Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1546309" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XXXIIDate: 124-993Place: Medway, Bromley, Alief In the morning, the crew gets the Bray Keaven ready for the most difficult of the three rescues. The Boise family is holed up on the top floors of the Ariska Tower in downtown Medway. The tower does have a flat roof, but it is one of the older towers, so there are several towers in close proximity which are taller. The Bray Keaven can hover above the roof of the tower, but landing is not advised. There is a traffic circle/park about 500 meters away from the base of the tower which could serve as a dandy landing spot. The winds today are fairly strong, but at least they are relatively steady. -----Marcus flies the Bray Keaven towards the center of Medway. As the far trader approaches the city center, the bridge crew notes the destruction out of the cockpit windows. A number of buildings have apparently been on fire and are either piles of rubble or skeletons/shells of their former selves. Vehicles and bodies line the streets. -----Emile contacts the Boise family while en route: "This is the Bray Keaven. May I speak to the head of the Boise family please." "Eddie Boise here. Are you on your way?" "Yes. Please assemble your family just inside the roof exit on the north side." "We’ll be waiting. Thank God you’re on your way. I think that there is some people on the lower levels who are trying to get past my barricades a few floors below us." -----The traffic circle is on the way to Ariska Tower. There are vehicles and bodies scattered throughout the circle, but landing there would still be relatively easy (if necessary). Once past the traffic circle, Marcus guides the Bray Keaven slowly towards the tower. The far trader, never a particularly agile vessel, feels particularly sluggish and ungainly in the strong wind and tight quarters. "Martha, hop on the secondary controls," Marcus said, his eyes focused on his instrumentation. "Just in case I need some help keeping her steady." Over the ship’s comm, he says, "Emile, you and Darishun should be able to get the family aboard. Let me know as soon as you have the hatch secured." Martha settles into the secondary control station, configuring the board to her recorded profile. Tactical displays are replaced with more defined schematics, meters indicating system performance, and various touch controls. -----"Roger that, Captain," says Vargas as he finishes pulling on his NBC suit over his cloth body armor. After he’s fully covered, the former Scout checks both his auto pistol and shotgun — just in case. -----Darishun is in the cargo hold already. He is in his tailored vacc suit (since nothing else fits) and has his cloth armor over it. He does not have his rifle. -----Rechecking his instrumentation as he slows the lumbering craft to a hover over the tower and settles it down, the captain quips, "This is where the fun begins." "Aye, aye, Cap’n," Martha mutters under her breath as she adjusts her sensor array to the more confined area, patching in weather satellite input to help her predict upcoming wind surges. With Marcus at the helm and Martha on sensors, the Bray Keaven hovers delicately over the roof of the Ariska Tower. The winds are strong, but with Marcus’ experienced hands at the helm and Martha using the ship’s sensors and the Bromlian weather net, the Bray Keaven manages to achieve a fairly steady hover. At least, for now. ----- Emile suits up and goes to join Darishun in the cargo bay. Across Emile’s back is his shotgun, and at his waist is his autopistol. The massive sophont raises a cocked head at the weapons, but doesn’t say anything as he grabs four biohazard suits. Emile keys the rear cargo door, and the two gingerly descend the cargo ramp. At the end of the ramp, Emile looks at Darishun briefly, grins, and jumps the 10 or so centimeters to the roof. Darishun follows momentarily, and the two head for the roof top exit, about 15 meters away, where Eddie Boise indicated they’d be waiting. Suddenly, the door flies open and a woman in her mid 30s comes barreling out, light brown hair flying. Her left hand has a solid grasp on the hand of a 9–year–old boy, and the right hand clutches a toddler to her chest. The three skid to a halt as they come face to face with the Virushi. Beyond them, framed by the door, a man stands firing a shotgun at a downward angle, presumably down the stairs at a hidden assailant. After he fires, he jumps through the door and slams it shut. He spares a glance at his family and then turns to face the door. Darishun drops the biohazard suits and calmly says, "Mrs. Boise? We’re here to help. Please come with me, and we will get you onboard the Bray Keaven as quickly as possible." The massive sophont then half gestures, half pushes them past him, interposes his bulk between the three and the roof top door, and hurries them towards the cargo ramp. Meanwhile, the man (presumably Eddie Boise) is backing