Even before Private Jenkins had finished his report to Captain Stone, Sergent Major Mord Aedin was repelling down the elevator shaft on the cables he and Stormrage had fastened just moments ago. Mord honestly wasn't expecting to find anything more than small cryptic clues so soon into their exploration of the derelict, and certainly not a dead Umiak. If Corporal Deng's team had just found a body was just a body, Mord would have remained at the top of the shaft. But if they found one that made the Corporal (one of the few veteran men in the whole platoon) ill... Well, that's the reason the Marines have Sergent Majors. Exploiting the station's low gravity, Mord quickly descened the shaft, falling great distances on the repelling rope braking just enough to keep his speed manageable.
With a tremendous BAM! , easily audible even in the low atmosphere, 230 pounds of Marine (not including gear) comes crashing onto the elevator landing.
"You! barks Mord at the nearest Marine.
"Get your ass up that shaft as fast as your ass can!" The Sergent Major quickly un-clips from his line and attaches himself to the repelling line used by Corporal Deng's team before flinging himself down the shaft once again.
Shortly thereafter, and approaching much,
much slower than before, Mord touches down on the bottom of the elevator shaft. With a soft grunt on account of his ankles, he un-clips himself from the repelling line and makes his way toward Sunbloom and the others.
Damn, I need more practice with this... One-fifth Earth's gravity is more than I thought.
"Torrai. Captain." Mord greets the officers with a nod and a grimace due more to his ankles than anything else. Abruptly adressing the men he barks,
"Make a hole you lot! Let me see what we found." Even a cursory examination of the scene reveals a grizzly corpse indeed. It's no wonder the Corporal lost his cool, though it was still a tad embarassing to have such a man in ones' squad.
That Private Jenkins seems to be taking things just fine... I'll have to remember he's made of sterner stuff.
Kneeling down beside the body for a better look, even the stalwart Sergent feels just a tad bit of bile in his throat. After poking the wires and examining the Umiak a bit more, Mord finally speaks.
"It's not the wounds that get me. It's the victim. I've never seen a hardtrooper this fucked up, least not by anything you could fit in space this size." An interceptor's weapons could do this massive of damage, but certainly not integrate the station's wiring into the corpse...
"It's good news for us though... In a sense."
Captain Stone leens back on her heels and folds her arms before replying with an arched eyebrow.
"Oh? It's either good news or it's not. And I'd bet you it's not."
"Indeed Sergent. I think you'd best explain yourself."
"Well, a hardtrooper this messed up, and with such minimal damage to station tells me the Umiak were taken by surprise. They probably didn't have time to set any traps. Hell, they didn't even change their automated message, even if they had time to turn it on." Arduously, the Sergent Major rose to his feet.
"So that's some good news. We don't need to worry about trip mines or the like. Also, I'd be willing to bet that whatever did this was probably some sort of melee attack. Projectile and energy weaponry blast and disintegrate bodies, they dont' he made a vague wavy motion with his hand.
"do this."
"If there's anything left of what caused this, I would wager it's still inside the station. And there's a good chance it has to breathe. Once we're done down here, we should crack open the hangar and airlock and evacuate the station's air. This would also stop us from making any sound as we traveled."
"Neither will your freakishly strong assailant." intoned the Captain.
"Duly noted. It's a trade-off, like all things." He paused before continuing, considering his options.
"Since we're down here, we should destroy whatever is left of the life support system. We don't need it, " Mord tapped his O2 tank for emphasis.
"but that 'freakishly strong assailant' might.
"Let's assume that won't do anything. If the attacking force is still aboard, we could probably completely avoid them by climbing up the outside of the station. We got the boots for it. And if we can find and destroy the gravity generator while we're down here, it would be that much easier."
After a short silence, Sunbloom spoke.
"So that's your plan? Destroy the life support, evacuate the air and climb up the outside of the station? I assume we'd cut our way into the bridge once we get there."
"That's right. We can do some damage here because it won't effect the station's logs and it's not like we're trying to live here either." The Sergent was feeling smug. He liked plans. He
really liked good plans. Especially when they were his own.
"It's a damn fine plan, ain't it?"
Rolls:
How fast can we get down that shaft without getting hurt?
Zero-gravity Training:1d20+6=13
13... Not great, I'm gonna go ahead and consider Mord to have suffered some damage from that fall
Unless Martenzo decides I don't need to
Bonus for my "Tough!" perk?
Hide my limp (assuming I took damage here...)
1d20+3=7.... Hooray for crappy rolls! Bonus for my "Tough!" perk?
Aside: Falling damage from a Zero-Grav roll? For the love of crap! Also, is Tempest some kind of Loroi deity? I can't find any reference to any other "old story" character, so I'm just going to assume so
And I gotta try and play more Captain Stone too... Next post for sure!
Chalking up that roll to an utter lack of hard information XD.
