Moo's EP game, day 1, IC channel

Session Start (irc.suptg:#MooEPIC): Thu Mar 25 18:08:34 2010 -0700
<Overshee|GM> Whether you are alerted with a beep, buzz, pulse, tweet, or synthesized voice, you are notified of a new message from your proxy.
<Overshee|GM> >> FROM: [FPROXY1291]
<Overshee|GM> Just over twenty four hours ago a shuttle orbiting Earth dislodged itself from the clusterfuck surrounding the planet and drifted far enough to be out of range of most of the defenses around the planet. As far as we can tell it's been in orbit since the Fall; records indicate that it has never been tagged as active or dangerous by any organization.
<Overshee|GM> Four hours later an unregistered and unidentified ship went out to meet it, most likely scavengers. Almost an hour after docking there was a single powersurge afterwhich both ships went dark. There hasn't been a transmission since, nor have we been able to detect any signs of movement. We are assembling a team on Luna to investigate, and you have been chosen.
<Overshee|GM> Assemble at [Jackson Landing, Nectar, Luna] by 08:00 local time tomorrow. Firewall will pay for egocasting and a morph of your usual preference will be made available. We will also provide transportation and outfit you with any necessary items.
<Overshee|GM> <<
*** Ranbar is now known as Twitch
<Neko> I send a fork to the Luna regional office at Nectar, and then catch a cycle over to Jackson Landing
<Neko> Mmmm... engine vibrations...
<Shell> >>TO: [FPROXY1291]
<@Kaye> <[Did you get the message?] Yes, I did. It will be interesting to see the stars from near Earth. I haven't been in the Inner System in a long time.>
<Twitch> "...SIR, I *WHAM* JUST *WHAM* WANTED TO *WHAP* TALK *WHUP* Hold on I'm getting a message"
<Shell> What size were the two ships? or, to be more to the point, what's the maximum number of hostiles we're looking at?
<Shell> <<
<Overshee|GM> >> TO: [SHELL]
<Twitch> "...Hmm, that might be interest. <Okay, dispatching a fork to the casters, standby>"
<Overshee|GM> Both ships are small, neither could hold more than ten or twelve people
<Overshee|GM> <<
<Twitch> "Now...where were we?"
<Shell> i'll take a trip to update my backup, and then report to the local egocasting station.
<@Kaye> >>TO: [FPROXY1291] - <I'll be arriving shortly via shuttle. Normally I just do courier work for you folks, but I have the urge to meet with some new faces from time to time. Can you relay to me the the ship schematics?>
*** LordLicorice has quit IRC: Quit:
<Neko> How long until the meeting?
<Overshee|GM> >> TO: [KAYE] - <We don't have exact schematics for either, the shuttle was built on Earth and there is no way to know what it contains. The scavenger ship is a Osprey, but scavengers often make changes to their interiors>
<Overshee|GM> a few hours Neko, indeterminate
* Twitch stumbles off the resleeving slab, nothing that they've actually kept her standard appearence and smiles at the tech
* Twitch dispatches a note to the mission head. <Might be something off the local scum station. They don't really use a whole lot of transponders or registries.>
<@Kaye> >>TO: [FPROXY1291] - <Very well, I'll be updating my backup and then prepping for arrival.>
<Twitch> <If you can get me the ship's schems, I can run a search for you>
* Neko nods, and has a few of her forks start searching the mesh for surveillance footage of the ship (radar, IR, et cetera), and starts tracing backwards in time to to try to figure out where it came from
<Overshee|GM> To those casting to the firewall facility:
<Overshee|GM> You wake up on a cold metal slab, in what appears to be a warehouse. Racks of frozen morphs surround you. "Resleeving complete," announces an electronic voice from nowhere in particular. "Thank you for using LunarEsleeving, Luna's best automated resleeving station.
<Shell> i look about for clothes and/or a locker room which would hold my kit.
<Shell> upon finding one, it's time to gear up and figure out where here is in relation to Nectar
<Overshee|GM> Neko: it looks like it came from one of the scum barges that make a circuit between Luna and Mars, the ARK
<Neko> okay
<Overshee|GM> Shell: After being directed to a marker via a helpful AR Marker, you find some basic but servicable clothes but nothing useful besides that.
* Twitch pops her neck. "Ugh. Hey, you wouldn't happen to be with the team would you?" Twitch arches up to her full two meter height and walks over next to Shell.
<Overshee|GM> Nectar is just a short maglev away, about 10 minutes
* Neko spends the rest of the time looking for Narcoalgorithm copies of Drive and Klar
<Shell> My, you're huge. I certainly hope i'm on your team.
<Shell> the alternative seems like it'd be unpleasant.
<Overshee|GM> Jackson Landing is another few minutes (and credits) further
* Twitch smiles. "Hmm, yes, that's always a healthy attitude to have."
* @Kaye disembarks from a shuttle and enters Jackson Landing.
* Shell rifles through the locker and holds up a few sets of clothes in comparison to her teammates before tossing them across the room to them.
<Twitch> After dissolving the sleeves on the block standard smartsuit, she grabs what gear has been left and follows the others out to the landing
<Overshee|GM> Twitch is able to find general information on the ships, but nothing more than a 3d model of the exteriors and what a generic model's interior would be
<Shell> Well, we'd better get moving.
<Overshee|GM> Neko i able to find Klar, but not Drive
<Twitch> "Nuts, and yes we should"
* @Kaye brushes his black pilot suit rather roughly and watches as his Smart-clothing adapts nicely to his frame. Perfect.
* Shell dresses, and then ambles to the maglev, momentarily making a face at the cred reader on the door before surrendering to local custom and feeding it a chit.
* @Kaye checks his SMG that is securely holstered at the small of his back and feels instinctively for his Pistol up his sleeve. Force of habit, nothing more...
* Twitch checks up on her news feed and has her muse sift the mesh for anything related to this ship
<Overshee|GM> Twitch is able to figure out the scavenger ship was from the scum barge "the ARK," and has engaged in a number of risky savenge missions in the past. However, the crew was fairly capable and fairly lucky, and had a fair bit of respect among scavengers who knew them.
