Alpha Panda, Serenity RPG IC

[Erasmas]

Cole starts as he hears the door slide closed, staring around the room through the dim lighting and the fogginess of sleep.

"Sia?", he whispered into the room. Hearing no reply, he knew she had left without lifting his head from his pillow. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, bit it didn't find him again. It wasn't unusual for Sia to have a restless night, what with all the lun duan chi things she had seen... but sometimes she really just needed to talk and didn't think it was worth waking Cole for; he often begged to differ.

Rubbing his eyes and then his temples in a circular pattern, he exhaled slowly and then swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Sitting upright, he leaned forward on his hands and yawned. He shook his head, as if slinging the remaining exhaustion off like water.

-----o-----o-----o-----o-----

Cole entered the bridge, still rolling his T-shirt down the rest of the way. He shivered once and crossed his arms across his wide chest. Taking in the atmosphere in the room, he looked from person to person for clues.

"Everything shiny?"

[Creed]

As Cole walks in, Morgan shrugs and points a finger over to Lei and the sensor array. The silent man takes a few steps towards the console. then looks at Cole. His eyes dart from Cole. then over to Sia and the cat.
Morgan offers a shrug again as explanation, and walks over to Lei's console, looking over her shoulder at the sensor readings.

[Lentrax]

Sia is still scratching behind the cat's ears as the question is asked.

"Sia, Sia!"

I can't, not yet. They've been bringing more casualties in, I can't leave my patients yet. I'm the only doctor left in this place, I've had soldiers sending that wave out since we got hit, but they're still coming. I can't hold on, I'm starting to lose it.

Sia looks up from her scratching of Cap'n Rogue."Just couldn't sleep."

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Bridge of Alpha Panda

"谢谢, Tap. Sorry, but I don't think you'll be able to get to sleep quite yet. I'm picking up a ship way out from where it should be. Nothing wrong with it, but she ain't movin'. I'm gonna go check it out.

Lei frowns Captain, something ain't right. I'm taking us in for a closer look. Lei's fingers fly over the keyboards. "Unknown ship, this is Alpha Panda. Are you in distress?" She looks at her screens. "Now I'm getting a distress beacon. Not nearly strong as it should be though.

Rolls

Spoiler

Show

Intelligence (1d10)[5]+ Tech-use (communications) (1d10)[6]

Translations

Spoiler

Show

谢谢=thank you

[Creed]

Morgan sees the ship and looks over to the captain, to whom he offers a short nod. He then walks out of the bridge and to the crew quarters. He's digging through footlockers in a second, grabbing his weapons and spare ammunition.

As soon as he saw that ship, Morgan's first thought was pirates. But it would be much worse for wear if the ship had been barraged by cannons. The second thought was much worse:
Reavers.
Either way, the soldier thought as he popped a clip into his assault rifle, he'd need these soon enough.

[Lentrax]

Sia
Bridge

"Jack, we should go check it out. There may be folks needin' our help."

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Bridge
If their distress beacon's weak, they might be tryin' ta conserve power fer life support; s'only thing more important than the beacon. I'm thinkin' that if folks're needin' rescuing, it'd best happen lickety-split, Cap'n.

[Erasmas]

Cole
Bridge

As the situation began to escalate with the trickling in of new information about the ship called 'Buck', Cole crossed to Sia and took her hand. These scenarios often played out extremely poorly, and the scene onboard a derelict ship was usually pretty grisly. People marooned out in the black certainly couldn't abandon ship very easily... even taking an escape pod was a gamble if you were too far from a terraformed rock. Cole was reminded of a story he had heard not long ago where a man had tried to start a fire, out of desperation, to ward off the freeze of space. He apparently had a small leak in the oxygen line of the ship, and... well, the crew that found the ship only found about half of her. The crewman they never found.

Whatever they were about to discover, it wasn't going to be pretty. Maybe she was abandoned and no one would have to look into the face of Death today.

