Bypassing the hatch, they continued through forest. They took a bearing and realised the power plant was not just somewhere a hundred metres through rock, it wasn't even on this "facet" of the massive agriculture chamber. That is, they would need to cross into one of the other pentagonally-shaped facets of the chamber to be closest to the right spot.

GM Note: the chamber is shaped like an 12-sided die with an artificial sun suspended in the middle. You are on the "inside". The different facets are separated by some sort of barrier. As the asteroid has spin, you would normally only feel gravity on one side, but there is obviously artificial gravity that is operational.

After hours more travel through dark forest, Jedec realised he could barely see something dark and massive ahead of them, taller than the trees and blocking their further travel. Consulting his map he realised this must be a barrier of some kind, separating them from the section they wanted to get to.

In reply to GM (msg # 1):

I will slow, bring the whole group together to look at what we are facing.

"Whats the plan guys?" Looks like whoever built this wanted to keep each area separate."

Tired from all the walking, billy slumps against a tree.  "Find a vent and a hatch that takes us into the engineering levels?" Billy suggests, trying hard to keep any signs of smugness out of his voice.

His head goes back as he recalls the trip through the forest, trying to remember if he had seen any vents and hatches, even inoperative ones, since the one used by the raiders.

Lets spread out and approach cautiously. And have a look at it.

Angus fans out to the right, keeping the guy to his left in sight, the guy to his right too if there is one.

Anyone have an electronics detector ?? Multi-wave scanner ?? Blake is curious about any sensors, etc in the area. Powerplant emissions too.

Angus shakes his head, "Just a shotgun and a few grenades."

In reply to Angus McStubbin (msg # 5):

Keeping his auto-shotgun at low-ready Ken fanned out to the right.
This message was last updated by the GM at 07:57, Fri 24 July 2020.

Billy waits, shotgun ready, as the others fan out and search.

The barrier proved to be a carefully sculpted series of bluffs and cliffs, over a hundred metres high. The material seemed to be the same greyish nickel-iron substrate of the asteroid. Vegetation climbed parways up, maybe 20m or so. There did not seem to be any easy way to climb up the barrier as this was not a natural formation but obviously artificial and manmade.


This message was last edited by the GM at 08:14, Fri 24 July 2020.

Linus looked up at the barrier.

"Reckon you'd need a jump-belt to get over that."

"And I'm sure we don't have one, correct?"

Well now, we could go left or right ... as Blake has a look/see. I suppose it continues along the wall/bulkhead as far as we can see ?? No obvious door controls or such ?? No writing/graffiti ?? Any tracks or trails ??

In reply to GM (msg # 10):

Using my IR settings on my goggles, I intend to scan along the base of the barrier.


" I am going to see if there are any 'hot spots' along the base that might indicate an opening, there could be a hidden doorway into the next area, that only the maintainers of the ship wanted know but those within the biosphere were not to be aware of, maybe IR could show a hotter area"

"Someone or ones watch over me, in case we are being observed, it might not be appreciated me snooping"

Jedec will proceed to move closer and attempt to see any significant variations in the heat levels of the barrier.

Ken shook his head at the sight of the barrier.  He moved forward with Jedec.  "I'll cover you Jedec.  There have to be maintenance connections for crews to move quickly from one area to another."

Linus rubbed his nose.

"Hang on a moment. I'm sure we have some grav-belts somewhere... the question is, where? They were on the original stores list..."

Damn. He was slipping. Back when he was a naval storeman, he'd have known where every single item was, and be able to just go and get it when it was needed.