New Horizons (IC)

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Bridge
Current Date: December 18, 3308 AD
Mission Time: T+ 828y:5m:16d:21h:32m:45s
Ship Status: Compromised
Mission Status: Critical

It had been an eventful half hour.

Merlin had time to reflect on this because as a Level Five AI, 'he' could run in excess of five hundred iterations of 'himself' simultaneously without losing efficiency. He was currently using two hundred and six of them to manage all of the remaining ship functions that he had access to and couldn't delegate to lesser AIs. Another one hundred and fifty-three were managing the rapidly dwindling number of people who he'd been able to prematurely rouse from stasis. Fifty were required to maintain a psionic network after the ship's had gone down. The rest were all dedicated to reviewing the events that had led him to this point and to plot out how to best escape the current situation on the strategic level.

Conventionally speaking, he'd be coordinating with the crew on this. In the current scenario, the crew was asleep or dead. There was one exception: a junior navigator who'd barely been on his radar until he'd realized that Crew Member 0519987 and the host of Object IX were the same person. Runtime 105 was dealing with him.

Technically, 2nd Lt. Graham Gore was the captain now. The king is dead. Long live the king. Once again, though, the manual wasn't going to cut it. Gore's firepower was needed elsewhere, and that man wasn't the person Merlin needed on the bridge. If he needed to justify this decision later - and he strongly doubted that legal issues were going to be a major concern for a while - he could claim that technically the colony vessel had 'touched down' and that colonial administration was in charge now, which was basically Merlin himself until the actual administrators were removed from stasis.

What he had to do now was secure the ship, a ship that had never been meant to enter atmosphere as a cohesive unit. Parts of it were never supposed to enter atmosphere at all. He hadn't had a lot of choice, though, and now... now the Nova Forte had all sorts of problems. He noted another set of pods releasing their occupants from stasis, an event that he had to keep track of just from the power fluctuations - the main computer was cut off in those areas. He'd coordinate with those people once they got somewhere where he could talk to them. Until then, they were on their own.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Stasis Bay P3
Miranda Rodriguez

You realize that you are standing upright. The pod opens without incident to a scene of devastation. The far wall of the pod bay is just gone. Of the people who were in those pods, you can see no sign. In the wall's place is a huge block of something that seems vaguely like reinforced concrete, but with an odd sheen to it. The angle of the scoring makes it seem like the block must have crashed down into the ship from above. Now that you're standing on your own, you can tell that the floor is slightly tilted with respect to gravity, though it's not clear if the ship is off kilter or just this floor. Also unclear is the rest of the room, through the hanging cloud of dust and smoke, the flickering lights, and the strobing red alert light flashing through the fog.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

Nothing happens. Your superior, you recall, would have been beyond the obliterated wall.

"The Nova Forte welcomes you to your new home! Have a pleasant day. Vanna is signing off."

Behind you, the screen with your accumulated information flickers. A moment later, text scrolls by rapidly with the equipment for one Miranda Rodriguez being requisitioned for automatic deployment to your bay, before the entire pod abruptly dies. Several seconds pass in silence, and just when it seems like maybe the machinery for delivering it is broken, several things happen at once. A grinding noise comes through the walls and a belt-loader, seen at spaceports the all over the solar system back home, begins moving. A case with your name on it trundles into view. Before you can reach it, a siren goes off and red lights begin flashing. A tinny, automatic voice, too simple and pre-rendered to belong to even a Level One AI, alerts you that an unknown threat has been spotted in your sector.

Spoiler: OOC - Miranda

Show

Miranda knows that 'sector' isn't a very granular term, at least the way the Terra Nova program uses it. Since this portion of the colony vessel was supposed to break off and turn into the first structures of a new domed settlement, your 'sector' is actually comprised of the equivalent of several city blocks compacted together, meaning the threat could be some distance away or in the next room.

Miranda is currently equipped only with her augmentations and the white and orange knee-and-elbow length jumpsuit that everyone had going into stasis. However, this doesn't count the case supposedly full of goodies. You are free to act.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

You are lying sideways against the pod frame. The pod opens without incident to a scene of devastation. The room is, in fact, currently on fire, with various pods flickering and dying, status indicators fading from green to yellow to red and black. Smoke is filling the room, alarms are going off, and the fire suppression system is, for some reason, not working. You can see a few charred bodies below you, against what would be the far wall if gravity wasn't sideways and is instead an inferno. It goes without saying that the room is sweltering hot and the air is barely breathable.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

Nothing happens. Your superior, you recall, would have been in one of the dark pods.

"The Nova Forte welcomes you to your new home! Have a pleasant day. Pop is signing off."

The vents are clearing smoke faster than it can fill the room, at least for now, but they're making an unhealthy noise and getting worse. The heat itself is suffocating in its own way. A case with your name on the little readout is already lying beside your pod, though it's hot to the touch. The doors out of the room are, unfortunately, down into the fire and up into the smoke cloud. You can also sense that another psionic presence is awake, though not near enough to be in your sector.

Spoiler: OOC - Armitage

Show

You are not currently restrained and are free to act, though the room seems to be full of hazards.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 3
Stasis Bay T7
Abram

You are resting face-down against your restraints. The pod door opens to reveal a stasis bay in total disarray. Indeed, the opposite wall, 'beneath' you, is quite a ways down. The room is dark, save for dim and flickering emergency lighting, and a cloud of smoke obscures vision. A moment later, the restraints also frightfully slacken, though as they don't retract against pressure, you are still suspended from them.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

The pod next to yours opens, and a withered, unrecognizable corpse tumbles out of it to thud against the wall below. "Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Sal is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Moments later... nothing happens. You are still suspended, there is no computer assistance and no gear forthcoming.

Spoiler: OOC - Abram

Show

Abram

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

You are suspended, upside-down, by nothing but your restraints. The blood begins to rush to your head almost immediately, and your hair floofs up, or maybe down, to match. The pod door opens to reveal a stasis bay in total disarray. The room is darker than it should be, with only some of the regular lighting working and the rest flickering ominously. There are scorch marks on the walls, and the dismembered bodies of a pair of security androids litter the ceiling beneath you. A moment later, the restraints also frightfully slacken, though as they don't retract against pressure, you are still suspended from them.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

The pod across from yours opens, or tries to. You realize that the pod itself has been skewered by a rod of some unknown material, but the grooves on it make it clear that it was fired by a weapon, and a powerful one, that passed clear through the hull and into the ship... narrowly missing your own little nap bubble. As it is, it is pinning the other pod in place, and ominous red indicators bode poorly for the person inside.

"Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Julie Newman is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

A completely different voice, albeit somewhat muffled, cheerfully announces that it has, in fact, located the gear for "Deneb," and a moment later an odd but high-pitched scraping is heard. A pink case with entirely too many frills rockets out of an opening that was probably supposed to be working against gravity rather than with it, taking out one of the remaining light fixtures before bouncing to a stop on the ceiling.

Spoiler: OOC - Deneb

Show

Despite being upside-down, nothing is really restraining Deneb. You are free to act.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 5
Stasis Bay M6
Ellie

You are resting on your back, against the back wall of the pod. This is a bit odd, as you are fairly certain the pods are oriented in such a way that you should be standing when you emerge from stasis. A moment later, the restraints slacken, and the door opens with an anemic wheeze. Standing up reveals the pod bay on its side, but that's hardly the worst of it. Scorch marks, some lengthy from grazing strikes and others creating pocks and craters, decorate the walls, floor, ceiling, and have penetrated many of the pods around you, some of which display status lights glowing a lurid red. Anything not bolted down is laying where it fell. The lighting is sporadic and flickering, and a pall of smoke obscures the row of stasis pods above you. The wall of pods that forms your new 'floor,' however, clearly displays the bodies of fallen security personnel.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

The pod across from yours and down three (putting it on the 'ceiling' relative to you) opens, and a body flops out, hanging limply from the restraints. There are clear signs of plasma burns - fatal ones - that are evident even to untrained eyes.

"Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Oscar is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Above you, a door opens into what you know to be one of the ship's many sickbays. While you shudder to think of the state it must be in, your gear is likely in there.

Spoiler: OOC - Ellie

Show

You are free to act.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Ji-Yun

You find yourself standing at an angle in your pod as the restraints slacken. The pod door opens slowly, before the hinge snaps and the door itself tumbles away.

