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[IC{ Alien RPG: Chariot of the Gods
Neaden
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Act 1: Pandora's Box
The crew of the Montero wakes up groggy, cold, and Dehydrated. This ship is more than 300 degrees warmer inside than out, but still below comfortable. As always waking up from cold sleep your first priority is to get some clothes on and some hot food. The ship should have woken up all up 24 hours before your arrival at Sutter's World, time to situate yourselves and secure the cargo, so long as you stick to The Company's schedule of course.
The Cryo room has a console in the center of the room with a direct connection to MU/TH/UR, while is lacks the full display as the console in the bridge it does have a summary of the important things. Right now all systems are green and there are are no alerts, which is a little odd since you would expect to be receiving a hail from Sutter's World, hopefully nothing is wrong with your Comms. There is one flashing red light, though it isn't an emergency alert, MU/TH/UR wants to talk to Captain Miller. The rest of you are free to head down to the Galley to get something to eat and drink, or to the Hygiene and Personal lockers for a shower.
All of you are currently Dehydrated from Hypersleep, while Dehydrated you cannot recovervstress, you can grab some Hydr8tion in the Cryo room or head to the Mess to get a proper meal and coffee. Well, a dehydrated breakfast and instant coffee, but you take what you can get around here.
The crew of the Montero wakes up groggy, cold, and Dehydrated. This ship is more than 300 degrees warmer inside than out, but still below comfortable. As always waking up from cold sleep your first priority is to get some clothes on and some hot food. The ship should have woken up all up 24 hours before your arrival at Sutter's World, time to situate yourselves and secure the cargo, so long as you stick to The Company's schedule of course.
The Cryo room has a console in the center of the room with a direct connection to MU/TH/UR, while is lacks the full display as the console in the bridge it does have a summary of the important things. Right now all systems are green and there are are no alerts, which is a little odd since you would expect to be receiving a hail from Sutter's World, hopefully nothing is wrong with your Comms. There is one flashing red light, though it isn't an emergency alert, MU/TH/UR wants to talk to Captain Miller. The rest of you are free to head down to the Galley to get something to eat and drink, or to the Hygiene and Personal lockers for a shower.
All of you are currently Dehydrated from Hypersleep, while Dehydrated you cannot recovervstress, you can grab some Hydr8tion in the Cryo room or head to the Mess to get a proper meal and coffee. Well, a dehydrated breakfast and instant coffee, but you take what you can get around here.
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Wilson rises from his private cryo-sleep pod. It's not actually any different than the crew's, just located in an area off to one side of theirs and out of view of them as they rise. There's a bench nearby to recuperate after waking, and Wilson avails himself of it.
A few minutes later, with his head clear, he heads to the showers. It's important - in any circumstance, but especially when dealing with spacemen - to maintain good personal hygiene. People take a well-groomed company representative seriously! Whistling an aimless tune, Wilson cleans himself up and then, clad only in a towel, meticulously shaves the tiny amount of beard that's grown while he was unconscious. When he's satisfied with that, he retrieves a suit jacket, button-down, and jeans from his locker and gets dressed.
Devin blinks twice as he comes to inside his pod. Two blinks, a deep breath, and a clearing of his throat. The same habit after every cryo-sleep.
Exiting his pod, he doesn't bother checking on the rest of the crew. They've all been through cryo-sleep before, they know what to do. Instead, he heads directly to MU/TH/UR, grabbing a bag of Hydr8tion off the wall, popping open the tube and slipping it between his lips to drink in the modified liquid. A flashing light, not an emergent alert, but a note to him personally for contact.
The Captain pushed down any assumptions and headed up to the bridge to take the call in private. He needed worry the rest of the crew, they would be busy recovering from cryo, and he needed them to get recuperated quickly so they could wrap up this job.
Stepping in front of the full MU/TH/UR console, he logged in to display.
Leah knocks twice on his pod, before it finally hisses open.
Two long arms snake out stretching, before the rest of his tall frame follows.
He fumbles around in the dust beside the pod a moment, smiling as an ancient bubble gum wrapper is quickly opened.
Great thing about gum. It doesn't expire.
