Play@YSDC

'Um, of course it's me!' comes the exclamation over the radio. 'And we didn't arrange any password that I can remember.'

"Okay, then it's really you," says Sam. "We got a transmission earlier from someone claiming to be Sergeant Montrose. You know, the dead guy?"

"Right, we'll talk more when we arrive," says Sam. "It'll be at least another couple of hours."

"Okay, we'll keep you posted," says Sam.

"How much longer before we arrive?" Jojo asks the people up front.

Day 3
13th March 2189
00:30 Earth Central European Time
Waystation, Titan

The rest of the journey to Waystation is monotonous but uneventful. It takes several more hours as Isabella had warned them. Occasionally, Sam thinks she sees something in her peripheral vision, almost like something flying, like a bird, but when she turns her head to look there is nothing there. Approaching the location of Waystation there's no sign of any construction along the shoreline, no railings or walkways, no silver pumps, no tubing snaking into the sea, it is clearly not a pumping station. Turning inland, away from the smooth beach-like shore of Ligeia Mare, with its inlets and bays, something starts to become visible in the distance.



The silhouette of a mobile derrick is visible from miles away across the flat landscape and it takes some time to approach. Several metallic prefabricated buildings emerge as the rover closes the distance. To the east, multiple gigantic storage silos, they must be at least twenty metres tall. To the south and west more prefabs. Separated from the main structures there is a watch tower beside a landing strip. And on the landing strip is a shuttle in Richter Dynamics markings, beside it the smaller outline of a silver copter.

"Looks like someone else came here besides Kiara," says Sam. "Let's find her first." She uses the communicator to try to contact Kiara.

Sam tries to hail the copter but there's no answer. She pings the transponder and confirms its the one from the colony that Kiara was travelling in. Trying a broader frequency handshake all she can get is static except for on the very edge of the usual channels. There's something, a whining sound, repeating in a cyclical pattern, speeding up and rising in pitch until reaching a crescendo and then starting over again.

"Looks like we're going to have to get out and look for her," says Sam. "We can check out the vehicles first."

“That noise; it’s not code is it? Can we decipher it or will it take too long?”
Nicole looks up at the derrick,
“Are they drilling for something? Whatever it is there’s a lot of it; look at the size of those silos! Let’s be ready before we go out; weapons loaded, we can’t trust anybody or anything; we need to rely on our scanners and if we get separated we should meet back here at the landing pad. Anything else?”

"Let me take a look," says Sam, examining the noise and trying to determine how long it would take to decipher a signal, if there is one.

Jojo listens to the static with the others. "We were just talking to her. Why won't she answer?"

He looks at the Richter shuttle. "I think we should investigate the shuttle first. It may be our way off world."

"Yeah," says Sam. "We just need some way to keep the Company from shooting us down. Once we board the shuttle and check out the logs, we may be able to determine who exactly came here and why."

“Let’s get that shuttle ready to fly at a moment’s notice.”
Nicole leads the way over to the shuttle, keeping a good look out all around.

I’ve lost track of what weapons we’ve got. Can we take all of them?!