1.2 - A Bo-Right Good Time (Closed)

[Sneaksby]

"This is Away Team to Base. We have entered the station. Please confirm camera feeds are functioning."

Kesper's cool, professional tone sounded over the radio. As always, the sensation of apparently talking to himself with his head encased in an airtight bubble was surreal. Skilled and experienced as he was in the use of vacc suits, he had never quite got used to the feeling of inhabiting a seperate world molded around his body. Nevertheless he moved in the suit as easily as if it was a second skin.

Gauss rifle shouldered, he scanned both the hall and partitioned waiting area for threats, and finding none, spoke over the radio.

"Clear."

With no immediate danger, he took a bit more time examining their surroundings, narrating as he searched.

"Claw marks and acid burns on the bulkheads are consistent with the Doctor's findings. It's almost certain we're dealing with Chamax. There's a damaged suit here, looks deliberately placed along with this message scratched on the wall." He gives the message a good look with his body camera. "It's a warning, but can't imagine what it means. The suit's empty now, but whoever used to wear it took a leg wound." He aims the camera at the torn and bloody leg of the suit, then looks at Rahne.

"Doctor, can you tell how fresh this blood is?"

[Dastardly Tristar]

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

"Away Team, this is Base; we have your signal. It is patchy, but it works." Urien confirmed, as the video flowed into the main display. Hardly the best quality, but paired with the real time signal tracking on the map, and it was almost like they were there with the away party. Except of course, he wasn't in any particular danger from flesh melting, human-devouring insects. The man craved action, but some scenes wasn't his to play.

He toggled to the Reclaimer's internal security cameras, making sure none of the guests were out on a joy trip. He caught the white fluffy tail of Astrid waltzing into the pantry as though she owned it. "Away Team, this is Base - can you try and find a way to link us with the station's cameras or security systems? Might be able to give you more eyes on the station that way." He considered sending another sensor pulse scan, but what else would it tell him that wasn't already shown in the previous scans?

Urien looked down at his feet. He was tapping it unconsciously. "I hate the waiting." he mumbled quietly to himself.

[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

---

Switching airlocks didn't exactly help Rahne feel any more optimistic or excited about the prospect of boarding the station, especially considering the ominous messages left behind. Particularly when they were also at the second airlock. She follows close to Kesper, laser pistol drawn and shield at the ready, her other tools attached to her vacc suit if needed.

As they arrive at the damaged suit, Rahne kneels down and examines the damage to the suit, the blood, the green stain, and she swallows heavily. "Base, this is the Doctor. I can confirm we have bugs. We have one confirmed victim," she replies, pouring out the viscous and half-frozen slurry left in the boot before rising away from the body and keeping a firm grip on her laser pistol. She nods to herself as she listens to Urien's suggestion over the comms as she moves along with Kesper, making sure to keep him in her peripheral vision, but not block his lines of fire if things got ugly.

"Roger that, Base. We'll keep an eye out for any computer systems or cameras where we can splice in," Rahne replies, though that was hardly her primary concern right now. She was far more keen on avoiding becoming a snack for a ravenous Chamax in the very near future. She knew well enough what the insectoid creatures could do, and was not relishing fighting them in the confines of a derelict space station, nor tending to any wounds Kesper and Eirene might sustain during the battle. Chemical burns were always difficult, nevermind the lacerations from those claws and mandibles, secondary infections, or hypoxia and hypothermia and radiation sickness that might come from their suits being torn...

"Let's proceed with all due caution, yes?" She murmurs, glancing over at Kesper, who was officially in command of the Away Team.

[Niraverine]

It was like a beginning of a horror story, Eirene noted grimly. An abandoned, ancient station, a distress call, cryptic messages, signs of a frantic defense and a monster awaiting somewhere in the heart of the structure. Precisely the setting that she always prayed not to encounter back when she was still a scout. Or not to end up in after a disagreement with a crew.

The corsair stared at the message... no, not the message, the ravings. It was hardly coherent and phrased as if spoken rather than written. She grimaced. The sound. What sound? What ghost? If that was a Chamax, it had a hive mind, but would a hive mind affect other creatures too? Influence the messenger, potentially influence those boarding the station? She supressed a shudder.

"This is well beyond our pay grade and I have a ba-ad feeling about it", she muttered to no one in particular then checked her Gauss rifle. All appeared to be in order and she trailed after Kesper and Rhane. "Where to? Comms room? If there are computers there I should be able to mess with them."

