Chapter 2: The City

[Supercape]

Wu's chip had been damaged, and the chip was not really designed for recording...

Spoiler:

Could I have a mechanics/electronics roll from Seth to see what he can recover

Inside the airlock, the air was chilly, and the oxygen thin. Signs of bubbling foam could be seen at the outer airlock seal.

When the out door swished open, that same purple mist could be seen, eating away at the outer door. Beyond, through haze and dimness, the two aliens. Up close, and horrible. Limbs, limbs, pink pale flesh, sometimes with an exoskeleton, sometimes not. Too many eyes, wings...and...other things...

Spoiler:

The usual 0/1D6 SAN loss for those witnessing the Mi-Go

There was a buzzing in the air, inside the skull...was it words?

Where is Drake?

Spoiler:

Feel free to fire your alkaline weapon. It will certainly neutralise the acid gas - a luck roll will mean the acid - projector also explodes (if you wish it too)

[Mr. Handy]

The instant the hatch is opened, Sam sprays the alkaline directly at the aliens' weapon. She is getting used to the sight of them, so it doesn't disturb her so much this time. The chemical reaction causes the weapon to explode!

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 64) for seeing the Mi-Go. [dice]0[/dice] Luck roll (65% stat) to see if the acid shooter explodes: [dice]1[/dice]

[Supercape]

A horrible buzzing screamed from the Alien with the explosion. The purple acid mist seemed not to harm the creatures at all, but an exploding weapon did. Shrapnel hissed in the Titan air, and many pieces embedded themselves in pink insect flesh.

And then, the two creatures spread their wings, buzzing awfully, and sped through the Titan air with great speed. As far as could be told, back from whence they had came; the epicentre of the earthquake where they had first been found.

OOC:   Sam can make an Idea roll to notice below

Spoiler:

Whilst the Aliens Wings (and Titan high density atomsphere / low gravity) makes them very fast, they are also clumsy and ungainly. They turn / pitch / yaw very slowly and inaccurately

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah!" cheers Sam, thrusting a fist in the air. "Science triumphs again!" She steps over to the airlock entrance and tries to salvage the pieces of the destroyed weapon, taking care not to let the acid or base touch her exosuit. "Maybe we can figure out how this thing worked so we can reverse engineer it." She looks into the sky at the retreating aliens. "They're fast, but they don't fly so smoothly. I don't think their wings are designed to work in atmosphere."

OOC,Idea roll (75% stat) after the explosion. [dice]0[/dice]

[DrPeterson]

Hattie had joined Samto support her. Maybe it was the presence of a science-fueled weapon or the outlandishness of the situation, but it didn't fase her.

Sanity 65%,[dice]0[/dice]

Once the creatures have fled, she stares after them, watching their strange forms disappear into the dark skies.

"Sam, did you hear them too? Inside your mind? They were talking." She pauses for a moment. "They were talking, Sam..."


She lets the realisation, the ecstacy of more-or-less first contact sink in for a bit before being suddenly shaken back to science by Sam's remark.

"Not for atmospheric flight? But, but that would imply that either they are aquatic and that those were fins and not wings, which would indicate the presence of a vast subterranean watermass and a myriad of other complex lifeforms beneath the surface of this moon, or it...it would indicate space flight, but that's impossible. That's impossible, right, Sam? Not only would the temperature kill, radiation, pressure fluctuations would be lethal, not to mention the time it takes to fly anywhere, even in the solar system without the ability to approach the speed of light. No, no, that's inconceivable."

Hattie looks at Sam's mechanical approach to retrieving the weapon and mumbles.

"They must have been vestigial. Maybe they were airborne once and came to this place and rediscovered the use of their wings."

[aine]

Back at the control panel, with one ear out towards the airlock, Seth works feverishly to decrypt the chip; it's probably pointless but any knowledge he can gain might help in the next few minutes. The video is badly damaged, just noise in places, but he can see a little bit of Wu's final moments by carefully adjusting the levels.

electronics,(50%) Seth rolls: 07

[Supercape]

Commander Wu Biochip Recording...

Gina...what do you make of this? How could this have happened?...This is no earthquake....

....

A city?

Stay there, Gina, I'm coming...

Gina? Gina?

Oh my God! What's down there?

What did you see George? What is it?

Bzzzt Bzzzt

Everyone, get back! GET BACK NOW!

They are coming...RUN! RUN!

Communications end.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah, I heard it too," says Sam. "They must communicate by telepathy. And they were looking for Drake. I wonder why? We'd better have Dr. Bloom give him a thorough examination, and we'll have to wake him up and talk to him. Anyway, these things are completely alien. Who knows if they can survive in the vacuum of space or how long their lifespan -and patience - is? And maybe they get an assist from technology, so perhaps they do simply fly through space without ships. We already know the acid doesn't hurt them. They will return, and in greater numbers, but at least I've bought us some time to prepare, get a message to Earth, and get to the bottom of this. Of course, when they do come back, they're liable to try something different." Once she has collected the parts of the destroyed acid shooter, she steps back inside the airlock and seals the outer door. "The airlock door will need repairs, but that's probably the least of our worries."

[aine]

Seth is sitting by the control panel with his head in his hands, there seems to be no imminent invasion and the girls are busy at the airlock; but listening to Wu's last moments hasn't really improved matters. "Hey Boss? Do you have whiskey in your supplies? Or anything similar? I feel it might be a good idea right now."

[DrPeterson]

"We should get Drake talking, you're right. Let's go back to the others.Perhaps we could temporarily fix the airlock with the sealing foam? What do you think?"

