Chapter 2: The City

[Supercape]

Hattie's clawing was not enough to break her face mask, but her writhing was suitably powerful.

Riiipppppp!

A razor shard of ice caught on her suit, and tore open a large gaping hole in her Exosuit. A horrible freezing chill spread up her leg...

Spoiler:

Give me a CONx5% roll or 1D3 HP damage! Can you give a luck roll to see if the rip is small enough to be sealed by Foam gun...
Role play the insanity how you like. It may help that you have a nice rip to let the "alien" out of your suit, but on the other hand you are fairly drilled in realising this is a dangerous thing!

[aine]

Seth is torn from his reverie with the sight of Hattie thrashing on the ground with a ripped suit, he's seen this happen before and he dives back onto the ATV and rummages around in the repairs kit for a glue gun; he finds one but the nozzle is gummed up from poor maintenance. He wastes precious seconds cutting the gunk clear and then races back ready to seal Hattie's suit. "Get ready to nobble the alien should it leap onto us! I'll seal the suit!" He shouts at Sam.

rolls,Idea (80) roll: 56, Spot hidden (25) roll: 32

[Mr. Handy]

Sam nods and draws her plasma pistol, holding it steady. "Once you seal it, she says, "we've got to get her back inside the ATV fast if the alien doesn't come out. Only there can we safely remove the suit."

[DrPeterson]

Con*5=50%,[dice]0[/dice]

Damage,[dice]2[/dice]

Luck 70%,[dice]1[/dice]

Hattie screams as the biting cold enters her suit. She keeps writhing, but instead trying for her mask, she pushes her fingers into the tear, scratching at her skin.

"GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT! IT'S INSIDE ME!"

[Supercape]

Spoiler:

Seth and Sam can make idea rolls to notice that there does not seem to be anything inside Hattie's suit (and she is probably panicking!)

[Mr. Handy]

"We'll get it out, but inside the ATV!" says Sam, trying to hustle Hattie back to the vehicle.

OOC,[b]Sam[/b]'s Idea roll (75% stat) about the "alien": [dice]0[/dice]

[aine]

Seth keeps pace as Sam drags Hattie over to the ATV, he peers closely, "I don't reckon there's anything in there after all, except for Hattie that is." He squirts the glue gun messily over the hole in the suit, the glue dripping on the ground as the leg bounces across the rocks. "That'll hold until she's safely inside at least."

idea,(80) roll:60%

[Supercape]

With Hatties writhing, it took every last drop of glue to seal the gash. Her left leg was almost solid, and she could barely move it - the glue had sprayed everywhere. For all the excess, it worked. Hattie could feel her suit's heaters pumping over-drive, and warmth spreading to her leg.

Spoiler:

Temporary insanity will pass! (feel free to role play any lingering effects!)

[DrPeterson]

Hattie was still writhing and trashing when Seth dragged her into the ATV. She stopped screaming and stared about morosely, the glue on her leg offering a strange anchor to reality.

Suddenly she sobs, loud and deep and starts crying.

"I don't want to die here, Sam, I don't want to die."

She grabs Seth and hugs him, a move made more awkward by the cumbersome suit.

[aine]

"Ah, yes, there, there." Seth pats Hattie awkwardly on the shoulder, embarrassed by her emotion. He gently extricates himself and starts picking off the glue strands that have attached to him from Hattie's leg. "It's just a case of the heeby-jeebies - no aliens haha." He turns to Sam, "Do you want to run a quick scan over her and then we can sort out that leg. Maybe we ought to return to base?" He says, ever hopeful.

[Mr. Handy]

"I won't let that happen, Hattie," Sam reassures her. She'd have hugged her herself, but the suits would get in the way. "We'll look at her leg now that we're inside and we can take the suit off safely. We'll try to treat it ourselves, but she may need Dr. Bloom's help. We'll want to collect samples and the chip before we go back as long as we're here. If we can't find any trace of Gina Croft, then we probably should head back."

