Turn 6.0 "Taking Command of Things" Having a look at the weapons and the motley crew around her Nola thought to herself through all the proceedings, "Jeez, look at this mess. It looks like it's come out of one of those war holovids!" She finally came to a hard decision, and said, "Look, as much as I'd like to see if the guy that's bleeding down on Level Five is still alive, with at the very least one madman on the loose, I want to secure this station first. To do that we'll need the help of the internal security cameras, and I'd like to head from the top, down. That way we'll find it easier to use those grenades if we need them." "First, let's get these weapons distributed. Doc, if you really can fire a pistol take one of those stutter pistols. If you can't, then I'll give you an empty rifle. That way, you'll at least look threatening. You too Zach, I'll give you an empty rifle. Dimitrio, boy you just get excited too easily. But, just to make you feel a little more confident, you can take the shotgun." The mechanic's eyes lit up at the site of the shotgun, "Oh yes, I can sure use one of those and I'm tellin' you, you won't be sorry you gave me one." Dimitrio put away his charge pistol into its holster flipping on the safety. He then carefully looked at the rifle and took aim just to feel the weapon. He checked its ammo and popped a cartridge into its barrel. One hand near the trigger and the other holding the barrel pointed upwards, left the man free to grin showing a healthy array of teeth. "I am ready now, woman." Dr. Lugwig, temporarily distracted by Dimitrio's toothy grin, accepted the stutter pistol from Nola and asked, "Dr. Lugwig need two pistolsss. I do everything with both clawsss, yesss? Dr. Lugwig once champion ssshooter of Batai-3." Nola handed him the second weapon and Lugwig checked both pistols before tucking them away. "I do not want to hurt anyonesss unlesss they try to hurt usss firssst, right Dimitrio?" he asked. "Yeah, right you are Doc, but I wouldn't want us to be hurt first, so I fire on intention. I'd rather you patch them up than us, you know what I mean?" Dimitrio responded. The mechanic's head turned side to side while talking to the T'sa. "I mean I could be wrong, but so what. The consequences are a lot worse if I'm wrong and they fire first. The way I see it is that, if they don't drop their weapons when they see me, then they have bad intentions." He palmed his shotgun's barrel and said, "Guess what, Doc. Meet bad-intention-corrector." Nola interrupted Dimitrio's flashy display of bravado by saying, "Doc, don't worry. These are stutter pistols. They won't kill anyone!" She seemed to be getting a bit agitated at the small T'sa, as she was the one that got shot, and now he didn't want to harm anybody. She thought to herself, "Maybe if I shot him he might rethink his attitude on shooting back at dangerous people. No that wouldn't work, he'd think I had a drug problem, and then he'd be jabbering all over me. When I get my next dental checkup it sure ain't going to be him!" "I sssee you have misssunderssstood me, Misss T'Sssharn," Lugwig replied, "I sssimply do not want anyonesss in thisss group to jussst ssstart firing at sssomebody for jussst walking around a corner. I am asssking you...no, wait, I am ordering you all, to ssshow sssome dissscretion before blasssting away. Of courssse ssshould you think we are in danger you mussst do what you are paid to do." "Alssso remember, thisss ssstation isss in ssspace. One nice hole in outer wall and we could have big problem. Finding the bad guyssss and sssecuring the ssstation is the job of sssecurity and I ssshall not interfere, but sssuch obviousss disssressspect from you Misss T'Sssharn ssshall not be tolerated in the future. Consssider yourssself on report! Missster Haldig, you are in charge of sssecurity, ssso lead and sssecure thisss ssstation! I have but one requessst, asss sssoon as possssssible I want a sssignal sssent to the Concord explaining our sssituation here." "I know that all of you do not like Dr. Lugwig being the ranking officccer in thissss sssituation, but until we find ssssomeone that outranksss Dr. Lugwig, I am resssponssible for thissss ssstation. Asss Missster Haldig would sssay, 'It'sss my ssscaley butt.' Ssso, now I mussst quickly go down to my Sssick Bay and grab sssome sssuppliesss. Remember, I do not wissssh to interfere with thisss missssion directly unlesss I sssee an obviousss missstake being made and I too hope that we find sssomeonesss who outranksss me sssoon. Being resssponsssible for thisss ssstation makesss my ssscalesss crawl." "One other thing. Missss T'Ssssharn...doing the fixey-fixey on your leg wasss not easssy, no matter how insssignificant you might think it wasss, however