Play@YSDC

Ground Control - Styx Base, Pluto
0625 GMT - Tuesday, August 9, 2112

Captain Karen Bauer stood outside the door to Ground Control, waiting for Lt. Colleen Rose to let her inside. The communications officer was at her station, listening to the ongoing transmissions.

OOC,[b]Colleen[/b], please roll Spot Hidden.

Ergh, Invisiblecastle service isn't available right now. We can either wait until later for me to do the roll or you could do it with hard dice and I can take your word for it.

Oh, how do you get a spoiler to show a person's name on it?

The Ground Control door buzzes again. "Lieutenant, this is Captain Bauer. Are you able to let me in?" Karin frowns slightly as she waits for an answer.

OOC,[url=http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=68577#p68577]This post[/url] has full instructions for using spoiler buttons. For more information about the [i]Persephone[/i], you should read the Introduction thread if you haven't already.

Colleen Rose,[b]Colleen[/b] glimpsed the scanner out of the corner of her eye. It seemed there was something important displayed there, but [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3198510/]she was distracted by the conversation she was overhearing[/url]. [b]Colleen[/b] heard the voice of [b]Captain Juliette Desjardins[/b] on her headset: "I am pleased to report that I have recovered the [i]Persephone[/i], ma'am. I found her in a cave. I am flying her as we are speaking. I am not so pleased that I have found a cave with aliens in it, the [i]Persephone[/i] parked outside the entrance. They're not like anything I have ever seen before, Wings and antennas and a strange bodily structure. I am sorry to say that I did not stop to chat with them, as they wanted me to. I felt it imperative that I report these findings immediately, ma'am, as I was not entirely convinced that the aliens wanted me to leave the cave. Should I return to make a flyby to check if they are emerging from their underground cave? AND, by the way. They are as far as I could see climatized to the atmosphere on Pluto. Awaiting orders Colonel?" There was no reply for several seconds. Perhaps the colonel was stunned by the news. Then there was a voice on the other end of the channel, but it wasn't [b]Colonel Patel[/b]. "This is [b]General Pryce[/b]," replied the base commander. "Well done, Captain. Bring the [i]Persephone[/i] back to the docking bay. Let's not take any unnecessary risks. We'll worry about retrieving the [i]Demeter[/i] later. I'll give you back to [b]Colonel Patel[/b] now. I need to go send a message to Earth."

Karin Bauer,[b]Karin[/b], please roll Listen.

An announcement came over the loudspeaker: "Attention all personnel," said the voice of the base commander. "This is General Pryce. I have some good news. Captain Desjardins, while out on patrol, has found and recovered the Persephone, the first ship to land on Pluto. There is as of yet no sign of what happened to her crew. However, the captain also encountered unknown, intelligent alien creatures near the ship. We are not alone on Pluto. I will let you know when we have further information."

Karin,1d100 → [14] = (14) Listen, ooc: couldn't sign in to invisible castle so have copy/pasted it. Listen: 25%

Karin raises her eyebrows at the announcement. She's even more keen to be let into the communications room and dredges her memory for the Persephone while she waits.

"Sorry about that," says Colleen over the intercom, and buzzes her in.

Karin could see into Ground Control once Colleen Rose opened the door for her. The communications officer finally returned her attention to the scanner. The blip representing the Demeter was still parked where she had landed. Another blip was coming in towards the base. Its transponder identified her as the Persephone, a somewhat larger craft made to hold a crew of three. She also had an ion drive capable of interplanetary travel, unlike the Demeter, which had made the journey to Pluto inside Charon's Ferry. There would still be room in the docking bay for the Persephone to land, especially without the Demeter also present. She just needed to open the retractable dome over the docking bay to allow the vessel to land.

Karin Bauer,[b]Karin[/b] heard the hiss of an airlock opening. It sounded like it was the one leading to the laboratory module. She could also hear a pair of footsteps approaching from around the curving corridor to her left.

Karin waits by the door and sticks her head into the control room. "Thankyou Lieutenant, I've been stuck in the lab not knowing what's going on. How soon before they are back in the docking bay do you think?"

General Pryce strode up to the door from around the corner, resplendent in his heavily decorated uniform. It was he that Karin had heard coming. "As you were, Captain," he said before she could salute. He peeked past her into Ground Control. "Lieutenant Rose, I'm on my way to Communications to record a message to send to Earth about the recent developments. I want you to join me there and transmit it once the Persephone is safely docked."

Colleen Rose,"Ground control, this is [b]Captain Desjardins[/b], aboard the [i]Persephone[/i]," said the pilot's voice into [b]Colleen[/b]'s headset. "I request landing permission. You need to retract the protective dome." There was a pause, and then she continued. "Ground control, this is [b]Captain Desjardins[/b], please run a scan of the outside of my ship before you lower the dome. I do not want to bring home bugs." [b]Colleen[/b] could see on the scanner that the [i]Persephone[/i] was now hovering above the docking bay, waiting for the dome to be opened. Her scanners did not show any other unusual objects within their range, and nothing was visible on the outside of the ship.

Karin drops her hand "Sir." and moves back into the corridor to give room to the general. She decides to head back to the lab to ready her equipment for various scanning in case it is needed on the Persephone as it looks like the lieutenant's going to be busy with the general. She heads towards the two air locks that lead to the lab.

