The cast of characters
Player Characters~
Marquis Wolfgang Strucker, a noble. Played by Jeremy
Arianna Amrakahn, a scientist. Played by Danie
Cornellius Gruhl, a pirate. Played by Damien
Justy Tyler, a naval officer. Played by Henry
Non-Player Characters~
Tobias Hon, a scout.
Ev-Ess Lia, a naval officer.
Absent~
Wade Wilson, a marine. To be played by Craig
Ivan Markhov, an army officer. To be played by Luke
Background:
About a fortnight ago, the group had left civilized space after an altercation with local authorities in a nearby system. Arianna and Cornellius had been trying to offer up The Trinitor's laboratory for use by criminal organisations when the confrontation occurred. Ivan Markhov and Wade Wilson had been badly injured during the run-in and were now bed-ridden.
A week ago, whilst waiting out the drama and giving their colleagues time to heal and recuperate, a very faint distress signal had been detected nearby. The signal had been traced to a small ice planetoid that had little atmosphere. Days had been spent trying to ascertain where it was emanating from, and finally the distress signal was narrowed down to a 1km square area.
Recap:
Tobias Hon piloted the Trinitor down to skim the surface of the planetoid to try and get a better scan, but the going was difficult. Something was interfering with the systems and controls of the Science Vessel, so much so that Tobias ended up having to take the ship back into orbit, as it was too dangerous.
After a brief discussion, Ev-Ess Lia would pilot The Gallant's Ships Boat down to the surface as it was easier to control, and Wolfgang, Cornellius and Justy would investigate. Like Tobias before, Ev-Ess found the going tough, and the landing almost ended up in disaster as she temporarily lost control of the vessel. But land safely they did, and only upon landing did Cornellius discover that Wolfgang did not bring his ATV, but instead brought his open-topped Air Raft.
The three men suited up in their Vacc-Suits, Wolfgang and his old friend Justy in their combat armoured Vacc-Suits, and Cornellius in a standard one. Wolfgang took the controls of the Air Raft and Ev-Ess stayed with the Ships Boat.
Like the two pilots before, Wolfgang found controlling his vehicle incredibly difficult. The planetoid wasn't well suited to the task at hand, and even less so with the interference to the controls. After a number of hours searching back and forth across the area that they believed the signal to be coming from, it was clear that the place was littered with the debris of a crashed ship of immense size. Wreckage was strewn across the surface, but it was so badly damaged that the configuration of the vessel was impossible to tell, though Justy believed that it was a military craft of some kind.
Eventually, a large flat ice lake was discovered, beneath the frozen surface was the solid mass of what was a ship, crashed with high velocity into the surface. The group took a sample of the ice and retreated back to the Ships Boat and had Ev-Ess rejoin the ships above.
All discussed how they would approach the vessel that was buried below at least 20 meters of ice, as Arianna performed a chemical analysis of the ice. It was found to contains elements of normal water, ammonia and methane, but given correct settings on cutting lasers, it would be safe to cut through to the vessel that lay dormant underneath.
It was a slow process, on lower power levels, but after almost 2 days, they had cut down to the ship.
The ship was scored with burn marks and was badly damaged. Finding an airlock, it was gently cut and pried open, revealing what remained of the ships internal structure. Debris littered the ship, sharp corners from buckled and peeled bulkheads, reo-girders and other parts of the ship jutted out at alarming angles, making travel more awkward than the sloped interior would otherwise have been. Justy, with his armoured Vacc Suit lead much of the way, taking careful time to trim any truly dangerous sharp edges with his portal laser cutter.
The rough map of the ruined ship
The ship was damaged badly, but such was the structure's resilience, it was possible to make out a number of rooms and areas, including a large and unusually configured Jump Drive. It was cold, with no power, even though occasional rooms would illuminate softly with left over power when the groups presence was detected.
The group took a couple days to slowly move through the superstructure, retreating every couple of hours to the base camp for recharging of their air supplies and to gain some rest and much needed food.
The interior of the ship was not frozen. Water it appeared had instantly turned to steam when the ship crashed, and then refrozen over the top, allowing the contents to remain (other than from the impact) undamaged from water.
Writing that used the human Earthern-Imperium alphabet, but was not undertandable or identifiable was found littered throughout the ship, as were the remains of a couple crew members. A small, active cleaning robot was found stuck among some debris and duly salvaged. But the two most important and concerning discoveries consisted of a ruined hanger bay with the broken and battered remnants of perhaps half a dozen fighter craft, designed for dual purpose atmosphere and vacuum. And a lab.
The lab had five large cylinders from floor to ceiling. Four of the cylinders were shattered, but the fifth, the middle one, was full of a thick, viscous green substance. BANG. A large form smashed against the glass of the cylinder. It was not empty, the creature was large, and had a leathery hide. It seemed to react to the intruders, indicating that it could very well be alive and conscious of their presence. BANG BANG. It's actions unnerved the group, especially Wolfgang and Justy.
Investigation of some of the other cylinders found that two of them had residue stains that could very well be from the same liquid that held the trapped creature. In a moment of panic that there could be other creatures alive and roaming the ship, Justy and Wolfgang retrieved weapons heavier than the blades that they had brought down here. Wolfgang, his Laser Carbine, Justy his Shotgun.
Meanwhile, Arianna had managed to take a sample of the viscous fluid.
Once retreated back to the base camp, the fluid was identified as an early attempt at stasis suspension. It was a highly controversial substance that was banned on moral grounds hundreds of years ago. The regenerative goo kept the body alive and partially sedate, feeding and repairing it for potentially a thousand years or more given power to keep it active. But it came with a price, for the goo would keep the subject conscious the whole time.
Cornellius commented that whatever the creature was within, would be likely insane if it had been there for hundreds of years, and thus very dangerous even if normally passive.
This was quickly confirmed after Arianna ran some DNA tests on the goo that had been extracted. It took some time, but finally the creature inside was identified as a Kuursk.
A Kuursk
Wolfgang still feared that there would be more of these creatures on board. But Cornellius was fascinated that they could have the oldest Kurrsk anywhere and that it could be used to turn a very handy profit - if only it could be removed safely from the vessel.
Heading back down, the group came across another jammed door, like many that they had come across before. Setting his laser cutter to it, Cornellius noticed a decidely dangerous looking spark and managed to push Justy aside just in time as a small explosion detonated in their faces.
Arianna took some readings as the door still spluttered and sparked. The room beyond was full of Jump Drive accelerant, very flammable and explosive when not held in an inert state. The group fled. The base was left as the Ships Boat was boarded and Ev-Ess took off back to orbit. Hours passed as the group waited and watched, hoping not to see the tell-tale signs of a large explosion. Thankfully, they did not. They took some time however onboard their starships to check historical databases to try and identify the writing.
After an exhaustive but short search, it was identified as French. A dead language from the old Earth cultures, confirming with the other evidence found that the ship was around 500 years old at least.
-- To be continued --
