Outside (Johnny)

[Dave Syrinx]

Johnny gets all his gear on and opens the front door, again. It has started to get a bit windier than a couple of minutes ago, but nothing major. At the landing, he overlooks the area beneath. To his left, below the stair, comes Harrison walking back from the workshop. He keeps his head down to lessen the wind attacks at his face. He didn´t put on a mask, only the parka and a wool hat beneath.
Over at the helicopter he can´t see any sign of the person Janet and Robert were talking about. The lights were definitely on at the runway. That much he can see clearly below the station´s poles as he walks down the first couple of steps. No sign of Walther.

[aine]

Johnny finishes down the stairs and tramps across the ice with his head down too. He is confused about the runway lights as there was no mention of anyone else arriving tonight. He's glad the air control centre still has power but decides to meet Harrison halfway to tell him about the power cut at the station. He's the mechanic after all.

[Dave Syrinx]

Johnny almost bumps into Harrison who walks with his head down to ward off the swirling snow. He looks up just before Johnny is about to shout at him. "Power outage? I have power in the shop... I´ll have a look at the gennie." The two hear the door slam shut up on the landing to the main building. At the same time the whoofing of an incoming freight plane overpowers the gusts of snow.

[Laraqua]

Janet steps out after them. "What's happening?"

[aine]

Johnny strains his eyes and ears towards the runway. "A C-17? Maybe. I didn't realise we were expecting more traffic today." Then he realises there will probably be a lot of carrying to do to unload the plane. "I've got to check over the bird before tonight. Good luck with the gennie, Harrison. " He smiles at Janet and heads off to the helicopter.

OOC,Will his tools be at the helicopter or the workshop?

[Dave Syrinx]

"We never get to know what´s going on, do we?" Harrison stomps the snow off his boots as he pass Janet on his way up. Johnny backtracks Harrison´s footsteps to the workshop to get his tools.

Harrison turns right after having reached the landing and starts to open the service door for the main generator. From Janet´s position halfway down the stairs, she can see smoke coming from the workshop´s thin chimney. Most likely Walther and Harrison are burning fuel to get some extra warmth for their greenhouse project. From above, Harrison comments on the incoming plane. "Yup, most likely a Hercules. Let´s hope they have something good to trade with."

Janet sees the figure over at the helicopter again, now moving farther away from the helipad putting more ground between itself and the compound. She can see the figure is carrying a long object. It looks like a rifle from where she stands.

Reaching the workshop, Johnny soon finds his tool box and is amazed by the temperature in the semi dome. From a small office in the back, the sputtering of the extra generator can be heard. Also, the air in the workshop is tinged with smoke from the small wood stove the guys had built last season. Apparently they had fed it too much fuel and it had seeped out in the large room. Anyway, it beats the hard weather outside.

[aine]

Johnny decides it'll seem even colder outside if he lingers too long in the lovely warm workshop. He reckons he might spend some time putting his tools away after working on the helicopter, making the most of the warm workshop and sharing the whiskey with Walther when he turns up. He grabs his tools and goes to have a look at the generator before heading out and walking towards the helicopter.

[Laraqua]

Janet heads through the snow towards the vanishing figure. "Hey!" She waves her arms at the figure. "Hey, where are you going?" She really doesn't expect danger or violence around this area so she calls out happily enough more out of curiosity than anything else and certainly without a shred of fear.

[aine]

Johnny sees Janet waving and jogs up to her, "What's up Doll? You coming to give me a hand with the bird? It won't take long."

[Laraqua]

"Yeah, that'd be neat," says Janet. "In truth, I was trying to call out to that guy. I saw him over by the helicopter." She pauses. "I think he was ... I think he was carrying a rifle." She blushes. "Maybe I shouldn't have called out to him but I didn't think about the rifle at the time. I guess I didn't much think anyone could be armed out here but now that you've come back it's got me wondering...." She bites her lip. "Maybe we should go inside and do a head count or something?"

[aine]

"Yeah and by then he'll have gone. We know everyone who's here and the only person who is missing is Walther. It's probably him, although what he's doing by the helipad I don't know." Johnny frowns, looking worried for the first time. "Come on, we'd better get him before he goes wondering off onto the ice. I'm sure it can't be a rifle. Why would he have one? Maybe he's looking for polar bears!" Johnny walks with Janet, hurrying her along to the helipad, worried now about his precious bird and his friend."

