introduces two of them as a passengers, one being the guy who spoke when Cillian entered (F).
Montoya takes in their armaments and positions. Captain Mao has a hunting rifle, while his crew members have a shotgun, two deck pistols, and heavy tools. The two passengers are unarmed.
"You say you are looking for a part here in the warehouse?" Mao asks, "Well, by all means, help yourself."
Montoya and Cillian get the feeling that Mao is stalling.
In fact, Montoya senses that Mao's crewmen are subtly positioning themselves defensively (or offensively?) as they speak...
-
"Alright space wizard, what are you gathering from them?"
"Um. . . There's something they're not telling us. . .
And their auras are . . . wrong? Messed up? Like what I did so the people wouldn't see us."
-
"Um. . . There's something they're not telling us. . .
And their auras are . . . wrong? Messed up? Like what I did so the people wouldn't see us."
"So pretty much, they're telling the truth. just not all of it?"
Hmm
"You know, I don't have much experience dealing with Feng Shui and all that, what do you think our best option is?" He asks Cillian in particular. And then addresses the others around him.
"Looks like they're taking positions, they want us in the building."
"Captain!" He shouts across to montoya. "May I have a heard please, you know. Over here?" He motions for the captain to guickly join them.
-
"Of course Sam! And thanks Capt. Once we get our ship part we can give you a lift too!"
He slings his rifle round into his hands and points it at the man's head aiming and preparing to fire if the man tries to Dodge or aim his gun "Although first we need the whole truth and for your men to stop trying to surround us. You wouldn't be planning to kill us and take our bodies now would you?" He says all this with a smile and a friendly tone however he is really tensed and ready to fire and dive for the nearest crate to use for cover if needed.
-
At Montoya's sudden hostile action, Crystal puts a hand at her belt - where she carries her hand Grenades - and prepares to throw one at the ? Between F and S.
If it looks like fighting is about to go down she calls out - "I have enough explosives on me to blow this whole building, and I'll start with the recording array. Don't start anything."
Then in a lower voice, "That goes for you too cap. You let the bullets pierce your vac suit and the radiation will burn you alive."
-
Captain Mao, raise his rifle as Captain Montoya raises his. Captain Montoya fires, Mao fires...
---
Montoya Rifle Headshot w/ Discord 12+2X MTN 10 1d20 : 20, total 20
vs.Mao Dodge 12 1d20 : 8, total 8
Mao Rifle 12 1d20 : 12, total 12
vs. Montoya Dodge 13 1d20 : 4, total 4
-
Montoya's shot misses the mark as Mao dive rolls to cover and fires back - hitting Montoya (Crit Countered with Luck) in the hip for 16 Damage. The Vacc Suit does its job and self seals where the bullet hole went through.
"Ha!" Mao gloats - "You can't kill us! We're already dead! We'll take your bodies for the rest of our crew!"
---
Initiative
Montoya 14 1d20 : 17, total 17
Butch 13 1d20 : 18, total 18
Crystal 15 1d20 : 4, total 4
Cillian 17 1d20 : 12, total 12
Jacob 14 1d20 : 17, total 17
Gilbert 10 1d20 : 17, total 17
Samuel 17 1d20 : 16, total 16
Captain Mao 12 1d20 : 9, total 9
Mao's Crew 11 1d20 : 5, total 5
-
Round One
Wave 1
Samuel 16
Cillian 12
Captain Mao 9
Mao's Crew 5
Crystal 4
Wave 2
Butch 18
Montoya 17
Jacob 17
Gilbert 17
-
Seeing the battle unfolding in front of him, Sam uses his surprise strike ability and in one motion ignites his sword, and rushes the lone ? At the back of the warehouse (the one behind the box alone) using rapid strike to give him the best chance of inflicting damage.
Intent:
Surprise strike
Rapid strike
-1 luck point of needed for extra success or crit to light the target ablaze
Edit: (with Montoya's surge point) Sam will attack again
-
Montoya shouts "Wrong choice, the moment we damage your body, your spirit is ejected! Butch, Sam and Crystal, these are probably the ones who crashed into the ship and killedall the innocents! Send them back to their own little purgatory!" (Surge the three of them)
He then surges himself to interrupt Mao and steal his spot in the order and throws a grenade (real not stun) at mao, making sure he gets into good cover after.
"Gil bring down the west wall near the corner!"
-
Crystal lobs the grenade at the ? Between F and S, hoping to catch as many people (and the satellite) in the blast as possible.
Using Montoya's surge she quickly follows up with a round of auto-fire centered on Mao.
When done she reaches over and casts Heal on Montoya.
-
"Kill them quickly, but don't mess up their faces!" Captain Mao directs his crew (Surging 4 of them).
In turn, they each surge themselves as well, to act first in the initiative order.
Captain Moa then Surges to fire twice at Captain Montoya.
-
Crystal surges to act before the Crew and Mao, she, however, holds back her Regenerate (Changed from Heal) until after Mao fires on Montoya (so that he doesn't take both rounds right after she heals him).
-
Sam surges to keep his initiative and surprise strike
-
Butch surges to act before everyone else, and lobs a concussion grenade in the middle of all eight assholes. He'll then fire his combatshotgun twice.
