Chapter 2: The City

[Mr. Handy]

Hurriedly, Sam attempts to perform a manual override to keep the inner door from opening.

Spoiler:

If Hattie orders Boss to open the outer door, will the safety protocols prevent the inner door from opening?

[Supercape]

OOC:   That sound perfectly plausible, although it is being opposed by the thing in the airlock which makes it tricky. Ill say a D100 roll, if it matches INTx1% you have it trapped (by some clever false protocols, sealing both doors permanently) if it matches INTx5%, you slow it down, meaning the outer door opens, and the inner door is hard to open

[Mr. Handy]

"I can't stop it!" cries Sam. "Hattie, try to get Boss to open the outer door. Then the inner door can't open!"

Spoiler:

INT roll (INT x 1 = 15% stat, INT x 5 = 75% stat) to override the airlock doors:

Mr. Handy rolled 1d100:
82

[aine]

Once Seth has got the T-prop ready for immediate evac, he rummages around for kit with which to adjust the outer scanners. Once loaded up and kitted up he attempts to open the hanger door to exit the base. But the doors stay sealed and he can't override it. He presses the comm link by the door.

"Boss? Se -er- Dylan here. Can you open the hanger door for me? I want to get out and fix those scanners."

[DrPeterson]

"Boss, initiate emergency venting sequence, open the outer airlock external doors, security clearance Barton-Tango-Hotel-Xray-1138!"

She looked at Sam with a look of worry.

"We'd better go check this out. Doctor Bloom, stay with the patients."

[Supercape]

"I am sorry, Mr Dylan, Acting Commander Barton has ordered all external doors sealed..."

"One moment..."

"Correction. Acting Commander Barton has opened exterior airlock door of command module...."

Always happy to oblige, Boss conceded to Hatties authority and opened the outer airlock door. The inner door locked itself down, overriding any command otherwise.

To all in the base, the ever-cheerful Boss continued...

"I am detecting a heat signature from Command module airlock. Shall I activate airlock cameras?"

[DrPeterson]

"Yes, on screen!"

[Mr. Handy]

Sam watches the monitor, dreading what she might see.

[Supercape]

The airlock-cam snapped into focus, displaying on a holo-projector. It was not HD, but it was good enough to show the horror.

Jane was there, or at least, the ragged and warped remains of her. Her body hung like a puppet, suspended by alien tubes and nails that ran up and down its frozen and broken flesh. Only the head seemed animated, a horrible thing that looked like it had been bolted on as an afterthought. Around its neck was a ring of strange metal, and it was this that sealed the bond between head and body. Tubes filled with purple liquid traversed the head, both under and over the skin, and the skin itself was mottled and ravaged.

"Its me! Let me in! I have wonderful newzzzzzz!" came the distorted voice of Jane. The sound came not from her head, but emitted, in a buzzing manner, from some spider like cybernetic horror by the throat.

The horror was not, apparently, hopeful of that she would be let in, for it was plying apart the control mechanism with her horrible hands, each finger tip replaced by some ghastly tool - an artificial tentacle, a snipping tweezer, a plasma torch...

Spoiler:

The horror! Sam and Hattie have a 1D2/1D8 SAN loss for seeing such an abomination

[Mr. Handy]

Sam's eyes go wide. "The aliens must have done this to her," she says. "They're using her to try to gain entry to the base. We have to stop her before she breaches the inner door. With the outer door open, that will cause the command module to depressurize. Maybe we can go out another exit and come around at her from behind. We can use those sedatives again."

Spoiler:

Sanity roll (current level 62) for seeing Croft:

Mr. Handy rolled 1d100:
33

Sanity loss for seeing Croft:

Mr. Handy rolled 1d2:
2

[DrPeterson]

Spoiler:

DrPeterson rolled 1d100:
11

Spoiler:

DrPeterson rolled 1d2:
1

"JANE!", Hattie exclaims into the microphone. "What have they done to you?! What...wonderful news? You're a head."


She looks at Doctor Bloom and Sam and covered the receiver.

"I think you're right, Sam, but I'm not sure if those sedatives will work on that thing. Let's suit up and try to make her surrender before we fry her."


Hattie hurriedly starts putting on her EV-suit

[Mr. Handy]

Sam nods and quickly suits up as well, clipping her injector and plasma pistol to the belt on the suit's exterior.

[aine]

Seth frowns, a heat signature in the airlock? Sounds like there may be no need for those scanners; he keeps the tools with him but turns around and heads back to the command module.

[Supercape]

There were plenty of airlocks in the base; each module had a separate one. It was simply a matter of time...

Swish.. the doors to the hydroponics module opened up. Hattie and Sam strode through the vats of fungus and algae, and, with Hattie's authority, unlocked the Hydroponic module.

Outside, the cold thick atmosphere hit them. They could hear the motors of the Env Suits kick in, flooding them with warmth despite the bitter freeze. It was almost completely dark, Saturn was eclipsing the faint glow of the sun, so distant and alien this far away. The atmosphere was hazy, and their lights struggled to penetrate.

Ahead, they could dimly see the command module, and the open airlock, in which the horror that was Jane Klute was presumably still in...

Spoiler:

If you want to sneak up on Klute - at least to "melee" range, that would be a sneak roll. Otherwise, in this dark and hazy atmosphere, its pretty easy to get near to her unnoticed - presumably!

[Mr. Handy]

Sam leans her helmet against Hattie's, using the old spacer's trick to speak to her without using electronic communications that could be jammed or intercepted. "She's not wearing an environment suit," she says, whispering unconsciously even though the sound won't travel beyond the air bubbles in their helmets, "yet somehow she was able to survive outside."

[DrPeterson]

"That's why I think the sedatives won't work. She looked like a zombie or an automaton, more machine than man. There's no telling what she'll do, but I'll try talking first. Just keep your pistol ready, Sam."

She sighed deeply and then nodded.

"Let's go."

[Supercape]

As the pair entered the airlock, they could see the horrible creation hard at work, cutting and chipping away at the inner airlock. Understandably, it was a robust door, but it would not resist a concerted effort to cut through it. Out of one of Klutes finger blew a purple flame of plasma, and it was slowly, and surely, melting through the airlock.

Whether the horror was absorbed in its task and not taking notice, or whether the multitude of tubes and nails that peppered its skin- a dead, frozen skin - had numbed its senses, one could not say. But it seemed oblivious to their approach...

[DrPeterson]

Hattie motioned to Sam to be ready to neutralise whatever had become of Jane Klute, switched on her intercom to transmit throughout the station, cleared her throat and spoke up.


"Stop what you're doing. We're here to talk."

[Mr. Handy]

Sam holds her plasma pistol ready, but behind her back so it cannot be seen.

[Supercape]

The aberration turned, slowly, the tubes pumping oily creamy liquid, the flesh moving in most unsettling ways. The alien tools at the tips of her fingertips retracted.

"Hattie...Hattie..." she gurgled, in a buzzing, droning voice.

"I have seen the most incredible things...things you people would not believe!" she said. It was hard to discern any emotion in that strange voice from unmoving lips, but there was some cracked excitement there.

"There are worlds and universes beyond our own! Burning suns and wheeling pipes! It is more than we could ever have dreamed of! The aliens you have zzzzeeen...they can take us away...far away!"

The horror did not seem to notice, or perhaps not care, about Sam.