Working Them Angels
Salvage operations
Over the next couple of months the Master made
two more supply runs to make to the Factory - which left little time for any
investigation work.
On the first run, the return leg from the Factory
to Vinen Habitat was interrupted when Kemphit spotted a sensor anomaly. It at first
appeared to be an asteroid with a very high metallic signature, but further
computer analysis of the sensor logs by Aaron soon determined it was most
probably a ship. The object however, did not appear to be under power, and was
way off the normal transit courses for the Spindrift cluster. They quickly
decided to investigate and Clarissa computed an intercept course.As they
closed nearer to visual range, it became apparent the object was an old model
Far Trader - probably about 40 years out of date. It also quickly became
apparent that the rear quarter of the ship and the whole passenger deck had been
blown out in a catastrophic incident - most likely an m-drive blow-out. As
Clarissa began the delicate manoeuvres to synchronise the Master's intrinsic
velocity with that of the derelict, Anna, Kemphit and Aaron began suiting-up in
the airlock.
Kemphit had a little difficulty with his gear, but Anna soon put
him straight. Aaron took point on the expedition to the derelict, using
his thrust pack to manoeuvre across to the airlock, dragging a line behind him.
Once the line was secured Kemphit and Anna joined him. Eventually managing to
get the airlocks open, they entered the icy darkness of the derelict. Kempit
made his way to the bridge; Anna to the cargo bay and Aaron went to check out
the crew staterooms. Apart from two frozen corpses on the bridge and a cargo
of timber in the bay there was little else of interest on the derelict. They
decided to recover the “black box” and salvage the cargo. It did take them a
couple of days to ferry 30 tons of salvageable timber to the
Master. Back on Vinen Habitat they handed over the black box to the habitat
authorities and filed a salvage claim on the timber, which once cleared made
each of them a nice bonus on the trip.
Their next run was equally
eventful, if not as profitable. On the leg of the trip from Shorannan Habitat to the
Factory, they picked up a distress call. Responding promptly, they recovered an
escape pod from a singleship. The occupant, a solo belter named Franck Rian,
was still alive and though injured, was suitably grateful. Anna looked after
him on the trip and on arrival at Vinen Habitat they turned him over to the
medical authorities.
Resurrecting the machine (week 1)
A week later,
Jenna informed them of a company meeting at the LFC headquarters. Lothrian,
flanked by Jenna and Desna addressed the assembled employees. The final payment
had gone through to Maas and the activation codes for the factory had been
turned over. Every day the Factory wasn’t working was costing him credits, so he
was shifting the entire base of operations for LFC out to the Mhajeyr cluster,
where Desna would take charge of the operation to get the Factory up and running. The expedition would depart in thirty -six hours, and was projected to last 35 weeks - and they would be taking the entire LFC
fleet, which in addition to the Master comprised:
Rockhound – 100 ton
Seeker equipped for a crew of two.
Spindrift – 100 ton Seeker
singleship
Comet Chaser - 100 ton Seeker equipped for a crew of two
The
Free Radical – 200 ton Free Trader type A
Mistress of Enterprise – 200 ton
Free Trader type A
In
addition to the direct LFC employees, Desna had recruited a
twenty-strong workforce from Vinen Habitat – including thier new friend
Rian. The contract-workers would be transported on the Master and would
be the responsibility of the crew to look after. Guided by Kemphit’s
experience as a steward and Anna’s engineering expertise, the crew
spent the next two days retrofitting the Master to cope with becoming
the home-from-home for twenty six people for the next several months - well over double what it was designed to carry! The trip to the Factory was fortunately without incident and the Master and
the other large ships docked in the Large hanger while the smaller ships docked
in the smaller bay that the pirates had used. Once the ships were
secured, Desna wasted little time. She set up an operations centre in the cargo
bay of the Master, assembled everyone and began handing out work
assignments.
Resurrecting the machine (weeks 2-3)
The first assignment
given to the crew of the Master
was to work on the Factory’s Life Support systems. Aaron, who had some
experience on the systems took point on this operation. Aaron was ably
supported by Anna’s engineering acument and Kemphit’s practical skills.
Clarissa, who knew next-to-nothing about life support systems fetched
and carried. While other crews worked to make the station airtight
once more, they set to. Over the next couple of weeks the job
went smoothly, even managing to finish inside the deadline
set by Desna. Soon fresh oxygen was being pumped round the base,
removing the need for cumbersome helmets.
Resurrecting the machine (weeks 3-6)
The crew’s next
assignment, given a two-week window by Desna, was to get the power plant
overhauled. Anna too the lead on this, and at first things went well, although
Aaron did manage somehow to inadvertently offend Bowsonn - one of the
contact-workers assigned to help them. The second week things took a turn for
the worse as Kemphit discovered that the insulation on some of the armoured
power cable they needed to complete rewiring had perished. They lost almost 5
days as under Aaron’s supervision they stripped what cabling they could from
little used areas of the Factory and cannibalised it in the Power room.
