Chapter 2. The Grey Gorilla

((zero successes)) "LOTUS, scan these logs for anything pertinent to the ship's condition and what the hell happened." she says with a wave, sending the files into active memory of the ship, her eyes turning back to the display as she watches and attempt to help coordinate the team.

Tim sighs a nervous sigh and reaches down to grab his toolbag. He works his way towards Erik's position and sets his bag down again. He crouches down and unzips the bag and reaches in without looking and pulls out a small diagnostic tool. He plugs it in and hits the system's admin log in. He runs a couple common backdoor passwords used by engineers that will allow him just enough access for his diagnostic program to interface and find out the source of the problem. [1 Success on Handshaking into their network]. A blinking light on his diagnostic tool lets him know he successfully linked with the ship's internal diagnostic network. After studying the display for a few moments Tim pulls another couple tools out of the bag and slips them into various pouches and loops on his toolbelt. He pops the panel open and begins working on restoring the power. After several tense moments of quiet curses and rustling wires Tim closes the panel again. "And that should do it," he says with a hint of a smile. "I said, and that should do it," he repeats, this time pounding a fist into the light panel and then... [2 Successes on Repairing] ((From my understand of how the diagnostic tool works I wrote up my actions, if I need a different set of rolls or need to proceed in a different fashion just let me know and I'll make adjustments.))

"Scanning.... Last entry. Playing back audio log. " { Ship Captain's audio log: Miners in section W-3 are reporting an unusual find. They have brought it up to the ship. I am in the way to meet them now. This planet has been mineral rich so far. If this bodes well, SES could have a major find on their hands. } "That is the last log entry Captain. Records indicate that all further entries are encrypted in a private sector of the ships computer under complex soft and hardware encryption. "

Tim activates the lights on the bulkhead, before there is a loud crack and pop from the overhead. While the bulkhead lights come on, the ceiling lights burn out. ( I will update the lights when I am not on my phone.)

"All hands aboard the Gorilla. Be advised, the ships logs indicate that something they found on-planet was brought aboard the Gorilla shortly before their troubles started. Any further logs are somewhere else on the ship, an encrypted corporate data vault or something similar. You're objectives are to make contact with the remaining crew, if there is any, and to locate the data. I state again, if at any point you detect hostiles, you are to return to the ship. Understood?" the captain transmits to those aboard the Gorilla. "LOTUS, scan the logs for any notes by Her captain that might suggest any worries of Pirates or worry about their last few destinations. Anything that might suggest they were expecting danger during this or a previous leg of their journey."

"Understood Captain, scanning....The data logs show notation of keywords: pirates, danger, journey........Data logs show that the hired SES security team of 6 conducted weekly training on anti-piracy drills, every two weeks they ran a ship wide drill and every 3 weeks they ran a surface drill on the planet Aminon . According to records, this was the location of the test drill/mine sites. The surface drill was an emergency evacuation drill. These were consistently ran for the six months the Grey Gorilla was on station to mine. The keyword: journey is mentioned with the other to in reference to vulnerability and having to outrun them to a Ghostline. No other significane of those words occur Captain."

"LOTUS, did the Gorilla encounter any pirates according to their logs?" she asks curiously, leaning forward in her chair slightly.

Veniya moves into the room with with Tim and takes up a position looking into the shadows until the lights flicker on. [1 success attention]

Lucav waits around with the boarding party for the lights to come on. He was starting to feel that perhaps that crew would not be found so easily, or something had happened. Why else rig that terminal like. Made no sense. "Not wanting to have anyone shot here, so everyone who has a weapon drawn at the moment keep it pointed at the deck. WE don't need an accidental discharge..... OH, and That's what she said too." Remembering that old Joke from Earth and couldn't resist saying it now too, and as he said it anyone with a flash light saw the smile that crept on his face when he said it.

"The found something, that's probably good news," Kat muttered, moving through the door to join the group. She held position again near Tim and Veniya, keeping an eye out for anything odd. (1 success)

"Searching...Captain, nothing in the logs provided indicates that the ship encountered any pirates." ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** Between the giant steel bins, there appears to be something on the ground. (indicated the direction by an arrow)

Erik takes up a position to Lucav's rear right. " Let's go poke around some more, shall we?"

(using my search skill to see the "something" from a distance; rolled 3 success to make out what it could be.)

