Luthar took a deep breath, not sure how smart it was for him to be following into unknown territory.  I mean, who would fly the ship back for them if he was dead? "I'll follow."  His hands gripped tighter around the shaft of his bow as he looked around the room at the dried blood and just shook his head.  What the hell happened here.

Annie grimaced.

"Right, that leads to the main tower... I think." She nodded to Maire. "And the PFE's in there. Probably right at the top." She glanced around at the control centre. "I don't know how much help I'll be without my slate. I can maybe try and access again from another room, but I don't have my hacking suite any more." She fingered the las holstered on her chest harness as she saw the others fidgeting with their weapons.

"You got some kind of RV going, Maire? Predict us a path?"

"Hacking won't be necessary, fortunately. I know the codes. And I've got no idea what RV is..." Maire said. "Anyways, D lift, up or down to the 37th floor, follow orange line, input code, activate file, sit in chair. That's all I got." She said. "It's got to be a unanimous vote, or were not going. We can't risk splitting the group up, or angering members of the group by going against their wishes. Were going to be stuck down here until Shcakleton lets us back up, so we need to get along. Dizzy?"

"You have the codes." Annabel replied, flatly, staring at her. A moment later, she shook her head, casting her hands in the air. "Why do I even bother? You know how much time those access codes could have saved us?" She stalked off towards the door they were discussing going through. "I could still have my slate! La infero! We could have been through half the base already! De ĉiuj sencela, tempomalŝparanta ekzercas, kial eĉ alporti min se la sorĉisto povas ripar ĝi!?" She muttered, shaking her head in exasperation and stalking off into the courtyard to look for another entrance to the facility.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Thu 07 Feb 2013.

Dizzy shifted her weight and laid her rifle across her shoulders, releasing the safety as she tilted her head slightly to the side.  She fixed Maire with an odd look . . . she suddenly seemed to have some very specific information on tap.  More psionic weirdness, but with the psi-jamming supposedly covering the canyon, the Gareshi's suspicious nature was kicking in.

"I'm guessing all of this information was rather recently acquired . . . say, after we rather visibly demonstrated that we are not in league with the Abominations." she jerked her head to the side and made a sound like spitting, though nothing spattered against the inside of her helm, "Because this sounds an awful lot like an invitation to me."

"I don't suppose your generous source has a name?" Dizzy asked, shuffling her boots.  She wasn't against going, exactly, but she wanted to know what she was walking into and how many people she might have to shoot to get out of it again.  Being 37 floors up was not going to help them with a hasty exfiltration at all.

Internal comms on the suits suddenly relayed a transmission through the shuttle. An unfamiliar masculine voice calmly coming through.

"Shackleton to Moonwing.  Return to hangar immediately.  Repeat, Moonwing, return to hangar immediately."

Dizzy blinked a bit, looking up and rolling her shoulders as if she could somehow see the Shackleton through the ceiling of the structure they were all huddled.

"This is Away Team, Shackleton, we receive you but do not recognize.  Please identify and transmit Hegemony Recognition Codes." Dizzy responded to the strange voice, following through protocol for the moment.

A moment of silence passed and the Shackleton transmitted the proper codes, checking out against your comm systems. The voice returns over the speakers.

"This is Science Officer Justor Reson.  Return to hangar immediately.  Primary power has been disabled, operating on emergency power.  We need Voidmaster Grey back for repairs immediately.  I repeat, return to hangar immediately."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:12, Thu 07 Feb 2013.

"Recieving codes now." Dizzy said, nodding a bit as she listened.  It checked out, that was the Shackleton's recognition codes alright.  Dr. Rezon was on the duty roster also, though she wondered where he'd sequestered himself on the small ship that she hadn't so much as heard his voice before.  His lab, she supposed.  She looked back at the away team.  Still, she wondered what had happened to Chief Engineer Shubai that they needed Annabel back so badly.