Leah quickly moves to his locker and shower, and one brisk rub down later, re-emerges, steaming, in a pair of pants, and rid of Cyro-breath.
Leah hums to itself as he extracts his data-coder out of his locker.
It runs strangely hot sometimes, but with one ear-piece in, Leah feels ready enough to figure where the heck they are.
Heading back to Cyro, Leah slings his shirt over his shoulder and picks up a Hydr8tion.
He slurps noisily from behind the Captain.
'Know where we are yet?'
Either way you're between stars and the ships passive sensors don't detect anyone else within at least an AU of you. This looks like it will be more interesting than expected.
For Captain's Eyes Only
To: Captain Devin Mill
System has detected distress call while en route to Sutter's World. Distress signal matches Weyland-Yutani manufacture. Investigate distress signal and assist any survivors in any way you can. If no surviving crew are left secure the ship for potential salvage by Weyland-Yutani corporate assets. Failure to comply will result in loss of shares and potential removal as a Weyland-Yutani recognized contractor.
Lyron wakes in his cryo-pod, with a sore neck. These corporate ship pods were never custom. They came in one size. For a guy like him, that size was too small. The door slides open smoothly, the hiss a little more even than the other pods. The other pods seemed well maintained but clearly worn. His looked fresh off the assembly line. He took satisfaction in this, as he had carefully lubricated the mechanism, cleaned the gas systems, and shined the outside prior embarking. He does a crunch maneuver, tipping his head and bending his knees upward to fit out of the chamber without bumping anything. A move that came easily to him, as if he had done it his whole life.
Standing now, he leans on the nearby chamber. Out of his pocket he pulls a Rosary. Makes the sign of the cross. Skips to a favorite prayer of his, for being returned to this world safely.
"Ave Maria,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum."
Good enough. He kisses the crucifix and puts it back in his pocket.
He walks across the room. Looks at the screen. Green lights across the board. This would be an easy day for him, he thought. His job as heavy maintenance technician basically meant he was either sitting around doing light maintainence until load time or dealing with a category 5 shitstorm. Still he taps on the screen, as if it might change a stuck light to red. Best to check and keep everyone safe.
Feeling the dryness in his mouth, he walks across to grab a Hydr8tion bag. Drinks it fast. It tastes less like water and more like what he imagined camel piss to taste like. Or perhaps the inside of a cactus. Whatever kept desert creatures alive.
He then checks on the others, and makes sure the pods have been doing their jobs. Makes sure they are steady. Especially Rye, green as she is. Who knows, she might hurl all over the bulkhead.
He then will head to the mess, hoping for some fraternization. The shower can wait. At this point the grease and grime might never come out of his fingers anyway...
but they're listening to every word I say
Rye stumbles out of the pod, grumbling and swearing. She runs a hand over her buzz cut, scratching an itch before heading to the Mess to get food and coffee. Anything else is secondary.
Wilson arrives at the mess after Rye and Cham, looking for all the world like it's Casual Friday. He waves, and gets himself something to eat.
Devin reads the message and grunts. As usual WY was adding more onto his plate before he got paid. It felt like every time he got closer to getting his own ship, they stretched the field another 10 yards.
Hitting the button to log out, he steps out of the MU/TH/UR pod and back into the bridge. Leah was standing there waiting for him, having joined him just before.
“Looks like the job has a small detour. There’s a distress beacon out there that we have to find and assess for possible salvage. Think you can locate it and plot a course? I’ll head down to tell the others.”
Lyron waves back and gives a slight smile at Wilson. "You have sweet dreams uncle Wil?"
He isn't Lyrons uncle. But Lyron thought he is kind of like the weird uncle that would show up and say something you weren't going to like at a family dinner. Or what he assumed such an experience to be like.
He waited for some response like "W-Y regulations mandate using appropriate formal titles and" .... blah blah blah.
It's okay. Wilson couldn't help it. They both knew Wilson's job depended on smiling as he spouted corporate BS.
but they're listening to every word I say
Wilson sips his coffee, frowns, and pours a shocking quantity of artificial sugar substitute into it. He tries again and sighs, but keeps drinking.
