The Kinunir - Part 3

While the Skylark’s crew went bar hopping at Styx Station, the Imperial Navy went in to recover the Kinunir and found something unexpected.

We used Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other since we are now scattered around the country.

This note is from our May 14th, 2017 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself.

See: The Kinunir, Part 2.

Date: 007-1107 Imperial

Location: The Shionthy System in the Regina Subsector.

From: Captain Augustus Dasusii, Imperial Navy
Commander of the Shionthy Blockade:

On 356-1106, the free trader Skylark 2 detected a distress signal and went to investigate. What they found was the Kinunir, an Imperial Navy Frontier Cruiser lost while on patrol in 1088. The ship is apparently intact and according to the trader’s report, may be in flyable condition.

I will be sending the Eland and Poni to the Kinunir where a crew will board her and accomplish the following tasks, listed in order of priority:

1. Recover the Imperial Warrant from the captain’s safe and transfer it to the Eland.
2. Verify the Black Globe Generator is present and intact.
3. Inventory and secure any nuclear ordinance present.
4. Refuel and bring up the ship’s power plant.
5. Test and bring up the M-Drive.
6. Take the Kinunir back to Georgios Station.

Dr. Medali from the Saladin will perform an autopsy on the bodies of crew members found there to determine cause of death and hopefully shed some light onto what may have happened that caused the loss of the Kinunir.
The Crew:

1. Lieutenant Commander Danio Da-Chao, Expedition Commander
2. Lieutenant Mara Gonzal, Pilot
3. Sublieutenant Noah Hamilton, Astrotation
4. Lieutenant Victoria ch'Shela, Chief Engineer
5. Sublieutenant Gao Shugilamar, Engineer
6. Petty Officer First Class Cai Alder, Engineer
7. Petty Officer Third Class Dewitta Rogers, Engineer
8. Lance Sergeant Shressoan Viree, Security
9. Corporal Carn Parker, Security
10. Marine Lael Managudeli, Security
11. Marine AAndiruu Zhi-Gao, Security
12. Lieutenant Milya Medali, Doctor
13. Able Spaceman Kaarin Warwick, Medic

The Skylark sent out the coordinates for the area where they initially detected a distress signal, so be alert, there may be other ships there. This being Shionthy, the ship might be half disassembled by the time we get there. There is also the possibility that this is a hoax or trap.

007-1107
Lt Cmdr Danio Da-Chao, commanding the two Gazelle class close escorts, Poni and Eland, sent two pinnaces with the marines and engineers in one and the bridge crew and medics in the other. We docked at the vehicle dock on Deck A. He sent in the marines first.

We verified that it was indeed the Kinunir and not some hoax. Lt Cmdr Da-Chao sent word back to Georgios Station to send the reward to Skylark for finding it.

The Gazelles have enough extra fuel to pump into the Kinunir, so we can get the ship’s power plant back on line, but the engineers will have to check all the fuel lines and equipment before letting it gas up.

We entered though A08, normally where the G-carrier is stored, but it is missing. On the starboard side there are two air rafts and the Engineers check them out.

A quick check shows that they are OK, just powered down. Marines go forward to A02 - The Command and Information Center, and finds no bodies, then to A01: The Bridge, and leave Lieutenant Mara Gonzal, the pilot and Sublieutenant Noah Hamilton, the Astrogator there. The Lt Cmdr goes in and Da-Chao directs the Gazelles into position for fueling the Kinunir.

The engineering team heads to engineering to verify that the fuel system will in fact hold fuel and the lines are intact.

There is considerable battle damage on the particle accelerator turrets, so we closed the hatches for (hopefully) pressurization later.

In the common area outside the armory, one of the walls, is pretty dented. There were crates floating there and there were dried blood smears, but no bodies.

The crates contained spare parts and some medical supplies.

The Marines checked out the armory, there was a pretty complete stock of weapons.

Moving forward, the jump capsule area was full of jump capsules, none used.

The crew continued checking out the ship, fanning out to all levels.

We found an engineering bot in B09. Eng. Dewitta Rogers spent 5 minutes and determined that it's ok, just that the batteries are dead. It will come in handy in repairing the drives once the power comes back up.

The Medical Staff, Lieutenant Milya Medali and AS Kaarin Warwick set up shop in the sick bay, sections C07 and C09.

The crew checked out the pinnace bays on C-deck, undamaged and empty.

The Marines inventory the Armory (C10): There are 2 pistols missing. Other weapons here: 12 PGMP-13’s, 12 advanced combat rifles, 22 auto pistols, 24 snub pistols, 12 SMGs, 3 LMGs, 3 laser carbines, and 2 RAM auto-grenade launchers. Ammunition, power packs, holsters, cutlasses, bayonets and other equipment are also present. They found nothing unexpected for an Imperial Navy ship this size.

Sublieutenant Shugilamar found another dead engineering bot in C16 .

Lieutenant Victoria ch'Shela, the Chief Engineer inspected the Black Globe Generator in C15 and reported that it looked intact. It is next to the control panels for starting up the power plant.

"I'll give you five minutes warning before turning on the gravity", she says. (The grav panel is reading zero).

C17: The particle accelerator looks trashed, and hatch has to be closed to re-pressurize the ship. The Navy would not have left it like that. It looks like those Skylarkers never bothered to close any hatch that the opened.

E09: Found the four body bags as expected on the cargo deck. The medical team with two marines take them to sick bay for examination.

“This ship had a full complement of 10 officers, 35 crew, and 35 marines - we've only got 4 body bags, and Skylark said they found them floating in space half a kilometer from the ship.” So where was the rest of the crew?

The Marines reported that about 1/3 of the missiles are gone (fired?); all of the nukes are still in place.

