20/11/2014 – Forbidden Space Station (2)
Grant talks further with this voice. He says he is Force Commander Clegg. This system is under Interdiction. Leave now or be destroyed.
Mary enters the Cockpit and asks if everything is OK. There is something odd in this system, it is singing in her head.
Dirk suggests to Grant that he mention they are here on behalf of Popara Hunt. Grant tries to persuade Clegg of this. Clegg asks for a password. Dirk tells them about an electronic password he found on Mary’s data pad. They try transmitting that to Clegg, but he does not seem to recognise it and tells them to leave at once.
Grant resolves to continue to their destination.
Fighter Attack
As the Red Queen approaches the moon that is between them and the station, two sensor blips appear, one of each side of the moon. They are small, one man fighters closing in.
Cyrus mans the weapons console, while Drent turns to close distance on one of the fighters, as missiles take a long time to hit their target. As the range closes, the fighter they are closing on opens fire with its lasers, but Drent’s evasive manoeuvres keep them clear of any damage.
As the fighter comes closer, it becomes clear the pilot is not great as he just cannot hit them. They launch a missile at the fighter, but it is shot down before it can strike.
Another is fired at closer ranger, which misses and swerves back around to follow the fighter.
With the second fighter now in range too, it opens up, but with little more success as Drent keeps the Red Queen weaving and dancing, hoping that the second missile will eventually get its target, which is does.
They turn on the second ship, eventually launching two missiles, both of which the pilot fails to shoot down, but both just miss his small fighter and end up following it. Dogged by these two missiles, the pilot turns his ship to face the missiles and miraculously shoots down both missiles.
Cyrus launches two more missiles, just to try to finish this second fighter off, the pilot of which seems able to shoot missiles but can’t seem to hit the Red Queen no matter how hard he tries.
Finally the missiles hit their target and the second fighter is destroyed.
Approaching the Station
They resume course for the space station. There is no further communication from Clegg. As they pass nearer to the Gas Giant, its large magnetic field makes piloting more difficult for Drent, but he is able to compensate.
They close on the station and see it is indeed a construction yard. It appears to be two platforms, with a large silver amorphous metal blob in between them. Not the space ship they were expecting. Dirt wonders if it is some sort of cocoon.
Cyrus rolls 14 on a sensors roll and learns a lot about the station. There are two more fighters docked in the upper section, but the main landing platforms are on the lower section. There is also a Heavy Freighter docked there, but it appears to have sustained damage and has no power signature. The station’s power signature in the upper section is not stable and appears in be in a bad way.
He also detects an unusual power signature from the moon below them. The Ancient site appears to be active and a slight pulsating power signature is present. Mary says the singing in her head is much louder now.
They decide to dock with the lower section of the station.
Arrival
The Red Queen docks without incident with the lower section of the station. Ace puts on his combat armour and leads the way on the station.
They see a small chamber beyond the air-lock poorly lit. Seems the emergency lights are on. They find some lifts to the upper sections, but they are not working. One of them is on this level, with the body of what appears to be a Technician Second Class lying in it. He seems to have been dead for a while, perhaps a week or more.
Beyond this room is the main docking area, which is a little untidy, with open pallets left lying around. They begin to move carefully across this area, only for two men to appear on the other side of the docking area and being shooting at them.
All of their fire is directed at Ace, whose combat armour deflects their shots and with him shooting, and Drent, Cyrus and Grant (who has no training in weapons and is useless) firing as well they manage to overwhelm and kill these two. Cyrus’s heavy laser rifle disintegrates one of the men’s arms.
The men were in contact with some others somewhere, their last communications saying they were under heavy fire and calling for help.