"Eat lead motherfarkers!"
-
Montoya shouts "Wrong choice, the moment we damage your body, your spirit is ejected! Butch, Sam and Crystal, these are probably the ones who crashed into the ship and killedall the innocents! Send them back to their own little purgatory!" (Surge the three of them)
He then surges himself to interrupt Mao and steal his spot in the order and throws a grenade (real not stun) at mao, making sure he gets into good cover after.
"Gil bring down the west wall near the corner!"
Thinking that surely his Captain has gone mad, then remembering the kind of person Montoya is, Gilbert quickly takes his prepared device and puts it along the west wall near the corner.
Then if he still has time, he runs.
-
Cillian surges also, because everyone else is, and tries to help Crystal explode the satellite thing.
-
"What to do.. what to do..." Jacobs mumbles to himself, having overheard tje conversation. "Well... C-4 did serm to work with other Zeds.." He gets a mischievious grin. "Please dont die cap'n" he says as he throws a C4 grenade, hoping 4 seconds is enough to throw it.
-
When all is said and done, Butch ends up reacting first – accelerated by the speed switch, he bursts through the door, lobs a concussion grenade in and opens fire with his auto shotgun (two bursts at Captain Mao).
Butch Concussion Grenade with Discord 12 1d20 : 10, total 10
Butch Auto Shotgun, 2 Bursts, with Discord 17+2X 2d20 : 16, 11, total 27
vs.Captain Mao Dodge 12 3d20 : 5, 3, 3, total 11
Captain Endure 13 1d20 : 10, total 10
Pistol Man Endure 13 1d20 : 9, total 9
Unarmed Passenger Endure 13 1d20 : 7, total 7
Feng Shui Passenger Endure 13 1d20 : 13, total 13
As this happens, Samuel rushes a Demetrius crew member that is holding a deck pistol and takes a swipe at him with his flaming Breath of Hell Sword!
Samuel Sword with Discord and Chain Smoker 1d20 : 1, total 1
vs.
Pistol Guy Dodge 9 1d20 : 1, total 1
Crystal tosses a frag grenade under the array, which explodes in a violent burst of shrapnel!
Crystal Grenade with Discord 1d20 : 16, total 16
vs.
Captain Mao Dodge 12 1d20 : 18, total 18
Pistol Man Dodge 9 1d20 : 14, total 14
Wrench Dude Dodge 9 1d20 : 2, total 2
Unarmed Passenger Dodge 9 1d20 : 16, total 16
Feng Shui Passenger Dodge 9 1d20 : 5, total 5
-
Butch’s concussion grenade pops loudly in the center of Mao, the Feng-Shui Passenger, and two other crewmembers, but it stuns none of them.
The two bursts from Butch’s auto shotgun are a bit more effective however, ripping through Mao’s chest for 18 and 13 Damage!
Mao burns two luck for half damage and soaks 5 Damage per wound, due to his undead nature. He ends up with 6 Wound Points.
Samuel’s sword stroke meanwhile, is ducked by the crewmember he attacked. Because of Samuel’s movement and Surge for Initiative, he is unable to make any further attacks this round.
Then Crystal’s hand grenade bounces erratically and goes off mark, but still catches everyone but Wrench Dude in the blast – and utterly annihilates the computers and antenna array!
The Feng-Shui Passenger dives behind some crates before the blast and is spared – while Mao and the other two take 22 Damage! They all burn luck for half and end up taking 6 Wound Points.
-
The pistol toting crewmember shoots once at Samuel, while the guy behind the forklift fires a shotgun at Crystal.
Shen Mao shoots his rifle at Butch, as the man near him (Pistol Man), also takes aim at Butch. The crewman with a wrench rushes Montoya.
Pistol Guy 10 1d20 : 8, total 8
Shotgun Mate 12 1d20 : 19, total 19
Crystal Dodge 11 1d20 : 3, total 3
Mao Rifle 12 1d20 : 4, total 4
Pistol Man 10 1d20 : 2, total 2
Butch Dodge 10 2d20 : 14, 6, total 20
Wrench Dude 7 1d20 : 17, total 17
Montoya Dodge 11 1d20 : 1, total 1
-
Samuel is hit in the elbow for 16 Damage, but burns luck for half – though it still smarts all to hell!
The guy with the shotgun misses, much to Crystal’s relief (she’s already experienced enough buckshot on the last adventure).
Mao’s Rifle shot looks to hit Butch, but Butch spends luck to crit the dodge and doesn’t remain in the line of fire long enough for Mao to get a bead! Butch also evades Pistol Man’s shot!
Wrench Guy moves up to Montoya, but isn’t able to take a swing this round.
At this point, Montoya finally pulls the pin on his grenade and tosses it at Mao.