Most of the ship looked pretty good as far as pressurizing, once power and fuel are restored.

Engineering checked out the fuel system, and with their OK the refueling process from the Gazelles started up.

Bridge crew was still in place, waiting for power.

All hatches that could be shut were shut.

Time passed as the refueling and maintenance went on.

Time to try the power plant.

Gravity came on as soon as the power did.

Considerable noise as loose stuff landed firmly. More than a few harsh words concerning the engineers came over the open channel before they were cut off.

Some personnel were slightly injured in a fall but would have been much worse without the vacc suit armor.

Life support started up too. Engineers were talking and saying that they checked all that stuff and this should not be happening.

The gravity and life support readings were not active, this isn't us. All of the open iris valves just snapped shut. Lt Cmdr instructs the bridge crew to run diagnostics.

With power back up, Lt Cmdr Da-Chao checked the Kinunir’s logs: The Captain was not happy with his exec. “She was a computer jock who should not have been in a command position”. Codes indicate that the log is damaged in some way, maybe been tampered with or manipulated.

Reading what is available:

The Kinunir came to the aid of a yacht, the Serpentine under attack from pirates near a gas giant in the Keng system.

The Serpentine was the personal vessel of the Marquis of Boughene, Kennard Ronwilla and he was aboard the ship.

They rescued the Marquis along with his crew and passengers before the Serpentine blew up in a spectacular explosion.

One of the passengers was a Doctor Mixrail, a physicist with a specialty in anti-matter.

They chased the pirates to one of the moons of the gas giant where the Kinunir came under fire from ground emplacements on the surface of the moon.

The ship headed for Keng, while doing battlefield repairs and got an indication that their damaged power plant was going to explode, so they abandoned ship using the pinnace and the g-carrier, boosting it with the pinnace until they could get close enough to the planet to use its grav plates.

The Captain and some of the crew stayed behind to see if they could get the power supply under control.

Allegedly the crew was heading down to Keng. Hmmm, looks like the crew didn't make it to Keng, since the ship was a mysterious loss with no indication of reason.

Lieutenant ch'Shela, the Chief Engineer, noticed that SOMEONE IS IN THE SYSTEM MAKING CHANGES RIGHT NOW !

The pilot and astrogator stopped what they were doing and engineers worked to get internal sensors online. Tried to cut power off to all but the bridge and the one engineering area, but the attempt was blocked.

From the speakers: "You are not allowed to interfere with my mission. I will have to ask you to leave"

Power shutdown sequence initiated, but is blocked. The Kinunir started to move, accelerating away from the other ships.

Engineering figures that the ship's computer is doing all this.

4G acceleration, and suddenly gravity and inertial compensators cut out. Pulling everyone down toward the aft end of the ship. People grabbed for holds, but not all succeeded.

Everyone got some minor damage and bruising, and we had a couple fatalities.

We lost Sublieutenant Gao Shugilamar and Petty Officer First Class Cai Alder. The were both killed when the corridor in engineering became a four story shaft and they were unable to grab hold onto anything in time.

Kinunir accelerated toward the nearest gas giant, where our naval blockade is based.

The computer ID’s itself as Applied Lucent Intelligence Emulator (ALIE). When commander pointed out that we couldn't leave cause the ship was moving, it really didn't care.

The Gazelles were ordered to fire at the Kinunir’s engines while they were still close enough to make a called shot like that. No time for a sensor lock. Miss. Miss. Hit. Miss.

The hit took out the M-Drive completely.

Engineering was filled with flaming hydrogen and Petty Officer Third Class Dewitta Rogers, already injured earlier was killed.

The Computer is still in control, but the Kinunir can no longer move under its own power. However, it can still fire!. ALIE, in charge of the Kinunir’s guns, fired back at the Poni and Eland as they try to get out of range.

Good thing the Gazelles have armor... Eland took some damage but no personnel injuries.

Our last engineer, Lieutenant Victoria ch'Shela, tried to get to the computer core to shut it down. Marines blocked the auto-reload of the missile tubes; the last thing we wanted was for ALIE to launch a nuke at one of our ships.

Then ALIE made the atmosphere toxic, but everyone was still in suits, so it had no effect.

On C-level they found the power cables to the computer. One Imperial Marine shotgun blast later, computer power is down.

Later Autopsy on the Kinunir’s crew shows that the cause of death was blunt force trauma caused likely by being thrown around the ship violently. ALIE tried to do the same with us.

Before the ship can get towed back by the Gazelles, another ship comes by, saying they heard "our distress call" and “can they help?” The ship, the Dirty Rose, shows on our database as a suspected pirate. We decline any help and she continues on her way: "have a nice day".

Gazelles towed the Kinunir back to station - about a week transit.

Ship gets to Georgios Station but the jump drive needs a full overhaul and the maneuver drive is trashed, it will need a few parts before they jump it to the Navy Base at Paya.

ALIE had erased the end of the log. May be retrievable but not by anyone currently in system.

Probably have to bring in a Pro From Regina.

Epilogue:

Eventually they fixed the jump drive, the M-drive would need to wait until it arrived at the shipyard on Paya. They towed the ship out to the 100-planetary diameter of Georgio and jumped to the Paya system.

Examining the computer, they find that the anti-matter expert from the yacht they rescued tampered with the computer. ALIE, already temperamental, went insane and it's "new" mission was to find anti-matter and deliver it to a Kinorb, by just dropping it onto the surface. Oops.

Fortunately it ran out of fuel before it could do that.

The ship jumped to Shionthy and then killed Capt and crew, rest of crew had already abandoned ship in pinnaces and G carrier at Keng.

The Keng Crew was never found.

In the next episode, we will continue with Skylark in Barhopping in Shionthy.

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell and ANNIC NOVA.