Stay Frosty II - Hitching a ride

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Ling kneels at the corner of the door, near Rodriguez, also ready to fire on any non-humans.
 
The group sweep through the corridor and sure enough every few rooms they encounter one of the XTs. The beasts charge them, but are either dropped by Raúl's flames or shortly after by controlled bursts from the others. In one particular case as soon as Potter opens the door Ling shoots one dead instantly before Raúl even pulls the trigger on Old Scratch.

Finally they see themselves nearing the end of the corridor, beyond which there seems to be a lobby. However upon opening one of the last guest room doors they find a disheveled woman inside asleep on the floor. Mid 40s, greying hair, tattered clothes. However she seems in reasonably good health, not starved or sick. The room itself is trashed. The video screen and other electronics are ripped from the walls and the bed has been flipped over.
 
However upon opening one of the last guest room doors they find a disheveled woman inside asleep on the floor. Mid 40s, greying hair, tattered clothes. However she seems in reasonably good health, not starved or sick. The room itself is trashed. The video screen and other electronics are ripped from the walls and the bed has been flipped over.
"Potter and I'll cover the entrance; Griff, you cover Ling while she checks on this lady's condition. Is she ambulatory and can she tell us anything?"
 
Ling moves forward to check on the woman's condition, and to see if she's capable of answering some questions..
 
Ling moves forward to check on the woman's condition, and to see if she's capable of answering some questions..
Ling scans the woman with her medical equipment. Organs and bones seem intact. No wounds. Body temperature is a bit high, nearing a fever. It'll probably only take a light shake on the shoulder to wake her.
 
Trusting the others to cover her if needed, Ling gently shakes the woman's shoulder. "Miss?"
 
I listen and keep Ling and Patient Zero in my peripheral vision, even though I'm sure Griff has it covered--you can never be too cautious when dealing with peligros desconocidos. Even if it does seem to be my pan y mantequilla.
 
‘We should be careful, I don’t know why’d these things would leave her alive,’ I say. ‘Although maybe it was humans who tossed the place looking for something?’
 
Trusting the others to cover her if needed, Ling gently shakes the woman's shoulder. "Miss?"
The woman's eyes open with a start, they're completely bloodshot. She screams aggressively into Ling's face for a few seconds, then goes blank staring ahead and keeps making biting motions.

Raúl, Potter and Griff hear a deep bellowing in the direction of the lobby up ahead. The woman screams in response...
 
Ling will administer a mild sedative, with the intent of calming the woman down and hopefully drawing her out of her current mental state, although if unable to do so, will err on the side of knocking her back out if necessary.
 
"Griff, ignore that bellowing and keep an eye on Ling and Screamer just in case. Something's off here. Potter and I will watch the lobby for incoming bogeymen."
 
Ling will administer a mild sedative, with the intent of calming the woman down and hopefully drawing her out of her current mental state, although if unable to do so, will err on the side of knocking her back out if necessary.
When the sedative hits the woman screams twice more before thankfully stopping. Eventually her breathing becomes gentler and she stops the biting motion.

"Whaaa...." she shakes her head and speaks weakly looking at Ling's uniform "...mar...marines?"

"Griff, ignore that bellowing and keep an eye on Ling and Screamer just in case. Something's off here. Potter and I will watch the lobby for incoming bogeymen."
Raúl and Potter hear a few of the bellows following the woman's final two screams. The bellowing sound gets closer each time. However once she stops screaming there is only one more bellow. After that nothing.
 
"Hmm...what's the link? They're responding to her."
 
"Aye, feels eerie alright." Griff mutters, his back to Ling as he does his best to cover her. "How'd they get in her noggin? She take an elective course in alien scream languages like?"
 
Potter and Griff both hear their motion trackers begin to click.



Ling notices her medkit register an increasing magnetic field in the area.
 
"Can we get a source on the origin of this increase in the magnetic field?"

Does my toolkit have anything useful to detect that? Or does anyone else have equipment that could do it?
 
Gun up, Griff tries to aim at the nearest entry way the enemy could be coming down. "Aw shite, she sent out an SOS or somethin'!"
 
Playing a hunch, Ling tries to determine if the increasing magnetic field perhaps correlates to the woman's health, via heartrate, EKG readings, etc. If this turns out to be the case, she will then try to administer something to temporarily negate said psionic effect.

OOC: psionics are a thing in this setting, right? I seem to recall that there was a Psionic MOS as a character option.
 
