1.2 - A Bo-Right Good Time (Closed)

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
Arriving in the Borite System, out of jump near Borite
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

The naming of systems is a long and storied tradition among the various powers of Charted Space.

Some are named by their inhabitants - either by those who make first contact with them, or by the inhabitants themselves with that name properly honored and uplifted to the records of greater Charted Space. Others are named to commemorate the circumstances of their discovery, such as to honor the Scouts who first discovered a system after a near-tragic misjump or the Imperial Admiral who pioneered a colonial expedition. And yet more are named after legends, or heroes and myths of various cultures, such as fabled weapons of mythical heroes.

Borite was named for the high concentration of boron-heavy compounds on the surface of the mainworld.

With little working against you, your jump brings you out just beyond the very edge of Borite's jump-shadow. Being such a low-tech and infrequently traveled world, there is not much in the way of a dedicated area that arriving vessels are to aim for when jumping into or departing the system. More a "pick as you like" operation, with generally accepted guidelines posted for the interest of those traveling to Borite from neighboring systems that advise an off-set to account for possible encounters with raiders.

The distance means you don't quite see the mainworld at first. The planet is lost against the black of vacuum, with you approaching near the night-side of the planet and still a day's travel. But when looking at its entry in the ship's library, you can see that it is an ugly yellow-brown stain of a marble. A planet that fails to live up even to its own reputation, at a glance.

Your passengers are agreeable enough. Most are travelers of various dispositions, to include four citizens of Borite - individuals who share early in the week that they made a jump with a "one-shot" J-Drive to make it for Torpol, where they had hoped to find a business opportunity to start work as in-system traders in hopes that they might escape life on Borite. But, as the four of them spend each evening of the jump week sullenly gathered together in the common area over coffee and hard biscuits heading back, its clear that didn't work as well for them as they might have hoped.

Something about deals with the devil you know might come to mind...

As you draw nearer to the system's, your sensor operator will have the best view of just how untraveled this system is. To those on the bridge or watching through monitors in the dining area towards the rear of the command deck will get a view similar to what is always seen first entering a system: blackness and glimmering spots of stars and planets in the distance, with the bright spot of the main star taking up a large part of the show.

But for the sensors operations, this system is quiet. It isn't totally silent, as you can still catch the beacon of a trader here and there that seem to be transiting through the system on their way from refueling at one of the system's three gas giants. That is why two signals stand out on the sensors display for.

The first is a transit beacon. Standard, like the one your own ship or any other broadcasts for legal travel.

The M.V. Delta Vee. By the beacon, she is a Far Trader. Why she stands out is that as the Reclaimer's Intent draws closer, she doesn't seem to be moving under thrust. There are no communications from her other than her transit beacon, and the area around her seems clear of any other beacons. Your own ship is one of the only other vessels at the edge of Borite's jump limit that you can detect during an initial perfunctory post-jump sensor check.

The second signal is a vacc-suit distress beacon. These are fairly standard things and it is broadcasting on the generally accepted channels for such a beacon, per trade law. However, there is no identifier for crew. Typically, such a beacon might identify the rank and name of the individual, or other information. However, in cases of typical independent (or less organized vessels), or for things such as emergency-use vacc-suits available to passengers, at the very least the ship the suit is from is identified. But that isn't the case here.

The distress beacon seems to be coming from somewhere in the orbit of Borite-5, the planet nearest you.

Like with the Delta Vee, you can't visually source the beacon at this time, but it seems to be coming from further out on the Borite system, in a path that would have you traveling slightly away from the mainworld and the Delta Vee.

Beyond those two, at least with a perfunctory initial sweep, the system seems quiet.

In summary, you find that you are approximately 400,000km from either the Delta Vee or the suit distress beacon - an hour and change of travel if you go at Thrust 6. A little over an hour and a half to travel from one to the other, at best approximation. And no matter what, you'd find yourself only two and a quarter hours away from making the surface whether you pursue investigating the Delta Vee, the suit beacon, both, or neither.

Your passengers, unless you tell them, are currently unaware of anything short of your arrival in system. Only the crew are aware of these sensor readings.

