By SCSPIEKER - Dec. 31, 1969 The heavy hatch squeaks on its hinges. Alex looks like he's pushing open a portal into darkness. Eventually Healy's hand-lamp finds the hard reassuring angle of the APC, sitting in the center of what appears to be a vast room. Something moves off to the left, but before shots are fired, Alex and Private Booths see that it's harmless, for the moment. Swiveling on its simple tripod, the sentry gun remains locked on them, but it's clearly unarmed, or it would have obliterated them already. It's merely in surveillance mode. Days after setup, it continues to scan the room. The group slowly ventures into the open area, finding it to be octagonal in shape. Behind the APC, the walls fall away down a long, black road toward the other staging areas. Tiny lights outline the massive doors to the surrounding cargo holds. The cold is less intense, in fact it seems to be warming up a couple of degrees. Still sweater weather, though, and chapped-lips dry. "If there was a breech," Beaudreaux hypothesized, "It would have sucked out all the moisture in the air like this. We really should be careful about which doors we open." [Sato] Sato quietly moves closer to the front of the group as he glances about the cargo hold. He stops next to Booths, his eyes now fixed on the sentry gun. "Booths, think we could set that sentry gun to fire on moving targets that don't match a human profile? It would give us some advance notice if something tries to follow us in here. Also, do you know of any network access ports around here we could reach?" [Fenix] Hearing Sato's comment "Why isn't the gun armed? Personally, I'm all for getting to the APC as quick as possible." [Booths] "Unless you can hack a command console for that thing, its about as good as a f*ucking banana." Booths scowled everywhere at once, trying to see anything coming, but he was seriously pissed off. All he knew was that the B*tch was in that APC. "Me and Patty don't have the passcodes to activate the Sentries." He gave Gonzo a slight push. "Move it." [Fenix] Scanning the room for anything that might serve a destructive purpose, including whatever damage was done by the explosives previously used, I think aloud "Decompression might help a good bit here...assuming the vented material can be kept far enough away from Rodina's orbital patterns, of course." Then hearing Booth's words... "Hack a command console, eh? Might be worth a try...course, if I fail, then we all might be in for a world of hurt. What do you think Booths, is it do-able? Is there anything you can tell me about them that might help?" [Gonzales] Alex's first shove-assisted step was a loud one, reverberating in the darkness. He gave a half-scowl over his right shoulder at Booths, but shifted his rifle to a more secure grip as he moved. "I'll look left," he said to anyone listening as he made a bee-line for the APC. Hearing Fenix's verbal thoughts, he speaks without turning his head. "Look, man, if we're messin' around in here, and those pinhead science boys are screwin' around, then don't you think turning on the automated gun is a BAD idea? Or do you want to be the guy who finds out if it can't tell you from a black armored S.O.B. with acid blood?" [Schabowski] "Wait a sec" - says Chris taking a closer look at the sentry - "Let me handle it. I think I can make it deadlier for the aliens, than just a few bruises when you slip over a banana" - he checks the circuits - "Yes... it's not very sophisticated... A few seconds and I'm done." The sentry gun doesn't have any user controls, other than an on-off switch and a frequency adjust dial, a couple of other miltech-spec type controls, but nothing that gives him access to target acquisition criteria, etc. Besides, Schabowski's not entirely sure what the aliens look like, right? And how do you know that they'll show up on infrared, or how fast they move, or how slow, and which should be the determining factor before letting loose with the ammo? Maybe they're close enough in size and shape and movement to humans that they won't set off the triggers at all if they're set to avoid friendlies? But more on the sentry gun, as Patwardhan will explain, if bothered about it enough. It's controlled remotely, from a terminal about the size of a laptop computer, according to Patwardhan. You'll need to find those terminals to control it. Chances are good that Duarte or Sabo, the marines who had been setting up these guns, had been carrying them in a pack or something when they were snatched up by the aliens. [Schabowski] "Damn! It doesn't seem to be working our way. Chances are, that I'd blast us all instead of the creatures. I'll better leave it, anyone's got some other ideas?" - says rather disappointed Chris. [Sato] "Yeah, I've got one.", replies Sato. "I'm guessing the designers of the sentry guns already set up an IFF system to make sure they don't gun down marines by accident. The logical place to put the transponder stutter-chips for an IFF system would be in marine helmets. If we find some helmets in