* Twitch arrives at the landing and waits for the others while assembling a datapacket on the target
* @Kaye taps his right foot rather impatiently, his split toes fitting nicely in his micrograv shoes. [Would you like to view some maps while we wait?] <No, I'll just get too absorbed right now... there will be plenty of time for that later.>
<Overshee|GM> After looking through surveilance logs, Neko finds little besides a nice HD view of the exterior of the ship.
* Shell will get off the maglev before jackson station, and poke about for her standard loadout of odds, ends, and tools of violence.
* Shell checks her message queue just after stepping off the maglev, and exasperatedly tries to spin around and chase the train as it zips away.
<Overshee|GM> ((Introductions are in order))
<Overshee|GM> Jackson Landing is a private port on the outskirts of Nectar. Due to the low escape velocity of Luna, it's relatively easy to set up one's own spaceport. It also makes it easy for organizations to covertly stage projects and 'lose' records after the business closes.
<Overshee|GM> At the door, a sylph morph greets each of you as you enter. She welcomes you to the spaceport and brings you to a waiting room, but is resistant to questioning. In the waiting room mesh is another (encrypted) copy of the mission descriptions including a dossier on all known information pertinent to the mission, catalog of provisions available in the nanofab, and of course the team itself.
* Shell arrives a minute late
* Neko drapes herself over one of the seats, a wine glass of Juice cradled in her hand.
* @Kaye looks around quietly and carefully brushes a seat off before sitting down carefully.
* Twitch looks through the info. "Hey all, Names Termy. Freelance journalist. Dug up this additional info in addition to what's on here"
<Twitch> "Looks like these folks were reasonaly competant up to this point." She adds her datafile to the information and orders the nanofab to make a triple shot of something with a proof in excess of 100
* @Kaye coughs slightly and then folds his hands carefully in front of him, partially obscuring the grip pads imbedded in them.
<@Kaye> "Its... nice to meet you all. I hope we will be working well together."
* Neko grins at Twitch. "I'm Neko. Hopefully we'll be able to stop everyone from dying today."
* Shell nods towards the team members she hasn't met yet as she assembles an assault rifle. "Name's Cjel. no-one ever says it right, so call me Shell."
* Neko nods. "Nice to meet you, Cjel."
<@Kaye> "Hello, Shell." ['Nice to meet you' should be the way to say it.] <Shut up.>
<Overshee|GM> After examining ARK's security measures, Neko finds they're fairly strong and look custom made. There's probably a few hackers on board trading soft for hard 'ware
<Twitch> "Death, yes, terrible. Great for rating thoughs." Twitch smiles and with a mental command, a small horde of robots take to the air around her as she takes a weapon and checks it
<@Kaye> "I'd prefer not to start senselessly killing people if I can help it. Just too... messy."
* Shell runs her suite of chameleon systems through a test.
* Neko nods. "Yes, but sometimes you have to cut out a malfunctioning component so that the rest of the organism can survive."
<Neko> "Doesn't make it any more enjoyable, though."
* @Kaye has his nanotat fluxuate through several star patterns until he settles upon a rather large display of Orion. Of course, this is all under his clothes."
<Twitch> "Killing people is tragic, but any sort of violence up to that is kinda fun. What do you think, purple/pink, or sky blue/red?" Twitch shuffles through a few skin and hair colors.
* Shell returns to visibilty and starts stuffing spare rifle mags into her pockets. "Shall we?"
* Neko grins, revealing little fangs. "They're both quite nice. The blue/red has a better contrast, though."
<@Kaye> "Try sky blue/red.
<Shell> i'd go for a nice cerulean and orange myself.
* @Kaye stands up and streches his legs out, adjusting himself.
<Shell> but alas, Ghosts tend to be utilitarian in the appearance department.
<@Kaye> "I'm all set if you all are prepared.
* Neko finishes off the glass of Juice she's been sipping and sets it down. "Down to business, then?"
* @Kaye waves a split foot in Shell's direction.
<@Kaye> "Same here, really."
<Twitch> "I'm ready to go, and yup, that always pings well" as her hair and skin shift to the suggest blue/orange scheme.
<Twitch> "Let's go poking somewhere where we ain't wanted"
<Neko> "I found [this] footage of the ship approaching the derelict, as well as this internal footage of the ARK of it."
<Overshee|GM> The ride to the mission is uneventful. You are herded into the ship, a small, stealthy vessel, by the same sylph. The pilot, hidden behind the front bulkhead, talks in fast paced Japanese over the com. "Takeoff in ten, nine, eight..."
<Overshee|GM> After the g-force let go, the pilot speaks again "We will be arriving in four hours. Because the scavenger ship is using the airlock I will drop you off outside and return when you radio [this frequency]."
<Neko> "I tried to find internal footage, but it looked like there wasn't anything publically available."
<Overshee|GM> The seats flip to reveal vacsuits for anyone without one.
<Twitch> "It's not like scum are going to run a surviellence feed. You want something from them you have to deliberatelly ask. Not the best at record keeping, those folks"
* Twitch runs through the mods of her morph. "I think I'll be fine"
* Shell stares at the vacsuit for a moment before applying palm to face.
* @Kaye activates his vacsuit and unbuckles himself from his seat.
* Neko puts on her vacuit, unstrapping the pistol holster from her arm, and pulling a couple drones from under her jacket.
<@Kaye> "Ah, its good to be in space again."
<Shell> Space. We were going to space. Space is bad unless you buy a vacsuit.
<Neko> "I've got a Tactical
<@Kaye> "Usually, yes."
<Neko> Networking program.
<@Kaye> "Willing to share?"
<Neko> "Sure. Open Source, after all."
<@Kaye> "Downloading. Thanks."
<Neko> "We should probably set up a network with all of us and our bots included in it."
* Shell suits up, and directs her fork to link into the tacnet.
<Twitch> "Usually yes" In a moment her eyes , nose, and other bits seal shut before opening again. "Bug if it makes you feel better, I'll work with you."