[Mr. Handy]

"It's sure better than nothing," says Sam. She uses the sealing foam to shore up the damaged sections of the outer airlock door.

[Mr. Handy]

Once back inside the infirmary with the inner airlock door sealed behind her, Sam rushes to the communications gear and resumes trying to get her message out, this time with added information from her recent close encounter. "See if you can get Drake up and talking," she says. "My first priority is to warn Earth."

OOC,I should be the one to make the roll, as I have the best Communications skill. Do I roll now, or do I wait to see if I get that bonus?

[DrPeterson]

Hattie nods.

"Good luck, I'll see what I can do."


Hattie strips off her exo-suit and gets back into her normal base clothes and then finds Dr. Bloom.


"Doctor Bloom, those creatures, the aliens, they're able to communicate via a form of telepathy. They were asking for Commander Drake. I think it's imperative for mission security to try and wake Drake and find out what he knows."

[Supercape]

Spoiler:

Mr. Handy / Sam - I would suggest making a roll, if you succeed the signal doesn't need boosting. If you fail, you can try again with the signal boost?

Dr Bloom cut the omni-calm feed to his patient, and administered a light sedative.

"That should wake him up, although he will still be under light sedation. Probably be woozy, to say the least. His wounds..." he indicated the plasma burns. "Nasty. Even with dermafix spray, that's gonna sting, to say the least. I can't cut his pain killers, not without him being in agony. I'm afraid poor Drake is going to be out of it..."

He paused, then carried on.

"Another thing, and this may be breaking confidentiality, but to hell with it. I found evidence of a lethal mutation in his DNA. Cotard-Wilkinson* sequence. It attacks the peripheral nervous system. Probably only mild symptoms right now, but he is facing slow progression and death in 10 years, and that's if treated..." he said sadly. "I don't know when it happened. Perhaps recently, perhaps years ago. Can be due to radiation exposure. Very rare sequence, only a few dozen cases reported. Had to look it up myself..." he said, apologetically.

*

Spoiler:

This is a made up sci-fi disease for the purposes of PLOT

And so the commander was, mumbling and slipping in and out of consciousness.

"*Mumble Mumble* Wu...wu...can't die....can't....no...promised...sorry...no..." he whispered, delirious.

"What happened...what happened?" he said, reaching out weakly with a burnt hand. "It hurts...who fried me? who?" he asked, more strongly.

[Mr. Handy]

Sam revises and transmits her message, putting it on a continuous loop. She is finally able to get through the EM interference.

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

[DrPeterson]

Hattie looks at Bloom with a considerable look of concern.

"Why wasn't this registered when Drake signed on to the mission? That would indicate that the mutation occurred post-factum, wouldn't it? Have you checked yourself, Doctor Bloom? Maybe you should investigate us all, it might be a side effect of being on this rock."


When Drake awakens she leans over him.

"Ron! Ron, those creatures. They were here, Ron. What are they?"

[aine]

Seth wanders up to the coms desk and watches Sam send the message. He's got an open bottle of scotch in his hand and a glass. "So your commander Wu said she saw a city just before her transmission went down. That would be an alien city then wouldn't it? Full of aliens, lots of them. Not just two." He sighs and pours some whiskey into the glass. He sips it despondently. "Looks like it went through then, the message. That's good."

[Supercape]

As far as Seth and Sam could tell, the EM storm had cleared - perhaps transiently - enough for a clear message to be sent through to earth. At this stage of rotation, the signal would take just a fraction under 2 hours to reach the blue planet*

"Ron! Ron, those creatures. They were here, Ron. What are they?"

Drake was still sedated, but fighting it. His mind seemed to slip in and out of defiance.

"Get me up! Get me up! I have to...I have to...gotta wake up...."

zzzz

"Meegoe Meegoe...help me! save me!...Meegoe....they are the Meegoe...." he mumbled, delirious.

"They can save us all...help us...transform us...Klute...Klute...horrible...please...."**

He spiked up again from his mumbling.

"Get me up Bloom! Thats an order! I don't care how I look or how you do it!" he screamed, sweat, fear and pain gripping his body.

Dr Bloom jolted, and looked at the others, clearly conflicted...

Spoiler:

* My Nerd took over. This is a fair approximation of real life!
** Klute was Drakes predecessor who drove off 3 months ago and is MIA. Drake replaced her [Reference in the "Inbformation, Data, etc" thread of this forum

[DrPeterson]

Hattie holds up a hand, signalling Dr. Bloom to keep back.

"Shhh, Ron, try to calm down, we're doing what we can for you. Klute's gone, Ron's, she's been gone for a long time."

Hattie gently takes Drake's hand, trying not to touch any of the burnt bits, and speaks in a softer voice.

"I know they'll change us, Ron, they'll show us the stars. First contact is a fact."

A look of concern comes over her face.

"But they tried to kill us with their acid evaporator, I don't think it was entirely intentional, but we need to be able to talk to them, to these Meegoe?"

[Supercape]

Dr Bloom looks pensive, a syringe full of caffstim in his hand.

"...I....that's a direct order...." he said, nervously, his eyes flicking from Hattie to Drake and back again.

Spoiler:

Hattie can try a persuade skill, or, if that fails, she can try an APP x 5% roll. Bloom is generally on her side, so giving you two chances!

Drake continued to mumble, making some buzzing clicking noises with his tongue and teeth.

"Bzzz...Bzzzz....can't you hear them? Always that buzzing...buzzing....they can Speak....speak to us...but always that BUZZING!" he rambled, before passing out again.