Montoya Grenade with Discord 9 1d20 : 7, total 7
Captain Mao Dodge 12 1d20 : 15, total 15
-
Shotgun Mate Dodge 9 1d20 : 15, total 15
Pistol Man Dodge 9 1d20 : 17, total 17
Wrench Dude Dodge 9 1d20 : 2, total 2
Unarmed Passenger Dodge 9 1d20 : 1, total 1
Feng Shui Passenger Dodge 9 1d20 : 1, total 1
Butch Dodge 10 1d20 : 10, total 10
-
Montoya hits Mao squarely in the chest and the grenade goes off – which includes Butch in the blast radius!
Moa and Pistol Man both take another 23 Damage (and burn luck for half) – each taking 7 Wounds.
Mao is blown in half and the Captain’s Spirit leaves the body. Pistol man is still kicking.
Butch and the rest dive behind cover in time and take no damage.
Crystal surges to act before the Crew and Mao, she, however, holds back her Regenerate (Changed from Heal) until after Mao fires on Montoya (so that he doesn't take both rounds right after she heals him).
Cillian meanwhile is tweaking the balance of luck against the antenna array and it keeps getting hammered by the explosions.
Then Jacob tosses a C4-packed grenade under it as well. It will go off at the 10 Count of the First Wave next round.
---
Outside, Gilbert takes the readied explosive and heads over to the side of the warehouse. There he drops it among the zombies and hurries away, out of the blast radius. It should be a doosy! (and will detonate on Count 14 of next rounds First Wave).
---
(OOC: On to Round Two…)
-
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Warehouse5_zps9oufpeln.png)
-
Round Two
Wave 1
Butch 18
Samuel 16
Crystal 14
Mao's Crew 12
Cillian 12
Montoya 10
Wave 2
Jacob 17
Gilbert 17
-
"Butch, drop them fast! We aren't feeding the zombies today!" Montoya calls, surging him.
He then surges to go as early as possible, whipping out his stun sword, activating both the stun ability and the "Pirates Attack!" Theme he had loaded up the other night.
In his other hand he uses his Military side arm to shoot at wrench guy then hearing Jacob he sprints back out the door, trying to get behind the wall and as far from the explosion as possible.
-
Pissed off from missing his attack and taking damage himself He swings his sword twice at the crewman he has been battling.
Intent: Rapid strike
Burn luck for extra success or crit to set ablaze.
-
Butch grins, and quickly fires off a couple of rounds into the Possessed with his shotgun. Should he be told about the horrible deathly explosion about to occur from the c4, he'll grab Montoya and charge behind the door, using Montoya's surge.
-
"Get The Fark out of there, its going to blow. "Jacob says in his com-link. "Cil, you need to get out of here aswell." He says in a friendly manner. He will make sure that Cillian gets out before him, if Cillian doesn't appear to go out, Jacob will pick him up and run.
-
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" the Feng-Shue passenger cries at the destruction of the antenna array - "You have ruined everything! Doomed five hundred souls to an endless purgatory! Oh the cost! The cost! It's too high! I can't! I just can't anymore!"
With his outburst, the man falls to his knees and lets his hands drop to his side. He seems to care nothing of Jacob's C4-packed grenade as it clatters across the floor and rolls to a stop by his side.
-
"Guys, a bomb is about to blow the west wall. You should... well take cover!" Gilbert announces, trying to hide his glee that he gets to blow something up.
-
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" the Feng-Shue passenger cries at the destruction of the antenna array - "You have ruined everything! Doomed five hundred souls to an endless purgatory! Oh the cost! The cost! It's too high! I can't! I just can't anymore!"
With his outburst, the man falls to his knees and lets his hands drop to his side. He seems to care nothing of Jacob's C4-packed grenade as it clatters across the floor and rolls to a stop by his side.
Butch frowns upon hearing this. Okay, they want to steal bodies so blow them up, but it's not okay to doom 500 souls for an eternity. And, honestly, stranger things have happened.
"Yo Gil. Think if you worked, you could record the frequency this storms going at?" He asks on the comlinK
-
Crystal runs back outside the room to get to safety.
You doomed yourselves. We warned you didn't we?
-
Cil can't really prevent Jacob from physically forcing him out of the room.
Doomed to endless purgatory? But they were suffering now, too! Why did he have to shoot at us? We would have helped!
-
Montoya and Butch fire into the Demetrius crewmembers, as Samuel tries to do bodily harm to the guy that shot him.
Montoya Sidearm with Discord 11 1d20 : 15, total 15
Butch Auto Shotgun burst fire with Discord 17+2X 2d20 : 16, 14, total 30
Samuel Flame Sword with Discord & Chain Smoker 10 2d20 : 3, 14, total 17
Pistol Guy Dodge 2d20 : 15, 12, total 27
-
Montoya’s shot goes astray, as Wrench Guy knocks the Captain’s weapon aside with the oversized monkey wrench he is wielding – unfortunately for him (with luck for a Crit), the new line of fire places his buddy (Pistol Dude)‘s head right in the bullet’s path and the man is struck in the temple for 17 Damage!
Butch nails two of the men in the head as well, for 18 & 16 Damage. The buckshot blasts away large chunks of their faces and scalps, yet they still stand, apparently feeling nothing more than momentary confusion at the loss.