Resurrecting the machine (weeks 7-10)
The team were next assigned by Desna to
sort out the Factory’s gravitics. The work went well at first under Anna’s
expert supervision, however on the fourth day of operations, one of the power
relay stations being worked on exploded, killing Darson - one of the hired
hands. Aaron, who had been working in the crawlspace behind the relay when it
exploded, was trapped for some time - pinned by twisted broken metal. Eventually
they managed to free him by cutting through the bulkhead so his wounds could be
tended. After the incident Desna halted work pending a safety review. At the
review hearing, Anna was fully exonerated form any accusation of culpable
negligence, and a report was submitted back to the authorities on Vinen. The
investigation and subsequent hearing caused work to slip by a further 3 days,
but eventually they got the gravitics systems back on-line.
Resurrecting
the machine (week 10)
Their next task was to bring the life support, power
and gravitics systems they’d repaired on-line which should remove the need to
keep working in vac suits and reduce the danger considerably. While working on
re-routing some cabling through trunking near the main mission, Aaron found a
memory stick where it had been hidden. The stick contained an encrypted file,
which in his spare time he spent trying to break. Eventually he managed to get
the file decrypted discovering it was a grainy piece of video footage. The
footage seemed to show a group of men in vac suits excavating a mysterious
sphere that seemed to be made of liquid metal. Suspecting this might be linked
to whatever Rogan had found on the station 5 years ago, he showed the file to
the others, but for the moment they decided not tell anyone
else.
Resurrecting the machine (weeks 11-12)
Once the power systems
were on line their next assignment was to get the main mission computers
repaired, cleansed and calibrated. Aaron took point on this assignment which
went fairly smoothly except when a circuit panel shorted and blew out when he
was working on it, causing some minor injuries. Once the systems were repaired
the day came when the main computer was booted-up and main mission finally came
to life. Once the systems were online, Haro assisted by Aaron began scanning the
files to make sure everything was ok. Most of the data apart form system logs
had been wiped as expected, and Aaron could find nothing that appeared to relate
to the mysterious footage or the “discovery” Sal had told them about. That
evening however, Haro summoned them to his cabin on the Mistress. While checking
the logs he had found a series of unexplained EVA excursions, where personnel he
wouldn’t have expected, including the station supervisor, had gone down to the
mine but nothing had been recorded as to why - he wanted the party to go down
and have a look.
Suspecting that this little expedition was going to
bring things out, Clarissa and Aaron went to see Jenna taking the memory stick Aaron had found.
After viewing the footage, Jenna said she’d go talk to Haro and bring him up to
speed. Meanwhile Kemphit suited up and went out to the
main shaft, which was about 200m from the factory – it was a perfectly circular
laser-cut shaft which disappeared vertically into the interior of the asteroid.
Back at the Factory, after briefing Jenna, Clarissa went to help Anna sort out the gear they would
need, while Aaron made his way to the mining drone storage area. Mass had left quite a
few drones in various stages of disrepair, picking the most complete looking one
he began working on trying to get it booted-up. While he worked, Anna and
Clarissa suited up and headed to the shaft and began setting up a winch at the
head of the shaft.
Into The Breach (week 13)
After a
night’s rest, it was time to head out. Aaron had got the drone working and they
asked Rian to pilot it while they followed it to the shaft. They stood at
the top of the shaft as the drone descended with Rian giving them a running
commentary on it’s telemetry from Main Mission. The drone had been surveying the
huge excavation for abut an hour when suddenly all contact was lost. Rian
reported that prior to contact being lost the drone’s sensors had gone
haywire.
Enrico and Sir Bartholomew were designated as winch operators,
the others would go down into the mine. Kemphit volunteered to be first down the
shaft and was lowered cautiously down the 40 metre shaft and then a further 20
metres to the floor of the excavation. He began to make his way cautiously over
the rubble-strewn floor to the last known position of the drone. Aaron was next
down, but rather than walk, he used the thrusters on his backpack to move around
in the cavern’s microgravity - Anna and Clarissa followed suit.
They
found the drone where it had crashed into the floor of the cavern, near a
side-shaft. As they got near the area the readouts on their sensors and in their
suits started going haywire. All of their electrical equipment was playing up,
but purely mechanical functions seemed unaffected. Anna and Clarissa started
recovering their gear from the drone’s ore-hopper while Kemphit and Aaron
checked out the side-passage. The passage however ended abruptly in a wall made
from laser-cut bricks.
