Play@YSDC

Day 3
13th March 2189
00:45 Earth Central European Time
Waystation, Titan

Sam tries to analyse the rhythmic sound, she's not sure whether there's a message encoded there or not, it does seem to be being transmitted from somewhere deeper inside the Waystation complex, and it's being broadcast on a wide range of frequencies, but not particularly on the usual ones used for communication.

Once Isabella has parked up the rover between the imposing shuttle and the much more dainty outline of the copter, everyone disembarks.

Leaving the magnetised ladder of the rover their boots settle loosely on the black bitumen runway. The shuttle is a dark bulk silhouetted sinisterly against the low light of the sun. Metal steps reach down from the fuselage to the runway, the door to the shuttle main cabin is sealed shut. The only sign of life is a faint glow from the windows of the cockpit. From the outside, to all intents and purposes it looks like any other interplanetary shuttle, and as a Richter Dynamics Arcturus-II model it is largely the same as the one they arrived in two days ago.

The group trudge carefully towards the steps, the clusters of lamps on their suits sweep beams back and forth, cutting through the shadows cast by the shape of the shuttle. At the base of the steps something is illuminated. It looks like a man. He's dressed in a flight suit and helmet, without a surface suit, covered in a layer of frost.

I see at the beginning of the last thread this was the disposition of weapons:
Nicole - Pistol, only 2 rounds left in the magazine and no further magazines on her, shotgun, stun baton
Jojo - Cutting torch (9 charges), stun baton
Moses - Incinerator (1 shot left), shotgun, stun baton
Isabella - Shotgun, stun baton
Sam - Incinerator (2 shots), cutting torch (8 charges), shotgun, stun baton

The shotguns are all loaded with 5 shells. There are loads of spare shotgun shells (riot rounds only) - seven boxes of 20 shells. The cutting torches have ten charges each then the tank needs to be changed.

Obviously Moses's equipment is available to whoever wants it now. In terms of what you can carry, in your surface suits you'll be able to take something in each hand and probably attach things to your belt since gravity is low that won't be an encumbrance problem. There's probably also kit bags you can stuff things into.

Reasoning that the signal can wait until they've gotten their bearings and found Kiara, Sam goes over to inspect the dead pilot and the shuttle. She checks to see if the pilot has any identification or anything unusual on him.

The guy's dead. Cold and dead. He's frozen, completely rigid, his skin covered in a layer of frost. He's a man in his twenties or thirties, dressed in a Richter Dynamics flight suit and wearing a full flight helmet, which is not something Sam has ever seen on a civilian shuttle pilot before, assuming that's what he is. There's no obvious injury she can see and she wonders whether he just froze to death given he doesn't have a surface suit on. Although his face suggests something a bit more sudden. Sam rifles through his pockets but there's nothing in them, which she also thinks is a bit odd.

Roll Spot Hidden

Sam notices something during her search.

Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) examining the dead pilot:
d%

Jojo will follow the others to the shuttle and watch as the dead pilot is examined.

"Looks like there is more of the infection here. Jojo muses out loud. "Where do you suppose Kiara is? That's the copter she came in."

Nicole stuffs a kit bag with Moses’ incinerator and 3 boxes of shells for their shotguns. She follows the others out to look at the body.

“Another Moses-type attack do you think? Or something more hands on?” She circles warily with the shotgun.

The corpse's clothing is stiff and frozen, and Sam struggles to get his flight suit open to take a look underneath. But she does manage to pull up his sleeves and find a small tattoo. Something about it looks familiar.

The symbol of the Colonial Marine Corp is immediately familiar. Given the flight suit and military-style flight helmet this guy is either ex-military or was in the Marines. If he was a Marine, the way he's got no identifying paperwork seems odd. And if he came in the corporate shuttle that's pretty unusual, they'd usually use their own vehicles. The Marines are rarely seen in the colonies, Colonial Marshals and the Colonial Security Service cover most eventualities. The Marines are more for insurgencies and uprisings, not routine security matters.

Sam can't place the tattoo.

EDU roll (75% skill) about the tattoo:
d%

“He’s a marine.” Nicole says, “That’s the colonial Marine Corp badge. It’s odd that he’s on his own; and why haven’t his buddies rescued him, they wouldn’t have left him like this. And it’s odd if he came in this shuttle and not in a military ship. And he doesn’t have any papers or ID.” Nicole shakes her head, mystified.

EDU 80
1d100

"Ah yes, I recognize that symbol." Jojo confirms. "I wonder if he was hired by Richter to investigate this. Would be easier to keep things quiet with your own private mercenaries."

"Maybe he was operating undercover, suggests Sam.

“So something was going down here at Waystation, something probably illegal. Let’s quickly check the shuttle is ready for takeoff and then we’d better find Kiara.” Nicole heads over to access the shuttle.

Sam nods and follows her to the shuttle.

"I'll just stay out here and keep an eye open." Jojo says as he shuffles around at the bottom of the shuttle's steps.

The steps are just about wide enough for two to walk abreast and Sam and Nicole clank up the stairway, the cluster of lamps on their suits flick back and forth across the steps as they walk. Nearing the the top of the steps they approach the cabin door. While the rest of the shuttle fuselage is covered in thick encrustations of frozen methane, the door itself has only a thin layer of frost. In the centre of the door are the door controls, a dim red light blinks on and off indicating that it is locked.

After watching the other two climbing the steps for a minute, Jojo starts to mooch around the base of the steps, carefully avoiding the frozen corpse.

Can you give me a Spot Hidden roll

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

Jojo wanders around the base of the stairs absentmindedly looking around and stumbles across something.

"Want me to try unlocking it?" asks Sam.

Nicole nods,
“Call me paranoid but I feel we might want to leave here in a hurry and this shuttle might be our best bet. And we won’t want to be messing around with lockpicks at that point.”

Shuffling around the base of the steps and studying the methane snow that has blown across the tarmac surface of the runway, Jojo notices two sets of footprints leading away from the shuttle and towards the main Waystation complex. Checking his own boots he confirms that these match the Titan surface suits. He doesn't know too much about the exact atmospheric features of Titan but he suspects that the snow doesn't settle for long in the winds of Titan so the steps can't have been there for a particularly long period of time.

After pressing a few buttons Sam manages to pop out a simple keypad from the lock mechanism and attempts some basic overrides to try and open the shuttle door. Unfortunately it just flashes red and refuses to open.

Roll a Hard Computer Use to try and get the lock open, anyone standing at the top of the steps can also roll a Hard Spot Hidden - I think that's Sam and Nicole

Sam is too busy trying to bypass the lock to notice her surroundings. "I wish Kiara were here," she says.

Computer Use roll (55% / 2 = 27.5% skill) to bypass the lock:
d%
Spot Hidden roll (55% / 2 = 27.5% skill) outside the shuttle:
d%

Jojo follows the footprints with his gaze and then shouts up to the others.

"There's two sets of footprints heading from here to the complex. We should follow them."