"No dreams, kiddo. The scientists swear up and down that cryo-sleep technology shouldn't allow for any - if you had any, you should probably let me know... or run diagnostics on your pod. Probably both!"
He picks at his ration allowance with a weird delicacy, seeming for once not to be in a hurry to make conversation. Still, he does his best to look pleasant while trying to negotiate eating a "meal."
"You know, this isn't my first trip. You'd think I'd get used to the coffee by now, but nah. You two make out all right? No hangover?"
Leah nods at the Captain and starts peering out into the inky blackness as the Captain leaves to inform the crew.
Shortly after the automatic door hisses shut, Leah swings his chair round and quickly works his hands across the console.
'Glad it wasn't me that brought us to the back end of nowhere then.'
Bringing up the course plan, Leah plots a new course.
'Ok, bursts every 15 minutes, radius like 0.6 clicks, firing in... 10 minutes.'
The map now shows the transport performing a rough interstellar donut.
Leah pulls his shirt on and walks out.
'Enough time for breakfast I reckon', he whistles to himself.
---
Leah surveys the offerings before him.
'Cardboard, deep fried or suspiciously green? Got to be deep fried every time.'
Piling a plate full of officially sanctioned mystery meat, Leah grabs a few pieces of lukewarm dry toast before heading to the coffee station.
Hot water in a cup, coffee grindings into the fat.
'Still trying to drink the stuff Wilson?', Leah chuckles as he straddles the bench.
'You gotta mix it in with the rest of your breakfast.
Only way to stop going comatose from the meat, whilst not tasting the bitter'
'Anyway, Captain's got us heading towards that beacon. Should be about', Leah squints, 'yeah a couple of hours'.
He starts tearing through his food.
Somewhat eager to get back to actually tracking the thing.
Devin makes his way down to the mess hall, making a few inspection stops along the way, just to ensure the ship looked normal after they exited Cryo. Seeing that everyone had gathered here already, he cleared his throat to get their attention.
"Alright everyone, change of plans. We've got ship possibly in distress along our route, and WY has said we need to go check it out. Grab some grub, get a shower, whatever you need, but we'll be there in a bit, and everyone needs to be ready by then. No telling what other fun surprises WY will send our way after this."
"Oh, about as fresh as a freeze dried meal when I woke up. already feeling better though." He replys to Wilson.
He doesn't get up, this isn't the military, but he does sit up a bit straighter and stop eating for the Captain's situation report.
"Do we know the ship, captain? Should we expect to take on more cargo and crew or just a technical fix?" He says to Captain Mill.
"Maybe we can send Rye out to give them a push." He says with a smirk toward her.
but they're listening to every word I say
Rye looks at the coffee in her cup, black. She drinks it as the captain reveals the information. She focuses on her food, and ignore Lyrons comment.
Wilson purses his lips during the captain's briefing, looking vaguely dissatisfied, but looks up from his Flavorless Hexagons at Leah and shrugs when the pilot interjects.
"It'd probably be easier to just inject caffeine, if the company wasn't convinced having that kind of thing readily available would lead to more problems than it'd solve."
“Details are light. I’ll assume we will know better what we’re looking at when get there.”
“Finish up your meal, get prepped. I’ll let everyone know when we’re about to approach”.
Devin grabs a few scraps of food and leaves the mess, heading back up to the bridge to parse over the message again.
Leah nonchalantly drains his cup as the Captain leaves the room.
He pushes his cup down.
'10 creds says I can beat the lift back to the bridge'.
Geth roll 3d6 for scans
The first thing you notice from the Transponder is that the ship is old, it’s the USCSS Cronus and according to the transponder it’s been running for 78 years since it was launched. It’s a Hellades class ship with some variations for scientific research.
"Lord knows I would want someone checking on me if I were floating out there.
I'll check the cargo situation and see if we have any space if we need to take on some crew or cargo. And make sure we have tools ready to try and get them underway"
Lyron then goes to take a look at the cargo bay to see if they can make room or have room and see any relevant tools or toolbelt he might have.
@Neaden
but they're listening to every word I say
Lyron checks the hold to make sure nothing has shifted in transit.