Dr. Lugwig would not hesssitate to do it again. Lugwig will do whatever it takesss to keep ALL of you alive until we sssee thisss thing through." Lugwig then moved to the center of the group and announced with squinty eyes, "Before we leave and go much further, I mussst ssstop by Sssick Bay to get more sssuppliesss. Never know when Dr. Lugwig might need to patch one of you up just like I already fixey-fixey Misss T'Sssharn." The very rare, serious look on the short alien's face suddenly left as he walked toward the door leading back to Sick Bay. As he went, he continued talking out loud to himself, "Wow, I thought only humansss made thossse dramatically long ssspeechesss. I mussst do psssychological ssstudy on thisss sssometime...now, where did Lugwig put that dental kit?" -------------- Zach snickered a bit as the doctor took command of things. He thought it rather ironinc, given the situation. He was just as happy anyway. He had always been a bit of a follower/loner than a leader. It was easier this way. He had been surprised when the doctor announced his two-handed shooting ability. That would be an interesting story, but they didn't have time for stories. Regardless of who was in command, and how much this was a mystery, they had a job to do. He nodded toward the Doc as the T'sa walked out, determined to go along with the plan regardless of who was in charge. Nola also watched the T'sa doctor leave and then proceeded to take all the extra clips and put them in a duffel bag. "Dig, there's your zero-g weapon you've been hanging out for. You can take that and all the ammunition you want. Oh, and let's split the batons and the grenades between us...for the moment. I have an idea for the grenades once we get to the command center." Jake nodded and picked up the rifle and six clips of ammunition. "Alex, you take the other zero-g rifle, but I think you might want me to unload beforehand," Nola said. Alex gratefully accepted the zero-g rifle, hefting it in his hands. "Didn't do too much rifle training, but as a last resort it works out," he said. Nola grabbed an extra comm-gear headset, finding several in another section of the weapons locker. Alex looked on in interest as Cal informed him of what Nola was doing. "Hey, have any extra?" he asked. There were enough for everyone, and soon they were all keyed up on an open channel and ready to go...except for Dr. Lugwig, who had already left for the Sick Bay. -------------- Creeping down the eerily-lit hallway, Dr. Lugwig opened the door to his Sick Bay. He took a quick look around, noticing that everything that hadn't been tied down had drifted into the air during the gravity outage. Once Dimitrio had switched it back on, all of the items had come crashing to the floor, many of them breaking. Glass and spilled puddles of liquid were all over the place. "What a messss," Lugwig moaned, "Oh, my molar collection---in sssmall piecesss---oh the horror!" After nearly crying, Lugwig slowly composed himself. He begrudginly began to clean up the mess. And, finally, he got busy packing a few items into his backpack. He managed to locate enough material to put together another trauma kit. He also found his dental kit, plenty of dental floss, and some more anesthetic. "I wonder how much medical sssuppliesss I can fit into thisss pack...?" he wondered aloud. "Approximately fifty kilograms of weight before the material begins to stretch under the strain," a voice answered him in the darkness. Lugwig spun around and quickly brought his stun pistol up, his eyes narrowing in the red light of the emergency lamps. "What? Who'sss there?" he hissed. A mechanical whirring answered him as a small robot maneuvered around one of the examination tables. It was only a meter and a half tall, small compared to a human, but nearly the same size as a T'sa. Small tracked wheels served to move it about the room, and it waved its three arms around in the air, not in a menacing way, but more as if it were frightened and shielding the photoreceptors that served as its eyes. "Please...don't shoot...don't shoot!" It called out, "I'm a non-combatant! Non-combatant...that's me! No, no. Repo not designed for combat. Please, don't shoot me..." The last few words ended in a pitiful sounding wail as the robot begged for its life. "Relax," Lugwig answered, his own hand shaking a bit at being startled so soundly by the robot named "Repo". "I'm not going to ssshoot...but... you jussst ssstay right there where you are...don't move now. Hold ssstill." The robot's tracks immediately froze, bringing it to a quick halt. It raised its three arms into the air, two of them large bulky lifters, but the other one designed for finer manipulation. "Yes, sir! As you say, sir! I'm not moving