At the news that he will be allowed to visit the crashed ship, possibly frozen on the surface of this moon for twelve years, Corlan's face breaks into a broad smile.  "That would be most satisfactory.  Can I assume that there is a suit available for me to borrow?"

+ Thank you, Captain. +  She switches off her line to the Captain, and nods to Corlan.  "Certainly Mr. DeSant.  We have several in the ship's stores - perhaps it would be best if we moved down there now, so that you could familiarize yourself with the operations while the Captain and crew conduct a premliminary check of the starship?"

If assent is given, Shui leads Corlan off to try on his new clothing.

Profit Margin rolls, and starts to descend... if a movement through the moonlet's microgravity can be truly called a descent.  With a surface gravity only about 1% of standard things don't fall, here, so much as drift in the general direction of the surface.

No atmosphere.  Though there is a cloud of ice particles, dust-fine, around the main snowball.  Probably kicked up by the impact of the huge starship, and still settling, even without atmospheric resistance to slow them.

Cold, dark, icy, and with a constant snowfall (of sorts)... it's a regular winter wonderland.

Profit Margin descends, feather-like, into the crater, Jago using only the fine attitude adjustment jets to control her drop.  Even so, it's a slow, paistaking process.  Finally the landing gear touches the ice, close to the wreck.

"Ore Hound to Profit Margin... nice landing.  We're still showing nothing up here.  Just a chunk of rock, maybe five metres long, out at extreme range.  Reckon it's going to pass by... oh... I'd say about four thousand klicks out.  Apart from that, you've got clear skies."

"Lovely day for a stroll in the park."


Shui takes Corlan across to the crew side of the ship, and to the row of lockers just outside engineering, which serves as Profit Margin's.  Once there, they start the process of picking out a suit for the man, and making the necessary adjustments so that it will fit him properly.  Luckily, his training seems to have been thorough, even if he never used it, and he is able to do most of the fitting himself, though Shui keeps a close eye on him.

Shui requires Corlan run through the procedure of suiting up until she finds it sufficient for safety's purposes.  One never knows, and that simple procedure will ensure Corlan be more wary of the suit itself when he moves about in zero-gee.  Then she sits and goes over the basis of zero-gee movement with their passenger, to ensure he is prepared.  It's likely he is capable, but for safety's sake, Shui needs to be certain.

OOC-Whoops almost missed the warning!

As Tylen's system bleeped he hit the transmit switch.

"Captain, we got incoming! Moving fast, 'bot 300 klics per second!"

He powered the Laser and brought the turret to bear. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he set the Computer to identify the incoming ship and to give him a firing solution for a missile.

"Ready to fire when I have range Captain."

He would wait for the command this time.

"That'll be the same thing Jockram jus' mentioned.  't'ain't nuthin' but a rock, Tylen." Conrad's voice is calm, as always.  "He's sendin' me a feed, right now.  Looks like mostly silicon, some iron, an' a little bit of nickel."

As she leaves her turret, Yas steps over to Conrad and pats him on the shoulder.

"Admit it, you're just too comfy in that chair to be asked walking, eh?" she teases him and then gets to business the next moment, "I wante to ask you to set up a link to my comm unit so I can get reports about the distance of that bogey without you having to sue the comms.  Call it a precaution," she explains and adds quietly, as if anyone who should not could overhear them, "So far so good, eye in the sky and all, but call it too many years in the Marines - if this indeed is a trap, this would be the best opportunity, so the less said apart from regular contact, the better...  Buy you keep an eye on it too."

Of course, should something be on the other side of the planet they would get little warning.

She then turns to the intercom, for Jago and all the crew to hear, "Skipper, I'd strongly suggest we bring along Trigger and Sushi, they'd be more useful down there than in here.  Conrad's our link and can move the old gal if need be and Sassy, well, I figure she's busy as it is," it comes, avoiding intentionally to mention the fact she suspects Saskia might get a bit too upset with the state of the ship, and having known her for some time, the engineer would probably claim it was haunted as well.  "Of coruse, they're welcome to join if they want, but I'd suggest we're at least four.  Wandering off alone is a bad idea, for one thing.  I'll be joining you shortly, skip.  Over and out."

Parts of her falls back on hold patterns when she feels things are getting serious - it is hard to ignore training that is meant to replace your instinctual reactions, after all.

Tylen hears the dismissal of the object, but his paranoia kicks in. He focusses all the sensors at his disposal on the "Meteorite" checking for any anomaly. The Laser remains powered. Opening a private channel he hails Saskia.

"Ms Blake, I'm not too comfortable about this meteor. Any chance you can give me the boost you managed earlier at short notice?"

"Well, I could do it for you.  But we're on the ground, at the bottom of a frelling big hole," Saskia replies, "and, while I commend your enthusiasm, I don't think you can do much with the belly turret from down here."