When the Captain gave the order, Cole hugged the doctor and gave her a quick kiss and a knowing smile. He then left the bridge and equipped himself with both armor and his arms.

[Lentrax]

Sia
Bridge

Cole kissing her was a surprise. Not that she didn't mind it, she just thought they were keeping things a secret. She was sure everyone already knew, after all you can't keep secrets on a boat this size, but still...

That gorram idiot... At least it was quick.

Too bad it wasn't longer.

"I'm going to head down and get my bag. There may be wounds as needs some patchin' up." With a nod to the others, and another scratch behind the ears for the Cap'n, Sia leaves the bridge.

Sia heads down to the medbay, and pulls out a worn pink bag, emblazoned with a red cross with a caduceus in its center.

St. Leana's Hospital and MedAcad - Ariel
"I'm so proud of you, Sia." Sia's father kisses her on the cheek. "My daughter, the Doctor. I have something for you. It cost your mom and I most of our savings, but we wanted you to know how proud we are for achieving so much." Reaching into the skycar, he pulls out a bright shiny new Medbag. It is her favorite shade of pink, and has her name embroidered into its side.

Medbay- Alpha Panda

Sia runs her finger along the name emroidered on the side of the bag. Sia Ann Ling, M.D. A tear runs down her face at the memory.

Her voice is barely a whisper. "I love you, Dad."

[Aneurin]

Jack - Bridge of the Alpha Panda

He waves a hand at Sia as she enters, but most of Jack's attention is on Greg;

"If you can learn to shoot worth a damn, I'll take you with us; otherwise, you can do your tactical insights from board the ship. You can do the milk runs, but the heavy jobs? You're on back up here with Lei, ready to pull us out if things get too hot-"

Jack's about to say more, when the sensors ping, and he leans in to listen to Lei and the following debate; he keeps his peace, though, 'til the others have had their say. Leaning forward, he punches up an image of the ship on his command console.

"I prefer a quiet beacon to a loud one. Means it's less likely a trap," Jack pauses for a long, long moment staring at the derelict. "...all right. Take us in closer, Lei, but keep trying to hail her. Keep the Panda's eyes open, though. Don't want any surprises here,"

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Bridge of Alpha Panda

Ok, 船长. I'm taking us in. I'm showing nothing around us for a few hundred thousand klicks, and Buck doesn't have enough juice left in her to power a slingshot, much less anything real nasty. Might as well dock.

With a practiced hand, Lei glides Alpha Panda to Buck's main airlock. The solid and reassuring thunk of docking clamps locking sounds from above. Ok, we're locked in. Life support is probably down. You'll want to go aboard suited up. I'll stay here in case we need to make a fast break. Lei gazes up at Buck, looking for any obvious signs of damage.

Spoiler

Show

Alertness (1d10)[7]+ Perception (1d6)[5]
Intelligence (1d10)[1] + Mechanical Engineering (1d6)[2] (to see if she can identify the cause of any noticed external damage)

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Bridge
The tactician doesn't seem pleased, but he nods. Guess we'll haveta talk later, Cap'n, seein' as we've more pressin' business. I'll do what I can ta help the team suit up and git Doc's place ready fer any survivors, meanwhile, replies Greg somewhat dejectedly before following Cole and Sia off the bridge.

[Erasmas]

Cole
Cole & Sia's bunk

Cole places his hand against the wall to steady himself as the Alpha Panda must've docked, the slight impact shifting the large man a little. He then finished strapping his pistol into its holster, his knife into its sheath, and grabbing his shotgun. The soldier then looked to his cache of grenades - a brief moment of hesitation and then, nah... he closed the container. He then headed to the airlock to get suited up into one of the ship's vacuum suits.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Bridge

As the Panda closes on the derelict, Jack tugs a key on a chain from over his head, and tosses it to Greg.

