11/12/2014 - Showdown (4)
Tarrant clearly needs some sleep, so the party decide to let him rest and do the same themselves. After some time, perhaps an hour, they feel a distance vibration and crash mildly shake the station. Drent notices that his communication link with the ship has gone down.
They resolve to go and see if they can rescue the scientists. They get some directions from Kerr then leave him to look after Tarrant. Ace leads the way to the first floor, where they head for the power plant. As they do, the whole station seems to shift as though it’s in motion. The manoeuvre drives have started up and seem to fire for 5 minutes or so before counter thrust is fired and the station settles down again.
Drent tries to communicate further with the ship and works out the ship has been damaged. He cannot tell how much because the Comms system has been damaged.
The Power Plant
They find there are crude barricades set up either side of the corridor where the doors to the Power Plant are, with signs the barricades are manned regularly. The doors to the power planet are closed and welded. There are signs of gun fire in the corridor and explosions. Some parts of bodies on the floor. The Comms with the interior of the power plant are broken and they can get no reply from those inside.
Dirk begins to experience unusual feelings as the strange atmosphere on the station starts to first affect the crew.
Suddenly a mercenary marine shoots Drent and a fire fight develops, in which the Marine is killed despite him using the barricade as cover. Cyrus and Grant watch the opposite end of the corridor but no other Marine attacks them.
The noise of the fight attracts the attention of someone in the Power Plant, who asks what is going on. He is suspicious when they say they are new. He tells them to kill Clegg as he is dangerous and is responsible for the murder of 20 people, including Professor Egrorian, (whoever he is). He says there are eight surviving scientists.
The station shudders again and it is clear the space ship under construction is moving again, quite vigorously. Worried about events they cannot control, the crew decide to head for the Command Centre and confront Clegg.
Showdown With Clegg
They proceed up to the command level. All is quiet and empty until they reach the control room, where they find Clegg in combat armour wielding a stun-grenade launcher, which he fires at the corridor where the party are standing. Fortunately, it’s a poor shot, bouncing off Ace’s combat armour, failing to stun anyone.
Ace, Drent and Grant now fire at Clegg, while Dirk and Cyrus deal with two Merc Marines who attempt to flank them. Cyrus is wounded but Clegg is killed by Ace, as Dirk kills one of the Marines, the other surrendering when told to by Ace. The Marine talks about some sort of unidentified ship on the sensors.
Cyrus treats his wounds while Drent and Dirk rush into the Command Centre to check this out. There does seem to be some sort of spherical ship approaching the station. It is travelling very fast, but will take about 25 minutes to arrive as it is far off at the moment.
The sensors also suggest something has happened to the Red Queen and the Marine tells them Clegg flew a fighter by remote control and made it crash into their ship.
Also, the control panel displays reveal the new ship has been completed, the amorphous blob having coalesced into an exotic capital ship of an unknown design.
Tarrant appears, having had some rest but not wanting to miss out on what is happening. Kerr is with him.
It is clear they need to get off this station, but how? Dirk wonders if Mary could pilot the new ship, but she says she is not a pilot. She says the ship lacks a “mind”. Dirk asks her if she could be that mind. She is confused by this.
They leave for the Power Plant again and convince the scientist behind the door to come out. His name is Klein. It turns out he is the only survivor, the others having died. He is showing signs of radiation sickness and injury. He reveals that no one can use the new ship without something he has – the primary computer core. But it needs an activation code – from the owner of the ship. He was never told who that was. Professor Egrorian or Clegg may have known.
Boarding the Ship
Ace wants to go down to the lower levels via the grav lift to rescue the Marine they left drugged. Cyrus wants to go check how the Red Queen is doing, which also means going down to the lower levels. So they set off doing that, Ace taking the Marine who surrendered after Clegg died with him.
Meanwhile Grant, Dirk, Drent, Mary, Klein, Tarrant and Kerr head for level 3, where they can view the new ship and consider how to gain entry. There are manoeuvrable airlocks that can be used to gain access to the new ship. Klein finds the right console and they begin extending a flexible boarding tube towards an obvious air lock on the side of the new ship.
Something crashes into the upper level of the space station and Mary says something dark and horrible is coming to kill them all. They need to get out of here.
Once the airlock tube is attached, the crew and the space station survivors begin to crawl through towards the new ship. There is no gravity and they have to crawl their way along the tube slowly, as none have zero-G skills.