Samuel burns Luck to Crit his first attack, lopping off both Pistol Guy’s arms in one swing, setting him ablaze, and then drilling him through the chest with the sword as a follow-up attack. Pistol guy laments the GM not even bothering to calculate damage and keels over rather defiantly in protest of his final death… *urk
Jacob and Crystal drag Cillian out of the warehouse meanwhile, as Butch and Montoya beat feet for the door.
Outside, Gilbert just clears the blast radius of his bomb, when both it and Jacob’s C4-packed grenade go off simultaneously (someone must have misjudged the timing).
There is a tremendous double BOOM!!!
The walls and roof of the warehouse on the east side are shredded and shower the area in a torrent of metal and broken concrete. The zombie horde outside is absolutely flattened by the blast – as are the Demetrius crewmembers inside.
Only the Wrench Guy remains of them all; and he pursues Montoya and Butch through the door, only to meet his doom at the business end of their rather impressive assortment of firearms.
When the smoke clears, the crew of the Desperado can see that only blasted and burning debris remain of anything the warehouse once held…
---
(OOC - Combat is over)
-
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/Warehouse6_zpsi7xdxz21.png)
-
"You'll remember this as the day you almost survived such a skilled swordsman as myself. May you rest in peace now old soul."
Sam says to the body of his fallen foe.
With ringing in his ears from the explosions he takes a brief moment to look around at the chaos...
"Dammit. What about the part we need!?"
He shouts over the fires and falling debris.
-
"Mother of all things holy." Jacob mumbles, before turning his head to Cillian. "You okay kid? That was.. pretty brutal. Oh.. You probarly shouldent go in there again." Then as an afterthough he looks at crystal "Hey wasn't the stuff we were supposed to repair the ship with in there?"
-
Montoya lets out a whoop at the explosion (Off comms) then heads back inside to search the North side of the warehouse for ship parts "Everyone search for parts and remains of the devices! Got to see what we can recover, now we know they are trapped we can work on a proper way to free them all from the Dandy!" He sends over the comms.
-
"Yes," Crystal mutters, "Yes it was. Better start looking..."
She first goes to Montoya and applies a Heal on the beat-up captain before joining everyone else's efforts in searching the area for the last part.
---
HEAL: Willpower 14 vs. Psychosis 9 2d20 : 6, 19, total 25
-
"Crap." He replies with a frown.
-
"Gil, start recording the storm's frequency. I'm gonna check if the machine is in one of the cargo holds."
-
The engine component the crew is looking for weighs about three hundred pounds. Searching the remains of the warehouse does not turn one up, even after the mostly intact crates left after the blast are all opened.
Outside, Gilbert notes that a large metallic object has crashed through the roof of a passenger car out in the parking lot. Taking a look, he sees the smoking wreckage of what could be the part they need to fix the Desperado.
As he takes it all in, the car bursts into flames.
Butch finds the cargo carriers to be empty. Only the one on the east side is still operational though, as the blast slammed the one on the west side into the middle one – destroying the first transport’s trailer and taking out the middle trailer’s back wheel assembly.
As the crew ponders what to do next, the zombies begin to disperse from the area, as if no longer interested in the warehouse at all…
-
Gilbert shakes his head while looking at the wreckage.
"I knew blowing it up was a terrible idea. Why would the captain want to do such a thing?" He says to himself, attempting to absolve himself from blame.
-
"Anyone find a part?" He calls out over comms
-
Sam makes his way out through the wall that had been blown out.
"Looks like the zombies are leaving." he says over the comms "I haven't seen a part myself but I'll keep looking."
-
"Cillian, cover me!"
Crystal runs into the flames and begins dragging the 300 pound burning piece of equipment out.
Whenever the flames begin to eat into her wounds, she will surge and cast regenerate on herself, using luck/Cillia as necessary to keep herself alive.
When she runs out of surge she'll fatigue herself to continue pulling the thing.
-
Crystal heads out to the flaming car and reaches in to try to pull (or roll) the engine component out of the wreckage.
Athletics with Discord 6 1d20 : 13, total 13
-
Knowing that she can Heal her own wounds, gives Crystal the confidence to ignore the pain, as her forearms catch fire for 8 Damage - but then she realized her vac suit - the barrier between her and the deadly radiation all around - is not fire proof! If it burns through, she's going to be in big trouble!
Pulling with all her might, she manages to roll the heavy piece of machinery - but it is stuck on something.
Burning two luck points, Crystal manages to twist and maneuver the piece over the wreckage of the car to roll it out onto the pavement and out of the flames.
Now to put her arms out!
Reaction Save (Stop Drop & Roll) with Discord 10 1d20 : 6, total 6
Cillian meanwhile, realizes that if he gives Crystal a luck point, he'll remove her Discord - and the zombies will move in to tear her to pieces.
-
"Samuel!" Crystal yells out, "Cut off my arms!"
-
Samuel realizes that he's over a hundred feet from Crystal and that she is making a really insane request...
-
Crystal meanwhile, manages to put herself out, before the vac suit is compromised. Her burns are sore, but not really as bad as they could have been.
-
"Uh."
"Never mind."
-
"Hooray." Butch says, lacking any enthusiasm.