up with his shotgun raised towards the door. He yells, "They’re crazy. They broke through the barriers!" Vargas calmly, but deliberately, reaches over his shoulder for his shotgun, works the action, and draws a bead on the door to the roof. Allowing Eddie to get ahead of him and nearer the ship, Vargas begins to drop back toward the ramp. "This will serve as your final boarding call. All aboard for immediate dust off and points elsewhere." -----"Dammit," Argent curses as he struggles to keep the ship steady. "Emile, what’s the holdup down there?" "Language Captain, language. Looks like we’ve got in-bounds," replies the former Scout. A wry grin crosses Marcus’ features at Vargas’ comment. "Well, we’re going to get the casualties we don’t need," he replies. "Maybe we need to think about adding a remotely fired anti-personnel gun to this baby." -----Darishun hurries the woman and two children towards the cargo ramp. The Virushi quickly picks up the boy and places him on the ramp saying, "Please go up the ramp, and sit in one of the chairs as quickly as possible." The boy scampers up the ramp and enters the cargo hold. -----On the bridge, Marcus is doing his best to keep the Bray Keaven steady in the strong winds whipping through the downtown skyscrapers. Martha, monitoring her sensors, detects what will probably be a strong headwind gust, and yells a warning. Though Marcus is momentarily distracted by the action viewable on his rear sector monitor, Martha’s warning allows the ex–Navy/Scout to avoid having the cargo ramp strike Darishun and the woman as the gust hits the far trader.  Unfortunately, the gust is stronger than expected and has a downward burst element to it, and the maneuver to avoid Darishun, the woman, and the small child results in the ship’s rear starboard side striking the roof top while the Bray Keaven is pushed down the side of the building.   Fortunately, Marcus remembers the boy who has already boarded and manages to keep the ship with its nose at a slight downward angle to avoid having the child tumble out the rear cargo door.   Martha worriedly checks the cargo bay monitors and sees a still lump near the front of the cargo bay that is probably the boy. She closes the cargo ramp for the time being to make sure the boy doesn’t tumble out in any upcoming maneuvers.   Marcus struggles for control, achieves it, and starts to raise the far trader back towards the rooftop.   -----Darishun barely manages to pull the woman and the toddler away from the cargo ramp before the gust picks up the Bray Keaven, smashes its rear starboard side into the rooftop, and sends the far trader down the side of the building. He spares a quick glance towards the roof top door and makes sure that he is between the woman and the door. The door suddenly bursts open, and three men charge out the door. The first man looks like a somewhat shaved Ursa–human cross and carries a large maul of some sort. He knocks the door open and steps to the left. The second man is a wild–eyed looking fellow who has several open sores and has blood dribbling from his mouth who immediately charges Eddie. He is armed with a knife. The third man has a sickly white pallor and starts raising an autopistol as soon as he comes through the door. Eddie Boise fires at the knife wielder with his shotgun. The shot strikes him straight in the chest, and the knife wielder goes down. Vargas snaps the shotgun up to firing position, its barrel pointed at the third man. Shouting to be heard over the wind and through the suit, he yells, "Who's next?" The third man is moving forward. The pistol is in the man’s right hand, and he is raising the pistol. Once it is raised, it will probably be aimed at Eddie Boise. Vargas fires at the pistol wielder. Unfortunately, the shot just barely misses the pistol wielder. The pistol wielder fires at Eddie Boise, striking him in the shoulder. Eddie is significantly hurt, but still up. Maul Man closes on Emile and swings a maul that looks awfully big at such a close range. Emile tries to dodge right, but the maul catches him on his left side. The cloth armor absorbs quite a bit of the damage, but the strength of the blow still staggers the ex–Scout, who stumbles to the right a bit before righting himself. Seeing that Eddie and Emile have been attacked, Darishun turns his head around to the woman and says, "Ma’am, would you please excuse me for a moment? Please wait right here, and I will be right back." Darishun, shaking his head sadly, then charges in between Maul Man and the stumbling ex-Scout. -----On board the Bray Keaven, Marcus is busily piloting the far trader back to the rooftop. The far trader feels a little off in the heavy wind, but manageable. Once the ship reaches rooftop level again, Marcus carefully starts to put the ship back into position. The woman and the toddler are a little close, but there should be enough room to extend the ramp. Martha is still trying to help Marcus with by using the sensors but also has a worried eye on