GroupsConvenient link to the Master List.Time passes easily in the Lifeboat. With no contact to outside world or indication whether anyone else is still alive, there isn't a lot to talk about. So Squeegy and Faris compare robotism theories.
In the end, it all works out. Using a lot of bits and pieces of the original space suit, they finish their tiny robotic rover. The radio controls appear to work fine testing inside the Lifeboat, and hopefully it's small size will let it navigate the rough terrain.
Meanwhile, the Lifeboat's own radio keeps beeping away.
All the food was thrown wild when the fridge crashed. Even with your head pounding, you can't stand the sight of disorganized storage.
Everything is put back in place in short order, by a new content-based system of your own (pain addled) devising. After the six month trip out here, there's quite a bit of wrappers and other trash left over in here as well.
Your loyal drones pick up some radio chatter, but down in this gully you can only catch bits and pieces. Broadcasting yourself doesn't seem to achieve anything – if anyone else can hear you, you can't tell if they're responding.
It takes a few minutes, but one of your explorers finds a stable path up the crater wall. With a drone up on the ground, you can finally participate in the conversation. (See the radio section for more.)
Working with the radio inside the pod is obviously pointless, so Vlad agrees to head back outside to try making contact there. His criticism about the airlock-method is sound, and Serg thinks a proper air pump could be built. A jury rigged system of water pumps and sealant fails on this front – Serg reasons actual tools would work better.
Inspired, Serg starts designing potential greenhouses to build outside. Rosie tries to make an inventory of all the edibles and equipment in the lab, but is frequently drawn to Serg's plans, adding her own delusions of nanotech grandeur. Some plants survived, enough to keep growing, and roughly two dozen salads could be squeezed out of the plants that didn't make it.
Outside, Vlad cycles through the radio channels, and quickly joins in the pandemonium on the airwaves. (See the radio section for more.)
Dietrich oscillates between ecstatic and terrified, as he tries to find his way to other survivors by radio direction, brief glances, and dumb luck. He's somewhere on Mars, babbling over the radio for help and direction.
Augusta tries one last time to convince you to at least hide in the EVA locker, but Tetsuo knows there's nothing left to do. With an all too well practiced salute, he bids you thanks and farewell, and the two leave though a broken section of hallway passing for an airlock.
Now left to your own devices, you rummage around the bridge and few adjacent rooms looking for anything that might hold some air around your head. A few minutes scrounging turns up more adhesive, some food wrappers, and your most promising piece – an old-fashioned watercooler tank from the breakroom.
You bust the tank out so you can get your head in it, and start gluing plastic wrap so your uniform as a join. It's frustrating and clumsy work, and the results aren't promising. Your helmet is as shitty as your imagination. But at least you'll get to test it soon – more cracks form in the windows, and you can hear a panel popping off somewhere.
The insects and assorted critters have resettled themselves somewhat, but putting everything back in place and feeding them is more cathartic on your part. Nerves settled, you clean the lab up a bit, and your little friends show their appreciation.
All the while, the radio does you little good. You pick up a couple voices, one a barrage of vulgarity that ends with some unnerving static, the other is Trippy the engineer, obviously fielding questions from many other people you can't hear, trying to identify locations. Every effort you make to add yourself to the airwaves fails – Trippy just won't respond to you. A little while latter, you pick up a real conversation between him and Sean Mirrsen, who claims to be in control of an army of robots. Sadly, he can't hear you either.
While Geoffrey would rather be out looking for people, getting the air systems working sounds great to him too. Pitor and Geof set to work getting the electrolysis machines back in order. Louise tries to help by starting up the module's computer system, but it fails to even boot properly. Opening the case proves fruitless – no one here knows how to fix modern computers.
The machinery being rather simple, if bulky, everything looks like it's put back together, but without a working computer there's no way of knowing what functions. Hotwiring can make the machinery run, but obviously there's no fine control or way of gaging the work.
You pound on the walls and an exposed door, and after a couple minutes two figures in full EVA space suits emerge. A minute fumbling with the radio puts you all in contact – it's Tetsuo Uchio and Augusta Maciel, officers from the bridge crew. You ask if there's anyone else around or a place to hide, but Tetsuo says the bridge is about to collapse, and everyone still inside is already dead.
Cycling through the radios to find each other also found another voice – the engineer Trippy, managing a host of other chatter. The three of you tune in and join the conversation. (See the radio section for more.)
Not thinking of anything to do for the moment, you all simple stay in place. About ten minutes later, someone else in a space suit comes bounding over the hills to the group. You've been joined by Vernon Wells from the engineering crew. He says the Engineering Module landed a few hundred yards behind him, and three others are alive there. You ask if he knows where the reactor landed, but he doesn't.
The terminal you can reach from the wall still functions, even if the computer it's attached to really doesn't. Just making it recognize your commands is an exercise in frustrations, but whatever part of the system controls the pod's stabilizers is intact.
