Play@YSDC

Docking Bay - Styx Base, Pluto
0635 GMT - Tuesday, August 9, 2112

Lt. Hu Xiang and Private Sofia Torres recalled that General Pryce had told them to suit up, so presumably the docking bay would remain unpressurized. The Persephone herself, however, might still be pressurized. As they finished putting on their vacuum suits, Lt. Colonel Howard Bruce emerged from the airlock behind them that led back to the central module.

"Ah, good, you're here," he said. "Go on through the airlock and get started looking over the ship while I put on my spacesuit. Once we're sure she's all right, General Pryce wants Captain Desjardins to fly me and you, Lt. Hu. out to where she left the Demeter. I'll provide cover for her while she transfers over, and then I'll ride back to base with you flying the Persephone. Let Captain Desjardins know that she's to remain until we're ready to fly out. She can help you with checking out the ship."

In the docking bay, Captain Desjardins landed the Persephone perfectly.

Brimming with satisfaction Juliette shut down the engines, and secured the machine. The controls told her that the chamber was not beeing pressurized. Strange, as she had recieved no orders besided returning to the base. She ran a diagnostic check on the ship, making sure it had not been damaged by the cold start. She was proud of her skills as a pilote, and very aware that her reputation depended on her doing her job thoroughly. Fame and congratulations would just have to wait the time it took for her to make sure the ship was ok. Poor Persephone, returned from the underworld. She had to take good care of her until her Demeter was back to take care of her. She giggled a bit at herself. Personifying the ships with their names. The daughter was much larger than her mother.

Juliette checked over the Persephone's systems, and they all appeared spaceworthy. The ship hadn't been maintained during the months she had been missing, but she had held up nicely all the same.

The ship's logs were intact, though they were encrypted to prevent unauthorized access. They included both voice and data recorders, and they had the potential to shed some light on what had happened to the Persephone and her crew.

OOC,It would take a Computer Use roll to crack the encryption on the logs.

Once suited up, Hu waits for Torres to join him in the airlock. Once through, Hu will examine the exterior as he makes his way toward the ship.

Sofia finishes suiting up and checks the suit. Once up to the ship, she connects her pad interface to the data recording equipment for the download and encryption. She's humming a song from a little known punk jam group from the year 2082. It was an underground band that never got any traction and eventually shut down by the government. But a lot of the music still made it out, including to Sofia's dad who was a fan.

ooc,should I make a computer roll?

Lt. Hu and Sofia Torres entered the docking bay, where they saw the Persephone docked where the Demeter normally rested. She was a larger ship, designed for a crew of three, but Captain Juliette Desjardins had squeezed her in perfectly. There was even enough room left in the docking bay for the Demeter once they retrieved her: the one-person scout didn't take up that much space. Charon's Ferry, the huge transport that had brought them all here and towed the materials out of which they had constructed Styx Base, took up the bulk of the bay. Both Xiang and Sofia entered the airlock to the Persephone, which was just big enough for two suited people, and found that the interior of the ship was still pressurized. They repressurized the airlock and entered the ship proper just as Juliette completed her initial inspection.

OOC,Yes, all of you may attempt a Computer Use roll to break the encryption on the [i]Persephone[/i]'s logs. Only one of you needs to succeed. Downloading a copy of the logs to your portable hard drive is automatic; it just takes a few minutes.

Juliette turn around as the others entered with a big fat grin on her face. " Oh it is so lovely to see you 1st Lt. Hu and Private Torres. Welcome aboard the Persephone. I am specially glad to see you two as I am very curious on what secrets this computer is hiding. I only know the lingo of nav.computers. Not these more secretive ones. Still smiling Juliette rises and gives the other two access to the computer and the controls. With a sombrer tone in her voice she continues. " It is also good to see humans again. The aliens had faces not even a mother would love, and the tentacles. Yuk. I think they made me come off calamari for the rest of my life. The smile drains completely away from her face as she says. "I also really wonder what happened to her crew."

Computer Use,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3215874/]Computer Use - 41% (1d100=14)[/url], Hurray! He made a roll!

Hu returns Juliette's greeting with a small bow before turning to the terminal. It wasn't long before he was past the encryption and about to read the logs when Juliette said something. He turns to her. "Tentacles? Tsao gao, what manner of creature fits that description?" he asks, picturing an alien Plutonian space squid.

While Sofia downloaded a copy of the Persephone's logs, Lt. Hu Xiang easily broke the encryption on them and gained access to the data.

The voice and data recorders showed that everything had progressed without incident through the ship's landing on the surface of Pluto. Lt. Maria Carvalho and Sergeant Mohammed Kassim ventured out onto the surface while Captain Wladslaw Kowalski remained at the helm. Shortly after that point, the logs indicated that six small flying objects approached the ship, each roughly man-sized.