Edited September 11, 2023 by DJ P4NTSL3SS (see edit history)

[Emmettmcglynn]

Throughout the journey Mahan is more sociable than the last, attending breakfast with the crew and easing into their presence as they spend more time together. In particular he tries to take time to ease tensions with Urien, considering the less than cordial introduction, as the man had purchased the superior security Mahan had failed to get out of pocket. He would be remiss not to try and reconcile. His afternoons he spends in his office, reading about Borite and its current status, government, and diplomatic ties. Finally, his evenings he returns to his room after dinner and spends his time relearning formal ettiquette long forgotten.

When they drop out of jump Mahan is already in the Captain's chair sipping coffee and reading about High Sindalian military dance culture on his dataslate. Taking in the information, he quickly makes a decision and begins acting. Pressing his thumb on the comms, he puts out a call on the crew channel summoning them to the bridge. As they arrive and assume their stations, he gives directions to each.

"Urien, get on active scans and get us a view of the area, this is too shady. If nothing comes up, we make course for the distress beacon, we can't leave someone floating in space without good reason. Still, that beacon isn't normal and we're chasing a known pirate so I don't want to walk into an ambush. Eirene, Kesper, one you get on the barbette up here. Hold off on manning the missiles yet, I'd rather not spook the passengers until we're actually being shot at. Rahne, whichever of you don't take the gun, head down to the airlock and suit up for void once we get close enough. We may need to bring someone in and they might need medical attention. All of you, we've got a bit until we close in so if you've got anything to do get it done soon. Any questions?"

With that done, he calls up the pilot's controls onto the captain's seat and readies himself to respond to events.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Emmettmcglynn (see edit history)

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
Arriving in the Borite System, out of jump near Borite-5
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Sensor duty was nothing exciting or dangerous work (though raiders have been known to deploy unique countermeasures that make it a lethal tasking), but it was important work. Just very tedious, and one that Urien handled with an air of levity, as he monitored the console with Astrid on his lap, purring up a storm.

Urien had spent the week mostly holed up in the sensor operating room at the bow of the ship. It held a comforting atmosphere, and satisfied the itch for constant surveillance in him. Astrid did what most ship cats did, and terrorized the passengers for their food, beds and toys. She also kept the ship rat free, though the man wasn't terribly pleased to find a mangled corpse of a rat by his bed.

When they slammed into realspace, Mahan's voice rang through the ship's intercomms, summoning the crew to the bridge. Urien could already see what the concern was, but made his journey to the bridge regardless. Moving quickly, the lightly dressed man entered the bridge and took in the visual view of the planet. Nothing unique, and certainly one of the more tepid worlds he had visited, but he liked to see the orbs of earth, soil and gasses revolve around in orbit. It was very humbling.

He hopped into the sensors station, pulling the headset around his ears and flipping toggles. With a thumb on the activation button, he hammered in the command to send out a burst scan around them. It wasn't subtle, but if there was already an ambush in place, it didn't matter too much.

The first pulse fired.

Then the second.

And he waited patiently, blocking out all the other senses to focus on the returning beeps, blips and flashes on the screen, and through his headset. Everything that he heard, or saw, he jotted down with his left hand on a notepad, his right turning the dial knobs to each frequency he was pinging.

After a tense moment he put down his headset and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. "We have a Far Trader on a departure course, registry marks her as the Sweet Caroline. No other contacts within our sensor shadow."

He checked his notepad, ticking off the information one by one. "That Delta Vee seems to be an anchor-point, might be gathering point for other ships, but we cannot tell this far out."

Urien highlighted the vacc-suit beacon on the main screen, along with the scan readings. "That on the other hand - everything seems to indicate that it is a vacc-suit distress beacon alright, but something is off. No ship-identifier or anything to give us a lead. More importantly, we should not be picking up the signals this far out. We are more than 400 astro-grandmile out from that beacon, and most suits would not have the range to ping us that far. Something is off about that beacon. I highly recommend we approach and shoot another scan within 20 astro-grandmile, before we do anything."

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Dastardly Tristar (see edit history)

[Sneaksby]

"You might be the most dangerous scientist I ever met, doctor."

Kesper always took his lumps from Rahne with unflinching good cheer and today was no exception, his expression between a grin and a grimace as he shook out the pain from his arm which had just taken a blow from the Darrian's blunt training blade.