* @Kaye downloads the network and links into it. It feels... crowded."
<Twitch> Twitch puts on a suit before allowing the group's tacnet to sync with hers
<Neko> "I've also got some facial recognition software; I've loaded our faces and those of the ship's crew into it."
<Twitch> "Likewise. Patch that over. Keep in mind that with scum, morph data is going to be out of date almost as soon as you have it"
<@Kaye> "Although its fun to go out in space bareskinned, it's wise to take no chances if you can help it."
*** LordLicorice has joined #MooEPIC
<Overshee|GM> Once outside, it doesn't take long for the group to find an opening, even though the airlock is already occupied by the scavenger ship. A hole bores straight through the metal. It's about a meter wide, and clearly came in from the outside, as the material bent inwards to allow something to pass.
* Twitch glances around, hoping no one decides to pull up that public XP of her slamming that synths head into the bulkhead of a freighter...while wearing nothing but grip pads
<Twitch> "Dispatching the drones, standby" Twitch activates the ionic drives on the gnats and sends them toward the hole
* Shell stares at the hole for a moment before dryly reporting: "Not ominous."
* @Kaye feels right at home floating around, and walks around a bit on the ship's hull, staring out at the stars around him.
<Overshee|GM> The hole is expandable with a few tools. The ship was obviously not top of the line when made, and the team has access to the inside.
<Neko> "Umm, ionic drives don't work in vacuum..."
<Twitch> "Whatever ones emit those tiny particles which drive acceleration, I don't know, I ain't a scientist"
<Shell> "Never seen one of these before."
* Shell floats over to the hole and aims her rifle inside, mindful of the kick in zero-g. "Well, i don't know my way around, but if any of you do, i'll cover you."
<Overshee|GM> Looking over the ship, Kaye sees nothing wrong... besides the giant hole.
* @Kaye "I'll take point."
* Neko nods. "That's a reasonable mistake to make. Ion drives do work that way, but they only produce a fraction of a g of thrust. Ionic drives work by using magnetohydrodynamic forces to propell air past the object."
* Twitch sends the gnats onward, looking for anything strange, and sending the uploaded map data to the team
<Twitch> "Oh, alright then"
<Overshee|GM> Seen through the 'eyes' of the drones, The inside of the dead ship is just that. Dead. As soon as you enter it's clear that this was an escape shuttle. Jampacked with refugees, floating aimlessly through vacuum. The reason for their deaths is clear. Something blasted through one side of the ship and out the other, a remnant of the defense systems orbiting the planet.
<Overshee|GM> Whatever it was had pinpoint accuracy or a lot of luck, piercing ever sealed bulkhead and even ripping half the life support system clear out of the ship. The decompression killed all the occupants of the shuttle within minutes, although the ten years between death and your discovery had not been kind. All their fluids have been boiled away, leaving dry husks behind, undecomposed in the vacuum of space.
<@Kaye> "Grim."
<Overshee|GM> every sealed bulkhead*
<Twitch> "Anyone else hungry for beef jerky?"
* @Kaye adjusts himself and starts moving through the hole after the drones.
* Shell taps twitch lightly, but annoyedly.
<Neko> "Wait!"
<Twitch> "I suppose the least dickish thing to do would to be extracting stacks when we can"
<Neko> "Do your drones have nanoscopic vision?"
<@Kaye> "What?"
<Shell> respect the dead. some of them might be us.
<Twitch> "I bet they have some amazing stories, once you get past the 30 minutes of screaming after resleeve"
<Neko> "If they don't, there could be invisible nanoswarms in there waiting to kill or infect us."
<Twitch> "Uh, no, can't afford it. You have nanodetection?"
<Neko> "Yes."
* Neko tosses her drones into the hole
<Twitch> "Not all of us can be corporate megaCEOs"
<Overshee|GM> The drones inspect the inside of the ship, but find nothing
<Neko> Neko raises an eyebrow.
<Neko> "How'd you figure? Naughty girl, looking into other team-mate's histories."
<Overshee|GM> Twitch doesn't see anything more
<Twitch> "I make it a point to find out things. Some people get a bit angry and agressive when that happens. But don't worry, you don't have any horrible secrets I should know about? Shady deals, dark pasts, unusual yet exciting mods built into that tail, etc?"
* Neko leers jokingly and winks. "Be a good girl, and you might be able to find out about any mods I might be hiding."
* @Kaye sighs loudly and rolls his eyes.
<Overshee|GM> Neko doesn't see anything more, although up close the bodies are even more gruesome
<Neko> "Looks to be clear, guys."
<Neko> "No nanoswarms my drones can see."
<Twitch> "Alright, let's head on up." Twitch drives her thrusters toward the hole
* Shell floats inside and seals herself to the nearest surface.
<Neko> "Someone's got a line-shooter, right?"
<Twitch> "Nope." Twitch adheres to a surface and looks around
* Shell pulls out a Spindle, sets it to 'webbing', and aims it at Neko.
<@Kaye> "Just push yourself around! You'll be fine!"
* @Kaye kicks off against a wall and glides further down the gash.
<Neko> "I don't want to risk going floating off into space! I'm not very good with zero-g!"
* Shell aims carefully for a minute, before attaching a line of webbing to Neko's faceplate and reeling her in.
<Shell> "Yoink."
<Neko> "EEEEK"
<Shell> "So. where to?"
<Twitch> "Let's head for the bridge and pull the recordings"
* Neko regains her footing on arrival. "Can you get this stuff off my faceplate, please? I won't be able to see properly with it stuck on me."
* Neko swipes at it ineffectually; she knows it's not going to pull off given how much force it put on her when it reeled her in.
* Shell retreives the spindle's thread and re-sets it to 'rope'. While so engage, she comments: "We should probably hit the scavver at some point, see what they knew before they came out here."
* Neko nods.
* Twitch turns on the flood lights on her gnats. "Sounds like a plan"
<@Kaye> "I think the first area we should head should be the Scavengers."
* @Kaye activate his headlamp and looks around for a cockpit of any sort.
<Shell> "Um. then shouldn't we have landed on *that* ship?"