"Lieutenant Carvalho!" said Captain Kowalski. "We have several unidentified contacts incoming to our position!"

"I don't see anything," her Brazilian-accented voice replied.

"They're coming in from your blind side, using the ship as cover! Get back inside, Lieutenant!" The incoming objects converged on Persephone, and then the instruments picked up energy readings, similar to blaster fire. Some of them may have been blaster fire, as the crew were armed with blaster pistols. "I'm getting some unusual energy readings! Do either of you read me? Hello?!"

There was no response. The energy signatures soon stopped. About a minute later, the airlock had begun to cycle and repressurize. "Oh, thank God!" said Captain Kowalski. "Are you two okay in there?" There was no response, but then the inner airlock door opened. "You're not- No! Stay back!" He began to scream in terror.

"Remain calm," said a buzzing, monotonous voice that Juliette recognized was similar to the alien that had spoken. "We come in peazzze." The buzzing became softer, almost hypnotic, and the screaming stopped. "You will come with uzzz."

"I will come with you," replied Captain Kowalski in a dull monotone. His footsteps could be heard, and then the airlock cycled again. Shortly after that, seven dots could be seen on the scanner flying away from the Persephone. The implant in his hand identified one of those dots as Captain Kowalski. They soon passed the edge of the scanner's range and were gone. The recordings ended at that point, and there was no further data.

Just as they finished reviewing the data, the airlock cycled for real. When it finished, it opened, revealing Lt. Colonel Howard Bruce in a spacesuit. He did not enter the ship proper yet, as it was quite tightly packed already with the three of them. "Ah, good," said the security chief. "How is the Persephone, Captain Desjardins? Is she ready for another short flight? General Pryce wants you to fly me and Lt. Hu out to where you left the Demeter so we can bring her back. You and I will go out on the surface, and I'll cover you while you board the Demeter. Once you're aboard, I'll get back in the Persephone and Lt. Hu will fly her back while you fly back in the Demeter. Lt. Hu and Private Torres, any luck with the logs?"

Hu straightened with Bruce's arrival and responded.

"Sir, the ship seems to have been ambushed by several unknown creatures who boarded and... I can't believe I'm saying this... abducted the ship's captain. They seemed to be intelligent, able to communicate with the Captain, and possibly hypnotic. At first glance, at least."

Sofia scanned through the recording again looking for anything out of the ordinary, time sequence, voice manipulations, etc...

"Yes sir, it is as Lt Hu syas, I'm looking for irregularities now."

Sofia played back the logs again and checked them, but they showed no signs of having been altered in any way. It seems unlikely that anyone could have altered them, as they had been encrypted. It was only the base crew's knowledge of standard encryption protocols that had made it possible to crack them in the first place. However, there was no telling what Captain Kowalski might have done under the aliens' influence. Still, there was no sign of tampering. The timestamps embedded into the encrypted files all checked out.

Lt. Colonel Bruce listened with interest as the logs were played back. "As I suspected," he said, "these aliens are clearly up to no good. Excellent job, all of you. Private Torres, you may return to your duties. I believe you were going to examine the intruders' capsule before. If you'll step into the airlock, then there will be room for me to board and we can be on our way."

"Yes sir, the recording has not been tampered with sir, what you heard is how things unfolded." Sofia responds. She terminates the connection between her pad and the ship and begins to pack things away, with a smile on her face. While the aliens were interesting and she is worried about captain Kowalski, the blue box definitely was on her mind. She packed up her gear as quick as she could in the suit, and then hurried out of the airlock, removed the suit, and then proceeded down to tertiary storage.

Juliette listened and rerun her initial meeting with the creatures. "Actually, on second thought," she said to no one in particular. "They had more claws or pinchers, than tentacles, more like flying cryfish, or scorpions.... Her voice trailed off. Suddenly snapping back into attention as the airlock closed behind Sofia, She turned towards the Lt. Colonel. "Sir, the Persephone seems to be in good condition all things considering. I will make her ready for take off once Private Torres has left the hanger. Sir." She sat back down at the controls. Her face was not betraying the turmoil inside. She had obviously made a close escape. She ran the system check on routine, her mind preoccupied with the content of the encrypted files. Where were the Persephones crew?.

Lt. Colonel Bruce stepped out of the airlock after Sofia Torres got into it. The airlock depressurized and she stepped out into the docking bay.

OOC,[b]Sofia[/b] is returning to the thread linked below.

The Blue Enigma

OOC,Everyone else is moving to the thread linked below.

Retrieval