IC - 19 - Surface of Titan - Everyone except Kiara

[Mr. Handy]

"Don't look at me," says Sam as she boards the rover. "I'm crazy, remember?"

[Mephistophilis]

As the others load Moses's body into the rover, Isabella just stands there in the snow, pieces of vomit dripping down the inside of her visor. 'Eugh...What. The. Fuck. Just happened?'

People need to wear these suits for sustained periods of time. So they have built in water and nutritional distribution through a tube that can be accessed by the mouth and sucked on. If necessary there is a way to add something to the nutrient system, and with the suit wearer's consent, there's an access point where something small like a tablet or capsule could be introduced. Getting the dosing right of something like a sedative would be tricky as you'd need to include the distribution volume of the suit itself (a hard Medicine roll), although you'd be more likely to under or over sedate rather than kill someone unless it went really wrong. I presume Jojo brought his medical bag, that would have things like a basic sedative.

[Mr. Handy]

"I don't even know any more," says Sam.

[aine]

“Just get on board, Isabella and then you can get cleaned up. I’ll drive.”
Nicole has no special skills but she’ll do her best. She climbs over to the driver’s seat and starts flicking buttons to prepare to leave.

[Starspawn338]

Sorry, I thought once we were in the rover and it was sealed, we could travel without our helmets on.

"I don't mean you need to take your own helmet off, just that you consent to me putting the sedative into your nutrient distribution system so that you can calm down a bit." Jojo responds. "You're obviously overwrought and hearing voices is a clear sign that you need something to help you relax."

[Mr. Handy]

"No thank you," says Sam to Jojo. "I really don't want any more dreams."

[aine]

Nicole glances at Sam and then gives a worried look to Jojo; they are losing team members and can’t afford another casualty.
She puts the rover into gear and starts driving towards Waystation.

[Mephistophilis]

After Isabella stumbles back into the rover, Nicole immediately closes the external doors and starts driving away from the abandoned rover, which sits lonely in the middle of a featureless patch of methane snow about twenty metres from a channel of glassy black liquid methane.

Isabella purges her helmet and something pretty unpleasant looking gets vented into the back of the rover to splatter over the walls. She scrambles over to Moses's body and starts jabbing at the control panel on his suit. 'There's no life signs. What happened. What the hell happened. Doctor Johnson, can't you do something?'

Let's have a Drive (Auto) or Navigation roll to see what direction Nicole heads off in.

Titan's surface looks as barren as ever, no signs of trees or grass or water.

[Mr. Handy]

"They're gone!" exclaims Sam. "The water, the trees - all gone!"

[Starspawn338]

'There's no life signs. What happened. What the hell happened. Doctor Johnson, can't you do something?'

"I'm sorry but I'm only a doctor, I cannot bring people back to life." Jojo replies. "I tried to warn him."

"They're gone!" exclaims Sam. "The water, the trees - all gone!"

"They were never really there. The voice in your head is the thing you need to worry about now."

[aine]

“Just as well you didn’t go for a paddle in that stream, Sam; it was liquid methane.
From now on; we back everything up with a scanner and if the machines don’t sense it we don’t believe it. Okay?
Now, I assume we continue in this direction for Waystation. Anyone else like to check the map for me?”
Nicole concentrates on picking the best route as the rover continues across the landscape.

Drive (20) roll: 50

[Mr. Handy]

"We can't trust machines either," says Sam, trying not to look at Jojo. "They can be infected too. Look what happened to CENTRAL. I'm not hearing the voice any more, at least."

[Mephistophilis]

Nicole has to divert a little from the direction they were travelling in order to avoid the dark rivers of methane that perforate the flat orange plane. By the time she is able to turn back towards the direction they had been travelling she has lost her bearings.

In the back of the rover Isabella is thumping the walls, 'And why the fuck is he dead, what did you do?'

Anyone apart from Nicole can roll Navigate

[Mr. Handy]

"Didn't we already pass that rock formation?" asks Sam. "I can't be sure. They all look the same to me."

Navigate roll (10% base skill) to find Waystation:
d%

[Starspawn338]

Navigate 10
1d100

Hard Success

Jojo looks up and then at the rover instruments.

"I think you need to be bearing in that direction." He points to what he has calculated to the best route to the Waystation.

[aine]

Nicole looks at Jojo with relief and turns the rover in the direction indicated.
“Maybe you could give Isabella something to calm her before she knocks a hole through the wall.” She then says.

[Mephistophilis]

With Jojo's calculations, Nicole quickly gets the rover back on the route to Waystation. Sam's pretty sure they're going the wrong way but no one seems to be listening to her at the moment.

Tiring of thumping around in the back, Isabella stomps up to the cab and collapses into her seat in the front, next to Nicole. 'So no one's going to tell me what the fuck is going on, is that right?' She stands up again and starts moving around the confined cabin, knocking into things, like she's looking for something.

[Mr. Handy]

"I would, if I knew myself," says Sam.

[aine]

Nicole watches where she is driving but says,
“First they messed with CENTRAL. They hooked what was left of Steinmann up to it, somehow. So they can manipulate computers and organics. As far as I see it.
Back there they got to all of us to a lesser, and to Moses, a greater extent. I guess he saw the flora, thought there was air and took his helmet off. Instant death.”
Nicole guides the rover between two methane rivers.
“Luckily I saw the rover’s scanners weren’t picking any of it up. And Jojo could see the truth of it too of course.
“Virgil and Moses have gone. But we can learn valuable lessons from them- so their deaths aren’t in vain.
“From Virgil; that we should stick together as a team...” Nicole wonders how Kiara is getting on.
“And from Moses; that we must be more careful than ever; that an attack can be of any form.”

[Starspawn338]

"I concur with what Nicole says. I might add that we have notified corporate and that unless we can get this under control, they will not hesitate to destroy the colony, therefore, we are under threat of termination if we cannot get to the bottom of this...." Jojo adds, "even if it kills us to do so."