The Scout ship lifts off of the Long Shot and flies back to the pyramid ship. Against his better judgment, Serge lands the Scout ship in the hangar bay of the pyramid.

There's still no reaction from the pyramid ship.

"So, Vonon, you want to control the drones from here inside the Scout ship?" Pablo asked before they exited the ship. "Or are you a more hands-on controller... want to get into the thick of it with the drones?"

In reply to Pablo Esteban Ryzov (msg # 225):

"Yeah, I'll use the hand-held and take control once we're all out at the airlock into the pyramid." Vonon replies, "So, everyone ready?"

Once the Scout docks, Sam puts on her vacc suit helmet, and tests everythings green one more time, before triggering comms "After you Vonun" she says motioning to the airlock with a slight chuckle.

When the gravity of the pyramid kicks in Khea slings her toolkit around one of the drones and closes her vacc suit. She then turns to the others to see who is daring enough to leave the ship first (hoping that it will be the only one standing between her and a free scout ship).

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 228):

While everybody was ganging up, Serge picked up his equipment from the locker near airlock.
 - ACR... Ammo... Breaching charge... Plastic... - Scout went through the list.
 - Hmm - high explosive or stun?.. - Serge asked himself. - I guess I'll take all of them, - decided he finally, grabbing backpack.
 - Too bad I have no EMP charges, - declared Serge to the boarding party. - I concider automated security as the most probable threat out there.


When airlock released air and outer hatch was opened to the unknown, scout looked out from the aperture and then looked back on Vonon.
- This can be dangerous - you go first, - sneered Serge.

In reply to Serge Baklanov (msg # 229):

Vonon finished attaching the handheld Drone Controller to the empty weapon cradle on the left forearm of his boarding suit, and looked up at Serge, again revealing the white-painted caricature of a Vargr skull-face on his helmet.

"I usually do." Vonon responds, his growly voice now having an electronic buzz added to it, "Right. Pablo and I will go from here to the alien airlock, as a test to see if the pyramid reacts to our presence in the boat bay."

"Once we get there, we will wait outside the airlock while the rest of you walk over to join us. Khea, did you bring a hand-held welder? I'd like you to try to spot-weld the airlock doors open. But, just in case we can't weld this metal, do you have anything like spikes or wedges or even nails that we might try to jam the doors open with?"

Sharik had watched all of the banter with quiet bemusement, an eyebrow raised at the unabashed bravado (or was that cowardice) expressed.  Humorous definitely, given Sergey's obvious preparations.  She sidled up next to Vonon, just off his left shoulder, the translucent articulated coif that covered her head and the clear faceplate of her high-tech vacc suit allowed her slight, crooked smile to be on display for everyone.

"Once more into the breach, dear friend." the lithe socialite intoned in a slightly cultured, but definitely affected, accent.  It was an old quotation (supposedly) from an even older time predating (also, supposedly) the first Rule of Man (a well-established fact).  But it seemed appropriate.  The diminutive navigator winked at the vargr officer, they'd been through a number of adventures together before.  This was just another one (and hopefully not their last).

She patted her friend on the shoulder and then gave Pablo the thumbs up as she manned the airlock controls.  In theory, there was little to do with all of the automation.  But, if something happened that was unexpected.  There might be plenty to do.  So, Sharik took a deep breath and waited for Vonon to give her the 'go' signal.

[Bridge]
Walter watched as the scout ship approached the strange object. Once it entered, he flipped a switch. "Computer, set time on my mark, "Mark". Page me in 11 hours time." he said, standing up to stretch his legs.

Vonons request came as quite a surprise to Khea as she was more prepared to open things instead of keeping them open. Fortunately she packed her entire kit so welding wasn't a problem. If that failed she could likely find something on the scout to take aoart and wedge into the door, unless it turned out to be some weird liquid or growing metal without any space to wedge anything in.
So with her blowtorch in one hand she showed Vonon her closed fist, the Aslan sign that everything is ok and steps in line for the exit (at the very back)

As everyone climbs out of the Scout ship, Vonon has the drones begin opening some of the doors in the corridor.

It doesn't go as quickly or as smoothly as expected because even though you now know that some sort of magnetic pulse will unlock/open them, there is a different frequency for each door, and there are a lot of variations. Fortunately, the drones can go through them without tiring.

The first door to the left of the airlock finally pops open, and the drone transmits the image it sees. It looks like a weapons locker, holding three weapons... a sidearm, a longarm and a heavy weapon. Only... they don't look like any weapons anyone has ever seen before.

It's obvious, though, that they all have the same basic design, just the scale is different. The base and barrel are all continuous, and triangular in shape... more like a tetrahedron with the barrel elongated. It looked like they had four handles... one sticking out of each side. They appeared to be energy weapons.


