The spent some time exploring the various workshops, but decided that there was nothing here they could use immediately. After examining the elevator, they started to piece together that the symbols might be numbers, and developed a plan to determine what the numbers might be. They decided not to risk experimenting yet and that it would be safer to move between floors using the ladders and hatches.
Tom Major (I know) decided to try the hatch going up, reasoning that it led outside of the ship. He was correct, the hatch led to a manual airlock which he entered. When he emerged from the other side, he found himself in a small open area inside of the folded solar collector. He was able to identify it and its function though. He reasoned that, since the ship seemed to have engines on the nacelles, that it was not a solar sail for propulsion, but a solar collector for energy. He further reasoned that it must be to charge the jump drive since the engines did not seem to be of a type that could be powered this way. He made his way back down to rejoin the group.
They then moved down to the Cargo Deck. Here they explored the two gun turrets and the smaller cargo bay. They found a bale of tobacco (worth quite a bit) in the cargo bay, and they looked out the observation bubble they found there. Using the bubble, they were able to confirm their suspicions about the ship layout. They did not explore the larger cargo bay. I do not know if this was a conscious choice, or if they just forgot that there was a door on the other side of the hall. Each time they moved through this area, I had them make a Notice (WIS) check to remember they had not been through that door, but they always blew the roll.
They moved down to the Living Deck and started going through it room by room. After they discovered a room that had clearly been burned by a flame thrower, they decided that they might be in a The Thing situation and put their vac suit helmets back on. They then moved across the hall and opened a door with some kind of snake drawn on it. A large amount of dust came out of the room when they opened the door and they were surprised to find bodies inside. They shot the bodies before entering the room. They were able to determine that the deceased were human-like, but about a foot shorter than standard humans.
As they explored the rest of the rooms, they discovered that some of the mirrors had alcoves with wires behind them. They could tell that there had been a device connected to the wires at some point. Assuming that the wires had been connected to a camera, they smashed every mirror they found on this level, finally finding a device that they could not identify in an alcove behind one.
In the central lounge area they found a bar and a TV screen. They spent some time watching different programs on the TV. They were especially fond of one that involved a man in khaki getting way to close to dangerous animals. The only other thing of interest that they found on the level was a room full of children's toys. One of which was a toy robot, that they shot.
When they moved down to the Bridge Deck, they were immediately confronted by three walking corpses wearing Imperial Scout uniforms. They made quick work of them, but seeing his dead companions seemed to break Dr. Darius. While they were trying to calm him down, an alert came in from his scout ship telling them that another ship was approaching. They answered the hail from the ship to learn that it was the group that Darius had hired to take him to where he thought the ship was several years ago. He had stiffed them and they had kept an alert out for him hiring another crew, followed his scout ship, and were looking to collect. They threatened to blow up his scout ship if they did not get paid.
Tom Major and GB rushed to the gun pods they had discovered earlier, but found that the other ship had positioned itself behind the ANNIC NOVA and outside the arc of the guns. They agreed to pay and Leonalcus took Dr. Darius back through the umbilical to the scout ship to transfer the money. Sgt. Derby Pope started messing with the controls on the bridge and opened the canopy. By the time they had finished paying off the Dr. Darius's former crew, their vac suits were running low on air, so they cycled back to the scout ship to refill them.
As they re-entered the ANNIC NOVA, they heard a beeping sound coming from the back of the corridor. They investigated to find a blinking light on the control panel they had seen earlier. The light was yellow, so they decided it must mean that the battery was charged and was not an alarm. They decided to search some rooms on the Bridge Level that they had not entered yet and wanted to use the lift (they had verified the buttons earlier) to go down. As the lift descended they felt a lurch. The ship had jumped.
Comments
Post a Comment