the APC we should probably all wear them in case we come across another sentry gun that isn't on standby. Other than that, we should probably leave them alone, Alex has a good point." Before following Booths and Gonzales, Sato glances at the ground by the sentry gun. He looks for the shell casings that would show the gun had fired at something previously. As Patwardhan is the last to move through the access tunnel hatch, she dutifully closes it behind her. The others have slowly spread throughout the chamber, looking for anything besides the obvious hardware. Their voices and footsteps echo back through the darkness. Only the spotlights of their hand-lamps stand a chance of penetrating the black soup. She overhears Sato, and steps closer to the sentry gun he's investigating. "That's right," she tells him. "The IFFs are in our radio transponders. They build up a target profile in addition to the IFF, to determine if there's any foul play. They're smarter than you'd think. I wouldn't want to put Morrison's hat on a skinny guy like you, for example. It might only decide that you're an enemy in a stolen uniform, and shred you. "Anyway these are caseless, so you won't find any shells on the ground. I doubt they were ever armed. Even if we could arm them, we wouldn't want them out in the open like this, with so many civvies running around. From the way these are set up, I'm guessing that they were employing a defense perimeter for the APC and just never completed it." Her skin crawls. The horrid pink flesh on her right wrist begins to itch beneath its bandages. Her knees are wobbly. Her skin is tight and dry, her tongue sticky and bereft of spittle. Another draft of warm air comes down from an unseen vent high above, like the breath of Cyclops. "Let's get inside, what do you say?" Booths is already there, twisting the locking handle on the entry door. Officers Mnumbu and Beaudraux move in to give him a hand, in case anything's waiting for them. The metal slab moves on its greased rails, and yellow light pours from within. Everything is the way Booths and Brimstone left it. The rank of video monitors are gray static, the condition monitors for the entire squad expressed as flat lines: an electronic eulogy. On the floor, near the LT's command chair, is Booths' scratched but intact M-56 smartgun. Above it, his own condition monitor, dead as Hubbard. OOC: The APC's empty of hostiles. There's about a half-dozen pulse rifles to go around, and lots of ammo. Several VP70 pistols with extra mags are available. Two M240 incinerators/flamethrowers with an extra fuel canister each. There are a couple of smelly flak jackets, emergency medical supplies, water, rations, landmines, etc. Most of the forward section is crammed full of sentry gun storage boxes, big duraplast crates, and some hope for your survival. You can pick up anything that would reasonably be aboard the APC, but many of you are already carrying considerable gear so you might want to consider dropping something. There are NO extra helmets or suits of body armor. Everybody can fit inside the APC, but they'll have to take seats or it's going to be miserably crowded. All of the systems seem operational. Anyone trained to operate automobiles may attempt to drive this beast. The weapons, however, are not at your disposal. Only the mission senior officer has the authority, and the all- important fire codes. Anyway, you've made it this far. What's the plan now? Post your actions and declare your mode for this turn! [Fenix] Moving inside, I look to whoever's handing out the rifles "Can I get one of those? As for the guns, I was thinking of setting them to not fire below a certain height, since you said these things climb walls, and ceillings. If figured a gun shooting up at them might be a nice piece of warning. Does this car have a radar system, of any kind that we'd be able to use?" [Healy] Healy starts to noticeable relax once the whole group's in the APC Healy looked through the mish-mash of equipment in the vehicle, "sure Gordon, I think there's enough to go around... Booths... okay if my men pick up some of the rifles?". Healy extracts the two musty flak-vests and throws one each to Sato and Chris, "you two put these on." She then collects a few more magazines for the VP-70 given to her by Alex, stuffing them in the pockets of her shredded pants. She then starts looking around for a bag or something she can toss some more pulse rifle magazines into, stopping to change to a fresh one while she's at it. All of Healy's gear is weighing her down severely! She'll have to stop every couple of minutes to rest while carrying this much. Two pistols, two rifles, and ammo to burn'll do that to ya! Drop some stuff or you'll be fatigued before too long. [Sato] Healy extracts the two musty flak-vests and throws one each to Sato and Chris, "you two put these on." She then collects a few more magazines for the VP-70 given to her by Alex, stuffing them in the pockets of her shredded pants. Sato looks at the flak vest critically for a moment, then