GroupsConvenient link to the Master List.It's robot time! Faris runs the tiny rover into the airlock, and sets it lose on Mars. Repurposing the radio to control it, Faris winds up tuning into the mass conversation channel. Trippy gets up to speed on the Lifeboat and it's situation. Meanwhile, the makeshift rover can't see much higher than ankle-level, but it's on the move.
With no other pressing tasks to do, Squeegy retreats into Castle Kissen-Saal.
Shrink wrapping in one pile, styrofoam in another, cardstock over here, plastics over there. No piece is much bigger than a square foot, and there's fewer cans than you somehow figured there'd be.
You cathartic diddling is rudely interrupted by a loud banging. It's not the fridge or it's door - it sounds like it's coming from the shaky bits of ship still attached to your cupboard.
Your working pair of rovers climb up to look for other surviving bits of the ship, coordinating with what the others can see. With so many people, there must be plenty of ship around. What was your vessel has scattered in a long valley between two mountains, broken hills, and a stretch of wasteland.
In one direction lies a lot of empty land. Sticking up 150 yards away is what looks like a giant lawn dart – it's surely Trippy's tower by his description. Back 100 yards towards the mountains you see a metallic lump that should be another laboratory pod. The drones' low stature doesn't let them see much farther.
Serg's napkin plans proceed a little, melding carbon nanotubules into a soilless hydration system. In theory, on a napkin. Rosie, sick of standing ankle deep in water, unplugs a hose from the hydroponic circulation to pump the water back into the tanks. Whether there's enough power to do so is another matter.
Outside, Vlad laments to Trippy that he doesn't have anything on hand to visibly signal his position with. Maybe something inside. Struck for the moment, he climbs a large rock to get a better view, scanning for other people. Off towards the chunkier end of the debris field, one big cube has started spewing a cloud of dust in the air. As he wonders whether to hike to it, Vlad looks in the other direction to see a vehicle climbing over the hills, some hundred yards distant.
At about the same distance, near another lump that might be a lab module, Vlad makes out a figure walking around. The two manage to notice each other, and with a series of coordinated waves are identified – it's Qwerty, still alive and wandering around the Medical Pod.
Only Dietrich knows now...
One last look out the rapidly cracking windows confirms your plan – ditch the bridge, run halfway around it, and climb in the big hulk of wreckage off to the side. It's the biggest one nearby and looks big enough to hold a few rooms. It might also be in worse shape than the bridge. But you know you'll die if you stay here, so anywhere else offers a better chance.
You grip yourself for the plunge, wrapping yourself in whatever scraps you can cover up with. Nothing else for it, you open the remaining door and throw yourself out.
For a critical few seconds, you're almost literally frozen in place. It's -80F sans wind chill, and you're wearing a glorified ski suit. It so cold you instantly lose all feeling but your nerves go on autopilot, legs carrying you to the destination as fast as they can shuffle.
Completely numb, too shocked to reason, and air whistling through the seems in your suit, you climb into a sheared hallway and try to force your way into the wreckage. The door won't open. Another few critical seconds pass before your blasted mind processes the situation, and you start pounding for all you're worth...
You can hear snips and pieces of voices, clearly part of a much larger conversation. Only Trippy is coming in clearly now – he sounds flustered. You shout your head off until the animals jump, but he just won't acknowledge you. Something just isn't going right.
Pitor insists on ensuring the air purifier works, especially now that the batteries can be recharged, however slowly. With no computer controls, he starts crossing wires to see what works what.
While he's doing that, Louise figures on going outside to use the radios. Geoffrey would prefer that too, but everyone agrees that a better airlock is needed. After a few minutes headscratching, Geof thinks he could make an extra door with the hinges off a toolbox and some hull sealant. It would only be a little crawl-hatch, and would have to be resealed after each use, but would save tremendous amounts of air.
Trippy suggests over the radio that you try sending up a signal of some kind. The idea gets strong agreement with everyone, but no one has anything useful. Lacking any better topics, you quickly ask Vernon if he knows where the reactor landed. You both remember that it was one of the larger cubical modules, and Vernon saw one off to the side when he ran to the bridge. You see it as well – it's now surrounded by a tremendous dust cloud, and you could swear it's moved since you last looked at it.
Tetsuo doesn't see the point of finding the reactor yet, but he insists on sticking together as you all head for the nearby cube. Right about then, it blows apart, another lump rubbling out of it. Running, waving, and shouting over the radio identifies it as you all approach – it's Harry Samper the chief miner, in his beloved Auger.
With the Auger back on it's tracks, you naturally engage startup while you get on the radio. You can make out Trippy's voice best, in a tower somewhere, but the signal is crap. No patience for that now, it's time to get moving.
Frame is in storage configuration, but it's enough to roll on. Reactor online, power banks charged, drive functional, all systems go. Let's do this bitch.
What remains of the bay smashes aside without argument, and the Auger pounds it's way up and over the Martian landscape. Looking around, you can see a few big cubes and chunks of ship arrayed on all sides. The closest big lump looks suspiciously like the bridge of the Ares III – you can see a few figures running and waving to you. Driving over and coordinating with Trippy, who's now coming in clear along with everyone else, you find out who they are – Captain Strife, Uchio, Marciel, and Wells. Oddly, only Strife is wearing an actual pressure suit meant for Mars, while the others are wearing bulky EVA suits.
Dizziness takes you as you try to get off the floor. Steadying on the seats, you take quick stock of the rover's structure. You think you hear a whistling noise, but it might just be your ears ringing. Looking out the windows, you can clearly see the dents in the sandy hillside where the rover tumbled down. The plaintive computer says you've lost a wheel – luckily there's seven more.
You try to get back on the radio, but your connection to Trippy is a broken haze – apparently the radio antenna snapped off. You'll just have to navigate yourself for the moment. Crawling out of the gorge you rolled into, you can see a hemisphere of three metal lumps nearby, and more wreckage stretching off in either direction.
The news around Mars isn't helpful. Nobody can quite compare their relative landmarks, and there's a complete dearth of flares, though no one has had much chance to look. However, Vlad and Qwerty manage to find each other by luck, they think they can see movement around an explosion of dust.
While you ponder this, Faris Saqr calls in. He Squeegy are hiding in what may have been the only Lifeboat to have actually served it's purpose. They can't leave, with no suits, but they've managed to build a robot Faris is sending outside.
Now in contact, Qwerty starts looking around for identifiable landmarks, but the rough terrain and low light make the landscape hard to discern. His eye catches a billowing cloud of dust in the distance – reckoning this with distribution, he wanders around the Medical Pod and notices a figure up on a rock in the distance. Some talking and arm waving identifies them to each other – it's the scientist Vladimir Sephanovich, scouting around the Hydroponics Lab.
Back inside, Roy and Shideh don't have much to do besides check each other's wounds again. Shideh is restless not being able to leave, since this pod doesn't sound like it wants to stay on Mars much longer.
No one has dropped contact, and Faris and Squeegy have joined the network. Harry has physically found Strife, Tetsuo, Augusta, and Vernon, and Vlad and Qwerty can see each other. Andrezj is up and about, but can only make garbled bursts of noise.
The Next TurnMeetings and more meetings, plus Kallev is in more immanent danger than the immanentness of before. Five(5) minutes again, and I should be able to have the post on Thursday morning.
Nothing odd going on that I can see now. Hopefully that lasts.
Other corrections will go here as they inevitably arrive.
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Topic: Angry Red Planet - Totally And Completely Dead (Read 48185 times)