one bit. A-are you with the...t-the t-terrorists?!" "I'm no terrorissst!" Lugwig frowned, "I'm a doctor!" "Oh wonderful!" Repo answered, "I'm saved! Thank goodness." The robot squinted one photoreceptor and cocked its head at a forty-five degree angle. "I am saved, aren't I? The Concord Marines have come to save the day? The cavalry and all that...right?" "Not exactly," Lugwig answered, "Look, where did you come from anyway? I don't remember a robot by your dessscription on-board thisss ssstation." "Oh, I'm new," Repo replied, "I came on the last transport and resupply ship. They needed a new shuttle maintenance droid in the Hangar Bay. I heard that Nega-Nine blew a panel while working on the exterior of the station. The solar radiation fused his circuits up pretty bad. So here I am...his replacement." "And I was just starting to get used to my way around this place when the gravity cut out," he continued, "Do you know how hard it is to move around when you all you've got are tracks for feet?" The robot waved one arm down toward his legs, then remembering that he wasn't supposed to move, jerked it back upright. "Anyway, I got turned around all wrong. I barely managed to make it into this place when someone turned the gravity back on. Luckily, I'm properly weighted so I fell and landed on my feet again...but I fell on top of a lot of other stuff. I'm sorry if I broke anything..." Lugwig grumbled as he looked around the floor. The darn machine had probably squashed his molar collection. "Alright, look...I came here to pick up sssome medical sssuppliesss. There are a few of usss that are headed up to check on the ssstatusss of the ssstation. There have been sssome casssualtiesss, asss sssomeone isss obviousssly trying to damage the ssstation. You jussst ssstay right there while I finisssh packing and then I'll take you back to the othersss..." Lugwig proceeded to pack several more medically-related items into his pack. After that, he examined the medicine cabinet to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. Everything seemed in order...the only damage in the entire room seemed to have been caused by the gravity outage alone. Moving to his computer terminal, Lugwig also brought up Akers's medical file to check for anything irregular. "I wonder how Akersss get drugsss to sssupport habit", he thought out loud. "Someone's been taking drugs?" Repo asked, "Aw, that's no big deal. Back where I'm from, that's a normal everyday occurence. In the StarMech Collective, everyone needs a pick-me-up occasionally, you know? Better living through chemistry, they always say...and robotics, too. After all, they made me, didn't they?" Lugwig glanced over at the robot and then back at his screen, his clawed fingers directing the computer to look up Aker's medical file. "Having come from the SsstarMech Collective, could the robot have accompanied a ssshipment of pharmaccceuticalsss?" he wondered, "Repo probably won't know...but the manifessstsss kept in the Hangar Bay would have recordsss of who received ssshipmentsss from the resssupply vessssssel. Perhapsss that blind fellow, Missster Alex, might asssissst in dissscovering the sssecret to thisss particular myssstery?" -------------- After finishing the tasks at hand Lugwig took a last quick look around and motioned for Repo to proceed him toward the door, intending to re-join the rest of the group. As they both stepped out into the hall, they were met by the leveled weapons of Jake, Nola, and Dimitrio. To a lesser extent Zach and Alex had also raised their rifles, although both held empty clips. Nonetheless, they were just as frightening. "It's the terrorists! Don't shoot! Oh, please, don't shoot me!" Repo wailed, his tracks inadvertantly carrying him across the hallway and careening into the far wall. The startled robot made a loud bang as he hit and then bounced backward, nearly tipped over, and flailed his arms to keep his balance. Behind him, Lugwig poked his head out the door and turned to look at everyone. "It'sss okay...he'sss with me," the T'sa spoke, "Hisss name isss Repo...and he wasss lossst when the power went out. I think perhapsss we ssshould keep him with usss for now..." Everyone began asking questions, confused at the sudden appearance of the mechanical Repo. Lugwig impatiently answered everyone and put them at ease. The robot seemed harmless, if not even a bit childlike. "Let's head on up and we'll start securing the levels," Nola finally answered for everyone, shaking her head in disbelief. "What else are we going to find along the way?" she wondered. Zach nodded to everyone and put his pistol back in his holster, saying, "Let me jack into the Grid and see if I can catch anything new. If you guys can get me up onto Deck