 

 

 

[Dastardly Tristar]

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

Urien sucked in his breath as the video caught the liquefied corpse. Some things, he was perfectly happy to let others experience in his place. The tapping of his foot stopped, and he leaned back, eyes closed. Eirene's voice cut through his brief reverie like knife through rock, which was to say - he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Keying through the map, he highlighted the comms array and pinged it on their suits. "You will want to head up through the cafeteria section. There will be one more room to cut through, then you should be at the comms array. See what you can do from there. We might be able to know more about this station. Remember to cut the distress beacon as well - we do not want unsuspecting travellers coming to this place if we can help it." He said slowly, keeping an eye on the radar, then to the passenger cameras.

"Make haste folks. We do not want to keep our people waiting."

[Sneaksby]

Kesper was able to remain detached even as formerly human sludge was poured out of a boot in front of him. It was important to remain calm and professional, although if this wasn't the worst thing he'd seen, it was easily in the top five.

"Bad way to go," Was all he said before turning his back on the grisly remains, stoicism intact.

"Base, we can try to access the computer system but no guarantees. Power is spotty."

Taking point and with his rifle up, Kesper cautiously proceeded to the next room.

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
Searching the High Watch Station
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Station Section 3

The next area, stepping out, seems to be something of an office or processing area. If section 2 had been the in- and out-board waiting lounge for the station's traffic, then this must be where that traffic's paperwork was processed. A quartet of desks are set up with two to either side of the hatchway from section 2 to section 3. They are strewn with papers and long-discarded dead electronics. One desk is entirely turned over onto its side, sporting the marks of claws and acid. The dark marks of laser impacts on the far wall shows that at some point it was being used as a place of cover during what must have been quite a calamitous fight.

Nearby - an extension of the same section - is a seemingly more ostentatious office space. Two larger desks flank the doorway, and against the far wall you notice what seems to be a collection of Sindalian artwork and design. Metal panels with artful engravings like some of those aboard the Reclaimer's Intent, and a painting depicting a rather stern-faced elder gentleman in what is unmistakably a Sindalian-fashion Navy uniform. The man looks not too dissimilar from Lord Wrax, though several years more into his gray hair, and sporting an eye-patch that goes well to make his tight-lipped expression just that much more grim as he stares down at each of you when you enter the office.

Station Section 4

The next section - section 4 per the map that Urien was able to generate - is very clearly a cafeteria space of some sort. Long tables still have trays and plates on them, discarded napkins and cutlery. Some tables knocked aside or turned to their sides, benches discarded into the walkways. To one corner, a massive counter separates what is clearly a food-prep area from the rest of the dining area. There are streamers and colored strips of fabric hung up between columns, clearly meant to serve as festive decoration, and as you enter the area you can see that the focal-point of everything seemed to be surrounding a display towards the 'bow' in this room.

A few busts drift in the micro-gravity, having clearly fallen from now empty stands when this section of the station still held gravity and atmosphere, with fragments drifting in small clouds. Appropriately busted, it seems. Various artifacts and relics. And one large, flat plinth takes up the center of the display, seemingly empty of any art or decoration compared to the surrounding pieces. It seems as if whatever statue or other piece took center stage for this display is absent, now, though the other pieces remain in various states.

From here a door to the 'stern' leads to section 9, per the map. The doorway is shut but could likely be manually opened just like any other typical door, but until then you can't properly gauge what to expect beyond it.

Likewise, the door to section 5 is shut, as well, but at a glance doesn't seem like it will be inoperable if using a manual crank.

[Sneaksby]

Frowning, Kesper tapped the side of his helmet.

"Base, we're getting some weird static on comms. You hearing this?"

As he spoke he began cranking open the door to room 5, headed in the direction of the communication array.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Sneaksby (see edit history)

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Rhane, Lindsey, Eirene, Kesperziaiepr, Mahan
Searching the High Watch Station
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Urien noticed it before Kesper brought it up, but was grateful for it anyway - he nearly doubted himself. But the telltale signs were there, and though it had been ages since his last E-WAR examinations, he still remembered what to look out for. The symptoms of enemy jamming. Admittedly this was a subtle, slow slip of a dagger, wedging a gap between communicating parties, rather than the thunderous blast of wartime jamming.

He did his best to clear the signal, hands flying over the keyboard and inputting commands to switch broadband frequencies, but there was only so much he could do. "Away, this is Base: yeah something is definitely interfering with our signal. Video is back to normal, but we can barely hear you." He tried increasing the frequencies, but only resulted in a sharp ring in his ears. He wrenched the headphones off and dialed the frequency back down, grimacing. "No go. I may be able to do more if you can reach that comms array. It should have more than enough power to cut through whatever it is trying to jam our signal."