Being assigned to orbital operations, you were one of a few that was placed in the stasis bays inside the ship's main cargo 'core' and not one of the attached massive 'landers' - ships that would have been considered dreadnoughts had they been military, but purposed toward expanding outward to different corners of habitable worlds. This particular pod loading bay, however, is... kaput. Red alarm lights and a warbling siren flash and blare through the area. Worse, you're pretty sure that your pod is supposed to be level with a catwalk that you'd step out onto, but it just... isn't. The floor is gone, the walks are gone, and to be honest, so are most of the pods. All of that is in a twisted tangle far below you, leaving you in one of the few pods that didn't get disconnected from the wall and hurled dozens of meters down. How many people remain and whether or not their pods protected them from the impact is impossible to determine from here.

Over the noise of the alarm, you hear the AI again. "We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

A pod on the far side of the cylindrical chamber makes an odd beeping noise before falling free from the wall, bouncing and banging down the slope to join the pile of debris below. If someone is awake in there, you don't see it. "Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Wuffles is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Your gear is likely somewhere in this mess, buried in the pile beneath you. That said, the robotics lab would have been heavily secured and might have replacements, or even upgrades. Getting to it might be a trick, though.

Spoiler: OOC - Ji-Yun

Show

You are not restrained, however, you are also hanging out on a wall and not terribly near anything. The door to the robotics lab is on the opposite wall where a walk should be. You are free to act.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Reality cuts back in. Red alert lights and klaxons are blaring. You're still strapped into your seat, which is good because the deck now seems to be sharply angled. Your neck is sore, probably because of the way you've been sitting for... your console clock says about twenty minutes.

Beyond that, you are aware of many things. You know that the ship has entered atmosphere and... "landed." You know that it has taken heavy damage. You know that you're not alone, either. There are millions of colonists around you, frozen in time but still alive, spared from that horrible assault by simply sleeping through it. You know that the crew that was awake then, minus yourself, is dead and gone, their nervous systems completely fried by the attack. You are aware of the fact that the reason for the crash landing is due to damage the ship took in space from weapons fire, and that machines now stalk the ship, looking for other resistance so they can kill it.

You sense a few that are fighting back, albeit largely ineffectively. Merlin seems to be trying to cordon off the attackers to slow them down even as he awakens anyone with the slightest background in combat or espionage, and tries to guide them to equipment that might help them.

You sense that there's a hunter-killer robot right outside the auxiliary bridge. That situation doesn't last long, as the bot smashes right through the weakened door with little trouble, flinging the useless scrap metal aside to land on the body of Captain Anders, who doesn't react or, for that matter, seem to be breathing.

The robot itself is a curious thing. A floating black orb with violet highlights and a variety of what you're assuming are optic sensors forms the core, with everything else seemingly being a modular attachment. The attachments themselves are a pair of underslung barrels and curious trapezoidal things up top. Merlin feeds some data through your implant, marking the lower two modules as weapons - needlers, to be precise - and pointing out the hidden compartment underneath that appears to house some sort of kinetic battering ram. One thing you immediately notice is that it seems to be touching, for lack of a better word, the same fabric you are that's giving you all of this information, despite lacking a true awareness.

Graham has no true experience with combat, but it's safe to assume that this unit is hostile.

Spoiler: OOC - Graham

Show

You are in combat and therefore not narratively free. We're going to test out violent conflict in this system. This is a bad guy whose sole narrative importance is that it's the first one faced. Check the OOC.

[TheDarkDM]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Held securely by his G-Harness, Graham could do little but kick impotently against the slanted deck as the door caved in. The brief, breathless seconds as the alien hunter-killer drifted into view passed at a crawl, all six of his senses narrowing to focus on the pinprick of its metal core and ready armaments. Then he felt the cold intelligence turn towards him, and everything was moving on its own. One hand shot up to the emergency release of his harness, while the other curved into a wild haymaker that cut through the air. In response, the battered door leapt to life and shot towards the drone.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Psionics + Telekinesis to attack the drone: (2d6+7)[13]

[Nefarion Xid]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

As the restraints slackened, Deneb let out a long, shrill scream. It wasn't a tone she imagined she was capable of producing. In her head, her voice was the dusky dulcet blue of a jazz singer. In reality, it was more like animal abuse combined with failing brake calipers. And then that sound went to a public school in Queens. The incongruity might have been explained by the pain in her head, like someone had pressed a tiny cattle-prod into her Broca's.

Suddenly struck by images of her Ridley Scott movie marathon, she clapped her hands over her mouth, but continued with a muffled shriek as her luggage exploded onto the ceiling. When she'd run out of breath, her face contorted with mute horror, then annoyance, then back to a full blown freak-out as her gaze returned to the metal rod piercing the hull.

"Julie!" she hissed as loud as she dared. "You come back here and tell me what the **** this is! Julie! Did ****ing aliens harpoon this ship? I didn't sign up for this! They're gonna lay eggs in me, Julie! I'm not ready to have kids, and I have a very specific fear about chest bursting! Who's giving irrational value to their dreams now, Dr. Allen!? Think you're better than me cuz you went to Hah-vahd. I mean. You are. Obviously. Since I'm gonna die here."

Deneb continued to hang and bobble slightly while she contemplated life, the universe and the giant metal shaft sticking through the ship.

"I shoulda got my PhD," she lamented quietly. "Nobody ever tried to shove nothin' down my throat in grad school without enthusiastic verbal consent!"

At length, purple haired woman gathered up the courage to wiggle her hips free of the restraints and lower herself gently to the floor-ceiling with only minor whining. There, she scrabbled through her luggage for something to wear. If she was going to die, it wouldn't be in this tacky white and orange onesie.

"Oh my God! What if they're the kind of aliens who want me to wear a golden metal bikini? That's... that's better, right?"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Ji-Yun 'June' Seong-Ziegler

Spoiler: Previously...

Show

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Ji-Yun

You find yourself standing at an angle in your pod as the restraints slacken. The pod door opens slowly, before the hinge snaps and the door itself tumbles away.

Being assigned to orbital operations, you were one of a few that was placed in the stasis bays inside the ship's main cargo 'core' and not one of the attached massive 'landers' - ships that would have been considered dreadnoughts had they been military, but purposed toward expanding outward to different corners of habitable worlds. This particular pod loading bay, however, is... kaput. Red alarm lights and a warbling siren flash and blare through the area. Worse, you're pretty sure that your pod is supposed to be level with a catwalk that you'd step out onto, but it just... isn't. The floor is gone, the walks are gone, and to be honest, so are most of the pods. All of that is in a twisted tangle far below you, leaving you in one of the few pods that didn't get disconnected from the wall and hurled dozens of meters down. How many people remain and whether or not their pods protected them from the impact is impossible to determine from here.

Over the noise of the alarm, you hear the AI again. "We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

A pod on the far side of the cylindrical chamber makes an odd beeping noise before falling free from the wall, bouncing and banging down the slope to join the pile of debris below. If someone is awake in there, you don't see it. "Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Wuffles is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Your gear is likely somewhere in this mess, buried in the pile beneath you. That said, the robotics lab would have been heavily secured and might have replacements, or even upgrades. Getting to it might be a trick, though.

Ji-Yun, or 'June' as some of her closer friends knew her (or 'Dozer-Maid' as her husband had attempted to call her once before being hit with the death glare to end all death glares) was not a very happy camper.

In fact, one might say that she was, at this point, incredibly alarmed, even through the stasis sickness. Having one's pod damaged was a bitch, it turned out.

It had been easy enough to glean from the very limited information that Wuffles had given her that something had gone Terribly Wrong. But it was another thing seeing it in person. What could have happened? An asteroid collison? An attack by hostile intelligent life? Some sort of internal malfunction causing everything to explode?

So many questions, so little answers.

Clenching her stasis suit-covered prosthetic hand into a fist, June knelt down, began scanning the area, and tried to do what she did best: Think. In this case, she tried to do her thinking out loud, in the hope that it would help fight off her stasis sickness.

"Okay, so lets think. My stuff down there is probably buried beneath a mountain of debris and pods. Probably could try and use these guys," she flexed an arm, "to try and move it, but at this point I'm basically drunk, and we don't want to risk damaging the pods, and holy crap that's a long way down."

Her speech was slurred as it came out, and her mouth was still having some difficulty forming the words, her body as a whole still trying to shake of the aftereffects of being asleep for goodness knew how long. She shook her head, slapped herself on the cheek, and tried to get a good sense of how far down the debris was.

