[Alexis]: You apply 20x magnification and scan the skies. Nothing yet, but your feeling of unease is growing. You set a mini-HUD for extended range and then return to normal vision, looking around for ammo and not-quite-dead folks to extend mercy to. One such person gives you a weak smile, and jerks his head in the general direction of a few boxes until you look, then closes his eyes and awaits the quick fate. CRUNCH! Upon investigation, you find an intact Crate of Autocannon Ammo.
[Richard]: You locate an additional Medikit and salvage 8 Health Hypos and 2 Stim Hypos from the bodies. A few Marines request aid, but upon investigation, you find the wounds are too severe to repair, or that there is no way of getting them out. Reluctant mercy is applied, and you note to file a request for a redesign of cryopods to survive anything short of total disintegration. Well, if you survive this deployment, anyway. There's far too much death that occurred here. Profit be damned, we're talking about human life!
[Robert]: You find the cockpit and activate the emergency transmitter in the hopes that someone will come. You additionally key in the armortags of yourself and your fellow survivors before examining the wreckage further. There's not all that much left to find, but you do find a Damaged Scout Armor with a functional Flight Pack, and a handful of Disposable Repair Kits in the pods closest to the cockpit. The black box is missing, which you take as a bad omen.
[Kyle]: You search for additional gear that can be salvaged. Unfortunately, the general area in which you find yourself located is devoid of working supplies, having taken the brunt of the laser attack that downed the ship. You mentally thank your suit for the filters, not particularly in the mood for smelling burned human and electrics. As you are about to leave, you notice that buried beneath a pod is some sort of kit, and dig it out. Much to your relief, you see it is a slightly dented Survival Kit, with 11 Miniature Emergency Transponders attached to the top. One of the dozen strapped to the top is crushed, but the remainder appear to be intact.
[Mark]: You key into the Command system and issue orders requesting people to sound in. After a few moments, the ID tags of friendlies pop up on your map, showing that, aside from yourself, there are four other survivors. One seems to be having a comms malfunction and some manner of difficulty getting out of his pod, which is up at an awkward angle several meters above the ground.
[OOC note: That is referring to the sixth member. They'll get free when a profile is uploaded and approved, so there's nothing you can do to help at the moment.]
[Squad]: Squabbles aside, the cart is loaded up near the hatch. Kyle points out that his tech can extend a jamming bubble around the squad as a whole, but that visual detection is still going to be an issue. Robert indicates that the emergency locator is active and keyed in with armor tags. Alexis, still scanning the area, points out that the flashes of light are diminishing, and that there are steadily fewer and fewer friendly ships in the sky, with the strange Xenoships remaining. Evidently, the Punitive fleet was outgunned. There's no help coming anytime soon. Mark does a quick check of the squad, points out a sixth member who should probably be waited for, and then suggests/orders moving the hell out on the double.
You all feel a sense of something bad incoming, but there's still nothing in the sky. Yet.
[Note: Emergency Transponders are passive devices that, when targeted with the proper signal, indicate programmed-in data such as squad size, time of burial, planned directions, messages, etc. They are extremely hard to detect. Survival Kits include food, water, a tent that works on a similar basis to the skinsuits, emergency blankets, a small stealth field, and various other useful items for a stranded squad. It's currently tightly sealed so as to prevent enviro damage; taking inventory will have to wait.]
Author
Topic: The 1st Punitive Mars Expedition: Money In The Bank (Read 33666 times)