the probably unconscious (or dead) boy in the cargo bay. Hating to leave Marcus unattended, Martha continues to monitor the winds via sensors and the WeatherNet. She also steals a quick glance to note if the ship’s weapons might be of some use next round in ending the conflict outside through intimidation. In the back of her mind, she wishes she knew more about medicine, so that she could use the monitoring capacities of sensors in the anti-hijack system to determine the boy's health status. But since she doesn’t, she feels driven to end the conflict sooner rather than later, so that someone can attend to the boy. Argent figures firing the lasers is out of the question, since the blast radius would be meters in diameter; one shot would kill everyone on the rooftop. "I want a gauss rifle on a drop down turret mounted as soon as we get back home," the captain announces, feeling about as helpless as he could be at this point. "Martha, I hate to do this, but you probably need to get back there when I lower the ramp," Marcus adds. "And take a sidearm. I’ll manage as best I can here." Marcus fights to bring the Bray Keaven back to where it originally was without running into anything (or anyone). The positioning is tricky, but the winds seem to be improving a bit. Martha grabs the latest information from the weather net and compares it with her sensor readings, continuing to help Marcus. When Marcus makes his suggestion, she is torn, and her hand goes towards the chair strap release. -----On the rooftop, Eddie fires his shotgun at the pistol wielder but misses due to his the pain in his shoulder. The pistol wielder returns fire but only achieves a grazing hit on Eddie’s leg. Vargas chambers and fires a second load of buckshot at Maul Man. Unfortunately, the blow on his left side smarts, and his aim is off enough to miss Maul Man again. Not noticeably intimidated by the massive sophont, Maul Man swings at Darishun. The blow connects but has no apparent effect due to Darishun’s layered armor. Darishun, his massive head shaking sadly, turns slightly to whip his tail around and connects squarely with Maul Man’s middle. Maul Man is thrown backwards into some air filtration equipment with a loud crash and lies still. -----"Captain," Martha says, "Begging your pardon, but I’m of better assistance here. It’ll take me more time to don a suit than it’ll take for any of the wounded to bleed out before I can get there. Is there any way we can position this so you can fire a shot or two from the ship’s lasers and end this, without putting anyone else in danger? Maybe you don’t have to kill them, just scare them a hell of a lot." She clicks open the safety harness and begins to move out of her seat. "Yeah, I figured you’d bring logic into this," Marcus replies wryly as he brings the starboard side of the ship to bear on the melee. "We’re probably going to take out a five meter area with this thing, so we can’t actually fire on the group without killing everyone there. Maybe on the staircase door? Do you know if there’s an elevator shaft attached to it?" Martha quickly runs a densitometer reading on the stairwell, to determine if there’s an elevator shaft attached to it. -----Eddie fires his shotgun again at the pistol wielder. Again, due to the pain in his shoulder, he misses. The pistol wielder returns fire, missing Eddie. Vargas switches targets and fires upon the pistol wielder. The pistol wielder catches a chest full of buckshot and goes down. Darishun, seeing that all of the assailants are down, briefly checks Eddie's wound and then proceeds to check the three assailants. He reports (over the comm and suit speakers), "I’m afraid that they are either all dead or dying. They appear to be suffering from AHV also." -----On the bridge, Marcus and Martha breathe a sigh of relief as the assailants go down. They abort their plan to use the shipboard lasers on the building, and work on getting the Bray Keaven into position. It takes several attempts (and they have a few close calls), but they manage to get the ungainly far trader into position and lower the ramp. Vargas guides Eddie Boise, the woman, and the toddler up the ramp. Darishun brings up the rear. As soon as they are all onboard, Marcus raises the ramp and immediately takes the Bray Keaven straight up to get clear of the buildings. Darishun, after having applied a topical cleaner to his hands, worriedly checks the unconscious boy. "The boy is alive, but he will need prompt medical attention. I can stabilize him, but we had best get him to a medical facility as soon as possible." Eddie is profuse in his thanks. He explains that he had set up barricades, and there were four crazy men who were trying to get through them and onto the Bray Keaven. Somehow, they found out that the Bray Keaven was coming to rescue his family. Darishun and Emile get the family into biohazard suits as best as they can, except for the boy, whom Darishun decides it is unwise to move. -----The trip back is relatively