"Think, think. The robotics lab should be nearby, and it should have stuff I can use to replace my own, maybe even better. I could probably even see if I can connect to something that will tell me WHAT. THE HECK. IS GOING. ON!" She shouted this last part in frustration. "So, that requires solving two problems. One. Where was it again? And two, how do I get to it from here?"

Spoiler: Actions

Show

June, as she will henceforth be referred to in the header, will try to do the following. Intelligence has been added to all rolls.
1) Look around and see if there are any handholds, stray railings, utility ladders, or anything even remotely solid that she could use to climb out of the pod to a safe spot. (2d6+2)[5]
2) Try to remember where the robotics lab was located, unless her implant can tell her automatically. (2d6+2)[12]
3) Try as best she can to recall how long a bout of stasis sickness should last and if there is anything that can speed the process. (2d6+2)[8]

[Tychris1]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

"This is fine."

It was not.

"Things will get better. All things shall pass." He rubbed his cryogenically mangled muscles in a vain effort to restore some of his bodies vigor. It didn't help. Sweat rolled off of his flopping white hair, his body covered in a disgusting film he wished to remove at once, and yet there were more important things to do. Memories flooded the agents mind in all times and directions. Glimpses of the present, the future, and the past. Much like the room he was in it was an utter state of disarray, flashes of dog walks, lost virginity, brief choking moments of bleak death, tax return filing, and saucy naming.

He quickly did the mental gymnastics required to lock that corner of his mind safely away in a box inside a safe inside a puzzle covered in Nietzschean nonsense that even his subconscious brain would turn from. His left eye twitched. A strand gutted its way from his throat and out the unseen ways of his body to the dark pod where his superior remained.

He sensed nothing.

Taking a deep breathe in that he nearly instantly regretted, Armitage looked down at the box labelled with his unit designation, and tried to touch it before realizing it was too hot for him to physically handle. Squatting down and crossing his legs he sat next to the container and interlocked his fingers. He drummed his fingers against his knuckles switching from his left hand to his right hand, a rhythmic exercise he was taught to help manage his stress, and he began to focus his mind upon opening the container without actually touching it. Without his gear he would be a sitting duck for whatever might have caused this incident and those who might act irrationally given the bleak and ostensibly doomed state of the ship.

In the top of his mind, running around in little circles and pirouette's, was his hope. His resolve. His desire not to survive but to rescue the other psychic presence he detected. His hands clenched in a brief spasm of psychic whiplash as he attempted to establish contact with the other psychic entity. Provide it solace and a cool wall upon which to lean against in a similar fate. He was a weapon with no wielder, a soldier with no commander, and a guardian with no ward. In the young Watcher's eyes his life had little meaning or worth compared to the initial parameters of his existence given lack of any further instruction or structure.

Maintain status quo.

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Held securely by his G-Harness, Graham could do little but kick impotently against the slanted deck as the door caved in. The brief, breathless seconds as the alien hunter-killer drifted into view passed at a crawl, all six of his senses narrowing to focus on the pinprick of its metal core and ready armaments. Then he felt the cold intelligence turn towards him, and everything was moving on its own. One hand shot up to the emergency release of his harness, while the other curved into a wild haymaker that cut through the air. In response, the battered door leapt to life and shot towards the drone.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Psionics + Telekinesis to attack the drone: [roll0]

The improvised projectile whirls edge first through the air and, through a combination of luck and power, strikes the drone with one corner, driving a deep gouge into the ball and popping one of the trapezoidal modules free before careening out into the hallway, leaving a large scratch on the ruined bulkhead as it goes. Just in time, too - the drone opens up with both (apparently fully automatic) needlers, but by that point it's too late. With the orb already crashing to the ground and spinning from the force of the impact, the needles go wide of everything, passing through flickering holographic displays to lodge themselves in the wall and ceiling, tracing a dotted line of wasted destruction. Unable to regain control, the orb falls silent for a moment as the limited programming contemplates what to do. Warm orange lines fill your vision momentarily, connecting to points on the interior of the drone that you can see through the gouge, and it takes you a moment to realize that Merlin is scanning it.

Then the machine reaches a conclusion and quickly melts to slag, leaving it a steaming pile of white-hot garbage in a matter of seconds.

Merlin's image, still dressed in his vintage aviator look, materializes. "Nuts. I was hoping they wouldn't do that on destruction. Not expecting, mind you, just hoping."

The battle isn't entirely without prizes, though. The module that got separated from the drone before it was destroyed does not seem to come with its own self-destruct, or at least has no way to independently trigger it. Picking it up reveals it to be different from anything you've seen before, but parts of it are similar to what you know. More orange lines connect to points on it and labels begin to write themselves over it as the Level Five AI continues to analyze it. "See that? This model doesn't exist anywhere in the Sol system. I'd know, I was the guiding AI for the First Fleet before I had this job, and they kept me up to date on all the latest and greatest toys. Plus, none of the ships in the fleet were carrying attack drones - or at least we don't have any, and I doubt the other AIs would have hidden this from me. Still, those connectors, and some of the chips I saw on the main unit before melted down... they're almost certainly human in origin. Either that or an advanced alien species invented computers in exactly the same way with remarkably similar aesthetics."

Spoiler: OOC - Graham

Show

You have obtained ??? Drone Module. The module serves an unknown purpose, but Merlin assures you that every drone he's seen of this size has exactly two of them.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

As the restraints slackened, Deneb let out a long, shrill scream. It wasn't a tone she imagined she was capable of producing. In her head, her voice was the dusky dulcet blue of a jazz singer. In reality, it was more like animal abuse combined with failing brake calipers. And then that sound went to a public school in Queens. The incongruity might have been explained by the pain in her head, like someone had pressed a tiny cattle-prod into her Broca's.

Suddenly struck by images of her Ridley Scott movie marathon, she clapped her hands over her mouth, but continued with a muffled shriek as her luggage exploded onto the ceiling. When she'd run out of breath, her face contorted with mute horror, then annoyance, then back to a full blown freak-out as her gaze returned to the metal rod piercing the hull.

"Julie!" she hissed as loud as she dared. "You come back here and tell me what the **** this is! Julie! Did ****ing aliens harpoon this ship? I didn't sign up for this! They're gonna lay eggs in me, Julie! I'm not ready to have kids, and I have a very specific fear about chest bursting! Who's giving irrational value to their dreams now, Dr. Allen!? Think you're better than me cuz you went to Hah-vahd. I mean. You are. Obviously. Since I'm gonna die here."

Deneb continued to hang and bobble slightly while she contemplated life, the universe and the giant metal shaft sticking through the ship.

"I shoulda got my PhD," she lamented quietly. "Nobody ever tried to shove nothin' down my throat in grad school without enthusiastic verbal consent!"

At length, purple haired woman gathered up the courage to wiggle her hips free of the restraints and lower herself gently to the floor-ceiling with only minor whining. There, she scrabbled through her luggage for something to wear. If she was going to die, it wouldn't be in this tacky white and orange onesie.

"Oh my God! What if they're the kind of aliens who want me to wear a golden metal bikini? That's... that's better, right?"

No one responds to your scream. On the other hand, no remarkably phallic aliens explode through the vents either, allowing you to get changed in peace. The case contains everything required to be a trophy wife! It's twenty percent sweaters by volume, plus a few of the latest earth fashions, some classy and not-so-classy accessories, and one of the best-made handbags the solar system ever saw. Toiletries, spare underwear, a few changes of shoes... all of it packed expertly in this case.

Your implant alerts you that the First Class stasis bays have their own help desk. No one is manning it, but there does seem to be a blinking terminal over there. The door, upside down as it is, is also still intact, as is the emergency exit on the other side of the room that you're fairly sure just goes to Stasis Bay FC2.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Ji-Yun 'June' Seong-Ziegler

Ji-Yun, or 'June' as some of her closer friends knew her (or 'Dozer-Maid' as her husband had attempted to call her once before being hit with the death glare to end all death glares) was not a very happy camper.

In fact, one might say that she was, at this point, incredibly alarmed, even through the stasis sickness. Having one's pod damaged was a bitch, it turned out.

It had been easy enough to glean from the very limited information that Wuffles had given her that something had gone Terribly Wrong. But it was another thing seeing it in person. What could have happened? An asteroid collison? An attack by hostile intelligent life? Some sort of internal malfunction causing everything to explode?