[Laraqua]

"Wait, we don't know if it's Walther. That last group were all killed, right? What if that's the murderer and he's kidnapped Walther or has him tied up somewhere? Maybe we should fetch some reinforcements, quickly, and a few weapons and go after him. If it is a rifle and it isn't Walther, and we go after him alone, we're screwed. If we take a few minutes, then what do we lose? We can follow his footprints in this snow."

[aine]

"And how's the murderer gonna get here from Station 31? Ski? Anyway it's all shut down there; the corpses are back at McMurdo's. And who's to say they were murdered. Wasn't there a fire or something?"

Johnny shakes his head, "I'm worried about the bird, if anyone screws around with her then we're screwed. And I'll be really pissed off." He turns to Janet, "Look, you go back, get some reinforcements, tell them what you saw. I'll go straight to the helicopter, check she's okay and wait for you there. I promise I won't go following footsteps without you. In fact I'll wait inside the cockpit."

[Dave Syrinx]

Having overheard the discussion in the stairs, Harrison comments on the possible threat of someone being out there. "Those mercenaries withe that Norwegian guys. They might have returned... Just saying." He pops his head out the generator room and shuts the door when Janet is reaching the entrance door. "Hey, there´s Walther!" He points toward the garage next to the workshop. Walther is carrying one of the snow shovels that are scattered around the area.
Walther comes jogging, and soon gets up to the landing. "Ah, I heard the call. Was about to greet the crew that arrived. What´s the matter?" He leans the snow shovel against the generator door. "You got the gennie back up? Good work Dwayne!" He pats Harrison on the back and adds. "Let´s get inside, I´m dying out here."

[Janet, Harrison and Walther continue indoors!: The red strain ]

Meanwhile, Johnny gets over to the helicopter and checks for any trail of the mystery man. Sure enough, there´s a trail leading away from the pad. The trail is leading south west. As Johnny walked over to the helicopter he heard that Walther had been found. The voice of the master trader carried a long way in the strong wind. Johnny doubts they, on the other hand would hear him, if he shouted to them. His words would be lost in the blowing snow.

He takes an inspection round to see all service panels are closed. They seem to be and he comes back from his 360 and enters the bird. The automatic lights don´t start as he has put in an extra fail safe switch, to ensure no one forgets to power off before leaving the helicopter. When the door shuts, a circuit breaks and kills the power. To start the power, a small lever under the pilot´s panel has to be switched on to get the lights working and the radio to power up. Too many times, he has been forced to swap batteries to get the heli operational, due to someone leaving a surge on.
In this climate - a dead battery can kill you. Literary.

Reaching for the switch, Johnny feels he puts his glove in a small pile of snow on the floor. The lights flutter on and on the floor, for sure, is a pile of snow with a footstep in it.

[aine]

Johnny curses and looks up quickly, he scans the area before bending down to examine the footprint. Is it the same as the ones leading off southwest? He looks around very carefully to see if the man has touched anything or if anything is not as it should be. If it all looks okay he'll do a dummy run flight check including getting the wings working for a spell; it's just lift-off he won't attempt. He also checks the amount of fuel and that the pipes have not been tampered with.

Perception roll for anything odd: fail

[Dave Syrinx]

The print is from heavy boots, no way of seeing if it from the same pair of boots as outside, unless he gets out and carefully looks at the treads.
With no trouble at all, Johnny sees that the locker where the sniper rifle is kept is open. And the rifle is missing.
His plan to run a check is postponed. The radio gives away some static.
A quick thought on himself silhouetted in the cockpit and someone with a sniper rifle outside makes him crouch instinctively.
The door of the helicopter closes against his back, giving him some cover.

[aine]

OOC,Can he use the radio to contact the station radio? If so:

Johnny reaches over and pulls the door closed, locking it from the inside. Then, trying not consider the penetration power of a rifle and the thinness of the helicopter, he stays crouched, pulls the radio cord over and depresses the button.
"Station 10, come in Station 10, this is Johnny over."

[Dave Syrinx]

Johnny tries to contact Robert over the radio. As he does so, he sees all the lights come on again. Power is up.

[aine]

"That's something I guess." He thinks. He tries again "Come in Station 10...this is an emergency... Robert wake up!... This is Johnny at the helipad"

[Dave Syrinx]

"Robert Bailey at Station 10 here. I read you, Johnny. What's up? Over." Comes the reply almost instantly.