Ace recovers the remaining Marine. Cyrus surveys the damage to the Red Queen. It is significant and would take a while to repair. The ship has also come partially lose from the docking clamp and the only way to reach it is by space walking.
Ace, Cyrus and the two Marines head back up to level 3 using the Grav lift.
Activating the Ship
When they reach the end of the docking tube, the crew and the space station survivors board the new ship. The ship is large and they are unsure where to go. Fortunately, life support and gravity systems are active. After some wondering around and suggestions from Klein, they find the main flight deck, which is full of complex instrumentation that is unfamiliar.
After some searching, Klein finds where to input the computer core. The computer systems appear to awaken, but are dormant. Klein says they need the activation code. Dirk uses the code he found on Mary’s datapad and it works. The flight deck appears to become active and a computerised voice announces a full systems check and begins to run through a check list of all systems.
Klein collapses, looking very ill.
Cybermen
When Ace, Cyrus and the Marines reach level 3, they have to pause for a few minutes to work out where everyone is. They hear some sort of metallic crashing and smashing on the level above them. There is someone on board the station.
Ace has Cyrus and the two Marines enter the docking tube while he waits to see what is coming down the stairs towards them.
It appears to be a large, humanoid figure in a metallic suit. It seems the body is completely covered in metal. There are some organic components visible inside the suit. The creature stops and scans around, until it locks onto Ace and begins to approach him.
Ace opens fire with his rapid fire Gauss Rifle. He hits and does some damage to the creature, but its outer shell is tough. As it draws its own weapon, Ace keeps firing at it.
The creature shoots back, his weapon inflicting a lot of damage. Fortunately, Ace’s combat armour protects him somewhat, but it is clear he won’t hold out for long.
As the people already on the ship wait patiently for the computer system to finish booting up, Cyrus and the Marines continue to crawl towards the new ship.
The robotic creature attempts some sort of mind control on Ace, but it does not work. Ace fakes compliance, then opens fire again, continuing to damage the creature. It resumes firing again and is starting to inflict serious damage on Ace. He can’t hold out much longer, but resolves to stay and stop the creature from getting to the ship.
Ace is finally killed by the robotic creature’s weapon, but he inflicted enough damage on its systems that its movement is very slow and there is little chance of it going anywhere very quickly until it is repaired.
Departing the Station
As Cyrus and the Marines board the new ship, the computer announces all systems are functioning. It then says that the automatic navigation program is engaged.
The airlock closes behind Cyrus as the ship lurches and moves away from the space station.
Drent attempts to use some of the controls in the pilot seat, but they do not respond and the computer announces that navigation is locked out on automatic control.
The ship moves away from the space station and kicks in its main drive, which Drent reckons is faster than Thrust-5.
The crew are a little helpless as they are unfamiliar with the consoles and the ship seems to be going where it wants. Dirk sees that the Astrogation console appears to be plotting a jump.
Alien Ship
Suddenly the computer announces that sensors register scanning beams. An unidentified ship has jumped into this system. Very soon it says the unidentified ship has changed course towards them.
Cyrus, who has reached the flight deck by now, looks at the sensor display, but he’s not sure about the controls. The silhouette of the ship is strange and alien, nothing he has seen before. It is closing on them and opens fire. The whole ship shudders. The computer announces damage to a section of the ship. Automatic repair systems have been engaged. It also says battle computers recommend activation of the “Force Wall”, which they agree to.
Dirk attempts to use the weapon system to fire at the ship, but simply causes an alarm as the “Neutron Flare Shield” has not been activated.
The computer announces that battle computers are on line and will accept instruction from the crew, so long as it does not interfere with Navigation.
Dirk has the battle computers return fire on the alien ship. The ship makes a few shots, damage to the alien ship is unknown, but soon their trajectory means the weapons are no longer pointing at the alien ship.
The alien ship continues to fire relentlessly at them. The computer announces the Force Wall is holding for now, but this level of attack cannot be sustained for long. There are 10 minutes until the ship reaches optimum jump position.
The next 10 minutes are tense as the ship begins to take more damage from fire. One of the power banks is nearing exhaustion due to the heavy energy drain.
Finally, the ship reaches jump position and the auto navigation program jumps them out of the Phosos system.