So many questions, so little answers.

Clenching her stasis suit-covered prosthetic hand into a fist, June knelt down, began scanning the area, and tried to do what she did best: Think. In this case, she tried to do her thinking out loud, in the hope that it would help fight off her stasis sickness.

"Okay, so lets think. My stuff down there is probably buried beneath a mountain of debris and pods. Probably could try and use these guys," she flexed an arm, "to try and move it, but at this point I'm basically drunk, and we don't want to risk damaging the pods, and holy crap that's a long way down."

Her speech was slurred as it came out, and her mouth was still having some difficulty forming the words, her body as a whole still trying to shake of the aftereffects of being asleep for goodness knew how long. She shook her head, slapped herself on the cheek, and tried to get a good sense of how far down the debris was.

"Think, think. The robotics lab should be nearby, and it should have stuff I can use to replace my own, maybe even better. I could probably even see if I can connect to something that will tell me WHAT. THE HECK. IS GOING. ON!" She shouted this last part in frustration. "So, that requires solving two problems. One. Where was it again? And two, how do I get to it from here?"

Spoiler: Actions

Show

June, as she will henceforth be referred to in the header, will try to do the following. Intelligence has been added to all rolls.
1) Look around and see if there are any handholds, stray railings, utility ladders, or anything even remotely solid that she could use to climb out of the pod to a safe spot. [roll0]
2) Try to remember where the robotics lab was located, unless her implant can tell her automatically. [roll1]
3) Try as best she can to recall how long a bout of stasis sickness should last and if there is anything that can speed the process. [roll2]

Nothing immediate jumps out at you as a way to get down, other than just maybe riding the slope and hoping you don't get impaled on something sharp at the bottom. You do recall the location of the robotics lab - it's up the far wall. You also know that any of the medical bays on the ship should have what it takes to speed recovery from Stasis Sickness, but that was contingent on there being medical staff to run the place. Whether or not you could manage it on your own is up for debate.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

"This is fine."

It was not.

"Things will get better. All things shall pass." He rubbed his cryogenically mangled muscles in a vain effort to restore some of his bodies vigor. It didn't help. Sweat rolled off of his flopping white hair, his body covered in a disgusting film he wished to remove at once, and yet there were more important things to do. Memories flooded the agents mind in all times and directions. Glimpses of the present, the future, and the past. Much like the room he was in it was an utter state of disarray, flashes of dog walks, lost virginity, brief choking moments of bleak death, tax return filing, and saucy naming.

He quickly did the mental gymnastics required to lock that corner of his mind safely away in a box inside a safe inside a puzzle covered in Nietzschean nonsense that even his subconscious brain would turn from. His left eye twitched. A strand gutted its way from his throat and out the unseen ways of his body to the dark pod where his superior remained.

He sensed nothing.

Taking a deep breathe in that he nearly instantly regretted, Armitage looked down at the box labelled with his unit designation, and tried to touch it before realizing it was too hot for him to physically handle. Squatting down and crossing his legs he sat next to the container and interlocked his fingers. He drummed his fingers against his knuckles switching from his left hand to his right hand, a rhythmic exercise he was taught to help manage his stress, and he began to focus his mind upon opening the container without actually touching it. Without his gear he would be a sitting duck for whatever might have caused this incident and those who might act irrationally given the bleak and ostensibly doomed state of the ship.

In the top of his mind, running around in little circles and pirouette's, was his hope. His resolve. His desire not to survive but to rescue the other psychic presence he detected. His hands clenched in a brief spasm of psychic whiplash as he attempted to establish contact with the other psychic entity. Provide it solace and a cool wall upon which to lean against in a similar fate. He was a weapon with no wielder, a soldier with no commander, and a guardian with no ward. In the young Watcher's eyes his life had little meaning or worth compared to the initial parameters of his existence given lack of any further instruction or structure.

Maintain status quo.

Your superior is well and truly dead. The case, however, is not, and it opens to your psychic prompting with a hiss to reveal your gear. Several nonlethal weapons, your lightly armored duty uniform, and all of your personal effects are within. The fire grows hotter, but you no longer have to face the odds unarmed.

There is another development as well - your efforts to contact the other psychic worked... you think. It's hard to tell across this distance and with someone inexperienced with their powers, but you could try sending a more specific thought or emotion to get their attention.

Spoiler: OOC - Armitage

Show

You have obtained Duty Uniform, Shock Tonfa, Spray-On Taffy (Hard), and Tranquilizer (Needler), in addition to any items of personal value.

This gear gives you the following advantages:

Duty Uniform (Armor Equipment I) - This outfit protects against the blows of rowdy passengers, primitive weapons, or other nonlethal gadgets. It is not rated for genuine weapons fire.
Nonlethal Suppression Gear I - You possess a variety of means to non-lethally disable someone.

[TheDarkDM]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Shrugging himself free of his vac suit, Graham panted heavily as he looked between the slagged drone and his right hand. Nothing about it felt different from the days before going into cryogenic freeze, yet in his third eye it seemed a wholly alien thing. He clenched his fingers, but released them reflexively as the bulkheads of the auxiliary bridge groaned in response. Muscles twitching with a strength not entirely their own, he turned himself to the task of survival - there were many more assailants to follow the one he'd destroyed, and he had no way of knowing if their attackers had anything worse in reserve.

"Merlin, identify the closest conscious passenger group and give me your field assessment."

He moved over to Sergeant Fisher's limp body, averting his eyes from her blood-spattered helmet and whispering a small prayer as he pulled her sidearm free. His head turned towards the alien module, intent on retrieving it despite its uncertain provenance, and in reply it slid across the floor into his hand. Both items secure on his belt, he began making his way towards the nearest living mind.

[Othniel]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 5
Stasis Bay M6
Ellie

You are resting on your back, against the back wall of the pod. This is a bit odd, as you are fairly certain the pods are oriented in such a way that you should be standing when you emerge from stasis. A moment later, the restraints slacken, and the door opens with an anemic wheeze. Standing up reveals the pod bay on its side, but that's hardly the worst of it. Scorch marks, some lengthy from grazing strikes and others creating pocks and craters, decorate the walls, floor, ceiling, and have penetrated many of the pods around you, some of which display status lights glowing a lurid red. Anything not bolted down is laying where it fell. The lighting is sporadic and flickering, and a pall of smoke obscures the row of stasis pods above you. The wall of pods that forms your new 'floor,' however, clearly displays the bodies of fallen security personnel.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

The pod across from yours and down three (putting it on the 'ceiling' relative to you) opens, and a body flops out, hanging limply from the restraints. There are clear signs of plasma burns - fatal ones - that are evident even to untrained eyes.

"Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Oscar is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Above you, a door opens into what you know to be one of the ship's many sickbays. While you shudder to think of the state it must be in, your gear is likely in there.

Spoiler: OOC - Ellie

Show

You are free to act.

Ellie

"Fudgeberries!" Ellie barely kept control of her language (a habit from having young children) as she watched the supervisor's body flop out, the poor soul. Gear first. She started mentally ticking off priorities. Immediate life-threatening injuries for those nearby next. Only then could she check on her family. At least her youngest was safe for now. She had concern for her husband, but the orange status of the pod implied that it was not an immediate emergency. She fought down the rising panic she felt regarding the unknown status of her other daughter, Amelie, however. But she couldn't think about that yet. Compartmentalize, prioritize, act.

Standing in the pod, Ellie looked for a way to reach the door above her.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Unsure how far away this door is, but Ellie is going to see if there's anything she can use to climb up.

[Nefarion Xid]

Deneb tugged on something cute and casual with athletic support, gave her hair an emergency brush, and activated the hovering cam-bot she affectionately called Cecil B. DeMille. Anyone in the hell-scape of the ship who happened to follow her on any number of social media platforms would receive a notification that @DenebStardust had gone live.

"We've got an answer to the age old question. Are we alone in the universe? The answer is 'no' and also that aliens are kind of ****y!" She directed Cecil to get a shot of the mass driver slug while she neatly repacked her suitcase. Cecil pivoted back to her manic deer-in-headlights stare.

"So today we're gonna have a very special stream where I have a nihilistic crisis while escaping a spaceship in some remote corner of the universe, armed with nothing but a hair dryer. Oh. And rescue my fiance! And maybe you'll get to see an alien queen lay her eggs in me. If you're in to that. I've seen the fan art, you weirdos!"

