The Science Officer ran his scan, frowned, ran it again, and shrugged. "It appears safe, Commander. I'd say whatever happened here happened a long while ago. The gravitational fields are normal, in any case."

"If the Engineer can confirm that those aren't load bearing, or at least find some that aren't, perhaps we can use phasers to clear a path?"

ch'Pertha nodded, and turned to LCDR Gullak JavKer, "What are your recommendations, Chief?", he asked.
This was an engineering matter now, as Decker had suggested.
It was now JavKer's moment to shine.

Your assessment is correct. But we needny cut through recklessly. A cyt at the right spot will settle these beams in such a way that we can safely pass.

Inspecting the nearest jumble of beams and scrap and applied the phaser on full strength where two beams crossed one another. The intende heat robbed the metal of it strength and the jumble slid downwards into a flatter, passable mound.

Jav'Ker's work is quick and efficient, and within a short period, the hallway has a clear passage - even if it requires a bit of ducking to navigate.

Decker's tricorder, synched with T'Lara's, still has a lock on the Federation signals that lie further within.

Once past the blocked hallway and its flickering lights, the environment quickly returns to the brightly-lit, pristine white hallways.  They were drawing closer to the first source, which Decker's tricorder said was a communicator.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:53, Wed 19 Aug 2020.

"Good Work, Ltn Commanders", ch'Pertha congratulated.  Then, "Ok, as before, I'll take point, and we move in a staggered fashion.
We're following Decker's directions, but I'll be out front.


Anyone with questions or suggestions before we continue?"

Mcreeg feels stupid, like a cadet at the Academy having to admit he forgot a disc, even tho this isn't his fault..

"Is there a spare phaser to be had? I emptied mine powering up the shuttle"

The obstacle was quickly taken care of, and Decker's scan indicated nothing was wrong with the gravitational fields.  She was still concerned however about what could have caused the structural collapse to begin with.  It wasn't like an artificial planet had tectonic-shifts-induced earthquakes...

"You can use mine" she piped up once Mcreeg joined up with them "I'm not much good with it anyhow"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:22, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

Decker pulled out one of the phaser power packs he had brought from the shuttle, "Here you go, Lieutenant. I grabbed a few of these in case we needed a source of external power, but I'd rather that the Counselor be able to cover my back."

Almost before it's in his hand, Mcreeg is returning the borrowed phaser to the Counselor with a smile and grasping the power pack and making the change, feeling better than he had a moment ago, not just that he as battle ready again but that no one was left unarmed..

"Thank you, Sir and I'd rather that as well, the more hands the better at times like this"

Pressing on, the Landing Party* moved through what felt like miles of brightly lit, white corridors.  Occasional side rooms were either dark or empty or both.  But homing in on the nearest communicator, Decker led them to a larger room.

Brightly lit, as usual, this room was adorned in symbols and glyphs all along the walls and over several obelisk-like structures, still glowing dimly from within as if phosphorescent.  The writing was of the kind that Decker and T'Lara had, just barely, managed to translate.

And in the center of the room was a body.  He was humanoid, and wore a standard Starfleet uniform.  The undershirt and trim colors identified it as a security officer.

On the floor next to the body, still brushed by its fingertips, was a communicator, the grille flipped open.

Of his head, there was no sign.


This message was last edited by the GM at 04:31, Sat 22 Aug 2020.

Decker freezes.

He stares at the security officer, then glances at the walls, then his tricorder...back to the grisly sight of the decapitated officer...and finally looks to ch'Pertha.

ch'Pertha, of course, had everyone hold at the doorway ... further back, if possible.

He scanned there room for both immediate threats and any other clues about what happened here.

- rolled 2d20 with rolls of 3,19.  Insight + Security (15).
Note:
- Constantly Watching:   When you attempt a Task to detect danger or hidden enemies, reduce the Difficulty by 1.
- unfortunately, I'm not sure any of my Focus work to double that success.

"Decker, scan for Life Signs.
JavKer, for structural indications of traps.

Mcreeg, watch our tail", it was unlikely that there was an ambush, but ch'Pertha didn't want to take any chances.

"Aye, Sir" Mcreeg responds, walking almost sideways now, head on a swivel, keeping an eye on the others, and on where they've come from, glad he has a fully charged phaser at hand..

Decker nodded sharply. He glanced over to T'Lara to make sure she still had a lock-on to the other Federation artifacts, and then switched his tricorder over and began scanning for any signs of nearby life, "Scanning..."

Testing a Theory should add an additional die.
Spending 1 Momentum to buy a 4th die.
Rolling Reason + Science...
09:42, Today: LCDR Christopher Decker rolled 30 using 4d20 with rolls of 11,8,9,2.  Scanning for life forms: Reason (12) + Science (5).
Sadly, no applicable focuses. Just 4 successes. :P

T'Lara's reflexively raised her hand to cover her mouth, before remembering she was still wearing the helmet of her environmental suit.

"Oh no..." she shook her head with disbelief as she slowly stepped closer to the body.  Medicine in the 23rd century could do a lot of amazing things, but even it had its limit, and growing a new head was one of them.  She averted her gaze as she slowly crouched by the body and reached out to pick up the deceased officer's communicator.

Once she did, she quickly stood up again, turned her back at the grisly sight and started tapping on the device, searching for the last thing the man has seen, or looked for, before he was killed

ch'Pertha looked around signaling a hold at the door.  His keen instincts were primed for danger... but he could detect nothing.  No threats, at least nothing he could perceive.

(OOC: 1 success, which is enough.  There are no threats that ch'Pertha can/could detect in this room.)

