Act I: Mercurian Underground

[Halbarad]

A closer look at the strange spacecraft reveals a few more details. They're sitting on a tripod of legs, while a set of four arms tipped with long rods protrudes to either side of the ship. The arms are operated by what look like large hydraulic pistons, but on all six of the ships the arms are retracted, pointing up at an angle. There's a tiny cockpit in each - enough room for a man to sit down in, but little more. A closer inspection reveals a small engine and thrusters of some kind, although the engine doesn't look like a rocket's exhaust nozzle - more of a shallow pan.

[Jon]

Michael follows Rowan to examine the ships/shuttles/whatever, racking his brains to see if he can remember anything useful.

[Halbarad]

Code Select Expand

Check against Archaeology skill:
* Hatbot --> "Joan rolls 2d8+3 and gets 15."

Michael studies the small ships for several minutes, but nothing about them seems too familiar.

[Jon]

"Hey, Chris? Has the main computer got anything on these?" Michael walks around the ships, observing them from all angles.

[Ebiris]

While Michael walks around, Rowan attempts to open the cockpit of one of the tugs (that's what she's considering them to be until proven otherwise) to examine the control layout.

[Halbarad]

The cockpit hatch opens easily enough; it's not locked or stuck. You feel more than see the creaking of the hinges on the plastic-covered cockpit hatch as it opens...

Inside, the controls are revealed to be rather simple = a flight control stick and a throttle, combined with a handful of levers arranged symmetrically on either side of the pilot's seat.

[Ebiris]

"Very simple control layout... I'd say these are tugs, but we won't know for sure unless we can find their design specifications anywhere..."

On a whim, Rowan sticks her hand in to rummage under the seat in case there's a manual - if this place has been a vacum, the paper won't have rotted away, after all.

[Halbarad]

Rowan finds: a small tool with a triangular tip, much like a screwdriver, some sort of lightweight plastic cup, and a heavy glove. Nothing made of paper at all.

[Carthrat]

While Rowan looks at the ships, Arkian begins poking around the docking bay proper, notebook in hand and eyes alert. As he goes about, he sketches a short map of the general location of things..

[thepanda]

Christopher belatedly joins the others, taking a careful look at the machines in question and pondering their exact purpose.

“System shutdown, remember?” he replies to Michael’s question.

[Halbarad]

Arkian finds that the bay has a fairly simple layout: six pads for large vessels on the 'left' side of the bay, and space for at least a dozen of the small, spidery ships on the 'right'. Much of the right end of the bay is occupied by extremely large, metallic packing crates; of note, most of them seem to have been broken open where they sit, some spilling out their contents onto the floor.

Of the walls, Arkian finds two maintenance doorways, positioned on either side of the main entrance. The one opened by the explorers on their previous visit still stands open, while the other is closed tight - a small keypad is located next to it. The 'exit' appears to be past the docking area for the ships - and it's there that he makes a rather disturbing discovery. A skeleton lies just inside the entrance, sprawled out hapazardly on the floor - although it does appear to be intact, other than a long, jagged crack in the skull. The bones are still covered in places by the tattered remains of some sort of light blue cloth, although whatever it is has deteriorated quite a bit over the long years.

[Jon]

"Yeah," Michael says to Chris, "but I thought these might be registered with the bay main systems. You know, the one that we introduced the Star to." He ponders trying to see if he can get one to start up, before deciding that he'd rather see an operations manual first.

[Carthrat]

Arkian kneels down next to the skeleton, a low whistle coming out his throat.

"I wonder what hit this guy?" he comments, aloud, glancing around for any telltale signs..

[Halbarad]

If something fell on him, it was removed by the prior inhabitants of the colony - there's nothing in the area. Come to that, there's nothing on the skeleton, either; just the tattered shreds of cloth.

[Carthrat]

Arkian rises from this area, not really wanting to touch the skeleton (who would?) and returns to the others, musing.

"We may as well get started unloading the heavier stuff from the Star," he says. "Hmm. Jon, come and help me with some of the sensory stuff.

Chris, any objections to poking around that computer some more?"