They began the laborious process of breaking down
the wall using picks and shovels – not easy in microgravity. Eventually however
they managed to break through. Beyond they could the passage continued for
another couple of metres before terminating in a circular vault lined in a green
material. It was obvious that the drone that had drilled the side-shaft had
broken through the wall of the vault. In the centre of the vault floated the
liquid-metal sphere they’d seen in the footage. It took a while to clear enough
of the wall to clamber through safely in their bulky suits, but eventually they
were soon able to head in. As they neared the artefact, Kemphit felt a strange
pressure building inside his head and had to withdraw. Clarissa picked up a small sample of
the green material from the wall with him.
Maas Effect (weeks 13-22)
On returning to the Factory, the
group immediately sought out Haro, showing him the mysterious green material
they’d taken from the wall of the vault. He asked them to take it to Marsa, the
LFC’s chief planetologist; in the meantime, he decided whatever it was down
there was a distraction and probably trouble to boot. Has asked them all to keep
quiet about the find, and they set off to find Marsa. Marsa took the sample from
them and promised to run some tests, after which they headed back to their bunks
and some well-earned rest.
Next morning, recalling the mysterious power
fluctuation, Kemphit and Aaron decided to check the station’s logs – after a
detailed analysis of the 10 years worth of data in the main computer they
identified the power blip occurred once per year as the asteroid orbited Sonares
– with metronomic regularity. Later that morning, they were called back to
Haro’s cabin where Mara presented her findings. The green material was some
super-dense incredibly complex material she had never come across before, she
wasn’t even sure if it was natural or synthetic. She also confirmed the material
apparently had the ability to shield virtually the entire electromagnetic
spectrum – well at least anything she could test with the equipment she had
here. She asked if she could see the artefact and take some readings in-situ.
Haro agreed and ordered one more expedition to the dig site.
As the
party began preparation for another EVA, Aaron noticed that four vacc suits were
already absent from the locker near the airlock. Fully suited-up they headed
out once more onto the surface of the asteroid. As they neared they could see a
suited figure standing near the winch. Aaron and Clarissa loped forward and
grabbed at him. It turned out to be one of the hired hands Jozef –
he explained that he and a couple of mates had heard Rian talking at dinner
about a mysterious something that had been found in the mine-workings and had
decided to go take a look in their off-shift. His mates, Arnald and Symon were
down below.
Sir Bartholomew was first down the shaft, lowered on the
winch – followed by Enrico. Clarissa and Aaron, decided to take the quick route,
dropping sown into the shaft using their thruster packs. They found Arnald and
Symon poking around near the artefact and sent them packing back to the surface.
Marsa spent a good couple of hours poking around, somewhat hampered by the
random working of her sensor equipment. Before they left she suggested they move
the damaged mining probe out of the interference zone and set up it’s cameras to
monitor the area. Aaron with some help from Clarissa and Kemphit managed to drag
the probe out and get it booted up. Eventually as they returned to the surface,
Marsa informed them that she believed the vault had not been dug into the
asteroid, but the asteroid had formed round the vault! Haro was even more
perturbed by this info and ordered a blanket ban on anything to do with the
artefact.
A couple of days later as
they returned to work . While other teams readied the crew staterooms,
they were assigned to get the kitchens and store-room facilities
working, supervised by Kemphit. Sir Bartholomew returned to his
malingering ways getting numerous sick-notes to avoid too much work.
Somewhat ironically, on the one day he turned up and did an excellent
piece of work, one of the hired hand’s Aalf, took the credit for it! A
week or so later, Haro, sitting in Main Mission, received
an unwelcome message from Maas Corporation’s legal department – an
injunction banning LFC from the surface of the asteroid - somehow Mass
had found out something. Haro asked the team to investigate how and
Aaron and Kemphit pored over the Factory’s sensor logs. They found
that a high-powered and encrypted burst-transmission had been
sent just after the expedition to the artefact with Marsa. What was
slightly odd was the factory didn’t actually have the capability to
broadcast such a message! Discreet enquiries didn’t turn up
anything more, so they returned to the recomissioning work.
The work, to be led by Kemphit, wasn’t without incident. Sir
Bartholomew, on an EVA cleaning the vents from the kitchens, managed to snag
his line. Trying to free it , he ended up cutting it and drifting off into space. The Rockhound was scrambled with Clarissa at the controls, and
a few hours later he was rescued. The wily aristocrat managed to use the
trauma of the event to get a few more days off work!
A week or so later Aaron managed to get
himself trapped (yet again) in a collapsing crawlspace and there was a couple of
minor electrocutions as the kitchen facilities wer re-wired. There
was only one major accident, which occurred when Aalf and
Aaron were stacking shelves and a large crate fell and crushed poor
Aalf’s skull. Desna held another fatal accident enquiry,
where although she took no action, did warn Kemphit and Aaron the
case would have to be referred back to the authorities on Vinen. These
incidents aside, eventually the work was completed a few days within
schedule, thanks to some sterling efforts from Kemphit.
