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Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:37 am
by Will
Edited by GM

Lets move along with the game.
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OOC: Aw, you're such a party pooper, jedi. :lol:

Seriously, I'm cool with it.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:59 pm
by simplymenotu
OOC: Is it possible to pilot a workpod with characters secured in spacesuits on the outside?
They can help visually inspect the hull of the ship while I bring them across.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:03 pm
by jedion357
Tanar and Ike get their heads together and work up a deck diagram by observed data and WAG (Wild Assed Guess) for the benefit of the crew. The breached dome is designated Dome A with the other three being B, C and D; clockwise looking down.

Again one of the ion engines was shows signs of damage from beam weapons.

Players may wish to discuss their plans in OOC before going at this or just fly by the seat of your pants.
Cloverdale diagram.png
Cloverdale diagram.png (162.93 KiB) Viewed 28865 times

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:18 pm
by jedion357
simplymenotu wrote:OOC: Is it possible to pilot a workpod with characters secured in spacesuits on the outside?
They can help visually inspect the hull of the ship while I bring them across.


Yes, you may consider breaking into teams with separate objectives, 1 of the Pelican's small craft can dock at the main hatch and begin clearing the ship while you do an inspection via workpod then you could dock the work pod on deck 5 which will already be cleared. If anyone is outside the workpod they would have to get in some other way if the workpod docks with the Cloverdale (and the pod will match the docking color as they're fairly standardized no matter who made them).

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:19 pm
by Will
"I can take the Hind across with the main team," Lyssa suggests, as she looks over Tanar's and Ike's heads,"docking with the main hatch, while two of us take workpods and do an external inspection."

"What I can't understand," she muses,"is why Streel would release so little data on an ag ship's deckplans. Granted, it is modular, and at the time the article young Tanar discovered was written, most of what whoever wrote the thing had to go on was speculation, but, still and all, there should've been some public data on the modules it was supposed to have been equipped to carry, other than what we've been seeing."

She then looks at the beam damage evident on one of the ion engines, tapping her right pointing finger against her teeth, one of the many nervous habits she'd promised herself she'd stop one of these days...chances are, whoever did this, might send someone back out here to finish the job, especially if they realize Pelican's out here sniffing around the Cloverdale's corpse.

"How do you want to play this, Number One?" she asks Clanton. "We'll probably have to split the team up once inside to search the ship, and whether we take the Hind or Pelican's launch, one of us will have to stay behind in case we have to bug out...I recommend we use the Hind, cos it's armed, and whoever shot that ag ship up may come back for a second round."

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:15 pm
by jedion357
IC:
The captain, who approves of the brainstorming, even from the enlisted crew, adds, "Well, Blue is right about not being caught with our pants down. We'll throw out an ion window as a precaution. Take the launch as the shuttle's atomic drive is visible despite the window to ships with energy sensors. Its slower than the shuttle but invisibility is better than speed in this case. Also I want a subspace beacon brought across in case its not practical for the ship to return under its own power."

OOC: there was a recent and excellent article about ion drives in the SFman and I now that there were some confusing statements in the rules concerning ion windows and energy sensors, I'm inclined to go with ion window's not hiding atomic drives for various reasons.
Seeing if the Cloverdale can be put underway under her own power is also one of your objectives.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:51 pm
by Will
On reflection, Lyssa is forced to admit the Skipper has a point; the launch would be the better vehicle for the job. As much as she likes the Hind, its weapons and speed would be of little good if they were bounced with the shuttle docked with the ag ship.

And, she also forgot the Pelican had ion engines...either she's slipping, or her constant spoiling for a fight's getting the better of her.

Let's do the mission, then work on me, she tells herself, sighing.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:03 pm
by Terl Obar
Back on the Pelican, Tanar takes the data he got from the base and starts working out the probably flight path of of the Cloverdale. He keeps his head down and is thankful he's not the target of the captain's current ire.

"Bingo!" Tanar thinks to himself when he picks up the initial image near the Planaron Ore Processing Station. "Looks like the drug link is most likely valid." Keying the intercom he calls out, "Captain, you'd better come take a look a this. I think we've found the Cloverdale."

"Damn!" the captain said slapping Tanar on the back, "That's pretty much one in a million that you'd find that at this distance. It may be nothing more than some old debris or space junk but it's in the general vicinity of where and when the Cloverdale went missing. Lay in a course to micro jump and bring us to a zero zero intercept of the object but continue trying to refine data to confirm or exclude that object as the Cloverdale."

"Yes, sir!" Tanar replies and starts working on the jump coordinates. Once the jump is made and the ship is positively identified as the Cloverdale, Tanar can't help but be pleased with himself for finding it so quickly. His thoughts then turn to the current boarding action.

"Personally, I'd vote for going in through the main airlock. It looks like whoever hit this ship raided the ag section and the crew scrammed in the ships' vehicles. I don't expect them to have left many "surprises", especially if this is drug related as we're beginning to suspect. If we can get to a terminal, I might be able to hack into the system and get a replay of whatever happened from the ship's systems."