<Twitch> "Alright. We can do that. Hold on, deploying the fodder bots." Twitch's eyes dialate for a second, and a pair of guardian drones begin hovering about her"
<Neko> "This one has a hole in it."
<Twitch> "Let's use the drones to scout this ship then move to the barge"
<Twitch> "Don't want nasty surprises"
<Twitch> "Then we examine the barge, verify the shuttle's scan, and get out of here"
<@Kaye> "It might also be helpful to find a navigation console. To find out why this ship came out of the debris field."
<Shell> "the engines. Ships don't tend to move unless something makes them."
* @Kaye shrugs.
<@Kaye> "Your choice."
* Neko nods. "Anyone have any intrusion software? I know the basics of hacking, but I mostly just use it to defend myself from intrusions."
<@Kaye> "Not my kind of thing."
<@Kaye> "Shall we move to the cockpit first then?"
<@Kaye> "Instead of floating around here until Twitch runs out of air?"
<Neko> "Hmm. If we can get physical access to the computers, I might be able to get in that way, then."
<Twitch> "I'm letting the suit's recycler do its thing, but yes. We can do that"
* Twitch checks her bot's progress
<Twitch> "Let's see, the cockpit should be uh, hmm"
<Overshee|GM> The drones are quickly able to scout the ship. Although they can't get through doors, they find a room (presumably engine) in the back of the ship, and another in the front (most likely bridge). Besides a bathroom and a few subpartitions, it seems the ship was optimized for carrying as many people as it could for the least amount of money.
* @Kaye kicks off towards the Bridge.
<@Kaye> "I probably can rewire some stuff to get into the bridge if needed. Do we want to split up and check the engines at the same time?"
<Overshee|GM> You quickly figure out why drones weren't able to open doors. The ship doesn't have a network. Presumably it lost power after 10 years in space.
* Neko sends a one of her drones with each group, if we do split up
<Shell> Hm. let's not split up yet.
<Twitch> "I think we should stick together"
<Twitch> "We don't want to play catch up if something bad happens. Let the drones do their thing. First we go to the cockpit, then engines to restore power"
<Overshee|GM> RETCON: drones are able to get in through holes in bulkhead and can explore engine room and bridge. Everything seems dead and silent, including two mummified pilots at the front of the ship.
<@Kaye> "Well then, lets get moving."
* Shell takes a moment in passing to tap corpses towards a corner where they're unlikely to float into space. "Maybe we can call someone out to reclaim them after we're done."
<Overshee|GM> There really isn't much of interest in the shuttle. You quickly realize that everything here is dead and gone.
<Overshee|GM> Electronics seem fried, they didn't survive in vacuum after cooling systems failed
<Overshee|GM> Small pockmarks show where debris slammed into the inside and outside of ship
<Overshee|GM> 10 years in an extremely volitile area has not been kind.
<Twitch> "Damn, this is pretty sad. Let's move on to the barge I guess"
<Neko> "Don't jump the gun. We're not nearly done here yet."
<@Kaye> "Shame for a ship like this to be left this way, even if it is scrap."
<Overshee|GM> The engine room is much the same. A huge dent with coolent still wet and leaking suggests something large hit the back of the shuttle and sent it slowly drifting out of orbit
<Twitch> "Hmm, can we do anything with the engines, or are they gone too?
<Neko> "Now that it's free of the interdiction satellites, I'm sure some enterprising person will salvage it if we don't have to blow it up."
<Overshee|GM> Engines may be functional, but you can't think of a way to physically fire them without electricity
<Neko> "Are the reactors still working, or did this thing run on batteries?"
<@Kaye> "Well then... Let's find that Airlock."
* Shell follows someone who got the layout of the ship to the airlock.
* @Kaye kicks off ahead of the group, quickly moving towards the airlock.
<Overshee|GM> Reactors are [the type of reactors the ship would have], and may be functional, but seem as beat up as the rest of the ship.
<Twitch> "Hmm, we can jump it with a nuclear battery later"
<Twitch> "Have to go back for one of those"
<Twitch> "I'm HOPING it's more or less the same as jumping a buggy"
* Neko shakes her head. "I've got a Proteus nanohive. I could make a nanoswarm to make some repair bots, if we have to."
<Twitch> "Alright. Shall we go see the barge then?
* Neko rolls her eyes. "If you don't want to investigate, why'd you join Firewall?"
<Overshee|GM> The scavenger ship airlock is opened easily, and before long the group is standing inside. There was minimal security, but it was easily circumvented by a few programs your Muses were carrying. There is a hiss as the airlock is filled, and when the interior door opens there is yet another hiss. The scavenger ship has lost atmosphere as well.
<Overshee|GM> As you examine the ship it is clear that it suffered the same fate as the refugee shuttle. Something with enough force to rip through the ship with uncanny accuracy has pierced every bulkhead and destroyed the life support computers in a single shot.
* Shell drops into a firing stance and waves the rest of the team back a bit.
* Neko begins programming up a nanoswarm, and directs it to consume extra material in here to build a Fixer nanohive
<Shell> "Two for two isn't a coincidence."
<@Kaye> "This is certainly unsusual."
<Overshee|GM> The crew, more recently deceased, was seemingly in the process of removing their vacsuits.
<Twitch> "We can investigate, but technical minutae doesn't really measure up to THOUSANDS DISAPEARED, ETC ETC"
<Neko> "That should take about two hours."
* @Kaye shakes his head. "And that's why you should always wear one..."
* Neko frowns when she sees the fate of the other crewmembers.
<Twitch> "Hmm, that ain't too good. Can anyone tell what kind of wounds those guys have?"
<Twitch> "Point taken, Kaye"
<@Kaye> "Most likely rapid decompression and oxygen starvation."
<Neko> "They were professionals, weren't they? Be careful, guys. I've heard the TITANs made computer viruses that could alter transhuman behavior."
<Overshee|GM> A pile of goods, electronics, relics of earth, and other suveniers are in a still open storage box in the middle of the ship.
