Jobasio, having tugged off his helmet once the truck was moving, manages a pleasant smile despite his injuries.
"Ah, well, off we go, then! I don't quite know where we are going, has anyone seen a map? It would be rather nice to see some more of this place before getting scooped back up into the confines of the ship. No time like the present for a nice drive! ...What day is it, anyway? Let's assume it is Sunday."
He pauses for a while, focusing on steering the truck around a treacherous mound of snow, then speaks up again.
"I imagine those poor fellows back there will have some explaining to do. Having their truck stolen by a dangerous, highly-trained band of off-world agents after their own vehicle suffered a, erm, mechanical failure... tough luck for them, I suppose."
Jobasio ceases his rambling and looks over at Vincent, seated beside him.
"Vincent, make yourself useful and see if this rust-bucket has any means of playing music- I need to focus on driving. A map would certainly come in handy as well. I wouldn't mind visiting a few of the local scenic spots while we're here, whatever those may be, and a bite to eat would not go astray, either."
>Continue driving happily along! Carefully, but happily.
See what I can see through the windshield. Also inspect the vehicle some more, but without taking my attention away from driving.
>If some useful person provides me with a map, head for the nearest built-up area, road and/or population centre.
You can't see much of anything. White out conditions have reduced visibility to like 10 feet in front of you, and the safe little bubble of the cockpit creaks and moans with with the sound of the wind straining against it. You're beginning to feel bad for the people that were stranded when you stole this vehicle. They don't have perfectly insulated space suits, after all. Happy feelings not tinged with regret. Aw...
You keep plowing along into the white nothing regardless, occasionally changing course to avoid a rock, but mostly just going forward.
Try to find a map in the data to give Jobasio.
Transfer the guns and ammo to my hammerspace by any means nessesary. Count how many guns and how much ammo.
Look for anything else useful in the truck, like armour, tools, or scientific equipment.
There's like three rifles with a magazine of 5 shots each. You take them anyways.
No there is no armor, and yes there are tools and scientific equipment but nothing even remotely useful to you. Especially since it's all big, heavy, relies on stationary power supplies and is related to monitoring weather.
You do, however, manage to find a folding map of the area. It appears to have been custom printed and has what you assume is the military outpost at its center, with large expanses of land set out around it. You think that this area here, this roundish formation, is what used to be the ice sheet. You hand it up to Jobasio and point out the formation.
"So guys, I have good news and bad news. The good news is I've linked into their commnet and I'm sure this rig can be used to contact Steve(well, theoretically, anyways). The bad news is I'm not sure how to in a way that lets him know it's us and not someone trying to remote hack his systems. Ideas?
Meanwhile, I'll see if I can listen in on these guys' radio chatter and figure out what they are up to."
While we figure out the contact steve thing, listen in on the radio chatter, specifically to see what the group at the crater is doing, and also if there's any more groups of men out there.
The connection isn't great, but you catch enough of their conversation to understand that they're investigating all the seismic readings and shockwaves and huge plumes of flame and such. Most of them are under the impression it was some sort of volcanic explosion or something similar. There are people talking that aren't part of the team, but they're back at the base, at least you're pretty sure they are. There don't seem to be other teams around, or at least if there are, they're not talking like they're out in the snow, making no reference to it at least.
"Just keep driving straight, Joe. Michael, do you think you can patch one of our suits directly into the comms system to amplify our own signal? That way the signal they'll receive on the Sword would be that of our suit, not some truck they've never heard of."
Keep watch out the back.
Nothing appears to be coming for you, at least nothing you can see.
"Yeah, I'll look for a map, although trying to get out of this storm should be our priority, we can probably get picked up at that point." Vincent looks for a way to adjust the radio station and fiddles with it until the reciever picks up a station, then continues searching through the storage compartment, this time for a map.
There's no radio up front, but a map has been found. You take it Dubley and study it while Jobasio drives. It's hard to tell where you are right now, since the car's been moving for a while, but it seems the direction to head is to the right of where you're probably heading right now; towards the lower altitudes of the area and away from the military base.
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Topic: Mission 15: Arctic Expedition: I. HEAR. A. SOUND. (Read 67708 times)