With her worldly possessions stored once more, she started towards the first available terminal, noisily wheeling her giant pink suitcase behind her.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

If she gets to a terminal unmolested, she queries the status and location of Domenic Bouchard and generally tries to find out what's happened to the ship.

[Tychris1]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

Clapping his hands together as the container opened itself up, the waif psychic began to unleash a torrent of positive energy and joy out into the world, and said softly to himself "Good job twenty, have a cookie." The all to familiar sounds of his skin ports cracking open and hissing softly to receive his Watch gear filled the hot air around him as it quickly attached to his form and rendered him incredibly stiff looking. The articulation in his fingers was nonexistent for a second before they rapidly adjusted and began to wiggle about freely. His thigh plate opened up its compact holster for his needler, his utility belt was strapped with his usual assortment of paraphernalia (including adhesive suppression spray), and he held the softly humming tonfa in both hands like an altar boy wielding a reliquary. Turning it on then off again experimentally he judged it fit for duty and put it on his left side.

Amidst his other possessions that he feverishly stowed into his built in backpack was his sewing tools, a music player (with pre-approved songs that was quickly integrating itself into his clear helmet), several writing utensils (including a quill from a bald eagle), a small journal, and a dog tag crudely engraved with the first work he ever penned by himself away from the prying eyes of his overseers.

You are invalid
You are a tool not a boy
I am the Armitage

Tucking it away into the inner workings of his finally sealing uniform he continued to barrage the air around him with an intense feeling of passionate joy and looked up to the smoke clouds above. Taking out his hard spray he cupped his left hand over his mouth and sprayed it to create a tight seal he could peel on and off for protection. Getting as close to the smoke cloud as he could without actually entering it , Armitage turned on his small music box with his free hand, and began a concerted effort of physical and psychic power to move through the hazard. Physically he juggled covering his mouth and swatting the air with his left hand; with his right he switched between firing the hard spray at whatever surface he could see and then forcefully tugging on it to pull himself through the wonky gravity field. In the outer reality of his body he attempted to telekinetically tug, push, and thrust himself in conjunction with his physical movement for greater speed in the nearest direction of active life or emotional distress he could find.

[zabbarot]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 3
Stasis Bay T7
Abram

You are resting face-down against your restraints. The pod door opens to reveal a stasis bay in total disarray. Indeed, the opposite wall, 'beneath' you, is quite a ways down. The room is dark, save for dim and flickering emergency lighting, and a cloud of smoke obscures vision. A moment later, the restraints also frightfully slacken, though as they don't retract against pressure, you are still suspended from them.

"We once again thank you for your patience in personnel reconstruction. We will now let your supervisor out of stasis to explain the state of the ship to you."

The pod next to yours opens, and a withered, unrecognizable corpse tumbles out of it to thud against the wall below. "Hopefully they will answer any further questions you have. Sal is now going offline. Welcome to your new home, and goodbye!"

Moments later... nothing happens. You are still suspended, there is no computer assistance and no gear forthcoming.

Abram stared at the wall below him, and the crumpled body of his supervisor, for a long while as he hung from the pod safety belts. He started to chuckle soflty and it grew before suddenly becoming heaving sobs.

Everyone he'd ever known was dead on a planet he'd never see again, and his promised 'new beginning' wasn't looking much better. Part of him wanted to just release the straps and let the impact kill him, but the cowardly part was too scared he'd survive to spend long agonizing hours bleeding on the bay wall.

Eventually he managed to compose himself, and fear began creeping in. What if he was alone? He couldnt be the only survivor, even his luck couldn't be that awful. His mind was racing, panic was setting in.

Deep breaths. Deeeeep breaths. His implants kicked in and helped regulate the panic attack before it got too strong. You can breathe. Life support is working. He activated his database implant and tried to connect to the life support computer. Maybe that AI could explain what's going on.

[PepperP.]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Stasis Bay P3
Miranda Rodriguez

"Yeah **** you too, Vanna." Miranda muttered under her breath as she stepped out of her darkened pod. The metal floor was cold beneath her bare feet as she looked around her immediate surroundings very carefully for any signs of hostiles. She stretched her legs one at a time to warm the muscles that had grown stiff over the last 800 years in stasis.

"I'm too old for this ****." She bit her lip to keep the only slightly manic giggles from escaping. She shook them off and made her way to the gear in her trunk.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

Spoiler: Previously...

Show

Nothing immediate jumps out at you as a way to get down, other than just maybe riding the slope and hoping you don't get impaled on something sharp at the bottom. You do recall the location of the robotics lab - it's up the far wall. You also know that any of the medical bays on the ship should have what it takes to speed recovery from Stasis Sickness, but that was contingent on there being medical staff to run the place. Whether or not you could manage it on your own is up for debate.

June gulped as she considered her options - and there weren't many. As far as she could spot, there were no nubs, wires, girders, or anything that really resembled any sort of handholds that she could use to climb up or down. The shaft was sloped, but it was a steep one. On the other hand, there was nothing she could do here, aside from wait and hope someone came to help her. And based on what she saw, there was very little evidence to support the likelihood of that happening.

She clenched her fists, nervously, then took a deep breath. She then lowered herself out of the pod and began the process of sliding down, trying to use her limbs as best she could to keep from tumbling over and/or landing on something bad.

"It would really suck if I died thirty seconds after arriving... wherever we are now."

Spoiler: Actions

Show

I am going to try to slide down the slope, using my arms and legs to try and a) slow my descent somewhat and b) try to land on whatever looks least sharp. I am applying Athletics to this roll. (2d6+1)[10]

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

The slide is a steep one, and June's balance isn't what it could be. The acceleration continues all the way to the bottom, and she strikes the curved surface of a collapsed pod harder than is strictly safe. While the impact knocks the wind out of her, the unwelcome sound and sensation of breaking bones and grating joints remains absent, and after several painful seconds, she finds she can still move everything. The drop, it seems, did not incapacitate her.

This is a notable improvement. While there is no clear way out from the new relative 'bottom' of the shaft, there are other potential survivors down here, including pods that haven't ceased function yet despite their horrible dislocation. Unfortunately, there also seem to be some people trapped under the debris, their pained grunts and cries increasing in intensity as they sense there might be someone conscious above them. There are no notable tools down here, at least none that work, but there is an abundance of scrap metal in nearly every shape and size, plus a few sealed cases that might contain something of value, if the time is taken to prize one open.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Stasis Bay P3
Miranda Rodriguez

The trunk contains everything the Terra Nova program had thought one of their colony pilots would need. Miranda's uniform, a partial vac suit designed more for atmospheric protection than hard vacuum, all of her personal effects, and her access key for the shuttle hangars is all in evidence. As she gathers her things, the floor faintly vibrates and she hears a distant noise - it sounds like a mechanical whine, running low to high in pitch before resolving into a *shank shank shank shank* sound. After that, the whine dies off and it goes quiet again.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 3
Stasis Bay T7
Abram

The AI in the life support bay is useless, but Abram gets an unexpected response to his desperate pinging from the Terraforming labs.

Hello Dr. Moon. This is the Terraforming Lab Level 3 AI, currently designated 'Tara.' What can I do for you today?

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

The spray was never intended to be used as a rope ladder, but Armitage makes it work. After a few minutes, he's standing on the wall of the hallway that is now relatively 'above' him, having pulled his way up through the door. He doesn't have to go far to find distress - he can sense three life forms in the next bay, which quickly becomes two, and then one. By the time he opens the door, he can see the source of the problem. The room is in similar shape to his stasis bay, but not on fire. Instead, small metal flechettes adorn the walls, pods, and ceilings, as well as having perforated two passengers that made it out of their pods. The third one is struggling to get to cover, but with that room just as sideways as the first, it isn't going well.

The attacker is obvious. A hovering mechanical ball with four modular protrusions - two trapezoidal units on top and two needlers slung underneath - is taking aim at the last survivor.

Spoiler: OOC - Armitage

Show

You are now in combat. Decide how you want to act and we'll hash it out.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

Deneb's signal indicator, splashed helpfully up in her vision by her implant, indicates a faint direction to travel in if she wants to get actual reception. Before she can get very far, though, her preview shot on her selfie cam shows activity behind her. An incredibly athletic man - she thinks she recognizes Juan Cadenza, star meteorball player - tumbles out of Stasis Bay FC2 and rolls to his feet before pressing up against the wall next to the door. This would be alarming enough on its own, but he's grasping a length of metal piping as though he's about to swing it. Sure enough, a sphere shaped drone hovers through the door after him and spins, clearly taking aim.

