0003 Pickup in the Sticks!

[terrymixon]

Moving the turret is a clumsy procedure, but with two exoskeletons isn't a hard one. Donovan and Bob just have to take it slow and carefully as they set it down on the bed of the air/raft.

Zaki keeps the raft's motor running. Both she and Sigrun feel the raft sag slightly slightly as the heavy load is dropping onto the raft's bed. Flighty sees straps in the raft's bed that could be used to secure the ungainly turret into place.

Sigrun keeps scanning the skies, nothing visible at the moment.

OOC: After a few rolls of the dice...

The turret is secured, everyone climbs aboard, some barely hanging on, but aboard and the raft wobbles back to The New Chance entering the cargo hold and setting safely down.

Over the ship's comm you hear Doug's voice, "Hey, we've got something incoming from the southwest about 800 meters high, 3 klicks out and closing at about 30 kph. Um, radar cross section sort of looks like a winged airplane, but its moving way too slow for that."

Flighty will strap it down and get aboard.

As soon as they are inside, he hits the close switch for the hatch and races to the bridge, yelling over his shoulder for someone to man the ship’s weapons.

Once on the bridge, he’ll bring the ship to life and lift off, starting slow and leveling off close to the ground and putting distance between the ship and whatever it is in the air. He won’t pull in the gear as he’d prefer to make sure there are no unwanted passengers and as suggested, vacuum is good for that.

As it is closing at 30 kph, he’ll get the best speed he can and use the ground to block line of sight with whatever is coming at them, just in case. He’d prefer it if that thing doesn’t see them, as something shot the wreck down.

Flighty

[Tiglath]

Sigrun safes her rifle and unloads it stuffing the magazine into a pocket of her coveralls. She seems to relax somewhat and then winces with pain as she makes her way forward. While everyone bustles to their stations she pauses long enough to recover her "new" automatic from under her ballistic vest and slips the comforting weight inside her coveralls where it won't alarm her new shipmates.

Making her way towards the bridge she listens to the crew's comm chatter to get a sense of what's going on. She stops to lean on a reasuringly solid bulkhead while she lets out a long breath and then takes stock of her injuries. She calls forward "Skipstjóri Flighty, where can I be of use?"

[terrymixon]

Sigrun safes her rifle and unloads it stuffing the magazine into a pocket of her coveralls. She seems to relax somewhat and then winces with pain as she makes her way forward. While everyone bustles to their stations she pauses long enough to recover her "new" automatic from under her ballistic vest and slips the comforting weight inside her coveralls where it won't alarm her new shipmates.

Making her way towards the bridge she listens to the crew's comm chatter to get a sense of what's going on. She stops to lean on a reasuringly solid bulkhead while she lets out a long breath and then takes stock of her injuries. She calls forward "Skipstjóri Flighty, where can I be of use?"

"If you have any gunnery skills, bring the guns to life and be ready for whatever is chasing us to attack. If it looks hostile, splash it," Flighty says as he adroitly controls the ship at low altitude. "Donovan, some sensor work to identify it would be good."

Flighty

[Tiglath]

"If you have any gunnery skills, bring the guns to life and be ready for whatever is chasing us to attack. If it looks hostile, splash it," Flighty says as he adroitly controls the ship at low altitude. "Donovan, some sensor work to identify it would be good."

Sigrun responds "I'll make my way to the dorsal turret". She seems to have helped herself to a portable comm and follows directions to the turret. When she has to climb between decks and then haul herself up into the turret the emphasis and descriptive detail of the sagamaal cursing comes across even without translation. Through laboured breathing she states "Bridge, dorsal turret - request weapons free. I felt the dragon closing in but perhaps he may not have the speed to catch a starship". Nevertheless she checks the turret's sensor repeaters from the bridge for long range targets and scans the sky for local threats.

[terrymixon]

"If you have any gunnery skills, bring the guns to life and be ready for whatever is chasing us to attack. If it looks hostile, splash it," Flighty says as he adroitly controls the ship at low altitude. "Donovan, some sensor work to identify it would be good."

Sigrun responds "I'll make my way to the dorsal turret". She seems to have helped herself to a portable comm and follows directions to the turret. When she has to climb between decks and then haul herself up into the turret the emphasis and descriptive detail of the sagamaal cursing comes across even without translation. Through laboured breathing she states "Bridge, dorsal turret - request weapons free. I felt the dragon closing in but perhaps he may not have the speed to catch a starship". Nevertheless she checks the turret's sensor repeaters from the bridge for long range targets and scans the sky for local threats.

“Weapons are released to you. I repeat, if you feel we are under threat, deal with it.”

Flighty will make sure she has local control. He’s counting on the judgement of someone he doesn’t know, so he hopes it works out.

