30/10/2019 - Archaeology Site (2)

Get the Hell Out of Here

The situation becomes violent, chaotic and dangerous as the rock slide quickly begins to smash up the dome they are in. They back away towards the exit as the walls come crashing down and the rocks spill into the room. Cyrus is first to the exit, but there is an airlock. He is forced to slam the emergency open button, which will open both doors at once. There is a five second delay as the alarms sound and everyone instinctively is able to put their helmets on, although Grant has a nightmare putting his on.

They all stumble out of the building, but the landslide is pouring over the dome and there is a shower of rocks. Kenton, who as so far been able to keep up with them, is struck in the head and collapses.

Del and Cyrus go back for him. Buzz, who is quite strong, considers for a moment then comes back and helps as well. Buzz and Drent carry Kenton away just in time as the mini avalanche finishes and the University domes are crushed. There is no sign of the girl who was still working on the antenna.

Confrontation

They decide to head back to the shuttle, but on the journey back down into the town, the encounter a crowd of curious townsfolk, who are clearly more after looting than rescue. There is an awkward standoff, but the Travellers have big weapons and the townsfolk mostly have crow bars and shovels. They give the Travellers a wide birth and think better of attacking them.

The Travellers approach the main settlement, but around a corner they encounter Jocan with a group of heavily-armed thugs. There is a tense standoff. Del negotiates at the end of his high-power energy rifle, pointing directly at Jocan’s head.

Jocan does not flinch and seems happy to continue the standoff. Cyrus contacts the Liberator. Dirk tells them the ship detected an explosion on the planet’s surface. Also, the ship’s boat that was landed at the space port has taken off. After apparently heading back to the Yacht in orbit, it suddenly changed course and are heading around the planet. They suspect whoever it is, they are heading for the University’s archaeology site.

Shooting from the Sky

Del asks Dirk if Liberator can shoot down from orbit. Dirk confirms that it is possible, but he is reluctant to shoot too near them as Liberator’s weapons are very powerful. Del realises a direct shot onto the thugs would probably back fire on the Travellers as they are too close. He uses his robot drone to target a big rock a few hundred meters away and asks Dirk to shoot at it.

Del then tells Jocan to look at the rock, but he refuses, preferring instead of stare straight at Del. Then Liberator fires down and destroys the rock, which shakes all of the thugs except Jocan, who continues coolly to stare at Del, telling his lackeys to stay calm.

When Del threatens to bring down the next shot straight onto Jocan, he agrees to allow them to pass and the thugs stand aside. As they pass, Jocan continues to stare unblinking and psychotically at them.

Short Reprieve

Once past the thugs, the Travellers realise that they now have to walk effectively backwards because Jocan and his men are following them. Del realises as they approach the settlement that they are heading for a trap, but there isn’t much he can do about it. Drent and Buzz are still carrying Kenton and can’t currently help in any fire fight.

When they reach the town, they are fired at from the fixed laser positions they saw earlier, by the gates to the area where Jocan came from. The arc of fire covers the road to the spaceport where their shuttle is. The trap has been sprung.

Shootout in Town

They are forced to take cover from the laser fire by a building, but Jocan and his thugs are just around the corner and about to open fire on them. Del desperately calls down fire from the Liberator to take out the laser positions, as they are far enough away for a shot from space to be safe.

Dirk has Zen fire at the location pin-pointed again by Del’s drone and the lasers are taken out. The Travellers take advantage of the sudden explosion and the surprise to fire at Jocan’s men. Drent and Buzz put down Kenton and join in firing, along with Buzz who is given a decent energy rifle.

Killing Jocan

The Travellers and Jocan’s men begin a desperate fire fight around a corner, taking shots at each other. Most of the shots go to Del, who has taken less cover and continuing to fire at Jocan directly. Del’s armour mostly protects him and some of the thugs have short-range shotguns but they are not quite at close enough range to do a lot of damage.

Buzz and Drent take out a thug each and Del gets two direct hits on Jocan, blasting holes through him. Jocan collapses to his knees and Del’s third shot vaporises his head.