<Twitch> "Hmm. That's odd, you'd think there would be more vacsealling and internal oxygen mods on a scavenger crew"
<Twitch> "and....hot damn, check that out"
<@Kaye> "You'd think those used to working on ships would have their suits on... I guess you could say they were fairly... unprepared...
<@Kaye> (YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH)
* Twitch moves over to the box and immediately starts scanning the items
<Neko> "Be careful!"
<Twitch> "Earth relics, general detritus, looks like someone had a big haul"
* Neko sends a drone over to inspect the goods, to ensure none of them are nano-infected.
* Neko also compares them to a list of known designs, to determine if anything there is novel and potentially created by or infected with TITAN technology.
* @Kaye eyes the souveniers with disintrest, and pushes off deeper within the ship. "I'm going to see if I can't find any ship records detailing what exactly happened here."
<Overshee|GM> The ship is still humming, and all systems are go
* Twitch stands back and lets her work.
<@Kaye> "Evrything seems to be working. We should be able to pull up logs rather easily."
<Twitch> "Alright. So bridge it is, then?"
* Shell begins to, unknowingly, head for the... head.
<Shell> "to the bridge!"
<Twitch> "Alright then." Twitch's bots lead the way as they step over various debris
<Overshee|GM> It looks like the pile was in the process of being sorted and repaired. There are a few piles, some in the process of being put back together, charging up, or deemed worthless.
<Overshee|GM> Twitch's facial recognition doesn't find anyone not supposed to be there, including a dead pilot in the bridge
<Overshee|GM> The ship is fairly new and has been  modded a fair bit
<Twitch> "Hmm. If the ship is clear I'll call out the folks from Fresh Kills to do stack pulls"
* Shell looks around the head for a moment, mecifully insulated from any smell by a lack of air. "This... is not the bridge."
<Overshee|GM> the bridge is the picture of modernism
* @Kaye floats over it, smiling.
<Neko> "I can do that. I was a biosculptor before I was a CEO."
<@Kaye> "Beautiful."
<Overshee|GM> No window, just one large screen
<Twitch> "And let me guess, you'll give them a 20 year contract before they can own the case you give them"
* Neko shakes her head. "Hardly. I work with anarchists as much as Inner System folks. If they want to be resleeved, they'd be welcome to try one of our experimental morphs, but if they don't, that'd be their choice."
<Overshee|GM> Kaye hops into the chair and pulls up controls via the mesh. An AR window appears before him, with all the controls of a modern ship displayed in a custom and loving theme
<Overshee|GM> looks beautiful
<Overshee|GM> Kaye can pilot this thing
<Twitch> "Experimental?"
<Twitch> "And...are those leather seats?
* @Kaye smiles as he starts manipulating the controls with all four limbs.
<@Kaye> "Oh... yes they are."
<@Kaye> "So... should we attempt to bring up any logs? Or move this thing a bit farther away from this ship?"
<@Kaye> "The refugee ship I mean."
<Shell> "we're still stuck to the shuttle for now..."
<Neko> "You don't think we sell morphs that might die horribly or go insane or whatever to our customers, do you? We push the limits of biotech, and sometimes things go wrong."
<Twitch> "I'm just wondering how terrible is it. Look, most people sleeve into them, I had to grow up in a  fury morph"
<Twitch> "You know what it's like having a nuerachem fire everytime someone makes a smartass remark or stare?"
<Twitch> "Now add into that morphs explosively deconstructing when they sneeze, and I imagine the cleaning bots have got their manipulators full"
* @Kaye straightens and coughs slightly in the seat.
<@Kaye> "What's our next move guys?
* Neko nods. "That's fair enough. We do of course limit our experimental morphs to individuals who are cognitively mature, and who consent to it freely."
<Twitch> "Understandable." she turns to Kaye. "I dunno, what did you find?"
* Shell taps on Neko on her way to the bridge. "break it up, we've got work to do"
<@Kaye> "Just that I can pilot this thing outta here if need be. Nothing more.:
* Neko nods. "Indeed we do." Silvery blades extend from her bracelet as she activates her multi-tool.
<Twitch> "Hmm. Anyone else want to give this a shot?"
<Shell> "We'd have to detach from the shuttle before we go anywhere, i suspect.
<Shell> "
<Neko> "We could just haul it with us, you know."
<Twitch> "Well, first we have to find out why everyone's dead. Can anyone pull up an internal camera feed. There won't be many, but some is better then nothing"
<Neko> "Or wait a few hours, for my proteus swarm to build that fixer nanohive.
<Twitch> "That gives a few hours to scan the ship."
* @Kaye brings up ship logs.
<Overshee|GM> Logs include both diagnostic and video
* @Kaye accessess diagonstic logs.
<Shell> "Let's hear the dry data first."
<Overshee|GM> [Launch] -> [Airlock Open] : Good
<Overshee|GM> [Airlock Open] -> [Airlock Close] : Good
<Overshee|GM> [Airlock Close] -> [Airlock Open] : Good
<Overshee|GM> [Airlock Open] -> [Airock Closed] : Good
<Overshee|GM> After those lines are about two thousand lines of errors
<@Kaye> "Hrm. So they went in and came back through it."
<Shell> "And then the onboard computer died."
* @Kaye plays video logs.
* Neko gets ready to shoot computer if there are any basilisk hacks
<Overshee|GM> Errors include various combinations of "Lost internal pressure" "Door x open" "Life support down" "Security warning" and "Distress signal failed"
<Overshee|GM> Video logs show nothing out of the ordinary until the scavengers get back
<Overshee|GM> The video shows them tinkering and inspecting their loot, getting ready to undock, and changing out of vacsuits
<Overshee|GM> Suddenly there's a terribly loud noise, and a blinding flash as something pierces the ship.
<Overshee|GM> It's moving so fast it's a blur
<@Kaye> "Poor bastards never had a chance."
* @Kaye freezes frames and rewinds slightly to get a better view if possible.