One, I could have a lot more control. Right now, I can't change anything, I can only view through the cameras as they are." And so, the group headed back to the lifts, filing into the only one that remained operable. Repo packed himself in as well, wheeling along and staying close to Lugwig. "Are you guys sure this thing is still safe?" the machine asked, its head twisting about to look at the inside of the cage. No one answered as Nola pushed the button for the top floor and the lift began to rise... The cage finally stopped before the Level One doors. These particular doors required a special security access ID to open. Luckily, both Nola and Jake had one with them. Since Jake was closest to the reader, he popped his card into the slot and the doors opened immediately. They stepped out of the lift and finally emerged on the catwalk directly above the Comm-Pit... ...and into a scene of chaos. -------------- Harsh lights flickered jarringly all around the chamber as computer screens and displays flashed a multitude of confusing messages and warnings. Alarms chimed from dozens of directions, adding a level of sound and noise so bizarre that it could almost be felt as if it were a physical barrier of some kind. Picked out from among the noise, and somewhere ahead in the strobing lights, a voice could be faintly heard coming from one of the intercoms next to the main station computer terminals. "...out of the damn way! Will somebody pick up, up there! We're freezing down here! For crying out loud...who's on duty? I'm gonna have somebody's head for this! Hello? Pick up, you morons!" Nola and Jake both stepped forward almost at the same time to respond... "Dimitrio, let's jam those lift doors open," Nola called out, "Who wants to stand guard at the lift wells? Someone needs to do this." "OK, OK, I'm going, I'm going," Dimitrio replied. She handed him two plasma grenades and two stun grenades. "If anyone other than us tries to come up here, warn them off, and report it in. If they continue, use the stun grenades. If they still persist, use the plasma grenades." "Got it. Doc, cover me while I work on this," Dimitrio said. Lugiwig moved to accompany him, and Repo trundled along as well. Dimitrio put down his shotgun and dug into his tool belt for several moments. Lugwig looked on nervously, his attention directed at Repo, the other lift's shaft, and the collosal level of noise coming from behind them. Dimitrio sighed as he lifted a tool in place, then paused and looked at the access panel again. Finally, he called out for help to his nanocomputer... Blue prints showing the circuitry of the standard lift door access panel were pulled up with some highlighted parts as Julia spoke to him. she told him, Dimitrio smiled and asked, Julia highlighted another part of the circuitry and replied, Dimitrio frowned, then said, Dimitrio went about juryrigging the device while looking out for any surprises. He then started putting his tools back in the kit and kept part-A for future use. he mentally spoke to Julia. she responded, "OK, Doc I'm set, thanks," Dimitrio called out. He took a stun grande into one hand while grabbing the shotgun by the barrel and keeping an eye out for any surprises. He then spoke into his comm unit in order to be heard over the noise, "Nola, lift doors are set as you wished. Nothing to report on this side. I'm keeping an eye out and my trigger-finger is gettin' itchy..." "Okay. Zach, can you get on-line and see what you see on the cameras?" Nola yelled over the noise, "Jake and I will handle this..." She pointed towards the intercom. Zach nodded, collapsed into one of the cushy chairs in front of a main computer terminal, and proceeded to jack in again and check out any logs he could access. In addition, he looked out the various security cameras, putting his own monitoring programs in place. Perhaps a higher cyclical sampling rate would be better. His shadow could alert him if any of the scenes changed and pull them up on a moment's notice. Alex paused as a thought occurred to him. "Hey Zach! Can you show me what the hangar bay looks like right now? I'm just curious if there's anything there that'll clue us in on what's going on..." He knew that if there was anything amiss about the hangar, Cal would clue him in. "Not only that, where can we get access to the security tapes? That's probably got something good on the opposition," he suggested. "Sure...," Zach responded, "It'll take a while for me to get the security recordings queued up, but the system tells me they're available. Of course, there's still going to be that missing segment that resulted from the power outage. I'll see what I can do about that. In the meantime..." He made a gesture with his right hand and a computer