"Open the weapon's locker and get a boarding party kitted out. Seal off all the airlocks around the cargo bay. I'll join you, when I tie up a few loose ends here,

Picking up the shipboard com's handset, Jack begins to speak, taking great care to be clear and loud. The somewhat antiquated speaker system crackles to life as the message is bounced all over the ship.

"This is the captain speaking. You may have noticed we've made a slight change in course; we've just picked up a distress beacon from a derelict, and we're going over to check for survivors.

A boarding party's being assembled by the front airlock; if you want to be on it, go and speak to Greg. Everyone else, stand by for further updates. We aren't expecting trouble, but when you aren't expecting is usually when you find it." Hanging the com back up, Jack turns to Lei and speaks quietly.

"Anything happens, you rabbit, got it? Don't risk the ship. You can always come back for us, but without the Panda we're all sunk. Anything else you can give me on her?" he adds, raising his voice again and nodding towards the drifting Buck.

[Lentrax]

Sia
Medbay

Sia takes her bag and goes to her quarters where she finds Cole strpping guns to his armor. Reaching around him, she helps fasten the last of the straps and circles her arms around his neck before giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Don't do anything stupid, Cole. I don't like seeing people I care for laying on my table." Breaking their embrace before things can get too far and someone starts to miss them, Sia dons her armorweave and straps her pistol to her waist.

Properly armed, Sia makes her way to the airlock.

[Unkabear]

Tap - Neck deep in Ship vitals

Tap hears what Lei has to say & nods to himself as he begins to extract himself from the tubes. by the time he cleared the Access Hatch everyone was rushing about, Tap began to make his way to the cargo bay, going through his mind what he would need to do to crack an airlock from the outside if he needed to.


Though he would not be a part of the boarding party, Tap still lets Greg know that where he is so that he can get them into the other ship in a timely manner.

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Bridge of Alpha Panda

Lei grins, "Got it! Leave you all to die. She turns towards the screens, looking for schematics of Buck, or at least vessels of its type.

Spoiler

Show

Intelligence (1d10)[6]+ Tech-use (1d6)[6]
Will edit below based on roll
That gives me a success on a hard action.

Here we go, deckplans. She pulls up Buck's last known public deckplans. Fairly simple layout. Bridge is forward top, galley and common area is forward bottom. Berths are amidship, both levels, and its a big wide open cargo bay aft, along with the engine room. I'm gonna see if I can't get into her systems from here, see what might be wrong.

[Aneurin]

Jack
Bridge

Jack rises and heads to Lei's console to peer over her shoulder as she points out the different areas of the ship, nodding from time to time.

"Good work, mei-mei. Can you tell me where we're most likely to find any survivors, too?" Without waiting for an answer, he gives her a playful clip around the head that does little more than muss Lei's hair. "And you're supposed to run away and then come rescue us, dummy,"

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Forward Airlock
Now don't y'all go an' git yerselves spaced. We're puttin' damn near all our guns in one broke-ass basket right now, jokes Greg as he helps the members of the away team into the vacuum suits. An' Lei, see if y'all can pull up pictures a damage dealt by a Boardin' Ram on that console a yers. That hole in the side y'all lit up nice an' pretty's lookin' mighty familiar... he adds over the comm.

[Space Lawyer]

Spoiler

Show

I can't roll in an edit, so therefore double-post

Something bit into her deep, Lei says, pointing at the deep gash in Buck's side. I'm not certain what it is though. Give me a minute more, see if I can find her log.

If they had any sense, anybody still onboard will climb into the smallest space they can find and stuff it full of whatever warm thing they can find. I'm guessing either a crew cabin, the engine room, or a cargo crate.

Spoiler

Show

Intelligence (1d10)[6]+ Tech-use (hacking) (1d8)[4]

[Erasmas]

Cole
Cole & Sia's Bunk

Cole responded simply, "I'll do my best, Sia. If you're going, I want you behind me, at least by a step or two."