There were about two things you could do with your free time during the innumerable week-long jumps: lay around watching holo programs and get fat eating freeze dried whatevers, or study. The Zhodani opted for the later, even getting over his distrust enough to approach their Darrian doctor and ask if she would be his training partner in improving his personal combat skills. Kesper was no slouch, but in the course of his career he found himself focusing on honing his psi and command skills rather than becoming a stellar fighter. In this situation, without a squadron under his orders, it was prudent to dust off those neglected combat skills.

In hindsight the man looked back on that decision with some slight regret, as Rahne was vastly more skilled than he with the blade and their sessions inevitably ended up being an exercise in getting the crap kicked out of him. Informative, but painful. At least the doc could patch him up after.

He had just called for a break to drink some water and towel off the sweat when Mahan's voice came onto the intercom. Kesper grinned down at the doctor, frizzled and sweat-slicked hair framing his face.

"Shall we get suited up then? Probably enough time for a trip to the fresher, if we hurry."

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the suit distress signal...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Drawing closer to the suit's distress signal, closing over a period of several minutes, the Captain of the Sweet Caroline is hailed - quick to provide answers to various probing questions regarding the whole situation.

To start, the whole reason she isn't responding to the suit's distress signal is because she says her ship was jumped by Oghman raiders as they were leaving the atmosphere, causing a not insignificant amount of damage. They are stable enough, but crew are all prepped in vacc suits and sleeping at stations until they've made the jump and are in Torpol to make the mainworld. Their doctor is busy enough keeping the wounded already aboard in any sort of stable condition, and the Captain herself is riding an accelerant patch to keep herself working without sleep until they're safe.

As for the nature of piracy in the area, and local news, the locals are saying that they are on the tail-end of Oghman summer raids. There was a long spat but they're tapering out. And more importantly, throughout the general region the Oghman haven't been as active as they are typically. She says it is as if somebody has humbled them, of late, or like they are laying low out of worry of drawing out more serious gunboats.

And as for Delta Vee, the Captain's best guess is that the Delta Vee is loitering and hoping to draw in some other traders making for Borite. That way they can fly in as a pair or trio with an ad-hoc High Guard to cover each other on the way in and out of landing. Something that the Captain of the Sweet Caroline wishes she had taken the time to do, in hindsight...

Now for the signal?

As you draw closer, you lock the source of the signal more directly.

A space station. A positively ancient space station. It sits in high orbit over Borite and looks as if it has been here for quite some time. There is no transponder for the station itself, like one might expect from a highport or similar, but the massive communications array at one end of the station seems to be the source of the distress signal.

Bringing the vessel with 20,000 kilometers, you are able to get a decent scan.

The passengers stir and you can tell that the orders to return to their quarters seems to catch them off-guard. The four from Borite grumble the loudest, with a sad air to it as they gather their meal and shuffle to their respective quarters. All due to the ship's captain, after all.

As for the Delta Vee? It is... not informative. You are reasonably certain you can raise her on one of the standard trade channels, but its broken up and hard to read, as if they are having communications issues of some kind. Sputtering. A burst of static. A groan or a curse? And then silence.

Edited August 20, 2023 by DJ P4NTSL3SS (see edit history)

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the suit distress signal...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

 

Urien sucked in his breath as the space station came into view, its monolithic size dominating the view screen. He wasn't sure how old the station was, although if the local region's history was any indication, it had to be Sindalian. He snapped back to his screen and prepared for another sensor burst. As soon as they were within range, he fired off his scans, and waited for the response.

One by one, the answers were fired back at him. He didn't know what to make of it at first, but his training kicked in. Control his breathing. Wipe away the Bias. Re-evaluate the data.

"We are looking at one partially dead station; sensors are flagging energy readouts and possible life-support at the top of the orbital station. " He paused, checking his readings again. "No energy signatures from their radar dishes or sensor satellites. I cannot imagine that station has enough power to maintain life support for whoever - or whatever - is inside the station. We could get even closer to try and get a more accurate reading inside, but . . ."

He magnified the image of the station and highlighted the possible weapon mounts. "Station defenses. They may be out of commission, or just merely deactivated. The latter means that if we get too close, there's a chance it activates - and we will be sitting ducks." Urien scratched his stubble, pondering his next words.

"If we had drones, or a smaller vessel I would recommend sending Mister Kesper ahead to recce the station, Seeing as we have neither, and that we must get in closer to establish physical contact, we could also try and disable those defenses from a distance, and then approach - but we risk damaging the station and injuring whoever is in it."