sets it down on a crate beside him. "I'll pass, those bugs aren't going to shoot at us, are they?". Sato takes three pulse rifle clips and shoves them in his backpack, then grabs a pulse rifle and slings it over his right shoulder, leaving the spring loaded stock in carbine mode. He glances at the display, confirming that the rifle is loaded. "Alex, you have a second to give me a lesson on how to fire this?", Sato asks as he steps out of the APC to give the others some room to manuever within. Actually, after re-calculating your pre-pulse rifle load, you're moderately encumbered. Grav boots, crowbars, climbing gear, and all that stuff on a little guy like you is about all you can carry around without really dragging a lot. Adding a 5kg pulse rifle and a couple of magazines will push you into a serious degree of encumbrance. Adding a pistol would not. [Fenix] Grabbing a rifle on my way to the front, I sit down in the LTs seat, and say, "Incoming Communique? Interesting" before going to work on trying to retrieve said communique from the system. I will then work on the sensors system to try and bring them online to get a good picture of the outside world. If I can easily find the switch for the headlights, I'll flick it. "If no one wants the vest, I'll take it." This room looks intact, no sign of explosives, acid burns, alien mind- waves, or anything like that. Just solid steel, white-washed ducts and conduits strung along the wall and ceilings. A rack of tools, a couple of crates, nothing else in sight. According to Patwardhan, the explosion was confined to the port-side forward cargo holds, just on the other side of the cargo door to the left of the APC's blunt nose. Patwardhan also seems to remember that there was a hull breach on C deck. But no one offers to hand anyone anything. Beaudreaux throws him a nasty look after his chatter. "Why don't you check it out for yourself, Fenix? Nobody here to stop you." She can't mask the irony in that statement, and instead busies herself with the bulk of a pulse rifle, testing it in her arms. She'd not entirely convinced that heavy firepower is going to help. It's refreshingly warm and moist in the APC, human-normal, pregnant with familiar sweat smells, the climate control working perfectly after all this time. Mnumbu and Stewart stand by the transport's doors like sentries, while the others rummage inside. Fenix can see that the sensor controls are all at the LT's long console, under that bank of dead marine monitors. They don't look so complicated, but there might be a lot of authorization codes he won't know... Looks like one of the lights is blinking, a nervous yellow diode. Fenix approaches the console, looks closely at the flashing light. Stenciled on the metal above the light are the words: INCOMING COMMUNIQUE. [Booths] The smile that light Booths' face had nothing holy, or even human, in it. It was like a lodestone to him. A long firearm, more a cannon then anything else, supported by a hydraulic arm, mounted on a breastplate emblazoned by a bio-hazard symbol. "I am become the destroyer of worlds." Those quiet words were chilling. A scientist from the twentieth had uttered that once. Oppen? Oppenheimer? Something like that. For Booths, it was like coming home. "Patty, Gonzo, help me with the B*tch." He started stripping off all un-necessary gear, leaving the pistol, the kukri, the switch and the pills in his BDU's. "And unless someone has all of a sudden finished Boot, no one is even to touch those weapons unless Gonzo or Patty have held their hands and shown them how, Clear?" Fenix quickly discovers that he can access the message through the lieutant's command board. It's garbled, coded somehow. It's requesting authorization, and it doesn't seem to think Fenix has it. On the off chance that it'll work, Patwardhan steps in front of the command screen. "Patwardhan, Aishwarya. Alpha, tango, alpha. Authorize." The machine scans her features invisibly, searches for landmarks of chin, cheeks, forehead, eye sockets. The measurements are paired against the chain of command as prioritized in the APC's central mind bank. Its personnel monitors had long ago indicated the demise of all of its complement. It determines that Patwardhan, by her sheer survival, has deserved the right to read its secret. Leaning in toward the monitor, and the white glowing words on its face. EYES ONLY OFFICER IN CHARGE SPACE COMMAND O'NEILL STATION VERIFY SCIENCE DIVISION AUTHORITY DIRECTIVE 606 MISSION PARAMETERS TO BE AMENDED AS FOLLOWS COLLECT AND SUSTAIN A SPECIMEN ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY Patwardhan shakes her head in disbelief. "Leon," she says. "He read this message. He just didn't tell us. When he was plowing over your friends," she says tastelessly. "He was just following orders. He sabotaged the Gaines. He must have, somehow, brought them over." She looks dourly at Booths, a sickening feeling in both of their stomachs. "Oh, God, Josh. What if he, somehow-- What if we're-- Got 'em in us?" [Booths] Having