screen cleared off its warning messages and displayed a clear scene of the Hangar Bay. "There she is...," he said. The picture showed a scene of disarray, much like the rest of the station. The temporary gravity outage had allowed many items to drift about the chamber. Once gravity was restored, they had collapsed. Notably missing from the Hangar Bay itself was the shuttle launch...the only way off the station until the next re-supply ship came to check on them. "Alex," Cal's synthesized voice emitted from his harness, her anguish plainly evident, "The ship...it's gone! And the rest of my programs... they're stored in the ship's datacore!" (OOC: If an Artifical-Intelligence could express horror and shock, this one just did.) Across the room, Jake switched on the intercom and spoke into it, "Hello? Who's there?" "Well it's about damn time!" the voice responded, "This is Chief Engineer Teri Reed! Where's the Station Commander?" "He's not here," Jake replied, "There's a situation up here, though... and all over the station...there's been some kind of attack..." "Well get us out of here!" Teri demanded in a frantic voice, "We're dying down here! Someone turned on the coolant systems and this place is an icebox...a deathtrap! We're in Crew Berthing Compartment Gamma! Send help! Hurry!" ------------------------------------- ---------- Turn 6 Comments ---------- ------------------------------------- 1. Alright...another good long one...with lots more info...and a new SCM (Supporting Cast Member...i.e., NPC). Repo the Shuttle Maintenance Robot, at your service. :) 2. I had to move some of your dialogue around in order to make things flow more smoothly, but I was able to use everything that you guys wrote. Keep up the good work. This is getting more and more interesting. 3. Questions? 4. Actions? -- Neil > 1. It is very interesting playing an alien in this game. As I understand > it the human/alien ratio in this setting is about 40 to 1. (Neil if I am > wrong correct me). > Neil correct him here, I remember reading the population figures of the aliens in the Star*Drive Campaign book (and send it to all of us!). But I don't remember even the approximate population stats! You might want to mention the number of Weren to human, Fraal to human, T'sa to human, etc. See ya guys! -- Jamie Hey Doc (Brian), I didn't know you could read my mind at will !? Just an observation here...and this isn't meant as a rebuke of any kind... but there have been a couple of times, Brian, where you've sort of had Lugwig respond to another character's thoughts rather than their dialogue. Usually, I've editted some of that out in my turn summaries, but you might want to pay closer attention to everyone's posts. If they are clearly thinking something, but not saying it aloud, it would be best if you roleplayed Lugwig as if he was unaware of their feelings/thoughts/emotions. I'm not exactly sure what Nola said that made Lugwig feel the need to put her "on report". On a more positive note, I really like the level of roleplay that both you and Jamie have been giving to your characters. This particular scene of clashing personalities is quite believable...and from my previous experiences, inevitable as players get used to responding in-character to one another. It's okay for us to explore this direction...but let's not let it become personal. For the interests of advancing the story, I'd like to see both characters come to trust and care for one another. They can have a rocky start, but they should try their best to work those initial problems out. It's up to you guys to roleplay that change in attitude. "Hey Doc, I do think we're in danger, and that's what I'm paid to do, defuse the situation.......Humans don't generally have the tireless energy of .. T'sas." Nola finishes as a large grin comes to her face. For all practical purposes, this scene has been completed. We can assume that this conversation may have continued to take place, but obviously, it won't make the turn summary since I've already sent it out. As a result, there's no need for anyone to respond to this in-character. However, if you feel truly inspired to do so...by all means, have it out. I would just recommend that you keep in mind my earlier comments above... [Brian:] 1. It is very interesting playing an alien in this game. As I understand it the human/alien ratio in this setting is about 40 to 1. (Neil if I am wrong correct me). [Jamie:] Neil correct him here, I remember reading the population figures of the aliens in the Star*Drive Campaign book (and send it to all of us!). But I don't remember even the approximate population stats! You might want to mention the number of Weren to human, Fraal to human, T'sa to human, etc. Actually, Brian is