The sportsman swings with everything he has, and there's a crystalline crunch as he connects with something breakable. The drone loses altitude for a moment... and then recovers, firing flechettes down the hall in a cone of saturation fire that catches the ball player in it. A red spray of blood decorates the walls, floor, and ceiling as Cadenza crumples, and the drone pauses, occasionally re-orienting toward the creaks and groans of the ship as it settles. Deneb, now facing the attack robot, notices that a number of what were probably optical sensors on the front of the unit are smashed in and likely broken, but it's clearly listening for new targets.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 5
Stasis Bay M6
Ellie

Ellie's search of the bodies around her quickly reveals that some of the security personnel were armed. While none of them were really equipped for mountain climbing, and while their security suits don't fit her, she does find a wealth of nonlethal weaponry - including enough spray glue to literally build a cheap hardened goop 'staircase' up to the door in her new 'ceiling.'

This gives her access to the nearest sickbay, sort of. The bay is also on its side, and her locker is hard to reach, but she manages despite having to work around piles of broken glass, ferro-ceramics, crystalline lattices, and worse. The emergency sickbay terminal, a tool to allow doctors to access the bay's functions even if cut off from the main computer and wireless implant commands, is also awkward and difficult to reach, but Ellie might be able to manage with a bit of practice. The wonky gravity will make any real work difficult, though.

Spoiler: OOC - Ellie

Show

You have access to the same nonlethal gear described in Armitage's gear, though with little experience using it, its value as improvisational tools might outweigh its value as weaponry. You do not find armor that fits well enough to wear. You do gain access to your own gear, including clothing, personal effects, an emergency medi-kit, surgical kit, some emergency drugs - mostly localized anesthetics and a few anti-inflammatories, crude antibiotics and antivirals, and a couple of compounds to neutralize common allergic reactions. One of the onboard pharmacies likely has a more comprehensive list of drugs.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Merlin's voice lost some of the accent in what Graham realized was a deliberate act designed to reduce the odds of being misunderstood in an emergency. The speech is also very fast, though the navigator finds he has no trouble understanding it, likely through some trick the AI is pulling via the implant. "Assessment: The ship came under attack in high orbit, but is being assaulted in a way that only kills conscious individuals and AIs. Certainly they could have destroyed the ship several times over by now. We were attacked by an estimated one hundred and fifty starfighter-class drones after the psionic attack that killed the crew, of which this ship destroyed thirty-five with defensive fire before damage to maneuvering resulted in rapid loss of altitude, necessitating an emergency landing without dispatching the deployment units. The starfighter drones did not continue their assault once the emergency landing was locked in. Following that, two dozen hunter-killer robots boarded the ship from locations unknown and began killing any active colonists and personnel. Of these, five have been destroyed and one m-"

The room shudders violently for a moment, though no sound reaches the auxiliary bridge.

"-correction, eleven have been destroyed. One more has been damaged and is apparently relying on auditory processing to locate targets. There is also one larger war machine loose in Deployment Unit One. It is armed with, at a minimum, a powerful laser weapon, four articulated arms, and four magnetic rail cannons. The sole point of good news is that scans of the surrounding area reveal no further enemy reinforcements inbound, and there have been no further psionic attacks." There is the briefest of pauses. "Conclusion: the objective of our attackers is the passengers themselves. They have shown little regard for damage to the ship, or collateral damage in the process of subduing resistance, but have made no effort to attack stasis pods in rooms without resistance. All deaths of passengers in stasis were caused by misdirected fire, ship breakdowns, or battle damage in space."

A series of waypoint markers for Graham to follow swims into view. "Corollary: The attackers must be convinced that there is nothing of value left aboard the ship, or additional attackers will eventually be sent. For this, we will need to fake a catastrophic failure of the fusion bottle in the main reactor. There is a way to do this, but it requires technical skills that you do not possess. There are two colonists out of stasis that will aid you in this endeavor. They must be found, kept safe, and brought to the main reactor. The closest is Doctor Ji-Yun Seong-Ziegler, a heavily augmented roboticist. She is currently active in what was formerly Stasis Rack 13, aft of your position relative to the ship, or 'uphill' relative to the planet. The other is Doctor Abram Moon, a terraforming specialist. He is currently stranded outside of the main Terraforming Lab in Deployment Unit Three, but Seong-Ziegler is the higher priority due to enemy placement. Do you have any questions?"

[Nefarion Xid]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

Deneb continued to scream mutely, paralyzed with fear. Her conscious brain had effectively shorted out, but she wasn't altogether without resources, cognitive and otherwise. A hand shot into the pocket of her hoodie and retrieved the only item of value that wasn't stowed in her suitcase. She had suspected she might use it for a distraction, but secretly hoped to bluff about having a 'thermal detonator'. Her manicured fingers produced a shiny silver egg. Still wearing an unblinking rictus, she lobbed it to her right.

Activated and set to '10' by her neural implant mid-flight, the device whirred to life, then clattered to the deck where it continued to bounce violently at random.

[Lord Of Mantas]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

Spoiler: Previously...

Show

The slide is a steep one, and June's balance isn't what it could be. The acceleration continues all the way to the bottom, and she strikes the curved surface of a collapsed pod harder than is strictly safe. While the impact knocks the wind out of her, the unwelcome sound and sensation of breaking bones and grating joints remains absent, and after several painful seconds, she finds she can still move everything. The drop, it seems, did not incapacitate her.

This is a notable improvement. While there is no clear way out from the new relative 'bottom' of the shaft, there are other potential survivors down here, including pods that haven't ceased function yet despite their horrible dislocation. Unfortunately, there also seem to be some people trapped under the debris, their pained grunts and cries increasing in intensity as they sense there might be someone conscious above them. There are no notable tools down here, at least none that work, but there is an abundance of scrap metal in nearly every shape and size, plus a few sealed cases that might contain something of value, if the time is taken to pry one open.

"OOOF!"

June wheezed for several seconds after slamming into the bottom of the shaft, staggering away as she tried to take stock of herself. Thankfully, she didn't appear to have any serious injuries.

"Well, it's not perfect... but it's better than hanging uselessly in the air."

Then, she heard it. Cries ringing out from beneath the debris. Survivors. People in danger.

"If you can hear me, just stay calm! I'm going to try and get you out!"

She made a cracking motion with her prosthetic knuckles.

It's morbid as all hell... but it's times like these I'm thankful that a catwalk crushed all my limbs.

Quickly, June began examining the area, evaluating what was present that she could use.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

First, Ji-Yun is going to quickly examine the cases to see if any of them are labeled as containing any immediately useful equipment, particularly if it could be used to free the survivors or escape from the shaft. If either of these conditions are met, she will attempt to pry it open. I am adding Augmentations to this role as her cybernetic arms will be handling the workload. (2d6+2)[10] Belatedly, I have realized that potentially Intelligence could be added to try and identify weak points, but that might be stretching it a bit, so make of that what you will. If you think that's reasonable, it raises the roll to 12.

Secondly, once she's done with that, she will attempt to clear away the rubble and try to free the people trapped underneath. I am adding Intelligence to the roll (to try and figure out how to best lever away the debris so as not to make the pile collapse, as well as to figure out what pieces of debris could be used as improvised tools) and Augmentations (again, using my super strong cybernetic arms to do the work). (2d6+4)[14]

[Othniel]

Spoiler: Snip

Show

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 5
Stasis Bay M6
Ellie

Ellie's search of the bodies around her quickly reveals that some of the security personnel were armed. While none of them were really equipped for mountain climbing, and while their security suits don't fit her, she does find a wealth of nonlethal weaponry - including enough spray glue to literally build a cheap hardened goop 'staircase' up to the door in her new 'ceiling.'

This gives her access to the nearest sickbay, sort of. The bay is also on its side, and her locker is hard to reach, but she manages despite having to work around piles of broken glass, ferro-ceramics, crystalline lattices, and worse. The emergency sickbay terminal, a tool to allow doctors to access the bay's functions even if cut off from the main computer and wireless implant commands, is also awkward and difficult to reach, but Ellie might be able to manage with a bit of practice. The wonky gravity will make any real work difficult, though.