Does my toolkit have anything useful to detect that? Or does anyone else have equipment that could do it?
OOC: Stay Frosty says little about your toolkit, so here is my ruling on what's in them:

Welding Torch
Hull breach sealant
Explosives chemical analysis (Can determine explosive yield of substance)
Explosives enhancer (various trace chemicals for a bit of "umph" to your blast)
Jump Drive diagnostic tool
Power systems diagnostic tool
Electromagnetic field reader

Welding Torch
Electromagnetic field reader
Geiger Counter
Thermal goggles
Mini hacking device

"Can we get a source on the origin of this increase in the magnetic field?"
Raúl's EMF reader indicates the field is centered outside the room where Ling is treating the woman. In fact it's coming from about five metres further down the corridor in the direction of the lobby.
 
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Playing a hunch, Ling tries to determine if the increasing magnetic field perhaps correlates to the woman's health, via heartrate, EKG readings, etc. If this turns out to be the case, she will then try to administer something to temporarily negate said psionic effect.

OOC: psionics are a thing in this setting, right? I seem to recall that there was a Psionic MOS as a character option.
Ling determines that although the woman isn't creating the field it is correlated to her health. EKG readings are erratic and match textbook readings for those of a psionic. Ling administers a strong dose of morphine and brings down the psionic readings in short order.
 
Any change in the motion trackers now that her psionic readings are down?
 
Any change in the motion trackers now that her psionic readings are down?
The motion trackers keep clicking, but the readings never approach any closer than ten metres from your position.

They shuffle back and forth, but never get closer.
 
"Fuckers, what are they doin'? Playin' chicken wi' us? Tryna see who breaks first!?" Griff yells, a sheet of sweat pouring off him.
 
Rescuing civilians is never worth the trouble it brings, I think. Aloud: "As long as they're holding back, we have time to investigate. Are there any terminals or notebooks in the room? Any journals or documents that might shed some light on these freakazoids? Or who this lady is?"
 
Rescuing civilians is never worth the trouble it brings, I think. Aloud: "As long as they're holding back, we have time to investigate. Are there any terminals or notebooks in the room? Any journals or documents that might shed some light on these freakazoids? Or who this lady is?"
The woman's private terminal sits mounted into a cheap desk in one corner of the room. Currently there is a login prompt displaying. However some books lying scattered about the desk on Jump Drive Theory suggest she was part of the engineering staff.
 
The woman's private terminal sits mounted into a cheap desk in one corner of the room. Currently there is a login prompt displaying. However some books lying scattered about the desk on Jump Drive Theory suggest she was part of the engineering staff.
"Whoever's the best at computers, try to get into that terminal and see if there's anything worth learning. Ling, keep that lady calm if you can. Everybody else: be ready in case those electric turd monsters decide to make a move."
 
I check the computer unless someone is better at it than me.
 
Potter manages to unlock the computer after a few minutes of hacking into it.

Details on the computer show she is Delphine Chevreaux and indeed works in Engineering, specifically one of the two engineers who tend to the Jump drive.

The logs and emails are a mix of technical discussions with the other drive engineer and local gossip. However the final set of emails written during their last jump are a discussion about a piece of debris that hit the ship. The discussion seemed to be focused on it being from a ship that had a jump accident on the way to Pitstop, but the cameras on the hull couldn't get a good look.

The final email is an emergency one sent to her in the morning. A floating entity had appeared in the drive room making strange noises, she was to come with security. The creature seemed confused and repeatedly banged itself into the Jump Core.
 
I summarize my findings to everyone else. ‘Sounds like the source of all this may be still in the drive room. Do we grab the rest of the civs and head there?’

I nod towards Delphine. ‘I think she may have some kind of link to these things, perhaps if we bring her she’ll keep them off our backs?’
 
"French," mutters Raúl. "That explains her behavior"

To the others: "We have to bring her along either way, so I guess we'll find out. Will fixing the drive abort the impact?"
 
Will fixing the drive abort the impact?
OOC: Griff as an engineer would know that a functioning drive could be used to prevent the impact. Either the Jump Drive to simply jump out of the system or the regular fusion rocket engine to just alter the ship's course and stop
 
"Let's get down to the drive. But first can we rig up some kind of nasty surprise for our friends in the lobby? It'd be nice to know they're dead or diverted when we move, plus I've always hated lobbyists."
 
Griff and Potter notice the dots on their motion trackers merge into a single large dot. The large dot still keeps its distance however.
 
'Christ,' I say. 'Let's use the grenades to leave them a surprise.'
 
"This bugger just merged intae a single bloody bastard. Might be best if we use the rocket on it, judging by the size."
 
"I'll let you guys do rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets to blow stuff up real good."
OOC:
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'Alright,' I say. And load and prepare my RPG. Looking at the screen what's the best approach?
 
OOC: It would be possible looking at the motion tracker to fire at the area where the dot is. By studying it Potter can see the dot is apparently straight ahead of them, not in the roofs or floors.
 
I move to the corridor to try and get a clear shot. 'Cover me,' I say.
 
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