Lucav sees something to where a shadow was casted on the deck, but didn't seem like anything mechanical... it was too low for that. He moved ahead slightly. "Eric, stay on my six, and watch the peripherals." Lt. Lucav moved ahead slowly to the item on the ground; and keeping the coms open. He used his scope on his Rifle to see from a distance after a few steps.

Kat saw something as well down the hallway she was looking, squinting a bit to try to get a better look. "Guys, I see something, shall we check it out?" she said, taking a few steps to investigate whatever it was.

(uh oh... always the sexy easy girl goes first... *cough cough*)

"It looks like a person! Lucav, I'm checking them out, what have you got over there? Kat help me out." Wary but urgently Veniya hurries over to the the body lying on the floor. When she gets there she checks to see if the person is alive. (wait on description to see what to roll)

Kat nods and hurries over with Veniya, standing back a bit to give the doctor some room to work. She keeps an eye out around them, just in case. (1 success)

(omg its an alien... shoot it! *puts 15 rounds into the human body!! Just kidding! LOL)

(O.o I'd hope so. You ARE loaded with collapsables, right?)

Veniya and Kat find the body of a young woman, lying face down. Flipping the body to check her vitals, you see that a plasma torch has been thrust in her body. The cut goes from the bottom to the top. The act of turning the woman causes her to nearlt be pulled in half, her guts spilling out. Veniya and needs to make a cool roll. Veniya is at a -1 to Cool stat due to her training, Kat is at a -2 Cool roll. This is a pure aptitude test. So after you subtract the number of dice from your Cool stat, you double the remaining dice and roll that. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** Lucav can make out a figure lying face first on the ground. It does not appear to be moving....

Kat watched as Veniya reached down to the woman, doing what she did best. Casually glancing away to where Tim was and then back, she caught the very second that the body basically fell apart, spilling its insides onto the floor by her feet. Immediately she made a 'hurk' sound, vomit rushing to her mouth. Able to swallow it away, she backed up to the wall, body shaking from the shock. "Wha-wha, what the fuck," she stammered out. (Only 2 points of Cool, so auto-fail! I am now rattled.)

Lucav moves up caustiously to the body on the ground directly across from him in between the consoles. Never lifting the the sights from the body. "Contact, We have a dead bodies over here; repeat Captain. We have confirmed two bodies with no movement. Moving in to investigate." Lt. Lucius moves up closer to the body, knowing Eric was covering his six, or at least hoping he was. Moving to cover the distance of 30 meters from where he and Eric started. He stopped at every corner to see anything coming from the right or left sides. Spotting Veniya and Kat at 24 meters to his right down in between the consoles. "Kat, Veniya, what do you have over there?" He was speaking to everyone over the coms that were linked up to their COGs. After mentioning that he attempted to see if the body had any signs of life; Visually. (1 success)

"Watch yourselves. We don't know if we're dealing with a pathogen. Take every precaution." she responds, watching each of the feeds carefully.

Lucav can see no signs of movement. The body looks dead, he has shot more than one person in his life but he sees no signs of pooling blood....

Erik moves up, continuing to provide cover for Lucav.

(1 success cool) "Sweet fucking Infinity!" She says as the organs spill out. She recoils a bit and instinctively covers her mouth. "Body of a woman 'Cav, she's been cut in two."

Lucav moves in to check the body for the mortal wound. If he cannot find the mortal wound, he will check for indentification. "I have a corpse over here. Captain do you copy? Kat and Veniya have also confirmed that another body is practically severed in two. I am checking mine." (2 success if i need to roll)

Veniya takes in the corpse and surrounding area and quickly ties to surmise what's happened to this woman, trying figure out how this brutal wound occurred and if there's any clue around [0 successes forensics]. Prompted by the captains words she takes out her viral analyser and runs diagnostics for known pathogens. The machine start to whirr as it samples the air. Veniya takes some small sealed strips from a pouch and rips them open and takes biological samples from the body. Sticky congealed blood, skin wipes and swabs of dried mucus. These she inserts into the analyser too and it continues to flash an 'in progress' status. (Scanners/know how 2 successes - This takes about 5 mins to run )

Tim hangs back near the light panel and makes sure he gets all his tools back into the bag. It helps him focus on something other than the constant chatter about bodies that is going over the comms. He takes a deep breath and tries to relax as much as the situation will allow.

Kat sinks to the floor, sitting against the wall as her hands shake. She watched as Veniya worked, scanning the body and testing, trying to see what happened. "A-any idea wh-what happened?" she said, stammering, body still shivering from the shock.