Del then tells the thugs to retreat – their leader is dead. That doesn’t seem to persuade them and it looks like the fight will continue to the gritty end, but then Del threatens to bring down more orbital fire onto them and that breaks them. The thugs flee, bringing the fight to an end. Del takes Jocan’s slightly old, slightly damaged Laser Rifle.

Return to the Shuttle

The Travellers cautiously move over to their shuttle. There are signs that someone has tried to break into the shuttle, but they did not succeed.

Once on board, Drent launches the shuttle, but their plan is to go to the archaeological dig and he does not know the way. However, he is able to contact Dirk on the Liberator, who has the location of where the ship’s boat has now landed about 1,000 km away in the south. Drent heads there.

Cyrus gives Kenton first aid and mostly he has concussion. An application of a medpack brings the student around and restores his senses. He asks what happened and is concerned that others who were living in the student accommodation, including Jalisa, have been killed by the rock slide.

Finding the Dig Site

They ask him about the archaeology dig and he tells them the location, which is where the ships boat landed. He tells them the Ancient City is buried deep within caves under that location. It was only by chance the ruins were stumbled across during a routine geological survey, they are otherwise very hard to find.

The city itself is badly damaged and scattered over a large area. They have not even completely surveyed it. Large areas are cut off by rock falls. Kenton also mentions that the ruins are dangerous. There are strange hazards, like gravity particles that can injure or kill people. They will need to be careful.

Caves

When they land, they see the ship’s boat landed and apparently empty. No one responds to communications. There are some supply crates, basic tents, a comms unit that has been destroyed and a power supply, but little else. Kenton tells them the main camp is deep within the caves. He knows the way and can take them to it.

They proceed down into the cave network, following mostly Kenton’s memory, but he seems to be taking them the right way as they pass comms points and other hints that humans have come this way. The comms points have been destroyed though.

After a while, Del’s armour registers some louder noises not too far away. They can’t tell what the noises are, as they are all in environment suits.

Base Camp Massacre

Shortly after, they arrive at the base camp. It is on a wide ledge overlooking a deep cliff edge. Cut into the side of the cliff are ledges and it is clear this is machine made, not natural.

The camp itself has clearly been the site of a battle. All the equipment is covered in blood and gore and it is clear that several people have been killed by energy weapon fire. Kenton is distraught as he recognises one of the body parts as a friend.

Comms Out of Range

The comms units here have been destroyed by energy weapon fire too. However, over the public channel, Bay Shar, in an annoying high-pitched, whiny voice, calls out for Professor Voslang to surrender and hand over her research. If she does that he will spare her life, otherwise this will be where she dies.

Cyrus tries to contact the Liberator, but they are too deep in the caves, the signal cannot reach the ship. They then ask Kenton what is the private frequency for Professor Voslang and he tells them what it is. Then he messages the Professor directly, telling her what is going on as best he can. He soon breaks down in tears as he tells her of all their colleagues who have died, in the rock fall and by laser fire here.

The Ancient Stairs

Del looks down the cliff. It is very far down to some lights at the bottom, possibly a kilometre deep. He can vaguely make out some movement further down the cliff edge in the darkness. Cyrus uses his infrared goggles to look down and sees three humanoid figures, two large and one small. The two large figures look mostly human but have patches that are cooler than human body parts, but with small sources of heat. He recognises that they have cybernetic implants, as he has seen what his look like in infrared.

A strange infrared beam that has been dancing around from far below, suddenly hits Cyrus’s goggles and he is temporarily blinded.

Del takes over, using his drone’s infrared scanners to pick out the descending figures. He targets one with his Laser Sniper Rifle and gets a good hit. The figure cries out and tumbles down the cliff to his death. The other two figures take cover in the lee of the cliff and shoot back.

Bay Shar

Bay Shar suddenly comes on the open channel, asking who they are and what they want. Do they want to negotiate? Del is uncompromising and tell them to surrender and drop their weapons, but Bay refuses.