"What do you think?  We could stall for time, claim we've begun repairs on the shuttle." she said with a shrug, though she bet that Annabel would rather be where she could repair her dataslate before continuing with the mission.

"Ms. Doiteain, can this afford to wait?  I don't want to split the team unnecessarily, but I'm willing to stick it out with you here while Luthar runs Grey back to the ship.  The Spike Drive might be shot, but transatmospherics seem safe enough." she shifted her weight a bit, "Though it'll leave us without protection, should the moon rise."  She wasn't particularly fond of the notion, anymore than she was fond of being stuck running escort on a on a mystic, but she was even less fond of the notion of returning from the planet with nothing to show for their efforts but a wild story.

"Not to interrupt but, if the Shackleton is running on emergency power, something went down and they may need all of our help regardless.  I know I don't have much say in the matter, as I'm flying back either way, but we could always bring reinforcements back with us, if needed." Luthar shrugged.  All the planning and such he left to others, just give him a direction and let him fly.

"It sucks to have to leave here with nothing but a busted shuttle, but at least we'd be leaving alive, unlike these poor bastards." He gestured to the blood and bodies around them.

"I grok." Annie replied, darkly. "Do whatever. I'll wait in the shuttle." She turned back from the tower and headed towards the Moonwing, taking in the damage with a grimace. Three guesses who'd be fixing THAT back on the ship.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Thu 07 Feb 2013.

Maire frowned. "I don't want to leave it behind, but Luthar has a point. I doubt I'll do anything but get in the way up there, but they're going to need Anna and most likely you. And besides, haven't I already made it clear how I feel about splitting up the team? I think exploration can wait some time." She said. She was clearly dissapointed, but also adamant about keeping everyone together.

"If I thought there was going to be any use for me up there, I wouldn't have offered."  Dizzy responded, lifting her shoulders under the vaccsuit with a bit of a shrug, watching as Annabel pushed out into the blizzard of alien spores with her lips slightly pursed.  The girl needed to learn to relax, "If they need a Chaplain . . . well, things must've gone even worse up there than they did down here."

"Still, you're the Crone." she said, pulling the rifle over her helmet and gripping it in a more combat-ready position, "If you say our unknown friend can wait, he can wait.  I'll call it in." she said, starting to tramp her way back through the alien filth back towards the vessel as she laid a gloved hand against the helmet.

"Shackleton, this is the Away Team.  We're en route now, keep the light on for us."

"Understood, Away Team." came the response over the comms.

"That settles it then, yes?  Let's head back and take our old bird up."  Luthar said, relieved they wouldn't be staying here any longer than necessary.  The transmissions from the Shackleton had worried him, and then having to put on this suit and lug around in it was just...a nuisance. He would be happy to be back in the pilot seat.  He started heading for the shuttle, looking back behind him at the carnage they were leaving behind. "Ī yakkai haraida." He mumbled under his breath, letting out a sigh.

The four of you saddle back up into the shuttle and undergo decomtamination in the airlock before buckling in and lifting off, burning a massive amount of power to make a dry lift off without aid of an autogantry. The backblast from the engines cooks a portion of the spores into a blackened crisp as you accelerate out of the valley into the clear sky.

[Private to Maire Doiteain: You feel like you're being burned. Your skin is fine, but you have the unpleasant feeling you are in an oven being roasted to death.]

The storm is a distant memory and once you leave the valley again, your sensors pick up the distant lonely form of the Shackleton in orbit far above. The cargo lighter makes short work of bonds of gravity and in only about twenty standard minutes is making navigational corrections to dock with the Shackleton.

Initial impressions reveal no visible damage on the ship. No venting compartments or signs of forced entry. The airlocks on the sides of the ship are sealed and the shuttle cradle on the ventral aspect of the ship remains empty, waiting for the Moonwing to attach to the larger patrol boat, like lamprey hooking onto a predator fish.

