What's new
Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 December 2024 is YE 46.9 in the RP.

RP: The Fringe [Chapter 2.0] - Salvage

Status
Not open for further replies.
Derelict

Oreza accepted the plasma torch and turned it on to its absolute lowest setting and played it over the thick ice layer that blocked his access to the manual hatch control. He was careful to just use the torch as a heat source to melt the ice and nothing more.
 
Derelict - Mess Hall

The ice took longer than expected to melt even beneath the searing heat of the plasma torch's flame, but in seconds it receded, leaving the emergency panel cover exposed. It took very little effort to open it from there, and with a single yank of the lever it revealed, the floor vibrated slightly as the hydraulic systems holding the door in place bled off and released their pressure. The door, however, didn't open on its own, but after testing it with a light shove, Oreza found that without the pistons resisting, the only thing he had to fight against was the weight of the hatch itself.

Pushing the door open revealed a medium-sized, rectangular room, and thankfully, no explosive decompression. The first mate's headlamp pierced the inky blackness inside, reflecting off of polished metal surfaces of a two newer-model range-top cooking appliances and a refrigerator on the far wall, its door hanging wide open. The contents of the refrigerator drifted through the room unchecked, mixed in with various eating utensils, flatware, and prepackaged dry goods. The perishables looked to be in medium to early advanced stages of rot, coupled with the darkness making them tough to identify. Most of the cupboards were open as well, their contents thrown out into and swimming through the waterless ocean filling the room.

There was, eerily, no sign of any crew as yet.


Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Only static answered Amelia for several long seconds. Occasionally, Six Four and Oreza's voice bled through a little bit, but it was tough to clearly understand what they were saying. But at least Amelia knew they were out there. Sienna wasn't saying a word in reply. For all she knew, the captain was on a warpath straight for her position.

Finally, Sienna's voice came back, sounding just as faintly distorted as before. "So what can you see on the scope?" the captain said, still sounding quite displeased.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

"I'm checking the sensors right now. Hold one," Amelia said, letting her fingers off the headset. She set about to work on the sensors, still keeping the long range ones on passive, so that no one would detect the ship without looking really hard or knowing where to look. Instead, she switched to the short range directional ones, then ran a quick scan on the hull closer to the Veil, which would give less interference since they would have to cover less ground and go through less solid objects. Hopefully with that, she could get a response to see if there were any active communications inside, or at least try to make out what was inside based on what the sensors shot back to her.

Once that was up and running, the astrogator brought out another display with the data being shot back from the sensors so she could try to make more sense of it. Her brow furrowed as she further concentrated into the task, her hands working in fast and precise movements that came from someone who knew their craft.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Anyone less skilled in deciphering the flood of data coming in from the ship's sensors, even with the assistance of the computer, would have seen practically nothing on the scope other than an impenetrable haze. Amelia was no amateur, however, and with the ship's extreme proximitiy to the wreck's hull, she managed to boost the signal enough to penetrate it and get a peek inside.

Still, though, it took some time to make sense of the readings that came back, as well as slogging through a string of error prompts and "no viable data" messages. It was like trying to focus a camera in a rainstorm at night while on horseback, in some ways.

It was difficult to discern what was what, but from what she could tell, the inside of the bay was positively massive. The entire tube on which the Veil sat attached like some kind of metallic lamprey was nearly hollow, and divided into several open sections. In fact, in many ways it appeared to be more of a shuttle bay than an actual storage facility. A number of vague shapes were floating about, sparsely dispersed through the void, perhaps crates of some kind, or the remains of machinery. Of particular interest, however, was what by all appearances seemed to be a civilian shuttle of some kind, and it looked like it was mostly intact.
 
Last edited:
Derelict

Six Four watched Oreza open the door, making sure there was no explosion or anything that would make Six four make use of its primary function. After opening and seeing the contents Six Four made a bolt into the open kitchen.

"Kitchen has been located, searching for cookies and beer." It radioed to Sienna as it searched though the zero gravity for the items it thought she requested. The Freespacer still thought the idea was foolish, though with the risk of being tossed into the void it went with what the Captain wanted and continued to look though the floating debris. It wasn't that hard to sort though the detritus, the Doctor merely grabbed a floating object, or more so bag a carrot is a carrot after all, and looked it over before tossing the wrong item back into the air, letting it float and collide with other objects.


"Query: Oreza, do you think we need any of these on board?" Six Four said holding up a large kitchen knife, the light from its helmet reflecting off of the sharp blade, "Or should this one just take it just in case?"
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Sighing, Amelia reclined back in her seat, her cheeks puffing as she exhaled sharply. She didn't exactly expect much, and the fact that she could discern something inside was already better; If the ship was up and running there would simply be no way with all the background interference. Still, the fact that there was, or seemed to be, a shuttle in there actually left more questions to her, why didn't the crew simply bailed on the shuttle instead of leaving it behind? It was just a simple matter of cutting their losses and minimizing the damage, at least for her. Maybe they didn't have time to evacuate it all, maybe the shuttle wasn't part of the ship, originally.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to inform her of that.