Rogan’s Raid
The party’s next assignment was to work on the elevators -
a job that went relatively smoothly save for Bartie’s attempt to re-wire the
power supply to one of the transformers that blew him and Kemphit up and getting
them another visit to sickbay! Despite that they managed to complete the job a
day early and as a reward were given the day off by Desna.
As they hung
about the canteen – pretty much at a loose end - the Factory had a surprise
visitor. The Silverlight, a freighter called asking for permission to dock for
repairs. The freighter was too big to use the Factory’s hangar bays, so assumed
a synchronous orbit above, and dropped a shuttle down. Haro himself met the
visitors in the bay while the party surreptitiously watched from a gangway
above. The captain of the Silverlight introduced himself as Johnas Chryr. He had
six companions with him: four were obviously belters a tough-looking lot;
Dessen, a pretty though hard-faced woman, who had piloted the shuttle; and the
last he introduced as Mughr Vross, his lieutenant. Chryr seemed a likeable
enough fellow and Haro quickly invited the group down to the canteen for
refreshments. Clarissa was convinced the whole thing was somehow phoney and she
told the others she suspected this Chryr character was somehow connected to
Rogan and followed them down to the canteen.
After drinks in the
canteen and agreeing to help with the repairs to the SIlverlight , Haro insisted
on showing the visitors round the Factory - Chryr, Vross and Dessen accepted,
but the four belters stayed in the canteen. Kemphit volunteered to trail the
touring party, and spent a fairly boring hour listening to Haro enthuse about
his new baby! After the tour, Haro escorted Chryr, Vross and Dessen up in some
staterooms on the control deck near the canteen. While the others retired to
their cabins on the Master, Clarissa still suspicious set up watch in the
canteen where she could keep an eye on their staterooms – unfortunately everyone
forgot about the four belters!
Next morning after breakfast the visitors
departed in their shuttle back to the Silverlight – unfortunately though Bartie
watched the shuttle depart he failed to spot that not everyone who had arrived
on the station had left it! A couple of hours later, as Enrico emerged from
his morning check on the vac-suit locker, he spotted five suited figures heading
for the control centre. Fearing they were up to no-good, he followed, but
unfortunately he was unable to intercept them before they got there. He tried to
follow but discovered they’d sealed the iris-valve behind them – confirming his
suspicions. He managed to get a warning off to the others before their comms
system was cut off by a high-pitched squealing.
As they others came
running to meet him in the corridor outside the control room, they were -
somewhat surprisingly - joined by Jozef, Arnald and Symon. Even more
surprisingly, the three were armed and carrying sophisticated comms gear. Seeing
them, Kemphit made a leap of intuition - accusing the three of being Maas
Security. Jozef, confirmed this, and went on to tell them that he’d intercepted
a transmission from the Silverlight - Vross and the four heavies had seized the
control room – taking Haro and the on-duty crew hostage. Clarissa had been
right, Chryr was in fact Rogan and he was after the artefact. They proposed
leaving the party to deal with the hostage situation while they went to suit up
and try to secure the artefact. Giving Bartie one of their comms units, they
three headed off.
Quickly the party hatched a plan – Kemphit would head
back to the Master to get their weapons and then to the Power Room to get Anna
and Aaron to shut down power to the control room. While he did that Clarissa and
Enrico went and got some laser cutting gear to cut through the bulkhead in the
far corner of the control room. Bartie, after spotting through a viewport that
the Silverlight was heading towards the mine-shaft, got on the comms unit and
posing as a representative of the Sonares World Authority attempted some hostage
negotiations. Just as Anna shut down the power, Clarissa cut through the
bulkhead and she Enrico and Kemphit deployed into the control room.
Simultaneously Bartie called on the hostages to distract their guards while he
went through the iris-valve.
There was a frantic firelight in the
control room, Haro screaming in anguish as a high-velocity rounds ricocheted off
his precious bulkhead. At one end of the room, where the hostages had jumped
their guards there was a furious mêlée free-for all while at the far end,
bullets and energy discharges sizzled through the air. The pirates, led by
Vross hadn’t been expecting serious opposition and were unprepared for the fury
of violence launched against them. One by one they dropped badly wounded and
quickly order was restored. The Mass agents out on the surface of the
asteroid had managed to disrupt Rogan’s effort to retrieve the artefact from the
mine, and with the loss of his ground crew, the Silverlight suddenly accelerated
away.
Haro was suitably grateful for his rescue, however he was less than
happy a week or so later, when a Mass freighter (a thinly disguised warship)
turned up and disgorged a small army of scientists and security personnel onto
the Factory.
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