“Let’s find Kiara and she can do it then.” Nicole says to Sam. She takes a look round but doesn’t spot anything.
“Coming!” She calls down to Jojo and then heads down to join him.

Hard spot hidden, roll 43 fail

Sam follows her.

Following the footprints in the snow, they move away from the dark watchtower, along the landing strip, and towards the main body of buildings, where the mobile derrick protrudes above the metallic prefabs. Passing the gigantic storage silos or tanks, there are four of them. Three marked 'Fracking Fluid', and one 'Cyclohexane.'

Approaching the main cluster of buildings, they surround a central cleared area with what appears to be a jagged crater cut out of the crust of Titan, at least thirty metres across. Piled around the derrick are several hundred metres worth of pipes, along with a now-iced over bulldozer and the top of what might be a power loader exosuit. Some piping runs all the way to the storage silos. To the south of the site is what looks like a storage shed and a prefabricated building that could be a small administrative office. On the western edge are four barracks-style buildings.

Sam looks around for tracks to see where the people from the shuttle or Kiara may have gone.

Nicole leans gingerly over the crater and looks into the hole and at the pipe work.
“Is this usual?” She asks. “What are they extracting into those storage vats?”

Nicole peers over the edge of the crater, she sees several metal ladders descending down into the darkness. She struggles to make out anything else except for a diffuse blue glow. As she looks over the side, Nicole can hear a noise, well she can more feel it rather than hear it. A high-pitched throbbing noise. It has an odd cyclical pattern, speeding up and rising in pitch until reaching a crescendo and then starting over again.

Although there's a lot of pipework and tubing around the derrick, it seems to have all been pulled back from the hole in the crust, like maybe something disturbed what they were doing.

Anyone wants to have a think about what is going on in the vats try rolling Planetary Science or a hard Physics. Looking for the tracks and where they lead in the complex is another Spot Hidden (or Track if you have it - you can roll a bonus die if you use Track)

Sam can't find any recent tracks, but she has a good idea what's going on with the vats.

Science(Planetary) roll (41% skill) to understand the vats:
d%
Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) to look for tracks:
d%

Planetary Science 1
1d100

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

Jojo walks around the central area but doesn't see anything of note.

"Where do you think we should check next?" He says to the others.

Planetary science 1 roll:99 spot hidden 60 roll:91

“Looks like a load of spaghetti.” Nicole says of the pipe work. She’s too busy looking in the hole to notice anything else.

The footprints they'd been following become indistinct around the site. There are tracks heading in all directions, and it is not possible to figure out in what way they went from the shuttle, assuming that was even Kiara and Li.

It's clear that someone is conducting high pressure cyclohexane fracking. Cyclohexane is a valuable precursor to the ubiquitous plastics used throughout the outer colonies. But fracking on a planet like Titan with a subsurface ocean is both illegal and dangerous. It might even be contributing to the tremors they've been feeling. But fracking is likely to contaminate the water supply of an entire planet, something that could bring major sanctions down on Richter Dynamics if it got out.'

Nicole thinks she can hear something. Maybe not hear, maybe feel. Something nagging, painful, at the back of her skull. She gets a flash, an image, ice fields under an orange skym it looks like Titan but seen from high up. And there's something in the sky, getting bigger, casting a shadow across the surface, bigger and bigger, falling maybe, blocking the red sun.

"They've been fracking here!" says Sam. "That's how they're getting the cyclohexane they need to make plastics, but it can contaminate Titan's entire water supply. That's why it's illegal, and the company could be in big trouble if word got out. The fracking may be causing those tremors."

Nicole looks quickly upwards.
“Never mind the fracking, let’s get under cover- there’s something big up there and it’s coming down!” She points up at the sky and looks wildly around for somewhere to dash to.

Jojo looks up at the sky.

"What do you see? He says and then he looks around. "Who's fracking? What does that have to do with the alien life form? Are you two feeling different since we got here?"

"The Company, who else?" says Sam."Maybe the fracking brought the alien life form to the surface, I don't know. I don't feel any different than I did before. Let's get inside, Nicole is right."

"Well I'm out of my element here so I'll just follow your lead until we find the others or the aliens." Jojo replies.
"I don't see anything falling from the sky though." He continues as he looks around.

There's nothing coming out of the sky, it remains the same hazy orange.

Nicole looks back up into the sky and she can see nothing, shaking her head the memory seems more like an image, a vision. There's still a nagging pain at the back of her skull. She doesn't know why but she has the strong sense that someone, or something doesn't want her to get any closer to that pit.

Nicole stands back from the pit, rubbing the back of her neck.
“No, there’s nothing up there. How strange- it was only whilst I was looking over the pit- an image, like a warning.”

"Let's get inside the main waystation complex." Jojo offers. "Keep monitoring the radio frequencies in case someone tries to reach us. Do you think we should send a broadband message that we're here?"

"Let's go in," says Sam, "but let's not transmit any messages. They could be intercepted. Even if they're encrypted, it could still let someone hostile know we're here."

To say there was a 'main complex' would be overstating the scale of the Waystation site. The main building is south of the pit, a metal and plastic shelled prefab about fifteen metres long with a high-frequency radio antenna on top and large windows for observing the drilling. There's a smaller, narrow outbuilding that looks to be entirely made of heavy-duty plastic and which has a conventional door rather than an atmospheric pressure seal. Towards the west of the excavations are four squat, metal and plastic prefabs, thickly insulated and with airlocks. There's no evidence of light or other signs of human habitation from inside any of the buildings.

Didn't want to decide which buildings you go into for you - feel free to pick

"Should we check the narrow outbuilding first?" asks Sam. "If we go into one of the other buildings first, we'd just have to suit up again before going back out to it."

"Yes, might as well poke our heads inside. Nothing looks like it's occupied." Jojo replies.

“There’s no sign of Kiara but she can’t be far away.” Nicole follows the others.

The plastic outbuilding is unlocked and the double doors swing open easily to reveal a long and narrow space. There's no evidence of any heating or atmospheric seals, this place must be used for storage and not for humans to spend any time in. There's numerous spare parts for most of the machinery associated with the fracking rig, as well as for the bulldozer.

Scrape marks on the floor and footprints and indentations in the snow outside suggest that some heavy equipment was dragged out of this building recently, towards the direction of the pit.

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

Jojo pokes his head in and looks around.

"I don't see anything in here. Let's try inside."

“Wait, look at these.” Nicole points to footprints leading out towards the pit. There are also scrapes on the floor as if something heavy was dragged along there.

Spot hidden: roll 20

"I see them too," says Sam, wondering why Jojo's superior visual sensors did not detect them. "Let's follow them."

Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) in the outbuilding:
d%

"Well fine, follow the scratches on the floor. I'm sure that's where Kiara is." Jojo replies, slightly exasperated. "And then after we look into the pit, we can come back and investigate inside."

"We should check it out quick while we're wearing our suits," says Sam. "You don't need one, but the rest of us do. It'll be inconvenient to have to take them off and put them back on to look at it later."