He paused, and then admitted quietly. "It would be also the most logical place for the jamming signal to originate from. Eyes forward team. I am implementing radio silence until you clear that jamming."

[DJ P4NTSL3SS]

Edited August 25, 2023 by DJ P4NTSL3SS (see edit history)

[Emmettmcglynn]

"Ah, Lord Admiral Satvik." Mahan says to Urien, comm off, as the portrait comes into view. "He was one of the top enforcers in Late Sindal, and had about as many enemies as the Emperor did. The fact that he's here though... well, the man had a lot of enemies and supposedly a lot of contingency plans. The man was supposed to have a whole host of caches scattered around the Empire and its border regions, and if his portrait this station might have been placed here to guard one. Once we flush out the Chamax we ought to investigate, if we have the time."

He falls silent as the snow fuzz begins to pick up on the screen, squinting in suspicious. When Urien began jamming countermeasures his squint turned into a frown.

"Well, that's concerning. I don't think someone who would post a distress beacon on a station like this would be fiddling with a jammer on their own signal, but they're the only sophont on the station." Mahan says, leaning forward with a frown. "Just what the devil is going on here?"

Leaving the question hanging in the air, he flips his viewscreen back to the passenger cameras to ensure that they don't have a spy or plant on board. After flicking through the cameras, he switches instead to watching the airlock and the station's exit: he'd rather not be boarded without forewarning. It would be unbecoming of the Star Guard.

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Mahan
Searching the High Watch station
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

"Shut up." Urien snapped at Mahan. His hairs were raised, as he replayed all three video recordings on screen side by side. Something was amiss, his senses were screaming at him to pull the plug on the mission. An unknown presence in the station who was aware of their presence and jamming signals? It was a recipe for disaster. What ultimately concerned the man was when he heard it.

Hands fiddled with the knobs on his control panel, replaying the same bit of static over and over again until he was 75% sure it was what he heard.

Help.

Urien threw caution out of the window and dialed the communicator's strength back up, and opened comms to the away team. "Ay-Tee! Sector not clear, someone is in there with you!"

He turned his chair around to face Mahan with a vicious expression. "Lock down the ship, and start a general search of the passenger's cargo. We may have an imposter on this ship."

[Emmettmcglynn]

Immediately Mahan leaps to his feet, drawing the monoblade sheathed in the captain's chair in a single smooth motion. In his left hand he clears his revolver from the holster and habitually checking the cylinders. Automatically he runs through the conversations he'd had with the passengers during the week in jump for any suspicious behavior or unusual interests.

"How do you know, and who do you suspect?"

[Dastardly Tristar]

Borite / Sindal (Trojan Reach 2219)
Urien, Mahan
Searching the High Watch station
019 (Week 2) 1105, Imperial

Urien shook his head. "Security measures, Mahan. We are at risk of losing our away team from communication interference. If it originated from the station comm array, we would not be able to communicate back either. This station has got to be thousands of years old, but with technology we cannot replicate. Who is to say their jamming methods do not just shut us out?" He calmed himself, hands on the console as he stared at the screen.

"This suggests equal parity or lower technology level. We can cut the Vargr out of the equation, because why would they try to prevent a rescue? It is not an ambush as far as I can see - I can assure you, we are the only other ship within 50 astro-grandmile around this part of space. It may be something that the Vargr's captors left behind to make our lives more difficult, but that seems unnecessary on their end, especially since we already know that something is already limiting the Vargr's chances." He opened another screen and ran through the various inventory listings from the passengers, before pausing on the Borites. "I suspect these folks may know something we do not, but also that one of them may be interfering with our communications."

He looked at Mahan in the eyes, showing the many years of counterintelligence within them.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Dastardly Tristar (see edit history)

[Sneaksby]

"Away Team to Base, radio check, come in. Repeat, Away Team to Base, radio check, come in."

Turning to his two comrades, he tried to give them the same request for a radio check, wincing at the loud static. Seeing their comms had been jammed to uselessness, he typed out a message on his suit computer's miniature display and held it up for them to read.

No radio, we talk with text and sign language

At Urien's frantic message he quickly shouldered his rifle and swept it over the room, pausing briefly at the slightly opened door. With visibility poor he relied once again on his psionic abilities, not carefully unfurling his mind as before but slamming his perception outwards.

After a moment Kesper relaxed slightly and gave his two comrades an exaggerated shake of his head. He showed them another message via text, then held the same message up to his body camera:

Nothing in here, hostiles in 12 and 13, going to comm array

Edited August 25, 2023 by Sneaksby (see edit history)