They exchange some fire and Del is struggling to hit the figures, but gets one partial shot on the remaining big figure. In a very lucky counter shot, Bay is able to hit and vaporise Del’s Laser Sniper Rifle.

Buzz Goes Nuts

Buzz takes over, shooting rapidly down to keep the figures pinned. Bay again comes on comms and asks to negotiate, but refuses Del’s demand to put down his weapons.

After firing several times, Buzz seems to have a funny turn. He says that “It” is watching him and now “It” has seen him. He is shaking and paranoid, telling Del not to touch him when he tries to come near. It takes a while for Buzz to calm down. Eventually, he puts his weapon down and slowly his anxiety relents. He explains that it was a strange feeling that built up, getting worse after every shot.

Descending the Stairs

Meanwhile, Drent has found some climbing equipment and four grav belts in one of the surviving tents. He gets Kenton to stop crying and talk to Professor Voslang, while they focus on dealing with the murderers below.

Kenton insists on taking one of the belts and going down after those who killed his friends. Drent gives him his Gauss Pistol and tells him not to point it at any of them.

Cyrus, Del and Buzz take the other grav belts and together with Kenton begin to drop down the cliff edge. They drop from one ledge to another, towards the figures below. As they descend, they are eventually spotted by Bay and his cybernetic companion and another dangerous fire fight ensues, with both parties mostly in cover shooting and missing.

Cyrus takes advantage of the shooting and the distraction to move further down. Eventually Buzz and Del are occasionally able to follow suit, but Buzz is hit badly by an energy weapon shot and collapses onto one of the ledges.

Dangerous Shootout

Del is now doing most of the shooting, using the Laser Rifle he took from Jocan. He gets a couple more hits on his primary target, the cyborg, which forces the two enemies to break cover and head in opposite directions, try to get a better angle and draw fire.

Del is then hit, but his armour mostly takes the damage. He also notices that Buzz, mainly by willpower alone, has not passed out and re-joins the fire fight.

Negotiate Damn it!

Bay again comes on the open channel and demands that they negotiate. He seems frustrated and annoyed that they won’t discuss terms and he even offers 100,000 Credits, but Del tells him he must put down his weapons. Bay refuses and tells them he has planted explosives at the cave entrance. As a last resort, he can blow the entrance and bury them all in this cave. Del is not interested and keeps firing.

Once the firing started, Kenton remained where he was on a higher ledge, keeping away from the firing and trying to build up the courage to join in. Eventually, he decides to follow the others down, despite his lack of experience with weapons. However, he makes a mistake and becomes an easy target for the cyborg, who hits and severely wounds him. They are forced to turn off comms from Kenton after he collapses onto a ledge and begins to transmit screams of pain and cries for help.

Setbacks

Cyrus has now been able to move to the ledge directly above where Bay is, despite taking a hit at one point, which his armour mostly took. He throws rocks and tries to use the distraction to get a hit on Bay, but is unlucky and misses.

While he has been shooting, Del has slowly begun to experience the same effect that Buzz experienced, a growing paranoia that something is watching him, getting worse after every shot. He eventually puts down his weapon for a while, and takes out his vibro-blade, planning to jump down onto the cyborg at an opportune moment. As Buzz is still firing and keeping the figures below occupied, Del is able to relax and let the strange paranoia effect fade.

Killing the last Cyborg

By this time, Drent and Grant have become restless at the top of the cliff and decide to follow their companions down, using the climbing equipment. As they move further down though, they become targets. The cyborg is able to shoot and wound Grant, though due to the range it is not as bad a wound as Kenton took.

However, in order to get the shot, the cyborg stepped just a little too far out of cover. Del takes advantage of an exposed target, quickly picking up his rifle again and getting a killing shot on the cyborg.

Bay’s Last Gambit

Cyrus then sees Bay take out something and press a button, signalling on the open channel that they will all die together. However, nothing happens. They are too deep in the caves for his transmitter to reach the explosives.

Realising he has nothing left, Bay then messages on the open channel that he is dropping his weapon and surrendering.

End of Episode Two