<Overshee|GM> You wouldn't guess it was a physical object unless you had seen the fact that the metal was pushed inwards
* Neko begins to calculate the vector the attack went in on, and then broadcasts this fact back to their ship for them to investigate
<Overshee|GM> It's only on the screen for a few frames
<Overshee|GM> There are about 12 seconds of struggle before oxygen deprivation sets in
<@Kaye> "Think its a bullet of some sort? A railgun shot maybe?"
<Overshee|GM> then over the next few minutes the crew expires
<Overshee|GM> Neko finds it came from a point in the debris cloud around earth.
<Twitch> "Not a single damn person on here had an oxygen reserve? Good grief, I'm planetbound most of the time and I've got one"
<@Kaye> "Should have exhaled and shut their eyes while trying to get their suits back on. Standard vacuum survival techniques. Still... poor bastards..."
<Neko> "Hmm. One of the orbital killsats fired that shot, judging by the vector of the attack."
* Neko watches the crew carefully to look for any abnormalities in behavior
<@Kaye> "Think we should risk detaching this wreck and heading out there to investigate? At this range we are sill inside that thing's firing arc."
<@Kaye> "Should notify Firewall and wait for further instructions."
<Twitch> "Yeah, let's report our findings and see what they want"
<Twitch> "I'll take care of it"
* Twitch pings the Firewall contact frequency while furiously trying to put together a total datapacket of what she's seen and heard
<Twitch> (Using mental speed)
<Twitch> <Command? Entry team here, have a status update>
<Overshee|GM> Using what?
<Shell> let's contact our escape ship.
<Twitch> (using Profession: media ops)
<Shell> this place is a tomb.
<Twitch> (comp skill writing)
<Overshee|GM> You're able to get a message out
* Neko shrugs. "I guess it's my job to harvest the dead, then."
<Shell> Let's leave the dead for someone who isn't on a secret mission.
<@Kaye> "Leave them be for now."
<Overshee|GM> <We hear you, based on what you've sent us it's clear what happened. Your next course of action should be to discover what did the damage and what you can do to stop it.>
<Neko> "We could earn decent @-rep if we rescue them."
<@Kaye> "Fine, feel free to start carving away at them."
<Shell> we'd have to explain where we got them, and why we were there.
<@Kaye> "I don't have the stomache for it though."
<Twitch> <Understood>
<Twitch> "Okay folks, they want us to find out what made that hole, and possible counter measures"
<Shell> we're to be as ghosts in firewall's service. don't leave footprints.
<@Kaye> <I suppose its time to fly this thing out then.>
* Neko nods and shrugs. "You sort of lose your squeamisness about these sorts of things when you're in medical school, I suppose."
* @Kaye seals the airlock and disengages from the Refugee wreck.
<Twitch> "Good grief guys, it's MEAT. it can't bitch at you for cutting it up anymore. Pull those stacks and hand them over. I know some A-list people who handle that sort of thing"
* Neko then proceeds to go and cracking the corpses' heads open, while keeping one of her drones nearby to keep an eye at them in case of unwelcome surprises.
<@Kaye> "Don't be so calloused about it. Those were people, even though their minds are quiet right now."
<Twitch> "Those people are in their stacks right now"
<@Kaye> "Doesn't mean their bodies didn't have any value."
<Twitch> "We don't have a vat to salvage them, do we? Ain't much else we can do"
* @Kaye pulls a few switches and with a slight shiver, the Salvager's ship moves off towards the Earth's debris field.
<@Kaye> "Mind if I seal off the bridge for now? Would make it safer around here with less holes in the ship!"
<Twitch> "Works for me"
<Shell> i'll join you.
<Twitch> "Hey Neko, can I ask for a favor?"
<@Kaye> "Bring those stacks in here and lets seal this off!"
<Neko> "What, Twitch?
* Twitch has a drone drag the box of earth relics into a safe cubby hole
<Twitch> "After we get back with the stacks, mind if I have the first interview with them. I'm used to dealing with screaming, horrified people"
<Twitch> "Besides, it'll be useful to know what happened here"
<Twitch> "In exchange, I think we can work something out"
<Twitch> "Fluff piece on your newest line of morphs, something of that nature"
<Neko> "Maybe, but we might want to have someone with some computer skills check them out first to make sure none of them are corrupted or infected with viruses."
<Neko> "Don't want any of them to come back wrong, after all."
<Shell> I can see it now. "The new Fury v2.003.1: Now even with MORE stabbing power"
<@Kaye> "Not my sort of thing."
<@Kaye> "Of course, if I could get a nice reinforced skelton on this bod, I'd be happy."
<@Kaye> *skeleton
<Neko> "Come on, we're a bit more creative than that."
<Twitch> "Of course"
* Twitch looks at shell. "you say that like it's a BAD THING"
<Neko> "It's how we got to where we were, after all."
<Twitch> T Kaye: "It's damn useful, but you gotta remember that after you get it, punches shatter biomorph faces, instead of bruising them"
<@Kaye> "I'm more concerned about my survival than punching people. Would rather be able to take shocks a bit better."
<Shell> "So, wonders of morph design aside, how do we track this absurdly fast mover?"
* @Kaye attempts to bring up any sort of sensor suite on the ship and looks for any additional functions that may be useful.
<Overshee|GM> Anyways, the scavenger ship has a full suite of sensors, from infared to radio to ultraviolet
<Neko> "That shouldn't be too difficult, I don't think. I'm more worried about the killsats. How, exactly, are we planning on avoiding being shot out of the sky?"
<Shell> "we could play dead."
<Twitch> "I dunno, Kaye, your plans?"
<@Kaye> "I'd like to power down everything non-essential and try to move in slowly, keeping our energy signature to a mininum."
<Overshee|GM> Kaye, using his sensors, realizes that for a ship trying to be silent, it's sending out an awful lot of radio transmissions
<Neko> "Yay to freezing our asses off."
<@Kaye> "That's odd, there's a lot of radio traffic coming from the ship..."
<Neko> "Joy."
<Twitch> "...from what?"
<Twitch> "I mean aside from use"
<@Kaye> "I'm assuming it could be a malfunctioning distress beacon, but... odd..."