Spoiler: OOC - Ellie

Show

You have access to the same nonlethal gear described in Armitage's gear, though with little experience using it, its value as improvisational tools might outweigh its value as weaponry. You do not find armor that fits well enough to wear. You do gain access to your own gear, including clothing, personal effects, an emergency medi-kit, surgical kit, some emergency drugs - mostly localized anesthetics and a few anti-inflammatories, crude antibiotics and antivirals, and a couple of compounds to neutralize common allergic reactions. One of the onboard pharmacies likely has a more comprehensive list of drugs.

Need to reach the terminal. Securing the equipment she'd found as best she could to her person, Ellie began an effort to reach the terminal. Perhaps she could repeat her trick with the crude staircase by spraying a sort of sling she could sit in while attempting to access the terminal? Up to this point, she'd worked as silently as possible. She did not like the look of the scorch marks she'd seen, and was hesitant to call out in case something dangerous was lurking nearby. Perhaps the ship's AIs had malfunctioned? A horrendous thought.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Let's do the same thing with the stairs and make a sling to sit in at the terminal. I'm going to postulate that I can turn my head and type sideways. Ellie is a smart girl.

[zabbarot]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 3
Stasis Bay T7
Abram

The AI in the life support bay is useless, but Abram gets an unexpected response to his desperate pinging from the Terraforming labs.

Hello Dr. Moon. This is the Terraforming Lab Level 3 AI, currently designated 'Tara.' What can I do for you today?

"Tara, my bay is severely damaged. Have any other terraforming personnel checked in? I am currently suspended by my safety harness and in need of assistance. Please pass on that I am alive, but trapped." He kept his communication with the AI subvocal out of habit. Making contact with something bolstered his spirits though.

Now that he was thinking a little straighter he took a better look at his surroundings, and tried to figure out what his module being sideways might mean for the rest of the ship.

"Tara, please give me a status report on the terraforming lab. Specifically if any equipment is damaged or missing.

Spoiler: Rollin?

Show

Intelligence to remember how to get from here to the terraforming lab and if it's in the same ship module.
(2d6+3)[12]

[TheDarkDM]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Auxiliary Bridge
Graham

Graham began to stretch as Merlin delivered his assessment. The long years in stasis had passed easily, but it had still been several years since the academy's track.

"Understood, Merlin. If you have any other advice, I'm listening."

Crouching down, Graham began running along the AI's chosen path, intent on the critically important roboticist and the survival of the ship's passengers.

[PepperP.]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Stasis Bay P3
Miranda Rodriguez

Miranda froze in the middle of changing into her her uniform as she heard the alien whirring noise, her head unconsciously tilted in the direction from which it came.

Don't die nipples to the wind, idiot.

Her inner voice shook her from her trance and she finished dressing and collected her gear, grimly noting the lack of weapons. After a quick glance towards the direction she'd heard the strange mechanical sound coming from, she began to stealthily make her way to the nearest shuttle launch bay.

[Tychris1]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

Running past the smoke Armitage shattered the bondings on his fingers with a quick mental squeeze and held his two weapons in each clenched fist. Adrenaline pumping so soon after leaving stasis was probably bad for his health. So he started sprinting at a full pace. "Relax Passenger," He said as cleanly and succinctly as possible whilst blitzing a killer robot "Security is here." With an underslung hand he aimed his spray at the drone's two lower needlers in an effort to clog them. Raising his tonfa up he activated it and threw it at the mechanical assailant's higher protrusions. His body like a clap of thunder after the lightning swooshed through the air in a tackling motion as his mind tried to divert and direct the deadly weapons away from the two humans in the room and peel away the barriers in this creatures mind.

"Gotta get this thing under wraps. Focus. Assess. Breathe. Come on little neighbor, won't you tell me how you're doing today? What's wrong?" He thought to himself as he quickly constructed psionic walls in his mind against the emotional bleeding that permeated this scene of shock and terror and focused on the mental landscape of the construct before him.

Spoiler: OOC?

Show

Martial Arts Nonlethal Psionic Takedown?

(2d6+6)[15]

Mind spoopery?

(2d6+4)[10]

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 2
Stasis Bay S2
Armitage

The tackle is a resounding success. The spray doesn't stop the needlers outright, but it does slow their fire enough that by the time the shots break through, flinging deadly darts through a rain of impromptu plastic confetti, Armitage has already hit the drone. This is enough to spin it around the way he came, and the fire riddles the hallway outside without striking any new passengers. The shock tonfa does nothing - at first. Apparently designed to channel current through its spherical shell, the drone seems unaffected until the impact pries away enough plating that the energy runs through more delicate circuitry instead, shorting it out. The hero of the hour is barely able to catch himself on an active pod before the drone drops like a rock, twitching a few times at the 'bottom' of the room and then falling silent.

From the drone, there was no mental activity, not really. Whatever program was controlling it was simple, too unsophisticated to truly connect with the psionic network, but there was a... terminal of awareness there. In the brief moments before the drone's destruction, the word puppet forms in Armitage's mind: not an accusation, but a description. He senses, faintly, a thin stream of something like thought coming from a great distance, but the thoughts, if that's what they are, are utterly incomprehensible to him. And the puppeteer, whoever he, she, or it was, had no intention of a longer discourse.

The other passenger did, though. She was in her late twenties or early thirties, and on the edge of panic. The implant has no helpful suggestions on who she is, but that didn't necessarily mean something untoward with access to the main computer cut off. After all, it couldn't remember who Armitage was either. Besides, he has a vague memory of her as some kind of administrative aid. "Oh, thank God. What's going on? What do I need to do?!"

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 3
Stasis Bay T7
Abram

Your status has been noted. I have alerted the main computer and have been assured that assistance is on the way. You are also the first of the terraforming specialists or planetary engineers to check in. Most of the terraforming equipment was secured prior to our journey, but it was not designed to be suspended at this angle and may require maintenance before use.

There's a pause in the text stream, and then it picks up, complete with a smiling emoji. There is good news, though! Our terraforming and planet reformation efforts are already well ahead of schedule despite these setbacks. This planet's habitability index is currently 91.22, with a life diversification index of 39-50. Way to go!

Spoiler: OOC - Abram

Show

Those numbers are insane. While five planets of nine in this solar system were determined to be 'habitable', that was meant in the sense that they could be made habitable. Your equipment, which was state of the art when you left Earth, could operate on any planet with a habitability index of of 40.00 or higher. When you were put in stasis, the highest index among observed planets in the Nova Veritas system was 58.56, and it wasn't this one. Your target world that you presumably landed on had an index of 44.75 - approximately as hostile as an Earth-sized Mars. By contrast, 91.22 is a particularly smoggy day in Beijing - and if that's a planetary average, then there could very well be a clean forest somewhere on this world, not to mention oceans. Similarly, the life diversification index measures the active fauna and flora variety, with 100 being the approximate number of known species on old Earth. Even with 39-50, you're looking at a planet with almost half as much eco-diversity on what should be a lifeless rock.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Stasis Bay P3
Miranda Rodriguez

A look back still reveals no attackers, though the shank shank shank shank noise sounds off again. It might be Miranda's imagination, but it seems a bit louder.

Still, the nearest shuttle bay is in the other direction. The bay itself has a multi-layered security system requiring her key, her biometrics, and a code. For a wonder, it actually works without a hitch, and Miranda is able to stride into the bay.

It's better and worse than she thought. There are no heaps of wreckage, but tools have broken free of mountings and containers and lay scattered about. Paint jobs everywhere have been dinged, and the shuttles themselves probably need maintenance after the crash they just took. The floor here is tilted, too, which will make any sort of liftoff needlessly complicated, though not impossible.

The real crown jewel, however, is the shuttle bay doors. They're displaying a green indicator for outside conditions. Indeed, the CCTV monitor in the control room, unaffected by the loss of the main computer, is displaying an incredible image of 'outside.'

Spoiler: OOC - Miranda

Show

[Nefarion Xid]

Buying a moment of time with her bouncing friend, Deneb cleverly recorded all of the drone's EM chatter for a few seconds before blasting it with a bandwidth overload. Specifically, the song I'll Be There For You by the Rembrandts played start to finish three times a second at the same frequencies the drone seemed to be using to communicate with its operator and death-squad buddies.

Spoiler: Leet Hacking!

Show

(2d6+2)[9]

[PepperP.]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Shuttle Bay
Miranda Rodriguez

Miranda made her way across the slanted shuttle bay as quickly as she could.