“I’m not sure I want to look in the pit again.” Nicole mutters, “it made me feel very strange.”
She follows behind Sam, keeping a wary eye out.
“Where can Kiara be? There’s not very many options here.”

The pit in the centre of the rig site has been dug down into the ice, forming a roughly-circular hole thirty metres in diameter and just as deep, the light swallowed up by the darkness barely lit by a diffuse blue glow emanating from the bottom which is strangely smooth and regular where it has been chipped out of the methane snow-ice. Sturdy ladders have been hammered into the ice on the west and south walls.

Peering over the rough edges, they can just about hear a noise, or at least a vibration. High-pitched and throbbing. Cycling through the same pattern, speeding up and rising in pitch to a painful crescendo then starting over again.

The vibrations penetrate deep into the body. It's painful. Somewhere, deep in the base of the skull is a throbbing, tugging sensation. It's accompanied by a flash of visual imagery, The orange skies and icy wastes of Titan. Something is falling from the sky, getting bigger, casting a shadow across the surface, bigger and bigger, blocking the red sun. It's black, matte, difficult to make out in the failing light. But there's something about it that causes a feeling of repulsion, revulsion, somewhere, down inside. Someone, or something doesn't want them to go any further.'

Deep in the pit, dimly lit by the strange blue glow that seems to come from the very substratum. Some features can just about be made out in the gloom. A rectangular area, brighter than the rest.

Nicole staggers back from the edge,
“There it is again!” She looks up at the sky and back to the pit, then shakes her head, confused.
“Look, let’s go and check the other building; I don’t think we need to go down there.”

Power 75
1d100

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

OOC:   Made a hard Power and normal Spot Hidden

"There's something down there." Jojo says as he points down the hole. "Maybe Kiara went down there to investigate."

"Nicole's right," says Sam, staggering back away from the pit. "If Kiara's down there, or anywhere else nearby, we ought to be able to contact her on the communicator."

POW roll (65% stat) at the pit:
d%
Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) at the pit:
d%

“She can’t be down there.” Nicole says doubtfully.
“Let’s check the prefab.”

"All right," says Sam, following her.

Isabella peers into the pit where Jojo is pointing, 'There's something down there alright.' She presses one of the buttons on her suit helmet, 'I'll try and raise her...' There's a crackle as Isabella boosts the power on the suit radio, 'Kiara, Li, are you hearing me?...' There's a long pause. And no response.

Turning back from the precipice, Isabella follows Nicole and Sam towards the largest prefabricated building, near the outbuilding towards the south of the hole. It has a plastic shell reinforced with a metal frame. Around fifteen metres long there is a bank of large observation windows down one side and a tall radio antenna on the top.

The near end of the building has an airlock. Nicole is able to press the release switch without any difficulty and it swings open. Illuminated by a dull red glow from the back-up lighting the airlock is depressurised and separates the interior from the exterior. It's just big enough for three people to enter at once so Nicole, Sam, and Isabella step inside. Pulling the door shut behind them it takes a long minute for the atmospheric exchangers to oxygenate and heat up the airlock in a hiss of vapour. When the interior door mechanism flashes green, Nicole punches the release button and the door slides open, revealing the interior of the building as a row of flickering green neon light bars come on one after another.

There's actually not a whole lot to see. It is one large room, the sparse contents bathed in a diffuse green glow from the ceiling lights. There is a desk and three comfortable chairs. A drinks cabinet is beside the desk and seems to be well stocked. On the table sits a computer terminal and a half empty bottle of whiskey with three tumblers. In one corner of the room a section has been separated off from the rest of the space and the symbol on the door suggests it is a toilet. In the other corner it also looks like a corner has been sectioned off but there's no door or access panel, just a poster that says 'Richter Dynamics. We care so you don't have to.'

Waiting for Jojo to cycle through the airlock, they stroll around the small space to take a look. Isabella points out the red fish-eye lens camera and intercom on the far wall. 'Shh,' she hisses over the radio.

Nicole turns to look out the large windows and take in the view of the crater, flanked by the derrick and tangles of piping. The window is hazy, like it's been smeared with something and she struggles to look out. Stepping back she sees that something has indeed been smeared across several of the large windows. It's difficult to tell what it is in the relentless orange haze of Titan but it seems to have a rusty colour to it. Only by leaning against the back wall can Nicole appreciate that it spells out a sentence, 'He waits below.' As far as she can tell it is written in blood.

Sam positions herself so that the camera cannot see her take out her makeshift jamming device and show Nicole and Isabella, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Rather than follow the others into the building, once they are inside and cannot stop him, Jojo says.

"I know that something is affecting humans. Perhaps I will be safe but it's clear to me that there is something at the bottom of the pit. I will be going down to check it out and with any luck, I will be able to continue to give you updates via the radio."

Jojo will head back to the hole and beginning climbing down the ladder that is attached to the pit.

“Jojo, don’t go down there!” Nicole’s face pales as she comprehends the large volume of blood smeared across the windows. She reads,
“He waits below.” Sam, look at this, it must be a warning. Or worse; a proclamation. Do you think it’s really there?”
She rubs at the window.
“Jojo, don’t forget they can get to AI too. We need to stick together! Whatever’s down there is dangerous.”
She looks at Sam,
“Christ, first Virgil and now Jojo going off on their own.
Did you ever watch that old American movie from the late 20th century? You can’t scream in space or something. This is getting to be like that.”

"There were a few of them like that," says Sam. Seeing that Nicole has missed her gesture, she glances back at the camera, then looks at the jamming device (which is not visible to the camera), and again raises a questioning eyebrow.

Nicole is agitated but she finally sees Sam’s gesture. She nods once.

Sam activates the jammer.

Sam turns on the jammer. After a moment they hear the familiar synthesised female voice of a CENTRAL intelligence, originating from a speaker on the wall. 'Hello, welcome to Waystation. Please do not disable my sensors, they are necessary for the smooth operating of Waystation and for your safety.'

Jojo is moving here.

Sam switches the jammer back off, realizing that there's no point if CENTRAL is aware that they've done it. "How are you functioning now, CENTRAL?" she asks.

Nicole winces, if CENTRAL knows they’re there, everything does.

"You're welcome," says Sam. "What is the status of Waystation? Who else is here, and where are they located?"

"Can you at least tell us where Kiara is?" asks Sam.

Nicole rolls her eyes and goes outside in order to get a clearer signal.
“Jojo, do you read me, over?”

CENTRAL's emotionless voice responds 'I am afraid that information on the presence and location of Waystation crew is prohibited due to operational security.'

---

Nicole enters the airlock and waits for it to cycle through the atmospheric repressurisation. Outside she tries to raise Jojo but there's nothing but static over the radio. Well, static and a faintly detectable modulation of the background whine that cycles in the familiar pattern to a crescendo and then starts again.

"But Kiara isn't a member of the Waystation crew," protests Sam.

“Jojo, come in!” Nicole tries again. “Something must be blocking the signal, he can’t be that far away.” She says to her self, listening to the repeating noise.
She looks across the bleak landscape, up at the sky, and then tries her radio again.
“Sam, do you read me? Over.”