Jago must have developed a bit of muscle since last time he used that suit, id didn’t used to be that snug, he stands poised with diagonally opposed limbs in there respective places in the suit, trying to finger out how to get his other leg in without falling over, or painfully ruining his chances of ever procreating when Tylen announces an incoming bogie, ‘oh great’. Fortunately, before he has figured out whether it would be quicker, and safer, to finish putting the suit on, or try to extricate himself, Conrad comes to the rescue with a counter announcement.

“Just you and me at first Yas, we’ll take a quick look round then come back for Corlan. Shui, I’d like you to accompany Corlan please, when he comes across, he can explore as much as he likes then.”

Shui listens to the back-and-forth planning as she assists Corlan with the suit, pausing a moment when Yasmine again switches her name with a Japanese staple.  She sighs inwardly, glad her father and brothers weren't around; likely as not they would have taken it quite personally, and explained her anscestry to the woman most carefully.

Then again, she knows quite well that to most round-eyes 'they all look alike' - Yasmine simply isn't aware of her origins.

"Well, Mr. DeSant - it appears as though we will both be going aboard."  Shui keeps her voice light despite her misgivings - the Captain makes good sense with that idea, and she understands, even if she doesn't entirely enjoy the prospect.

With Jago and Yas suited up, they step into the dorsal lock, and up the ladder onto Profit Margin's upper surface, crouching low, at first, to avoid hitting their helmets against the long range sensor attay housing, which sits almost directly above the outer hatch.

In this gravity, even Jago is light on his feet, and the two make their way across the hull, assisted by the gentle magnetism of their boots, before dropping, slowly, to the ice below.

The walk across the ice seems easy enough, and with the quantity of metal wreckage frozen to the surface, the boots are even of some help in this too.

"Aw... look at the young couple, out for a stroll in the starlight." Jockram's voice crackles over the link, and a couple of seconds later, poweful spotlights flare on the mining ship, illuminating the surface that the pair must cross, and negating the shadow cast by the hulking wreck.  "Might make things a little easier for you. if you can see where you're walking."

The light flows across the hull of the wreck, picking out details.  Details such as the sealed hatches, and the gaping wound in her side, just about four metres above the heads of the approaching explorers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:38, Sat 05 May 2007.

Corlan finishes suiting up, though he doesn't bother locking down the faceplate just yet, instead he runs through a checklist with Shui, explaining what each item on the list is for, by way of demonstrating that he does know enough to be able to operate the suit safely.

There are a few moments where it becomes apparent that he learned with a different model, but those are all minor things, such as the current suit possessing features that weren't on the older one.

"Well, if I'm not sure what something does, I'll just leave it alone." he finally announces, "But I must say that the readouts on this model are much easier to understand."

"I think the man in the moon is a Peeping Tom," Yas comments and shakes a fist up towards the light, chuckling.

"Remember to keep your eyes on the stars, and stop staring down my cleavage," she teases him and shrugs to Jago.

"Men," she says, winking at her captain.

Behind his face plate, Jago grins and nearly drops the unlit cigar from the corner of his mouth.

The beam from the Ore Hound, lights up the surface and glares back from the ice, while overhead a haze spoils the perfect contrast of stars on a black sky but such is the needs of the practical over the poetic.

”We’ll try the hatch first,” Jago says, moving towards the hatch, and trying it.

The hatch is just a metre above the ice, and the controls are reachable, but not operating, possibly due to a lack of power.  A moment's study shows a panel just below the controls, which (once the thin veneer of ice is cracked) opens, to reveal a manual release lever.

Finding that the magnetic fields are stronger than the moons gravity, Yas walks up the hull of the ship, getting into position where both she and Jago can operate the lever without getting in each other's way.

Years of low temperatures have frozen any traces of lubricant on the lever, but between the two of them, the pair manage to shift it.  There is a brief instant of sparkling light, as ice buckles and shatters, and the hatch pops open about five centimetres.  Cold-stressed metal cracks, and the pair are left holding a half metre length of metal, as the lever snaps.

The hatch might only be slightly ajar... but something could be used to pry it further open.


Corlan finishes his suiting up, rather pleased with how easily everything came back to him.  Then he smiles, as he holds up his holocam in one gauntleted fist, and points it at Shui.  "Smile, please, Miss Tiesi."


Conrad waits on the bridge, monitoring the communications channels, though quite what he'll do if Yas and Jago get in trouble, he isn't sure.


Saskia passes Corlan and Shui, taking a selection of tools and instruments with her to study the feasibility of putting in an extra airlock, closer to the bridge, and less inaccessible than the one which requires people to climb about on top of the ship, and risk braining themselves on the sensor array.


Tylen sits in the turret still, even though with the ship down on the ice moonlet, he won't actually be able to shoot at anything, even if it appears.

Realising that his turret position is pretty much redundant Tylen leaves his monitering system active, but slaved to his com link and leaves the turret. Having made sure the carbine is back in his cabin and on charge he straps back on his revolvers. The only job he can think of left is security guard, so he patrols the ship, ensuring all is well, before heading over to the Galley in search of Coffee.