Mcreeg swiveled and looked back the way they'd come, covering their tail.  Thanks to Decker, he had a fully charged phaser pistol.  But then, so had that security guard... at some point.  The hallway seemed longer somehow, and the bright light, rather than being comforting, gave the young officer a feeling of being exposed, out in the open, with nowhere to hide...

Decker scanned the room with his trusty tricorder.  But the result was not surprising.  There was nothing living within.  Expanding the scan to the adjacent hallway and the one that lay beyond, he still detected... nothing.  No signs of life.

At least, life as he knew it...

T'Lara, however, decided to enter the room, moving to examine the body and retrieve the communicator.  As she crossed the threshold... nothing happened.

Yet.

Picking up the communicator and turning her back to the body (and most of the ominously-glowing alien text), she had to wipe some blood off to read the display.  Communicators of this era were subspace tranceivers and capable of amazing range.  But they had no visual display.  There were a few settings that could be triggered, however; and this poor guard had done so.  The 'emergency alert' had been triggered... and yet the signal was dead now, the communicator's battery pathetically low.  However, the last message sent was still in the loop.

It crackled to life at her touch.  The man's voice sounded young, alarmed... desperate.

"ccRRRKKk... they're coming out of the... cccSsssshhHKkkk... walls... can't..."

As she examined the comm, she noticed something else... and ch'Pertha caught it too.

The body was facing the doorway they'd come in through.  As if he'd been heading back, towards the landing bay.  Perhaps in a hurry...

(OOC: Is everyone still in their full suits, despite the oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere?)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:25, Mon 24 Aug 2020.

Decker turned slowly on the spot as he scanned, not moving any further into the room if he didn't have to. "....and I'm not detecting any life signs other than us, of course, within my admittedly limited range. But..."  His voice drifted off as the communicator began its playback.

As the voice drifted off, he looked up sharply at the nearest wall, then quickly reset his tricorder and began scanning again. He was looking for any kind of exotic energy patterns that could represent life within the wall itself, "Well, that's just great..."

OCC: Of *course* he's still wearing his suit. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence...

Scanning for weird alien life. Reason + Science, focus of Xenobiology? Spend a point of momentum for an extra die.

15:27, Today: LCDR Christopher Decker rolled 59 using 3d20 with rolls of 19,20,20.  "They're in the goddamned walls!"  Reason(12)+Science(5), Xenobiology.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Even safely in his suit, Mcreeg would swear he feels a chill, feels the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, the light seeing to shine brighter, to be watching him, the hallway to be mocking him, each step he takes seeming to leave him feeling farther behind and he has to concentrate to control his breathing, the phaser growing sweaty in his hand, paranoia hitting hm hard...yet what if there IS something watching them..ready to attack..

"Something took that guy's head" running far too loudly thru his mind as he tries to cover everywhere at once with his weapon..
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Tue 25 Aug 2020.

ch'Pertha, now concerned for the cremate who'd walked into the room against his wishes, felt the need for some damage control.
"Ltn Commander T'Lara, please retreat from the room until we can ascertain its safety".

His attention was split between T'Lara (ready to charge in to protect her if necessary) and the room itself: its strange walls and that be-glyphed pedestal in the centre.

"Yes sir, sorry sir" she mumbled, still visibly shaken from the sight of the headless body, and the message the poor man recorded on his communicator just before he died.
Her head slightly lowered, she rejoined the others at the entrance to the room, taking her place at the very back.

ch’Pertha then moved into the room, but only just.  He skirted the room, along the wall-line, trying to identify any other exit from the room* ... and to get a look behind those obelisks for any threat or person lurking there.

* currently, the description includes nothing about any other doors or such from this room

Jav'Ker studiously had his head buried in his tricorder, scanning for structural indications of traps.  There was a single doorway opposite the one the landing party peered in through, although at the moment it was closed. Never one to be rushed, the ChENG made a thorough scan... his tricorder finding nothing to indicate structural traps in the room.

T'Lara took the dead man's communicator and left the room, while ch'Pertha skirted its perimeter, searching for hidden threats.  There were none that he could see... it was eerily silent, the only sound that reached him through his helmet was the warbling whine of the tricorders in action, the footfalls of the party, and his own breathing.

Decker, meanwhile, directed his scans at the glyph-covered walls upon hearing the staticky recording of the dead security guard's last transmission.  But when he directed his scans past the glyphs, there was a rippling flare in their glow.  Then, a blue corona blazed, and the same flickering light ran along the team, going from head to toe in an eyeblink, whether they were in the room or not. Nobody felt anything, but everyone could see the blue line pan down from everyone's helmet to boots.

And with a sparkling pop, Decker's tricorder shorted out in his hands!

OOC: One complication: Decker's tricorder gains the trait 'shorted out' until repaired.  T'Lara, who's moved out with Mcreeg, can make a Reason+Science check to maintain the lock on the Federation tech through the resulting feedback from their linked tricorders. Difficulty is 2.

The other complication was the blue light, whose nature shall be revealed in due time. >:)

Actions?

Please.  Are there any exits from this room, beyond the one we came in?

T'Lara was fast enough to reconfigure her tricorder just before they lost their lock. Barely so.

She held off giving the good news for a moment though, not wanting to break the silence after being scanned like that in what she felt was an ominous manner.

OOC: managed to keep the lock.  Used momentum but also rolled three successes, so pool should remain the same (what is it, btw?)

19:42, Today: LCDR T'Lara rolled 18 using 3d20 with rolls of 4,8,6.  Reason+Science (+Momentum): maintain lock
 

In reply to CDR Naryss ch'Pertha (msg # 146):