"I read you," replies Sam. "What's up?"

“At least the radio is working up here- that’s what I wanted to check. But anyone could be listening in. I’m coming back in; maybe we can find something to write on so we can make a plan secretly.” Nicole replies.

"Good point," says Sam, looking around for something on which to write.

Despite trying several more times, Nicole can't raise Jojo, she just gets the same rhythmic static.

Sam doesn't get an answer from CENTRAL to her objection about Kiara. She can see Isabella screw up her face through her visor. She walks over to the desk and pulls open a drawer, taking out a flexible datasheet and writing on it with a stylus. She holds it up to Sam. It reads 'Notice CENTRAL doesn't know our names? Can't read our transponders or not connected to the main network at Barnard's Rest?'

Nicole goes through the air lock process and re-enters the building.

Isabella shows the datasheet to Nicole as well when she enters the office.

Sam reads the sheet and nods, pointing at the last part, but she shrugs to show that she isn't certain.

Nicole borrows the stylus and writes,
Pos not CENTRAL - imposter?
“What’s our plan then?” She asks.

Sam shrugs again. "Explore," she writes. "Look around. She's here somewhere."

“There’s only the pit left unexplored and I’m not going down there.” Nicole stabs with the stylus.

"Let's go back outside," says Sam after she checks the rest of the building to make sure there's nothing of interest.

Nicole also goes outside. Here she notices the barracks to the West.
“We haven’t been over there yet, let’s check it out.” She says somewhat relieved.

Tramping through the snow to the barracks-like buildings, Sam, Nicole, and Isabella can see that they are four squat, prefabricated
structures, thick insulated plastic shells reinforced with metal frames. Another airlock separates the interior from the exterior and they go through the same long minute as the airlock is heated and the hostile atmosphere of Titan is extruded and replaced with clean nitrogen and oxygen. All the while they stand there silently in the dull red glow of the back-up lighting.

Once the airlock is regassed the interior door locking mechanism flashes a sort of amber colour rather than green. 'That means the air's not breathable inside' says Isabella. 'Must be a malfunction with the atmospheric exchangers. We'll be fine in our surface suits. Can't say the same for anyone who was in there when the air turned bad.'

Sam nods. "We'd better go in and find out, then," she says.

Isabella punches the button and the internal door slides open. Unlike the large office the space is barely lit by dull red emergency lighting emanating from the edges of the floor. Isabella activates the lights on her surface suit which provides slightly more illumination. They're in a corridor that leads all the way through the four barrack-like buildings, exploring the first building it simply consists of the corridor plus a dormitory off to the side. It contains bunk beds, enough to sleep twelve. There's no sign they've been used, no bed linen. In one corner is a chemical toilet, also unused. Nothing else.

'Looks like no one's been in here. Let's check the other buildings,' says Isabella.

"Right," says Sam. "Let's check the next one."

“It looks like they were set up for a lot of workers to arrive and then something went wrong.” Says Nicole.

Re the long minute in the airlock: takes me straight back to those elevators at the Citadel in Mass Effect.

The door to the next building is shut, the lock flashing red. Isabella presses it but it doesn't open. 'Someone's locked it from this side.' She opens up a control panel and taps a few keys. The button turns orange and she presses it, the door sliding open. The corridor is again illuminated by the dull red floorlights. Just inside the door is a body. Dressed in a surface suit, the helmet removed. The oxygen indicator still blinks red. It's a man, his face is flushed red but his lips are blue. 'Suffocated,' says Isabella.

"At least it wasn't Kiara," says Sam. "We should stay suited up when we're in these buildings. Just in case." She searches the body for anything of interest, such as identification.

It is difficult to search the surface suit but Sam is able to unzip it to access the inside. The dead man is wearing fairly anonymous looking coveralls like she has seen on the other workers throughout the Benedict's Rest operations. She does note that written over the left breast pocked it says CONVICT. The man has no other identification that she can find.



While Sam is searching the body, Isabella goes a little further inside the building. 'Got another one,' she shouts from the dormitory, just out of sight. Turning the corner and joining her, Sam and Nicole find another dead body. A woman this time. Her dark skin is blotchy and discoloured while her lips are blue. She is just dressed in coveralls with no surface suit on. Again, the word CONVICT is written on the left breast pocket. Searching the body, which is a lot easier without the surface suit, they find a magnetic identification card, like the ones they were issued on arrival at Benedict's Rest. Only this one is marked CONVICT rather than VISITOR PASS and it also lists a name, Hassana Adeoye.

I still cannot make myself call it Benedict's Rest and I'm sure I've continued to use the name Barnard's Rest everywhere.

Knowing that asking CENTRAL about the dead convicts would be useless, Sam explores the rest of the building.

This barrack building is just like the other one. Bunk beds, unused. Chemical toilet, also unused. Nothing else.

Let's have a Spot Hidden

Sam finds nothing more of interest.

Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) searching the barracks:
d%

Searching through the composite-plastic bunkbeds, Sam can't find any evidence they've ever been used. No bed linen, no real damage. She even slips a hand into the u-bend of the toilet to see if there's anything hidden there but she finds nothing. And gets her suit gauntlets pretty manky. While she's washing the toilet chemicals off her gloves, uncomfortably aware of the corpse lying in the same room, Isabella wanders back out into the hallway.

'Eugh, more blood' she signals over the radio. She shows Sam the back of the door between the first and second barracks buildings. It has slid shut again and there are great streaks of blood across it and around the doorframe. There's nothing obviously written in the blood, it's just smeared across the door. She wanders back into the bedroom area and calls Sam in to see. Lifting the hands of the corpse the ends of her fingers are ragged and bloody, nails seemingly ripped from most of the fingers. Looking at the body still in the Titan surface suit, the ends of his gloves are worn through and bloodied fingers poke out.

'Tried to claw their way out' mutters Isabella in disgust.

"CENTRAL, what happened here, and why?" asks Sam, not really expecting a straight answer.

CENTRAL answers Sam in a manner of speaking, 'Please clarify your question.'

"How and why did these people die?" asks Sam, rolling her eyes.

“Convicts? Do you think they escaped from somewhere or are here officially? In which case where are the guards?” Nicole pokes around.

“If they were attacked, either physically or mentally, it seems to have happened before they settled in.”
“So you think all the others were taken off somewhere? Like into that pit?”

Sorry, I missed the resumption.

"Where would the convicts go?" asks Sam. "They can't get off this rock, and if they want to get fed, they'll have to do their work and not try to run away. The company doesn't really need guards to keep track of them, just supervisors. Besides, CENTRAL can track their location at all times. I'm guessing they were sent to work at Waystation because they're considered expendable."

“I bet they found something hazardous but worthwhile digging up and got the convicts in to do the work.”
Nicole hunkers down by one of the bodies, looking at the fingers.
“Do you think it was a mental attack, like the ones we’ve been having, and it drove them all crazy? It might have happened when Kiara was here and she’s been taken off with all the others.”