Flighty

[Eris]

Over the ship's comm you hear Doug's voice, "Hey, we've got something incoming from the southwest about 800 meters high, 3 klicks out and closing at about 30 kph. Um, radar cross section sort of looks like a winged airplane, but its moving way too slow for that."

Zaki runs for the autodoc to check on Karcsi. "We have six minutes, less if it increases speed."

OOC: I almost missed this and I was really looking for Zaki's next actions.

Zaki vaults out of the air/raft and runs down the corridor, skidding into the Med Bay. The Autodoc is humming right along. Quickly scanning Karcsi's numbers on the med sensors, she starts to relax.

Heartrate, respiration, and stress levels are slightly elevated, but not out of normal ranges. Karcsi's brain chemicals are still reading as abnormal and there is a asterisk next to them directing her to the manual for special notes. The reading on his wound, though, makes her raise her eyebrows...it shows as fully healed! He really should have another 8 to 12 hours to go, but from what it says on these sensors, he's "fully baked and ready to be taken out of the oven"...so to speak.

[Eris]

Donovan moves to the Electronics Control Station where he can work the Sensors and the Communications. Quickly pulling up sensors, he picks up the boogy. It's easy to pick up, but hard to read with radar, but it is close enough to get it on the cameras visually.

Sigrun, Donovan, and Flighty if he looks, can see what Donovan has pulled up on the screens.

Damn, if it doesn't look like a dragon! Well, sort of...it is a flying creature...with wings! It looks to be about 30 meters long and maybe half that wide with wings that are each at least as long as its body. It appears to be covered in dark gray, almost black, scales that actually give off glints in the setting sun as it moves.

Nothing that big should be able to fly! But there it is, flapping along.

It is headed in the direction of the wreak and as Flighty takes New Chance up and away, the flying creature doesn't change course to try to intercept them, it continues toward the wreak, flapping along at what looks like a leisurely pace for it. It will get nowhere near your ship as you're already putting distance between it and you and that distance is increasing rapidly.

[Tiglath]

Sigrun's voice comes over the ship's comm channel "Sæll dreki. Þú ert fallegur. Ég er feginn að við erum örlög að berjast ekki". She ditches her reverence for a more businesslike tone as she reports "Contact is... a dragon. He's now falling well astern and showing no interest in us or pursuit. In fact I think he's going to enjoy the meal I left him. Battery standing down, Skipstjóri Flighty. With your permission I'll remain on standby until high atmosphere and then shut down". Then she mutters "Borðaðu vel, gamli vinur".

Once into atmosphere too thin for either the wings or lungs of dragonkind Sigrun shuts down the turret and (this time slowly and carefully) makes her way to the crew commons. Her first action is to secure a cleaning cloth, pull through (or improvise a rod) and some gun oil to clean her borrowed autopistol before she faces Zaki while wearing her "improved" cast. She's not overly keen on her "improvised corset" but appreciates that it maybe adds a certain "scrapyard va-va-voom" to her Amazonian physique...

(OOC: Swordy Trans Service: "Greetings dragon. You are beautiful I'm glad we are fated not to fight" then "Eat well, old friend").

[terrymixon]

Donovan moves to the Electronics Control Station where he can work the Sensors and the Communications. Quickly pulling up sensors, he picks up the boogy. It's easy to pick up, but hard to read with radar, but it is close enough to get it on the cameras visually.

Sigrun, Donovan, and Flighty if he looks, can see what Donovan has pulled up on the screens.

Damn, if it doesn't look like a dragon! Well, sort of...it is a flying creature...with wings! It looks to be about 30 meters long and maybe half that wide with wings that are each at least as long as its body. It appears to be covered in dark gray, almost black, scales that actually give off glints in the setting sun as it moves.

Nothing that big should be able to fly! But there it is, flapping along.

It is headed in the direction of the wreak and as Flighty takes New Chance up and away, the flying creature doesn't change course to try to intercept them, it continues toward the wreak, flapping along at what looks like a leisurely pace for it. It will get nowhere near your ship as you're already putting distance between it and you and that distance is increasing rapidly.

Flighty will set course to head back for the ocean and then lift off at a leisurely speed to orbit. He's keeping the gear down until they hit full vacuum and can kill off any little critters.

Flighty

[terrymixon]

Sigrun's voice comes over the ship's comm channel "Sæll dreki. Þú ert fallegur. Ég er feginn að við erum örlög að berjast ekki". She ditches her reverence for a more businesslike tone as she reports "Contact is a dragon. He's falling well astern and showing no interest in us or pursuit. In fact I think he's going to enjoy the meal we left him. Battery standing down, Skipstjóri Flighty. With your permission I'll remain on standby until high atmosphere and then stand down". Then she mutters "Borðaðu vel, gamli vinur".

"Sounds good. Thanks for the assist."