OOC,Everyone is moving to the thread linked below.

Impromptu Meeting

Ground Control - Styx Base, Pluto
0635 GMT - Tuesday, August 9, 2112

Lt. Colleen Rose watched as the Persephone made a perfect landing in the docking bay.

A call came in on her headset. "This is General Pryce," said the commanding officer's voice. "I'm ready to transmit my message to Earth. Join me in Communications as soon as the Persphone has touched down."

"Yes, sir," says Colleen. She watches the Persephone until it's safely docked, double checks everything, and then heads down to Communications.

General Pryce was waiting for Lt. Colleen Rose when she entered. "My message is all queued up and ready for transmission to Earth," he told her. "Priority One. While we have some privacy, if you have observed anything worth reporting, you may as well pass it on to me now."

Colleen sat down at her familiar station and began the process for transmitting the general's video message back home. When she tried to open the channel, however, she discovered that there was a fault. Local communications were still working normally, but interplanetary communications were down.

OOC,[b]Colleen[/b], please roll Electronics to try to determine the source of the fault.

As Colleen was finishing up her examination of the long range communications, a message from Captain Juliette Desjardins arrived that had been forwarded to her station via Ground Control: "Ground Control, this is the Persephone. Permission to take off?"

"You'd better get back to Ground Control as soon as you're done here," said General Pryce. "Tell her to stand by for now. I'd like to make this quick, as I do want Demeter back in the docking bay before the aliens have a chance to do anything with her."

Colleen easily found what was wrong with the long range communications. A vital part was missing, the relay module that enabled the communications array to relay with the satellite that had been placed in geosynchronous orbit over Styx Base, which could in turn send a message back to Earth and, eventually, receive a reply and beam it back to the base. With a replacement part, or the original, she could easily fix it. Without it, only local communications bound to Pluto were possible. The relay module was small, about the size of her hand, but it could not have gone missing by accident. There was no doubt in Colleen's mind that someone had removed it deliberately - and recently, as she had last received standard communications from Earth yesterday.

OOC,Dun dun [i]dun[/i]! :shock:

"As we wait for clearance, sirs," said Captain Juliette Desjardins, "has there been anything exciting going on at the base? It was said something about an intruder capsule to Private Torres, anything I need to know about?"

"Please stand by," said Lt. Colleen Rose to Juliette.

After a short pause, the commanding officer opened up a channel to the Perspehone: "This is General Pryce. Four intruders entered the base in what appears to be a T-Mat capsule, though no known T-Mat technology has anywhere near the range needed to reach Pluto from any other object in the solar system. They have been taken into custody, and their capsule has been secured. We don't know what if anything they have to do with the aliens yet, but the investigation is ongoing. Lt. Colonel Bruce knows as much as I do, so you should direct your questions to him. You'll be able to take off in just a minute."

Colleen told General Pryce what she had discovered. The general took a deep breath before speaking. "Unless the intruders somehow gained access to Communications without being detected before they were caught in Tertiary Storage - and if they could do that, why were able to catch them in the first place? - then we have a saboteur on this base. A traitor. Perhaps even more than one. I'm going to need you to be especially watchful. If you notice anything suspicious, anything at all, do not hesitate to report it to me. I'm counting on you to be my eyes and ears, Lieutenant Rose. Also, not a word of this sabotage to anyone. I know I can trust you, and I can trust Lt. Colonel Bruce, but I can't be sure of anyone else. I'll brief the security chief personally when he returns, in person. I can't risk a transmission being intercepted. If he feels he can bring in others from his security team on this investigation, I'll defer to his judgment. In the meantime, you should get over to Ground Control so that Persephone can get underway. After she returns, I'll send you for a replacement part, though I suspect our saboteur has already thought of that."

"Yes, sir," said Lt. Rose. She saluted and made her way back to Ground Control and came back on the radio: "Persephone, this is Ground Control. You are cleared for takeoff." She watched as the ship lifted off and headed for where the Demeter was parked. She closed the dome and kept her eyes on the scanners. They did not detect anything else.

OOC,Sorry, but I had to NPC you there to keep things moving for the others.

Colleen will watch the scanners and see if there's any information going back and forth over the radio. Is there any information she can access from here?

OOC: No, that's all good. I'm quite happy for you to do so. This is a tricky character to PC as well as I don't read much science fiction and find it hard to picture the protocols of how to do what and when. I'm starting to pick it up.

Colleen watched on her scanners as the Persephone set down close to the Demeter.

Two blips emerged from the Persephone and moved across to the Demeter's position. The implants in their hands identified them as Lt. Colonel Howard Bruce and Captain Juliette Desjardins. Lt. Hu Xiang remained aboard the Persephone.

Colleen received a message on the intercom from Sergeant Heinrich Kohl: "Lieutenant, this is Sgt. Kohl with Security. Can you attempt to get a hold of Lt. Col. Bruce for me?"

Captain Juliette Desjardins boarded the Demeter.

Before Colleen could respond, she saw six unidentified blips on her scanner. They emerged from the coordinates of the rock formation that Captain Desjardins had found and were heading straight for the two ships and Lt. Colonel Howard Bruce, who stood alone on the surface between them!

OOC,Episode 2 starts in the thread linked below. [b]Colleen[/b], please read and post there.

The Hot Seat