"You okay Crystal?" He asks, looking at the magic engine thing
-
The engine component meanwhile - if this really is it - is charred from the flames, but not really damaged from them. It is however, bent and dinged all to hell from being blasted into the side of the forklift, ricocheting up through the roof of the warehouse, flying four hundred feet into the air, and them crashing down into a parked car...
-
I was set on fire. I'm feeling Farking great Butch.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just need a breather... You think you can fix this thing?"
-
Butch nods, with a slight frown.
"Yeah, probably. Don't seem too broken. "At worst, we'll just have to cannabilize it at the ship."
-
When Montoya and Samuel get a look at the part, they are able to confirm that its the right component. Unfortunately it been hammered pretty badly from the explosion(s).
The team will need a machine shop and forge to fix it, which the miners would certainly have around the colony somewhere, but it's also going to take a minimum of two days...
-
"Uhm.. Well..."
He looks at Crystal.
"You really wanted me to cut off your arms? The Fark!?"
He shakes his head for a moment
"Alright guys we have to fix this thing before getting it to a ship. IE: we need a machine shop. There must be facilities here we can use. It also means... Well we're gonna have to bunker down for a couple of days."
He sighs.
"We need food, air, and a secure location for at least 2 days."
-
Montoya steps up, his plans had gone well so far!
"Then we load it up into the undamaged truck on the end, drive out of here and contact the guys at the ship. We can sort out the air reserves that way too and the miners will know where the shop and tools are too!"
He nods to himself "and in the meantime Cillian can work on helping the trapped souls with space magic!"
-
As everyone lends a hand getting the heavy engine part back into the warehouse, so it can be loaded onto the one still operational cargo transport, Cillian uses his lopan to analyze the twisted remains of the antenna array and shattered computers.
It seems that the entire setup was being used to record and analyze the electromagnetic signatures of the storm – Exactly as Captain Mao had said.
If the signals are anything like what was recorded on the Desperado, before the accident in the engine room, then they must be some sort of conduit frequency resonance between the physical plane and whatever intangible place the Demetrius ended up in after the gatecrash.
It’s some real ‘Doctor Who’ type weirdness going on.
Gilbert meanwhile, hooks his diagnostic scanner up to the super computer in his hover-round and begins recording the storm for future analysis.
Once the part is loaded, everyone gets into the transport, and Butch drives them back to the domed colony’s transfer station. As they go, they notice that the zombies all seem to be headed in the same direction; and that there’s not as many of them as they had seen earlier… Almost like they all up and went somewhere else.
After navigating the vehicle-choked streets in the cargo transport and arriving at the hanger doors, the team sees that, in their absence, the zombies have managed to break through the damaged section of the doors.
A steady stream of zombies files through the gap – heading into the transfer station. No telling how many of them have already done so…
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/BerkaZerka/BountyHeadBebop/EntrywayEnd_zpsj7vahvjh.png)
-
Banging on top of the cargo container Sam alerts those inside (since he chose to ride on top as a lookout. He's a bad ass like that you know.)
"We've got a problem guys. The herd is out of the pasture."
-
Montoya calls out over comms "They've gone after the Dandy! They had the last normal life signs there!" he.prepareshimself.for.battle and triggers dramatic swashbuckling music quietly in preparation.
"We open the doors and get the truck through then reseal then by blocking it off! We can defend the Dandy after that!"
-
It is an easy matter to drive the cargo transport through the hanger doors, but another matter entirely, to get them to close again. With the whole blown through the dome under the fuel depot and now both sides of the transfer station hopelessly breached, the colony is a completely lost cause (zombie hordes notwithstanding).
Outside the dome, the storm rages on - as intense as ever - peppering the ground with sharp lightnings and weird plasma bursts that seem to just pop out of nowhere at random.
The zombies continue to file through the transfer station, past Gilbert's disabled Snack Runner VII, and out into the storm.
They seem to be heading for the Desperado - but don't get very far; as they stumble into the myriad of crevasses and acid pools, get exploded by lightning and plasma bursts, and quickly dissolve under the torrents of sulfuric acid whipping around in the gale-force winds.
This doesn't deter the others however, and the line continues to plod unerringly to its own demise - the bodies of those that make it out the farthest literally falling apart by that point.
Heaps of soupy red melted flesh are all that is left to mark any of their passing.
As the team takes in the sad spectacle, they also note a column of smoke about three hundred yards to the south west. It looks like a small ship might have crashed over there. Something about the wreckage seems familiar to Samuel...
-
...weird. But... I wonder...
"Captain. See that smoke out yonder? Something tells me we need to investigate that. Its definitely a ship, I just can't shake this feeling..."
His voice trails off the comms
-
Montoya sighs "Alright, hands up who didn't fully disable their ship before we left? Because the miners were stupid enough to try and steal it and try to abandon us here. Punishable by death on the high seas by the way." Montoya says angrily "Well for now we need a crawler to get across to the Dandy in! That or signal the miners to come get us..."
He tries to see if he can signal the ship with his comms.
-
Montoya's signal can't get through the storm to the Desperado - the comlinks only have a about a ten meter range in this crap.
-
Gilbert looks longingly at his snack runner and thinks about how he should approach repairing it given the situation.