Flighty

[joertexas]

Zaki vaults out of the air/raft and runs down the corridor, skidding into the Med Bay. The Autodoc is humming right along. Quickly scanning Karcsi's numbers on the med sensors, she starts to relax.

Heartrate, respiration, and stress levels are slightly elevated, but not out of normal ranges. Karcsi's brain chemicals are still reading as abnormal and there is a asterisk next to them directing her to the manual for special notes. The reading on his wound, though, makes her raise her eyebrows...it shows as fully healed! He really should have another 8 to 12 hours to go, but from what it says on these sensors, he's "fully baked and ready to be taken out of the oven"...so to speak.

Zaki checks the notes for the brian chemicals using her HUD.

If there are no issues, she will wake Karcsi and shut down the unit.

[terrymixon]

Zaki vaults out of the air/raft and runs down the corridor, skidding into the Med Bay. The Autodoc is humming right along. Quickly scanning Karcsi's numbers on the med sensors, she starts to relax.

Heartrate, respiration, and stress levels are slightly elevated, but not out of normal ranges. Karcsi's brain chemicals are still reading as abnormal and there is a asterisk next to them directing her to the manual for special notes. The reading on his wound, though, makes her raise her eyebrows...it shows as fully healed! He really should have another 8 to 12 hours to go, but from what it says on these sensors, he's "fully baked and ready to be taken out of the oven"...so to speak.

Zaki checks the notes for the brian chemicals using her HUD.

If there are no issues, she will wake Karcsi and shut down the unit.

Then she can fight with Sigrun about baking her.

[helvorn]

Donovan will make sure to preserve the visual and electromagnetic recordings of the creature. If nothing else it would backup any challenge to their story in a star port bar! "Let's get safely to jump space so we can sort out our new additions both human and mechanical. I'd like to start going through the cargo we picked up and speak with our orphan."

[terrymixon]

Donovan will make sure to preserve the visual and electromagnetic recordings of the creature. If nothing else it would backup any challenge to their story in a star port bar! "Let's get safely to jump space so we can sort out our new additions both human and mechanical. I'd like to start going through the cargo we picked up and speak with our orphan."

“Working on it. Do we have enough fuel purified for a jump?”

Flighty

[Eris]

Donovan will make sure to preserve the visual and electromagnetic recordings of the creature. If nothing else it would backup any challenge to their story in a star port bar! "Let's get safely to jump space so we can sort out our new additions both human and mechanical. I'd like to start going through the cargo we picked up and speak with our orphan."

“Working on it. Do we have enough fuel purified for a jump?”

Flighty

Over the comm from Engineering Doug reports, "Also working on it! I need four hours more to have enough for a jump one. We've got a little over 5 hours to our Jump Limit, right? So, we'll have enough by then. We can process the rest of the water after we're in jump. That'll give us enough for a second J1, if we need it on the other side."

[terrymixon]

Donovan will make sure to preserve the visual and electromagnetic recordings of the creature. If nothing else it would backup any challenge to their story in a star port bar! "Let's get safely to jump space so we can sort out our new additions both human and mechanical. I'd like to start going through the cargo we picked up and speak with our orphan."

“Working on it. Do we have enough fuel purified for a jump?”

Flighty

Over the comm from Engineering Doug reports, "Also working on it! I need four hours more to have enough for a jump one. We've got a little over 5 hours to our Jump Limit, right? So, we'll have enough by then. We can process the rest of the water after we're in jump. That'll give us enough for a second J1, if we need it on the other side."

“Perfect. Thanks, Doug.”

Flighty will focus on getting back to orbit and heading for the jump limit. Once on the way, he’ll start plotting the jump. The others will have to sort out the cargo and equipment securing.

Flighty

[Eris]

Zaki vaults out of the air/raft and runs down the corridor, skidding into the Med Bay. The Autodoc is humming right along. Quickly scanning Karcsi's numbers on the med sensors, she starts to relax.

Heartrate, respiration, and stress levels are slightly elevated, but not out of normal ranges. Karcsi's brain chemicals are still reading as abnormal and there is a asterisk next to them directing her to the manual for special notes. The reading on his wound, though, makes her raise her eyebrows...it shows as fully healed! He really should have another 8 to 12 hours to go, but from what it says on these sensors, he's "fully baked and ready to be taken out of the oven"...so to speak.

Zaki checks the notes for the brain chemicals using her HUD.

If there are no issues, she will wake Karcsi and shut down the unit.

Zaki, goes to the notes and reads:

Danger! Detain subject in an unconscious state using <some drug that is in stock, but is only used to induce a medical coma> and contact Imperial Security Service Section P at your earliest opportunity using the encrypted code, "C/49DDO3 Prime -- Hot Cookies are under water." Further instructions will be given you at that time.