dumped most of his excess gear, Booths was now attempting to manhandle the M56 on by himself. Equipment rattled, and Booths swore at the twinges his injured side gave him when he strained against the stitched up wound. And then he gave pause... "Then we're f*cked either way." He resumed trying to adjust the breastplate and gun extension. "Wouldn't the scanners on Rodina have picked up something whilst the medics patched us up?" Something clinked. "Anway, do we follow orders, or get shot for sedition and treason?" "Right," Patty says, finally. "Unless the management on Rodina has the same orders." She looks at Healy, Beaudreaux, accusation shaped in the slits of her eyes. Gonzales spits out a jagged white curve of fingernail. "I never f*ckin' trusted that 'droid." Perhaps the meds were ordered not to say anything. Or maybe the things don't show up on the routine checks. Maybe... these are aliens we're dealing with here... Anything's possible! [Fenix] "Thanks for helping. Booths, I'm all for getting shot for sedition, and treason, that means we've won." Looking out the front window I scan the area wondering outloud "This thing doesn't have any built on fire-power, right? Or does it have ANYthing that might be used as a weapon...even itself..." Turning to look at everyone "From what you've all said, these things are tough to kill in a firefight. how good are they at surviving deep space? If we can get a can-opener for this boat, and can pump enough of them out, then...maybe, just maybe, that'll give a chance of cleaning up the rest, and saving everyone on Rodina? I know that Rodina's got construction equipment for working on the outside of the station...some of that has to be able to cut through some pretty thick hull. What if we were to use that against the Korea, and/or the Gaines? The Gaines is a later issue though, since no one knows how bad things are. Of course, having use of the camera's & sensor's in this ship would be nice too...perhaps..." Turning back to the console, I try and bring up the sensor banks, scanning the ship for anything that might catch my attention, then pausing at the clink "What was that noise?" [Sato] Sato steps back inside the APC and places the pulse rifle and clips he obtained back where he found them. He takes the crowbar from his backpack and sets it next to the sentry gun crates as he removes the smart gun clips, leaving it there to open the crates later. Sato then picks up a VP70 and holster and clips the holster to the right side of his toolbelt. He packs three extra clips into open pockets on his jumpsuit before drawing his VP70 to examine it. He makes sure it is loaded and spends a moment looking for the safety on the gun before realizing that the safety mechanism is built into the trigger. Satisfied, he holsters his weapon and looks towards the marines and Fenix. "Let's concentrate on getting the science team off this ship, you can talk about sedition later.", says Sato. His voice is monotone again and has an almost clinical edge to it. "These xenos won't be going anywhere so you'll have plenty of time to decide. I'll detach the umbilicus to the Gaines and Korea when we get off this ship so there isn't any need to cut into any hulls. Now, is there any way to reach the ships security cameras or access logs from the APC or do we need to use a network port on the ship itself?" Hunched over the command console, trying to ignore the voices of the others in the room, Sato and Fenix check the mil-spec hardware with greedy eyes. It's rare that they are given the opportunity to freely access a military-grade computer setup, and they're not wasting this one. They quickly establish the authority, thanks to Patwardhan's voice command, to bring the APC's systems under their command. One screen displays a topo, not very useful, blurred by stacks of cargo. Motion sensors are clean. The sentry guns aren't configured into the system. Not sure what it'll take to get that done. External motion sensors pick up the movement of the two cops outside the door, and the occasional swiveling action of the guns. The range is poor, though, blocked again by the sheer mass inside the Korea. Scanning through the system, displayed as a series of coded folder titles on a separate screen, they locate the mission records. Lots of semantic data to sort through, it could take a week. If they knew what to look for, it would speed up the search. No sign that the Korea's computer mind bank is accessable from the APC itself, although there is an open uplink to the Gaines. [Fenix] Whispering "Open link to the Gaines, eh? What's going on over there." Working on pulling up the internal sensor arrays aboard the Gaines, hoping to get a glimpse at what the situation might be like over there. Start with motion sensors, and then work my way up to video. While digging with this, I say "Had the Gaines gotten a computer-link to this ship while you were in here?" Begin searching the Gaines for a back link to the Korea, hoping to be able to access at least a PART of the system from there.