-
Montoya sighs "Ok everyone search the nearby area for a crawler of useful stuff, might be somthing in the nearby buildings like an air canister storage or somthing!" He then begins an examination of the hanger area.
-
There's plenty of tools to fix the Snack Runner here in the transfer station, but the wiring job will take far longer than the team will have the air for - and the miners took all the spare breather packs with the vac suits when they left for the Desperado.
As the terrain crawlers are also parked over there as well, someone will have to brave the storm and walk over there to bring one back for the others...
-
Crystal surges to Heal her wounds
Rolled 2d20 : 7, 2, total 9
(First is Will, second is Psychosis). She spends Luck as necessary to not gain Psychosis and hopefully Cillian can Alter Chance regardless of the Discord on her.
She will then move cautiously to the Dandy Desperado. She will surge to heal herself if she's hit by lightning or a plasma burst more than once, and will spend luck as necessary to avoid falling into pits of acid.
-
Butch grabs Crystal's shoulder, pulling her back.
"Probably best I do this one, yeah? Cyborg, after all." Butch says with a nod, and begins to run madly through to the crawlers.
---
Balance with Discord 11+2X 5d20 : 8, 3, 1, 19, 18, total 49
Lightning Strikes & Plasma Bursts (on a 20) 5d20 : 4, 18, 19, 17, 7, total 65
---
Reaction Saves with Discord 7 2d20 : 3, 6, total 9
-
Montoya puses what he is doing to head over to Cillian oddly normal acting for a moment "See, Crystal and Butch both just offered to risk their lives for others! Now we just need to save those trapped in limbo, you work on the space magic angle and leave the science side to us!"
-
Butch activates his speed switch and sprints towards the Desperado with amazing celerity! Lightning continues to rain down around him, but he is spared any hits - though a plasma burst comes really close!
He is almost to the ship, when a violent gust blows him right over the edge a twenty foot wide chasm that drops at least a two hundred feet into a jagged pit of swirling acid! Unable to change course, he instinctively leaps at the far edge, knowing his max jump is just over ten feet.
Desperation and the force of the wind blast prove to be enough to actually get him to the other side and he comes down hard across the gap - tearing open his vac suit over both knees!
He takes 20 Damage, as his skin begins to cook from the radiation, before the suit and his own boiling blood seal the long rips.
Limping the rest of the way to the terrain crawler parked next to the Desperado, Butch climbs in and drives it carefully back to the others. There's no hurry in this case, as the terrain crawler is designed to handle lightning (though perhaps not in a helping this intense).
After a few minutes, Butch arrive in the transfer station, where the rest of the team can now board.
-
"Everyone get aboard!" Montoya happily calls out "And before the zbies make a go for us!" he adds looking around and jogging over himself.
-
Crystal reaches over and Regenerates Butch with a smile.
"Thanks for the everything Butch."
Rolled 2d20 : 1, 2, total 3
(First heal, second psychosis).
-
Crystal spends her last luck point to avoid psychosis
-
"Awesome job Butch. Now let's go see if that's my ship."
Sam says as he climbs aboard
-
Once everyone is on board, the now healed Butch drives the crawler back to the Desperado, where everyone then exits to crowd into the airlock.
Samuel (and perhaps Gilbert) note with relief that Samuel's three Cargo Containers are still where they left them (when Samuel and Butch detached the Tractor Ship to fly it into the Desperado's Hanger Bay).
The Miner Forman Bartok and a few of his men let the crew in.
"Ah..." Bartok says hastily upon the team's entry, "there was a mutiny and a fight while you were gone. We tried to stop them, but they had the shotguns. Fortunately nobody was killed, but they made off with the ships in the hanger. Don't think they made it though. At least two of them crashed nearby..."
Bartok and his men (seven of them) show signs of a fight - Bartok, another Forman with a deck pistol, and a third man having buckshot wounds. The former two looking pretty serious (shots to the chest)...
"So, did you get that part? We really need to get off this rock now!"
-
"Sorry about your luck here, but I'm not leaving without my ship."
-
"Which one was that?" Bartock asks Samuel, "Cause the two smaller ones went down pretty fast."
"The Scout actually made it out of visual range, so maybe it crashed, maybe it didn't."
"But right now, this Frigate is all that's gona save us. Sorry about your loss, but we need to focus on fixing this vessel first and salvaging scrap later."
-
Montoya steps up in his usual dramatic fashion
"Well they stole then crashed our ships, that means they are dead, either now or once we recover them. We have the part but it is damaged so will need a machine shop to work on it which will take time,also repairs will need to be performed on all our ships before we leave. No-one gets off this rock until all my ships are back abourd!" He changed pose slightly "And before you all panic and run away, we have dealt with most of the zombies already as well as solved the mystery of their animation, it is rather simple and leaves nothing to fear, once the storm passes they will simply stop."
He indicates the crawler "Right, those who are good at repairs and electronics with me to the hanger, recovery guys take a crawler to find our ships and wounded see the ships nurse." He looks at Crystal "And note that she is highly armed. Anyone still scared of the zombies take a look a hundred feet or so toward the hanger, that is all."