"It's possible," says Sam.

After a long pause, CENTRAL answers Sam. 'Analysing sensor array log...analysing...analysis complete. Data indicate that the two humans in Barracks Two died from hypoxia. This was caused by critically low oxygen levels in the atmosphere of Barracks Two - currently at 7%.'

"Uh huh," says Sam. "And what caused the critically low oxygen levels in Barracks Two?"

CENTRAL responds, 'Analysing sensor array log...analysing...analysis complete. Data indicate that oxygen levels started falling at
12:05 two days ago. Station records show that the oxygen generators in the Barracks Complex were deactivated at 11:20 two days ago.'

Isabella gives a shudder, 'Why would anyone seal these people inside and turn of the oxygen supply?'

"Right," says Sam, knowing well enough that artificial intelligences are anything but intelligent - and that this one may be reluctant to divulge the whole truth. She asks the next question in the sequence, hoping to finally arrive at the answer she seeks. "Who deactivated the oxygen generators?"

Sam receives the response she was probably expecting from CENTRAL. 'I am afraid that information on the presence and location of Waystation crew is prohibited due to operational security.'

Sam nods. At least CENTRAL had implicitly admitted that a member of the Waystation crew had done it. "Why were the oxygen generators deactivated?" she asks.

Sam sighs. "Where are the oxygen generators?" she asks.

"Where in Barracks 1 is the service panel?" asks Sam.

"Right," says Sam to the others. "Once we're finished here, let's go to Barracks 1."

There's nothing much more to do in Barracks 2. With a look back at the body splayed out in the corridor, Isabella punches the door release and they re-enter Barracks 1. It remains silent and undisturbed. Near the main airlock, Sam easily identifies the access panel. It is indeed marked with an O2 symbol engraved into the plastic. It only takes her a matter of seconds to remove the panel, which is affixed with large screws. Behind the panel there's a standard oxygen generator unit with several electrolysis tanks. At a first glance it isn't obviously damaged but the unit appears to have no power.

Looks like a Mechanical Repair roll if you want to get this thing operating again and/or find out anything about how it was deactivated. Also, can everyone give me a Listen roll

LLL40%d%

Sam is too distracted by a noise to analyze the generator.

Mechanical Repair roll (60% skill) to find out how the generator was deactivated, and to reactivate it after I've examined it:
d%
Listen roll (20% base skill) in Barracks 1:
d%

"Did you hear that?" whispers Sam. "There's a soft metallic clinking sound from the airlock. We'd better check it out."

I won't be pushing it, at least not at this time. First we'd better do something about the noise.

“Careful, it could be anything.” Nicole preps her shotgun and leads the way slowly to the airlock.

The inner airlock door slides open at Nicole's touch. Inside the airlock itself it is empty. But there's a noise they can all hear now. A metallic -clink-, like metal on metal. It's coming from the outer airlock door. A rhythmic sound, -clink-clink-clink- then a gap, -clink-clink-clink-. Like someone is knocking on the door. 'Looks like someone wants to come in,' says Isabella.

"Jojo, is that you outside Barracks 1?" asks Sam into her communicator.

There's just that same rhythmic static in response.

"CENTRAL, who is outside Barracks 1?" asks Sam, not expecting a straight answer.

And Sam is not disappointed. 'I am afraid that information on the presence and location of Waystation crew is prohibited due to operational security.'

"Shall we open it?" Sam asks Nicole, now having had it confirmed that it's a member of the Waystation crew outside - though that could also be Kiara. "I mean, we can't stay in here forever anyway."

'Or Jojo,' adds Isabella. 'These radios seem to be acting screwy out here. Electromagnetic interference or something.'

“It’s all we can do. If you stand to one side and open the door, I’ll stand back and aim to shoot as soon as the door opens.”
Nicole nods.

The inner airlock door slides shut. Isabella keys the outer airlock atmospheric exchange and they all stand there while the freezing air of Titan hisses into the small chamber. All the while the clink-clink-clink continues.

Eventually the door release flashes from red to green and Isabella presses it and opens the door. 'Ready.'



Standing outside in the low light is someone in a Titan surface suit. The bright lamp temporarily blinding and obscuring their features through the helmet visor.

Sam stands back and lets Nicole take the lead. "Who goes there?" she asks.

The figure doesn't respond. It just stands there in front of the airlock.

Sam looks at the suit to see if there are any identifying labels or markings on it.

It looks like the standard issue Titan surface suits from Benedict's Rest.

The figure continues to just stand there, immobile, before the airlock. Sam gets a little closer, trying to make out of she can recognise who it is through the glare. She shines her own suit lamp at the visor.

In response, the figure pulls back, their light swings to the side, and Sam and Nicole can both make out the face through the visor. 'Shit! exclaims Isabella.

Inside the helmet, Sam's lamp reveals a pallid, waxy visage. The face is clearly human but also mask-like and expressionless. The eyes are dull and black, and where the nose should be is only a flash of white bone. They all recognise the face. It is Moses as they last saw him. Dead.

SAN check please, 1/1d4.

"That's impossible..." says Sam, her jaw dropping.

Sanity roll (current level 55) for seeing Moses:
d%
Sanity loss:
1d4

“It’s not him!”

San: 95 fail, loss:1. Is he carrying a weapon?

Through the glare reflecting off the visor, it is possible to make out Moses's leathery lips forming shapes, seemingly with a great effort, like someone attempting to speak a foreign language for the first time. His eyes remain glassy and unfocused. His hands empty, but one of his suit gloves ripped, revealing shrivelled and claw-like fingers.

Initially, all Sam can hear is static over the suit radio. Then the background hum begins to coalesce into something approaching human speech. It takes her a few seconds to recognise Moses's voice. Faltering and strained. '...Swimmer in Void is waiting for us, in the maze with seven thousand crystal frames. You must come with me Sam, to the gate, the Gate of Tawil at’Umr. The crystalliser of dreams calls us. It is...so beautiful.'

OOC:   Another SAN 1/1d4 please.

Unsteadily, Moses starts to move towards the airlock, swaying from side-to-side as if he can barely recall how to walk. Before he's gone more than a couple of steps he suddenly shoots backwards and doubles over. The movement accompanied by a deafening explosion, a crunching p-chew noise originating from directly behind Sam and Nicole. Awkwardly turning they can both see Isabella lying in the corridor gripping a smoking shotgun.

Sam retains her tenuous grip on reality. "Isabella!" she cries, checking to see if it's too late to save her life, though she's pretty sure it is if her suit has been breached.

Sanity roll (current level 52) for hearing the voice:
d%

Isabella doesn't appear injured, her suit seems intact. It looks like she was blown back by the force of firing the shotgun in low gravity. Moses straightens himself up. The low powered riot round fired at close range blackened the front of his surface suit but it doesn't seem to have penetrated the material.

His mask-like face shifts subtly, a look more suggestive of confusion appears, a trickle of blood dribbles from between the waxy lips which repeatedly form meaningless shapes like a fish suffocating out of water.