uneventful except that the Bray Keaven feels noticeably sluggish and there appears to be minor but significant drag coming from the starboard rear of the far trader. Martha calls ahead to the base, and asks for a visual confirmation of the reasons for the drag experienced before bringing the ship into the reception site. She’s worried that somehow they picked up a hitchhiker, though she can’t imagine anything outside of a vehicle being large enough to cause that kind of drag, and would like to avoid contaminating the site if that’s the case. (Her lack of good sleep has made her a bit paranoid at times, and this is one of those symptoms.) As per standard procedure, a pair of Bromlian fighters meets the Bray Keaven coming down from the upper reaches. With Martha’s request, they do a quick visual inspection and report that the starboard rear corner of the far trader appears a little damaged. The corner appears to have been buckled forward a bit, which would account for the drag. Marcus brings the merchant ship into a smooth landing at the reception site, and Bromlian medical personnel immediately swarm aboard to take the family off. -----The crew then spends some time properly decontaminating the ship as well as Emile’s and Darishun’s gear before returning to the landing area at the Groves Airport. Argent intends for the crew to first take a quick, but well deserved break for lunch. But Martha unbuckles herself from the seat and almost sprints to the airlock, ignoring Marcus’ suggestion that they stop for lunch first. Bemused, Marcus follows Martha down the airlock stairs and down the side of the Bray Keaven to inspect the damage to the starboard rear of the far trader. Martha cranes her neck and squints, trying to inspect as much of the damage as possible from the ground. The damage does look to be significant, but not deadly. The corner has been crumbled and buckled as reported, creating a bit of drag. The jump grid is damaged as well, but Martha can’t tell if the damage is enough to be a serious concern, though since the jump drives are a little overdue for maintenance anyway, she doesn’t like the odds. Marcus does convince her to delay a closer inspection until after lunch. While the other two are doing a preliminary inspection, Darishun treats Vargas’ wounds. -----"We probably need to call it a day on pickups," Marcus mentions over lunch. "The ship felt like it was dragging on the starboard quarter, and I bet kissing the high rise did a little more damage than we initially suspected. "Good work today, you three." Vargas breathes a sigh of relief and then addresses Argent. "Hey Boss, I’m going to look in on Rusti and then crash for a little while. Big day getting shot and all. Call me if you need me." The Scout gives a little nod before leaving. -----Marcus goes with Martha to inspect the damage after lunch while Darishun busily preps the cargo bay for another run, just in case. Marcus and Martha borrow a cherry picker from the airport’s equipment and get a closer look. Martha thinks that she can repair the damage given a few days of work, the supplies on board, a crane, and a few hundred kilos of tungstanium alloy (which she doesn’t have, but the Bromlians should have). The ship probably can jump successfully with the damaged corner, but there is a slight risk with the jump drive overdue for maintenance. Luckily, an internal inspection doesn’t reveal any visible hull breaches, and the drives aren’t damaged (though it was close). After some modeling, Marcus and Martha guess that the ship will handle about 5–10% worse in the atmosphere until the damage is repaired. -----Vargas gets up in time to clean his shotgun, attend to Rusti, and then heads for dinner/planning session, in that order. Meanwhile, Martha does not rest until she's run a full diagnostic and assessed the damage. Once she’s determined what will be necessary to repair her ship, she’ll inform Marcus of the resources (both materials and time) necessary to repair the ship, including the request for appropriate alloys or at least those that are capable of being produced at this TL, with the local facilities. Then she lays out her repair plan, asking for input from Marcus on other scheduled events and his thoughts on repair priority, so that she can most effectively address the needs of the ship. Vargas assists Martha as he is able. Marcus spends the evening relaxing in the ship, catching up on any datawork that needs to be done and surfing between various vid channels that he can pick up on the ship’s comm equipment. The entertainment channels are fairly diverting, but the news channels (and news programs) are pretty sick with alternating human interest stories, jingoistic pieces for/against KGL (depending on the station), and various conspiracy theories (either KGL created the virus or the virus is part of a secret plot from offworld). He decides that the next day should be spent on the ground — the rooftop scene was enough trouble for two days.</blockquote>

Verification