"I'm picking something that looks like a shuttle inside the ship, as well as a lot of stuff floating inside. Not sure what those are though, " the astrogator talked through the comm link, keeping an eye on the other sensors, but this time on the outside of the ship. The sensors were on passive but they still could detect the sudden energy output from a thruster as well as the thermal signatures, to name a few.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amelia could hear Sienna sigh, her aggravation increasing by the sound of it. "I meant outside, damn it," the captain's voice came back. "You had a better vantage point to watch for company outside the---wait. What the hell do you mean, 'a shuttle'?"
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

"I mean there's something inside that has the same shape of a shuttle!" Amelia replied back. It would be really weird, but not entirely impossible that it was just a lump of cargo packed together in a way that resembled that, but it would still be one hell of a coincidence. "And the external sensors are still on passive, I'm not risking anyone knowing we are here," she added, hoping that the captain of the ship knew what she was talking about.
 
Derelict - Kitchen

Oreza slowly and carefuly explored the kitchen. He paused and glanced at Six Four holding out the knife.

"Be careful with the sharps" the first mate said. "Last thing we need is for someones suit to get compromised." He crossed to the other end of the compartment, the hatch leading beyond and checked it just as thorougly as the previous one.

"Going to move on to the next compartmemt, hopefully this will be a passage"
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amelia's headset crackled a little before the captain's reply came through. "If you're lookin' to mitigate risk," Sienna's voice said flatly, "you'd best not risk pissing me off any further by doing anything other than staying right where you are unless my ship is in danger, or I tell you differently." There was a pause, followed by another crescendo of static. "--over there when we can," the end of the captain's message said. "You speak up at the first sign of trouble. And watch that shuttle."


Derelict - Corridor (Under the Gash)

Oreza and Six Four stepped back over the blown-out hatchway and back into the corridor exposed to space. Sienna's black-suited form, looking down on them, was silhouetted against the massive sunlit asteroid hanging in the background above them; the wreck's rotation had brought it around. "What's it look like down there?" the captain radioed down to them. "Ain't much point in me hanging around up here anymore, Amelia's gone and taken the ship to the far side of the wreck."
 
Derelict - Corridor

"It's a mess inside" Oreza replied. "No sign of crew so far, they may have escaped in pods or shuttles" he suggested, though was sure many had not. He was not looking forward to finding them.

"She checking out the other side then?" He asked. "We may as well move on then, see if anything is intact"
 
Ship

Crash stood up and slid out of the sit in the cockpit. "The ship is locked down for now. It won't move. I am going tout to investigate that shuttle. It might come in handy for us to have a second mode of transportation, also It will be nice if I have an escape if needed." Crash reached down and tosseled Amelia's hair like a pet. "I should not be long."

Turning Crash started out of the bridge and made Its way to the airlock. Being a robot was nice all Crash grabbed what a grappling system and a zero-gee pack. The little jets would help keep It from floating off. Opening the external airlock Crash climbed out and sealed it off form behind.
Code: 
 Amelia I am on the exterior making my way to the wreck's hatch.
 
Concordia Veil - Cockpit

Amelia jerked back and grunted in frustration, running a hand through her hair, making it less disheveled than it usually was. She motioned with her other hand dismissively as Crash left the cockpit, and waited until the bot was out of sight, then her hand slowly went down until the palm was covering her face, and she sighed in frustration. "Asshole," she muttered and wheter was because of what the bot had done or all the threats from her captain and her controlling-complex in the past few minutes she wasn't sure.

She stood like that for a while, listening to the background noise of all the equipment in the cockpit as they ran smoothly, and only straightened up again when her Datajockey chimed in with a new message. The raven-haired woman quickly tapped a reply and then went back to work.

Code: 
 Alright, let me know what you see and be careful
 
Outside heading for the hatch to the shuttle bay

Code: 
 I can only try. It is quiet out here.

Crash responded as It stepped from the ship into the gap. Floating there in free fall for a second Crash gave a gentle tap of thrust forward so allow movement. After a few moments Crash was able to grip onto the damaged hull an use the grapple to secure the Bot.

Code: 
On Hull moving to hatch... Did you know that you could survive out here for a whole minute before half of yourself would cook and the other would be frozen?
 
Derelect

"Mess is correct." Six Four stated backing up Oreza's observation, "Crew is most likely floating about in space somewhere. Or floating around inside ship still. Hopefully well preserved, very profitable."

After a moment or two of Radio silence, Six Four chimed up again, "Query: If we may, can we search the medical facilities? This one would like to see if this vessel has any potential assets to our current medical stock."
 