The next door is opened by a second drone. At first appearance, it looks like there are two vacc suits hanging inside, but a slightly closer look reveals that they are strangely shaped. Certainly a standard human couldn't wear them... at least not in any way that you can figure out just from looking at them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:52, Sat 06 Jan 2018.

Pablo was the first one to step out of the Scout ship. He was almost daring the Enemy to start something!

Unfortunately, the ship was dead. No, that wasn't strictly true. It was... on stand-by? Not active, but it still had power.

"Pablo to Walter. You reading us through the relay?"

Once he got a reply from Walter, he took a minute to walk around the whole bay. Serge had probably already done that, but it never hurt to have a second opinion. He had a different perspective than the scout did, so he might notice something that Serge hadn't.

Once he got back around to where he'd started, he stepped into and then through the airlock, making a mental note that it didn't appear these aliens could exist in the vacuum of space.

When Khea sees the drone feed from the weapons locker she gets so exited to barely keep her tail under control

"Take all those weapons. They might be more valuable than the scout ship. Just dont try to fire them. And the suits too. Who knows out of what material they are.

Sam smiled at Khea "You are of course assuming that the owner isn't aboard - I suggest we hold fire on the um Salvage, until we're sure about that."

Trying not to look a Samantha so that she not see the obvious signs of insult Khea instead walks towards the now open hatch. If they were concerned about us taking things they should have left the grid on the scout alone. And as long as no one appears to claim posession I assume that this ship is empty.

"+++Relay is working Pablo, I hear you fine.+++" Sir Walter said.

Serge stays close to Vonon as back up, and guarding for threat vigilantly.

Sam shrugged at Kheas comment "Your call. But if they do turn up, and your carting their gear off, their response is likely to be more... negative. If we confirm its empty, and then cart off their gear - no problem. And it looks like we have time."

Sam slotted in behind Pablo, her kit bag in one hand and an Auto Pistol in the other.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 241):

Vonon ponders the two doors that have been opened and the contents of the small chambers behind them.

"Shar'r," Vonon says, using his nickname for Sharik (Shar'r = Small Blade in Vargr Dialect Vonon speaks),

"You have your personal computer, right? Course you do. Fool question." Vonon says, "Well, add this to the database of alien symbols we're building. We already think that 'Hexagon with smaller, solid hexagon inside' is the symbol for 'airlock'. Now this door immediately to the left had a symbol that was 'Hexagon with solid top and bottom, empty horizontal bar through middle with squiggles' which means either 'weapons locker' or 'tool locker', whichever those devices turn out to be."

"Next in line to the left of that door is marked with a 'hollow hexagon, border at eight o'clock position replaced with single dot' which appears to be the symbol for 'space suit or environment suit locker'; could also mean 'cleaning or recharge station'."

"There's one more door to our left, on this wall, on this side of the airlock. Let's try and open it and see what's behind it. Then we can start opening the doors on the opposite wall, behind us. I'd like to stay in this corridor, for right now, and leave going around any corners until we've found out what is behind all thirteen of these doors, right here."

"Sound like a plan?"

Sam nodded at Vonun "Sound Plan. Pablo if you take watch one way, I'll keep an eye on the other whilst these guys figure out which symbols mean "Highly irradiated area - Run like fun!"" She grinned at Vonun and then moved past the leaders to take up watch down the corridor, her bag at her feet.

If they are so barbaric as to not announce their present and possession then they should not expect others to honor them

Turning back to watching the video feed on her computer she unmutes her communicator Can someone analyze what gas the tanks of those suits are filled with?

At Vonon's direction, the drone moves down to the last door on the left, on the left hand wall. Again, it takes a few moments for it to cycle through the many magnetic frequencies before it comes upon the right one that opens the door.

The door swings open, and what the drone transmits is hard to grasp for a moment. There's a 'floating' tetrahedron in there. It's about 1.5 meters on a side. After a bit of staring at it, you realize that it's probably some sort of robot, as it has a metal tentacle extending out of all four surfaces. All four tentacles extend down to the floor, supporting the tetrahedron and making it look like it's floating.

There also appear to be a sensor, possibly a photo-sensor, at every point on every side.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 245):

"O-kay. Third potential obstacle." Vonon says, "Inactive robot...for the moment. It hasn't reacted to the door opening or the presence of our drone, yet. So, do we expose ourselves to it and hope it remains inactive, or do I have the drone close the door?"

Switching to Vonons feed Khea stares at the robot standing before the drone.
Ohhhh, this robot is really valuable. But before we tamper with anything that could be potentialls dangerous I would say to keep exploring for other items we could simply take.

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 247):

> But before we tamper with anything that could be potentialls dangerous I would say to
> keep exploring for other items we could simply take.

- I agree, - Serge put a word in. - Let's make an overall picture and then deal whith every segment in detail.