"Hey boss, handy that we got us a crowbar from the handle, uh?" Yas says and then chuckles;  "Let me show you what us Crow's can do with this kind of bar, skippy!"

She moves down to the side of the hatch that is somewhat open and starts to work it in on a suitable location, leaving the larger portion outside.

"Now then, let me try this first.  If I fail you can always try jumping on it," she jests and then pushes as hard as she can without risking to lose her footing - which was the real trick here.

Saskia nods to Tylen as he passes her, smiling at him.  Then she turns her attention back to what she's working on.  A section of the hull, directly adjacent to Jago's cabin, is divided into squares, using a grid of what is universally known, throughout the Imperium, at least, as "MacGuyver tape".

The origin of the name is lost in the mists of history, but the tape is pretty much a staple for any engineer.

She has several short strips of the tape stuck to her coverall, and as she runs a variety of instruments across each section of the grid, she peels off one of the strips, and slaps it onto the metal, before moving on to the next section.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Tue 08 May 2007.

Shui smiles for the camera, her eyes instinctively studying the gauntlet for an instant as he points it in her direction.  Old habits die hard.

Assuming the picture goes without issue, she motions for their guest to exit.  "If you wish, we can remove the suits while we await the go-ahead to enter the ship, Mr. DeSant.  I am certain I can find something for you to eat, should you so desire, though I do not reccomend the consumption of coffee or tea before we exit the Profit Margin."

Delicately put.

Corlan starts to remove the suit, "I probably shouldn't eat too much, this late in the evening." he explains to Shui.

"Having said that, though, I probably shouldn't be exploring derelict starships, laying on the surface of frozen moons, this late in life.  In the face of that fact, eating too late, and risking indigestion, probably pales into insignificance on the Living Dangerously scale."

He checks the holocam, and slips it into one of the pockets of his shipsuit, "So, yes, a light snack would be most welcome."


Yas demonstrates that Marine Corps training isn't just good for killing things... sometimes it can be useful for a simple breaking and entering job.  Bracing herself correctly against the hull, she forces the end of the snapped lever into the small gap at the edge of the door, then applies a little muscle power.  The door swings open a good thirty centimetres, before she loses the mechanical advantage, and the frozen hinges stip it opening further.

From there though, both she and Jago can get a solid grip on the portal, and swing it the rest of the way, against the resistance of the hinges.

Light, reflecting from the ice, dimly shows the interior of a typical airlock (though the open lockers, and their spilled contents, are probably not so typical of most ships.  The inner hatch already stands open, but there is only darkness visible beyond.  Just above that inner hatch, lettering can be dimly seen through the layer of ice which covers everything... "E DECK AIRLOCK".


Tylen makes his way across to the passenger lounge.  After all, from there he can check that the prisoners are securely locked away.  Not to mention that the coffee is probably better over there.  As he enters, Dhakhingzuel looks up from a datapad.  She asks "You not go with to wreck?  This is good thing.  Some-body will be guard piraates here."

"There you go.  Forced entry, it is called, but in the Marines we used to call it 'improvised ingress'," Yas laughs as she starts to make her way inside.  "Careful where you step here, seems like they forgot to clean up after the crash.  Looks as messy as a Scout ship, almost!"

"Oh, and it looks a bit slippery too," she adds as if on an afterthought.

Slowly and carefully she looks for the safest places to step as she attempts to go further into the wreckage.

"E deck.  How far is that from our primary goal then, Skip?" she asks her captain as she reads the inscription.

Some what breathless from his exertions with the hatch, and with his faces plate misting up as a consequence, Jago just grunts at Yasmin’s quips.

Breath, visibility and humour are all quickly restored however, ”the hold is on E deck, should be right through here.”

Then, after a moment of picking his way through the junk on the floor he asks, “you don’t suppose that we are the first here since it crashed? That would be a turn up.”

Tylen nodded at Dhakhingzuel,

"Yeah, the Captain likes everything run nice and tight."

He made no mention of the Captains name or sex as he was not sure what their guest was still being led to believe.

"Certainly, Mr. DeSant," Shui replies, with a wave of her hand.  "However, you may have misjudged my intent," she continues as he removes the suit.  "I was speaking of the fact that, confined in the suit, you will not have access to 'facilities' beyond which the suit provides."  She offers a small smile.  "Hence, my words of caution regarding eating or drinking a great deal."

The Steward quietly leads the way back to the galley, already considering what she might prepare for their passenger.  However, her estimation of what might be required jumps by 200% when she notes that the galley already contains a pair of familiar faces.  Their other passenger...and it would seem that Tylen has decided to remove himself from his cave!

"Dhakhingzuel."  A short bow, though Shui does not take her eyes from the woman.  There is politeness, and there is submission - this is the former, not the latter.  "Mr. Ogresh.  A pleasure to see you both.  I was about to make a small lunch for Mr. DeSant - perhaps I could interest you in something?"