<Overshee|GM> Kaye tries to stop the radio signal and turns off everything he can that would use them, but they won't stop.
<Neko> "Let's hope it's not broadcasting a TITAN computer virus. Come on. We need to take a look."
<Shell> Hm. where's the comms module?
<@Kaye> "Alright, that's really odd. Can someone start yanking out wires or something?"
<@Kaye> "I don't want to start chopping away at cables if I don't have to, but this is really starting to freak me out."
<Twitch> "Uh, isn't that a bad idea?"
<Twitch> "Alright, I'll sever some stuff, let's see if anything happens"
<@Kaye> "We already are flying through space with a ship with a giant hole in the side. How could it get worse?"
<Shell> "it can ALWAYS get worse."
<Shell> "for instance, we could be on fire. or under fire."
<Neko> "We could be having our minds hacked into by TITAN computer viruses."
<@Kaye> "True. We could have -two- holes."
<Twitch> "Point" a cutting tool pops up from a hole above twitch's wrist as she opens a panel, and quickly saws through a bunch of fiber cable
<Shell> We DO have two holes.
<Twitch> "That do anything?"
<Shell> One in, one out.
* Neko facepalms, and lightly pushes her out of the way. "If you don't know anything about electronics, let someone who does handle the cable-cutting, okay?"
<Overshee|GM> Luckily, Twitch didn't cut through anything important, but the lights in the aft port side of the ship dont work anymore
<Twitch> "He said cut it, he didn't specify what"
<@Kaye> "...Lets NOT cut anything else."
<Shell> "Maybe we can trace it..."
<@Kaye> "You're welcome to try if you'd like. I'm rather useless at sort of thing."
<Overshee|GM> Neko cuts the wire that leads to the antenna, the ship is not totally silent radiowise.
<Overshee|GM> However, something is still broadcasting.
<Overshee|GM> now*
<Neko> "I think I'm going to have to go outside, guys."
<Twitch> "You want the drone fleet to come along?"
<@Kaye> "Let me slow down a bit so you won't get lost."
* @Kaye brings the ship to a halt.
<Shell> "well. this is odd."
<Neko> "I'll take mine along."
<Neko> "Any of you want to come with in case of surprises? Probably not best to go alone."
* @Kaye sighs.
<Shell> "I'll tag along.
<@Kaye> "Anyone else want to take a dive in here while she lops off any pointy bits on the outside?
<Twitch> "We sure we can't just inspect the software?"
<@Kaye> "I'm hooked up to it already, so I can try to at least."
* Neko nods. "Be careful, okay? TITAN computer virus could be nasty."
<Neko> "It's why I'm cutting cables instead of doing that myself."
<@Kaye> "I'd hack through them if I could, but I need to stay hooked up for now."
<Shell> "Hm. Termy, stick with Neko. I'll poke at the computer."
<Shell> No-one on their own seems like the best plan at the moment.
* Shell plugs into the comunications console on the bridge, and sets her muse to scanning through the code of the device for something that would cause it to operate regardless of attached hardware.
<Overshee|GM> Shell, investigating the network, is able to trace what exactly was attempting to broadcast the signal. A process is trying to transmit the ships schematics, coordinates, and other info into the general area. CRITWIN: Examining it further, you can also trace the root of the virus a piece of hardware in the main room and to Kaye.
*** Unknown command: ME,
* Shell in an act of not-metagaming, immediately levels her rifle at Kaye.
<Twitch> "Oh boy"
<Shell> "Disconnect, please."
<@Kaye> "I'm sorry?"
<Overshee|GM> It seems that there are two strains of the virus, one for the ship itself, which broadcasts the info, and another which infects electronics and attempts to spread it to ships.
* Twitch draws her rifle and gets ready for the worst
* @Kaye turns to face Shell, rather confused."
<Shell> You. you didn't come in with us, and you're hacked... or hacking something, and very clever.
* Neko has her pistol slam into her hand with a though. She then reaches out to touch Twitch, and transmits a message through her touchlink nano. [Let's get back inside.]
<@Kaye> "I have no idea what you're talking about! I was recruited for this job the same as you!"
<Shell> So, please remove your mind from the ship, and back up a little.
<Twitch> [Agreed, let's move]
* @Kaye carefully raises his hands and disconnects from the ship's navigation computer.
<Shell> Please don't take the paranoia personally.
<@Kaye> "As long as you don't pull that trigger, it doesn't bother me. Just... be careful."
* Shell grins humorlessly. "I'm always careful."
* @Kaye returns the dry smile. "Same here. Mind not pointing a gun at someone with enough explosives on their person to desintigrate this ship?"
<Twitch> [What's going on down there? Open the lock]
<Shell> [Use manual controls]
<@Kaye> <I'm a bit occupied right now. Can't open the doors since I'm not hooked up to the system.>
<Shell> [Don't mesh into the ship. It's infected]
<Neko> [Roger.]
* Neko creeps carefully through the hole.
* Shell slings the rifle away, but draws her pistol just to be safe.
* Neko approaches
* Shell also opens a line to the ship we came in on.
* Neko tries to shoot Kaye as she approaches.
<Neko> "Sorry dude."
* @Kaye jumps and clings to the ceiling of the ship.
<@Kaye> "WHAT THE FUCK, CRAZY?""
<Shell> the rifle comes back out, aimed one-handed at Neko.
<Neko> "You're infected! There's no known cure! Just kill yourself and have yourself reloaded to a clean backup later
* @Kaye pulls out a High Explosive Grenade.
<Overshee|GM> Kaye jumps just in time, and the shot passses where he had been.
<@Kaye> "I'd rather not."
<Shell> The pistol is now aimed at Kaye.
<Twitch> "Fuck"
<Shell> All of you. Guns and explosions down.
<Neko> "The virus has got him. We have to kill him before he can infect the rest of us."
<@Kaye> "Look, I'd really rather not die here if I can help it. Such issues are... not the way I do things."
<Neko> "You uploaded a backup before you came here, right?"
<@Kaye> "I'm sure you could try to isolate it if you merged with me or something."