[Emmettmcglynn]

Mahan gives a long, low whistle as he eyes the visual readings. Leaning back in his chair he gives a slight smile as he chews on the end of his pipe.

"Not just any station. That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is a genuine Sindalian High Watch Station." Mahan explained, making no effort to hide the admiration in his voice. "Back in their day, one of these babies could tangle with as many as four destroyers on even terms. Planet like this, was probably installed to work with on-planet defenses or an armed base for couriers and VIP ships."

He chuckles as he finishes. "Of course, I don't think she's in any position to take us on one or four at a time. If that's Sindal era she'll be well over two millennia old, going on three, and even if it's from a successor state that'd still put it in the ballpark of a thousand years without love. I'll be on guard in case of automated defenses, Mister Urien, but I wouldn't put money on it. Let's put an away team together, find an entry point, and get to the beacon. Any volunteers to go with Kesper?"

Then, as an afterthought, he adds "Oh, and as you make you way see if there's any Sindalian era goods left behind even if it's probably picked clean. We can go back once we've rescued everyone and dropped off the passengers. Harrier's got her charms but she's still shy a few statues and panels."

He pats the ship console comfortingly, as if to reassure the ship it's still beautiful in its current state.

[Kiro Haas]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the suit distress signal...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

 

"Thank you."

Rahne had been more than happy to spend part of the down-time during transit to spar with Kesperziaiepr, as it provided a good way to occupy her mind during the long, dull hours of interstellar travel, and a good way to keep herself in shape and her skills sharp. While the Zhodani was hardly a challenge on the sparring mat, he at least provided an interesting distraction. And she had to admit, it felt good to actually teach again.

"Given the nature of the relations between our races, I do not know if you are aware of this fact or not, Kesperziaiepr, but in the Darrian navy, we do not use blades. They're exclusively symbolic pieces, when they are used, for the ship's captain. Otherwise, we prefer to use our bodies as weapons." She explains during the break in their training, as her Zhodani crewmate rehydrated. "In a zero-gravity environment, a skilled martial artist can possess multiple advantages over a combatant using a blade. Namely --" She begins, only to be cut off as Captain Mahan's voice comes across the ship's intercom. She looks over to the Zhodani and nods.

---

Rahne had quickly moved to one of the ships' lockers after emerging from the 'fresher, and having dressed and armed herself in her own quarters. There, she quickly donned one of the ship's vacc suits, having received the details of the situation from Urien and the captain during over the intercom. Once she was satisfied her suit was properly done up and the systems showed all green, she made her way to the ship's airlock, adjusting her comm-dot in her pointed ear.

Mentally she goes over her secondary check-list:

Laser pistol? Charged, Check.

Gauss pistol? Loaded, Check.

Claw-glove? Check.

Shield? Check.

Medikit and scanner? Check.

Autohacker and computer? Check.

"Bridge? This is Dr. Rahne. Standing by in the primary airlock, ready to go at your order. And if we're lucky, maybe we can find a sword for you, Captain."

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the suit distress signal...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

 

Urien would be lying if he said he wasn't slightly jealous that Kesper and Rahne were boarding the station on their own. Yet no one else could talk to the sensors like he did, apparently, and that made him too valuable in his mind to be wasted on a space op. One day however, that might change, he consoled himself. He flagged both of their suit's signals to the ship, so that he could monitor their progress as they approached the station. It felt all too familiar - him behind a desk, a monitor, a finger on the communicator. Eyes poring over the screen, ready for action.

A painful reminder of his past. "This is Sensors on private comms to Away Team - I will be monitoring your progress from the ship. We will try to get you as close as possible to the active portion of the station, but we do not have schematics of the station, so you are mostly on your own. I will inform you in case of any unusual readings on my end. Try not to stay there for too long, we do not want our passengers to start talking. Get in, recover whoever fired that distress beacon, and shut it down - we do not want anyone else coming for this station. Get back quickly."

He turned to face Mahan on the captain's chair, finger on the communicator. "Anything else?"

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Dastardly Tristar (see edit history)

[Emmettmcglynn]

"Negative, comms." Mahan says with a shake of his head. "Keep safe and good luck, away team. I'll put you in the entry port with atmosphere, should give you a few more minutes to work with."