Pushing the button has entirely foreseeable consequences. With a roar and shudder, the Vehicle Bay rocks into proper orientation, then keeps going. Mr. Stamper's Wild Ride comes to an abrupt end as the pod crashes into the landscape. In the big tumble, all those loose tools go flying again – a box of ratchets catches you the chest before everything settles.
Luckily the Auger, now on it's side instead, falls out of the framing. Unluckily, what integrity the bay had left is completely shot now. Clutching your chest, you hobble into the Auger's cabin right before the walls peel off as the bay pops like a balloon.
Nothing else to do, you turn on the radio. Hey, there's other people on the air. (See the radio section for more.)
Fuck Mars, fuck Commander Reilly, fuck NASA, fuck Junior Astronaut Day, fuck all those lazy pillocks back in Houston, and fuck this rover.
Several minutes of pure anger ensue as you rattle off your full Litanies of Hatred. You've had all the Martian bullcrap you're gonna take. Punching some buttons and more swearing convinces the rover to ram as hard as it can, and spin the wheels as fast as physics will allow. Concentrating all your rage into the accelerator, you can see the nest of girders hemming you in finally give way and start to slid under your wheels. Just a little too well. The rover tears out of the wreckage like a cannonball, barreling over the rocky hills and flying off a ledge you couldn't hope to avoid at this speed.
A cacophony of voices finally snaps you back to. Amazingly, the rover is on it's wheels, though as ticked off at the machine can be. A conversation is still going over the radio.
Left in what was to be the base's control tower, it falls upon you to manage the sudden flurry of chatter over the radio. (See the radio section for more.)
Meanwhile, you take a look out the windows to try to see where you are, and reckon where everyone else is. The tower gives you an impressive view of long, broken hills and gullies. The area around your pod is littered with smaller bits of debris, while trailing off in the distance are larger, smoking hulks of wreckage. A pair of mountains bracket the whole valley in the same direction. The other way is just a vast stretch of wasteland.
Thankful to be inside, Qwerty offers to help fix things, inspect the hull – anything to stay inside for a little while. Roy and Shideh think he should head back out and try to find other people on the radio, so maybe someone can come rescue them too, not having way to leave. Few minutes of disagreement, argument, and pleading ensue. In the end, Qwerty agrees, but only after he's had a rest and gotten his airtanks refilled with some of the bottled oxygen.
Using the time to patch things up more and look around, it's clear the medical pod isn't in great shape. The walls are starting warp, and the joints don't line up like they should. With his suit patched and re-aired, Qwerty heads back out to find help. Roy and Shideh can do little but grimace as the hull groans again from the makeshift airlock's use. Shideh meanwhile takes some painkillers for her shoulder. Back outside, Qwerty finds plenty of lively chat waiting for him. (See the radio section for more.)
The radio record for Day 1, Touchdown +00:40 to +01:00
Minute 1 Trippy makes contact with Andrezj and Dietrich.
Minute 2 Madhouse of swearing and French babbling fills the air.
Minute 5 Dietrich's radio signal fades out of range from anyone else.
Minute 7 Vladimir joins in to hear Andrezj's crescendo.
Minute 9 Andrezj suddenly cuts out. Strife, Tetsuo, and Augusta contact Trippy.
Minute 12 Sean's drone makes radio contact.
Minute 13 Vernon joins the others outside the bridge, and radios in as well.
Minute 15 Harry makes contact – his signal is weak, even radioing from the Auger.
Minute 16 Qwerty sounds in from the Medical Pod.
Minute 18 Trippy finally gets everyone coordinated on one, very loud channel.
Trippy is sitting in a control tower, keeping about ten people in contact over one radio channel. So far, all conversation has been breathless greetings and condolences, and fruitless attempts to compare locations to find each other. Dietrich has gone out of range, and Andrezj hasn't reestablished contact. Known commodities: Qwerty, Strife, Tetsuo, Augusta, Vernon, and Vladimir can all move about; Rosie, Serg, Pitor, Louise, and Geoffrey can get moving with some notice; Harry is in his Auger; Sean has no suit, but is in control of some robots; Qwerty is with Roy and Shideh, but they can't go outside; and Trippy himself can't go anywhere either. No one knows where anyone is except themselves.
The Next TurnFor conversation's sake, and Kallev's imminent danger, let's call this one five minutes. I'll absolutely be able to do a turn on Monday(/Tuesday, but really Monday).
Everyone who is in contact can exchange any known information freely to coordinate, but once again, talking is not a free action. Quick, but not instantaneous. Planning and coordinating especially takes a few minutes to do anything. Converse amongst yourselves in the thread to do all this, I'll honor whatever your last action was that you decide on.
There might be a few holes in the Master List. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.
Sorry about all the delays. No reason to extemporize on this any more than I have.
Other corrections will go here as they inevitably arrive.
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Topic: Angry Red Planet - Totally And Completely Dead (Read 48207 times)