Veniya's preliminary scans indicate the markers for early onset VPS . What she also notices is that the woman's wounds appear to be self-inflicted. The burn marks on her hands indicate that the plasma torch was held in unprotected hands, up close. The woman committed suicide by cutting herself in half with the torch. Despite what you know much have been incredible pain, her face has a look of relief in it, even in death.

Taking in what she sees, she shakes her head, 'Who would do this to themselves?' she thinks. She looks up at Kat, "Hey, it's ok. Just breath, ok? Slowly. That's good. It looks like it could have been an accident, that's all." she lies. Her scanner tells the truth though as the woman's residual cortisol and other stress hormone levels are sky high. When the viral analyser is done, she goes over to Kat, "I'm sorry, I didn't know it'd be this. Let's go back to Tim, oui?"

Kat nods, listening to Veniya, following what she said. Slowly breathing in, and out. "I, I think I'll be okay once we're out of here. That was just a lot to take in," she said. She was relieved that Veniya was the only one to see her freak out. Her training hadn't prepared her for anything like this, she couldn't talk her way out of being freaked out. "Sure, let's get back," she says, forcing a smile and standing up from the wall.

(Blakk, did i find anything about my corpse?)

As Lucav checks the body, he doesn't see any wound, around his neck his an ID card. He he is checking it. The body moves and with a sicking crunch, bites into his arm. The teeth pierce his skin drawing forth a fissue of body. An unnatural gleam is in the corpse's eye. (accounting for armor you took 5 points of health damage.This is on the Fatal damage track. This puts you at Scratched, giving you a -1 on all dice pools) ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** (Bang, bang, bang) Crewman Keith Wheton has been helping Hector Segura set up the medical supplies and emergency trauma station at the ships airlock. He was new on the crew, and eager to the impress the veterans that had went into the ship. It was hard not to admire the former scout and, if he was being honest, he did have a crush on the Doctor. So anything that would help her out he would do beyond shift. Nurse Segura had left to get some of the more delicate scanning equipment he wouldn't trust to someone from the former North American sector of old Earth. That always bothered and amused Keith. I mean, yeah his ancestors were from there but give it a rest. It had been centuries ago. There hasn't been a place with that name for years. (Bang, bang, bang) It sounds like someone on the outside. "Hey Hector, it sounds like they are back. I am gonna open up the air lock for the Doc. Maybe she needs a hand." "Maybe she will let me buy her lunch. I mean I know I am young by smart, sophisticated women like them young right?" What in the hell are... "Holy shit!1 Stay away...nooo...arrghh..." ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** LOTUS beeps and pings the Captain's armor. Captain, Starboard side airlock hatch is open. (Lucav, I need a Cool roll at -2 from your dice pool) (Erik, I need a Cool roll at a -1 from your dice pool)

"What? Who opened it?!" she demands, standing as communications start to come in, "Status! What the hell is going on?!" the Captain demands into the comm system, reaching every senior member of her team.

(Ummm, My dice pool is 2 for cool if i don't add anything to it. Soooo, what do i do? It just bit me? Do doge roll or a defense check? lol... wow.. i'm dead if this is a type of virus of zombie poritions.)

Erik jumps about two feet in the air. "CHTO CHERT VOZ'MI!!!" (Failed, but no 1s) He loses his shit, and tries to kick the corpse off of Lucav's hand. He misses, of course, and klanges his foot off the nearby bulkhead. "GOVNO! GOVNO! GOVNO!!" He stumbles back, shakily thumbing off the safety on his pistol. "LUCAV GET OUT OF THE TREKLYATYY WAY!!" (I probably got the russian wrong. I don't speak it)

(I think you automatically freak out, and not, you're just scratched. You probably have more than one dot in brawn, right? At a minimum we have 5 hp. 5 scratched & 5 bashing dots. That's why I have 5 armor.)

Not knowing a lick of Russian, Captain Deiu-le'Strahd once more shouts into the comm, "SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! GET BACK TO THE SHIP IMMEDIATELY!" she calls as more screams can be heard of her crew. "LOTUS! Emergency Security Measures! I want everyone aboard this ship armed, highest alert, lock down any part of the ship not currently occupied by a member of the crew. I want security forces at the docking ring, open fire on anything not of this ship that tries to come aboard." She says in a hurry, returning to her chair and rapidly running lockdown protocols on entire sections of the ship which LOTUS confirms contain no one.