With that, he summoned the holographic controls back to his chair and begins maneuvers to the lower entry port, slowing slightly as he enters range of Kesper's psychic scans of the station to give the Zhodani time to get his bearings.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Emmettmcglynn (see edit history)

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the High Point station...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

The station draws closer until its gray hull starts to occupy the whole of one of the display screens at the front of the bridge. The hull is gray, and as the distance closes you can make out the lines of panels, various hoses and lines that the designers must have judged not at risk if left to open vacuum. There are the scores of micro-meteorites that glanced off or shattered against the hull, and the paint is faded enough that an observer might almost miss the faded sunburst of the Sindalian Empire on the central 'disk' of the station.

Closer still and you can make out more of the physical layout of the station. There is a central disk that makes the 'top' of the station, and on one 'edge' of that disk is the large communications array that is broadcasting the SOS signal of a vacc-suit emergency transponder. On the starboard side is a short wing that scans indicate has a large measure of liquid hydrogen - in excess of 500 d-tons. It has no exterior accesses that could be docked with and doesn't seem to have any physical ports such as windows to see inside. Only sensors will give you a peak at what is inside.

The wing on the port side is much longer, and at least two-thirds of it seems to be holding atmosphere if the heat signature on the hull is anything to go by. There are two airlock docking rings, one on the 'bow' and one on the 'stern' of this wing. And at this range, Urien can make out the tiny pin-prick glow of guide-lights on both rings - that being, the various small lights that are meant to help indicate range and angle for those space-jockeys who are either old-fashioned or unfortunate enough to have to perform a close docking approach entirely manually.

The central body is a larger, square shape. It connects to both the port-side 'wing' of the station and the 'top' disk of the station. On its 'underside' is the sealed shuttle hangar, and it is also home to the bulk of the station's weaponry - a whole battery of torpedo and missile bays, and several quad-turret mounts, all sitting silent. While some of it seems to be holding atmosphere, a large section of it has been vented to space. A gaping maw of jagged metal and darkness takes up one corner, with a scattering of debris from the hull.

What did this damage is hard to say. A larger meteorite? Perhaps some enemy of the Sindalian Empire, the records of this attack lost to time or buried somewhere deep in the dustiest archives of the Tower back on Drinax? It can't be said. But it leaves an open and clear entry to the central 'body' of the station if one isn't too shy about a cheeky bit of EVA work.

As the Reclaimer's Intent draws closer, lining up for docking is easy. Its clear that this station is in a fairly stable orbit and the damage to her is not so great as to pose a significant challenge. The away team can fit three-at-a-time into the airlock and listen to the dull thump as locking rings interconnect and the commerce raider locks in place with the station. The armored shield on the viewport of both the raider and station's airlock doors come down once each system interfaces with the other to allow a view into the interconnected airlocks.

And while waiting for atmosphere to equalize between the two, the view can be taken in readily.

There are three vacc-suit lockers in the station's airlock that sit empty, with the doors that might have once been closed to secure such suits in place having been entirely removed. Moreover, the lights are blacklights instead of the standard yellow or white, or even red to indicate the airlock is undergoing a change in atmosphere.

And then there is the door on the far side, leading into the station.

A Jolly Rogers - the skull and crossbones. Glowing under the blacklight bulbs that have been installed, it is hard not to draw the eye. Instead of a more traditional human or human-like skull, its a multi-horned insectoid thing. Eight eyes, four to either side, and even accounting for artistic liberties the pincers don't look particularly... vegetarian... in disposition. Scrawled below in the same UV-reactive paint as the skull and cross bones is a simple message...

GOOD LUCK

Edited August 20, 2023 by DJ P4NTSL3SS (see edit history)

[Kiro Haas]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the High Point station...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

---

As the ship docked, and the airlock opened the unusual lighting is in itself enough to set the good doctor's nerves on edge, to a degree where she draws her laser pistol and extend her shield. Of course, that feeling of concern only deepens once she's directed the ship's cameras to the unusual symbol and the message below. The information that's fed back is... less than wholesome, and only adds to the concern she feels prickling the back of her ears.