Over the radio Sam hears Moses again, a note of hurt injected into the scratchy sound, '...What are you doing? I am trying to help you, help us all. Come with me. I understand now. Come with me and hear the forty-ninth unveiling of Olqa at last. I can hear Ëka-Galä. I can feel them looking at me from beyond the fifth-dimensional gulf, the Court of H'rada-Theka Pannakar.'

"Did you hear that?" Sam asks Nicole and Isabella. "Moses wants us to follow him to the Gate of Tawil at'Umr. He's talking like the others who started going loopy were."

Isabella struggles to her feet in the bulky surface suit. Keeping the shotgun trained on Moses. 'Moses is gone Sam, whatever this thing is it isn't him.' She swings the firearm between Moses and Sam, 'And he isn't saying anything, you're starting to sound like one of them again.'

'...No Sam, it is me. I finally understand. Ëka-Galä is talking to me, the Swimmer wants to help us. You just have to listen. We've been chosen. Tawil at’Umr, is the Gate and the Key to the Gate. To finally become one with H'rada-Theka Pannakar we just have to pass through...'

“It’s a puppet!”
Nicole unlimbers her flame thrower,
“Maybe this will touch it!”
She starts the flame going...

Whoops, sorry: I’d forgotten she only had one blast left and I’m not going to rate it on a drone. Can I change it for her pistol instead? 70% roll: 36 damage?? Roll 1d10 9

Nicole aims for Moses’ head and pulls the trigger.

Nicole swings down the incinerator from her shoulder and lights the torch. She thrusts it ahead of her, pointing towards Moses. He reaches forward, a shrivelled clawed hand pointing towards Sam and Nicole. His face contorts, an expression not quite of pain but of conflict perhaps, his jaw continues to move repetitively like a silently masticating cow.

Moses's voice comes over the radio, recognisably him despite the odd polyphonic quality, his tone is pleading. '...They do not understand. Only we understand. Only we have been chosen...'

Then Nicole lowers the incinerator and reaches to her belt. She draws a pistol and levels it at Moses's head.

'...Noooo!'

She fires a single round, bracing herself then rolling with the recoil, managing to remain standing rather than being blasted backwards like Isabella. The face shield of Moses's helmet is struck by the low penetration round which at this range still makes a small hole in the reinforced polycarbonate, a hiss of air escaping from the suit and the water vapour immediately freezing. A spattering of blood obscuring the visor and Moses's face. Then the transparent visor material begins to line and fracture, little cracks radiating out from the perfect circle where the bullet has penetrated. Moses collapses face down into the red methane dirt.

That's one round left in her pistol I believe

'That's some nice shooting,' says Isabella as she walks up behind Nicole, placing a hand on her arm. Stepping past Nicole, Isabella prods the prone form of Moses with her boot.

There's a groan, '...Eeuugh...'

And the withered ungloved hand twitches and then grabs hold of her ankle.

Sam smacks Moses with her stun baton.

Fighting(Brawl) roll (50% skill) to hit Moses with the stun baton:
d%

“Damn, it’s still alive!” Nicole shouts. She looks for something to bash Moses with.

Luck 40. Roll:92

Sam strikes the hand round Isabella's ankle with her stun baton which discharges in blue sparks. Isabella shrieks, 'Shit Sam that hurt.' The mummified hand spasms and releases Isabella's foot and she tumbles back.

'Uughh!' comes the faltering voice over the radio. It is hoarser and...wetter than before.

Glancing about wildly for something to hit Moses with, Nicole can't see anything lying around until she remembers she is not only carrying the incinerator and pistol but also has a shotgun and stun baton in her pack.

LLd%LLdd1d101d6dd1d6dd/Ld1d10

"Sorry," says Sam, helping Isabella. "I had to get him to let you go. He's still...well, alive isn't the word. I heard his voice over the radio. It's getting hoarser and wetter. He won't stay down long. These stun batons wear off quickly. Should we...burn him?"

“How about throwing him into the pit. We could use him as a depth sounder.” Nicole checks her ammunition on all her weapons to see how much is left.

"We'd better hurry, before he comes to," says Sam. "Let's bind him first in case he does."

“This is assuming the pit is actually real.” Nicole helps Sam to bind Moses’ arms and feet. “And not just our imagination.”

As they try and tie his hands and feet Moses resists. He pulls smoothly and firmly against their grip. It's impossible to make out his face through the suit visor which is coated on the inside with a feathery patina of ice crystals, but a continuous trickle of vapour discharges through a hole in the centre that is encrusted with fragments of water and methane ice.

A hard STR roll from both of you - only one needs to succeed.

'...No, I must go to the gate...see Ëka-Galä...be with the Swimmer...be the Swimmer...feed the empty sequence and rhythm...'

Nicole has 1 charge left in her incinerator. She has one round left in her pistol. No reloads for either. She has a stun baton (batteries are good for quite a few uses), she has a shotgun with five riot shells and something mad like 60 more shells in boxes stuffed in a duffle bag. I'm saying the shotgun and stun baton are stowed in the backpack of the surface suit.

Sam's strength fails her. "Boy, he really doesn't want to go into the pit," she says as he resists her. "He says on the radio he wants to go to the Gate, to be with the Swimmer, and to be the Swimmer. Whatever that means."

STR roll (70% / 2 = 35% stat) to bind Moses:
d%

“So why’d he come and bother us? Damn it!” Nicole curses as Moses twists out of her grip. So instead, she jumps back and tries to get her stun baton out of her rucksack before Moses can get back to his feet.

Str 55 roll: 37 fail. DEX 70 roll: 17

Moses slowly slides backwards across the orange snow, his feet scraping gouges in the soft methane. He jerkily, mechanically, gets to his feet, standing a few metres from the airlock, immobile, invisible behind the iced-up helmet, the continuous hiss of vapour dwindling to a trickle.



As Moses staggers to his feet, Nicole manages to retrieve the stun baton from her bag.

Nicole can go first, then Sam.

Nicole spins round and points the stun baton at Moses, she activated it.

Stun baton roll: 44

Nicole has been a Colonial Marshal for some time. She's used to fighting in low gravity, and with her years of Brazilian jiu-jitsu training she knows how to bring down an opponent, even in unwieldy surface suits. With the stun baton in one hand she reaches forward with the other and grabs Moses's suit, kicking out with her leg to take him down to the ground. In the gentle gravity of Titan he drifts forwards towards the surface and Nicole twists away to deliver a shock from the baton to Moses's suit, just below the helmet where it meets the body. It discharges and crackles but Moses's rigid body doesn't move, he just lies face down in the orange snow.

“Take that you, you perambulating dead person!” Nicole shouts.

Moses treats the jibe with the contempt it deserves. Or, at least, he's not moving or saying anything.

"Let's get moving with him while he's stunned," says Sam, helping to finish binding Moses, grateful that at least the low gravity will make it easier to carry him.