<Shell> He hasn't done anything yet, and we can still use him for risky interfaces.
<Neko> "Do you think I'm stupid or something?"
<Twitch> "...yeah, no"
<@Kaye> "Yes, but it still isn't desirable."
<Shell> Gun. Down.
* Shell speaks to Kaye without looking at him.
<Shell> Grenade. Down.
<@Kaye> "I'm not dropping this until she promises not to take a potshot at me!"
<Neko> "Firewall protocol is that agents infected by TITAN viruses are to be terminated and reloaded from a clean backup. It's not nice but it has to be done."
<Shell> @neko: Not immediately, it doesn't.
<@Kaye> "I'm not one of your agents, I'm a friggin' roamer! Apply your rules to your own self!"
<Shell> @kaye: That's what the rifle is for.
* @Kaye cautiously tucks his grenade inside a suit pocket.
<@Kaye> "Look, can't you try to isolate it or something?"
<Neko> "As long as he's still breathing, he's a threat to all of us. Even if he doesn't intend to be, the virus could subtly alter his mind to make him do things he normally wouldn't, or to make him do something just a little bit wrong and lead us into disaster."
<Shell> He's not hostile. Now don't make me damage your shooting arm.
<@Kaye> "I mean, we don't even know what it is! I haven't done anything out of the ordinary, so we should be OK, right?"
<Neko> "The computers are still broadcasting. For all we know, they're broadcasting a targetting solution to the killsats underneath us. Stop arguing and let us kill you."
* Twitch sends a private transmission to Neko and Shell. <Can we get out of here if we ice him?>
<Shell> We're not killing anyone yet.
<@Kaye> "NO. I WON'T JUST SIT HERE AND DIE."
* Shell sighs and flips on the rifle's laser targeter. "You have until the count of 4."
<Shell> "To PUT YOUR GUN DOWN."
<Neko> "THAT'S THE VIRUS TALKING!"
<Twitch> roll 1d100 v80
<@Kaye> "IT ISN'T! IF IT WANTED TO, IT WOULD JUST HAVE ME DETONATE ALL MY DAMN EXPLOSIVES!"
<Twitch> 1d100 v 80
<@Kaye> (no dicebot in that channel)
<Shell> (twich, there's no dicemaid in here.)
<Overshee|GM> Twitch tries to sneak behind Kaye but his cloaking ripples and everyone can see him
<Shell> 1
<Shell> ...
<Shell> 2...
<Shell> (pause)
<Neko> "Put your guns down! You're jeapordizing the mission and the survival of humanity!"
<@Kaye> "You friggin' idiots want to kill me and I'm not drawing a damn weapon!"
<Twitch> "Gawddamit"
<@Kaye> "Don't make me have to defend myself!"
<Neko> "You are a weapon!"
<Neko> "The virus that infected you made you a weapon!"
<@Kaye> "God damnit you crazy bitch, I'm FINE! Just firewall up and check it out!"
* Twitch rolls out of the way as fast as she can
* @Kaye pulls out a sticky smoke grenade.
<Shell> THREE
* Shell attempts to shoot the weapons out of Neko and Twitch's hands, but apparently has a bad poker face.
* Neko realizes that Shell is about to shoot, and her pistol barks twice, blasting through Kaye's armor and sending blood EVERYWHERE
* @Kaye screams in pain as his suit begins to reseal itself slowly.
* Shell fires two bursts from her rifle at Neko - one rips the gun out of her hand, the other goes too far left and rips messily into her arm.
* Shell also snaps off a useless shot in twitch's direction, which thuds harmlessly in a bulkhead.
* Neko has her blood spread everywhere as she screams and avoids the urge to clutch her wounded arm
* @Kaye whips out a smoke grenade rather forcefully at Neko's face, and the impact jerks her head back forcefully as it begins to release heated smoke throughout the area.
<@Kaye> "I'M TRYING NOT TO KILL ANYONE, BUT MY PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN!"
* Twitch is not getting involved with this, at least not until there are less targets available. She moves farther away down the bulkhead and takes up a defensive position behind some debris, out of the way of, and ready to fire on anyone rounding the corner
<Neko> Neko's eyes widen as the grenade smacks into her face, and she realizes what just happened. "Chri-" Then the grenade goes off. "-st. Oh, thank God."
<Shell> "There's no need for this to get worse, Twitch! Slide the gun into the corridor, and we'll talk this out."
<Neko> [A little help, Twitch!]
<Twitch> <I was just shot at. Screw you guys>
<Neko> [No, you weren't! She was shooting at me!]
<@Kaye> <Fuck you all! Can't we sort this out without a Mexican Standoff?>
<Twitch> <You're after Kaye, and now you want to shoot me. Nu-uh>
<Shell> [toss one that goes bang, and i'll melt you myself, Ben. No offence]
* @Kaye sighs.
<Neko> [No I don't! I just want to shoot him! He's infected!]
<Twitch> <Yeah, why don't all of you resolve who you want to kill first and then we'll talk>
<Twitch> <Until then, I'm holding point over here>
<Shell> [I don't WANT to kill anyone]
<Neko> [I'm already resolved on who I want to kill!]
<Twitch> <Then stop shooting dammit>
<@Kaye> <Neither do I.>
<@Kaye> <I thought I made that point clear when I didn't throw a damn Frag on Neko's FACE>
<Neko> [Another one of those bursts and you will kill me, Shell!]
<Shell> [Then stay down.]
<Neko> [I can't! If we don't stop this virus, it could kill humanity!]
<Shell> [Look, he's infected, yes, but we don't know EXACTLY what by, and he's not tried to kill anyone yet]
<Neko> [This is more important than your scruples!]
<Shell> [Plus, he's the one that can fly the ship. We need to fly the ship to complete the mission]
<@Kaye> [PLEASE just LISTEN to Shell! Lets take this Rationally! I'm willing to overlook the damn hole in my side for this!]
<Shell> [we need to complete the mission to save a LOT MORE people]
<Neko> [I am thinking rationally! Even if you don't realize it, you're infected! You're a tool of things that want to destroy humanity!]