Derelict


"I am sure we'll run across their med bay soon enough" Oreza replied. "Than, yes, that will be a good idea" he said to Six Four as he moved on down the wreck's passageway.
 
Derelict - Aft Passageway (Beneath the Gash)

Sienna slowly drifted down from the tear in the hull above the others, and alighted on the metal decking as her mag-boots engaged, clumping solidly to the floor. She swung her headlamp each way down the opposite directions of the damaged passageway, and briefly inside the mess hall where Six Four and Oreza had just come from. "Yeah," she agreed with Oreza. "Ain't likely to be much down on this end."

She stood to the side, allowing Oreza to head down the passageway ahead of her, and fell into step alongside Six Four. "Are those blast shutters over the door?" she asked, thrusting her chin towards the more important-looking hatchway at one end of the hall.


Derelict - Outer Hull - Outside the Shuttle/Cargo Bay Pylon

An initial scan of the area revealed no obvious point of entry from where Crash was affixed to the hull, nor did circling the area where the Veil was moored reveal anything. But towards the bow of the ship, or rather, where the bow of the ship used to be, the single massive cylinder appeared to terminate abruptly into space. Perhaps there was a way in up there.
 
Last edited:
Derelict - Passageway

Oreza paused his advance and looked in the direction Sienna was indicating. "Looks to be" he replied and headed for the blast shutter, walking with the slow heavy footed pace the magnetic boots forced on them. "Well, let's see" he said as he reached it, playing his helmet lamplight across the hatch, looking for any markings that should be there to indicate what section of the ship the shutter sealed off

"There is a possibility that the section beyond this still has air integrity" he commented.
 
Shuttle Bay

Thoughts. Thoughts was all there was now. Thoughts and all the time, one could want to have them. Thoughts running around in a head, going there and back, changing, but never going away. It was just thoughts, when one had nothing to keep herself busy.

Shrie sat in the pilot chair of old shuttle, with nothing to busy herself indeed. It was just her alone, sitting there, looking outside at closed hangar. A belly of dead whale. A dead mining ship. No way to get out and no way to call for help.

As far as ends went, Shrie thought this one was not so bad. At least it would be calm end, with no strife and pain. Just waiting to to run out of rations and then die. Of course dying of hunger would be a bit painful, so Shrie decided to just shut off air support when the time comes. Then she will just fall asleep and never wake up.

Only thing that made Shrie sad was that she had no pen and paper. She could not leave anything behind, not even a line. The fyunnen would love to draw, but there was nothing to draw on. She wondered how her art would progress as the end would be growing more and more near. It would surely be interesting.

There was no paper though, and nothing on the shuttle to do. Only an old datajockey that belonged to the pilot. Nothing much on it, just flight diary, some nepleslian music and adult videos. Shrie tried to listen to some of the music in those two days she spent in the shuttle since the accident happen.

Was it even an accident? Was it attack? Shie had no idea, she was just preparing the shuttle when the whole ship shook and she could not breathe. Powerful force of decompression was sucking her out of the shuttle. It was sheer luck she managed to grab onto something and hit the button that shut the hatch in emergencies.

Everyone else in the shuttle bay died, probably everyone on the ship even. Shrie could see a body hang without moving in front of the cockpit, when she looked around using a flashlight, since she had lights off, save for red emergency lighting.

All those poor men died and Shrie was very sad for it. After all she was on the street and crew of the mining ship took her in and gave her job and something to do. And then after few days she was here alive and they were all dead.

As the shuttle was closed, Shrie lost conscience again, when she woke up it was few hours later and everyone was dead. Shrie tried to call out to someone, but shuttle's comms were out. Maybe something fell on the shuttle and broke the comms, Shrie would not know.

Now it was two days later and she just sat in the pilot's chair looking into the black in front of her. There were some EVA suits on the shuttle, but they would never fit her. Too tall, not to mention her wing, that would be in a way as well. There was a EVA suit patch kit, but making one suit from two was risky. If just a bit would not be sealed or would rip on a way, she would die. Shrie preffered falling asleep as a way of dying to decompression.

With nothing to do, Shrie just sat, waited and thought. Thoughts were there and they were not going away. Maybe it was right for her to just end right here. After all she has done and all what she has been throught, this would be a fitting end after all.
 
Derelict - Passageway

Sienna followed behind Oreza's silent and yet still somehow palpably heavy footsteps, coming to rest just off of his right shoulder, tracing the hatch with the beam from her own headlamp. She chomped down on the inside of her cheek in thought, slowly nodding at her first mate's thought. "Yeah, but unless you wanna go back outside and just cut a blind hole through the hull, this is probably the best way through," she observed, then turned her head towards him, temporarily blinding him with her light before she realized what she was doing and angled it out of his eyes, apologizing quickly. "You think it's too risky?"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top