Understood ma'am. Opening crew personal armories to all crew members. Ship in in lockdown. Alerts being passed to the crew now. You do see sections of the ship being locked down as crew member's are gathering weapons and moving forward. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** Combat: Round 1 Initiative is determined by your reaction stat. Go ahead and put that in the turn counter. highest numbers go first. (If you have no cool dice to roll, you auto fail. At this point its not a game stat effecting thing. It should guide your RP. As it gets worse, certain actions will influence your decisions.) (Leon, you allready have an active defense stat. That was taken into account when I attacked you. It subtracts dice of the enemies pool.)

"Captain, we have engaged them but I think we need help. Their among us and oh no, they got Romero! We have one down, we need to retreat upwards Captain!" The crew members cry out to Captain Dieu-Le-Strahd. The pure fear in the voice is evident.

"Fall back to the next level! I'm on my way! MOVE IT!" she calls, quickly departing the bridge at a full run heading to meet up with whomever is left, pulling both of her pistols as she went. Dashing out of the Bridge she sees 6 of her men successfully retreated to the hallway, her built-in HUD in her COG displaying the infuriating fact that she was now down 2 crew members. With tightened grips on her pistols she stepped forward with grim determination as she took in the view of what appeared to be a classic 'zombie'. "Out of my way! Don't let them touch you! HOLD THIS LOCATION DAMNIT!" she calls out, raising her guns to fire as she slowly walked towards the zombies coming up the stairs, commanding her crew to back away from the stairs while still holding the enemy to the staircase. ((Multiple attacks, 2. First attack zombie 1, second attack zombie 2. First attack, 3 successes, second attack, 0 successes)) The massive Modesto Decompressor thunders each shot in the Captain's hand, her first shot detonating the lead creature's left arm, sending it flying from it's body, but her second shot misses it's mark. "Fire FIRE!! Fire at will! Hold them at the stairs!" she calls out.

Veniya is helping Kat up and heading back to Tim, when she hears Erik shouting out. Her head flicks back the other way as what sounds like screams come from the docking bay. "Guys, what's going on over there?", she shouts to Erik and Lucav. "Captain, med alert red bravo, confirmed. We heard shouts, what's happening?" she states over the com to the captain, using the code for violent VPS over an open comms. Her heart starts pumping and she pulls her psitol again. She slips the stun mag out and slots in a live round one instead. [Reaction 2 - first action is to reload. And find out what the f is happening...)

"ALL HANDS! INTRUDER ALERT!" comes the Captain's words across every crew member's commlink, whether they be on the Gorilla or the Righteous Indignation. "The Ship is under attack by-" she pauses a moment, as if in shock at what she sees, rapid gunfire filling the silence. "MERDE! PUTAIN! PUTAIN!" the captain spits out, as if some form of curse. "-By feral, blood covered, crewmen from the Gorilla! Cavers! PUTAIN Cavers! Get back to the ship immediately!"

The retort of gunfire and the Captain’s last, make the situation quite clear (Including the swearing). She pulls up beside Tim, pops the torch from her COG and levels her pistol at the doorway back to the ship, keeping herself covered by a crate. “Get behind something, quick!” she says to Tim and Kat. “LUCAV?!...” [can’t access game on work comp to move token/roll]

** Round 1 - Reaction 3 ** Tim shouts out to the others that had crossed over to the Grey Gorilla with him, "What the hell is going on? They're attacking our ship now?! What kind of shitstorm did we get ourselves into?!" Tim sounds more angry than nervous, perhaps his adrenaline has kicked in and he's too amped up to be scared right now. He levels his pistol towards the airlock leading to the Righteous Indignation just as Veniya runs up beside him, yelling for him to get behind some cover. He shifts his position to take advantage of one of the large crates, pistol still raised.

Kat gets up, forcing herself through her freak out to move. The Captain's shouts and Veniya being right there helping her do so. She moved with the doctor back to the hallway, where Tim was. She murmurs curses to herself, watching all around them for anything weird, waiting for the others to get near them, while pulling out her pistol.

"It's Cavers! Shoot them in the head or blow them apart! You understand, the head ok? They bite or scratch you, you're in trouble. If there's too many we fall back. Keep them away from you!" She tries to keep her breathing steady, The doorway is well lit up by their torches but there's nothing to see but bare metal. She can hear banging, scraping and a low mewling though. Fuck, last time I saw Cavers there was a squad of marines in front of me.