Tanks full of gas meet him. He-3. One of the gases that powered the modern world. With a warning label to power your modern nightmares. Highly flammable was an understatement.
He hoped to find some extra space, just in case, but if they hoped to jam anything in here it would be very little and a tight squeeze.
He also knew there were only 7 cryosleep chambers open. They could take on a light crew. Hopefully it was a similarly sized vessel. Otherwise they'd have to scavenge some pods from the other ship. Would they even be compatible? Best to fix the other ship.
He goes to the maintenance area to find tools.
but they're listening to every word I say
Wilson finishes his coffee and hexagons, then heads up to the bridge looking thoughtful.
"Captain, a word?"
Private conversation for Captain Mill only!
Leah pushes off the last rung of the maintenance shaft's ladder as the lift starts hissing to a stop.
'Shit', he whispers, grimacing from his breakfast threatening a reappearance.
Leah flies across the room, scanner on, circling flight plan off, and then half a second to catch his breath as the Captain enters the room.
'Cap... Ah. Took your time there Captain.', a drenched Leah smiles.
---
Looking over the scans, Leah wonders what they're looking to salvage from the pinging ship.
It's been out here so long, couldn't be any tech in it worth the rescue.
And if it's metal you want, is generally more cost effective to mine rocks wherever you're building the ship.
Ah well, not his job, Leah thinks, looking up at Wilson and the Captain.
Just hook a tow line up and...
Wilson starts talking to the Captain in a hushed voice.
Leah's eyes narrow.
Geth roll 5d6 for wits and observation whilst being ratted out to the Captain
Devin stares at the screens as they approach the derelict ship. He didn’t like this job, and he especially was annoyed that what was a simple transport is now being hijacked with a salvage mission. The sooner he could escape the clutches of this damn company, the better.
He narrows his eyes as Wilson whispers to him.
Wilson only
Leah gets on the horn to Rye, distracting himself from the performance review happening across the room.
'Hey Rye, we're coming up on our ghost ship.
Seems to have been out here a while so don't expect any hails.
But see if we can't get it kickstarted remotely.
It's ahh, A USCSS Cronus, a Hellades class ship, been out here 78 years, and I'm really just reading off this transcript.
We should probably look at if we can figure how the previous crew died too.
Don't want to walk into a rad leak or such.'
Wilson nods at the captain, looking a little nervous.
More captain-only stuff:
Captain Mill exhales slowly. He hates every part of what this job has turned into but he also knows he needs to do it. If he doesn’t figure this ship out, they do t pay him. If they don’t pay him, he has no shot of getting his own ship and making some real money.
“Alright.” He says aloud, resigning to action. He walks over and grabs the ship wide comm that is close to Leah.
“Listen up everyone. We are being told to bring that ship back, which means we will need to figure out everything we can about it as we close in. If we’re lucky, we can just tow the thing, but if not, we may have to board it to salvage whatever important info we can find.”
“I want us to do this by the book, add caution, double check everything. I’m not losing a payday because someone forgot to engage a lock on the tow. Get ready and start your checks. Captain Mill out.”
Flipping off the comm, he continues to Leah. “Bring us in close enough that we can try to see what went wrong here, but prep an escape vector if something looks like it’s ready to blow. I’m not going to let us fly straight I to a ticking time bomb”
Along with the standard equipment such as flashlights, Hydr8te, food, and such you also have the following specialized equipment that Captain Miller can decide to hand out.
1 x M314 Motion Tracker (Power Supply 5) T 1 x Cutting Torch (Power Supply 5)
1 x Watatsumi Bolt Gun (4 shots)
1 xM4A3 Service Pistol (1 reload)
1 x SpaceSub ASSO-400 Harpoon Grappling Gun
1 x M240 Incinerator Unit (2 reloads)
1 x P-5000 Power Loader
5 x IRC Mk.50 Compression suit (starting Air Supply 5 in each)
'I assume this hunk of junk has mag-locks, yeah?', Leah asks the Captain as the Cronus spins beneath them.
Magnetic landing gear tend to be standard issue on most space freighters as you don't want the space ships being jostled whilst docked on an orbital space station.
Older models have to be physically tied to the platforms to prevent collisions.
