Chapter 2: The City

[Mr. Handy]

Sam has no problem remaining on her feet. Agile as always, she leaps back to the ATV with Seth and looks around for Hattie.

OOC,DEX x 5 roll (60% stat) to stay on my feet: [dice]0[/dice] Jump roll (55% skill) to get back to the ATV: [dice]1[/dice]

[DrPeterson]

Hattie had momentarily frozen over because of Sam's announcement. The tremors snap her to her senses though, but unfortunately she's too late and falls over and starts to scream again as she tries to regain her footing..

Balance 90%,[dice]0[/dice]

Jump 35%,[dice]1[/dice]

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,It looks like your DEX roll failed. Your DEX is 16, which multiplied by 5 is 80 rather than 90.

[aine]

Seth waits with his hand on the door panel, ready to close it. He watches, with his heart in his mouth, as Hattie races towards the ATV. "Come on, COME ON!" It's touch and go whether she'll make it...

[Supercape]

As the three Titanauts bustled into the ATV, the aliens swarmed into view. There was an awful buzzing in the air, like a clattering, low toned grind that reverberated horribly in the head.

The insects - or whatever they were - were pink, almost translucent in parts, and with far too many spindly limbs with far to many joints that bent in all the wrong places. Their bodies unfurled and twisted. Although one might suppose they had a multitude of organs, it was impossible to guess what any of them did.

Each carried a different metal device. One was an almost perfect cube, with dim lights, somehow it looked like it was vibrating in an almost subliminal way. The other, a kind of spray gun, all tubes, and shrieks and odd plastics.

From this device, a thin mist of purple gas sprayed forth, eating the ground as it passed, the rock and ice hissing and steaming and melting. The gas was not fast, but it rolled through Titan's haze at a worrisome rate...

Spoiler:

Acid attack! You can certainly get inside the ATV before it hits... but what else? A Drive [ATV] Roll would be needed to get the ATV up, running, and driven away before it eats into the vehicle. Of course, you may have other ideas (Holding fast, scanning, Throwing rocks at the aliens with the ATVs mechanical arm...etc etc...

[Mr. Handy]

"Let's get out of here!" cries Sam, working feverishly to start up the ATV and drive it away from the spreading gas once everyone is safely inside.

OOC,Drive ATV roll (45% skill) to drive the ATV out of harm's way: [dice]0[/dice]

[aine]

"Yahooo!" Seth hoots, holding on like grim death as Sam spins the ATV in a 360, the wheels scattering small rocks in a swath towards the aliens. These pop and melt as they hit the purple cloud, the ATV gets purchase and leaps ahead with a bounce, "This is too crazy, man! What are those things? That acid is what got Wu, I bet."

[Mr. Handy]

"Space lobsters," says Sam as she speeds away. "Well, that's what I'm calling them. I think you're right about the acid. At least they don't have acid for blood or something. Although, how do I know they don't?"

[aine]

"You watch too many movies!" Seth shouts above the noise of the engine.

[DrPeterson]

Hattie scrambles up, unsure how she made it to safety and clicks into one of the seats.

"I...wha..tha...", tears run down her cheeks as she begins to laugh.

"That...those thi..no those creatures! They're extra-terrestrial complex organisms! They were using technology!"

She emphasises the latter as if it were the most important thing.

"Sam, we have to try and communicate with them."

She seems to recall the acid all of a sudden.

"But try for some distance first, yes."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah, good idea," says Sam dryly as she speeds away from the aliens, heading back to base.

[aine]

'I reckon they'll have tapped into our communications already. Can you remember if there was acid damage at the base? They must have attacked and sent George and Ron mad; they're unholy looking creatures that's for sure.
We need to send a mayday out as soon as we're back; can you alert Boss from here to do it? And then we need to hunker down and try and survive until help comes. I reckon. Phew what a mess. Real nasty bad-ass aliens.' Seth looks out at the speeding, bumping landscape. 'Just my luck.'

[Supercape]

The ATV sped through the ice and snow back to beta base. The terrain was still cracked and awkward, but nothing particularly dangerous. The ATV was built for resilience.

But unfortunately not speed. Beta base was some time away. The aliens had wings. And Titan was a thick atmosphere, low gravity moon. Perfect for wings. Whilst the ATV could out pace them (it appeared), it would not put a massive distance between them.

And all the while, the EM storm flared.

Spoiler:

which means a communication roll to contact Boss, as per that excellent idea!

[Mr. Handy]

Sam manages to cut through the electromagnetic storm and contact Boss, telling him about the encounter with the hostile aliens and to add that information to the message being sent to Earth.

OOC,Communications roll (55% skill) trying to get a message through to [b]Boss[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

[DrPeterson]

"I really think we shouldn't jump to conclusions. If they were truly hostile, don't you think they'd have attacked Beta by now? Maybe they're just looking for a way to communicate with us too, maybe they're just as scared of us as we are of them. Did you ever even consider that?"

Hattie frowns, thinking.

"We don't know if they purposefully killed Wu, do we? The only confirmed hostility we have was performed by humans against humans."

[Mr. Handy]

"Ordinarily, I'd agree with you," says Sam, "but I think the fact that they just tried to dissolve us with their acid doohickey is ample evidence of their hostility. Of course, they are aliens, so maybe that's just how they say hello for all we know. I'll grant you that this is their world and we're intruders here, but their first response was to attack us."

[aine]

"I'll second that; it's not exactly been a bed of roses since the aliens appeared, has it? Look at the mess their ambassadors left at Alpha. You might not mind martyring yourself for the forwarding of alien-human relations but count me out. I'm not even meant to be here - give me a nice cosy miner's billet on Mars over this!"
Seth looks forward to see Beta base in the distance.

[DrPeterson]

Hattie sighs deeply.
"I don't know, it just feels like we're making a big mistake...And are we even sure they did this to Alpha? Maybe it was just the away team that lost it..."

[Mr. Handy]

"I remember those Mars recruitment ads," says Sam with a wistful look. "They tried to make it sound so glamorous, but everyone knew it wasn't. Men outnumber women four to one in the mines, so they had this one ad with an incredibly gorgeous gal in a spotless miner's outfit and the slogan 'Mars Needs Women.' Nobody on Mars looks like that. Martian women look like me. I wanted to go offworld, and I could have been a mining engineer on Mars, but I was holding out for something better. Now I wish I'd taken the offer. They had a hefty signing bonus too."

[aine]

"Hell, you ain't got nothing on the Mars women: they're the meanest mothers I ever saw. Bigger stronger and uglier than any of the men.
Couldn't tell them apart half the time. Are we sure those things are aliens? Maybe they're some sort of high tech flying robot thing. I know they looked organic but we didn't really look for long enough."