You descend the stairs from the bridge, past your office, past the crew deck and down to the cargo bay where all one hundred of your crew members sit, anxiously awaiting your announcement. Some are standing, some are sitting, yet more are perched on top of the parked vehicles or crates of construction parts which take up most of the space there. You loom above them on a broad catwalk. They're almost all green recruits; few grunts spend multiple tenures on a crawler.
"Alright crew, listen up! Those rumbles you felt were asteroid impacts." There are some disquieted murmurs. "There's some good news, and some bad news. First off, all of our life support and essential systems are on-line. We're not in immediate danger." The crew, this being their main concern, nearly starts to cheer before you cut them off. "
However, we did sustain some serious damage to other systems. We're low on fuel, and our long-range communications are destroyed. The Hephaestus is stranded." Disquiet, again. You think you heard someone say they didn't want to die in space. "We will not, men and women, die in space! There is a planet below us. The environment is hostile, but there is atmosphere, and I believe we can live there quite comfortably for some time! Indefinitely perhaps! This is the true start of our mining mission- we will build a home for ourselves,
here!" You're pretty sure you still hear someone mumbling about dying in space.
You return to the bridge to find all of your officers present except Beigarth. Dr. Berkhardt, the geologist, and Darric, the ground team manager, are present now. Berkhardt is feverishly working on his computer and Darric is nonchalantly eating a plate of mashed potatoes, like being stranded in space was his plan all along. He asks you if you want to prepare a shuttle team, but you decline. "Shuttle? Pah, we're doing this the old fashioned way! Jess, Halstead, find a place to put the ship down. We're going to be setting up camp." The ship's not consuming any fuel in its current orbital path, but you decide to land it so as not to waste time with the shuttle. Putting the ship inside the atmosphere also means you won't even need pressure suits for repairs, just breathing apparatuses.
The scarred ship burns into the atmosphere. You can tell before you even reach ground that it's in no condition to fly up again soon. The planet is covered with oolitic stones and craters that vent hot steam into the otherwise frigid atmosphere. You stand on the bridge for a good while, thinking about how you might go about stepping outside. Berkhardt tells you that his scanners are picking up a high density of power crystals in the area, and a cavity near the surface about a half mile from the ship. Darric says that he's ready to lead some men out there, but only with breathing apparatuses. You are about to head down to the cargo bay again when you see Beigarth, walking around outside the ship. He waves and radios to you: "Looks at this! I am on the alien planet! I think I saw something moving around on the rocks, there might be life here! Atmosphere is very thin, I'm coming back inside now!" Only with Beigarth, you suppose.
Your objectives, currently:
-Organize an expedition to the cavity. Remember to choose how many men and equipment to send!
-Once you find some raw materials, you can begin repairing or manufacturing things. You might also want to inquire about what can be manufactured. Scrapping equipment is also an option.
-Things not on this list are always an option!
Crew:
-100/100 Healthy
-Morale: Discontent
Author
Topic: Rock Raiders- You have struck the rock (Read 4583 times)