dead-on accurate. The Star*Drive Campaign Setting census statistics indicate that for every 40 humans in explored space, they found only one alien. Assuming you've got the Star*Drive book, refer to page 42. Current totals are as follows (and the numbers are in billions, so keep that in mind): Human: 9,577 Fraal: 26 Mechalus: 38 Sesheyan: 17 T'sa: 80 Weren: 40 Other: 31 If you do the math, the numbers actually come out to approximately a 41.28 to 1 ratio... One other note that I'll mention...the Fraal statistics are a bit misleading. The 26 billion Fraal that are mentioned are spread out across just the stellar nations. Since many of the Fraal (specifically, the Wanderers) chose not to settle down, but continued through space in their huge city-ships, there are really many more than that number would indicate. As far as I'm concerned the Fraal are actually more populous than the Mechalus, but not by much. Hope that helps, -- Neil Woops!! Did we just pull a cat out of the bag? > >Hey Doc (Brian), I didn't know you could read my mind at will !? > > Just an observation here...and this isn't meant as a rebuke of any > kind...but there have been a couple of times, Brian, where you've sort of > had Lugwig respond to another character's thoughts rather than their > dialogue. Usually, I've editted some of that out in my turn summaries, > but you might want to pay closer attention to everyone's posts. If they > are clearly thinking something, but not saying it aloud, it would be best > if you roleplayed Lugwig as if he was unaware of their > feelings/thoughts/emotions. I'm not exactly sure what Nola said that made > Lugwig feel the need to put her "on report". > Give it to him Neil! ;) And if anyone is taking offense at my or my characters comments, don't. If you are, then give us a tinkle on the old keyboard and we'll duke sort it out (that's not Duke Nukem!). To everyone: I'm enjoying myself roleplaying with you all. (Maybe too much! Hey Brian you're reading my mind again. Stop that. Do I stir or what? Hey you're doing it again.) Call me an Aussie! Just remember I'm ~ an 8th generation bread thief! Actually I don't steal bread, but most of the first people that were sent to Australia did. > [Jamie:] > >Neil correct him here [Neil:] > Actually, Brian is dead-on accurate. > BTW I wasn't suggesting he was wrong. I was just suggesting you give us the numbers because I remember reading them once. The numbers I was after being: ~350 Humans to 1 Fraal ~250 Humans to 1 Mechalus ~550 Humans to 1 Sesheyan ~120 Humans to 1 T'sa ~300 Humans to 1 Other Aliens OR 41.28 Humans to 1 Alien -- Jamie Msssss. Warwick you may anssswer for me................. How about hostile body language, ummmm just a thought. I cannot imagine thinking about shooting someone with a real calm look on your face then again Nola is probably an expert at acting real hostile in a nice sort of way. I imagine Martha Stewart with a .45 behind her back. Now that is a 'good thing'. As far as the Akers thing, I am not saying in any way that you should have let him shoot you. (Remeber, you let him shoot you!) By all means if someone shoots at me I am gonna shoot back. I was just trying to say do not get too blast happy, as far as Star Drive, Alternity etc. I am brand new to the game and I am learning as I go. If you cannot respect that then Neil reassign the Doc. to duty abroad. (Perhaps ship's Doc. on some wonderful pleasure cruise with Issac.) At any rate feel free to be as critical as you please Jamie, it has got to beat wrestling crocs. -- Brian 1. Apologize for the ruckus fellers as the 'discussion' may have slowed down the story a bit. It was becoming tiresome receiving veiled threats of getting shot by a fellow party member. 'Nola looked a bit uncertain, then said, "Okay..." She began to lead the others across the room, then paused to look back and say, "Oh and ...", pointedly looking at the knifes/stilettos that had been produced, "'Dig' you're such a man, why don't you cover my back, too. And if any one of them draws their weapon...shoot him..." Looking back to the engineer she continued without missing a beat', She thought to herself, "Maybe if I shot him *(Lugwig)* he might rethink his attitude on shooting back at dangerous people. * - added by me. Anyways, Neil I shall drop the 'discussion' here as requested and I will not answer any further attempts to debate the matter in respect to advancing the story and the GM's wishes. I did reply to Jamie before reading your post... sorry, guess I'm just a red-blooded American. Only by 2 generations:) 2. Thanks for the info on the Star*Drive setting. I do not own the book. My question is should I buy it or would owning it take away from my gaming experience? That's all for now. -- Brian