"It seems we have evidence of pirate activity here, Captain," Rahne comments across the radio, sweeping her laser pistol back and forth across the airlock as she advances, slowly. "Their message is a bit concerning, if I'm honest..." She continues, using her suit's lamps to keep whatever's before her illuminated, so she can get a clear shot if need be.

"Why write 'good luck' if they didn't leave behind some kind of trap? Why switch the lights to UV blacklight?" She continues, still advancing with her shield held before her and her laser pistol at the ready, moving cautiously, the oh-so-familiar sound of magnetic boots clamping and releasing with every step she takes into the unknown of the seemingly abandoned Sindalian station.

[Sneaksby]

"I'll join you in a bit. I'd love to pick up on our conversation later." Kesper spoke to Rahne through the radio, as he stopped by the bridge while she proceeded directly to the airlock.

Right there in the middle of everything, the Zhodani took a seat on the floor and went cross-legged, each foot resting on the opposite thigh, palms facing up with thumb and forefinger touching. The pose wasn't necessary to use his psionics, but it helped him focus.

Taking slow, deep breaths, he allowed his mind to gently unfurl. Saw the burning minds of his crewmates surrounding him like planets orbiting a star. Then he stretched his perception outwards. He noted the life-signs of their passengers, ignored them. Homed in on the space station.

His face was relaxed as he searched, his eyes open and staring blankly ahead. After a moment his brows knitted together and eyes narrowed slightly, as though making an extra effort to concentrate. Eventually Kesper frowned and stood.

"Someone bring up the station interior on the display? Thanks."

"There's one intelligent life-form on the station: a vargr, loitering around the right wing here, near the fuel reserve." He pointed it out on the display for everyone's benefit, making sure Rahne got the audio and visual of his report in her suit comms and HUD.

Here Kesper starts to look a little troubled.

"There's only one other life-sign on the station. It's some kind of animal, not an intelligent being. But it took me a minute to pinpoint its mind. It was..." He vaguely gestured with his hands, searching for the right word, "...diffused? Spread out. All around the station. I can't say I know what to make of it, but," He indicated another spot on the display, "I was able to narrow it down to here, in the connecting passage between the left wing and the center."

"I cast my sight into the station itself. Tried to get eyes on it. But I couldn't see a damn thing." He shrugged. "It's a mess in there, so it's probably hiding. One last thing: the vargr actively avoids going near it. So we should assume it's dangerous."

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the suit distress signal...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Urien said nothing as Kesper conducted his meditations on the bridge, far too engrossed with his next scanning pulse on the station. As the warrior reported his successes with his mental magics, Urien kept a steady hand on the console, monitoring Rahne on one screen and reading the scanning results on another.

It was a deluge of information that demanded his attention, and with each paragraph and line that scrolled through, his breathing slowed. He appeared to have given up on breathing entirely as the last readout scrolled past. Only then did his body loosened, the tension that had gripped his muscles ebbing away. Normalcy warmed his corpse-like rigor, and Urien pressed the communicator to Rahne's earpiece so that she could hear his next report.

"Sensors to Ay-Tee, hold. This station seems to be sectioned off by multiple nuclear power banks - I am looking at multiple energy signatures scattered throughout the station." He uploaded the locations of the power banks to Rahne and Kesper's suits, highlighting them on their maps. He also sent through the 3d map of the station to their suits, and pulled up the map on the main screen. "Watch your fire in there, we do not want a blow out on our hands. For that matter, I have some bad news - there is no way to the Vargr without crossing that anomalous signature."

He rotated the map to point out the singular chokepoint access. "Not unless you want to back out and enter through the hull breach. On that matter of breaches-"

Urien minimized the screen to pull out the readings on the debris field surrounding the station and the Reclaimer's Intent. The sensor analysis, spectrometers and chemical readings gave a jumble of graphs, numbers and charts. Luckily, the Solomani interpreted shortly. "Ladies and gents, we seem to be floating in the remnants of Misery's Company. Pieces of it, anyway. Our scans show a 75% probability that the dust floating about matches with the Misery's jump-lattice, bearing two kinds of energy trauma - acute intensity, and hardened delocalized. The former tells us that the crew managed to cut off damaged sections of the ship, with the latter being the damaged section itself. It matches the story from Torpol, so we are potentially looking at a connection here."

