"We should try to disable the rest of these missiles on our way out if we make it back.

Gareth takes up a position and prepares to cover Brent as needed.

"I'll follow you," Veronica says. "There's no real cover for more than two rifles, anyway."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:50, Sun 10 Feb 2019.

Brent nodded. "If nothing else we'll bugger up the launcher mechanism to buy us an hour or two to get away from here."  He glanced at Veronica.  "Ok, let's do it then.  Is everyone ready?"

In reply to Matt (msg # 96):

"Yep," Veronica replies.

"I'm ready," Malcolm answers as he settles near the portal, rifle in hand.

"Scared shitless," Joxe deapans from her spot in the back.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:53, Mon 16 July 2018.

Brent took a deep breath.  "On three... one, two, three!"  At the count of three he rose and ran toward the building.

Joxe takes a moment to release the personnel hatch and drag it open, and then Brent and Victoria charge through it. Their boots kick up dust as they run for the building. Victoria pulls ahead of Brent, and, reaching the vehicle, kneels at the near corner and points her rifle into the open hangar door. "Clear on thermal," she calls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:51, Sun 10 Feb 2019.

Seeing Veronica ahead of him and covering the open garage Brent continues on into the building, scanning the area with his weapon at the ready.

The garage is empty. Two closed doors, one to Brent's left, and another ahead of him, presumably lead deeper into the building. His suit sensors pick up a faint, stationary heat source from somewhere ahead of him.

Veronica enters the building and steps up beside him. "Left, or straight?"

Brent looks about and is rather glad he wasn't cut down in the open.  He nods to Veronica. "Let's go straight but meanwhile let's get the rest of the group over here."  He pointed ahead.  "There is a heat source deeper in the building."

He steps to the entrance to the garage and waves.  "Come on across," Brent called out on the comm channel.

When the rest of the group starts moving Gareth follows too. He is careful not to be in front.

Malcolm leads the second group across the open ground to the garage area.

When the group gathers safely Brent looks about. "Who knows anything about a mobile missile launcher vehicle?  If we can quickly disable it even temporarily it would make the ship safe.  Then we can explore further into this building to find out what is going on."

"I can try," Joxe says.

Brent nods. "See if you can get a hatch open or if there is a vulnerable grill or grating into the power plant.  Just be careful.  I'll keep you covered."

Joxe steps out to examine the vehicle. "The power is live on this thing, and the crew hatch is locked."

Brent looked back into the garage for tools however makeshift.  "Is there anything we can do to it with what we have on hand that would stop it from firing?"

"Yeah, we zap it with our laser on takeoff," Malcolm deadpans.

"That's one way," Joxe says with a grin. "I think I'll vote for disabling the tracking and command system instead, since this vehicle doesn't have its own tracking system."

"What about passive sensors," Veronica asks.

"I don't know about that," Joxe admits.

Brent shook his head. "I don't fancy a shoot out with this system.  It's military grade and might get off a shot before we can hit it.  I'd rather disable the tracking system as well if we can.  There may also be some command and control capability inside the building that we can cut off to isolate the vehicle."  He turned back toward the garage.  "Let's take the doorway off to the side first.  Veronica and Joxe can you check the door for access?"

The pair moves off to check the door. "It's unlocked," Veronica reports after a moment.

Brent looks about.  "Ok, let's go in.  What's the best way to start this with the least chance of all of us getting shot?  I don't want to just open the door and charge into a machine gun."

"One of us will have to go in first and check it out unless we have a way to bust through the wall somehow. I vote for anyone but me."

"Oh, good grief," Malcolm says as he strides to the door. "Veronica, cover me?"

"Got it," the petty officer replies as she raises her rifle. "Ready."

Malcolm reaches out and opens the door, then sweeps through it, with Veronica on his heels.

"Clear."

"Clear."

Brent shrugs.  "That wasn't quite what I meant..." Still he followed into the corridor beyond with his weapon ready.

The group searches the entire building in just a few minutes. They find two inoperative repair robots, the facility's command center with what Naimh determines to be one scanner station intermittently active, and a small fusion plant that is still running on low power.

The ladies all pitch in, and determine that the last maintenance robot stopped three years ago, and the reactor is now failing due to bad control components. They think it is possible to deactivate the missile carrier, but, unless someone repairs the track, it's immobile.

Apparently, the system just managed to lock on to Wanderer, and call for a SAM launch at the time they were landing. Were it not for the dome being between the launcher and the ship, they would probably have sustained substantial damage.

Brent watches as his crew works efficiently to determine the situation.  "So this was all on automatic these years?  Can we find anything in the computer records about what happened here, why this was set to attack and where the crew may have gone?  Also, is there anything we can scavenge from the controls or power plant that will be easily useful to us?"