[aine]

It ought to be a straighforward firstaid repair but Seth still has glue on his fingers, "I'll leave you to sort out the leg, I'll just nip out and retrieve that chip... I shouldn't be more than five minutes." He adds ominously and heads to the air lock to exit the ATV.

first aid,first aid (40) roll:90

[Mr. Handy]

"Okay, just be careful," says Sam. Once the ATV is sealed, she takes off Hattie's suit and has a look at her leg. She tries to treat it with the supplies in her first aid kit, but there isn't much she can do to help. "Looks like you'll need Doctor Bloom for this one." She helps Hattie put the suit back on and takes out her multiscanner. "I'll just collect the samples for analysis and try one last scan for Gina before we go."

OOC,First Aid roll (30% base skill) trying to treat [b]Hattie[/b]'s leg: [dice]0[/dice]

[Supercape]

The ATV did, of course, have spare exo-suits, and it was easy enough to change. The team had also the foresight to bring sampling kits, for geological and chemical purposes. A multiscanner would do a good job in the field, but was no substitute for the in depth analysis that could be performed back in the laboratories.

Spoiler:

check OOC thread

[DrPeterson]

Hattie had cried some more whilst changing her suit and then looked at Sam in a determined way.

"We owe it to them to find out what happened, I'm not going back without answers, Sam. I need to know, just for the sake of knowing alone. We're scientists."


She picked up her gear and went out with the rest of the away team. Scanning and looking around, trying not to look at Wu's corpse.

Spot Hidden 29%,[dice]0[/dice]

Scan 55%,[dice]1[/dice]

Hattie frowns at the readings on the scanners.

"I...I'm picking up some strange readings here. There's a slight fluctuation in the air pressure readings and the density of the atmosphere, suggesting motion or at least some meteorological event, but we should be able to see it..."

She looks around, but fails to notice anything.

[Mr. Handy]

"My scanner's on the fritz," says Sam, shaking and thumping the device. "Must be the EM interference." She turns to look in the direction Hattie indicated and she gasps in shock. "It's the aliens! They look like some kind of mushroomy lobsters with wings, and they're flying this way! Quick, back into the ATV!"

OOC,Scanning roll (56% skill) at the epicenter: [dice]0[/dice] Spot Hidden roll (62% skill) at the epicenter: [dice]1[/dice] Sanity roll (current level 64) for seeing the aliens: [dice]2[/dice]

[aine]

Seth cuts out the chip from Wu's body with the minimum of fuss, trying to think of her as just part of the torn landscape. He secures it in a pocket and then takes a scanner from Hattie as the others return from the ATV. These scanners have updated software however and it takes Seth five minutes to even understand the various signals showing on the screen let alone interpret them. He's concentrating so hard that he only catches Sam's 'Back to the ATV!' "Yeah, yeah, okay, make up your mind." He mutters and, head down trying to understand the scanner, he starts to walk slowly back towards the ATV.

scanner,Scanner (30) roll:81

[Mr. Handy]

"NOW!" shouts Sam, scooping Seth up under one arm and carrying him back to the ATV, shoving him inside before climbing in herself. Even if she weren't in Titan's low gravity, she still probably could have done it, though she'd have needed both arms.

[Supercape]

In the dim haze of Titan's atmosphere, little could be seen. Flashlight beams swept across the rock and ice, illuminating snapshots of wings and limbs and transclucent pink flesh, all of bizarre and alien make.

The three explorers made for the ATV as the two shadows approached. In their limbs - and they had several - brief flashes of strange metal and glass objects.

And yet despite their visual presence, hardly a blip on the multiscanners...

As they approached the ATV the ground below them shuddered and split, cracks crawling along the ice like a shattered plasti-glass frame. Some yawned, some remained hair thin, and some spat out chunks of rock and ice...

Spoiler:

Can you roll DEXx5% to stay on your feet. If you do so, you can attempt a magnificent Jump roll in Titans low gravity to get you to the ATV avoiding the mini-quake. As always, any other actions you fancy please go for it!

[aine]

As Sam grabs him, Seth looks up and finally sees the diabolical aliens lit up in a flash of lightning. "Cripes!" He plants two feet on the ground, pushes down and, with Sam still holding him, he propels them both into the air in an almighty leap over all the yawning chasms and lands neatly next to the ATV. Without further ado, he pushes the airlock button and yells "Where's Hattie?!"

Rolls,Dexx5 (85) 43% Jump (40) 01%