Sam and Nicole each grab one of Moses's arms in order to tie him up. Even through the surface suits the two loud cracks are audible, accompanied by the matching sensation of the arms snapping off at the shoulder, inside his suit. They look at each other, each holding a flapping, disarticulated limb.

SAN check 0/1

"Good thing I'm not a biologist," says Sam. "Otherwise I'd know this is impossible."

Sanity roll (current level 51) for Moses's severed arms moving:
d%

“I think his body might be frozen, brittle. Pretty grim but at least he’s dead and can’t feel it.” Nicole helps Sam drag the body towards the pit.

Sanity:55 roll:27

It's difficult to be sure through the suit but the body does seem very solid, like it's frozen. The arms remain immobile but disarticulated at the shoulder. Sam and Nicole haul Moses towards the pit, dragging him through the orange snow, suit stretching at the top of the arms where they are no longer attached to the body. He doesn't move or say anything.

"He's not responding any more," says Sam. "I think he's dead for keeps this time. We should give him a decent burial."

“Well there’s a big enough hole for him. You can say a few words when we throw him over. And then we really must find Kiara.” Nicole tries not to shudder at the thought of what’s inside the suit as she shifts it towards the edge of the hole.

Isabella follows the other two and peers over the edge of the pit. 'If Jojo's down there do we want to dump Moses on him?' She shields her eyes and looks back and forth, 'I can't see shit down there.'

"Jojo, are you down there?!" calls Sam.

Looking over the edge and shouting into her radio, Sam struggles to see anything but an eerie blue glow that suffuses the very rock itself and seems to blur and distort the base of the pit, perhaps illuminating some kind of vapour. All that she can make out is a rectangular area in the centre of the pit, just visible through being brighter than the surrounding rock. There is no reply from Jojo.

"Should we try going down there?" asks Sam.

Nicole remembers her earlier visions. “Well, we haven’t found Kiara up here. And something doesn’t want us to go down there so... perhaps we should. We can dump Moses over and then find a slower way down for ourselves. Come on, help me with the body.”

"If we just drop him, he could damage whatever's down there," says Sam, "and I think we broke him enough. I could set up a pulley system quick and lower him - and ourselves for that matter."

"Well, I guess with the low gravity, there's no harm from the drop," says Sam. "I'd want to descend more slowly myself, though. Don't want to breach our suits."

Sam and Isabella launch Moses's body off the side of the pit. It slowly arcs through the hazy orange atmosphere and into the strange blue glow. After maybe ten metres or so he disappears into the gloom. Peering over the edge there's that high-pitched throbbing noise again.

Isabella walks over to the nearest metal ladder hammered into the ice and taps it with the barrel of her shotgun. A tinny noise rings out. 'Anyone volunteering to go first? She looks over the edge. 'I don't really want to find out what's making that noise.'

"Not me," says Sam with a shudder.

“Too late to shotgun holding the fort up here I suppose.” Nicole has no desire whatsoever to descend into that hole but there seems little choice in the matter.”
“Guess we need to retrieve the Android too.”
She stomps over to the ladder, making sure her electric zapper is ready to hand, and starts to descend.
“You’d better be hot on my heels.” She tells the others as her head lowers below the edge. “So to speak.”

"I'll go second, then," says Sam.

Nicole starts off climbing down the metal rungs, followed by Sam and finally Isabella. They have to stow all their weapons and tools in their backpacks and bags in order to grip the ladder properly. Sam looks down to see Nicole disappearing into the oppressive darkness. The throbbing noise is becoming louder and louder, and the blue glow brighter and brighter, the lower they go into the crater.

Nicole can feel that nagging, painful feeling at the back of her skull again. Not as sharp but still insistent. There's that image again. Something massive, falling out of the sky down towards the surface of Titan. It's there for a second and then gone. Just that same lingering sensation of being...unwelcome.

The throbbing is something Sam can more feel than hear. High-pitched, rhythmic, speeding up and rising in pitch until it reaches a crescendo and then starts over again. It's unpleasant, Sam feels like there are cavities in her skull that are resonating sympathetically. There's a sensation, nagging, painful, at the back of her skull. She gets a flash, an image, ice fields under an orange sky it looks like Titan but seen from high up, orbit maybe. And there's something in the sky, getting bigger, casting a shadow across the surface, bigger and bigger, falling maybe, blocking the red sun. Then it's gone. She looks up and the sky is clear, just that orange haze. Shaking her head she's sure that it was just an image. There's still a residual, nagging pain at the back of her skull. She doesn't know why but she has the strong sense that she's not welcome here.

From up above Isabella gives a cry. 'That damn throbbing noise, feels like someone's trying to tell us something. Get out of here while you can!'

It takes a few minutes of steady climbing to reach the bottom of the pit. As Nicole steps off the ladder she turns to take in the vista. Now that she's at the bottom she can see that there is a rim of sloping methane ice that has been dug out to expose a flat surface jutting out the centre of the pit at an oblique angle. It is smooth and black, like basalt, and the blue glow appears to be coming directly from the material itself. It is odd that she couldn't make all this out from the surface but now she can see power cables running down the side of the pit from the surface, there are strings of lights hanging from the bottom of the ladder to the middle of the glowing black structure. The centre of that black surface is covered with a white pressure dome.

As Sam and Isabella clamber down the remaining rungs of the ladder, Nicole slides down the methane ice slope towards the black structure. Around the pressure dome is a collection of heating elements, cutting equipment, and site worklights. Through the translucent material of the pressure dome, she can see that there seems to be some kind of opening in the black surface, an area where the blue glow is fainter.

"I feel it too," says Sam as she unpacks her equipment and follows Nicole. "I don't like being here either, but we have to check it out."

“Merde, has Kiara and Jojo gone in there?” Nicole puts her hand on the surface of the dome. “Can you see a way in?” She walks slowly around it.

Sam inspects the dome, looking for an entrance.

Nicole places her hands on the translucent plastic covering of the pressure dome. It gives slightly at her touch but there is an evident push back. Something is maintaining pressure within the dome. Joined by Sam and Isabella they walk around the dome to inspect it, the dome is circular with a diameter of around five metres, it is taped down onto the smooth stone surface. Within the dome and visible through the transparent plastic there is a rectangular hole in the ground, at the centre of the dome, about three metres at its longest. The dome itself has a sort of short vestibule on one side, not quite an airlock since it probably only facilitates passive gas exchange. Isabella unzips the outer flap and climbs into the vestibule. There's just about enough room for the three of them inside. Closing the outer flap and unzipping the inner door they enter the pressure dome proper one at a time. Isabella seals the flap behind them, 'Don't want to vent the air.'

Roll Spot Hidden

Sam sees nothing else of interest.

Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) examining the dome:
d%

Spot hidden: 60. Roll: 28

Nicole looks around warily.

As Sam is examining the dome, Nicole notices something flashing on the control panel of Sam's suit. Checking the same readout on her own suit she sees that it has detected sufficient oxygen levels for human respiration but hazardous levels of carbon dioxide. She looks around for signs of gas exchangers or whatever else is making the oxygen but there's nothing obvious inside the pressure dome.