He then heads to stock up on air packs on their crawler.
-
"Which one was that?" Bartock asks Samuel, "Cause the two smaller ones went down pretty fast."
"The Scout actually made it out of visual range, so maybe it crashed, maybe it didn't."
"But right now, this Frigate is all that's gona save us. Sorry about your loss, but we need to focus on fixing this vessel first and salvaging scrap later."
"It was The Raven, cargo freighter"
dammit He's obviously Pissed about his ship but understands the situation at hand.
"You know, I'm a Junker, we are experts at salvaging scrap. Bet I could have it done in no time."
-
Crystal reaches over and Regenerates Butch with a smile.
"Thanks for the everything Butch."
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/Themes/core/images/dice_warn.gif)
Rolled 2d20 : 1, 2, total 3
(First heal, second psychosis).
Butch nods.
"Thanks for fixing my busted kneecaps, ha ha." Butch chuckles.
Butch shrugs at the loss of his fighter.
"Pretty sure the warranty still applies, right Gilbert?" Butch says. "Glad you guys stood by us." He then adds.
"Where's Tubbs and Moonkit?" He asks, on the comlink. Hopefully they are okay
-
"In here Boss," Tubbs comes over the comlink from the Bridge.
"We're OK. They didn't try to storm in or anything. They just started fighting over the ships and took them out the hanger bay into the storm."
"I tried to lock them in, but they just disabled the systems and opened the doors manually."
-
"In here Boss," Tubbs comes over the comlink from the Bridge.
"We're OK. They didn't try to storm in or anything. They just started fighting over the ships and took them out the hanger bay into the storm."
"I tried to lock them in, but they just disabled the systems and opened the doors manually."
"As long as you two are safe." Butch replies
"Okay, so I'm gonna go crawler our ships back over here, and let the miners and the Spacer fix up the engine bit."
-
Bartok and his men (seven of them) show signs of a fight - Bartok, another Forman with a deck pistol, and a third man having buckshot wounds. The former two looking pretty serious (shots to the chest)...
Cillian uses his lopan to check Bartok & his men, trying to see if they need Chrystal's help.
-
Crystal goes off searching for her medical backpack so she can fake treatment of both the men. She'll apply a Heal after injecting both of the seriously injured miners with food colouring tinted sugar water to make it seem like she's using super coag.
-
Cillian is startled to see that both Bartok and the other man are dead - yet not dead... Apparently, their wounds were fatal and they must now be members of the Demetrius Crew, inhabiting the dead miners' Anti-Rad bodies...
-
Cillian tries to unobtrusively get out of the miners' earshot before quietly contacting the others via comms.
"They're. . . Not them anymore. Um.
I don't know if they, like, took advantage of the mutiny, or. . .
Um, but they're dead now, and zombie ghost puppets. So. . ."
-
Crystal stops her efforts.
"I don't think these guys are too bad - they could have killed Tubbs and Moonkit and waited to ambush us."
-
Montoya also pauses but thinks up an idea to check "while we divide up the teams for the different jobs let's get the wounded to the sick bay at least so Crystal can do a proper job. Bartok, help us get your man there then we can work out a good game plan for the repairs!" He gestures at the other miners "You heard me earlier, lots of repairs to do so divide your selfs up, just remember that the faster the repairs and salvage goes the faster you can all leave!" He says all this with a grin, seemingly happier with the situation. The waves Butch and Jacob over to help, leaving Sam with the repair crews.
-
Gilbert, not wanting to stress himself out even more, ignores the new possibility that zombies are on the ship. Instead, he starts preparing whatever he needs to in order to be able to retrieve the Snack Runner.
-
Sam takes the part and the repair crews and sets them to work patching holes and draining acid.
In the meantime he gets his tools and burns a surge point to flawless masterwork the engine component behind a locked door, alone, away from distractions.
-
"Damn." Butch mutters under his breath. Bartok was a good guy, shame he died.
He heads over to Montoya, ready for whtever crazy plan he has.
-
The miners split up into work parties. Bartok and the other chest-injured man follow Crystal to the Medical Bay...
-
Montoya signals Cillian to follow so he can test them for truthfulness with space magic. Once inside Montoya signals Butch, Jacob amd crystal to be ready to pin them down before speaking "So you are from the crew of the Demetrius? I'd advise not lying about it now as we know everything already, including how to send you back if you turn violent. We know these two had to be dead before you took them over too so we need to know your intentions now."
He readies himself to Grapple them if they turn violent.
-
Crystal hangs back, ready to draw and fire at the slightest hint of trouble.
-
Jacob mentally prepares himself fopr an ambush.
-
The two men back up nervously, the one with the pistol fingering it anxiously.
"We didn't kill no one," the man says.
"Yes, that's right!" the one in Bartok's body affirms.
"We didn't choose any of this. We are just passengers of the Demetrius. We were flung into some ungodly twilight zone, driven to madness, and then endured unspeakable pain, blackness, and now this."
"We realize these men are dead, but even this aberration is preferable to the hell we have been through."
"So, what do you intend to do with us?"