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:39 pm
by jedion357
OOC: I haven't heard anything one way or the other except for emails from 2 players so since Thursday/ Friday is the official time for the turn advance- I'll set the ball rolling with the Ike and Dudd doing the engineer's inspection of the outside and all the PC's will pile into the launch and fly over with one NPC to stand guard at the launch and the other NPCs to hold the fort on the Pelican.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:09 pm
by Will
OOC: Sounds like a plan.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:48 pm
by Terl Obar
Sounds good to me as well.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:11 pm
by jedion357
Alyssa took great pride in expertly matching the Cloverdale's drift as the derelict tumbled out system. The Pelican maintained a safe distance at 500m.

"Energy senors still have a null read, Captain. Her engines must be in full shut down and life support off or we'd be detecting some IR radiation leaking at this range," announced Tanar.

"Understood, patch the boarding team's com channel to my station Mr. Daagron. Ms. Blue if you will, please slave helm controls to my station as well."

Ike and Dudd pre-flighted the work pods on deck 8.
Tanar, Alyssa, Grelude and Ajax and were assembling on in the air lock for the ship's launch when Ajax called out to Slayerian over the com, "Last one to the launch cleans up any biologicals!"

"Come on! I had to clean the biologicals on the last boarding I did!"

"Cut the chatter and mount up," ordered the Alyssa, "this bird's leaving now!"

The launch backed out of it's docking buffer and Alyss executed simultaneous roll and flip to point the vehicle toward Pelican's engineering deck. The work pods were waiting to hitch a ride as the launch had a deeper fuel reserve.

At 50m Ike and Dudd dropped off to begin their engineering survey.

As Alyssa maneuvered the launch to the empty launch port on the Cloverdale the equally empty escape pod ports hove into view.
"What's that?" she asked Tanar in the copilot's seat.

"Looks like some sort of maintenance panel. It seems they've been opened adjacent to each escape pod port."
"Ike, are you seeing this?" asked Alyssa.

The camera on the Pelican's launch was low quality but Ike knew immediately what it was, "Cover plate for manuel pod release."

"Why would they be open if they abandoned ship?"

"Dunno, but I'll have a look when I come forward after starting with the apparent battle damage to the engines."

The maneuver to match the tumble of the ag ship so they could dock the launch was tricky [Space Vehicles skill check 45%- roll: 83%] causing her to back off and come at it 5 more times [Space Vehicles skill check 45%- rolls: 83%, 90%, 76%, 57%, 01%] After all that effort the docking buffer wouldn't engage at all.
"It's cold," suggested Tanar.

"So what now?"

OOC: I'll get back with Ike and Dudd's engineering survey soon.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:52 pm
by Shadow Shack
Not trying to be the griper --- but I'm officially lost, way too much PC to self-NPC banter to follow (also I had a post in page one that seems to have been missed, unless I missed it later on, I was kinda waiting for a response before posting again). Can someone give me a Cliff Notes summary to bring me up to speed?

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:54 pm
by Will
jedi wrote:"Looks like some sort of maintenance panel. It seems they've been opened adjacent to each escape pod port."
"Ike, are you seeing this?" asked Alyssa.

The camera on the Pelican's launch was low quality but Ike knew immediately what it was, "Cover plate for manuel pod release."

"Why would they be open if they abandoned ship?"

"Dunno, but I'll have a look when I come forward after starting with the apparent battle damage to the engines."


A cold chill comes over Lyssa, as she asks,"Is there a chance the hostiles' boarding party ejected the pods and came in through the pod port hatches?"

(after trying and failing to dock with the main hatch)

"We'll try docking the launch with one of the pod port hatches," Lyssa says, lining the launch up with the nearest pod port.

OOC: What are the chances this will work? If it does, Ajax is officially tagged to clean up the biologicals. :lol:

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:56 pm
by Will
Shadow Shack wrote:I'm officially lost...way too much PC to self-NPC banter to follow. Can someone give me a Cliff Notes summary?


We're all in the launch trying to dock, we have a channel open to Pelican, and we've just discovered the ag ship's escape pod ports have all been opened.

And, that we can't dock with the main hatch, cause the ship won't let us.

I think that's everything.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:08 pm
by Shadow Shack
(looking at the ag ship cutaway)

"So we'll probably have to take a space-walk. There's a hatch on Deck 5, I say we force the fraggin' thing open."

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:12 pm
by Terl Obar
"It's cold," suggested Tanar.

"So what now?"

"I guess I could EVA and see if I can give it some juice," Tanar says, tapping in robocom kit. "Anybody bring a rocket pack? Or we could just fly over to the smashed AG dome and go in that way."

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:20 pm
by Shadow Shack
IF there's a hole in one of the Ag-domes, let's just anchor the launch to the ship and spacewalk into the hole.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:21 am
by jedion357
IC: Dudd chimes in, "If the escape pods where released manually then the ejection charge may still be active its SOP to disable it when pulling an escape pod for maintenance but no telling if that was done in this case."

OOC: Please take a moment and edit your Character sheet or post a new message in your character sheet thread detailing what's carried .

The launch can me moored to the hull (magnetic "boot")

let me know what your point of entry is.

Re: Chapter 1: Wanderings In the Dark

PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:07 am
by Will
Lyssa weighs all the options and decides:

"We'll anchor the launch to the Ag-dome with the breach and spacewalk in through the hole."

She makes it so.