Zaki has never actually seen this before, but it's real and from popular fiction she knows what ImpSecP is all about. More colloquially, in vids and such, the Psi Corps with Psi Cops doing Level 12 Investigations. Zhodani infiltrators, rogue serial mind raping killers! On one hand heroes that protect the Citizens of the Imperium against evil Zhodani. On the other, once they get their hands on somebody they are never heard of again...but that's only in the vids, right? She *knows* Karcsi, he's not Zhodani. She knows everyone here, well except the one called Sigrun...and these aren't *her* readings.

[Eris]

“Working on it. Do we have enough fuel purified for a jump?”

Flighty

Over the comm from Engineering Doug reports, "Also working on it! I need four hours more to have enough for a jump one. We've got a little over 5 hours to our Jump Limit, right? So, we'll have enough by then. We can process the rest of the water after we're in jump. That'll give us enough for a second J1, if we need it on the other side."

“Perfect. Thanks, Doug.”

Flighty will focus on getting back to orbit and heading for the jump limit. Once on the way, he’ll start plotting the jump. The others will have to sort out the cargo and equipment securing.

Flighty

The New Chance flies smoothly into space and Flighty sets course out from the planet. Working out a plot for the jump to Tremous Dex is an easy task for Flighty, it won't take long and he can let the ship fly itself while he concentrates on it. If anything pops up on the sensors they'll 'ping' and Donovan is still seated next to him monitoring them anyway.

Load the Nav program into the computer and run it with the data he feeds in. It only takes ten minutes of number crunching to get a jump plot, run it again to double check and then do the variations check, that'll take about 25 minutes total time. In that time, Flighty works a rough plot by hand to compare. All of this should match within a 3% margin of error and shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes to complete. Easy peasy!

OOC: With what is currently happening in the Med Bay, let's see if Flighty gets his 30 minutes of easy peasy, though.


Donovan relaxes and, shakes the tension he didn't know he had in his shoulders out, as the ship settles onto its course to the Jump Point. Flighty looks like he knows what he's doing. The computer is grinding away on a Nav Plot. The sensors show no other ships in range and there's no communications coming from the ground. This should be a nice simple exit from Pequan, and won't he be glad to see the last of this place for a while!

Sigrun wanders down to MedBay and starts to say something, but she pauses as she sees Zaki standing stock still staring into nowhere with a strange expression on her face. Sigrun remembers Zaki is wearing some sort of HUD over one eye, and thinks maybe she's looking at something on her HUD. Should she speak up, might disturb her?

For Darithe

OOC: I'm sorry Darithe, but from die rolls this is how things are playing out. I'm not sure what Zaki is going to do. Personally, I hope she wakes Karcis up, but that's her call. However, if she doesn't things will escalate.

[Tiglath]

Sigrun wanders down to MedBay and starts to say something, but she pauses as she sees Zaki standing stock still staring into nowhere with a strange expression on her face. Sigrun remembers Zaki is wearing some sort of HUD over one eye, and thinks maybe she's looking at something on her HUD. Should she speak up, might disturb her?

Sigrun speaks softly "Afsaka* Zaki, here's your pistol back. I thought you might want it quickly and you are busy healing your warrior - so I cleaned it for you. Þakka fyrir".

Glancing at Karcsi she observes "Your man looks fully healed - well done! I can wait on my hand but I wouldn't mind at all if the autodoc fixed my ribs".

(* Trans: "Excuse me" (getting attention) then "Thank you". Þ = "th").

[terrymixon]

Over the comm from Engineering Doug reports, "Also working on it! I need four hours more to have enough for a jump one. We've got a little over 5 hours to our Jump Limit, right? So, we'll have enough by then. We can process the rest of the water after we're in jump. That'll give us enough for a second J1, if we need it on the other side."

“Perfect. Thanks, Doug.”

Flighty will focus on getting back to orbit and heading for the jump limit. Once on the way, he’ll start plotting the jump. The others will have to sort out the cargo and equipment securing.

Flighty

The New Chance flies smoothly into space and Flighty sets course out from the planet. Working out a plot for the jump to Tremous Dex is an easy task for Flighty, it won't take long and he can let the ship fly itself while he concentrates on it. If anything pops up on the sensors they'll 'ping' and Donovan is still seated next to him monitoring them anyway.

Load the Nav program into the computer and run it with the data he feeds in. It only takes ten minutes of number crunching to get a jump plot, run it again to double check and then do the variations check, that'll take about 25 minutes total time. In that time, Flighty works a rough plot by hand to compare. All of this should match within a 3% margin of error and shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes to complete. Easy peasy!

OOC: With what is currently happening in the Med Bay, let's see if Flighty gets his 30 minutes of easy peasy, though.

No rest for the wicked.