Conditions:
A.D.F. Time: 1304 I.R., Day 55, 1605
Visibility: Limited to natural Arismal nightvision or technological vision; 10' otherwise
Environment: somewhat dense atmo, high oxygen, ship interior
Location: In orbit around Chandrakant II, I.S.S. VikelterAmbient Sound of the Starship Interior (open in new tab & listen while you read)Cairo, Niall, and CorrigonCairo calls out
"Clear!" and accesses his goggles where he finds Brainiac's message and communicates.
- Code: Select all
RYDEN: Got signs of a transporter down here. Investigating. Also way-point up for sealed doors. If you capture anyone, pull any glasses or visors and their radios.
- Code: Select all
CAIRO: Radio out. Runners down. How's your transporter inspection?
- Code: Select all
RYDEN: Got a DNA lock on the transportation terminal. Got any breathing, or at least still warm, enemy personnel? If so double time to our position with them, please.
A ping appears on Cairo's HUD which gives the direction of the source of the ping; not a map overlay as they have none yet, but a directional beacon. Cairo holsters his energy clubs and inspects the drones for any sign of power or an access/diagnostic ports. Other than possible use of some small electronics parts for salvage purposes, he's utterly destroyed the drones.
(Reduce main body of a thing to below zero and you can expect no better result.) While he's able to identify the vibro-blades on each "wing" and the nested blasters as ion weapons, there's little left from which to gather any useful intelligence. He picks up the smashed drones and piles them up with the others.
Cairo then examines the double doors at the end of the hall.
"Clear," Corrigon replies as he turns back to maintain watch of their flank. He sees the state of Cairo's armor and swears silently. Gauging its damage by eye, he knows it's a lost cause. While the helmet's somewhat intact, and the armor still protects Fang's appendages, the components which make the suit environmental protection are all nested within the torso, and that's been reduced to a composite of synthetic fabric tatters and ferro-ceramic slag; it's beyond repair. If he had a sheet of ferro-ceramic material, a work bench, and an hour or so, he could potentially repair the damage to the helmet. But on the fly? Without materials? On a hostile alien ship? With possibly few moments to spare? He shakes his head and offers up his own suit to Cairo who declines it with a sound rationale.
Niall radios back,
"Sound off if wounded." He then takes CJ's lead and looks to the drones for useful intel, but finds them in such a smashed state as to be totally useless. He then examines the access panel by the double doors. He takes out his electronic tool kit and examines the access panel. By the time Cairo's gathered together all the drone scrap, Niall has learned the function of this door, panel, what's behind the door, and how to access it by sheer deductive reasoning from electro-mechanical principles.
- The panel is only accessible through either telemechanical ability (or something like Cairo's ability to merge with electronics), or through a coded signal, likely an RFID transponder or something like it.
- The doors allow access to a lift.
- The lift is only used by robots.
- The lift connects only with other automated/robotic service areas.
Based on what he's able to deduce from the panel's design and features, and what they've so far seen of the ship and its inhabitants, Niall estimates based on all the available data that this ship is
heavily automated with entire decks dedicated to robots carrying out their various functions. Based on his knowledge of spacecraft design, he also deduces that these decks are almost certainly devoid of non-essentials like atmospheric pressure, aesthetic considerations, etc. Niall shares his insights.
Corrigon conjectures that if Cairo had a portable power source, Corrigon could jury-rig a connection to the helmet's integrated system would be functional, but without power, they were such so much silicone and conductive wiring. He adds,
"Of course, we could just make him do it as that is pretty much his skill set and he's more likely to be able to fix it in a more permanent fashion."Niall takes a quick look at Cairo's suit. The damage to the helmet was easily repairable, but the components which make the suit more than just simple protection are all housed in the torso, and the torso section has been irreparably destroyed.
Cairo merges with the panel and opens the doors. The lift is extremely spartan, and with no discernible interior control panel. None of the three Arismal being ignorant of electronics, they all know what that means by inference: the destination request is sent by signal, possibly piggybacking along with the access signal.
MAP REVEAL (open in new tab)
Map Notes: 1 square = 10'Rosseyn, Ryden, SimoneRyden lays out their situation in blunt terms.
"Frak me. Nova, we've got a DNA lock here. You said you guys took down a drone back there? Any chance they can bring it down here? Maybe we can fool the sensor and get us in. Wait, got a text from Fang, I'll reply to him and ask him to bring the drone you mentioned."- Code: Select all
CAIRO: Radio out. Runners down. How's your transporter inspection?
- Code: Select all
RYDEN: Got a DNA lock on the transportation terminal. Got any breathing, or at least still warm, enemy personnel? If so double time to our position with them, please.
Ryden embeds a source transponder in the signal to give Cairo a means by which to locate his signal. Simone looks to Ryden.
"I can get it. Be back in a blink." She dashes off back the way they came.
With Simone gone, Rosseyn says to Ryden,
"I long for the days when it was a simple key-card. How the hell is a spy supposed to deal with DNA locks?"Simone hefts the heavy corpse of the bug-man, and dashes back to the position being held by Rosseyn and Ryden.
"One corpse, hand delivered." Simone says before dropping the body next to the terminal, and moving back to guard their rear.
Rosseyn adds,
"I forget how fast you are. Let's get that hand on the goopy gel pad."Nova lifts the body and places the hand on the pad. A sequence of Fehran glyphs speed through some sort of calculation on the screen at incomprehensible speed before a voice emanates from the panel in the language of the Empire.
"Vore Iticix, Danaus, Miles, skador kontroll tekniker; tillgång beviljad" The doors open silently to reveal a spacious and aesthetically pleasing chamber beyond. As opposed to the functional minimalism of the greys, blacks, whites, and high contrast blues of the passageways, this chamber is all in muted, almost pastel greys, blues, and yellows.
MAP REVEAL (open in new tab)
Map Notes: 1 square = 10'What are your intentions?