Cillian reads a lot of Discord about them - it must be their nature - but no lies.
-
"Please dont shoot them?!
Um. . . I mean. . . I don't think bartok will come back even if they leave.
And they're not lying.
And. . . I think the other zombies would be just people too, if they weren't melting.
So. . . We should save them?"
-
"Don't worry Cillian, they simply got unlucky and inhabited the already dead so they didn't do anything wrong. Might need to work somthing out later but I did say we would save them all didn't I!" he looks back to the two men "Right, so long as you act nice and help out we won't kill you... Again. Just understand if we are weary as the last guys went homicidal on us. Hmmm also scanning you might help save the rest! Get all the readings you can!" he announces to no-one in particular. "Also are they slowly rotting because that would be an issue?"
-
"Yeah. Still kinda miffed that the others attacked us." Butch says. "We need to figure out a way to help out."
-
With a fight averted, the crew of the Desperado decides to try to help the trapped souls of the Demetrius. The two 'subjects' allow a battery of medical and scientific tests, while Gilbert sets up the Desperado to record the storm's signatures.
Repairs are made to the Desperado and Snack Runner VII; as what's left of Samuel's HWSS Raven (tractor ship) and Butch's Plan C? are recovered from the crash sites.
It seems their pilots couldn't handle the storm and the systems shorted under the lightning strikes - much like what happened to Gilbert's Snack Runner VII (only a hundred times worse).
Jacob's Queen Anne is not recovered however, seeming to suggest that the pilot of that ship actually made it off Io...
-
Epilog
With the miners’ help, the Desperado’s engine and hull are repaired and the ship is able to take off once again. The crew has to wait for a lull in the storm however, so as not to risk overloading the ship’s systems with lightning strikes, and is finally able to leaves Io – five days after crash landing on the miserable planet in the first place.
The moment the ship leaves orbit (and the storm), the two Demetrius passengers (inhabiting Bartok and the other miner’s bodies) drop dead. Flying back into the storm itself does nothing to revive them.
The magnetic storm itself, lasts twenty-three days, significantly dipping in intensity after the first five days. Following the fifth day, choppy communications is restored between Io and the rest of the System (and no more zombies are found wandering about).
Once the Desperado is back in space and far enough from Io, regular communications between the ship and the rest of the System is also restored. News feeds open, showing interviews with some of the miners that must have escaped on the Queen Anne.
The entire System is completely amazed by the unbelievable tale, which runs on all the news channels for an entire week. Follow-up stories after the storm passes, confirm the tragedy of the dome breach, but are not be able to corroborate any accounts of walking dead (and none of the other mining colonies on Io report similar zombie experiences during the storm – though one colony does report the murder of two morgue employees that seemed to occur sometime during that period…).
The miners that the Desperado rescued are also sucked into the lure of temporary fame (telling their story all over the Net) and Captain Montoya has to lay low for a while, due to the unwanted spotlight all the attention brings.
It’s not long after, that Ethel contacts the crew to see if they collected any scientific data.
When it is revealed that recordings were made of the storm’s electromagnetic signatures, she offers 1,000,000w, for the data (which se openly admits will be used by her father’s company, DarkTech).
---
Fortunately for Gilbert, his contacts are satisfied (given the circumstances) with his “delivery” of the “Anti-Rad” to Io and have their men recover Samuel’s cargo containers. They don’t send them back, but Samuel is able to pick them up later after the fact.
---
Following up on Shen Mao’s story about the disappearance of the Capitol Ship Demetrius, Gilbert and Montoya find the fabricated story about the collision between the Demetrius and the drunken freighter captain, as portrayed in the official record.
Some deep hacking on Gilbert’s part uncovers evidence about what really happened:
Five years ago, the capital ship Demetrius, carrying five hundred passengers was lost in Hyperspace, when an accident disrupted the Jupiter Hypergate and caused a Gatecrash, just as the ship was about to exit through the Jupiter ring.
When the Hypergate was brought back online, the Demetrius was gone and no communications could be reestablished with the ship. Experts believe that the ship was thrown out of the wormhole during the Gatecrash, but somehow remained in Hyperspace.
Rather than admit this to the world and cause excessive fear over the safety of the Hypergates however, the Gatestone Corporation covered up the displacement of the ship and fabricated the story of a collision between the Demetrius and a drunken freighter captain during the evacuation of the wormhole, to explain the loss of the ship and its passengers.
Confronted with this evidence, the Gatestone Corporation offers the crew of the Desperado a 5,000,000w bribe, just to let things alone and keep silent on the matter.
There is enough evidence however, to actually make a case against the Gatestone Corporation, which the crew can either pursue for the sake of justice – or to blackmail the company for up to 50,000,000w.
If they go for justice, that’s all they’ll get out of it – a long drawn out trial, lots of judicial corruption, a few scapegoat arrests, and a small slip in the public’s opinion of the Solar System’s largest corporation.
If they go for blackmail, they can do so safely as long as they don’t demand more than 10,000,000w.
Demanding more than that will get them the money (up to 50,000,000w), but also the Bounty Head and Enemy flaws and the finest assassins money can buy trying to hunt them down and make them pay…
END