Forward Airlock

Once Cole's suit was sealed and locked up, he cycled a round into his shotgun and checked to make sure that the safety was engaged. Shouldering the weapon, he stepped into the airlock and awaited the pressurization. He activated his comm.

"Testing... channel one... You read me, Lei? Greg?"

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Forward Airlock
Yup, I'm readin' y'all loud an' clear. Y'all prob'ly already figured this, but don't worry too much 'bout salvage. Focus on survivors; if this ship was boarded, anythin' a value's prob'ly gone, 'cept human lives. Greg then turns his attention to Sia. Y'all plannin' on boardin', Doc? If that's the case, best tell me what I can do ta make sure yer office's nice an' tidy fer any guests we might find ourselves entertainin' this evenin'. Once the away team is suited up, Greg retreats to the bridge or the med bay, wherever his somewhat limited talents are most useful.

[Creed]

Morgan
Forward Airlock

Morgan comes into the airlock area, his shirt tucked in, his pistols tucked into his waistband, his assault rifle slung over one shoulder.
He looks over the assembled, then nods to Cole.
He places his weapons on the ground, then pulls his suit on, strapping the guns over it, and confirming with a nod that channel 1 is open.

[Lentrax]

Sia
Forward Airlock

"Course I'm goin." Sia replies as she starts putting on a suit. "Keep the medbay doors open, I've kept that bay ready for anything for some time now. Just be ready to keep anyone alive if I need time to strip out of my suit."

Hearing the familiar hiss of her suit expeling her current CO2, Sia checks her radio. Satisfied everyone can hear her, Sia picks up her bag and readies herself to cycle the airlock.

[Erasmas]

Once all the rest of the boarding crew were in the chamber, Cole nodded to Sia to activate the airlock.

No time like the present, he thought to himself as he turned on the headlamp on his suit and moved to the exterior door.

[Narmoth]

Adrian Starr
Derelict Ship

Spoiler

Show

"Very well. This is an unfortunate situation..." Adrian says out in the air the curses.
He tries to open the cabin hatch, and when he finds it shut, he curses again.
Might just as well go through it and hope for the best than to die here he thinks as he points his gaus pistol at the hatch, then thinks again and gets the emergency tank first. He then puts his ear to the door and tries to listen for any sounds

[Shadow_Elf]

Greg
Bridge
Alright, Tap, Lei, Cap'n, ready on yer go-aheads, says Greg, taking his spot on the bridge. He reaches down a gloved hand to pat Captain Rogue, but the cat seems not to like the leather garment and backs away. Don't worry, Cap'n, left the shockers in my quarters. These're plain ol' leather, he reassures the cat, before turning his focus back to the mission at hand.

[Space Lawyer]

Lei
Bridge of Alpha Panda

I read you, Cole. Try and salvage any good parts.Ok, now, 敲敲! Lei orders the airlocks of both ships open.

Translation

Spoiler

Show

敲敲=knock knock

[Aneurin]

Jack
Bridge

With a grin, Jack pushes himself away from the pilot's station and heads in to his own room to suit up. His suit is an old Independent-issue one, with a touch more protective plating over a couple of vital areas than a normal vacuum suit, and a smaller, more military-looking faceplate. The final addition is a heavy-looking cutlass in a magnetic sheath that normally hangs in pride of place over the bunk, and a pair of concussion grenades from under the false bottom in his footlocker.

Fully suited, he moves at speed through the long-familiar passages of the ship, unconsciously brushing his fingertips along the bulkheads at the corners. He soon joins the boarding party in the airlock, and gives them each a nod in turn.

"Doc, you know the drill - keep in the middle of the group. Everyone else have your eyes open, wits about you and try not to get shot; these suits don't keep you breathing so good with holes in them,"

[Unkabear]

Tap sets himself in place behind the group, a sentinel between the two ships. Happy that Lei got both open from her end, it was always faster to let a ship open itself.