"That said, it looks like our friend in the station seems to be running on fumes here. He keeps making cautious cycles from his hiding spot to a life support recycler. I would try and make good time on this, Ay-Tee, but the second mouse does get the cheese. Try and look for any camera subsystems, see if you can't power it and loop the feed to the ship if you can."

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
On approach to the High Point station...
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Drawing back from the airlock, once the away-team has come back aboard and resealed the airlock, Mahan's deft enough with the controls to swing the Reclaimer's Intent hard around the port-side 'wing' of the station. The comparatively small warship swings about, carries itself down the length of the port-side 'wing' of the station, and turns about to meet with the 'upper' airlock. Once more the process repeats - drawing in, locking with the docking rings, and letting the away-team listen to the clank thump, and hiss of the airlock rings coming together.

The airlock the ship arrives at now is nearly identical save for a key difference. The text under the skull-and-crossbones.

STAY QUIET

And moreover, as the airlock cycles and admits the away-team to step forward, they will find it is just as the other. The vacc suits for the airlock are gone, the doors removed, the bulbs glowing with blacklight illumination. And then the whole thing is made more complicated when trying to open the interior door and finding that it - unlike the exterior door that opened automatically - lacks power to it. But in the nearby emergency storage locker you find what one could expect from a typical space station: a fairly standard-looking hand-crank for iris valves like those found on most spaceships and stations around Charted Space.

One turn after the other, with the away-team likely needing to take shifts to avoid being too tired out or burning through minutes of life support too quickly, the valve creaks open. Each person who takes up a turn can feel the vibrations of the gears and machinery through the gloves of their suits until it is open enough that you are able to navigate through without much difficulty. And what a station it is to be let through into...

The station is on the receiving end of at least a century of disrepair and disregard. No lights, no gravity, no air, no heat. Terminals on the walls don't light up as you approach, and you get the feeling looking at other doors that there isn't much power to those doors, either. Good thing iris valve openers are the sort of standard thing one can find just a short ways down the wall from most iris valves and other hatches - just like on your very own vessel that you leave behind with each magnetic, thumping step deeper into the darkness.

Headlamps sweep over grimy walls and debris-littered floors. You can immediately tell that this whole place looks as if it was abandoned in a mad panic. There are papers and data tablets left floating in the micro-gravity, pieces of what is clearly food that was left partly eaten, and even articles of clothing or other materials. There is no mystery to what you are looking at - everybody who was on this station left in a half-blind panic and as you step through what is clearly meant to be the smaller of two on-boarding and off-boarding terminals, you can see that you are at the very tail end of that whole exercise and stepping through long forgotten remains.

You can see old Sindalian artwork strung up on some walls, with the painted eyes glinting at you from out of the darkness as your headlamps sweep over them. As you walk down the narrow hall, past benches and seats strewn with debris or stained from years of forgotten mess, the scenery changes for the worse. You start to notice the scoring of weapons fire that has left dark stains against the whites and grays of the walls and floor. Lights shattered or occasionally flickering with what must be the lingering remnants of some fading connection to the grid.

Stepping more fully into the opening, your headlamps catch sight of mottled green splashes against the walls - an earthen color.

And those splotches and stains naturally guide you to a vacc suit slumped in one dark corner. At first you think it might still be linked to the ground by mag-boots, but upon closer inspection you are able to see that the foot is actually trapped under a shifted floor panel that keeps the suit moored in place no matter how the suit might move or shift around. And near it, scratched into the wall as if by a jagged piece of metal, you are able to see a message in large and shaky letters.

 THE SOUND!
     THE SOUND!
   THE SOUND

       THE GHOST IS IN THE SOUND

  THE SOUND
       THE SOUND!

To your rear is the door back to the airlock, back to the Reclaimer's Intent. Ahead of you, the suit and the scrawled message. To your left - facing that message - is the hatchway into the 'disk' at the 'top' of the station, per the station map that Urien's sensor scans have provided when sent to your suit computer.

With vacuum around you, there isn't much to be had. A panel pops or shifts under foot with your step. You stand close enough to some piece of long-running but uncared for machinery that you can feel and hear its vibrations through your suit. Your breath reverberates off the face-plate of your suit. And, at times, the crackle of the radio as you chatter amongst yourselves. All of this acts as the only soundtrack you have.

Edited August 22, 2023 by DJ P4NTSL3SS (see edit history)