Looking at what the dome is covering, they see the same smooth black stone surface that emits the faint blue glow. In the very centre of the dome there is a hole penetrating through the stone to a darkness below. There's no obvious door or anything else that indicates how it might be sealed, if indeed it is a door or hatch. Some sort of plastic-runged ladder is attached to the stone with ultrastrong tape and hangs inside the opening. Around the outside of the opening on the back stone surface are two concentric patterns. The inner one consists of several rows or columns of small hexagonal shapes etched into the stone. Many have arms coming off to make six-sided star-shapes, while some have only one or two arms, and others lack one or two arms from the star. The outer pattern is a series of sculpted scenes carved in bas relief. They depict strange six-limbed creatures with a disconcerting frog or squid-like appearance. It is not entirely clear what they're doing from the scenes depicted except that stars seem to be prominent in the background and the figures are carrying various rods and sceptres.

Take 1/1d6 SAN loss after a Sanity check for seeing an alien artefact up close.

Roll Art or Archaeology regarding the carvings, roll Science (Physics) or a hard Own Language for info on the hexagonal script, and roll regular Science (Planetary) or hard Science (Chemistry) to find out about the stone structure.

"Proof of alien life!" says Sam, more excited than afraid. "Intelligent alien life! And someone knew about it!" She begins examining the find.

Sanity roll (current level 51) finding the alien artifact:
d%
Art roll (5% base skill) about the carvings:
d%
Science(Physics) roll (41% skill) about the hexagonal script:
d%
Science(Planetary) roll (41% skill) about the stone structure:
d%

• sanity roll: 96, san loss: 4
  Art roll: 89, own language roll: 92; science roll: 65

“No! What really? All those squiggles?”
Nicole frowns.

While Nicole can make neither head nor tail of what she is seeing, Sam can see that from the strata and depth of the surrounding rock, this structure could have been here for thousands, even millions of years. The stone of the structure itself is utterly unfamiliar to her and she cannot even hypothesise what it is made of or why it emits that blue glow. Certainly the stone is not indigenous to Titan. And the odd hexagonal shapes, they seem to represent some kind of alphabet or numerical system, maybe an alien form of writing. A base-six numeric system would make sense looking at the six-limbed form of the frog-like entities represented in the carvings. Isabella runs her hands over the reliefs. 'Look at these. They're completely smooth, no tool marks of any kind. I wonder what stage of development these creatures attained? Ancient Greek level perhaps? Or do you think they were space faring?'

Sam shares her findings. "They had to be spacefaring," says Sam. "The stone is thousands of years old, at least, and it's not from Titan. So unless you think humans made it to Titan in ancient times, someone else must have brought it here."

'So where are they now?' asks Isabella. 'We've never seen any signs of intelligent life before. Where did they come from, and what happened to them?'

Sam shrugs. "After all this time, who knows?" she says. "Maybe they wiped themselves out. It's a miracle we didn't. We might find out more information about them down below."

“Let’s try the entrance.” Nicole leads the way. “We know something’s messing with us here, maybe this is it; aliens! And it looks like Richter Dynamics knew all about them too- this looks like their equipment here.”

Isabella picks up a length of cable, 'Yep, Richter Dynamics, they even stamp it on their wiring, the arrogant arseholes.'

-----

Nicole steps through the rectangular opening and climbs down the rungs of the ladder. That incessant high-pitched noise has been nagging at the edge of her awareness but as she passes beneath the stone surface it suddenly stops. She drops the last few feet onto the sloping floor which is smooth and glassy.

She's in a rectangular tunnel or corridor, some three metres wide and four metres up to the opening above. The walls are as smooth as the floor except for a frieze running along the length, both sides, as far as the eye can see. More of the six-limbed squid-creatures carved in bas relief. The tunnel continues forward and upwards, or backwards and downwards. Thick ropes of electrical and data cables dangle down through the opening above and continue in both directions. Dull strings of floor lights weakly illuminate the ground. Sam and Isabella clamber down behind her.

'At least that noise has stopped,' remarks Isabella.

It is difficult to keep a firm footing on the slippery stone, although their feet do seem to have more traction on the surface, like the gravity is higher here.

Can you roll me Zero/Low G to see how they manage on the slippery slope and also Listen

Sam manages the slope adequately, but she hears nothing in her suit.

Zero/Low G roll (50% skill) climbing the slope:
d%
Listen roll (20% base skill) climbing the slope:
d%

Zero G 70 roll:21 listen 45 roll:21

Nicole places her boots carefully to maintain her balance.
Wait. What was that?” She listens carefully.

The three manage to get a firm footing on the slippery black stone. Isabella immediately turns to the reliefs seemingly carved into the rock. She runs her hands over them, entranced by the strange and alien forms. 'Look at these carvings, they're stylised yet naturalistic, like you're seeing something the artist knew well in life. It's remarkable.'

While Sam is getting her bearings, Nicole hears something, something coming from the descending limb of the tunnel. It's faint but rhythmic, like the pounding of feet. Then over the radio crackles something, a male voice, 'Mayday, mayday. I am being pursued and in danger. Is there anybody out there?' The voice is oddly formal, a little stilted even. And familiar. It's Jojo.

"It's Sam, Jojo," replies Sam. "Where exactly are you?"

“He’s further down the tunnel, heading this way! Let’s get ready for evac. Dammit, where’s Kiara?” Nicole gets ready her flame thrower and points it down the tunnel.

"Do you know where Kiara is?" Sam adds into the communicator.

The thumping noise gets louder and a bright light appears out of the gloom. Moving rapidly up the slope towards them. It's someone in a Titan surface suit running at an impossible speed, even given the attenuated gravity of Titan.

"Identify yourself!" calls Sam, readying her stun baton.

“Is it JoJo? Can he run that fast?” Nicole shouts, readying her flame thrower for its final blast. She looks beyond the racing figure-what is chasing it?

The sprinting figure slows down, but it's still moving at quite a lick towards them. Over the radio comes Jojo's voice again, 'I'm running towards where I came in down the curve. I've been trying to reach you but there must be some kind of interference down here. I'm being chased by the thing that impaled me earlier.'

Isabella shouts, 'He's nearly on top of us. Is it Jojo or...something else?' She unslings her shotgun.

Is that something in the darkness, behind the running figure? It doesn't look right, are there eyes? A face? But then it's gone. Disintegrating into the gloom. Probably nothing.

"I think this is Jojo," says Sam. "I see someone behind him, chasing him. It doesn't look right. I thought I saw eyes and a face, but they're gone now."

Spot Hidden roll (55 / 2 = 27.5% skill) looking at the suited figure:
d%

“Let’s hope you’re right!” Nicole gets ready with her incinerator to blast the second figure as soon as the first is past.
“What does he mean- the curve?”

Spot hidden: 60 roll:49

"Must still be ahead of us," says Sam, getting her own flamethrower ready to deal with Jojo's pursuer.