"Take THAT robot! That and that and that!" She picked up a wrench off the ground and brandished it in the air experimentally a couple of times though she was doubtful of its efficacy against shanking alien robots even with her metal arm. She carried it with her to the control room where she stood frozen in open-mouthed confusion at the wrecked urban landscape beyond.

"I was so busy wondering when we were, I didn't think to ask where we were." She somehow found the facial fortitude to frown harder. That didn't seem right. Hadn't Vanna said something about... something? **** she couldn't remember clearly it was all jumbled in her head. Did the CCTV monitor have any displays of inside the ship? She began to push buttons that seemed like they might control the monitor display.

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Shuttle Bay
Miranda Rodriguez

The CCTV camera seems to be stuck, unfortunately. Miranda does find the controls to switch the views to other cameras, but they all show different shots of the same apocalyptic urban hellscape.

More importantly, though, she managed to find a terminal claiming it found the problem with the area's connection to the main computer - a router offline some distance back into the ship - and recommending a replacement. While no robots present themselves for a thwacking, that shanking noise does go off again, a loud as before.

The flight plans for initial scouting runs are available as well. In fact, the little craft assigned to Miranda for phase one after landing is intact and available, though launching it entirely on her own would be a challenge.

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 4
Stasis Bay FC1
Deneb

The distraction, at least, is a rousing success. The drone spins and fires nonstop at the bouncing ball until it ceases to function entirely. In that time, Deneb completes her exploration of the digital machine's network defenses before concluding that, strong similarities to human tech be damned, it's still too alien for easy hacking.

Jamming, on the other hand, is still effective. The wireless equivalent of screaming so loud that no one else can hear anything works regardless of whether or not you speak your enemy's language. Unfortunately, it also gives away your exact location. The drone whirls to target the source of the signal, aiming right at Deneb, and... both needlers click empty. Undeterred, a port springs open in the bottom and it does... something that strikes the woman in the shoulder, like an invisible hammer blow.

While the impact spins her around and takes her off her feet, it does nothing to stop Deneb's signal. The drone, out of ammunition, blind, unable to contact any other drones, and unable to aim properly with its kinetic ram, gives up. It glows white hot for a moment before melting - in midair - into a featureless puddle of slag that oozes down the slant in the ceiling, slowing as it cools and hardens.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

Equipment is sparse, but June manages to find enough leverage to start digging people out of the wreckage. She's got a bleeding but conscious coworker (implant identifies her as Technician Second Class Brittney Lassiter) partially out when the younger woman points and shrieks. "Behind you!"

The door to the robotics lab goes flying out of its tracks and, in a bizarre twist of irony, four drones spill out into the tilted cylinder. These aren't anything that the Terra Nova expedition packed, though. They're spherical, armed, and clearly out to kill, as they take aim below them immediately.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Multiple Locations
Graham

"Normally, I would advise you to show caution in the use of your new abilities. The Type IX implant is largely untested, after all. However, with the situation as it is, you'll just have to do whatever is necessary and we'll worry about the consequences later." Merlin's old accent is coming back, though as before it isn't enough to cloud his speech. "Also, you'll be heading into a part of the ship that I don't have communications with soon. I'll still be able to monitor you, but you'll probably want to have Dr. Seong-Ziegler activate one of the Damage Control bays as soon as possible."

A few moments pass in silence as the AI lets Graham concentrate on clearing a section of the decking where the floor has collapsed. When he's running again, Merlin resumes, "Good news. Two more drones have been destroyed, including the damaged one. The bad news is that the larger war machine is still unchecked. You're also about to reach that dead zone right about-"

The voice cuts off abruptly enough - and with perfect enough timing - that Graham suspects Merlin played it up just to be cheeky. Still, he's arrived at Stasis Rack 13... or what's left of it. The door opens into nothing, and only Grahams newfound predictive senses prevent him from continuing his rush into the cavernous space and falling to his death in a way that would have been anticlimactically humorous if it wasn't so tragic.

The navigator doesn't have time to appreciate what might have been. Four drones are taking aim at the people below, and he doesn't need foresight to know what they're about to do.

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Graham/June

Spoiler: OOC

Show

You are now in combat with four hunter-killer drones that are, by all appearances, identical to the one Graham fought earlier. They are engaged as a single unit with a Magnitude advantage of I and a Coordination Advantage of III, representing the greater threat they pose as a group. Also, congratulations on being the first two PCs to unite!

[Nefarion Xid]

Deneb allowed herself a moment, vacillating between high pitched sniffling at the blow to her shoulder and cursing the robot. Pain was a novel and unwelcome experience. "What the ****, robit!? I'm starting to think there won't be any gold bikinis at all! I can serve drinks on your floating yacht thingy, ya jerks! I ain't too good to do waitressing!"

She did think she was too good to be a waitress.

Once the throbbing subsided, she checked herself over for injuries, leaks, or tears to her favorite white hoodie. Breathing a sigh of relief, she stood up from the inverted ceiling, reclaimed her luggage and went jogging in the direction of the nearest terminal.

Calling to the corpse behind her, she added, "Sorry, Juan! I'll never forget you!"

[Lord Of Mantas]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

Spoiler: Previously...

Show

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
'June'

Equipment is sparse, but June manages to find enough leverage to start digging people out of the wreckage. She's got a bleeding but conscious coworker (implant identifies her as Technician Second Class Brittney Lassiter) partially out when the younger woman points and shrieks. "Behind you!"

The door to the robotics lab goes flying out of its tracks and, in a bizarre twist of irony, four drones spill out into the tilted cylinder. These aren't anything that the Terra Nova expedition packed, though. They're spherical, armed, and clearly out to kill, as they take aim below them immediately.

So.

Apparently we are being invaded by aliens.

F*** me sideways.

"Get to cover!"

As quickly as she could, June grabbed Brittney and dragged her to behind the nearest pod/lump of debris that looked like it might offer decent cover from the androids. As she did so, she attempted to grab something reasonably sturdy from the main debris pile that she could throw as a weapon. The instant Brittney was in cover, she whirled around and threw the piece of debris at the nearest droid.

I would KILL for a pistol.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Let me know if I need to roll to find a suitably heavy piece of debris to throw at the droids, but given that the pile is pretty huge, my assumption is that it shouldn't be a problem.

In the meantime, I will act as described above.

Attack Roll (Adding Augmentation because cybernetic arms doing the throwing): (2d6+2)[13]

[TheDarkDM]

Nova Forte - Core Unit
Stasis Rack 13
Graham/June

Staring down from his elevated vantage point, Graham nearly collapsed as his skull exploded in white-hot agony. There were images, at least the suggestion of images, death and fear and loss all commingling in a tempest of pain. He saw the people below die again and again and again, each time stabbing a dagger into his heart that could feel every breath, suffer every hurt. He didn't know when he'd started screaming, but as the hunter-killers noticed him everything narrowed to a pinpoint of clarity.

"ENOUGH!"

The cry echoed down the cavernous fall, and it was followed by a rippling wave of pure anger, lancing out in four directions not only to where the drones floated, but to where they would inevitably dodge.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Telekinesis + Precognition = A Primitive Missile

(2d6+6)[9]

[PepperP.]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 1
Shuttle Bay
Miranda Rodriguez

Miranda tensed as she heard the mechanical whirring was no farther off than it had been. Was it only chance or was it following her?

"Damn it Shankbot." She cursed it under her breath and carefully peeked out of the control room door, before nearly smacking herself on the forehead with her metal arm. She'd done it before and it hurt. She managed to not give herself a concussion but she was too busy calling herself an idiot to congratulate herself.

"The armory..." She figured it was fight Shankbot or flee from it and who knew if the skies of this hellscape was filled with dozens more of him? She stood indecisive for a moment before she darted in the direction she knew was the armory, using the debris and shuttlecraft for cover as best as she could.

[Jade_Tarem]

Nova Forte - Deployment Unit 5
Medical Bay M6-M1
Ellie

The terminal reveals a great deal of information about the status of those in the attached Stasis Bays, but not beyond that. However, it does have a copy of the map of all the public areas in the ship, and was updated about half an hour ago with blockages and danger points, allowing for better travel in and around the vessel and all of the deployment units.

It also contains a note stating that the current orientation of the ship relative to gravity can't be good for the passengers, and recommends getting that back online as soon as possible. It helpfully highlights a route to the nearest Damage Control Center.