'Should be able to latch on as a secondary engine and just push this thing home', Leah muses.
Meanwhile, he tries to spot any obvious breaches in the ship below.
Loss of O2 being a leading cause of ghost ships after all.
Geth roll 5d6t6 for explosive decompression
(Wits + Observation on the Cronus's hull if that wasn't clear)
Lyron heads to the bridge to get a look out the window at the ship.
what size of ship would he see, compared to the Montero?
"How long has she been out here?" He says to the room.
Lyron looks out for the docking umbilical to assess function. This is the sort of thing he was used to maintaining, but he wasn't sure if the systems were 1 to 1 with ones had had worked on before. He'd prefer to avoid getting some "fresh air".
should I roll heavy machinery + observation?
Lyron definitely knew the ins and outs of a power loader. He had practically been raised in one. Or maybe by one would be more accurate. But he wasn't sure they would need it immediately.
"Captain, if we board, I think we will probably need to be suited up. Even if the air systems can be repaired, it could have pockets of gas. I know if our He tanks leaked we couldn't breathe that. Should give some protection if there is a radiation leak too.
We could bring the loader in case there is debris we need to clear to get at main systems.
I definitely want to bring the cutting torch if we need it to go through a bulkhead, and the bolter, for repairs.
If we can get main power or maybe some backup batteries online, then we won't have to be working in the dark"
presumably my basic equipment like a flashlight means I have, screwdrivers, a big wrench, a hammer. That sort of thing. As a mechanic? I want a big wrench... for repairs... yeah...repairs
but they're listening to every word I say
The ship’s MU/TH/UR beeps at you all, alerting everyone that it has mission relevant information. On the screen it has pulled up the plan for the Heliades class ship like the Cronus, it begins printing out several copies automatically as well. https://frialigan.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AL_CRONOS_map_PRINT.pdf
You can roll wits plus heavy machinery to try to assess the Cronus’ docking. You do indeed also have some tools including a big wrench which if for some reason you had to use to hit someone or something would give you plus one to both attack and damage.
“Alright, let’s figure out docking, we’re going to have to go over there. Everyone get suits on, double check your seals.”
Pointing to the screen that popped up, he continues. “We have a large amount of space to cover, so we’ll need to prioritize destinations. Bridge and Science lab are the two that stand out, but I’m open to opinions on that.”
“I’ll have gear assigned and placed in the usual spots. Check your stuff, I don’t want to be in the belly of that thing just to find out someone’s tool is malfunctioning.”
“Let’s open it up. Everyone’s chance to make themselves heard. It’s now or never.”
Lyron leans toward the window to take a good looktoward the docking umbilical. His tool belt shifts forward and the wrench he uses on those really stuck bolts clangs against the console. He recalls a crewmate he used to have for a brief time, a maintainence apprentence. The poor kid had set the wrench on top of the power loader they were working on. Bent down with a grease gun to lubricate a part, when the wrench slipped off the loader. Knocked him cold for a second.
...what was his name again...? Oh yeah, Apprentice Chekhov.
Geth roll 5d6 for assessing the docking connection
He can tell the ship has seen some pitting from being in space for a long time with no maintenance.
I'm going to presume someone responded to my question about how long it has been sitting there
"78 years! I know the specs for the cryosleep chambers technically go up higher, but I've never heard of anyone coming back after more than the low 2 digits. Still, it's possible. They have self contained power back ups. so we should check the chambers."
After the captains call for a plan.
"Captain, Given the lack of power I doubt they just flicked off a switch. I'm betting there was a reactor failure. Might be quicker to go straight to it and give it a jump.
It could be a catastrophic failure with the mainframe.
Either way, we will want to head toward the bridge. Once we have the lights on we can check on the crew.
I don't see the point of checking the science stations right away. Unless we have a particular reason.
Anyhow what are your thoughts on bringing the loader over or the other equipment I mentioned."
Lyron was slightly annoyed the captain hadn't answered him on the equipment when he mentioned it earlier, but he also understood Mill to be a man of intense purpose. He had a focus at times that could be hard to break through, but Lyron respected the captain for being a thoughtful man.
but they're listening to every word I say