Comms officer Sam Donell says in contact most of the time, but you are informed that navigation is down and you'll have to make all the corrections. It takes another twenty or thirty minutes to achieve docking and sealing.

As before, you climb through the hatch back into artificial gravity in midship, near the Quarters and Mess...

"I'm going to go see if I can't find the Commander, or Master Farhenra." Luthar said as he nodded to the others. "For a first mission, it wasn't a total disaster, right?" He said it with a smile and a slight laugh.  Damn near got yourself killed by unmanned drones! Hakuchi! He left the Shuttle, heading for the Bridge.


-To Bridge-

Maire peeled her eyes open, forcing herself to ignore her protesting body, and quickly unstrapped herself, pulling herself out of the shuttle behind Luthar. "I should head up there as well. I doubt I'll be needed, but better safe than sorry."

--->To Bridge

Annie frowned as they approached the ship. She looked for signs of damage or attack, something that would require her assistance repairing and found nothing... which meant the damage was internal.

The saboteur, she realised. Had to be. The same goon who spiked their spike drive.

"Grey to Bridge," She reported via the shipboard intercomm once she was aboard. "Where do you need me? Is Master Shubai all right?"

No response. Not even static.

Shipwide comms appear to be completely offline.

"Senutila!" Annie hissed, glaring at it before breaking into a run to catch up with Luthar.

-- To bridge -->

Maire poked her head into the shuttle (figuratively), and upon seeing Dizzy still there, spoke up. "We should head to Engineering. Apparently, were missing a pilot and Commander Valna, and engineering was the last place Master Fahrenra went to look for them. We could help them search, considering were both useless up here anyways. Are jobs are very specialized, and fizing a ship isn't in our skill sets. At least in mine." She said.

Proven Hargrieve arched an eyebrow as she closed the equipment locker, glad to be out of the Vaccsuit though she hadn't bothered with her armor again just yet.  Apparently she'd stayed behind to ensure that everything was properly stowed upon the Moonwing while everyone else rushed off to the bridge, confident that the excitement must be over for the moment and that they were mostly serving as couriers for Voidmistress Grey.

"Missing?" she asked, the scarlet arch around her eye still in place, "It's not that big a ship, how do you lose people inside it?" she paused a moment and grabbed he rifle back from the seats, switching it to single fire before she moved into the Zero-G umbilical and started making her way to the ship.

"So, what the blazes happened?  The Unliving use tight-beam transmissions from the planet's surface to try and hijack the Shackleton or what?" she reoriented properly just before entering the artificial gravity environment of the the ranger ship, though she stumbled upon her abrupt landing.  She still wasn't terribly graceful in space, though her reflexes were quick enough for her to manage.

"We can talk while we walk." she said, gesturing in the direction of Engineering.

--To Engineering-->

Maire sighed, and followed behind DIzzy closely. "From what I can tell, we were hijacked by that creepy observer guy. I think. But I'm really not the best source of information right now. I'm still reeling from the trip to that planet, so let's hurry and get this over with."

---> To Engineering

--> From Engineering -->

Dizzy came sauntering into the shuttle bay with a cadaver sleeve over her shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world.  It may have been a few years since she'd been on corpse wrangling duty, but it was one of the odious tasks that tended to get passed down to young Warsworn before they earned their bones.  Heck, compared to the old days, it seemed almost pleasant by comparison, she had the strength and weight to handle it by herself for one thing, and the corpse sleeves made the body considerably easier to handle than the shrouds she was used to.  There wasn't even the smell of nercrosis to contend with.

She knelt down and settled the black bag down against the deck plating, taking a moment to secure it in case the gravity failed or something similar.

"Rest easy, Star-Type Venn." she said solemnly, reading the tag attached for identification purposes.  Dizzy stood up again and grabbed her rifle, looking a bit like a B-movie trideo space pirate with a weapon in each hand as she made her way towards her bunk.

--> To Quarters & Mess -->